How to operate your camera and take better photos

Who says you need an SLR and a fancy lens? The tips that follow will help you better take advantage of the features and settings of your camera.

One of the most important things when it comes to digital photography of any sort is knowing and understanding your camera. Spend some time experimenting with the settings. Learn what each button does. It will put you in good stead when you need to quickly take a difficult shot and there’s not much time to set up your camera.

For example, the fact that mobile cameras have fixed focus need not be looked at as a limitation. You can just as easily exploit this feature to create good portraits with an out-of-focus background! In fact, portraits were what phone cameras were designed to take in the first place. Who says you need an SLR and a fancy lens? The tips that follow will help you  better take advantage of the features and settings of 

your camera.  

 

Utilising grey cards

A camera’s exposure meter calculates exposure and white balance (WB) using a shade of 18 per cent grey, or neutral grey as it’s better known, as reference. Basically, if you expose a dark surface, the meter tries to make it 18 per cent grey by overexposing the image and vice-versa for brighter surfaces. The same goes for white balance, the camera tries to make the exposed area a shade of 

grey and sets the colour temperature accordingly.

This is where grey cards come into the picture, literally. Have someone expose the grey card in the scene you want to shoot, using spot or centre-weighted metering, and the camera should give you the best possible exposure that it can in those circumstances. In fact, if you shoot a lot of images at that location, as long as you have one photo with a grey card as reference, you can batch process the other images using the first one as a reference.

For batch processing, depending on the software you use, select the neutral colour picker and select the grey card from your reference image. Apply this neutral colour to all your images and you will have the best possible colour tone for those images. Most image management and editing software, including Gimp and Picasa, support batch editing.

 

 

Making your own grey card

You can purchase a grey card from most camera accessory stores, but the advantage of splurging on a good quality grey card won’t really be worth the difference in image quality for an amateur photographer, especially not for people who are just going to use their mobile phones or pocket cameras. You can make your very own grey card if you want to. Simply open up a new file in Photoshop or Gimp, fill it with 18 per cent grey and you’re done. Print this. You can also chop out the image of the grey card we’ve printed overleaf. Now this isn’t 100 per cent accurate as the output is subject to the capabilities of the printer, but should be sufficient for 

most needs.

 

 

A simpler, and maybe more handy alternative, is to use your hand as reference. Take a shot of the back of your hand, one each under direct sunlight and in the shade. Compare the exposure to that taken with a grey card. You’ll usually find that the exposure is about one stop off. Compensate accordingly when you take photos and you’re set! Works with brown paper bags as well. Of course, metering off any object that you believe is closest to 18 per cent grey can also work. 

 

 

 

 

Playing with white balance

As mentioned earlier, adjusting white balance is a breeze when you use a grey card. However, there are many ways by which you can tweak the settings to get the colours or effects you’d want. Do you want to make day look like night? Just set your white balance to tungsten or incandescent, set exposure compensation at -2ev and voila! Day is now night! Of course, you might still need to tweak the image a bit.

Here’s a small cheat sheet to make things easier...

• Tungsten / Incandescent: Extremely blue, except indoors with no natural light source

• Daylight: Close to normal but with a mild bluish cast

• Shady: Warmer than daylight with no bluish cast

• Fluorescent: Corrects the green tinge under fluorescent light, especially white artificial light such as that from tubelights or CFLs

Custom white balance settings can be found on almost all cameras, including certain mobile phone cameras. A simple trick to adjust the value is to follow the Kelvin scale of temperature. Think of a fire, the hotter it is, the bluer it gets (upto a certain point). Custom WB works in the same way, the higher the value, the bluer the image, so the lower the amount of light, the higher the kelvin value that you need to set.

 

 

Shooting fireworks and lightning

Fireworks and lightning have long been the bane of amateur photographers all over the world. Getting the shot just right is difficult and there are so many things such as exposure, aperture and shutter speed to juggle. What’s the ideal setting? There’s no such thing.

A very simple way of getting great shots of lightning and/or fireworks is to first point your camera at a spot where you think that rocket will burst or hope that lightning will strike. Set a long exposure manually for, say, 30 seconds. Set the aperture to a value of around f/8 or f/11. Now, release the shutter. Keep your hand over the lens while the shutter is open and only remove it when you think the rocket or whatever will explode in front of the lens! It’s as simple as that. The same goes for lightning except that it’s best to first expose the shot and cover the lens only after the lightning strikes. This is mainly because it happens so fast that you may not have time to respond, and also, lightning strikes are so bright that you’ll get most of the scene in that flash anyway. This method requires plenty of trial and error, but that’s what digital cameras are best at, reviewing and discarding unwanted images at no cost!

