GM has new Google Maps Substitute With Traffic Alerts, Voice Commands

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While Google Maps may be the preferred navigation app for large number of drivers to choose from, automobile makers are investing strongly in their own alternative solutions, some which are getting more technically advanced with new capabilities like road hazard alerts and low-fuel notifications.

General Motors, however, will be using a different strategy with regards to select model year 2018 and newer models. The business will unveil an app-based navigation system created with the assistance of Mapbox, as a drive to provide customers with the up-to-date solution that provides the feature tools of modern applications like Google Maps and Apple Maps.

Called Maps+, the new app won’t be available for download from app stores, the way Google Maps is, but only be offered as a component of Connected Vehicle, Premium, and App Access subscription plans. Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac models are supported, and GM says all eligible owners will receive a notification when the app is available.

It appears, GM’s goal would be to build a solution which comes with new-gen capabilities, so Maps+ also comes with support for Amazon’s Alexa. The digital assistant can be used for voice commands any time you want to set up a new destination, and it’ll also be used for providing directions.

The app can handle both day and night modes and includes routing based on real-time traffic much like Waze. In addition it displays speed limit data and road hazard alerts, and, with vehicle integration, it could automatically determine the route to a nearby station when the fuel level is low.

Much like the other navigation apps available on the market, Maps+ includes predictive keyboard support and incorporates shortcuts for typical searches like coffee, parking, fuel, and favorites.

General Motors describes the program is going to be available for no less than 900,000 vehicles out there, and the program will start on April 30. Of course, Google Maps will continue to perform in all vehicles if Android Auto or CarPlay is supported.

Why Create Mobile Apps

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More and more companies are relying on the internet to engage customers and expand their businesses beyond just their physical locations and stores. Mobile apps are a great way to allow your customers to stay in touch, buy your products easily, and so on. This is why it’s so important for businesses (and even individuals) to consider mobile apps because not only are there millions of smart phones being used every day but people accessing the internet with their smart phones is quickly becoming more than those on desktop or laptop computers.

There are a number of different types of mobile apps:

Native apps the ones that are created for use on a specific platform. For example, If you would like your app to be used by iPhone users, you might be working in Objective-C, and your app would be sold in Apple’s App Store. Users of Android devices will not be able to use your app. Alternatively, if you are programming for Android users, you will be programming in Java – iPhone users cannot use apps designed and built for Android. The “native” name comes from the fact that the app is “native” to only one type of mobile operating system. This is generally the kind of app people picture when you say “mobile apps”.

Web apps are not apps as such, but websites intended to look and feel like apps. Web apps are usually written in HTML5 and run in the user’s mobile browser. To install a web app, users navigate to a specific URL, agree to “install” the app, and can then access the app using an icon located on the home screen. As web technologies improve, the line between a web app and a well-design mobile site becomes harder and harder to discern.

Hybrid apps, as the name suggests, are a mix of native and web apps. The specific mix of features varies – some hybrid apps rely more on web-based technologies, while others rely more on native features. Generally speaking, you’ll see hybrid apps built using web technologies (such as HTML5 and JavaScript) and then wrapped in a “container” of sorts that allows the app to access the device’s features the way a native app could.

After you have decided on the type of mobile app you’d like to create, it’s time to think about the platform, or platforms, that your app will work best on. The 2 main platforms are iPhone and Android. iPhone apps are very popular but Android apps are a close second. Of course, those aren’t the only 2 mobile phone OS’s as you also have Symbian, Blackberry, Palm Pre and Windows.

Because there are a few platforms out there, it’s vital you do your research to try and determine which platforms your customers use. The more prepared you are as far as demographics, platforms, app processes, etc. the better chance of creating a successful business app.

While mobile app development does require an startup investment, depending on how well you’ve done your research and made your app worthy of downloading on your customers’ phones, the initial investment can repay itself many times over for many years!

Using Mobile Apps To Improve Your Business

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When it comes to businesses using technology to target and facilitate more customers, it all begins (after the brick and mortar location) with the internet. First, there were websites. Then, optimized websites…although many businesses have yet to adopt mobile-friendly website designs. Now, there are apps. Mobile apps together with smart phones has created yet another unique opportunity for businesses to interact with customers literally at the click of a button.

Because so many people, from developers to businesses themselves, have seen the potential of mobile apps, the industry has exploded at a very fast pace. As a matter of fact, some folks have set out to learn how to develop apps themselves rather than simply hiring companies to do the work.

