Overview

During Google I/O event 2018, Google announced Glimpse of technology known as Google Duplex.
Duplex is a new Google Assistant’s feature that can do specific tasks for you over the phone. Duplex will be able to reserve a table in your favorite restaurant, also can schedule an appointment, or call any organization to check for their opening hours.
Launch Google Assistant on your Mobile and say, “Book a table for two at Domino’s Pizza at 8 pm today,” and Duplex will do the rest. The AI feature will call the dominos pizza center and make a reservation for you. After the call, you’ll get a notification on your phone confirming the reservation.
This is the power of AI which is making our life a lot easier.

Overview

Hello guys, Today we’re going to be talking about something that I think everyone can get excited about because it literally is something that one uses, that is WiFi! More specifically, there is a new WiFi security protocol called WPA3 coming out to supersede WPA2 which most of us use now. Now you might be thinking “Oh! That’s boring! How could that be exciting..!” But it actually is very interesting and has some big big improvements over what we use now… There are some issues with WPA2 about which we will be talking and then we can discuss Why WPA3 is very relevant and more convenient for you.

What is WPA?

So, first of all, if you’re not familiar with WPA and what all that means, WPA(WiFi Protected Access) is just a security protocol for WiFi. These are just to secure the connection between your computer and your WiFi router. And the idea is you don’t want people spying on what you’re doing so you have a passcode and by using that passcode it encrypts the connection.

At first, we had WEP(Wired Equivalent Privacy) in 1990’s which used 64-bit or 128-bit key size as per the requirement… The main issue we faced in WEP was the 1st byte of the output keystreams were “strongly Non-Random”. So if you just gather enough packets, you could easily discover the entire WEP key..! And once you have the key, you can see all of the data going across the network and of course if you want to send the data on to the network, you’re now able to do that as well!

Then in 2003, we got successor of WEP which is WPA(WiFi Protected Access). This was a middleman, something that we implemented very quickly. It was not completely standardized at that time. But it was the way of encrypting data in the same hardware we were using with WEP. In WPA, every packet got a unique encryption key. So even if somehow you get the key, you will only be able to decrypt that particular packet.

But it was just a short-term workaround… We needed something that was standardized and that’s where we came up with WPA2. WPA2 used a cipher called AES that is Advanced Encryption Standard. Unfortunately, it was the cipher that required a lot more CPU cycles… So we had to upgrade mini cases from our old hardware to a brand new Access Point(AP). It also used Counter Mode Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code Protocol which we happily call CCMP which is a much more secure protocol to use for authenticating and making sure that the data within the packet is exactly where it came from.

Hole 196 in WPA2:

“Hole 196” is the name of WPA2 vulnerability. The vulnerability is, in fact, buried on the last line on page 196 of the 1232-page IEEE 802.11 Standard. And that’s why it was named as “Hole 196.”

“Hole 196” vulnerability could lead to a potentially fatal insider attack, where a licensed person or an authorized person can bypass the WPA2 private key encryption and authentication to scan the authorized devices for vulnerabilities, install malware on these and steal personal or confidential data from the devices.

What’s New in WPA3?

I’m sure at this point you’re wondering what the actual differences are with the WPA3 and there are 4 main improvements that the WiFi Alliance has announced. Although we won’t be able to use it right away, it is a huge step for wireless security and great news for laptop and smartphone users everywhere.

1. Brute Force Protection:

Even if someone has a bad password, it’s going to prevent Brute Force attacks by actually limiting how often you can guess the password. So even if a hacker tries to Brute Force it or uses the dictionary attack, it’s going to be so slow where it probably wouldn’t even be worth it. But of course! You still want to use a relatively strong password… Because you can never be too secure.

2. Individualized Encryption:

So.. what this means is that even if you’re connecting without a password, if you’re using a public WiFi hotspot; your connection will still be encrypted! Which solves so many problems because we’ve been talking in the past about how if you’re even at like a hotel or if you’re at Starbucks or something using the WiFi, you would have to use something like VPN to encrypt all your traffic through a tunnel before you use the WiFi hotspot. Because obviously again, you do not want anyone listening in on that.

Another bad thing, even if you do use a secure password everyone else is using that same password!! So if one person knows the password, they can decrypt everyone else’s connection…! That means you’re not really any more protected.

So presumably the Individualized Encryption means that every single person is going to have their own encryption key so you’re going to be secure no matter what.

3. Stronger Encryption:

It will use a 192-bit encryption key length which is a lot stronger than the current one which is a 128-bit key which is still yet to be cracked! But again I guess they’re figuring future proof..!

4. Easier WiFi device connection:

It makes a lot easier for devices with very small screens or no screen at all to connect your WiFi hotspot! So imagine a smart device at home, you want to connect it to your WiFi network… well, obviously that might not have a screen on it and especially not the keyboard for you so you can type the password into! Right now, with WPA2, maybe that device creates a WiFi hotspot, then you use your phone to connect to that smart device’s WiFi hotspot and then type in the password and then disconnect from that and then it connects to the WiFi hotspot and use the password you just typed in… It’s a mess right?! -_-

Well, With WPA3’s new “WiFi Easy Connect” you just need to scan some code in your phone to connect the device!!

So obviously I would say that all of these new features are awesome and there might be small ones they add in that they haven’t really talked about… those are the main 4.

When’ll We Be Able to Use WPA3?

You might be wondering when are we going to use this awesome new security… Well, it’s actually out right now. The standard is out and finalized but the first devices that use it might take a while… probably at the end of next year, I’m sure we’ll start to get phones that will actually use it. Though it will be backward compatible, so if you’re running a router that uses WPA3, then it will be able to use the same WPA2 security if that’s all that a phone would support but it’ll still be able to do WPA3 if there are devices that you use that have it.

Even with all of these, it’s not like WPA2 is going to be disappearing anytime soon! First of all because obviously it is going to take a while for WPA3 to be implemented in new devices and there are probably a lot of devices which might never be updated!! So, they would have to still be supported in long run as well… So don’t worry if you’re not going to upgrade your devices, you’ll still be able to use WPA2. It’s not like you’re insecure! But, still good to keep an eye on any device that has WPA3, that could be an awesome feature…!

