Lightsparkis in the Blockchain Infrastructure Industry

Lightspark

lightspark

This year Bitcoin has caused the biggest buzz in the world of Web3 since its launch in 2009. It has been a huge year for Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency. It hit a new all-time high this year as ETFs were approved in the US, Australia, and Hong Kong and institutions jumped on the BTC bandwagon. New exciting ways to interact with Bitcoin also emerged such as Casey Rodarmor’s Runes protocol and there have also been several significant technological breakthroughs making advanced computation possible on Bitcoin for the first time such as BitVMX and SNARKnado. At the same time, a huge wave of new projects emerged claiming to have built new innovations on top of Bitcoin, some of them raising ridiculous amounts of money. Many have already fallen foul to criticism or called scams such as SatoshiVM and Merlin. Others have yet to prove they have real connections to Bitcoin beyond just marketing and hype. But what many people don’t know is that real layers on top of Bitcoin have existed for some time and a dedicated crew of cypherpunks, freedom maximalists, and daring developers have been building on top of Bitcoin for years, taking it from a store of value and transforming it into something that could power the global financial system of the future. In this article, I wanted to shine a light on the true Bitcoin L2s with real use cases and adoption that I believe will gain even greater popularity in 2024 and beyond. Enter the world of Bitcoin L2s & Sidechains So first, what is a Bitcoin Layer Two? I think that Sergio Lerner, long-time Bitcoin contributor and creator of Rootstock, explained it well in a recent interview with CoinTelegraph. “It must use BTC as its native asset and as a settlement mechanism to enforce transactions and demonstrate a functional dependence on Bitcoin.” Many people have different ideas than this but for me this definition is close. It’s a great litmus test to avoid scammers and shilling. Beyond the technological dependence of Bitcoin, my definition is that a true Bitcoin layer two should support the growth and adoption of layer one Bitcoin. A real Bitcoin Layer 2s should ultimately contribute to the success of Bitcoin but it should exist to provide functionality that the layer one was never designed for. This allows Bitcoin to remain secure, pure and home of the hardest form of money while allowing new features and functionality to be developed on top of it. So which Bitcoin L2s should we be exploring in 2024? Lightning Lightning is essentially the payment network for Bitcoin. It allows for near-instantaneous Bitcoin payments and has gained widespread adoption in retail environments. I’ve personally paid for many a beer and coffee with Lightning over the years. It allows for the unilateral transfer of Bitcoin between the main chain and the Lightning layer2 and its laser focus on Bitcoin payments has made it a critical piece of the Bitcoin puzzle. Lightning launched in 2019 with a smart “Pass The Torch” campaign where users would add 10,000 SATS (0.00002451 BTC) to a Lightning payment and pass it one. The campaign reached the likes of Block Inc founder, Jack Dorsey, Litecoin Creator Charlie Lee, Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark, and CZ of Binance fame. One really cool feature of Lightning Network is that an increasing amount of crypto exchanges have started adding Lightning support as way for users to withdraw and deposit Bitcoin from the exchange. This means faster transaction times and cheaper fees. The most recent exchange to do this was Coinbase in partnership with Lightspark. There are many different wallets available that support Lightning. Some custodial and non-custodial. Its always worth doing your research thoroughly before deciding on which one is for you. Custodial lightning wallets tend to be easier to use but you are reliant on a third party to keep your bitcoin safe. Rootstock Rootstock is the home of apps on Bitcoin. It combines all the programmability of Ethereum with the security and store of value of Bitcoin. Developers have launched lots of different dApps on top of Bitcoin using Rootstock including DEXes like Sovryn, Bitcoin collateralized stablecoins like Money on Chain, and even a naming service known as RIF Name Service which is similar to Ethereum’s ENS. Rootstock uses the Solidity programming language and has all the same developer tools as Ethereum Layer2s making it easy to get started on. It is also supported by MetaMask which makes it easy for users of other EVM chains to easily connect to the network. One neat dApp on Rootstock I discovered  recently is called Asami Club. It pays people in Bitcoin-backed stablecoins for sharing content on social media. The Rootstock ecosystem site has over 100 different apps, exchanges, and wallets listed. Users move their Bitcoin into Rootstock through a bridge known as the PowPeg, described as the most secure, permissionless, and uncensorable Bitcoin bridge. From my research, it seems it was also the first-ever bridge between Bitcoin and another network. Some of the contributors to the network are still working on ways to improve this connection using BitVMX. Rootstock was created by a group of Bitcoin OGs out of Argentina in 2015. It was launched to the public in 2018. The cool thing for me is anyone can build whatever they want on the blockchain in a truly permissionless manner, it’s fully open source and already has lots of individuals and organizations around the world working on it. Liquid For me, Liquid is exciting as it was created by Adam Back, a British cryptographer, and cypherpunk who spoke directly to Satoshi Nakamoto, the legendary creator of Bitcoin. Satoshi credits Adam’s work in the original Bitcoin whitepaper. Liquid has a different focus from Lightning and Rootstock as it is primarily focused on enabling the issuance of security tokens and other digital assets secured by Bitcoin. This is things like the much discussed El Salvador Bitcoin Bond which will be tokenized on Liquid as well as the recently announced tokenized version of MicroStrategy's Class A Common Stock known as CMSTR Note. Liquid is one to watch as we see more institutions exploring how they tokenize assets on Bitcoin whether it be fine art or real estate. In fact, while researching this article I found some very recent news that Bitfinex just launched a $6.25 million token bond on Liquid to fund the construction of a Hilton hotel at the San Salvador International Airport. Sounds like things are taking off! (pun intended) Beyond Bitcoin’s Big Three In this article, I’ve written about what I believe to be three of the critical networks for scaling Bitcoin and allowing it to reach worldwide adoption. I’ve intentionally avoided talking about the typical crypto casino world of meme coins. These can be a lot of fun to play around with but ultimately have no real value or utility to the world. The three examples given above all support real use cases and will prosper whatever current crypto cycle we are in which is a major reason I’m so bullish on them. There is a lot of innovation happening right now on Bitcoin. I’m excited to see what comes next for the world’s most decentralized cryptocurrency as well as the three most important layers built on top of it. I’m sure that the innovations will continue and there is much more to explore. Perhaps in 2035, I’ll write another article diving into just how far Bitcoin’s Big Three have come and what other interesting networks have emerged onto the scene. This year Bitcoin has caused the biggest buzz in the world of Web3 since its launch in 2009. This year Bitcoin has caused the biggest buzz in the world of Web3 since its launch in 2009. This year Bitcoin has caused the biggest buzz in the world of Web3 since its launch in 2009. It has been a huge year for Bitcoin , the world’s largest cryptocurrency. It hit