 

 

Making use of apps

Mobile phones and similar mobile devices are quite badly crippled when it comes to image quality. Such devices, however, have lots of creative potential. The apps alone add a whole new dimension to your device and can completely change the way you work with a mobile 

phone camera.

 

 

Take “Handyscan” for instance. This app is available for iOS, Android and WP7. A very simple app, it allows you to take images and convert them to a .pdf format. The paid version even works as an OCR software, allowing you to actually extract the text and save it. How is this useful? You can save everything from restaurant menus, bills and receipts to addresses, quotations and newspaper articles, etc., for quick reference. Also convenient if you want to keep important documents such as your driving license and passport handy at all times. All of these items can be neatly sorted and indexed by this app.

Samsung’s “Photo Studio” is another interesting app. Available on Samsung’s own Android and Mango devices, this is an app you can have a lot of fun with. Other than allowing you to directly share images on Photobucket and Picasa web albums, this app comes with a host of editing tools and some very interesting scene modes, including a panorama mode which actually works. “Dreamshot” is an interesting mode which allows you to insert an image in a fixed template, so, you can have your friend’s face on the cover of a newspaper, 

for example.

 

 

Unleashing your creativity

One of the biggest advantages of a mobile phone camera is that it’s always with you. Also, mobile phones are usually quite rugged as they’re designed to withstand the daily abuse we subject them to. You can use this to your advantage when experimenting with such devices.

For the bespectacled among you there’s a very simple solution in case you misplace your spectacles. Grab your phone, turn on the camera, hold it in front of you at a distance at which you can see the screen clearly and there you have it, a little window of clarity in that foggy world you call 

your vision!

A mobile phone can be converted into an effective little spy camera as well. For this, you can use an old camera phone if you have one rotting in some old cupboard. Rip the body apart, leaving just the essentials intact. Design your own custom housing and use software such as SmartCam to wirelessly stream to a PC directly. Attach a string and flashlight to it and you can send your phone where no phone has gone before, down shafts, inside the engine compartment of your car, anywhere you like. For a really wild ride, you can throw it into washing maching, after placing it in a waterproof plastic bag of course. You can even stick the camera under the wheel arches of your car or bike or even on your helmet. The possibilities are endless.

It’s even possible to hack your old phone and convert it into a reversing camera for a car. Use the same process as above. Rip apart the camera, leave the essentials, use SmartCam or something similar and turn on your phone and camera. You should now be able to wirelessly stream video to a mobile phone or laptop in your car.

 

 

Source: Digit

How to optimize your PC for better performance, gaming and Net connectivity

We have a few tips and tricks to ensure you get the best out of your PC, from boosting your Windows start up time to optimizing your gaming and Internet experience.

Here we have a few tips and tricks to ensure you get the best out of your PC, from boosting your Windows start up time to optimizing your gaming and Internet experience.

Boost Windows Startup
The launch of Windows 8 has had mixed reactions from the masses. While its snazzy layout and almost instinctive UI gives it a fresh feel, it occasionally handles like a clunky-yet-sleek muscle car in comparison to the light sports model that Windows 7 is. But alas, one must move with the times. Peer pressure, and all that.

One USP of Windows 8 is the faster boot time. However,  this operating system could use a few tweaks to improve the PC’s start-up time. The recommended step would be to rely on the hibernate option; Much like tablets and smartphones (A bar that Windows 8 seems to be aiming for). However, if you’re a user who prefers to shut down your computer for a fresh start every day, here are some steps you can take to improve your start-up time. Most of these techniques can also be used in Windows 7.

Windows' new start up tab

Do a clean boot
It would be helpful to note that the Windows startup programs utility in Windows 8 has been shifted to the Task Manager. Open the task manager and move to the Startup tab. Then, just deselect the apps you don’t need when Windows starts. For Windows 7 users, access the System Configuration menu [Windows R, type msconfig] to access these options.

