MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES NEWS

LATEST MOBILE NEWS & UPDATES | SUMMARY

Introduction

Nowadays, more than five billion people have a mobile phone connection today. There are more mobile subscriptions than there are human beings on the planet Earth. Today’s 4G connectivity will give way to higher-bandwidth 5G access in the near future, ushering in another mobile technology boom that will further revolutionize the way we work and live (by Mobilebusinessinsights.com). Today we will have an overview of the mobile technologies news, that are directly related to SECURITY & SAFETY: safety of your data, business and even live. The current article is the summary of the major mobile news and latest updates (sources of the news are provided within the article), created by one of top mobile app development companies in Malaysia – Blueninja.io.

Better data security?

According to Google & New Atlas, two-factor authentication (2FA) has long been an effective protection against account hacking – meaning would-be intruders need something else besides a username and password, usually a SMS code from a mobile phone, to gain access – and today Google is taking 2FA one step further with its own mobile security keys.  


  If you've set up 2FA on your social networking accounts, or your Google or Apple IDs, you might be familiar with the process of entering a code sent over SMS or generated via an authenticator mobile app. Security keys replace that extra code with something physical that needs to be connected to the computer during the login process. There's always the chance of losing your key, of course, in which case you would need to nominate a backup method for getting into your account again (like a message to a separate email account). In theory though, the technique is more secure than a text or mobile app code, because those codes can be more easily intercepted. What's more, security keys such as the new ones unveiled by Google can work without a network and without battery power, which is useful for people on-the-go. Google's new product in the world of mobile technologies is called the Titan Security Key. Matching up with existing 2FA standards, it comes as either a USB stick for laptops and desktops, or as a Bluetooth dongle for connecting up to mobile devices. "We've long advocated the use of security keys as the strongest, most phishing-resistant authentication factor for high-value users, especially cloud admins, to protect against the potentially damaging consequences of credential theft," says Google's Jennifer Lin in a blog post. Security keys as part of 2FA aren't new, and you can already log into sites like Gmail and Facebook with keys from the likes of Yubico. That Google is now making its own products emphasizes just how secure the company thinks they can be, when used correctly. Earlier this week, Google revealed its employees have been required to use security keys since early 2017, reducing the number of successfully phishing attacks down to zero in the meantime. Even if hackers get hold of usernames and passwords, they can't gain access to any accounts without the physical key. Google is providing them for cloud business customers first, but says they will go on sale to everyone via the Google Store in the near future. Prices will be in the region of US$20-25 for a single key, or $50 for both the USB and Bluetooth models, CNET reports. It's definitely worth the few minutes these keys take to set up to keep your accounts better protected, whether you buy from Google or invest in a third-party alternative. However, the account itself also needs to support security key access: The likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Dropbox already do.

Technologies can save lives

App developer magazine, the urgent challenge for security personnel to noninvasively scan people in real time and in public to detect and “see” if they are carrying weapons or explosives without physically searching them could soon be solved with the launch of SWORD by Royal Holdings Technologies Corporation (Royal Holdings).  


  SWORD attaches to a Google Pixel 2 XL smartphone and Apple’s iPhone 8 Plus mobile app. It is accessed and controlled via a fully customizable and dedicated mobile app (Android / IPhone). From a distance of up to 40 feet, security agents or law enforcement personnel can scan individuals in a crowd or an approaching person of interest simply by pointing their smartphone at them with the SWORD device attached. They will be able to non-invasively determine if someone is carrying a weapon or explosive - all without the need for a physical search - and rapidly identify a person of interest. SWORD can be used to scan backpacks and handbags that are being carried or have been left unattended. It can also detect listening devices used for espionage and intelligence gathering. A featureless outline of the person being scanned is displayed, alerting agents to location and type of concealed weapons or explosives. Royal Holdings employs artificial intelligence (AI) to crosscheck and verify weapons and explosives with its cloud-based database. In addition, built-in facial recognition operating in real-time compares suspects to watch lists for positive identification. SWORD operates globally and features real time location sharing and generates real time alerts in the event of a mass shooting, terror threat, or terror attack.