Apps can take on many forms, from the simple such as collecting email addresses to the more complicated such as booking a hotel room. You can create free apps that include advertising of either your own product or affiliate products. Conversely, you can create apps that directly communicate with your business so your customers can buy your product or service within seconds.

Mobile apps are still relatively new to most folks but businesses are quickly catching on to how effective and inexpensive they can be to create, compared to the pay off of customer satisfaction and acquisition.

The New Way Of Making Money Online

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If you want to get a new stream of leads and customers, I have good news for you.

Start tapping into the mobile market. The evidence is already obvious – According to Nielson, the reputed market research firm, over half of the U.S. population (50.4 percent) currently owns a smart device.

Two things that bring consumers online and get them to complete their orders: Mobile phones and free delivery, recent Morgan Stanley 2021 survey finds.

Now the question is, how would you be able to enter and start marketing in the mobile world? The trick is creating a mobile app.  If you’re a business, then you can create a business app for your company. For instance, Starbucks has its own “business app,” which acts an extended marketing channel for its existing brand.

If you’re a marketer, you can create a simple content app where the user gets to consume relevant content through the app. For instance, if you’re marketing in the fitness niche, you can always create an app related to fitness.

To further understand what a content app is, just think of it as a website that has been turned into an app. The way to make money with this app is to pick a niche market and create content about it. The same as you do with internet marketing. For instance, you can create an app about cooking that includes recipes, cooking videos, cooking material reviews, etc. content.

The best part is: mobile apps are not just about Apple apps. You could be “doubling” your market by simply making your application good for Apple users and Android users as well! Generally, the Apple market is more of a buyer-market and the Android market is more volume-based.

Because the marketplace for both of these platforms are so big, you can easily start getting new app users even if you’re not actively promoting your app. Secondly, advertising in mobile networks is relatively new, thus you can expect your advertising campaign to be very cost-effective.

Getting started making money online with this “new way”  mobile app marketing.

 

Building Mobile Apps For Business

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Just ow much does it cost to develop an app? It’s important before you even begin to build a mobile app, or hire a company to build one, that you consider how it will benefit your end user or customer. It’s always best to consider designing an app that will make your customers’ lives better.

It can take a lot of time to develop a mobile app for your business. Also, costs can vary depending on how complicated your mobile app may be. You need to consider your budget but more importantly, consider how much your business app will help your customers. One of the beautiful aspects of mobile apps is they don’t rely on your website being mobile optimized. Of course, it’s highly recommended to have a responsive website but mobile apps can provide a quick way for your customers to engage your business.

Let’s take a food delivery company as an example. Instead of focusing on a mobile optimized website for the food delivery company (whether it’s your own company or one of your client’s) wouldn’t it make more sense to create a mobile app where once downloaded, your customers can click the icon on their mobile phone and immediately initiate a call to your business? Of course it would.

That is the power of mobile apps. They don’t have to be fancy, they don’t have to be complicated. But, they should help make your customer’s life easier while more efficiently engaging your customers with your business.

ProfitApps Mobile Phone Application

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Am trying a quick method of creating a mobile phone app. The mobile phone builder I’m using is called ProfitApp
To create the app you just insert 3 lines of code; Name, Domain Link, and FAV Icon Link

https://herbalvoodoo.com is a wordpress website, so to use the program ProfitApp to create the phone app you will need to put some javascript code in the header (note: I am also using this plugin to put in a snippet of code in the footer for another program called ADA also.) The plugin:

Header Footer Code Manager by 99robots is a quick and simple way for you to add tracking code snippets, conversion pixels, or other scripts required by third party services for analytics, tracking, marketing, or chat functions. For detailed documentation, please visit the plugin’s official page.

Here is what it looks like and where you put in the javascript code.
Insert the javascript header code:
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://notification.heracle.net/public/api/src/app.js”></script>
and upload the serviceWorker.js file to your main directory and you have a working app.
 

When you go to https://herbalvoodoo.com on you mobile phone it will ask you to install the app and it will appear on your mobile phone. Note: Due to Apple’s updates it doesn’t look like the push notifications on the Apple Iphone work, but they may work on an adroid phone. The app will ask if you’d like the to install the app install https://herbalvoodoo.com on your mobile phone, in this case my Apple Iphone. All in all the program did do what it said it was going to do, which is create a mobile app from the website. Note: This app is not in the apple or android store, so no need to pay or register for Apple or Google Developer Accounts. 

If you already have Apple and Google Developer accounts, this won’t be a big selling point for you, but the fact that it was fast and the program did what it said it was going to do, was a good selling point.