Disable animations
If you’re not too attached to the smooth transitions and effects in your Windows interface, use the Windows X shortcut and select the System menu. In the System window, click on Advanced System Settings on the left pane and access the Performance Settings in the Advanced tab. Disable effects that you consider irrelevant. Disabling Aero in Windows 7 by switching to Classic Mode helps. Windows 8 users have the High Contrast option. Disabling your Start screen and password also helps boost your start-up time. Access the User Accounts Menu [Windows R, type netplwiz] and uncheck the ‘users must enter a username and password’ option.

Saluto - A new way to do IT

Windows registry tweak
There are certain Windows processes that slow down your start-up. A simple windows registry tweak takes care of them:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl
PanelDesktop]
“AutoEndTasks”=”1”
“HungAppTimeout”=”1000”
“MenuShowDelay”=”8”
“WaitToKillAppTimeout”=”
2000”
“LowLevelHooks-
Timeout”=”1000”
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl
PanelMouse]
“MouseHoverTime”=”8”
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControl]
“WaitToKillService-
Timeout”=”2000”

Type this into notepad, and save it as speedystartup.reg; Run the file and restart your system.

The software solution
There are several simple download- and-use software options online. Soluto is a very usable option to do an overall systems check on your laptop to see the errors on your unit. You can use it to find out the applications that hinder your performance. This will help you when you follow-up with Anvi Startup Booster.

Anvi Startup Booster is probably the most convenient, user-friendly one around. Being a 12MB file, it’s easy to download as well as light on the system. On startup, it shows you your current start-up time, and recommends changes that could be made to lower it, a few notches. The plus-point of Anvi is that it has an easy restore option, in case you disable any program you weren’t meant to. It’s simple, effective and good for people who are uncomfortable with technology.

Manage fonts
Since the dawn of the digital era, Windows has slowed down boot time by loading fonts at startup. This is, admittedly, less of a problem than it used to be, but it can still slow you down. Chances are, you actually use very few of the available fonts. The best way to deal with this problem is to download a font manager to handle your fonts. While the font manager is running, all listed fonts in it are available on other programs. This way, if you ever want them, you can bring them back, but Windows won’t load them at startup. A recommended free font viewer is NexusFont. This freeware app available onwww.xiles.net/nexusfont. For designers and other media professionals facing the problem where 30,000 fonts are slowing down their system, Suitcase Fusion 3, a paid software.

Upgrade, already!
If your software and setting are up to the mark, move on to examining your hardware. If your PC is configured exactly to Windows 8 minimum system requirements, well, there’s your problem. Dig up your tattered wallet and move up the food chain.

We recommend:

Processor – Nothing lower than an Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2.

Graphics – Dedicated GPU: AMD Radeon HD 2000 series; NVIDIA GeForce 8 series or higher; Integrated GPU: AMD Radeon HD 3200, NVIDIA GeForce 9400, Intel HD Graphics or higher.

RAM – 2GB (32-bit) or 4GB (64-bit)

Hard Drive – If feasible, a Solid-State Hard Drive is always a good investment. Otherwise a 320 GB 5400rpm hard drive is sufficient.

Optimise Your Gaming Experience
Gaming on the PC has always has its own select following. Over the past couple of decades, with the advent of modern console gaming, PC Games have to keep up with an opposing force that grows greater by the year. In turn, gamers today have to keep their systems top-notch and consistently updated to ensure the ever-elusive optimal gaming experience. However, even with the best hardware in the market today, it can be tough (and most of the time, impossible) for a gamer to do an annual overall hardware update or keep his/her pace with the evershrinking bytes. Of course, the easier option in this case would be to buy a console. There are always rewards in the puritan approach. There’s also the added advantage of not worrying about upgrading your hard disk, RAM and GPU every two years to play the latest installment of your favourite game series (that is, until the next generation of console comes out and yours joins your laptop in the ‘things of yesteryears’ pile… But pros and cons, right?); And still, without the feel of a keyboard and mouse in FPS-es just doesn’t feel the same.

So keeping that option aside, and assuming you aren’t one of those millionaire geeks, there are some techniques out there to hold your own and suck out the most performance from your system, or in the very least, add to your gaming.

The Anvi-UI is clean, simple and straightforward

Let’s start with the obvious stuff, shall we?
Admittedly, the computer is a masterpiece of technology, but not unlike anything else mechanical, it can only do so much with the hardware installed. Games today are already very complicated, so there’s no point in overworking your computer. Be a little smarter and use some common sense when setting up your system for gaming.