Health and Technology are now interlinked

Healthcare is an area that has embraced mobile (application) technology, and while it's still in the infancy of adoption of this technology, it is already making profound improvements for many.  


  As reported by Duethealth, a full 31 percent of cell phone owners report having used their mobile device to access healthcare information, up from 17 percent two years ago. This growth is led by a diverse group of users: African Americans, Hispanics, people aged 18-49, and college graduates are the groups most likely to have used their phone to look up healthcare information. This presents an unprecedented opportunity for healthcare providers. By utilizing mobile technology platforms such as Duet Health, providers can increase the quality of healthcare in many ways. Mobile technology improves healthcare by solving common problems. 80 percent of what doctors tell patients is forgotten by the time they reach the parking lot and half of what they remember is incorrect. Platforms like DuetHealth allow healthcare professionals to communicate with patients through features like care-focused timelines, surveys, and journals. Now is the time for 21^st century healthcare providers to adopt mobile health technologies. One-half of U.S. adults now own a smartphone. This percentage has nearly doubled in just two years, and the growth is driven by a diverse group of users. By offering mobile content, healthcare providers can reduce costs and attract new customers. Forward-thinking healthcare system would be well served to invest in the mobile app space, enabling them to meet the 21^st century patient where he or she wants to be met: online, anywhere, at any time.

Conclusion

Mobile technology, in the variety of forms, including mobile apps, software, phones, tablets, and notebooks, is making our lives better than ever before. It happens in many ways, not the least of which is making communications routine. We can be in touch with those we need to reach immediately, whether work-related or personal in nature. Smartphones, laptops, tablets, and PDAs have given businessmen unprecedented access to their employees, customers, and vendors. Would you want Blueninja.io help you with the development of a great mobile application for your business? Give us a call anytime! The highly-qualified team of Blueninja.io provides an unforgettable experience for businesses and their clients through innovative digital solutions. Website design & Mobile Development, Web Application Development services, E-commerce web systems, Progressive Web Applications Development, SEO, Google Adwords and Social Media Marketing are just a small part of a wide service portfolio, opening doors to enormous opportunities for your business success. Stay connected with the best mobile application company, Blueninja.io, and be the first who will read our next article!

With creativity in heart, with an idea in mind!

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The New Kid In Digital World

Is this once again spelling the downfall of another titan?

In the first decade after the millennium, websites used to be that ‘in thing’ which every individual or company craved for. Businesses bloomed and everyone seemed to be following the trend to move into tech. Software developers, both individual freelancers and companies seemed to be selling their services like hot cakes. It was ‘the business’ to be in. The turn of the tide came in July 2008, when apple introduced the app store with 500 mobile applications whereby only 25% were free. During that weekend, over 10 million downloads took place and with android coming into the picture, the rest remained as history. Although, websites still remained hugely popular for quite a bit, its popularity progressively decreased over time.

Mobile Applications: Insights of the titan

In general mobile applications are developed in either one of the two methods; native or hybrid. Development of native applications would require a lot more time and skill as compared to the development of hybrid applications as native applications are built on a cross platform focusing on specific languages such as swift or Objective-C on iOS and then, Java or Kotlin on Android. Mobiles running on windows would be developed in C#. Each native application would be developed and designed individually to suit the platform it is created for.  
On the other hand, Hybrid applications are built using web technologies. In simple terms, imagine a website being compressed and converted into an application. The basis of building a hybrid application simply requires JavaScript, CSS and HTML and the bottom line would essentially be that you would be building one application that would work on both platforms. In comparism, native applications would usually require more time to develop as compared to its hybrid counterpart. On the contrary, as native applications are developed individually to the platform’s requirements, it is often less buggy and it is optimized for performance. Hybrid applications are generally much cheaper in cost and would also require less time to develop but the time taking to fix bugs might require more time for hybrid apps as they are built on one platform catering to many platforms (iOS, Android and Windows). In recent times, hybrid applications have become less popular as react native is used to build applications. So what is react native? React native allows an application to be built cross platform through a JavaScript API, exposing the native controls of the mobile device, which the application is running on. Overall, apps developed via react native are native applications, which would only require the software developer to develop it once. Developers using this method should be skilled and well experienced. It will definitely help a software engineer to reduce the development time.