Overview

Thinking about recent, top trending topics in technology, two things come to my mind : Elon Musk’s Mars mission and Snapchat’s Dog Filter.

Snapchat brought it’s AR filters into action a few months back which certainly got too trending to describe. But it has a limitation from developer’s point of view. Snapchat doesn’t provide an open platform for developers to contribute to AR filters.

Facebook too has an AR filter functionality in it’s app. Now, it has opened doors for developers to build their custom filters and to share them publicly via Facebook app. Facebook has a tool which they call AR studio using which we can build interesting, interactive and life-like filters. Building simple effects using face-tracking or hand-tracking is a piece of cake.

Facebook provides a great and an easy-to-catch-up series of video tutorials regarding AR studio. Here is the link : https://developers.facebook.com/docs/ar-studio/tutorials
I’ll demonstrate one of the samples from this link.

Prerequisites

We’ll need following components to start our fun-filled journey:

• Facebook AR studio
  Download link – https://developers.facebook.com/products/ar-studio
• AR studio player app (for testing in physical device)
  Download link – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.arstudio.player

Here is the initial screen of AR studio.

Creating a new project will output following screen. I have mentioned necessary nomenclature in the image itself.

Practical

We’ll build a demo wherein a beard, eyebrows and a moustache will be placed on the face and it’ll be tracked with the face movements.

Step 1: Insert a face-tracker from the insert button in toolbar. Now, there’ll be axis (x, y and z) on the face, tracking it as it moves.

Step 2: Insert a facemesh from the insert button in toolbar that will cover the entire face.

Step 3: Create a material and apply texture to it.

Select facemesh from Scene tab and add a material to it from inspector menu by clicking + sign.

Now, it’s time to apply texture to material. Texture is an image of beard, moustache and eyebrows as shown below. On an unrelated note, such textures and 3D objects can be built by 3D artist using tools like Maya and Blender. This studio supports models like .fbx, .obj and .dae.

Select the material from assets panel and add the texture to it from inspector panel as shown below

That’s it. You now have an AR effect ready to be previewed.

You can preview in a physical device using Mirror icon of toolbar in top-right of window.
The effect can be exported using Export icon next to Mirror icon.

To make your effects publicly available, you’ll need to submit them to facebook. They’ll review it and will process them further. There are steps and conditions that should be followed and fulfilled respectively in this process. Have a look here : https://developers.facebook.com/docs/ar-studio/docs/submitting/

A lot can be done with AR studio. Hand-tracking, plane-tracking, creating raining effect, detecting gestures are a few of the many capabilities of the studio.

Here is a snap showing few samples.

Facebook AR at Yudiz

We, here at Yudiz, are focusing on building a fantasy world which can be entered through a portal, using Facebook AR studio.

Conclusion :-

There are over 2.23 billion monthly active users on Facebook. Facebook AR studio is a great platform to reach out to billions of users and to display our creativity through Facebook and AR. Apart from statistical point of view, such augmented reality is here to stay for a long time as it increases user interaction with the app which ultimately increases user base.

Overview

Now a days hottest libraries in front-end development is Redux. Lots of developers are confused about what it is and what its benefits are.
Redux is a traditional library or a framework like AngularJS. Redux converts state of application in a single immutable state tree which is not directly changed. Dan Abramov create a state management it is Redux. It can do hot reloading, implement logging, time travel,record and replay.

Overview

After app development, the next step is to make app publicly available using play store or app store. Publishing an app is a lengthy process which includes generating a signed apk, uploading it, uploading screenshots, filling out forms which include app description and many more such tasks. Updating an already published app is also includes most of these steps. Which is a monotonous task.

Fastlane is an automated process of app uploading which performs most of these tasks by itself with just few commands. Fastlane, which is already joined Twitter’s Fabric, is now joining hands with Google’s Firebase. That’s a great news…!

Introduction

Before getting started with fastlane, we, as a developer, need access and rights from client’s play store account. For that, we need Google Play JSON Secret Key.

The Google Play JSON Secret Key is useful for managing the permission and access for uploading and handling the specific app. Whether it is a regular process or an automated uploading process like fastlane.

Prerequisites

Google Play Developer Console Account is necessary for generating the Google Play JSON Secret Key. So first of all create the Google Play Developer account if you are not created before.

Practical

Step 1: First of all open the Google Play Developer Console and select Settings tab.

Step 2: Now click on the API access from the Setting List and you will find the one button at the bottom named Create Service Account.

Step 3: Now click on the Create Service Account button and you will see the following dialogue. Now click on the Google API Console and new windows will open.

Step 4: Now click the Create Service Account button at the top of the developers console screen.

Step 5: Then Create Service Account screen will pop-up and they will ask for the following details like :

• Enter the Service account name.
• Select the Role.
• Check the option of Furnish a new private key
• Than check the JSON as a key type.
• Hit the Save button.

Step 6: Now Back to the Google Play developer console, click on the Done button to close the dialogue.

Step 7: Click on the Grant Access button from the Service Accounts List.

Step 8: Now one pop-up window will appear on the screen for granting the permissions.

• Do NOT edit the Email field.
• Select Access Expiry Date as Never.
• Select Administrator or Release Manager from the given role.
• Select the App by clicking on Add an App Dropdown if you want to give the access for any particular app otherwise put remains as it is.
• Click on the Add User.

That’s it you are Done. Now you can upload your JSON secret file wherever you want to use which is downloaded in Step 4.

Overview

The Fastlane is the automated tool for the entire app store deployment process.

Fastlane has following capabilities :

• Make a repeatable custom work process to build, upload and distribute new releases to the play store.
• Upload and deal with the greater part of your application’s metadata including screen captures.
• Automatically submit new versions of your application for review.

Introduction

Fastlane helps developers by publishing/uploading an app along with all the necessary details with just a few commands. But before having this advantage, we need to set it up with the app.

In this part of the series, I’ll explain the core functionality of Fastlane, starting right from it’s installation process

How to install fastlane

Open the terminal and run the following command for installation.

sudo gem install fastlane -NV

Now reach at the project directory in which you have to install the fastlane for that particular project.