a new all-time high this year as ETFs were approved in the US , Australia , and Hong Kong and institutions jumped on the BTC bandwagon. New exciting ways to interact with Bitcoin also emerged such as Casey Rodarmor’s Runes protocol and there have also been several significant technological breakthroughs making advanced computation possible on Bitcoin for the first time such as BitVMX and SNARKnado . Bitcoin US Australia Hong Kong BTC Runes BitVMX SNARKnado At the same time, a huge wave of new projects emerged claiming to have built new innovations on top of Bitcoin, some of them raising ridiculous amounts of money. Many have already fallen foul to criticism or called scams such as SatoshiVM and Merlin . Others have yet to prove they have real connections to Bitcoin beyond just marketing and hype. SatoshiVM Merlin But what many people don’t know is that real layers on top of Bitcoin have existed for some time and a dedicated crew of cypherpunks, freedom maximalists, and daring developers have been building on top of Bitcoin for years, taking it from a store of value and transforming it into something that could power the global financial system of the future. In this article, I wanted to shine a light on the true Bitcoin L2s with real use cases and adoption that I believe will gain even greater popularity in 2024 and beyond. Enter the world of Bitcoin L2s & Sidechains So first, what is a Bitcoin Layer Two? I think that Sergio Lerner, long-time Bitcoin contributor and creator of Rootstock, explained it well in a recent interview with CoinTelegraph . CoinTelegraph “It must use BTC as its native asset and as a settlement mechanism to enforce transactions and demonstrate a functional dependence on Bitcoin.” “It must use BTC as its native asset and as a settlement mechanism to enforce transactions and demonstrate a functional dependence on Bitcoin.” Many people have different ideas than this but for me this definition is close. It’s a great litmus test to avoid scammers and shilling. Beyond the technological dependence of Bitcoin, my definition is that a true Bitcoin layer two should support the growth and adoption of layer one Bitcoin. A real Bitcoin Layer 2s should ultimately contribute to the success of Bitcoin but it should exist to provide functionality that the layer one was never designed for. This allows Bitcoin to remain secure, pure and home of the hardest form of money while allowing new features and functionality to be developed on top of it. So which Bitcoin L2s should we be exploring in 2024? Lightning Lightning Lightning is essentially the payment network for Bitcoin. It allows for near-instantaneous Bitcoin payments and has gained widespread adoption in retail environments. I’ve personally paid for many a beer and coffee with Lightning over the years. It allows for the unilateral transfer of Bitcoin between the main chain and the Lightning layer2 and its laser focus on Bitcoin payments has made it a critical piece of the Bitcoin puzzle. Lightning launched in 2019 with a smart “Pass The Torch” campaign where users would add 10,000 SATS (0.00002451 BTC) to a Lightning payment and pass it one. The campaign reached the likes of Block Inc founder, Jack Dorsey, Litecoin Creator Charlie Lee, Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark, and CZ of Binance fame. One really cool feature of Lightning Network is that an increasing amount of crypto exchanges have started adding Lightning support as way for users to withdraw and deposit Bitcoin from the exchange. This means faster transaction times and cheaper fees. The most recent exchange to do this was Coinbase in partnership with Lightspark . Coinbase in partnership with Lightspark There are many different wallets available that support Lightning. Some custodial and non-custodial. Its always worth doing your research thoroughly before deciding on which one is for you. Custodial lightning wallets tend to be easier to use but you are reliant on a third party to keep your bitcoin safe. Rootstock Rootstock is the home of apps on Bitcoin. It combines all the programmability of Ethereum with the security and store of value of Bitcoin. Developers have launched lots of different dApps on top of Bitcoin using Rootstock including DEXes like Sovryn , Bitcoin collateralized stablecoins like Money on Chain , and even a naming service known as RIF Name Service which is similar to Ethereum’s ENS. Rootstock uses the Solidity programming language and has all the same developer tools as Ethereum Layer2s making it easy to get started on. It is also supported by MetaMask which makes it easy for users of other EVM chains to easily connect to the network. Sovryn Money on Chain RIF Name Service One neat dApp on Rootstock I discovered  recently is called Asami Club . It pays people in Bitcoin-backed stablecoins for sharing content on social media. The Rootstock ecosystem site has over 100 different apps, exchanges, and wallets listed. Asami Club Rootstock ecosystem Users move their Bitcoin into Rootstock through a bridge known as the PowPeg, described as the most secure, permissionless, and uncensorable Bitcoin bridge . From my research, it seems it was also the first-ever bridge between Bitcoin and another network. Some of the contributors to the network are still working on ways to improve this connection using BitVMX . most secure, permissionless, and uncensorable Bitcoin bridge improve this connection using BitVMX Rootstock was created by a group of Bitcoin OGs out of Argentina in 2015. It was launched to the public in 2018. The cool thing for me is anyone can build whatever they want on the blockchain in a truly permissionless manner, it’s fully open source and already has lots of individuals and organizations around the world working on it. Liquid For me, Liquid is exciting as it was created by Adam Back, a British cryptographer, and cypherpunk who spoke directly to Satoshi Nakamoto, the legendary creator of Bitcoin. Satoshi credits Adam’s work in the original Bitcoin whitepaper. original Bitcoin whitepaper. Liquid has a different focus from Lightning and Rootstock as it is primarily focused on enabling the issuance of security tokens and other digital assets secured by Bitcoin. This is things like the much discussed El Salvador Bitcoin Bond which will be tokenized on Liquid as well as the recently announced tokenized version of MicroStrategy's Class A Common Stock known as CMSTR Note . El Salvador Bitcoin Bond CMSTR Note Liquid is one to watch as we see more institutions exploring how they tokenize assets on Bitcoin whether it be fine art or real estate. In fact, while researching this article I found some very recent news that Bitfinex just launched a $6.25 million token bond on Liquid to fund the construction of a Hilton hotel at the San Salvador International Airport . Sounds like things are taking off! (pun intended) fund the construction of a Hilton hotel at the San Salvador International Airport (pun intended) Beyond Bitcoin’s Big Three In this article, I’ve written about what I believe to be three of the critical networks for scaling Bitcoin and allowing it to reach worldwide adoption. I’ve intentionally avoided talking about the typical crypto casino world of meme coins. These can be a lot of fun to play around with but ultimately have no real value or utility to the world. The three examples given above all support real use cases and will prosper whatever current crypto cycle we are in which is a major reason I’m so bullish on them. There is a lot of innovation happening right now on Bitcoin. I’m excited to see what comes next for the world’s most decentralized cryptocurrency as well as the three most important layers built on top of it. I’m sure that the innovations will continue and there is much more to explore. Perhaps in 2035, I’ll write another article diving into just how far Bitcoin’s Big Three have come and what other interesting networks have emerged onto the scene.

