Android Jelly Bean Problem

We all know that there is nothing scrumptious about the Ice Cream Sandwich or the Jelly Bean – even to a fan boy or a tech geek, simply because the latest software updates by the Google have a host of bugs. If you have had enough with the Jelly Bean and their brilliant versions like 4.2 and 4.2.1 and the latest 4.2.2 and are still perturbed by the bugs common in them, we are here to help you out. Below is a list of the common bugs in these software updates and also the most plausible fixes to tackle the same. Take your time and go through all of them. You may no longer have to curse your Android device, or the one who sold it to you in the first place.

Common problems and their plausible fixes: 

Problem: No connection to the Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi droppings  

A lot of Android devices have reportedly witnessed this problem in particular. The common reasons perhaps seem to stem from the recent Jelly Bean update but the different version updates have affected the devices differently. The Wi Fi problems can either be due to the router errors or perhaps the settings on it. If you find yourself under a fix, where in the Wi Fi would just refuse to connect or kept on dropping instead, here is what all you can try to fix the same 

Plausible fix – 

Turn the Wi Fi and the router of your android device off. Signal your device to forget the Wi Fi network details once and for all. Hold on to the power button and restart the device, or perhaps you can completely turn off the phone and turn it back on again. Now turn the router back on, also turn on the Wi FI of your device again and enter the details again, afresh. 

Go to the settings menu > Wi Fi > Menu > Advanced on your device and also ascertain that “Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep” is tuned to Always. Also, you may want to uncheck the box against the “Avoid Poor Connections” tab. 

Problem: Random rebooting or freezing

Wi Fi issues bygone, if you see your phone hanging indefinitely, crashing and rebooting itself after a Jelly Bean update, the plausible reason could be that you have downloaded an incompatible app. In plainer words, it means that your phone is on a higher update, where as the app that you have downloaded, clearly is not. Or perhaps one can owe it to a bug in the Jelly Bean update. Google released the 4.2.2 update, which on its own would have fixed a number of issues, including the reboot issues, but if it is not working for you yet, here is what you can try to fix the situation again. 

Plausible fix – 

First and foremost, the most basic things that you can do to fix the situation is to press the power button, turn your device off, let it breathe for a while and then turn it back on later. 

Now, check the apps which are running in Settings > Application manager on the Running tab. Start by removing them one at a time and find out on which app does the rebooting problem occurs. We understand this process can be weirdly time consuming, but you gotta do what you gotta do! 

There after you can do a factory reset by going to Settings > Backup & reset > Factory reset. You would then have to enter your PIN, Password or Pattern when the device prompts you too and Erase everything. Please note that this will erase all the content of your Android, hence you would have to re-install everything. Also, create a back up first of the important data which you rather would not lose. 

Problem: Shallow battery life 

This is one of the most common problem with the Android devices that we have come across as of yet. Smart phones generally are not really popular for their battery life, hence a lot of smart people these days carry an extra fully charged battery with them, just in case, but some people seem to complain that the battery life of their smart phone is particularly worse, the changes seemingly became noticeable after the Jelly Bean update. This could be because of some specific apps or services. If you find your phone’s battery drowning away faster than before, you should first try to reboot your phone. If that does not work, follow the steps below. 

Plausible Fix - 

Take a look at what is draining the battery off it’s life, through Setting > Battery. It was reported that a lot of people felt the difference in their phone’s batter life after switching off Google Now, Google Wallet and NFC Functionality. Perhaps you may have some other app running in the background, and eating away, like a parasite, the battery of your phone. If that is the case, you will find the error some app here and will be able to fix it! 

Another reason for the quick battery drainage could be the fact that you phone is connected to a LTE or perhaps is trying to connect to one. You can fix this by going to the Settings > More Settings > Mobile Networks and then carefully selecting the network mode. 

Lastly, the problem could be from the reading fault in your micro SD card. You may want to remove the card and see if the problem persists still. If it works, then create a back of the micro SD card in your computer and reformat the card thereafter. 