Setup the fastlane for the Project

Setup the Fastlane for the particular project by executing the following command from inside the specific project folder.

fastlane init

1. Please enter the package name for your application when asked. (Ex. com.yudiz.example)
2. Enter the path for the json secret file for that application access. For more information please click here.
3. Press ‘N’ when asked if you plan on uploading info to Google Play Store via fastlane.

Now you can able to watch the fastlane folder inside the project with configuration as on the base of your provided information.

Now you can find the two files inside the fastlane configured folder.

1. Appfile -> which will define the global configuration information to your app.
2. Fastfile -> which will define the ‘lanes’ that drive the behavior of fastlane.

What is the supply in fastlane?

Supply is a fastlane tool that transfers application metadata, screenshots and binaries to Google Play Developer Console.

Collect your Google Credentials from Google Play Developer Console

Now you have to download the .json credentials file from google developer console for uploading the application using the fastlane. Click here for detailed document

Make Configuration for Fastlane

Go into your project folder then open the fastlane > Appfile. Now change the path for the json_key_file and save them.

json_key_file ("Enter your json file path here")

Environment variable setup

Fastlane requires some condition factors set up to run effectively. Specifically, having your locale not set to an UTF-8 locale will cause issues with building and uploading your assemble.

export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Configure build.gradle for creating Release Apk

We have to configure of release apk keystore, alias and password in the build.gradle file for generating the release apk using fastlane.

android {
   signingConfigs {
       config {
           keyAlias 'Add Your Key Alias'
           keyPassword 'Enter Key Password'
           storeFile file('/Users/yudiz/Documents/keystore.jks') //Change with your path
           storePassword 'Enter Password'
       }
   }
}

defaultConfig {
     signingConfig signingConfigs.config
}

Fetch your App Metadata from Google Play Console

In the event that your application has been made on the Google Play Developer Console, you’re prepared to begin utilizing supply to manage it! Run:

fastlane supply init

Now all of your Google Play Store Application metadata is downloaded at fastlane supply init.
Because of confinements of the Google Play API, supply can’t download screenshots or videos.

Deploy your application on Google Play Store

Now you have to add the fastlane plugin for incrementing the version code and you have to create the lane for the supply of the application on the play store.
Add the following code in your ./fastlane/Fastfile.

platform :android do
  before_all do
    # ENV["SLACK_URL"] = "https://hooks.slack.com/services/..."
    increment_version_code
  end

  desc "Submit a new debug Build"
  lane :debug do
    gradle(task: "assembleDebug")
  end

  desc "Submit a new Beta Build to Crashlytics Beta"
  lane :beta do
    gradle(task: "clean assembleRelease")
    supply(track: 'beta')
  end

  desc "Create a new version to the Google Play"
  lane :deploy do
    gradle(
      task: 'assemble',
      build_type: 'Release'
    )
    supply
  end

  # You can define as many lanes as you want

  after_all do |lane|
    # This block is called, only if the executed lane was successful

    # slack(
    #   message: "Successfully deployed new App Update."
    # )
  end

end

Now run the command for installing the fastlane plugin for incrementing the version code of apk in the terminal and if they ask to add it in Gem file then press Y. You have to add only once for each project.

fastlane add_plugin increment_version_code

After installing the plugin now run the fastlane deploy command for the deployment process or run the fastlane beta command if you want to deploy it in the beta version.

Its Done.

Overview

After an android app development, we need to publish the app on Play Store to make it publicly available. The first step in the process it to get a Google Developer Console account. This blog explain step-by-step process of purchasing a Google Developer Console account.

Introduction

To publish Android apps on Google Play, you’ll have to make a Google Play Developer account using the following link :- Google Developer Console Registration Url.

Steps

1. Sign Up and accept the Developer Distribution Agreement of Google Play Developer account.
2. Pay enrollment charge.
3. Fill your account details.

Example

You have to login with your google account.

Now you can able to see the following screen as shown below.

You have to accept developer agreement. And click on Continue to Payment Button.

Note:- Please remember that your debit/credit card must be enabled with the international transaction facility and it is registered on VBV(Verified By Visa).

After successful registration you can see the following screen and you will also get an email from google for the transaction detail of google developer account in your gmail account. Please don’t delete it and make it as a star message and send this mail to your another alternative mail account as a backup. Because in future when you have to transfer your application from one developer account to the different developer console account at that time you need this Transaction Id for the app transfer.

That’s it. You’re Done.

Overview

When your two of the most interesting things come together, results are nothing but pure fun! This is the case for me here. With Google’s help, VR apps can be developed in native android.

Google has provided a VR SDK for android developers to take a dive into the Virtual Reality. Integrating basic VR functionality with this SDK is easier than falling asleep!

Here is a link for you to quickstart – https://developers.google.com/vr/develop/android/get-started

Let’s get ready for experiencing VR practically, but watch out!

Practical

We’ll concentrate on very basics i.e. loading image and video in VR.
Here’s what you need to get started:

• A VR cardboard
• An android device with OS 4.4+
• A 360 image and a 360 video

You can use google’s app – Cardboard Camera (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.vr.cyclops&hl=en_IN) to capture 360 images.

It’ll produce an image with .vr.jpg extension. But, the SDK supports .jpg. So, we’ll have to convert it and that can be done using this tool – https://storage.googleapis.com/cardboard-camera-converter/index.html

I have captured a view from my vicinity using this app and got it converted to .jpg. This is an image consisting of vertically stacked panoramas. We can also have single image panorama loaded in VR.

I also have a demo 360 video.

Place these files in assets folder.

The views provided by VR SDK to load 360 media are so light that they can be used within a fragment. Here, for simplicity, we’ll use them with activities. We’ll have 2 activities, 1 for 360 image and another for 360 video.
First of all, include libraries in gradle file for image and video.

implementation 'com.google.vr:sdk-panowidget:1.10.0'
implementation 'com.google.vr:sdk-videowidget:1.10.0'

I have 2 buttons in my MainActivity.java which redirect me to ImageActivity.java (for 360 image) and VideoActivity.java (for 360 video).

Skipping the regular navigation code, let’s have a look at core part.

