Category: TECHNOLOGY

The next big technological leap that is going to impact businesses and consumers alike is virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Revenue for these technologies is expected to jump from $52 billion to $150 billion by 2020. This will correspond with lowering price points for consumer VR and AR products.

But what exactly are Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality?

From basic 360 degree videos on Facebook to full-blown VR gaming headsets, virtual reality is the virtual world that technology is allowing the public to enter. Augmented reality is not meant to completely engulf the user, rather alter (augment) the existing world. Applying filters in real-time on Snapchat is a simple app-based example of this.

VR and AR are going to change the business world, both internally and for the end consumer. Here are 10 exciting uses of the technology that are already being used or developed:

Try Before You Buy

From uploading an image of your face to try on eyeglasses and makeup to 360-degree virtual fitting rooms – VR and AR are allowing customers to experience products before they buy them.

Augmented Gaming Becomes Marketing

There was a time that gamers were considered lazy shut-ins, but with the release of Pokémon Go millions of people took to the streets to catch and battle their pocket monsters in an augmented reality. The game is overlaid on a real life map, requiring players to go to local landmarks where items and Pokémon are virtually located. The same concept has now been applied to a range of marketing methods, such as requiring app users to go to a certain location to find coupon codes.

Travel and Tourism

The ability to showcase hotels, resorts and other locations virtually (virtual tours) is revolutionizing the travel and tourism industries. Furthermore, apps with GPS are using AR to help users with directions, to find desirable locations and translate foreign language signs!

Training

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality allow firms to train people in safe, efficient and cost-effective virtual environments. Guidelines and instructions can be delivered via augmented video, dangerous tasks can be practised virtually with no danger at all, savings are made by cutting down on physical components, and trainees might not even have to leave their home.

Meetings and Conferencing

Whether you want a meeting at the office or the Eiffel tower, video conferencing is taken to the next level with virtual reality and augmented video, where data and ideas can be displayed and manipulated.

Customer Support

The virtual space allows consumers to get hands-on-support in the form of tutorials.

Remote Events

From music concerts to trade shows, those who cannot make it in person will get a much more immersive experience than just watching basic videos of the events.

Design

VR and AR allow for the design of a product that fits pre-set requirements and its testing, without even having to manufacture it. 3D CAD models can be quickly transformed into interactive walk-throughs and presentations with programs like Autodesk Showcase.

Immersive Learning

Not only will this new technology allow for remote classroom based learning, those in the classroom will be able to experience elements of their curriculum virtually – virtual field trips for example.

Interactive Marketing

Hold your mobile device up to that billboard to learn more about the product or service.

To learn more about Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, and all the breakthroughs that will benefit the business world – check out the full infographic from Skilled.co

This blog is part of a collaboration between Webdura Technologies and Skilled.co. We have partnered with skilled.co to provide you with some high-quality articles as part of our knowledge sharing initiative.

It is not uncommon for people to use their mobile phones to go on the web rather than a desktop computer. It is convenient, quick, easy to access and can be used wherever you are, perfect if you need to look up something quickly. The trouble is, not all websites are designed to be used on a mobile, therefore when accessed on a mobile they can differ a little from how they are meant to look. For example, they can have pictures or text in the wrong place, have buttons that are hard to press because they are so small or will not fit the screen size properly.

That is why many people turn to apps instead of just a website. Many companies have their own app, so even if their website doesn’t work well on a mobile, then they have the app that can be used instead. However, the problem with this is that apps can take a long time to find and download, and there are often many steps involved to download it. If you need to search for some information quickly on a company and you don’t already have the app downloaded on your phone, this can be a major problem.

There are several reasons why people prefer apps rather than websites. One of these being that mobile apps are just more convenient, easy to use and can even work when your phone is not connected to the internet or does not have any signal.