Problem: Bluetooth not working

It was confirmed by the Google that the 4.2 version of the Android had a Blue Tooth bug which could disrupt audio streaming. If you have experienced issues with the Bluetooth functionality after the 4.2 update, then that is perhaps the reason. 

Plausible Fix – well, gladly you do not have to go for any technical treacherous fix, as the 4.2.1 version took care of the same. 

Problem: Missing December

The brilliant (read – infamous) 4.2 update by the Google also whipped splash the December out of the People App calendar. Gladly enough, it was restored in the 4.2.1 version, so just upgrade – no fix needed there. 

Miscellaneous set of Android Jelly Bean problems

Besides, other problems after the Jelly Bean update has been quite device specific. If you have sorted out the above mentioned issues and yet there remains a host of issues which are still not sorted out, you may want to try looking for specific handsets and then get a gist of the issues.

Also, feel free to share the problems or any other plausible fixes to the ones that we have discussed above in the comments section.

Author Bio:-

Sakshi Bhardwaj is working as Sr. Android Developer at Daffodil Software Ltd., a firm specialized in development of mobile applications for Android platform. Get in touch with Sakshi on Facebook here.

Best MLB Apps for Android Devices

Come April and all you MLB (Major League baseball) are all out to support your teams and follow the game. There are days when as many as 15 games are being played and how do you keep track of the results and the plethora of numbers and stats. If you own an Android device all that is now easy for you as there are a number of apps that offer you insights into the league. We have chosen some of the best Android apps for MLB. Here they are - 

MLB.com At Bat

This is the MLB mobile app and perhaps the most popular of the lot. Using this app you can stay connected with the latest scores, stats and news about the league. This app also allows you to watch the latest videos and check on the latest fantasy baseball developments. This app works equally well on the Android smartphones and tablets.

9 Innings: 2013 Pro Baseball

This isn’t an app to keep track of the league but is a virtual game in itself. The reason we have listed it here is due to its amazing popularity. What makes this app popular is the fact that it is easy to learn and has functions that allow you variable levels of control. This is a licensed app and includes all your favorite teams and players and is a great entertainer.

MLB.com At The Ballpark   

If you plan to watch the games from the stands this is a must-have app for you. From purchasing tickets to getting directions to the ballpark and checking game schedules this app is your perfect made during the league. This app also offers you the latest on the scores, news and stats related to the game. 

Baseball by StatSheet
 

If you are one of those fans who enjoys all the stats related to the game this app is custom made for you. Here you will come across endless mountains of numbers of the league, teams and the players. Hits, runs, strike outs or the base percentages you name it and this app will throw some interesting results in front of you. Apart from these the apps also offers headlines on the league but doesn’t offer you a detailed coverage on the league something that our next app does.

Sporting News Pro Baseball

As the name of the app suggests this is the perfect app to stay informed on all the latest happening in the world of baseball. Along with the latest news you can also make use of this app to check team standings, current scores, and stat leaders. This is one of the most user-friendly apps that we have listed so far and does best what it is meant for.

ESPN Score Center for Android

This app is a favorite with all kinds of sports lover around the world and thus it makes it to our list. Using this app you can follow your favorite team in the MLB and also keep track of your favorite players. With a re-designed interface this app has lots to offer.

Author Bio:-

Sakshi Bhardwaj is working as Sr. Android Developer at Daffodil Software Ltd., a firm specialized in development of mobile applications for Android platform. Get in touch with Sakshi on Facebook here.

Tablet Users Are Leading From the Front in Ecommerce

We all know that mobile commerce has been on the rise in the last few years. Almost all ecommerce sites have made it a point to make their websites mobile friendly to increase their sales and revenue. This silent revolution is however being led by the tablet users who form a size able customer base globally. A recent survey conducted on the user trends has thrown out some interesting results. Tablet users are seen to be leading the way in shopping for products and services online and in many cases even stand ahead of their desktop/laptop counterparts.

According to the survey 48% of the tablet users fall in the age group of 18-34 years which is one of the key target areas of most ecommerce stores. This is the segment of the customers that accounts for maximum sales for online stores. Also 43% of the tablet owners have a household income upward of $50000 making them financially stable and more likely to shop for products and services online compared to an average American who browses the Internet regularly. With the number of tablet users increasing with each passing day what these figures reveal us is that tablet users will soon become the key target area for online businesses.