Bitcoin's Big Three: The Best Layer 2s in 2024

বিটকয়েনের বিগ থ্রি: 2024 সালে সেরা স্তর 2

Die großen Drei von Bitcoin: Die besten Layer 2s im Jahr 2024

Los tres grandes de Bitcoin: las mejores capas 2 en 2024

Les trois grands de Bitcoin : les meilleures couches 2 en 2024

बिटकॉइन के बिग थ्री: 2024 में सर्वश्रेष्ठ लेयर 2

ビットコインのビッグスリー：2024年のベストレイヤー2

비트코인의 빅 3: 2024년 최고의 레이어 2

As três grandes do Bitcoin: as melhores camadas 2 em 2024

Большая тройка Биткойна: лучшие уровни 2 в 2024 году

Bitcoin'in Üç Büyükleri: 2024'ün En İyi Katman 2'leri

Bộ ba lớn của Bitcoin: Lớp 2 tốt nhất năm 2024

比特币三大巨头：2024 年最佳第二层

MODERN GAS-LIGHTING

"Behind the Startup" is a series that dives into the lives of the entrepreneurs and visionaries shaping the future of the technology industry. In this episode, we have Richard Zhang, an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California and the President of Blockchain@USC. : Vested Interest Disclosure The author is an independent contributor publishing via our . Be it through direct compensation, media partnerships, or networking, the author has a vested interest in the company/ies mentioned in this story. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYOR. brand-as-author program Behind the Startup: A Conversation with Richard Zhang, President of Blockchain@USC Ishan Pandey: Hi Richard Zhang, welcome to our series “Behind the Startup.” Please tell us about yourself and why you're interested in Blockchain Technology. Richard Zhang: Hi Ishan, I’m currently an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California. I first came across blockchain, Bitcoin to start, around 2016 when I was in high school through some books and articles. I was intrigued by the technology’s ability to provide more access and equal opportunities around the world by allowing more people to enter a global economy with fewer barriers. Over time, I studied the power and potential of smart contracts and different applications built on top of blockchain technology. Blockchain’s ability to empower equality and opportunity for all still drives me as I follow and try to contribute to the industry today. During my undergraduate career, I worked at Dragonfly, a crypto-native fund, as an intern on the investment team, evaluating and connecting with exciting blockchain startups, with an emphasis on crypto access in emerging markets, payment infrastructure, decentralized ownership, and gaming. At USC, I’m the President of Blockchain@USC, the leading university blockchain organization in Southern California. Ishan Pandey: What is the main idea behind the Blockchain Club at the University of Southern California, Blockchain@USC? Richard Zhang: Blockchain@USC is a non-profit student organization focused on empowering both crypto-native and crypto-curious people in and beyond the university. Founded in 2018, we host speaker events, publish research articles, teach our own blockchain curriculum, participate in on-chain governance, partner with other organizations and companies, create hiring pipelines, maintain professional network databases, and more. Some previous events that we have hosted include the VanEck Southern California Blockchain Conference; individual speaker and community events with Spencer Noon at Variant Fund, Jesse Powell at Kraken, staff at Chainlink, Dragonfly, Ava Labs, Shima Capital, and more; and bi-weekly whitepaper circles. Ishan Pandey: Tell us about VanEck Southern California Blockchain Conference and how it is going to help the Web3 industry. Richard Zhang: The VanEck Southern California Blockchain Conference — or “SCBC” for short — was one of the largest student-run blockchain conferences in the country. The conference happened on November 10th and 11th 2022 and featured keynotes and panels featuring some leading contributors to the industry. Guest speakers included Cathie Wood at Ark Invest, Sam Kazemian at Frax Finance, David Marcus at Lightspark, Jeffrey Amico at a16z Crypto, Zack Skelly at Dragonfly, Andrew Wilson at Makers Fund, and more. The conference was entirely in person, and there were more than 1500 attendees in the audience. We also invited other university organizations whom we hold great relations with, like Blockchain at Berkeley, Blockchain at UCLA, Stanford Blockchain Club, Cornell Blockchain, and Claremont Blockchain Club. Cornell Blockchain flew some members all the way to Los Angeles from Ithaca, while Blockchain at Berkeley sent more than 20 members from the Bay Area. During the conference, we tried to cover a broad range of topics, from the ecosystem of multichain development to decentralized finance, early-stage investing, university blockchain communities, and more. We aim to make this conference an annual event, and the inaugural conference was a great start. In fact, many students have told me that they decided to enroll in the innovative  “Blockchain” minor at USC after attending SCBC, a great sign of Blockchain@USC’s impact. Ishan Pandey: Due to the FTX, Celsius, and Voyage debacle, the value of cryptocurrencies has dropped by a massive amount. What needs to be done to rebuild people's trust and give a boost to web3 technology? Richard Zhang: It’s very unfortunate to see many people at the harm of malpractice, carelessness, and malefaction. My heart goes out to all victims affected by this chain of events. I think these happenings have once again proven the importance of decentralization and trustless infrastructure and protocols. Many breakages occur at the point of trust in one or a few self-governed parties under little supervision. In order for people to rebuild trust, the industry needs to focus on improving and implementing actual decentralized blockchain technologies. Open-source code is reviewable, but oftentimes people’s actions are not. I do hope and try to remind people to not lose faith in decentralized decision-making and action execution. This is not to say that the world of decentralization is perfect today, either. There are still ample hacks and points of vulnerability that need to be fixed, but I’m more optimistic on this front because there are existing and potential check-and-balance systems at play. Builders should build for the love and benefit of the technology, and not merely for quick monetary gains with little regard for risk management. Ishan Pandey: Governments around the world are obviously worried that cryptocurrencies will have a widespread impact on the economy and will be misused for unlawful activities. According to you, should DeFi be subject to the law of the land? Richard Zhang: DeFi has some inherent advantages that trump traditional finance, like inherent transparency and accessibility. It’s quite obvious that TradFi has failed certain countries and marginalized groups. As I mentioned earlier, I became interested in blockchain technology because of its ability to better access and equality, and I do vouch for governments to give room for these benefits to remain and grow. However, this is not to say that builders and users should disregard or disdain regulations. After all, some countries do introduce regulations with protecting people as the primary goal. I think it’s especially important to accept regulations that govern centralized touchpoints in the industry, such as on-and-off ramps, centralized market makers, and custodians. Ishan Pandey: What new trends will the blockchain industry witness in the near future? Richard Zhiang: It’s obviously impossible to predict with perfect precision what’s going to happen, especially in such a fast-moving and unpredictable industry, but I can provide some thoughts on what might happen. Due to recent debacles, crypto users and regulators will require or demand proof of reserves from various types of entities. This will hopefully move us closer to the responsible handling of user deposits and funds. On the infrastructure side, we will see rollups, particularly zero-knowledge-based, gain more traction and launch more aggressively. Diving deeper into L1/L2s, I hold an opinion that not everyone shares: there’s still room for new infrastructure to enter. We have seen the introduction of MOVE-based chains, but there are still plenty of experiments left unexplored. For instance, people have been intrigued by the idea of “app chains”, and Cosmos currently seems to be a popular destination. But is there room for another chain more specialized for app chain deployment? Perhaps, or at least I’m not counting this possibility out yet. There are more experiments and theses in the infrastructure space like this one, and I’m going to keep an open mind. I’m also excited to see new mechanisms for digital ownership beyond the current profile picture and digital art models. Now that more people have gotten a taste of on-chain ownership, we may be ready to take on more diverse assets. I’m not sure which exact assets will be next, but most likely it will be ones that incur fewer legal hurdles, so we may still wait a bit before something like decentralized real estate ownership gains significant traction and acceptance. I’ll certainly continue tracking the industry closely and fine-tuning my visions and these as we go along. If anyone has differing thoughts or wants to discuss more, I’m always happy to exchange ideas. Don’t forget to like and share the idea!