It is these facts that have drawn developers to create something that solves these problems, and that is where progressive web apps come in. Progressive Web Apps act much like an app, having the same layout and usability, yet they can be accessed using a search engine or URL, and need not be downloaded to be used, taking the steps out of the process. The work for all users, no matter what browser or device they are using, is already opening the market of potential users. They are also always up to date thanks to the service worker update process and are safe to use thanks to technology making it almost impossible to be tampered with. Users can keep their favourite apps onto their home screen without the bother of using the app store and they can be shared with others as they don’t need any complex installation process to use it.

They are a combination of both apps and websites, as they work well no matter what your internet connectivity is. They automatically refresh when there is an update and can send you push notifications. Progressive web apps can be accessed exactly like a website would be, and as quickly and easily. Some people would describe a progressive web application as the future, and it is looking likely that soon everyone will be using PWA’s as part of their everyday lifestyle. Only time will tell how successful they will be.

To learn more about Progressive Web Apps, their benefits to users and the businesses that use them (but also some of the current downsides), be sure to check out the new infographic from Skilled.co

This blog is part of a collaboration between Webdura Technologies and Skilled.co. We have partnered with skilled.co to provide you with some high-quality articles as part of our knowledge sharing initiative.

I consider myself as a tech evangelist, constantly making efforts and taking time out from my personal schedule to stay in sync with the latest developments in the tech world. Over the past few years, there is this constant thought in my mind as to what the next big boom in the world of technology will be after the smartphone revolution. I finally have an answer for this – Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. Both concepts are undergoing rapid advancements and we are in store for some mega surprises considering the investments being made by conglomerates into both domains.

VIRTUAL REALITY AND AUGMENTED REALITY – ARE BOTH THE SAME?

The simple answer in NO. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are different in their own special ways. Virtual Reality, today, is mainly defined by the use of a head-mounted gear that simulated a virtual environment for a user to experience. Supportive modules like trackpads and joysticks provide an interactive feel of the user dwelling right into the virtual world. The user has the option to interact with virtual elements and feel a new world developing around him. Few of the more renowned developers in the field include Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Virtual Reality, or in other words immersive multimedia, has been a big hit among the common tech enthusiasts, especially within the gaming community. The concept is making inroads into the education sector worldwide as research has proven that students respond positively to virtual based study protocols rather than just learning from books. Even the architecture industry is taking advantage of this concept as yet to be designed mega urban projects are first converted into the virtual realm for the clients to get a feel of the overall environment. The concept is promising and further modification and implementations will make the concept more accessible to the common man and are sure to be part of our day to day life in the near future.

Now let’s focus on Augmented Reality. This concept is slightly different from Virtual Reality, both in terms of the systems used and the actual usage criteria. Augmented Reality can be better defined as the ability of machines to give the user an experience of a product/service before actually making the final investment. For example, many smartphones today, most of them being super expensive has the Augmented Reality feature. This enables the concept of superimposing images and or elements as part of the immediate real-world surroundings.

Project Tango, authored by Google, is one of the more well-known concepts in the domain. The hardware part of it mainly involves a suitable processor, input devices, adaptive display and sensors. Augmented Reality works great for the real estate and e-commerce sector. A potential home buyer could experience his new home in the form of Augmented Reality to get an actual feel of the place. A person interested in getting a new piece of furniture could make use of this technology to virtually deploy the furniture into the actual world to see if it suits the place of his/her choice.

Another important player in the field of Augmented Reality is Microsoft’s HoloLens. Also known as Project Baraboo, HoloLens is a pair of mixed reality smart glasses. The concept is not well known to the global audience as the pre-production version is currently being sold in the United States and Canada, and that too at 3000 US$. The device incorporates an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), four sensors to understand the environment, camera with a 120×120 degree angle of view, a 2.4MP video camera, microphones and an ambient light sensor. The concept is being worked on by Microsoft at a rapid pace and more advancements are expected in the following months.