Update your graphics drivers. I’m sure it’s hard to remember. And if that is the case with you, check the settings of your graphic card’s driver interface - There’s an option that states ‘automatically update drivers’. If you have a bad memory, let the computer remember to do it for you. It’s not that hard, and it’ll give you one less thing to consider when you’re wondering why Nomad is taking so long to fire his weapon.

Close unnecessary programs. Shut down your instant messaging clients. Even if you’re playing on the best system money can buy, a message notification can randomly freeze your game at critical junctures or cause your game to handle like a drunk on a Saturday night. That is, presuming your game doesn’t just crash.

If your social life can’t take a break for a while, check out in-game messaging clients like: XFire (http://www.xfire.com/), Raptr (http://raptr.com/) and Steam (http://store.steampowered. com/). Lower the load on your RAM and GUI. Unless you’re on an incredibly slow system, programs like notepad probably won’t make a dent, but the least you can do is shut down your Adobe suite and Microsoft office before cranking up your game. Shut down whatever programs you have running as background tasks. Check your task manager to end the processes you won’t use for your game. Sure, they aren’t visibly performing any tasks, but they’re obviously leeching off your processing power in some small way. Remember to leave your sound and graphics controllers alone, though (yes, as I stated before, this is the obvious stuff).

FRAPS
This is a useful tool if you’re one of those gamers who likes to review their style to improve their skill - or simply one of those people who like uploading walkthroughs and gameplay videos on YouTube. Be as it may, it’s always good to be familiar with FRAPS. This video game capture software is undoubtedly the biggest name in the professional game recording community. We say that mainly because it offers great quality videos, excellent video compression and above all, it’s the easiest software available online with respect to controls and usability.

FRAPS, (Frame Rate Per Second) stays true to its name. One of its main features are the yellow numbers that you have the option to disable or show in any corner of your desktop. This is a simple way of measuring the consistency of the frame rate (which is part of the benchmarking process). The game-recording software gives you complete control over audio-visual recording as well as screenshots which help set benchmarks for gaming reviewers.

Its simple interface marks it high on the user-friendly scale. The one constant complaint about FRAPS is the monster size of the video files it captures. You can record up to 4GB of footage at a time, and to take full advantage of this software’s high quality recording using high framerates and still avoiding issues concerning lag, one should be prepared with a good processor. If you intend to go on for a few hours, we would recommend a USB 3.0 hard drive for storage, as a precaution.

Overall, FRAPS does just enough to set itself apart and at the same time, lay the benchmark for other software of the same nature without breaking a sweat.

Raptr and NVIDIA GeForce Experience
Raptr was started back in 2007 by Dennis Fong (of XFire fame) and played a huge role in pushing online gaming to the level it is in today. It gave gamers worldwide a common hub to come together - gamers’ own personal social networking website. Its primary function when it was created was an umbrella like leaderboard for gamers to get a platform where their skills in the field are appreciated and understood. Of late, since Raptr launched its desktop app, it connects members and their gaming effectively, giving people convenience, consistency and mobile connectivity.

Meanwhile, in relatively more recent news, NVIDIA has launched its own all-in-one PC Game optimiser. NVIDIA GeForce Experience is, admittedly very useful with the games it supports.

Experience the Nvidia GeForce experience

Features
It primarily works as a jack of all trades. When installed, it scans your system for detailed specifications of your computer, correlates that to the recommended system requirements for the games already installed on your PC, and tells you what configuration would be suited best for running the game on your system. Its Shadowplay feature, when enabled, leverages the NVEnc fixed-function encoder built into Kepler-based GPUs and automatically records the last 20 minutes of gameplay, while also offering the option of manual control. This is a great replacement for software-based solutions like FRAPS, for people who record their gameplay, which reduces the load on your host processor.

Enter the Gaming Mode
Almost all antiviruses today have an option called ‘gaming mode’ during which they switch to either minimum or zero consumption of your laptop’s resources. It’s a handy tool to have, and goes a long way to amp up your game performance. Freeing the RAM and the little GPU memory that they consume, it can make the difference between smooth sailing and jerky gameplay with an overheated unit.