Part 1: Websites vs Mobile Applications- How the titan took its stage

In the current era of the 21^st century, majority of the population clearly suffer from ‘nomophobia’. Okay, this might be a bit of an exaggeration but then again have you noticed that the current generation are somehow hooked unto their mobile pretty much 24/7? The point being made here is that the usage of mobile phones has become a necessity in the general life of the average human being out there.  
  Since you already can see that mobile phones play a huge part in the lives of most people, you should be able to see why mobile applications are hugely popular. Websites in general are 1.5x slower than mobile applications. Secondly, mobile applications are accessible offline where as websites cannot be. Imagine this, you are in the aeroplane or if you do not have access to data, you would not be able to surf the net. However, you would still be able to carry out with whatever application you are browsing since most applications have offline features (unless they are live games). To add more misery to the website cause, websites are not able to give push notifications unlike mobile applications. Push notifications would allow users to get updates on the things they want and hence, proving to be much more personalized.  
  However, websites do bring opportunities that mobile applications do not. With the app store being flooded by millions of applications today, getting to the main page will require an enormous amount of luck. The chances of you appearing on the first page of the app store is literally 0.001%. It’s like purchasing a lottery ticket and hoping that it will hit. With websites, you can create content, and with the content created, you can climb up the Google search rankings. This is known as SEO. Another downside of mobile applications is that once you have created a mobile application, you will have to upload it to the app store where by you will be regulated and it may become a bit sticky in certain situations. Similarly, as a user downloading the app, you will rather not download so many applications since mobile applications in general do take up a lot of space. …how nice would it be to have something right in between a website and a mobile application. Literally the best of both worlds… Guess what? Yes! There is such a thing. Progressive Web Application is the new upcoming prince, whereby it brings the best of both worlds to the table.

Part 2: The arrival of the prince, HRH Progressive Web Application. But will PWA become king?

 A term coined by Alex Russell, Progressive Web Applications are web applications built using modern web technologies but feels like a native application. To put it in my own words, progressive web applications would be the revival of websites whereby it carries all the ‘awesomest’ functionalities of websites and native applications, combining the best of both worlds.

How does it work?

Using a supported web browsers such as chrome, progressive web applications are accessible to anyone on the web. Just imagine yourself scrolling through a website and then you realize that you like it. You decide that you would want to receive updates and you feel that you would probably want to check it out pretty often. Using the URL of that particular web application, you will now be able to download it via the web browser and the application would run just like a native application. How cool is that?

How Progressive Web Application carries itself against its counterpart, the native application…