THE FUTURE FOR DEVELOPERS

As previously mentioned in this blog, there are massive investments being made both in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. To go ‘ Virtual’ is the new buzzword in the industry. Many firms are trying to implement interesting features & deploy products based on the two concepts and are on recruitment overdrive. A simple Google search will get you tons and tons of vacancies in the domain. I would strongly advise that developers take the time out to gain working knowledge of the two concepts to broaden the scope of your future. For starters, I suggest familiarizing the following tools:

https://www3.oculus.com/en-us/dk2/

https://developer.oculus.com/

https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us/developers

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/install_the_tools

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality is going to redefine the future. It would only make sense for developers to be early adopters of the same. Technology waits for no one and only the chance takers can make it big. The future is yours, make the most of it!

Hope you all have enjoyed this blog. Feel free to share your thoughts and comments. You can reach me at https://twitter.com/shemeermali.

GraphQL is one of the most modern ways of building and querying APIs. With GraphQL, the user is able to make a single call to fetch the required information rather than to construct several REST requests to fetch the same. GraphQL is a mainly a language used to receive exact data based on your queries. For example, take a look at the below query.

{
viewer {
login
bio
organizations(first: 3) {
edges {
org:node {
name
}
}
}
}
}

The query above will generate a response by retrieving the login and bio of the user along with details of the first three organizations:

{
"data": {
"viewer": {
"login": "abctest",
"bio": "sample test",
"organizations": {
"edges": [
{
"org": {
"name": "company"
}
},
{

“org”: {
“name”: “Atom”
}
},
{
“org”: {
“name”: “sample name”
}
}
]
}
}
}
}

GitHub and GraphQL

GitHub uses GraphQL as it offers more flexibility for the developers. The option to precisely generate the information that a user wants is a great advantage over sending multiple REST calls to receive the same. To generate the information based on the above example using REST calls would require a two stage process – One to gather the information of the user and the other to fetch the information about the organization the user is associated with. GraphQL helps alleviate this two-step process.

GraphQL is one of the more recent app development tools to be generated form Facebook’s open-source internal libraries. GraphQL is a specification with usage aspects linked to several well-used languages and is not an all-out framework, tool or library. An official reference implementation is available that is written in Javascript along with other popular libraries for Ruby, Java, Python and PHP to make it easier for prospective users.

GraphQL Is Great For Developers

It would be wise for any developer, be it the ones familiar with React, Angular, Ember, iOS or Android, to take time and learn about GraphQL and to slowly but steadily start using it. There are many communities extending support to beginners who are using GraphQL. A few are Slack channel, Apollo and GraphQL GitHub organization. Be sure to pay their portals a visit for updates and support content.

Rest Just Doesn’t Cut It

Take a look at the image below and you’ll get a better picture:

GraphQL is a layer between servers and clients far more intricate and efficient than what REST could provide. I would urge you to visit the links below for more information:

• From REST to GraphQL by Jacob Gillespie

• GraphQL at The Financial Times by Victor Charypar

• The Business Case for GraphQL by James Baxley III

• Adopting GraphQL by Arunoda Susiripala

Many other options are available as well. A simple Google search will get you a barrage of sites and blogs supporting the use of GraphQL and its importance.

You Are Already Using GraphQL

GraphQL is fundamental to how Facebook works. With over one billion active users, it’s safe to say that using Facebook quite literally means using GraphQL.Facebook started used GraphQL in 2012, way before it was open-sourced in July of last year. Since then there has been a rapid growth in terms of the number of developers using GraphQL and its associated communities. Many companies are now turning to GraphQL as they understand its significance and future prospects.

• REFERENCE LIST:

  http://graphql.org/

  http://dev.apollodata.com/react/

  https://code.facebook.com/posts/1691455094417024/graphql-a-data-query-language/

India will overtake the US as the second largest market for smartphones in the world by 2016. WOW!  India will exceed 200 million (20 crores ) smartphone users by 2016. Again WOW!

Don’t you think it is the best opportunity for small/medium scale businesses in product development to enter into the area of digital business, especially who leads existing business and need to reach new heights? As we all know we are going through a revolution. To be more specific, Smartphone revolution! I am not exaggerating as it is very clear that most of the customers are using good spec phones. Hence, I would definitely say that this is the right time for all the SMBEs to start using mobile phone applications for their business development. If you hesitate now, that will be a bad decision you have ever made. Yes! Go Digital!