Virtual Private Networks
LogMeIn Hamachi is one example of several VPN (Virtual Private Networks) creating software available online. Hamachi specifically is easy-to-use to set up a VPN that’s sophisticated enough for a small network of gamers online. Admittedly, Hamachi isn’t an enterprise grade VPN like Juniper and Cisco, but it’s reliable enough to ensure that your VPN is secure. It is comparatively much easier to set up, so it’s a great option for a small group of users The free version is a cheap and convenient option for people who want to game on a closed LAN-like network. It has string security and does very well emulating a virtual Local Area Network. And if required, Hamachi also has a premium paid version for those who can afford it.

Other free options in VPN providers which have comparatively easier interfaces include TunnelBear and VPNBook.

Optimize your in-game graphic settings
If you’re all too familiar with the terms V-Sync, FXAA and Anisotropic Filtering, then you can skip this last segment of the article. For those who don’t, here’s a short segment explaining what to do with those settings in your Video/Graphic settings in your ingame Options menu.

Vertical Sync: It fixes the tearing (misalignment of pixels) of the screen due to a discrepancy in your refresh rate. Put it on only if you experience this.

Screen Resolution: Adjust the resolution of the game within the maximum resolution of your own system. Sometimes this difference in resolutions can cause some major lag issues in your gaming.

Anti-Aliasing and FXAA: AA smoothes out jagged pixels in a game when the game’s resolution is on a much lower one than that of the screen. It’s effective, but we suggest you only raise the AA of the game after maxing out the appropriate resolution of the game. If the game is having issues with speed, you should just switch this feature off. FXAA stands for Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing. It does the same thing the AA feature does, but using lesser power from your processor. The downside is, instead of jagged edges in an environment, you end up having blurry edges. So use this feature in accordance to your preferable visual sacrifice.

Anisotropic Filtering: This tweak deals with textures of distant objects in your game’s environment. Graphic cards today can handle high levels of this filter, so feel free to keep that at a maximum. However, if you think it is causing a drop in frame rate, keep it on 2x instead of completely off. It shouldn’t cause much of a difference in performance, and would enhance your experience considerably.

Shadow Quality, Field of View and Texture Quality: As the names suggest, these features deal with the quality of your environment from the point of making it more realistic. While setting these (usually on high, medium and low), you should do so at your own preference and discretion. Set these on maximum first, then bring each down a notch in descending order of what you’d like to give up. The reverse may also work.

Gaming today has more options. Keeping up with new features may take time and effort, but it’s all worth it. Game On.

Increase Your Internet Potency
The internet has become quite an integral part of our lives, social or professional. Staying connected is, beyond doubt, important. Connectivity though depends on several factors. One important thing to keep topnotch is your connectivity to the internet through your computer. Your Internet Service Provider isn’t the only one responsible for bad internet connectivity (okay, it’s true that most of the time it is your ISP, but that isn’t completely under your control). It could be a problem at your end. There are two main kinds of problems you can have with your internet setup. (1) Hardware: Maybe your computer isn’t optimized well enough to give you the kind of output you need to get your work done. (2) Software: Maybe it’s outdated. Maybe it’s insufficient to fulfill your needs. Maybe it’s confusing you so much that you’ve just decided for yourself that a 1Gbps connection just isn’t fast enough for you.

There are several ways to ensure - assuming that your Internet provider is, indeed, infallible - that you have done all you can do to get the most out of your setup:

Connectify Dispatch
Connectify is well-known for its Connectify Hotspot - its program for turning your system into your own personal Wi-Fi hotspot. Its relatively recent program, Connectify Dispatch also lives up to its hype. However, Dispatch only comes in handy if you have more than one internet connection (not necessarily of the same bandwidth). To put simply, this software combines the resources of all these available connections and prioritizes your usage to fit the right one. For example, if you’re streaming a video on Chrome while your iTunes downloads a new album, this program would prioritize the streaming to the connection with the higher speed while pushing iTunes to the lower speed connection for the duration of your stream. In this way, it guarantees optimal usage of both bands.

Connectify is available for free download at: http://www.connectify.me/ and the paid premium upgrade is also available.

Connectify Dispatch

DNS Servers

What is a DNS Server?
Glad you asked! A DNS Server is akin to a phonebook for the internet. Its main function is to translate the various computer host names into IP Addresses.

Example:

Domain name: google.com
IP Address: 74.125.128.113

When the user connects to the internet, the ISP automatically assigns primary and secondary DNS server addresses to your computer. Most of the time the DNS Servers of the service provider aren’t optimized. Because of this glitch on the ISP’s part, these DNS Servers are incapable of handling traffic during peak hours (when everyone on your side of the world is online at the same time), which results in the slow internet speed that annoys you so much. If things get worse, the server goes down. But this problem has a fix. There are several free public DNS Servers which are made to handle heavy traffic. Their servers are distributed worldwide, so if one goes down, the other server closest to you is ready to back it up.