In terms of responsiveness, the user interface has to fit into the form factor of the device, be it in a desktop, tablet or mobile view. Clearly getting inspiration from Bruce Lee, this is literally the form that progressive web applications take.  
  “You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” Users should not be able to differentiate the difference between a progressive web application and a native application while using it. The app like feel has to be paramount. With the availability of service workers, a progressive web application has to be able to work offline just like most native applications. The availability of this offline feature was what was lacking in websites. Just like a native application, progressive web applications are able to provide the push notification service whereby, users are now able to constantly get updates on the topics that are of interest to them. Besides that, a progressive web application is also secure from content tampering as it is served via HTTPS which is clearly, very relaible. The progressive web application is called progressive for a reason. Regardless of the browser choice, it should work for every user. Currently, all browsers but ‘safari’ are able to support the usage of progressive web applications. However, there is a silver lining to this, as Apple has recently announced that they are working on the safari browser to support the progressive web applications cause. This would basically define most of the similarities between a progressive web application and a native application. So what are the differences? Discoverability wise, for a native application, the chances of it being spotted on the app store is literally 0.001% as mentioned above since it is mostly based on luck even if you do everything right. However, with progressive web applications, you are now able to carry out the content creation to help with SEO. This would simply mean, just like a website, progressive web applications are able to be discovered as long as you provide the right content in order for Google to ‘like’ you.  
  Secondly, downloading a progressive web application is easier as you do not need to use any sort of application store to carry out the task. Updating the application would also be simpler as it auto updates by itself rather than you, having to go to the application store to update the application, which does get annoying at times since in most cases, native applications do not work very well if it is not updated. However, if you need an application that requires the tablet’s hardware features such as the Bluetooth, NFC or a device’s sensor package like fingerprint sensors, a progressive web application is currently not able to support that. Hence, if you are planning to build a wearable tech application or in some instances, a proper full scale fitness application, a native application might be more ideal for you.

Impact of Progressive Web Application

Ever since Google launched progressive web applications, they have carried out various tests with several conglomerates such as The Guardian, Washington Post, Alibaba, Channel, Flipkart and many more. The majority of the companies saw an increase in active sessions per user, a rise in engagement and reengagement, as well as conversion rates that increased up to 10 folds on average.  
  Let’s take Alibaba for instance. Alibaba implemented AliExpress as part of their trial for the progressive web application and saw that the conversion rates for new users increased by a whopping 104%. Eventhough the progressive web application is not supported by Safari, AliExpress saw a 82% increment in conversion via the mobile web browser in Safari. Imagine what would happen when Safari begins supporting PWA! Overall the new strategy proved to deliver a much better experience whereby, users now show to visit twice as many pages per session and time spent per session increased by 74% on average, across all browsers. So Progressive Web Application or Native Application? With the benefits that progressive web applications bring, it could be said that that it would certainly be a no brainer for any company to choose this path. With the usage of progressive web applications, people would be able to improvise and grow progressively with the technology. The rate of inactivity would also go down, since it is easily accessible and with the push notifications and offline availability, it just makes it more sensible especially when Search Engine Optimization works perfectly on this platform. However, native applications would still be needed if companies run businesses, which require hardware features or the device’s package sensors.  
  Overall, it can be concluded that in the long run, as progressive web applications continue to improvise, I would not at all, be surprised if progressive web apps support the usage of all hardware features and sensors as early as the end or this year or early 2019. All in all, progressive web application would certainly gain more market share and could potentially freeze out the usage of native applications one day. …Maybe we should all pave way for the future. The future for progressive web applications is now!

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Technology Breakthrough in Mobile Applications

Progressive Web Application: Featuring the new kid in the block!

Like every life, every creation, or every story… History plays an important part in progression. This is no different so what would be a better way to start an introduction than to introduce the person who coined the term ‘Progressive Web Application’. As the world progresses at the speed of light, new discoveries are made everyday, with powerful technologies coming into existence whereby they dawdle around and grow at the peripheries, turning conventional to a finite group while it is almost non-existent to the majority out there… until someone realizes its importance and gives it a significant name to be fondly remembered of.  In this peculiar case concerning, progressive web apps, Alex Russell and his wife, Frances Berriman saw a need for Progressive Web Application to be recognized because of its undying opportunities to become the next big thing out there. So who is this particular Alex Russell?  Alex Russell is actually a Google engineer working on Chrome, Blink and web platform. For most, being part of the Google brand itself is big enough. However, not only is Alex part of the Google team but he happens to sit on the ECMA TC39 board (the standards body for Javascript and is guilty of many Javascript transgressions. Alex Russell is also the tech lead for standards in the Google Chrome team.  

What is a Progressive Web Application (PWA)?