 

What Should I do?

The answer is Digital Business.  Firstly, provide an option for the customers to get goods or services through their mobile phones. That will make a tremendous change in your business. What I feel is, in the present scenario it is easier for you to run a business in digital version than going for all the traditional tactics.

From my personal experience, my friend runs a furniture business in the main city of Kerala. Recently, he started a website to list all the products so that customer inquiries about furniture could be easily made. Surprisingly, this change could make double furniture sales within six months. Then, isn’t it the right time to change to digital mode? So think about a mobile application to customers for easy access. Anytime! Anywhere!  In this case, a hybrid application will be the right choice.

What is Hybrid App?

Hybrid App is a mobile application in which the same app can be worked in different mobile operating systems like iOS, Android, Windows, etc…, and even in browsers (Mozilla, Chrome, IE, etc.. )! It is the same as mobile applications for users, which can be installed from App Store or Google Play store. But technically it’s different, its works with a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Usually, mobile applications are built using own tools. Once the application is built for iOS it cannot be installed with Android and vice versa. Here comes the difference of hybrid applications. These are hosted inside a native application that uses mobile platform’s Web View which provides access to capabilities like camera, contacts, accelerometer, etc. or it is a combination of both native applications and web applications. Thus, these applications can work on specific platforms as well as multiple platforms.

 

Why Should I work on Multiple Platforms?

 

 

 

We have 1.4 billion(140 crores) active Android devices worldwide and 1 billion (100 crores) Apple users and others using Windows. So it’s not easy to make applications for each operating system and maintain them separately at an early stage of the business. This is where hybrid applications work for you. It can be worked everywhere but can be maintained in one place.

What are the Advantages ? 

Cost Effective?

Of course, it is! As we build a single application to use different devices, the app development cost will be very less since same code can work on all devices (iOS, Android, Windows). This again increases the speed of development and reduces the maintenance cost.

Apart from this, in future, if any changes are to be made to the application, then, you can bravely go for it as there is no need to make changes for all the devices which the application work for.

Resource Availability?

As I mentioned before, it works based on HTML and JavaScript. So a normal web developer can develop a hybrid app with an extra training.

Help product development?

Product development is one of the most uses of the hybrid application, because when we start a product we cannot spend a lot of money on to it. So we can build MVP (Minimum Viable Product) in hybrid and can also build native app after the success of product using user trends and behaviours.

Facebook was hybrid at an early stage, but later they cannot manage with a hybrid, and they have to move to native for each device. Trust me! The time has changed! Hybrid application tools are stronger now. Hence, a medium scale application can be easily managed with a hybrid.

What are the Disadvantages?

Obviously! Every technology has got its own pros and cons. Some disadvantages of our hybrid app are:

• You may or may not have access to native application features(Hardware Device Buttons not now but in future).

Do Hybrid Apps have a future?

Hybrid app development is one of the most growing areas of IT now. There are many  frameworks that have access to more devices. So, in the coming future, it can work like a native app. Future is of hybrid everywhere!

Here are some tools described below and go following links for reading more about those.

 

• IONIC
• React Native
• Meteor JS
• Native Script
• PhoneGap
• jQuery Mobile

For more read -:

https://www.sitepoint.com/top-7-hybrid-mobile-app-frameworks/

http://tutorialzine.com/2015/10/comparing-the-top-frameworks-for-building-hybrid-mobile-apps/

Conclusion

To put it in a nutshell, Hybrid applications are the best option for medium scale business’ product development to enter the digital business model. Think and take the best decision. If you are looking high hardware dependent or billion user mobile applications, please excuse hybrid. You can see the zenith of your business. Wish you Good Luck!

If you liked the above post then take the next step by getting a free review  for your website .

Do share your comments and opinions in our comment section below .