Another thing that has come out of the survey is the fact that the conversion rate or the percentage of leads turning into sales is substantially higher among the tablet users compared to the desktop users. While desktop users have a conversion rate of around 3% it is around 4.5% among the tablet users. These figures shouldn’t come as a surprise at all as tablet users are more likely to be wealthier compared to the desktop users. Also most of the tablet users also have a desktop or laptop that they can use to shop online.

The survey also focussed on the tablet versus phone debate and its relation to the ecommerce stores. Before the advent of the smartphones very few mobile users would actually seal a deal using their phones. But this trend changed once we because used to smarter phones with larger screens. Tablets seem to have taken this to the next and are far exceeding the number of sales using hand held gadgets compared to mobile phones. At least 10% of the tablet users browse through online stores or shop on a daily basis compared to 6% users. This figure reaches around 19% when we are taking about a week’s time.

To make the most out of this emerging trend ecommerce store owners need to make their stores friendly towards the tablets. There are many ways in which they can accomplish these tasks such as making the site iPad-Friendly considering substantial numbers of tablet users own an iPad. They can also make the checkout process much more finger and gesture friendly. They can also get shopping apps developed and promote these apps among their regular customers to hook them on to their online stores.

Pricing Strategies that can Work Wonders for You

Ecommerce is a highly competitive trade. Online stores are neck to neck with each other. In such an environment you need to work out on pricing strategies to gain a substantial market base. We stress on the word ‘strategies’ as you will work out a model which is beneficial to you at the same time attractive to the customers. Pricing too low and you will be out of customers’ radar and pricing too high would mean very few sales. Here we shall take a look at some of the tried and tested pricing strategies. 

Know The Demand   

Even before you start with the pricing strategies you need to judge the demand of the products in the market. You don’t need to hire an expensive market research firm for this can use the social media or make a sample study among your friends and relatives.

Know Your Cost   

Before you price a product on your store you need to take into account the variable costs along with the price of the product. This includes cost of maintaining the site, shipping and your salary and that of your employees. The price of the product should cover all these expanses and still live you with some profit.

Positioning Yourself   

Are you going to position your store as a discount or luxury one? If you are aiming for the former category then you need to price your products lower than your competition even if they would be a marginal lower pricing. You can compare the prices in other stores using tools such as Google Shopping. To be a part of the luxury segment you will have to offer exclusive products or launch them before your competitors.

Once you know these three things you can start with the pricing strategies. Here are some of the pricing strategies that you can try.

• Cost Plus Pricing – This is the most popular pricing technique. Here you sell the product by adding a small pricing margin to the cost of good and variable cost. However keep in mind factors such as slump in sales while pricing.

• Target Return Pricing – Here you price the products keeping the return-on-investment (ROI) factor in mind.

• Penetration Pricing – Here you price the products lower than all your competitions to gain the market share. You might make losses in this so you need to strategies well to break even in time and sustain this pricing model.

• Pricing Based On Value – This model of pricing is purely based on the value that it creates to the customers. For instance if a product is priced $100 and saves customers $500 in a year they would consider it high on value. At the same time pricing something $100 where the customers know its development cost to be $10 is asking for too much.

• Pricing Challenge – Offer a pricing challenge to the customers where you offer them huge discount if they find products cheaper anywhere else. This is playing into their phycology. Only a few customers might take up the challenge while for the majority you have instilled confidence in their minds.

Author Bio:-

This post has been contributed by Mr. Ashish Mittal, General Manager – IT at Daffodil Software Ltd. Ashish has 10+ years of experience in web development and is managing magento ecommerce portals development nowadays. He can be reached on Facebook here.