In the words of Alex Russell, a progressive web application is functionally defined by technical properties, allowing the browser to detect that the site meets certain criteria motivated by user experience (UX) concerns and is deemed worthy of being added to the home screen. In simpler terms, a progressive web application is simply a website built on advance web technologies, making it feel and work similarly to a classic mobile application. I clearly understand that 70% of you who read this blog are not from technical background and hence, the reason why I am going to keep things simple and stupid, just as the late Steve Jobs had taught me how to. This technique of Progressive Web Application was introduced by Google in 2015, driven by the need to bring the best to both worlds, in this case, both web developer and web application users.

How would Progressive Web Applications be beneficial?

From development speed, cost of development, marketing the product and so on, the progressive web application features has proven to be beneficial in many ways, which would be discussed here.  
  In term of mobile application development there would be hybrid and native. However, we would not dwell too much in explaining the differences between hybrid and native as at the end of the day, the application created would still carry out the expected tasks. Back to the topic in regards to progressive web application, a PWA offers features that works similarly to a mobile application whereby it provides offline support, loads quickly, capable of emitting push notification, secure, as well as carries an immersive, full screen user experience without the URL bar. From a software engineer’s point of view, a senior web developer would now be able to provide a similar end product as to a mobile application developer. As the programming languages for IOS and Android systems differs, developers are experts within their own fields and most of the time, are not able to carry out the tasks of their counterpart. However, with the available technology to create a progressive web application, a web developer is now capable of creating both traditional websites and mobile applications. As a PWA is built on a web browser, it would take lesser time to develop and the job would be less tedious. Finding the bugs and fixing it would also really help out as there would be much less obstacles to go through. This would greatly reduce the development costs as well as the timeframe needed to develop the specific product. Also with the implications, and rules and regulations of the Google App Store and the Apple Store, the popularity of progressive web applications would be majorly boosted since uploading applications into the app stores do become sticky at times. Basically, having a progressive web application would simply mean that you would not need Apple or Google’s approval to be in the pockets of your users since there is no standard approval process and there will never be, in PWA. Progressive web applications are also able to run offline. With the availability of service workers, the application would always have the opportunity to have fresh content as well as re-engagement opportunities since support for push notifications is provided. Also not to forget, progressive web applications generally weigh much lighter than a native application and clearly, downloading it would not take too much storage space from your mobile phone as compared to the typical mobile application. The cost of acquisition is also much lower as the user is able to get a glimpse of the product through a website before downloading the progressive web application, as compared to the general mobile app as most people tend not to want to install an application by just hearing of it. Another one of the many benefits would be the marketing factor whereby progressive web applications are discoverable via search engines. This would clearly be a key advantage as you would need luck, LITERALLY A LOT OF LUCK to be features on the first page of the app store, which can make your application go viral. Unless you are within the 0.001% of lucky ones, you are not going to benefit much from it.  
  With a progressive web application, you are now able to craft your own fate by curating content, articles, links and etc., whereby you do not have to rely on luck. Also, with this option, you are also able to carry out pay per click (Google Adwords) and other social media marketing campaigns, more successfully. Basically, from a marketing point of view, progressive web applications would also work better in the long term since search engine optimization (SEO) could be carried out. And now you must be thinking… Damn… This is too good to be true… However, as good as it gets, there are some minor setbacks.  
 

What are the setbacks and challenges?

The main issue with progressive web applications is not within the application itself. Since it relies on browsers and although it works exceptionally well on most of the popular browsers like Chrome, Samsung internet, Opera and so on, it is still unsupported in browsers like safari. But but but… Don’t worry too much about it! Apple recently updated in February 2018 that they are working on Safari to support progressive web applications and are coming to iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 very soon! The second issue would again be relatable to Apple. Up to date there are no reports on progressive web applications features failing on android devices, whereby all we hear are good things. However, as of now it is still currently unsupported by apple device, although they are currently working on it. These issues are expected to be solved once Apple rolls out the support on Safari where it is expected to be ready somewhere in September this year!  
  Lastly, certain hardware functionalities (i.e full scale gaming applications) are not entirely supported yet but again, we expect it to run smoothly with the passing of time. So you’re not convinced enough huh? We do not blame you! Here are some case studies for you to refer to because it is our obligation to help you make the right decision…