Richard Zhang on the Power and Potential of Blockchain: An Insider's Perspective

Richard Zhang sobre el poder y el potencial de Blockchain: la perspectiva de un experto

Richard Zhang sur le pouvoir et le potentiel de la blockchain : le point de vue d'un initié

ब्लॉकचैन की शक्ति और क्षमता पर रिचर्ड झांग: एक अंदरूनी सूत्र का परिप्रेक्ष्य

ブロックチェーンの力と可能性についてのリチャード・チャン: インサイダーの視点

Richard Zhang sobre o poder e o potencial do Blockchain: a perspectiva de um insider

Richard Zhang về Sức mạnh và Tiềm năng của Blockchain: Quan điểm của Người trong cuộc

Richard Zhang 谈区块链的力量和潜力：业内人士的观点

Mobile apps are ruling the information and technology sector. Around millions of apps are available in App store and play store for free to download. As the consumption of mobile app is continuously increasing so the industry is also rising. mobile app development Do you know how many apps do we use on daily basis? According to the research, an average was calculated to determine the consumption of mobile apps per person. Result shows that these days an individual mobile user has more or less downloaded on his mobile, out of which they utilize on daily basis. 80 apps 9 apps Along with other type of apps, photo editing mobile apps are also very common among people. Individuals who love to take photos, utilizes photo editing mobile apps to transform and enhance their digital photos. If you love to take your photos and always wants to capture perfect photos but sometimes you failed to capture perfect photos of unforgettable moments then this blog is for you do give it a good read. Below are the 10 best photo editing mobile apps for Android and iOS users by using which, app users can enhance their photos and edit them without any hassle. YouCamPerfect Overview If you are obsessed with photo editing and badly need any app that can have all the possible photo editing features then there is no doubt that this app is for you. If you download this photo editing app in your phone so you will be able to change the background of your photos, swap the sky with any other image of your choice. You can also enhance your photos by doing amendments through body tuner option. Furthermore, with the help of its AI object removal tool you can even delete a person or object from the background of your image. The app is for both the iPhone and Android users. Notable features ·         AI object removal tool. ·         Body Shaper ·         Crop & eliminate background ·         Beautiful effects and filters ·         Several options for collage making ·         Look transformation PhotoDirector Overview This photo editing app is consisting of all the general photo editing tools. You can completely alter your look by using its beautify option. It provides vibrant overlays. It has exciting animation features. AI technology in this app let the user replace the background, and sky. It provides custom animation options too. You can decorate your photos by using the stickers available in the app. The app is available for free to use both for the Android and iOS. Notable features ·         Brightness, contrast and color alteration tools ·         Rapid effects and filters ·         Light spark tool ·         Correction tools to beautify the picture ·         Animatronics tools ·         Vibrant overlays ·         AI technology to detect faces, bodies and background ·         Stock images for further improvement YouCam Makeup Overview It can be said as a virtual makeup studio. Where you can do your complete makeover that includes, face reshaping, changing skin tone, teeth whitening, eyeshadow palette, lipstick, blush, contour, highlight and also several ready-made makeup presets are available to use for free. This app is compatible for both the iPhone and Android users. Youcam makeup is a full package for makeup lovers who want perfect instant makeup look without doing even physically applying makeup into their face. The app is available for free to use both for the Android and iOS. Notable features ·         Face detailing feature ·         Comprehensive options for makeup ·         Several filters Picsart Overview This app is the best option for those who want to create custom photos. It has ready made templates available to use for free. You can enhance your photos with its help. In case you are looking for a good editing features that can beautify your pictures successfully then you can choose picsart for sure. It is good for those individuals who want instant and easy editing options to edit their photos daily. The app is available for free to use both for the Android and iOS. Notable Features ·         Effects template ·         Photo enhancing filters ·         Text options ·         Stickers Snapseed Overview This photo editing app is good for Android and iOS users. App users can make their own customize presets and can easily use them in the future too. It provides nice range of filters and effects for the photo enhancement. It also has de-noising option to remove noise from the photos. It has so many features that are inspired from the traditional professional photography so the professional photo editors can use it too for smaller changes in the photos. The app is available for free to use both for the Android and iOS. Notable Features ·         Option for de-noising ·         Color curves ·         Filters and effects ·         Create own preset Adobe Lightroom Overview It is mainly used in professional settings. Most of the professional photographers use it for the photo enhancement. It provides professional level features for editing, that a professional editor can understand easily but can be difficult for general public. It has professional features like exposure, adjustment of color, color balance, light balance. Moreover, it has so many exciting features but these features are for skilled professionals, common individual cannot understand them. The app is available for free to use both for the Android and iOS. Notable Features ·         Professional level camera ·         Modifications for ISO ·         All professional level photo editing features Photoshop Express Overview This photo editing app is common among the individuals due to its exciting features. It has easy to use options to enhance your photos. Basic options that are available in the app are easy editing, background change, exciting themes, scrap book option for collage making, retouching for face and body enhancement. You can access other premium features of this app when you pay for it. The app is available for free to use both for the Android and iOS. Notable Features ·         Enhance and adjustment tool ·         Background swapping ·         Selective editing ·         Retouching options to beautify ·         scrapbook option for collage making Instasize Overview It is an amazing app used for the purpose of photo editing and photo enhancement. Most important thing about this app is it provides you full size image for Instagram. If you are an Instagram user then you might know that if you post any thing on insta it will get cropped automatically. The main purpose of instasize is to let you use your full image for posting. Apart from the resizing option, it also provides other basic features like photo adjustment, exciting filters and the basic frames. It also has premium features too which can be accessible once you take their paid subscription. Notable Features ·         Extensive range of filters ·         Basic adjustment options ·         Option to beautify ·         Text option with several fonts ·         Collage making option ·         Basic level frames. AirBrush Overview It has an extensive range of features. Some of them are really unique and rarely find in any app for instance relight and prism features. It also has a virtual makeup option by using which you can do virtual makeup of your photo, even can change your hair dye. This app is a full package for those who wants to transform and modify their pictures for modelling purpose. It also helps in deleting background and objects from the pictures. The app is available in both stores i.e., Apple and iOS. Notable Features ·         Photo retouching ·         Makeup option ·         Customize kit Final words The smartphone generation is really fond of taking selfies and they do not stop here. They always want a good photo editing mobile app to further adjust their photos. All the above mentioned apps have the best proven results. If anyone who is looking for a photo editing app with all the important features available at one place so he can pick any from these. Disclosure: This story was submitted to HackerNoon by an independent contributor. Hence the information contained therein has also been researched and compiled independently.