Enterprise Sustainability Trends 2013

There has not ever been this much aggressive need for sustainability ever before, than it is now. With the natural calamities posting threats ever so often, it has now become the responsibility of each and every one to contribute towards the sustainability. Corporate houses have been rolled in, and their interests no long lie in only profit making and customer relationship. With the advent of C-suite executives, sustainability officers etc, the businesses are witnessing a brand new paradigm shift, towards the sustainability module. We dusted off the old books, skimmed through the present day trends, and here we are, with the 10 noteworthy sustainability trends which the world is already witnessing or is going to witness in the present year, 2013. 

-    Money still has the prime importance – Well, with so much stress being put on sustainability, you cannot just expect the business to turn into non profit organizations over night. It is still very much about the profits, about the bottom lines and also about the pink slips. The difference being the involvement of various metrics, such as risk management, compliance, cost reduction, revenue gains etc. However, getting the appropriate funding for the same could be a challenge. 

-    Sustainability takes center stage – Sustainability has now taken the center stage. Teams responsible for sustainability and preservation, working at different levels of the organization are teaming up to tackle sustainability in a much more organized fashion. The sustainability teams are now taking care of the facts and figures, and are being much more aggressive in the implementation of the sustainability module. With Financial officers becoming the pilots of the sustainability programs, sustainability has gained the chief status in the hierarchy. 

-    Renewed industry qualifications – companies are now asking the suppliers to renew the papers and include their energy efficiency and levels of carbon emissions etc in the documents pertaining to their industrial qualification. The “Green Reporting” is now a factor pivotal enough to make or break ties. 

-    Transformations becoming a part of the new emerging economies – the new and emerging economies are more prompt at accepting and inculcating the sustainability module in to their systems. With all the stress being laid on sustainability, the new and emerging economies are better poised to handle the same.

-    A yearly track of the sustainability reports – companies are taking the entire sustainability concept rather seriously and hence forth are keeping an yearly track of the efforts taken in the same direction. Earlier, the reports needed to be kept on an 18 months or 24 months basis. But, cutting short the time span to once a year, definitely goes to show how much serious the corporate houses are, when it comes to sustainable development. 

-    Social media gets prominence – Facebook’s likes and shares and Twitter’s tweets are getting the prominence as companies are increasingly trying to utilize the popular social media platforms, in order to increase the engagement. 

-    Energy conservation and competitive advantage – alternative sources of energy consumption are getting more precedence and companies are trying to scheme out ways to replace the traditional sources of energy with new, innovative and revolutionary ideas. In fact the new ideas are being encouraged, in order to get competitive advantages. Even issues such as water conservation etc are at the heart of such innovations. 

-    Datacenters are grabbing all the eyeballs – in an attempt to reduce all the energy reservoirs exhausted by the IT requirements of a company, the data centers have been introduced to the world. These datacenters are making smooth in roads in the lives of people, as shown by the online searches on that same, which has increased by the rate of 358% since the year 2008.  

-    Improving the transport system – the transport system is now being overhauled, in order to reduce carbon emissions and smooth track the supply chain initiatives. 

-    Ratings – Lastly, enterprises are continuously using green ratings etc, to showcase their performance on the sustainability sector to their stake holders and customers alike. 

Author Bio:
This post has been contributed by Mr. Ashish Mittal, General Manager - IT at Daffodil Software Ltd., a firm specializes in web development and cloud apps development services.

Android Malware and Security Concerns - How To Bypass This

The popularity of Android has also lead to lot of talk about the security concerns in the platform. This mainly comes in the form of malware. There are a lot of firms that are marketing Android security solution but the truth is these malwares can be avoided by following a few simple steps.

Android Malware Protection

Read Reviews   
It is wise to follow the crowd at times and thus you need to check out for the popularity and ratings of the apps on Google Play before installing them. If an app has seen large number of downloads you can trust it. Also read the reviews that the app has received. If the reviews are bad and talk about security concerns it’s wise to avoid these apps. 

Sideload With Care   
When it comes to downloading Android apps you can download these from other sites apart from Google Play. This process is known as sideloading. Google Play removes malicious apps but these sites may not follow suit. So you need to exercise caution while sideloading. By default this option is disabled on your Android device. You can enable it from Unknown sources check box in your Settings screen. But be careful while sideloading apps from third-party websites. This applies especially to pirated apps as they are one of the major sources of malicious elements in your Android device. 