1) 360 image

Place VrPanoramaView in xml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
   android:layout_width="match_parent"
   android:layout_height="match_parent"
   android:gravity="center"
   tools:context=".ImageActivity">

   <com.google.vr.sdk.widgets.pano.VrPanoramaView
       android:id="@+id/vr_image"
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="300dp"
       android:layout_margin="5dp"
       android:scrollbars="none" />

</LinearLayout>

In java file, load the image from assets after converting it into bitmap.

private void loadImage() {
   VrPanoramaView.Options viewOptions = new VrPanoramaView.Options();
   viewOptions.inputType = VrPanoramaView.Options.TYPE_STEREO_OVER_UNDER;

   try (InputStream istr = getAssets().open("image.jpg")) {
       vrImageView.loadImageFromBitmap(BitmapFactory.decodeStream(istr), viewOptions);
       BitmapFactory.decodeStream(istr);
   } catch (IOException e) {
       Log.e("", "Could not decode default bitmap: " + e);
   }
}

One thing to note here is video options. I have used STEREO_OVER_UNDER type. We have 2 options :

• STEREO_OVER_UNDER – for image which contains equally sized panoramas, stacked vertically (as the pic captured by me).
• MONO – for image containing a single panorama.

2) 360 video

Place VrPanoramaView in xml.

<com.google.vr.sdk.widgets.video.VrVideoView
   android:id="@+id/vr_video"
   android:layout_width="match_parent"
   android:layout_height="300dp"
   android:layout_margin="5dp"
   android:scrollbars="none" />

Now, just load the video from assets into the view.

private void loadVideo() {
   try {
       vrVideoView.loadVideoFromAsset("video.mp4",
               new VrVideoView.Options());
   } catch (IOException e) {
       e.printStackTrace();
   }
}

We also get a listener for video view. We can loop it by manual coding.

vrVideoView.setEventListener(new VrVideoEventListener() {
   @Override
   public void onCompletion() {
       vrVideoView.seekTo(0);          //loop
   }
});

We can even sync a seek bar with video view, depending on our requirements.

Both the views provide an option for Cardboard mode. Here is the screenshot.

That’s it…! Didn’t it finish before blinking an eye?

Video

VR at Yudiz

Talking about native app development, we are concentrating on implementing more detailed concepts of VR and are trying to integrate it with AR technologies, like portals.

Conclusion

An innumerable amount of apps can be imagined when such 2 vast concepts, VR and android native collaborate with each other. As this is the future of mobile application development, building such apps, right from the start of an era, will be a lot beneficiary.

Overview

Before developing any mobile application, do you ever feel confused about which approach to use for creating your project application? Native or React Native?

Don’t worry then. In this talk I’m gonna discuss this topic in detail and I’ll try my best to sort out all your confusion correctly.

Terminologies

In mobile app development there are three kinds of apps :

1. Native Apps
2. Web Apps
3. Hybrid Apps

The native applications are the applications developed or focused to run on single platform or operating system like Android, iPhone or Windows. Android studio (uses Java or Kotlin for app development) and XCode (uses Swift or Objective-C for app development) are popular native app IDE for Android and iPhone respectively.

While web apps are the applications loading the web pages from the website hosted on a remote server. Laravel and Angular are some of the well-known frameworks to develop the web apps.

Hybrid apps are the apps developed to run on multiple platforms (like Android and iPhone OS) writing a single codebase. React Native (JavaScript framework introduced by Facebook to create mobile apps for Android and iOS) and Flutter (SDK introduced by Google to create mobile apps for Android and iOS) are some of the well-known frameworks to develop the hybrid apps.

In this talk, we’ll focus only the concepts related to Native vs React Native.

Application aspects

1. Single Code Base
2. Development Cost and Time
3. Hot Reload
4. Maintenance
5. Performance
6. UI/UX
7. Security
8. Adaptability
9. Development Community
10. API Accessibility
11. Native Modules Support
12. Lack of libraries
13. Interaction with other apps
14. Dependency on Platform Providers
15. Application Scope

Prepare a cup of tea for yourself and be comfortable because this talk is gonna be tough debate between Native vs React Native.
We’ll discuss the Native vs React Native approach based on some key factors which plays an important role for any successful mobile application.

The below graph shows the dominating punches of React Native over Native approach. We’ll discuss all of them one by one. We’ll also conclude the dominating approach after every key points.

Now, Let’s get started…

1. Single Code Base :

Native apps doesn’t support cross platform compatibility. But, with React Native we can build apps supported on both Android as well as iPhone platform at the same time which reduces a headache for developers to write code for a single application on both frameworks.

Dominating Approach : React Native

2. Development Cost and Time :

Native apps doesn’t support code portability or cross-platform support. So, it needs to be developed separately for Android as well as for iOS Platform, which needs extra efforts either it is in terms of manpower as well as planning and resources. So, organizations have to allocate separate developers and resources for Android and IOS frameworks
which ultimately results in greater development cost and time. The development time of React Native apps is 30-35% less than Native Apps.

Dominating Approach : React Native

3. Hot Reload :

In native frameworks, while testing apps or changing the bit of source code we have to build and run the whole project to check whether changes are reflected in app or not. This increases the development time for the application. But, React Native has a feature called Hot Reload which doesn’t need to rebuild the project every time instead it immediately deploys all the changes performed in code and can be viewed on a device.

Dominating Approach : React Native

4. Maintenance :

Maintenance in native framework app requires more attention as the bugs have to be solved on both the platforms. While in React Native bugs need to be resolved at one place and you’re done. But, if any issue is related to native modules in React Native then user have to solve it on both the native modules. Then, maintenance for Native and React Native takes equal time.

Dominating Approach : React Native

You may have found it favorable to pick up React Native approach on the basis of above discussion as there is no dominating key-factor from the native side.
But wait.. the master-strokes from Native side takes place from here and can be viewed in the below graph.

Starting with the Performance,

5. Performance :

Performance is the key factor to measure the efficiency and flexibility of app created using Native vs React Native framework. The performance provided by the apps built in Native apps are always better than apps developed in React Native framework in terms of CPU, GPU and Memory usage. As we know, JavaScript (used for React Native) is fast but not suitable for heavy calculations compared to Java, Kotlin or Swift. JavaScript has only single dedicated device thread. So, it is difficult to manipulate asynchronous tasks in React Native compared to Native app development. If your app needs advanced features, complex manipulations, and hardware integrations then it is advisable to use Native framework. Because so many modules and functionalities are not supported by React Native. Even Facebook doesn’t use React Native for the whole app. They use
mixed approach of React Native and Native to build their apps.