Pros: Very fast, works without the hassle of dealing with the Apple and Google mobile app programs. The app changes automatically when you change items on your website, so the mobile app is insync with your website.

Cons: There are only 3 items to make the website, so only 3 items can be changed and of course you don’t have the code to submit to the Apple and Google stores if you want to go that route.

Recommendation: It was quick and easy to create a mobile app. So if you’re in an hurry and don’t need to put your mobile app in the Apple or Google mobile app stores, this should work fine.
 {loadposition mobilephonedev}

6 Ways To Make Money From Mobile Apps

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By now, you should know that the hottest opportunity to make money online is none other than mobile apps.

But what most people are unaware of are the ways to monetize these apps. They usually think of selling mobile apps as they are, but the truth is there are so many other ways to go about it. Here are six of them:

1. Sell the app for $0.99 or $1.99. Do not under-estimate the small value of micro-transactions. With hundreds of millions of smartphone and iPhone users, it’s not a surprise that even a newbie who creates a mobile app can get a lot of traffic from both the Appstore and Google Play Store.

2. Top and bottom banner advertising. There are many ad networks that you can join for free where they’ll display ads in your app. Usually you’ll get paid per click from these banner ads.

3. Nagscreen promotion. Not all apps have started using this tactic yet, but it has been proven to be very effective   display a nag screen to promote an offer before the user gets into the app.

4. Sending push notification offers. Just like email marketing, you can reach your app users through push notifications. There are many advantages of using push notification versus emails including getting your messages sent in real time and having it read instantly.

5. In-app purchases. Today, there are many awesome apps which are given away for free. Reason is: they monetize the revenue by selling related items within the app. For instance, for a video game an in app purchase could be items for the game character or some “power ups.

6. Adsense in apps. Adsense is not just limited to websites. They can also be displayed on mobile apps. If you’re not familiar with Adsense, it’s an ad network by Google where you’re able to generate income simply by getting others to click on the Adsense ads.

The fact is there are so many opportunities to make money with mobile apps today; ironically, the most important part is not about monetization, but to simply get started. Basically, once you have the users, you can apply all sorts of monetization methods. So don’t be concerned about how to make money with mobile apps, be more concerned with how to create your first mobile app.

Should You Be Creating Mobile Apps

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To begin with, mobile app development trends are based on demand and one of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, was a remarkable increased demand for certain mobile app categories.

There was an increased number of downloads for Zoom, Google’s Meet, and Microsoft’s Teams increased substantially. At a certain point, capitalization of Zoom exceeded Boing. Mobile apps that were helping individuals to adapt and cope with the disease became very popular and – to meet quickly rising demand – businesses needed to increase investment in development of these apps to improve their capability} to provide unique features.

Over the past 5 years, mobile apps have exploded onto the scene. This is great because it’s simply another way businesses can stay in touch and provide greater interaction between them and their customers. With the constant technological advancements of smart phones, mobile apps are only going to become more relevant for businesses to be able to communicate and profit from such technology.

However, mobile apps don’t necessarily have to be profit-pulling machines. They can also be, or include, games, weight loss tracking systems, puzzles, quotes, etc. In other words, you are only limited by your imagination and even if your mobile apps are marketed as “free”, you can still monetize them in many different ways to make them a profitable venture from the start.

Mobile apps can provide a very simple and quick way for your customers to interact with your business. Whether that be to make a purchase or simply to give you a ring to find out more information prior to a purchase. If your aim from the start is to make money with your app, it’s advisable to do plenty of market research so that you know your customers are taking full advantage of your app.

If you can’t create your app yourself, it’s easy enough to hire a company to create it for you. But again, before you go spending money, you’ll want to be sure you understand what it is your app is supposed to do, how it will help your customers save time and easily communicate with your company, and so on.

If you’re on a limited budget, have a look online and see if there are any free app building resources but if not, and you’ve done your research, then investing in an app to promote your business is certainly a good idea in today’s marketplace.

Mobile Gaming Explained

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gamingIn 2021, expect to see game development engines like Unity and Unreal improve their offerings. This will result in the empowerment of game developers who will take the ball and run with it. Such an improvement will enable them to take more control of the game development process, explore their creativity, and develop more engaging products.