Beware of Third-Party App Stores   
Third-party app stores are one of the primary sources of malwares as we have already mentioned in the previous point and thus you need to be careful with these stores. These stores don’t carry out comprehensive checks on the apps and thus apps that pose a security threat might be listed on these stores. There isn’t any mechanism to know if an app has some malicious element in it so you need to exercise caution while downloading it from third-party app stores. If you have an iota of doubt in your mind regarding these stores it would be wise to knock some other door for your app. 

High Risk Apps May Not Have Risks!   
If you are using an Android anti-virus these programs might categories some apps as ‘high risk’ which convinces you to stay away from these apps. But the truth is all these apps many not pose any serious security threats to your device. These apps merely seek permissions like viewing your phone’s device information. This might raise a privacy concern but this doesn’t necessarily mean they are harmful. So if you have installed an anti-virus in your Android device use your discretionary powers and not only rely on their findings. 

 

Be Careful of Phishing   
Phishing is another great concern on your Android devices. These mainly come in the form of emails which request for information such as your banking and credit card details. Also some redirect you to sites which look exactly like your online banking site. Never click on these links or enter your banking username and passwords as this might lead to hacking of your bank account.

Author Bio:

This post has been contributed by Ms. Sakshi Bhardwaj, an Android apps developer with Daffodil Software Ltd. You can reach her on Facebook here.

Top Android Medical Apps - What Doctors Must Use

If you are a doctor or in the medical profession you know that the patients and their loved ones trust you in the hour of crisis. Medical science has been on a continuous journey of self-discovery that has led to innovations in why people are treated. Naturally smartphones have also become a great tool to render better services to the patients. Here we shall take a close look at some of the Android apps which are a must use if you are in this profession.

Medscape

It is a leading medical app that is most used by physicians, medical students, nurses and other healthcare professionals for clinical information. Over 2 million people around the world have downloaded it. It offers you news and articles on 34 specialties in the field of medical science. You can also access information on more than 8000 branded and generic drugs, OTC drugs, and herbals and supplements. You will also get to see more than 600 step-by-step videos on different medical procedures. 

Diseases Codes ICD-10

Using this app you shall have access to International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) at your fingertips. It has an objective and fast interface that allows you to make queries by name of the diseases and your code. The app doesn’t require you to be connected to the Internet to access basic information. 

Epocrates

Many medical professional consider this to be an essential drug reference tool. It has easy-to-learn features like the pill identifier, several medical calculators, and drug interaction checker making it a must have in anybody’s Android-powered smartphone. It also allows users to check the most common usage of the drugs and their doses cutting across different age groups. 

Calculate By QxMD

This aesthetically designed app has a smooth user interface and boasts of a collection of different medical calculators that is wide enough to satisfy any generalist and specialist. It is a essential tools in General Practice, Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Surgery, Obstetrics, Nephrology, Hematology, Orthopedics, Pediatrics, Gastroenterology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Respirology and many more. 

PubMed Mobile

If you are looking read medical research papers there isn’t a better option than PubMed Mobile which boasts of more than 21 million citations for a wide range of articles and journals, with a main focus on the bio-medical and life science journals. Searching for a topic or diseases in this app is easy as users can easily narrow down their search queries based on their needs. 

Monthly Prescribing Reference

For many doctors around the world The Monthly Prescribing Reference (MPR) is one of the best drug reference apps. Here drugs are classified by treatment category and come along with prescribing notes and drug monographs outline useful information for clinical practice.

Apart from these there are many more apps on Android (or you can also get developed your customized android application by professionals) that are helpful for the medical practitioners. They are growing in popularity with time. In this day and age of smartphones help and suggestions are available at fingertips that allow medical practitioners render better services.

Author Bio:

This post has been contributed by Ms. Sakshi Bhardwaj, who is working as an Associate – IT at Daffodil Software Ltd. Apart from application development for android platform and writing about android’s latest developments, she is fond of movies and hanging out with friends. You can get in touch with her on Facebook here.