These servers are mostly free, but also have an option to upgrade to premium (at a price, of course) if the difference in your speed isn’t satisfactory. The premium servers are less crowded, helping make the connection faster and more reliable.

Wi-Fi routers
Basics: A, B & G routers are old and slow. N-Routers are capable of handling higher speeds. Check on that if you have a speed issue. Also remember: if you want to make use of your N-Router’s full potential, your computer should have a wireless N-Card as well. The next thing you need to use a little bit of common sense is with respect to the placement of your router. Try placing it closest to where you use your laptop the most. Once you’ve done that, please remember, putting behind the fridge or cabinet will, definitely, hinder your performance. Yes, I agree that it seems ridiculously basic a suggestion, but you’d be surprised how many people place their routers out of sight just because it doesn’t match their 18th-Century Rajasthani table.

Your Wi-Fi Channel: The chances are that the default settings for your router to find a channel are set on auto. If that is the case, the reason your speed’s down could be a result of having too many people broadcasting their own Wi-Fi in your vicinity. Fixing this is easy. There’s a free program called InSSIDer (http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/) which can be used to determine the ideal channel for your router.

These programs also help improve your router’s QoS (Quality of Service). QoS is a broad phrase referring to a collection of networking technologies and techniques. The idea behind having QoS is to provide a guarantee that a network will deliver predictable results to the best of their ability. Elements within the framework of QoS usually include throughput (bandwidth), delay (latency), uptime (availability) and error rate.

inSSIDer

Electrical Interference:

Some devices, like cordless phones and microwave ovens can play havoc with your Wi-Fi signal. Keeping these items away from your router would help in the overall performance of your internet connection.

DD-WRT: Disclaimer: This is a specific fix for routers supported by the DD-WRT open-source firmware. So before trying this, find out if your specific router is supported, or you may end up bricking your router.

Most routers don’t use their full potential because of the firmware restrictions on them. This tends to affect their overall functionality. To overcome this problem, there exists a Linux based firmware for wireless routers and wireless access points called DD-WRT. It is a third-party firmware designed specifically to replace the original on some commercial routers. Alternative firmware like DD-WRT may offer features and functionality sets that differ from the original one it replaces.

Instructions: First thing to do is to go to http://www.dd-wrt.co.in/site/support/router-database, (1) Type your router’s model number in the search bar and (2) check if your router supports the firmware. If it does, download the corresponding file off the same website.

The installation of DD-WRT depends on your router, but the general instructions are usually the same:

i) Log into your router’s admin page. Consult router’s manual for admin address.

ii) Go to the Admin section and select Firmware Upgrade.

iii) Select your DD-WRT upgrade file and keep the router plugged in until the upgrade is done. After DD-WRT installs, reconnect to your network over Ethernet or Wi-Fi (with a new network SSID of DD-WRT) and visit your admin page. In most cases it will still live at the same address of its predecessor. DD-WRT will ask you to choose your own username and password. Older versions may request one, which by default is root/admin (which you should change to your own after this). When you login, you will see the DD-WRT admin page. Welcome to your new router. One thing we haven’t mentioned in the segment above is the use of Internet Booster software. Though reputed to do a good job of improving your internet connectivity, it works in specific ways; like fixing your connection’s latency or bandwidth. But let that not deter you from mailing us your queries at sos@thinkdigit.com.

Before reading any article that tells you how to fix your system, remember, cover whatever bases you can cover on your own before relying on people you assume are more experienced at this than you are.

Coming back to the internet issue, make sure you read up on service providers. What worked for you in Delhi may not necessarily have the same service in Mumbai or Bangalore. ISPs change by the city, and this is with respect to all kinds of connections be it Broadband, USB dongles, 3G data cards or even a 56kbps dial-up.

Source: Digit

How to build your own app

With numerous approaches and even more development tools available the developer has the freedom to pick and choose. Here are your options.