Dominating Approach : Native

6. UI/UX :

To create a complex user interface like navigation patterns, custom views, app-specific components (like EditText in Android or TextField in IPhone), smoother transitions and animations are difficult to design using React Native as compared to Native App development. Also, the UX for Native frameworks are somewhat more flexible and responsive as each and every screen is designed separately for android as well as iPhone. It is difficult to match the UX expectations for both the platforms at the same time. Also, the size of application in React Native is bigger than Native framework.

Dominating Approach : Native

7. Security :

Native app framework uses Java or Kotlin for Android app development while Swift or Objective C for iOS app development. React Native uses JavaScript as the core development language. As we all know Javascript is not strongly typed language and is Object Based Language (the language which doesn’t support all the features of OOPs like Polymorphism and Inheritance), it has many flaws and breaches in its designing pattern and syntax compared to strongly typed languages. Hence, building apps using React Native framework may find it somewhat difficult to detect simple errors and break-points.

Dominating Approach : Native

8. Adaptability :

As a beginner in mobile development, you will think about which one is easily adaptable Native Framework or React Native Framework?

But, the answer is somewhat complicated. Because, React Native framework is easy to learn as it uses JavaScript (also some basic CSS and HTML skills) language to code which is very handy to learn. But, keep in mind that ease comes with a cost. Since JavaScript is weakly typed and interpreted language, it is more complicated to detect simple errors and to fix them at early stages of compiling. Java or Kotlin (used in Android Framework) and Swift or Objective-C (used in IPhone framework) are continued to get enhanced and aren’t actually flawed in terms of efficiency and scalability.
Most of the React Native apps need to use Native modules for specific functionality. So, to work with Native modules, developers must also have skill-set in Native framework languages. Ultimately, React Native app developers also need to learn Native framework languages.

Dominating Approach : Native

9. Development Community :

As we all know, Native framework languages are mature and have large development community over the internet. We can find most of the bugs and questions we need to know for our project development from different sites and topic forums. As React Native is growing and doesn’t have enough developer community to reach all over the world, sometimes, we have to figure out many complicated stuff ourselves for many project related functionalities which raises headache to manage things.

Dominating Approach : Native

10. API Accessibility :

All of the APIs offered by Native platforms can be accessible using Native framework. There is no extra bridge or connection layer to access required APIs for Native framework. On the other side, React Native can access most of the APIs provided by platform but, not all of them. So, if there is need to implement the APIs which are not accessible by React Native, then it is hard to solve this kind of situation. To overcome this, we have to add Native modules support. In short, Native apps are fully device integrated while React Native apps are partially device integrated.

Dominating Approach : Native

11. Native Modules Support :

The APIs we need to use in React Native which are not accessible then we have to add Native modules support. Native modules are the modules written in Native languages which we have to incorporate in React Native framework as part of it. This is a better solution to add support for unaccessible APIs in React Native. But, it requires developers to have knowledge of the native language, which is something that has been avoided by the developer while choosing the React Native. It also requires to code Native modules for both the languages separately.

Dominating Approach : Native

12. Lack of Third Party Libraries :

As we all know, that React Native is growing and has a minor development community and also lesser third party libraries, so, to use any third party library developed in a native platform, you have to associate the changes in Native modules separately. Also, you have to find that native library for both the platforms to add support.

Dominating Approach : Native

13. Interaction with Other Apps :

Native apps can easily connect and communicate with other native apps. They can easily pass data to other apps. Also, native apps can easily access camera, contacts, settings and many other apps. Whereas in React Native, interaction with other apps is very poor. Most of the time we need to use third party libraries and extensions to communicate with other apps. Also, retrieving results from other apps is very difficult.

Dominating Approach : Native

14. Dependency on Platform Providers :

Every new update released to the specific Native platform brings many evolutionary changes. So, whenever any platform-specific updates are released can be instantly received on Native frameworks. While React Native is developed by Facebook, so any latest platform-specific updates or changes released cannot be directly obtained for your React Native project. Either, you have to wait until Facebook releases new updates or you have to create custom bridges in your Native modules for custom project requirements.

Dominating Approach : Native

15. Application Scope :

If you’re targeting your application to provide frequent updates and deploy user friendly features in your app then it is better to select Native approach. Because, you can easily implement the required functionality and resolve bugs at any time in Native while, React Native app needs to deal with both the platforms at the same time. So, particular API that is not accessible by React Native or any third party library you want to add in your future updates or any other native issue comes up then it will be a total mess. But, if you’re not so concerned about future updates and bug resolving for your apps then you can pick React Native.

Dominating Approach : Native

So, these are the key factors to decide which app development approach to use based on our project requirements.

Yeah…sure!!! I’m too done with this unending debate.

TL;DR

If your project development budget and time are too low and you don’t focus primarily on the performance then you can go for React Native framework.

If your project definition is not too complex and doesn’t require complex animations and hardware integrations then you can go for React Native framework.

If you’re a beginner in mobile app development then you must choose Native framework.

Also, if your developers are expert in Native Framework Languages then you must choose Native framework. Because the project delivered by developers will have high performance, high scalability, and better user experience.
If your app needs to use advanced topics like AR-VR, third party libraries, advanced APIs or internet of things, you should definitely pick the Native framework.

In most other cases, I think Native framework is the best choice for project development to deliver advanced functionality with higher efficiency.

Conclusion

I believe, both the approaches (Native vs React Native) have their specific concerns. In some cases, Native framework is best choice and in some cases, it is better to choose React Native framework (Hybrid Frameworks). It is recommended that the approach you consider for your project should be chosen based on key factors like, development time, performance, scalability, application scope etc.

Be productive and smart while choosing project development approach because, the choice is yours.

Overview

Every September Apple comes with new hardware and software products, and improve its current ones. Apple never miss a chance to surprise their fans and this year Apple comes with 3 brand new iPhones and Series 4 watch along with MacOS Mojave, iOS 12 and WatchOS 5. Since I am a big Apple fan I am very excited about new iPhones and Watch, I can’t wait to try my hands on brand new iPhones and Watch.