RetroCube Reviews On 10 Best Photo Editing Mobile Apps for Android and iOS Users

Photo by Alex Nghiem on Unsplash We’ve all got used to an abundance of all sorts of gadgets and gizmos in our everyday life. Indeed, corporations spend billions of dollars each year to satisfy the needs of ever-fastidious consumers by designing, developing and launching hundreds of brand-new products that assist, entertain, clean, inform, and monitor. But how does this process work for independent development studios? To find this out, I talked to Stan Bakaliar, the CEO of , a product design and development company with over 70 projects in its portfolio. Woodenshark What products is Woodenshark behind? Tell us about your most outstanding projects. There are some which make our engineering hearts proud. For example, we have developed a lightpack which uses high-resolution video as an input, analyzes color at every part of the screen edge and sends color commands to RGB LEDs all over the screen to light in matching colors. The main challenge here is the calculation speed—you have to change LED commands very quickly, or else the user will notice the delay and, instead of relaxation or excitement, the product will only bring irritation. We’ve also helped the team with their product, a 3-dimensional console and a gaming platform, which, too, involved plenty of engineering challenges. How to ensure the smooth rotation of all the modules and make the design reliable, so that the device doesn’t fall into pieces in the user's hands? WowCube How to arrange data and charge sharing among all the modules? How to charge eight modules at once? How to fit all the necessary functions, three screens and a battery into a size of 3x3x3 cm and keep production costs moderate? It’s been a pleasure for us to solve these problems. Our partner, , has also brought in some interesting enterprise IoT projects, which require rigorous analysis of the whole logistics and manufacturing processes as well as the users and their goals, and the development of user scenarios in the first place. Moeco This project has shifted our perspective a bit, because we had to keep in mind that our mistakes could make the work with the devices uncomfortable, and, given the huge volumes, it could result in immense extra labor time and labor costs, which could eventually become much higher than the production costs. How do you accept an application to work on a project, and how does work begin? How do you design your products? What processes do you provide to your customers? We always start with the problem research to find out what result should be achieved to meet the needs of the customer and their users. If the customer already has a solution idea, we look into it and try to suggest better options—that’s our job as engineers. We can refuse the project if the customer doesn't have any specific clear goals for the product, or if the project is too complex for us. Next, we develop a list of technical requirements and success criteria and approve it with the customer. Usually, we provide them with a guesstimation—a project timeline and budget with ±100% accuracy, which can be used to estimate the amount of future funds and time needed. Then we develop a product description, with all the details about interfaces, indication, structure, architecture and so on and send it to the customer for approval again. From this point, we are ready to provide an accurate timeline and a budget, based on the decomposed features of the future product. We can also prepare a quality assurance plan to include it in the development tasks. First, we design all the main functions as prototypes. After the approval, we put more bones to this skeleton, adding other features to it. Finally, the EVT (engineering verification test) takes place. We are used to working in one-month sprints, keeping in mind the 1-1,5 timelines and the customer’s goals—it gives us enough flexibility to make short planning sessions once a month and get approvals for our work results periodically. You have been involved in more than 70 hardware startups, including your own projects. What principles do you adhere to when it comes to product design? How do you define the success of this process? Usually, there are two basic principles: there should be a business sense in launching the project, and the idea should have a considerably higher value for the user than the existing products. We always try not to invent anything complex if there is a simple existing solution on the market—because if we do, we will repeat their mistakes and waste the customer’s budget with poorer results. Also, many product teams do not realize the amount of capital required to launch a hardware startup, so we help them to develop an approximate financial model of their future business to see if it’s possible to build a viable company with their current business ideas. Speaking about added value, it requires the analysis of the product users, their problems and their experience with the problem. There are some nice frameworks in customer development that can help with it. For instance, we like to use corridor tests and problem interviews, and we also use JTBD as the main method to describe our product success. So, if your customer sees a value in solving their problem with the new device, is willing to pay for it, and it’s enough for a product team to be sustainable—that’s the definition of product success for us. There are other success criteria, such as finishing the project within the timeline, within the budget, with the required quality, but all these are standard for service companies. Were there any failed products? What has working on them taught you? Yes, a lot. We’ve learned that if you have an engineering team that  develops hardware, instead of making an internal product, always strive to start a new company that will own the intellectual property and will manage all the manufacturing, marketing, sales, and support operations. Also, we’ve learned that sometimes it’s better to postpone the development until the customer has a clear understanding of what they want to achieve and how they want to make a profit from the product. And never start a project unless you describe when it will end. We’ve learned a lot about ourselves—how far our estimates can be from reality and how different the estimates can be even within one and the same team, so you need to archive data about your projects to improve estimates in the future. We also have a list of bad engineering decisions—decisions that can cause you a lot of pain during testing/manufacturing/using/utilization, though they can seem valid at first glance. Also, we’ve had some problems with the gap between what customers would like to see and what our engineering team is actually developing, so we started to use more of the Behavior Driven Development approach, and it fits well in our team. What’s the biggest challenge your company has faced so far? The most serious problem concerns not so much professional challenge, but an unfathomable disaster that hit us recently. An essential part of our team was in Ukraine when the war began. Our colleagues had to leave their homes and offices in Kharkiv and move to less dangerous regions of Western Ukraine. They work facing a stressful reality every day. Our colleagues from Russia also had to relocate to other countries because they could not feel safe. Considering the circumstances, we now have to build new logistics chains and communication for distributed teams. Despite all the difficulties, we support our entire international team in such devastating times. What specialists work in your company and which of them usually work on the product? How do you organize the work on a product within a team? We are a service company, and our team members have various specializations, like PCB design, Mechanical design, Industrial design, Project management, Supply chain management, Firmware and Software development. Together we can solve a wide range of tasks. But we don’t have any dedicated product teams, because, usually, each of our team members is involved in two or three projects, and it is much more efficient in the case of outsourced development than a dedicated development team. There is a lot of talk about generative design these days. Do you use it at work? What perspectives do you see for this approach? We don’t use generative design because it’s too chaotic as of now. It can be used to fill an inspiration board or generate a huge number of concepts, but all subsequent tasks should be addressed by a specialist who understands user scenarios and experience and knows how different ideas can change the product price and complexity. For now, generative design can’t evaluate those factors and can’t make a product optimized for mass production. What products will be in demand in 5 and 10 years? What niches for business development and product development would you recommend considering? There is always a lag between the moment you hear about new technology and the moment you can actually find it commonly used. So, in 5 years, you will find many already existing technologies which will leave the stage of limited testing and go fully into the market. And more than that, there are limitless ideas to combine existing technologies. There are technologies that are already in our world but aren’t fully integrated.For example, 5G. It will take around 5 years to grow a market of 5G devices, so the whole 5G infrastructure will develop for sure. Ecology-related projects will continue to grow since there are too many problems that still require solutions. There are still no good replacements for oil and gas energy, and even coal is still used in huge volumes. So, there should be a lot of projects aimed at using renewable energy sources with higher efficiency and making them easier to manufacture and use. There is also a search for alternatives to lithium to replace it in our batteries. When we have one—be sure, there will be a lot of projects based on it. Some countries can probably develop atomic energy programs as an alternative to the current energy challenges. Probably, in 10 years, neural interfaces will become a common thing for a number of devices—they can enhance the gaming experience, recovery processes, and manipulate other objects. There is a limitless number of ideas that can be developed, but the important thing is: in the last couple of years, the world has been shocked by crises that couldn’t have been predicted. So let’s just dream about a bright future and be ready for new challenges.

How Does Innovative Product Engineering Work?