Having an App available for any service adds a tremendous value for the same and it isn’t the domain of programmers anymore. However, without any programming knowledge whatsoever, you aren’t going to be able to build apps as easy. In the early days we had to work on individual SDKs if an app was to be developed, but as the years went by more and more tools were released that could be used to develop apps on multiple platforms at the same time. In the following pages we are going to highlight three different approaches towards building apps and the amount of know-how needed to follow that particular approach will be highlighted as well. There are umpteen number of tools available with each have some advantage over the others, we’ve picked some of the most popular ones for you.

Before we start pulling out the hair on our heads (If you get into programming it’s bound to happen) we need to know the different approaches we can undertake towards building apps and the advantages/ drawbacks of each approach. There are three approaches to going about building apps, the first is to go native which gives you the most flexibility since all the API features of a particular platform are made available to you. The major drawback is that you can only program the app on one platform. There are multiple reasons for the same but the most obvious one is that the language used on each platform is different – Android uses Java, iOS uses Objective C and Windows Phone uses the .NET framework. Further on, certain functionalities like access to the phone’s camera, push notifications and other hardware are only available if you develop on the native platform or at least use a wrapper. Security is one aspect which can be best implemented on natively built apps compared to the other approaches.

The second approach is to build a webapp which is basically a HTML5 website that is accessed via webview. This approach is more favourable if you already can develop HTML5 websites and all you need to do is create a CSS for your website that is broad enough to cater to as many resolutions as possible. One major advantage to HTML5 apps is that the interface will seem the same from whichever device you open the app. Also, if there are any errors in the content then you can fix it without having all your users download the app all over again from the app store.

While initially these webapps didn’t have access to most of the native features of your phone, there are workarounds for some of these native features now like iScroll which enables pinch-to-zoom and other gestures. JQuery Mobile is another framework which enables more features on HTML5 pages which look and feel like a native app. The third approach is a hybrid between the above two approaches. There now exist frameworks which have a native codebase which interacts with the phone while the front end is made out of HTML5. These apps give you access to native features of each platform while exercising the flexibility of HTML5. The HTML5 webpages can be saved onto your phone (local storage) or hosted on a remote server (remote storage) with a few local pages just in case the internet connectivity is lost while the app is in use. The table below compares these three approaches:

Before you start!

You should prep for programming by getting hold of all the software needed for each approach. We’ll be listing these at the beginning of each section. But before you can compile these projects you will need your developer certificate or signing key from each store. Certain tools will allow you to compile without a certificate but not for all platforms, Apple’s system is a little too stringent and most tools won’t create the package for iOS till you upload or provide the developer certificate. Android apps can be packaged and sideloaded onto your device to test without the certificate on most tools. Now there is no need for getting a Mac if you wish to obtain an Apple developer certificate as is stated in the documentation. Check this link out for a way to do the same without a Mac. For iOS, Android and Windows phone you need to register for a developer account and pay a certain registration fee to obtain your developer certificates. Also, each individual app store has a certain review process and do restrict certain parameters. All of these things need to be adhered to if you wish to have your app approved. These guidelines can be obtained at Apple's developer site and Google's Android developer site.

Test, test and test!

While a simulator can run your apps effortlessly it is always advisable to have a device to test out your apps. If you include more native features then a proper feedback is only obtained if using a physical device. But if you simply wish to test your HTML5 website then you can use the emulator in Chrome to view your pages as you work on them. Since Chrome uses Blink as the engine you will get a more similar look as obtained in Android devices. Blink is a fork of Webkit which powers iOS’ UIWeb- View so the webpage will be rendered the same as on iOS.

Hybrid Approach

For this method you’ll have to pick a framework to go with. There are a few frameworks but the popular ones are listed below.

• Corona

• PhoneGap

• Appcelerator

We’ll build a simple HTML5 app using PhoneGap as a wrapper to provide access to native features of each platform.

Step 1 - Pick the resolution

A primary thing you need to keep in mind while building using HTML5 is that the very same layout will need to be rendered in the exact same way across all screen resolutions that exist. Refer the image below to figure out the most popular resolutions. Keep in mind that the CSS for your website has to incorporate all these resolutions otherwise your app will look different on different devices. There are way too many resolutions listed here so pick the ones that are most popular. This link shows the different resolutions of active android devices along with statistics highlighting how popular they are.

Step 2 - Code your website

You can use any tool to create your website, be it dreamweaver or kompozer or any of the numerous alternatives. However, if there are many includes in the web page then the app load time will increase. We tried our hand at creating a design using Adobe Muse and then compiled it using PhoneGap. The application load time was around 8 seconds on a Nexus 4. If you wish to make use of any of the native features then use the appropriate function call. The example for geolocation is given below.