So, let’s find out what we got in 2018 from Apple 

Introducing Brand new Iphones

1) iPhone XS

4) iWatch series 4

Apple had became the number #1 in the era of smart watch with cellular enabled watch as iWatch series 3, and Apple still continue that with the iWatch series 4 with more advance feature which are not available with any other smart watch till now

Here is comparison and full specification of all three latest iPhones

Overview

In this blog, we will cover all the initial steps and theory that we should be aware and know about. Before starting to create any Siri shortcuts there are some points we are going to discuss today.

Minimum Requirement:

• • Xcode 10 (beta or above)
  • iOS 12 (beta or above)

We will create a project of the name “DemoSiriShortcut”. In it, we will perform “Siri shortcuts” for sending and requesting money. It will be simple, no API or real process is held only by using UserDefaults. Just to understand Siri Shortcut, we will add or subtract the value of UserDefaults.

Note: We are not integrating Siri; we are going to create the shortcut of the process, that we are going to access through Siri by adding a key-word to say. If you want to integrate siri in the app, you can go through another blog.

What is Siri Shortcut?

Siri shortcut is a shortcut of the process that we perform regularly in the app. It helps us to do the same by just saying a keyword that we have provided while adding that particular process to the Settings > Siri Search or Shortcuts app. Process can be performed directly or with the confirmation, in the background or with opening the app. It will also give a suggestion in the search, and spotlight and apple watch face too. You can access these shortcuts through iPhone, Apple watch, HomePod, and CarPlay too.

Available Siri shortcut domains

These are the types of activities(domains of intents) developer can use in the app:

All the above are the domains that has inbuilt methods and handler that can be used directly in the project with Siri integration. And if you want to create other than above domain or its inbuilt methods, you can use “Custom Intents” which need to define all the parameters, actions and responses we want to use in-app. As we are going to use in this project.

Creating Certificate to access Sirikit in app

As we are using Siri feature in the app, we need to create the certificate. It’s quite simple to create the certificate. We should have our registered email id to use Siri. We need app bundle id and CSR to create the certificate. In this certificate, we have to enable Siri and app group capability of the app. You can create certificate in the Apple Developer Link.

After creating certificate, we need to add to the project in the Target > General > Signing(debug) and Signing(release) > Provisional profile > import profile. And selecting downloaded certificates through your id.
Then Build(⌘ + B) your project.

Now go to the capability section and turn on Siri and app group and add app group id as “group.(bundle identifier)” in the certificate.

Now you are ready to use Siri-shortcut in the project.

Sirikit(Intents Extension)

Intents help you to pass data from Siri to your app, even in the background, without opening the application. And allow you to do the activity that is related to that specific domain that you have provided. Like for the payment, it helps you to send or receive amount to the phone that you had said to Siri.
Payment has a protocol like INRequestPaymentIntentHandling, which helps you to handle all the parameter you need to use to request the payment. It also helps you to create UI that you need to show in the Siri. All the possible case are covered in this protocol, still if you want to do some custom process you can use “Intent Definition File” as we are going to use.
For the Intent Extension file,

Files > New > Target > iOS(tab) > Application Extension (section) > Intent Extension
Then, Next > (Give file name) > Finish

Note:- Make sure the data that you want to use in the Siri and app should have only one path like one API or UserDefaults so that both the data don’t have the different value or obj. And it should be stored somewhere. No simple variable will work, as when you open your app every variable will be initialized again.

After creating it you will find the folder with the name you have given. IntentHander and Plist file will be in it. Now, Go to the target and check if both the target’s capabilities section has activated “App Groups” and have the same id as added to the certificate’s app group id.

Now you will get a .entitlement file in both the target. Check if there is any id inside the App group list. (if not then add app group id)

We will come to IntentHandler and Plist file after next step.

Custom Intent Definition & Response to that shortcut

We will add custom intents file as we want try custom method, but it is almost same only new file will be added which has all the information regarding what to get and pass to/from user.
In this file we have to provide each and every action that we are going to give shortcut. In this project I have 2 actions – Sending and Requesting money action. I will add 2 intents.

To add the file File > New > File >In the Resource section > Select – Siri Intent Definition File > (Give file name) > Create

Now on Left Bottom Side of the file you click + sign > New Intent

Give the name of the intent as particular process you are adding in the file.

As you can see in the above screenshot, there are certain words you need to understand, so here these are the definitions of them.

1. Custom Intent
   • Category: Type of process you need to perform
   • Title: Heading of the process
   • Description: Small description on the process
   • Confirmation: Whether this process need user’s confirmation or can be done directly
2. Parameter
   • Parameter: Variables(value) and its type you need from the user. It can be multiple. Provide all the variable in the section.
3. Shortcut Types
   • Parameter Combination: When you click + button it will ask for the combination of the parameters you need to use in same type of the process
     • Title: Data you want to show in the Siri shortcut list title.You can use parameter in the title too
     • Subtitle: Data you want to show in the Siri shortcut list subtitle. You can use parameter in the subtitle too
     • Background: Is this process to be done in the background or you need to open the app.

Anyway you will see only Title and subtitle of shortcut parameter section everywhere. So make sure it helps the user to understand the shortcut, don’t confuse or mislead them.

Now, let’s come to IntentHandler and plist again.

First of all, let’s take plist file and add string as “(name of intents in intentDefinition file)” + “Intent” as postfix in the NSExtension > NSExtentionAttributes > IntentsSupports, that you have added in the intentDefinition file.

In the intentHandler file, initially your file should have only these codes.

Remove all other extra code if any.
Now, we will add all the handler methods that we have added in the intentDefiniton file.

// MARK: - Withdraw Intent Handling
extension IntentHandler: WithdrawDefinitionIntentHandling {
    func handle(intent: WithdrawDefinitionIntent, completion: @escaping (WithdrawDefinitionIntentResponse) -> Void) {
        // definition here
    }
    func confirm(intent: WithdrawDefinitionIntent, completion: @escaping (WithdrawDefinitionIntentResponse) -> Void) {
        // definition here
    }
}

We are going to use only handle method right now. Confirmation method can be used to check in this process is ready for the next step or not. So let us move forward and give proper definition for all the possible condition and response in the handling method.
Like I have done for the withdraw process.