If you’re not familiar with mobile games, you will be soon because this is the next big area of growth expected in the billion dollar gaming market. A mobile game is a computer software game played on a mobile phone. Mobile games are usually downloaded via the mobile operator’s network, but in some cases games are also loaded into the mobile handsets when purchased, or via infrared connection, Bluetooth or memory card. Mobile games are developed using technologies such as DoCoMo’s DoJa, Sun’s J2ME, Qualcomm’s BREW (Binary Runtime for Wireless) or Infusio’s ExEn (Execution Environment).

Other platforms are also available, but not as common.

The different platforms

BREW is the more powerful technology, giving, as it does, complete control of the handset and complete access to its functionality. However this unchecked power could be dangerous, and for this reason BREW development process is tailored mainly towards recognized software vendors. While the BREW SDK (Software Development Kit) is freely available, running software on real mobile hardware (as opposed to the provided emulator) requires a digital signature which can only be generated with tools issued by a handful of parties, namely mobile content providers and Qualcomm themselves.

Even then, the game will only work on test enabled devices. To be downloadable on regular phones the software must be checked, tested and given approval by Qualcomm via their TRUE BREW Testing programme.

Java (aka “J2ME” / “Java ME” / “Java 2 Micro Edition”) runs atop a Virtual Machine (called the KVM) which allows reasonable, but not complete, access to the functionality of the underlying phone. This extra layer of software provides a solid barrier of protection which seeks to limit damage from erroneous or malicious software. It also allows Java software to move freely between different types of phone (and other mobile device) containing radically different electronic components, without modification. The price that is paid is a modest decrease in the potential speed of the game and the inability to utilise the entire functionality of a phone (as Java software can only do what this middle-man layer supports.)

Because of this extra security and compatibility, it is usually a quite simple process to write and distribute Java mobile applications, including games, to a wide range of phones. Usually all that is needed is a freely available Java Development Kit for creating Java software itself, the accompanying Java ME tools (known as the Java Wireless Toolkit) for packaging and testing mobile software, and space on a web server (web site) to host the resulting application once it is ready for public release.

Current limitations of mobile games

Mobile games tend to be small in scope and often rely on good gameplay over flashy graphics, due to the lack of processing power of the client devices. One major problem for developers and publishers of mobile games is describing a game in such detail that it gives the customer enough information to make a purchasing decision.

Currently, mobile games are sold through network carriers and operators portals, meaning there are only a few lines of text and perhaps a screenshot of the game to entice the customer. There is a reliance on powerful brands and licences such as Tomb Raider or Colin McRae, a racing game. There is also the use of well-known and established play patterns, meaning game play mechanics that are instantly recognizable in games like Tetris, Space Invaders or Poker. Both these strategies are used to entice mobile gamers to purchase games for a fee when a limited amount of additional information is provided by the wireless carrier, who typically acts as a third party hosting the game.

Recent innovations in mobile games include Single player, Multiplayer and 3D graphics. Virtual love games belong to both of single player and multiplayer games. Multiplayer games are quickly finding an audience, as players find the ability to play against other people, a natural extension of their mobile phone’s connectivity.

Mobile Application Development

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With the ever-growing popularity of cell phones, PDAs and smart phones, mobile application development has entered its golden age. With this boom in technology, a new outreach of Java emerged – Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition, or J2ME. J2ME provides a full-bodied, elastic environment for applications running on consumer devices, such as internet-ready smart phones and PDAs.

J2ME delivers the power and benefits of Java technology to consumer and embedded devices. J2ME includes great networked support, an ever-growing follower of programmers, and integrated applications that are as user-friendly as many desktop applications.

J2ME-based applications are able to take into account the specific characteristics of the devices they inhabit, making them capable of utilizing each device to its full potential. In summation, J2ME is the standard for mobile application development today – with a following of software vendors, consumers, programmers, and marketers.

Although programmers aren’t as common as they are for desktop applications, many firms offer great J2ME application development packages. Full-service companies like Red Fly Studios, of Ireland, offer J2ME services at competitive rates.

When coupled with a powerful operating system, J2ME can really begin to reach its full potential. Symbian has been a power-player in the mobile operating system game for some time. Symbian is a software licensing company. Established as a private company in June 1998, Symbian has been around the mobile application development game for some time. Symbian is headquartered in the United Kingdom, but employs over 1000 people in its worldwide offices.

To conclude, mobile application development focuses on two things – a programming language, and an environment for it to manifest itself in.

Sun’s Java outreach, J2ME, is a front-runner in the mobile application game. Symbian is the definitive operating system (environment) for mobile applications. When you’re looking for mobile application development, it’s important to consider these two factors and then find the development firm that suits your needs.