(i) Case Study: Twitter

After the public announcement of progressive web applications, Twitter adopted the technology in hopes to improve engagement, while reducing the data consumption of its users. Having 328 million active users monthly, with 80% being mobile users- it was clear why adopting this method was worth having a go at for the sake of its users.  
  Twitter Lite, the progressive web app significantly met Twitter’s expectations as it resulted in a 75% increase in Tweets sent, as well as 65% increase per session with a 20% reduction as compared to Twitter’s usual bounce rate. Through optimization of the images, data consumption reduced significantly up to 70%.

(ii) Case Study: BookMyShow

Being the largest online ticketing company in India with an average of over 50+ million visitors monthly, there is clearly no question why they would not try something which could clearly bring them much more to the table. According to Tewari. S, Assistant General Manager of the IT department of BookMyShow, he noted that ever since their progressive web application was launched, they have seen an exponential increase in the conversion rates via mobile. On another note, with the use of PWA, it has helped them garner a higher acquisition rate via mobile system.  
  The results shown were that BookMyShow had observed an increment of over 80% in terms of conversion rates. In terms of speed, the progressive web app took less than 2.94 seconds to load, enabling checkout within an average of 30 seconds. Also, the size of the progressive web application showed to be 54x and 180x consecutively as compared to their native Android and iOS application.

(iii) Case Study: Alibaba

The world’s largest online business to business (B2B) trading portal, Alibaba.com, serving over 200 countries across many regions, needed a quick and easy method to allow their users to carry out transactions. Getting their users to download a native app was never really an option for them since most of their users preferred to stay within the browser as show in their reports, especially since most B2B traders are not exactly technology literate. What other option would be better than giving the progressive web application technology a chance right? Hence, the development of the Alibaba progressive web application.  
  The results Alibaba achieved was astounding. With an increase of 76% in conversions across browsers, quadrupling the interaction rate from the home screen addition and having an increment of 14% and 30% for both iOS and Android consecutively is a result that any large conglomerate out there would be massively proud of.

(iv) Case Study: Forbes

A clear-cut example of a mammoth in its industry, Forbes is an American business magazine which has been in the business for over a century! Seeing a need to continuously improvise and expand, Forbes followed the path of developing a PWA in hopes of fortifying their market share. With this progressive web application, Forbes aimed to cater news updates to their users preference, whilst giving them updates via the push notification, allowing the user to have a more personalized and pleasant progressive web application experience.  
  The results shown, observed an increment of 43% per user, per session. The advertisement viewability also noticed an increment averaging almost 20%, while the in-depth scroll improved by three times. Lastly, the user engagement went up by 100%! …We could go on and on looking at more case studies but it will never end… So let us just move on to the conclusion to have an overview of everything!

Conclusion

Progressive web applications have boundless amount of potential and opportunities and are evolving as time goes on. It could be clearly shown that PWAs has taken its space within the mobile web scene but only time could tell if it could completely put the native mobile applications into extinction as the community seems to be taking the idea of progressive web applications warm heartedly. However, with all said and done, while progressive web applications shows to be able to provide, create and amplify opportunities for businesses, it is important to understand that not all businesses would require a progressive web application. Sometimes sticking to the traditional classic websites may be of a better and cheaper solution. It could be concluded that the idea of progressive web applications are still uncommon but with all the benefits that is promised, it would certainly be something that many businesses would look into within 2018 and 2019!  
  Adopting the words of e-commerce titan and one of the brightest minds in this decade, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, “In business what’s dangerous is not to evolve”, it might be a wise decision to adopt to the changes than to just stay comfortable with what is available.
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