// MARK: - Withdraw Intent Handling
extension IntentHandler: WithdrawDefinitionIntentHandling {
    func handle(intent: WithdrawDefinitionIntent, completion: @escaping (WithdrawDefinitionIntentResponse) -> Void) {
        if let amount = intent.amount?.intValue {//1. Getting the amount to be withdraw
            if let  newBalance = PaymentDetails.withdraw(amount: amount) {//2. Taking new balance by invoking the method to withdraw

                //3.Creating response
                let response = WithdrawDefinitionIntentResponse(code: WithdrawDefinitionIntentResponseCode.successWithAmount , userActivity: nil)
                //4. As we have to give new balance in the response
                response.availableBalance = NSNumber(value: newBalance)
                completion(response)
            } else { // If your balance is less then the amount to be withdraw then error
                let response = WithdrawDefinitionIntentResponse(code: WithdrawDefinitionIntentResponseCode.failDueToLessAmount , userActivity: nil)
                response.availableBalance = NSNumber(value: PaymentDetails.checkBalance()!)
                response.requestAmount = NSNumber(value: amount)
                completion(response)
            }
        }
    }
}

You will be thinking:

No..! Not at all. It is very simple and easy to understand. Let’s discuss all the important keywords used in the above code:

1. WithdrawDefinitionIntentHandling : It is the custom protocol that is created when we have added new intent in the intentDefinition file. So extend it and use it’s handle and confirmation method.
2. WithdrawDefinitionIntentResponse : It is type of response for withdraw intent.
3. WithdrawDefinitionIntentResponseCode.failDueToLessAmount : It is type of the response have added in the response of intentDefinition file.
4. completion(response) : When all the handling is done then we give the response in this block. It can be success or failure or can be custom that you have added.

Donating shortcut

It passes the data to Siri that we have provided to create the shortcut. All this detail should be filled such that the user can easily use. It does everything inline and in the background, according to the task, we have donated. You can add button for the user to add shortcut or add it when the process is executed successfully.

// 1. Intent variable
let intent = DepositeDefinitionIntent()
intent.amount = NSNumber(value: amount) // amount is entered by the user in the textField

//2. Interaction variable
let interaction = INInteraction(intent: intent, response: nil)

 // 3. Donating interaction
 interaction.donate { (error) in
      guard error == nil else {
           print("Request problem : \(String(describing: error?.localizedDescription))")
           return
                }
     // If no error then your shortcut has been successfully added to shortcut 
     print("Request Intent Donated")
 }

Run the app. And your Siri shortcut app is ready to use.

Hint: If you want to make ur shortcut more reliable, make siri suggest it and view in the search list and in the lock screen, you can add NSUserActivity in it.

Overview

• In iOS 12, Apple introduced ARKit 2.0 with some extreme AR features like Multiuser AR experience, 2D image detection and 3D object detection.
• In this tutorial, I will show you how to scan real world object using apple demo and create object reference file. Use this Object file in our app for detecting that object.
• In the first part Image recognition and tracking using ARKit 2, we write tutorial on image detecting and tracking,  that allows you to detect and track images that you add to the app. This is limited to images in two dimensions, in this tutorial we demonstrate you how to detect 3D real world object in your ARKit app.

Prerequisites:

• Xcode 10 (beta or above)
• iOS 12 (beta or above)
• iPhone 6S (Apple A9 chip or above)
• Object reference files (.arobject files of your real objects)

Introduction

WhatsApp has a massive user base of 1.5 billion people and consequently, businesses have a keen eye on WhatsApp until now small business have WhatsApp groups and putting manpower on sharing offers, deals and other customer connects initiative.

In 2017, WhatsApp did a pilot program where they offered limited ability to some company to send messages. Basically, some receive and send API was provided. Eg. Bookmyshow.

Business needs to be the place their clients are and popular messaging applications are those spots today. The business now already using officially launched API of popular messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Skype, telegram, Line and Viber But very recently, there was one notable holdout—WhatsApp.

More than 1.5 billion people globally use WhatsApp every day to talk to friends and family as well as for work and collaboration, and in August this year 2018, WhatsApp launched the highly anticipated WhatsApp Business API. Businesses have been clamouring for an authoritatively supported approach to communicate with WhatsApp clients throughout recent years. The excitement is more than justified.

Getting Started

This would be “break the ice” on the tremendous demand of the public to connect a conversation flow or have a chatbot functionality with WhatsApp. For now, there is no Publicly available WhatsApp API to use so in this article we are going to use Twilio WhatsApp API that provide the sandbox version to test our bot and then we can make it public.
This would be a simple prototype for getting response from dialogflow and sending text messages.

Twilio & Dialogflow the integration

• Create an account Create Project
• Generate Number in WhatsApp Sandbox
• You will get one QR code in next step, Scan that with your device, that’s it your sandbox is now active
• Create Agent In Dialogflow
• Turn on the Small talk srom side panel
• Copy the Account ID and Token from Twilio dashboard and paste in dialogflow integration tab as shown in below images

Copy the request URL from dialogflow integration tab and paste in “a message comes in the input box and save”

Now you will be able to do conversation with dialogflow agent if not there is something wrong please check the process again or you can comment your queries here.

Overview

Hello everyone, today we are going to learn about UIKit Dynamics. I hope you all know what we can do with animations, UIKit Dynamics is somewhat that helps you to apply physics-based animations to your views. Even with less efforts and code you can easily create amazing animations.

Introduction

Progressive web Apps (PWA) – The next step you should take now as a web developer.

Ever wonder that you can build a Mobile application that works like a pro and feel like a native Android or IOS application?

Being a web developer, what are you using to build web apps? HTML, CSS, Javascript? By using same you can build the mobile application.

Progressive web apps mean progressively enhancing your web application by using modern web APIs.

Simply, It’s just a web page that has taken all the necessary “vitamin” to behave like native mobile Apps. It is the combination of best apps and best of the web.

“A Progressive Web App uses modern web capabilities to deliver an app-like user experience.” – Progressive Web Apps

What Progressive apps can give you?