Hello World, today we are going to see . This tutorial is going to be very simple and easy to understand. The is attractive to users and it is comfortable for low light conditions. how we can implement a dark theme or night mode in our android application dark theme Recently many apps adapt in their app and the output of the is amazing as many . An example of a dark theme is Whatsapp dark mode in android see the below image. dark mode night mode users love dark mode for their app Let's look at how our app will look like, see the below gif for our end result app. Let's see how we can implement dark theme in our app. Make layout for dark theme First, we need to make our layout so that we can apply our dark theme to it. If you see the above gif we used to make our layout. cardview See the below code for layout. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> < = = = = = = = > androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android "http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:app "http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" xmlns:tools "http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "match_parent" tools:context ".MainActivity" android:padding "10sp" < = = = = = = > androidx.cardview.widget.CardView android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "wrap_content" app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf "parent" app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf "parent" app:cardCornerRadius "10sp" android:id "@+id/post" < = = = > androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "wrap_content" android:padding "10sp" < = = = = = = > androidx.cardview.widget.CardView android:layout_width "70sp" android:layout_height "70sp" android:id "@+id/profilePicContainer" app:cardCornerRadius "100sp" app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf "parent" app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf "parent" < = = = /> ImageView android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "match_parent" android:src "@drawable/user1" </ > androidx.cardview.widget.CardView < = = = = = = = = /> TextView android:layout_width "wrap_content" android:layout_height "wrap_content" android:id "@+id/username" android:text "John Doe" android:textAppearance "@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Large" app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf "@id/profilePicContainer" android:layout_marginStart "10sp" app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf "@id/profilePicContainer" < = = = = = = = = /> TextView android:layout_width "wrap_content" android:layout_height "wrap_content" android:id "@+id/time" android:text "Just now" android:textAppearance "@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Caption" app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf "@id/profilePicContainer" android:layout_marginStart "10sp" app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf "@id/username" < = = = = = = = /> TextView android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "35sp" android:id "@+id/caption" android:text "Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry." app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf "@id/profilePicContainer" android:textAppearance "@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Body2" android:layout_marginTop "10sp" < = = = = = = = /> ImageView android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "250sp" android:id "@+id/photoPost" android:scaleType "centerCrop" app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf "@id/caption" android:src "@drawable/post" android:layout_marginTop "10sp" < = = = = = = = /> ImageView android:layout_width "30sp" android:layout_height "30sp" android:id "@+id/likeBtn" android:src "@drawable/ic_like" app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf "@id/photoPost" app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf "@id/photoPost" android:layout_marginTop "15sp" < = = = = = = = = /> ImageView android:layout_width "30sp" android:layout_height "30sp" android:id "@+id/shareBtn" android:src "@drawable/ic_share" app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf "@id/likeBtn" app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf "@id/photoPost" app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf "@id/likeBtn" android:layout_marginLeft "15sp" </ > androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout </ > androidx.cardview.widget.CardView < = = = = = = = = = /> Button android:layout_width "wrap_content" android:layout_height "wrap_content" android:id "@+id/changeThemeBtn" android:text "Change Theme" app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf "@id/post" app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf "parent" app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf "parent" android:layout_marginTop "20sp" android:paddingHorizontal "10sp" </ > androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout Now we need to set theme colors in the layout, for example, we need to set the background color of activity and and also we need to set textview color and icon colors. But setting all the colors we need some way to set colors dynamically. cardview We want to change the background color of activity to dark black color when we apply our dark theme in the application. To make the dynamic values we will need to make attrs.xml file in the values folder. Make custom attribute values for layout. Create a new xml file in the values folder. Right-click on values folder and click on new then click values resource file and type attrs in the file name field. Your values folder should look like below: In the attrs.xml we will declare our custom attribute values like below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> < > resources < = = /> attr name "appWindowBackground" format "color" < = = /> attr name "cardBackground" format "color" < = = /> attr name "textColor" format "color" < = = /> attr name "textColorSecondary" format "color" < = = /> attr name "iconColor" format "color" < = = /> attr name "buttonBackground" format "color" < = = /> attr name "buttonTextColor" format "color" </ > resources In the above code, we have defined 7 values and their type which is color. Each of the values, we will use in our layout file. But before using these values we need to assign or set these values in our currently applied theme and also we will make our dark theme and update these attribute values. See also: Cardview with Recyclerview Example Make Dark theme in styles.xml and set attributes value. First, we will set attribute values for our default or light theme then we will update those attribute values in the Dark theme. Let's do this. < > resources  < = = > style name "AppTheme" parent "Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar" @color/colorPrimary @color/colorPrimaryDark @color/colorAccent #CDDDDD #FFFFFF #000000 #717171 #6A6A6A #CDCDCD #000000  < = > item name "colorPrimary" </ > item < = > item name "colorPrimaryDark" </ > item < = > item name "colorAccent" </ > item < = > item name "appWindowBackground" </ > item < = > item name "cardBackground" </ > item < = > item name "textColor" </ > item < = > item name "textColorSecondary" </ > item < = > item name "iconColor" </ > item < = > item name "buttonBackground" </ > item < = > item name "buttonTextColor" </ > item </ > style < = = > style name "DarkAppTheme" parent "Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar" #393e46 #222831 #ffffff #DAA8A8A8 #00fff5 @color/colorPrimary #000000 < = > item name "appWindowBackground" </ > item < = > item name "cardBackground" </ > item < = > item name "textColor" </ > item < = > item name "textColorSecondary" </ > item < = > item name "iconColor" </ > item < = > item name "buttonBackground" </ > item < = > item name "buttonTextColor" </ > item </ > style </ > resources In the AppTheme we are setting our attribute value you are free to change as per your need. We are setting default colors. Then we made a new theme called DarkAppTheme and now this time we are setting all the custom attribute values to the dark theme matching colors. We have set the app background color to black and other background colors to dark colors and set text and icon colors according to the dark theme. Now the time to use these values in our layout. Open your activity XML file and check the background and textColor values as shown below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> < = = = = = = = = > androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android "http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:app "http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" xmlns:tools "http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "match_parent" tools:context ".MainActivity" android:padding "10sp" android:background "?attr/appWindowBackground" < = = = = = = = > androidx.cardview.widget.CardView android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "wrap_content" app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf "parent" app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf "parent" app:cardCornerRadius "10sp" android:id "@+id/post" app:cardBackgroundColor "?attr/cardBackground" < = = = > androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "wrap_content" android:padding "10sp" < = = = = = = > androidx.cardview.widget.CardView android:layout_width "70sp" android:layout_height "70sp" android:id "@+id/profilePicContainer" app:cardCornerRadius "100sp" app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf "parent" app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf "parent" < = = = /> ImageView android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "match_parent" android:src "@drawable/user1" </ > androidx.cardview.widget.CardView < = = = = = = = = = /> TextView android:layout_width "wrap_content" android:layout_height "wrap_content" android:id "@+id/username" android:text "John Doe" android:textAppearance "@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Large" app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf "@id/profilePicContainer" android:layout_marginStart "10sp" app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf "@id/profilePicContainer" android:textColor "?attr/textColor" < = = = = = = = = = /> TextView android:layout_width "wrap_content" android:layout_height "wrap_content" android:id "@+id/time" android:text "Just now" android:textAppearance "@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Caption" app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf "@id/profilePicContainer" android:layout_marginStart "10sp" app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf "@id/username" android:textColor "?attr/textColorSecondary" < = = = = = = = = /> TextView android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "35sp" android:id "@+id/caption" android:text "Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry." app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf "@id/profilePicContainer" android:textAppearance "@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Body2" android:layout_marginTop "10sp" android:textColor "?attr/textColor" < = = = = = = = /> ImageView android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "250sp" android:id "@+id/photoPost" android:scaleType "centerCrop" app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf "@id/caption" android:src "@drawable/post" android:layout_marginTop "10sp" < = = = = = = = = /> ImageView android:layout_width "30sp" android:layout_height "30sp" android:id "@+id/likeBtn" android:src "@drawable/ic_like" app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf "@id/photoPost" app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf "@id/photoPost" android:layout_marginTop "15sp" android:tint "?attr/iconColor" < = = = = = = = = = /> ImageView android:layout_width "30sp" android:layout_height "30sp" android:id "@+id/shareBtn" android:src "@drawable/ic_share" app:layout_constraintLeft_toRightOf "@id/likeBtn" app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf "@id/photoPost" app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf "@id/likeBtn" android:layout_marginLeft "15sp" android:tint "?attr/iconColor" </ > androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout </ > androidx.cardview.widget.CardView < = = = = = = = = = = = /> Button android:layout_width "wrap_content" android:layout_height "wrap_content" android:id "@+id/changeThemeBtn" android:text "Change Theme" app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf "@id/post" app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf "parent" app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf "parent" android:layout_marginTop "20sp" android:paddingHorizontal "10sp" android:textColor "?attr/buttonTextColor" android:background "?attr/buttonBackground" </ > androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout If you noticed background and text color values, see how we use the attribute values in the activity layout so that these take values from the currently applied theme and set we set DarkAppTheme the values of the Dark theme will update and hence our layout values will also update and our dark theme will be in use. Let's see our we can switch our theme from the java code. Set Theme to DarkAppTheme using Java Now we have completed our XML part now its time to make logic to change the dark theme in the app. To apply the dark theme we need to call the setTheme method before setContentView function called in the onCreate function of the activity. If you want to apply a dark theme on click of the button as shown in the above gif. We can use this code. { .onCreate(savedInstanceState); (AppCompatDelegate.getDefaultNightMode() == AppCompatDelegate.MODE_NIGHT_YES) {
            setTheme(R.style.DarkAppTheme);
        }