Finding geolocation...

This code returns the following as the output. There are numerous examples like these for making use of each native functionality using PhoneGap’s API. Most of them can be found here.

There are a few things you need to keep in mind while coding your website, starting off with the amount of external libraries. Use as few external libraries as possible to make the application smooth. Using libraries are convenient but there are a lot more functions present in each library than you need, so unless you intend to use one or two libraries efficiently your application will be cumbersome to use. You might have to sacrifice on looks since they will be rendered differently on different platforms. This is absolutely fine. Use CSS as much as possible to load media since they get rendered only when the media needs to be displayed. This way you save on memory usage. Instead try to make use of the memory you will save to pre-load pages that are more likely to be clicked on.

The example code for jQuery Mobile is given below.

link text

The entire page gets loaded and you don’t have to experience the 250-300 millisecond delay that is inherently present in Webkit. PhoneGap apps appear slow because of this delay and “lazy-loading” is one of the ways of getting around this issue. Avoid long lists as much as possible and avoid gradients in CSS since these are calculated my the GPU of the device and will take up quite the processing power but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use gradients anywhere, optimise its usage.

Step 3 - Generate assets

While coding you will come up with various elements and in order to get the work done as quickly as possible most programmers insert a simple blank image of the proper dimensions. Once you’ve finished coding you need to start creating all those images. Do keep in mind the image densities while doing so, otherwise you are likely to create an app that is compatible with very few devices. Or if you create just a few assets then your app will look wonderful on a few devices while it renders absolutely worse on everything else. This is why you need to generate multiple images/icons/ splash screens for screens of different densities. This way you app seems the same no matter which device you are viewing it on. You can find all the different icon sizes that PhoneGap need from this link and for the splash screens from this link. Or you could simply generate all of them by uploading a few images using the following tool.

Step 4 - Arrange the file structure

Once you have all the files ready, you need to arrange them in a certain order depending upon what all you are going to use. Take your existing project folder with the HTML files and all the included libraries and put them all together in a folder labelled “www”. If you’ve made use of any plugins that we mentioned earlier or any at all then those plugins need to be kept in a folder labelled “plugins” which sits at the same level as “www”. There are two more folders but you only need to use them if you have coded your application in such a manner that breaks down your code as platform specific and platform independant. In this case all platform specific files are stored in the “platforms” folder with each platform having their own folder at the same level (ios, android, bada, etc.).

Step 5 - Create the manifest

In the root directory of your app you’ll need to provide a config.xml file with all the parameters about your app. This includes the name of the app, the different permissions that you’ll need on each platform, core plugins, third-party plugins, icons and splash screens for each platform. If you’ve included third-party plugins which require an authentication key of any sort then you’ll get a example code which you’ll have to include in the xml code. Don’t worry though, if you don’t make the xml file on your own then the build service will do it for you but all the plugins won’t work and all the icons will be replaced with the standard PhoneGap icons.

Step 6 - Zip it up!

Finally, you just have have to compress your folder using zip compression and no encryption. The config.xml file ensures that all the necessary permissions are included with your application when it is compiled. This is the package you’ll need to upload to the PhoneGap build web site or you can commit the files via github.

Step 7 – Upload

Visit Adobe Phonegap Build and sign up for an account. If you use Github for your signin then you can upload your project folder to Github and have new builds generated as soon as you modify any file. This process is not automated since this Build service is provided free of cost. If you were wondering about the signing keys for each platform them you need to add them to your Phonegap account. Otherwise your application package will not be generated for that particular platform. Even if it is generated you still won’t be able to upload these files to the appropriate app store. In the image below you can see that only two packages are generated, the rest aren’t either because a signing key was not provided or the PhoneGap version selected for the build is incompatible with the said platform.

Step 8 - Test your app

If you have a developer account then you can test your app out on your iOS device, for android devices you need not worry about having an developer account. Simply enable application installation from “Unknown Sources” in your Android device’s security settings and you can install your app by transferring the apk file to your device and then tapping on the file using any file browser.

Step 9 - Upload to the store

Once you have tested all the apps and are satisfied with it you may proceed towards uploading it to each store. If you are submitting an app for the first time then the review process will take about 24-48 hours after which you can find your app on the respective app store.

Source: Digit