Loading speed, usability and readability does matter, right? Well, PWA is the Solution. It’s the myth around us that User will visit your website from their mobile browser and install your application from Play store/App Store.

• Reliable – Load as fast as possible and you will never show the “dinosaur”, even in worst network conditions.
• Fast – Respond quickly to user interactions with smooth animation.
• Engaging – Feels like a native app on the device, with a great user experience.

Let’s see the timing and size comparison with native and PWA apps,

Why your business should care about PWA?

• Fast user experience
• Works offline
• Supports background sync
• Doubleclick by Google found, 53% of users will abandon a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load! And once loaded, users expect them to be fast—no janky scrolling or slow-to-respond interfaces.
• You can update your web App and PWA will automatically enhance that update
• Sends notification even if you are not using App (user engagement)

Case Study found on, George.com is a leading UK clothing brand, part of ASDA Walmart. After upgrading their site to a Progressive Web App (PWA), the brand saw a 31 percent increase in mobile conversion.

• 3.8x – Faster average page load time
• 2x – Lower bounce rate
• 31% – Increase in Conversion Rate
• 20% – More page views per visit
• 28% – Longer average time on site for visits from Home screen

Challenges?

Cross Browser Support: Chrome supports all features of PWA and other browsers getting better.

Limited Legitimacy: There is no official play store/App store to upload and download the app but Microsoft store released the features to upload PWA.

Cross Application Communication: Like native apps, PWA can communicate with other installed apps in mobile.

Introduction

In javascript we have an amazing quantity of libraries, tools and such things that make our work easier, but did you ever try to understand how it is working under the hood? Javascript is a widely spread language so many of us got attracted and want to use higher level tools without understanding its deep working which is not the right way. You should always know how your code actually got executed.

Today we will see how callbacks will be executed in javascript. We all know javascript is single threaded. We also know that it supports asynchronous behaviour. But this behaviour is not part of javascript. This asynchronous behaviour access through browser APIs which are built on the top of javascript.

Simple Javascript – Example

First let’s see how simple javascript code get executed.

You can see it is running line by line. Javascript is single threaded so
One thread == One call stack == One thing at a time and so we have one call stack.

Event Loop

Heap –

It is just a memory allocation thing.

Call stack –

It is a data structure which records, where in the program we are. If we step into the function, we push something into the stack and if we return from the function, we pop of from the stack.

Web APIs –

They are not the part of javascript but are they are built on top of the core javascript language, which gives you extra features to use in your javascript code. For example setTimeOut gives you some simple features that you can prevent some code from getting executed for defined time.

Callback queue –

When you call setTimeOut or any async operation, Web APIs will add them to callback queue. This is also a data structure. It’s work is to store functions in correct order

Event Loop –

This is a constantly running process which checks if call stack is empty or not? If yes then it will execute the function from callback queue. So remember, callback function only get executed if call stack is empty. Always make sure that all callback functions should get chance to enter in call stack.

Event Loop – Example

If you set time to 0 in setTimeOut, it will still run on the last. This time does not stand for time delay after which function will execute, this time is the minimum time function need to wait.

So, this is it for now. Keep doing meaningful code. Keep searching for deep working of any functionality you use.

Introduction

Are you a tech-geek and do you love knowing about latest tech-trends and announcements? You have arrived at the correct place.

Google organised an event called Made by Google on October 9, 2018 where Google’s new devices including Pixel 3 were announced. I got the complete event covered for you.
Sit back, relax and enjoy the abstracts of the event

Google Pixel 3

As the hard-bitten battle going on between smartphone and their company for their smartphone price and specification and features. Google have also jumped in it with it’s new smartphone which was most awaited this year Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, It was the limelight of the event which was held by google on 10 October 2018.

Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL configurations

Google Pixel Stand

– Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL comes with Google Pixel Stand, the smartest wireless charger ever which charges super-fast even through mobile cases.

– It just not an ordinary charger, it changes the phone when it is charging with the help of Google Assistant.

– You can control phone with your voice or on touch suggestion on the screen.

– It is the fastest and upto 10-Watt charging.

– Quick shortcut of Google Assistant can also turn your Pixel into digital photobooth.

– It will cost around $79 and will be launched with Google Pixel 3.

Google Pixel Slate

– Google reveals its new Chrome OS tablet with a dual front-firing speakers and a 12.3-inch Molecular Display. Google has adjusted chrome OS to fit the tablet.

– 12 hours battery life

– 8MP rear and front cameras

– Google Assistant with deeper integration

– Split screen

– Do not disturb feature

It will cost around $599 and will be launched later in this year.

Google Home Hub

– Adding a feather in the cap of Smart Home Speakers, Google introduced Google Home Hub which allows uses to interact with Google Photos, YouTube and much more.

– It has a 7-inch screen.

– Google has decided not in include camera to ensure privacy of its users.

– Hub has a built-in ‘Home View’ section which drags from the top of the screen and provides a single UI to manage our smart home appliances like Smart Door Lock, Smart Lights, Thermostats and many more.

It will cost $149 and will be launched on October 22

Get Your Hands On Pixel

– The pixel 3 will be the first phone that ships with the Youtube Music, Youtube Music will be given to Pixel owner for 6 months free from Google.

– You can get your hands on Pixel 3 as it is available for Pre-Order, with the starting price of 799$.

– Pixel 3 will arrive on 18th October 2018 in U. S. stores.

– Pixel 3 will arrive on listed below countries on 1st November 2018.

Australia, Germany , Italy, spain, USA, Canada, India, Japan, Taiwan, France, Ireland,Singapore , Uk

– Pre-book of Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL has began on Flipkart.

Overview

In this tutorial we’ll create a Custom Keyboard extension. Custom keyboard extensions allow you to set your own designed keyboard in apps. It lets user add image in keyboard, that make your keyboard steal the show.

Overview

What’s use of Unmanaged in swift?

There are certain situations where we need low level lib in our project to communicate with swift code. Also, swift’s ARC memory management requires compiler to manage each object reference. Once the pointer is passed to C Lib, it can’t manage object reference. So we must have to manually manage it. Unmanage provide function to get object reference to swift compiler. Unmanaged wraps a reference to an object.