        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        Button changeThemeBtn = findViewById(R.id.changeThemeBtn);

        changeThemeBtn.setOnClickListener( View.OnClickListener() { { (AppCompatDelegate.getDefaultNightMode() == AppCompatDelegate.MODE_NIGHT_YES) {
                    AppCompatDelegate.setDefaultNightMode(AppCompatDelegate.MODE_NIGHT_NO);
                } {
                    AppCompatDelegate.setDefaultNightMode(AppCompatDelegate.MODE_NIGHT_YES);
                }

                finish();
                startActivity( Intent(MainActivity. , MainActivity. .getClass()));
            }
        });

    } @Override protected void onCreate (Bundle savedInstanceState) super if new @Override public void onClick (View v) if else new this this To toggle the theme we need to check which theme is currently applied so that we can change the theme to do that we can use AppCompatDelegate class which helps us to determine which theme is currently applied by using its static function setDefaultNightMode. AppCompatDelegate's setDefaultNightMode function will save the current theme configuration and we can check that value and apply our theme according to the check as we have shown in the above code. Now if you launch your app then when you click the button your nice looking dark theme is ready to rock the world. Now if you want that if the user sets the theme and closes the app and relaunch the app and the last applied theme will be used then you have to use and fetch the information on the launch of the app. Shared Preferences to save the configuration You can read about . Shared Preferences here If you like this article do share it with your friends and batchmates. Thanks for reading have a nice day. Previously published at https://www.akshayrana.in/2020/07/how-to-make-dark-night-mode-theme-in.html

Building Dark Mode Theme in Android 

With Android 9 (API level 28), Google officially started supporting what’s famously known as the notch, a cutout display at the top (because the last two years were the years of the notch?). I can’t claim that but with the notch support, most of the brands came out with their version of a cutout display and with that, we as developers need to think about yet another edge case, especially if we’re working with a completely experience. immersive To give you a little knowledge of what I’ve researched, what I noticed while dealing with the notch is that the devices’ notch are either the size of the status bar or the status bar is adjusted vertically is the notch is a bit longer. So since the status bar is not technically a part of your app, it is almost always taken care of by Android. But.. What happens when you want to hide the status bar to make your view fullscreen? That is something you need to solve as a developer. And since I’ve already taken my time solving it last week, I thought of it as the perfect new tutorial for everyone of you to save your time dealing with it. Let’s get started. Prerequisite ☝️ For this tutorial I’ve used but things should work on other versions of AS as well. Android Studio 4.0 Preview Project Setup ⚙️ First things first. We need to have the problem to solve the problem. In order to disable the status bar to go immersive in an app. Do the following: 1. Open a new project. 2. Select an Project Template. This would create an empty screen with an Action Bar. Empty Activity 3. Type any name for the project and select Kotlin from the language 4. Click Finish. 5. Run the project to see the look of your initial app. Material Dependency 😍 Since we need to style our app a bit, we need Android’s Material library which is not part of the app at the moment, so first thing is to add the Material library to our project. To do so: Open (Module) build.gradle Add this line in the dependency section: implementation 'com.google.android.material:material:1.1.0' At the time of writing, the latest Material version was 1.1.0, but you can use any latest stable release you want from or . Note: Google’s Maven Repository MVN Repository 3. Sync the project. Adding a custom Toolbar 🖌 You must be thinking if we already have a toolbar set up, why add another. It is because the default toolbar that’s set up by the project is from a parent layout that we do not have a control of, so when we enable fullscreen on the app, the toolbar hides along with other system elements, but we want to have control over it in order to not hide it automatically. Here’s how to set it up: 1. Open styles.xml. 2. Replace your parent theme from to (running the app at this stage should not display any toolbar) Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar Theme.MaterialComponents.NoActionBar.Bridge . 3. Open activity_main.xml. 4. Add the following lines in place of the placeholder to add a toolbar (running the app at this stage should display an empty toolbar) TextView . < = = = = = = = = /> androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar android:id "@+id/toolbar" android:minHeight "?attr/actionBarSize" android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "wrap_content" android:background "?attr/colorPrimary" app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf "parent" app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf "parent" app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf "parent" 5. Open MainActivity.kt. 6. Add this line after to setup our own toolbar and display the app title. setContentView() setSupportActionBar(findViewById(R.id.toolbar)) Enabling fullscreen 🌅 To enable fullscreen, we need to hide the top status bar and the bottom system navigation bar, to do so, Android Developer Guides has just the right doc for it: : https://developer.android.com/training/system-ui/immersive 1.Open . styles.xml 2. Add a new style below the AppTheme: < = = > style name "AppTheme.Fullscreen" parent "AppTheme" true shortEdges < = > item name "android:windowFullscreen" </ > item < = = > item name "android:windowLayoutInDisplayCutoutMode" tools:targetApi "p" </ > item </ > style 3. Open AndroidManifest.xml 4. In the MainActivity attributes, add the attribute with the styles that you just created: android:theme < = = > activity android:name ".MainActivity" android:theme "@style/AppTheme.Fullscreen" < > intent-filter < = /> action android:name "android.intent.action.MAIN" < = /> category android:name "android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" </ > intent-filter </ > activity 5. Now in your , add the following lines: MainActivity.kt { .onWindowFocusChanged(hasFocus) (hasFocus) {
            hideSystemUIAndNavigation( )
        }
    } { decorView: View = activity.window.decorView
        decorView.systemUiVisibility =
            (View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_IMMERSIVE or View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_STABLE
                    or View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_HIDE_NAVIGATION
                    or View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_FULLSCREEN or View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION
                    or View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_FULLSCREEN)
    } override fun onWindowFocusChanged (hasFocus: ) Boolean super if this private fun hideSystemUIAndNavigation (activity: ) Activity val // Set the content to appear under the system bars so that the // content doesn't resize when the system bars hide and show. // Hide the nav bar and status bar 6. Run the app and you’re good to go! Except that you’re not. If you run the app at this moment on a device with a notch / cutout display, you’d notice that the toolbar is hidden by the notch: And that’s the problem this story is all about. The Fix 🔧 Approach I: In order to solve the issum, the first approach you might be thinking to take it to simply add padding to the toolbar to position it below the notch. But since we have in different heights on different devices, we can’t hardcode a constant value (for instance, 24dp or 48dp) in order to add a margin on top of the toolbar. But there must be a way the height of the status bar is set by the system, you must think. Yes there is, and you access it by but since that’s a private value, adding a to your toolbar throws a build error: @android:dimen/status_bar_height android:layout_marginTop=”@android:dimen/status_bar_height” AAPT: error: android:dimen/status_bar_height is private. resource And even if you did add a constant value, it might work for the notch but not for no-notch devices: Approach II and the magic: 🎩 The approach that I had to take to solve this issue is to simply work on it programmatically: to add padding only when needed. And since Google has a few new APIs to deal with the notch, achieving this hack is quite easy: 1. In your , add a new method: MainActivity.kt { (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.P) { windowInsets = window.decorView.rootWindowInsets (windowInsets != ) { displayCutout = windowInsets.displayCutout (displayCutout != ) { safeInsetTop = displayCutout.safeInsetTop newLayoutParams = toolbar.layoutParams ViewGroup.MarginLayoutParams
                 newLayoutParams.setMargins( , safeInsetTop, , )
                 toolbar.layoutParams = newLayoutParams
            }
        }
    }
} @SuppressLint( ) "NewApi" private fun adjustToolbarMarginForNotch () // Notch is only supported by >= Android 9 if val if null val if null val val as 0 0 0 2. Call this method just right below in to let the change affect when we hide the system UIs. hideSystemUIAndNavigation(this) onWindowFocusChanged Since some of the methods that we call here are quite new to the Google APIs (for instance, , etc), they’re supported by Android 9. And since the notch is quite a new trend in devices, all the new devices with the notch do run Android ≥ 9, so we’re all good here. 👌 Note: rootViewInsets, displayCutout only If you run the app now, you see that the margin is only added when we do have a notch: Extra: Styling 🎨 So far so good, we just need to add some style to the empty area or extend our toolbar to the top to make it not look very odd. To do so: 1. In your , add a new view with a size of the toolbar (?attr/actionBarSize) on top of toolbar, like: activity_main.xml < = = = = = = /> View android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "?attr/actionBarSize" android:background "?attr/colorPrimary" app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf "parent" app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf "parent" app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf "parent" 2. Run the app to see the changes. And so, you can play around with the background of the view and/or the toolbar to adjust the style according to your taste: Happy coding! 💻 Source code for the Final Version GitHub As always, let me know if my tutorial helped you in anyway and the things I can improve in writing tutorials by sending a DM or a Tweet at: ✌️ twitter.com/waseefakhtar Previously published at https://proandroiddev.com/android-material-toolbar-vs-displaycutout-6ae99b2b7ef0

Android Material Component: Toolbar vs DisplayCutout

Hello there, Today we are going to learn how we can make an amazing and also apply the gradient to the status bar like below custom toolbar with gradient effect First, let's create a new project or open your existing one. To make gradient to status bar and toolbar we need to edit our styles.xml file to make it no action bar theme and apply full-screen so that we can add our custom status bar. See below snippet of styles.xml and edit your like this. Open res folder then open values folder and select style.xml. < > resources  < = = > style name "AppTheme" parent "Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar" @color/colorPrimary @color/colorPrimaryDark @color/colorAccent  < = > item name "colorPrimary" </ > item < = > item name "colorPrimaryDark" </ > item < = > item name "colorAccent" </ > item </ > style </ > resources First, we need to change the parent attribute and replace the value with by doing this default action bar will remove. Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar Now we add some property in the styles.xml < > resources  < = = > style name "AppTheme" parent "Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar" @color/colorPrimary @color/colorPrimaryDark @color/colorAccent true  < = > item name "colorPrimary" </ > item < = > item name "colorPrimaryDark" </ > item < = > item name "colorAccent" </ > item < = > item name "android:windowTranslucentStatus" </ > item </ > style </ > resources This will give us the ability to add a custom status bar. For the custom toolbar, we need to make a custom layout file. To do that we create a new layout file by right click on the layout folder and then click on new and then click on the layout resource folder. We will name this file as . custom_toolbar In this file, we will add a toolbar widget in the linear layout and set the height to action bar size and set id as toolbar. Also, we set the height of linear layout to 80sp and set gravity to bottom because the height of the default status bar is 24sp and the action bar size is 80sp - 24sp = 56sp. Our file will look like this below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> < = = = = = = > LinearLayout xmlns:android "http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:orientation "vertical" android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "80sp" android:background "@drawable/gradient_toolbar" android:gravity "bottom" < = = = /> androidx.appcompat.widget.Toolbar android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "?actionBarSize" android:id "@+id/toolbar" </ > LinearLayout To add the gradient to our toolbar and status bar we need to create gradient drawable so let's create a drawable file. Right-click on the drawable folder then click on new and then drawable resource file and we name this file as . gradient_toolbar Now copy below code and paste it in your file. gradient_toolbar <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> < = = > shape android:shape "rectangle" xmlns:android "http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" < = = = /> gradient android:startColor "@color/startGradientColor" android:endColor "@color/endGradientColor" android:angle "180" </ > shape In the above code, we are creating a new gradient background for our toolbar. To set this background to toolbar we need to open our custom_toolbar.xml file and add background attribute to the linear layout. Now we have completed our custom toolbar part now its time to apply this toolbar on our activity. To do this open your activity xml file and include your file like this. custom_toolbar.xml ... <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> < = = = = = = > androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android "http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:app "http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" xmlns:tools "http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "match_parent" tools:context ".MainActivity" < = = = > LinearLayout android:layout_width "match_parent" android:layout_height "wrap_content" app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf "parent" < = /> include layout "@layout/custom_toolbar" </ > LinearLayout </ > androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout After including the file we need to set the toolbar to action bar in your activity java file. Open your activity java file and get toolbar by using and pass the toolbar id we set in file and call the method and pass our toolbar. findViewById custom_toolbar.xml setSupportActionBar { { .onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        Toolbar toolbar = findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar);


    }
} public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity @Override protected void onCreate (Bundle savedInstanceState) super If you run your app you will see the gradient has applied successfully but the color of title in the toolbar is in black color which makes our toolbar look ugly. To make it look amazing we are adding white color to the toolbar title by calling method of toolbar widget and pass the static variable. setTitleTextColor Color.WHITE toolbar.setTitleTextColor(Color.WHITE); Now run your app and your beautiful and good looking custom toolbar will show up. If you learn something new then share this article with your friends and mates. Thank You and have a nice day.

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