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In today’s digital age, social media platforms have become an integral part of our lives. Facebook, being one of the most popular platforms, is widely used to share and watch videos. However, there are times when we come across captivating videos that we’d like to download and save for offline viewing or sharing with friends.

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Madison Beer opens up about her trauma after private photos from when she was 14 were leaked

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Actionable tips from the Combin design team on how to create a smashing Instagram feed. Do you find well-thought-out Instagram feeds as appealing as we do? If so, let's find out if it's possible to create such a feed without a designer's help and how you can visually plan it. We've talked to the design team – Sergey, Sasha, and Max – and picked up the most actionable advice on the matter. Combin If visual Instagram aesthetics is still your struggle, keep on reading! ⚡ : preview your Instagram grid layout with , an unparalleled Instagram planning tool. Curate a stylish Instagram profile with a solid visual voice using a simple drag-and-drop feature. Tip Combin Scheduler Why You Should Plan Your Instagram Feed in Advance Building a visual concept on Instagram is crucial for accurate and recognisable communication with your audience. It takes lots of time and effort, and sometimes multiple experiments and analyses should be performed to assemble the visual branding on Instagram. Yet, as our Lead Designer reckons, is necessary to increase brand awareness, grow a loyal community of customers, and give extra value to a product or service. visual communication is an example of when a product marketing becomes a designer gallery – captions are cleverly complemented by visuals. Dynamic concept helps pull in followers and makes them engage with content even if they're not your target audience. LALAL.AI Beyond that, people pay much attention to attractive visuals online, and as a brand or an influencer, your task is to draw people's attention when coming up with an Instagram visual concept. To do so, plan content in advance – this will help you avoid mistakes and build up the potential to stand out among your competitors. 💡 : Suggested read Plan a Month of Your Instagram Content in 20 Minutes with Combin Scheduler To sum up, planning Instagram feed in advance does the following: Increases brand awareness; Helps to draw people's attention right from the first seconds of engaging with your account; Adds value to your product, service, and brand in general; Helps build a loyal community of followers and customers; Allows you to stand out among dozens of your competitors. : with and preview your feed right in the app. Schedule posts, stories, make reposts, add a link in bio and more! ⚡️Tip plan Instagram feed Combin Scheduler Can You Build an Aesthetically Appealing Instagram Grid If You're Not a Designer? The first question you should ask yourself before working on an Instagram feed is why you want to create a polished grid and whether you need this at all. If all you wish is to stand out from the Instagram crowd, finding your unique selling points might be sufficient. These are not necessarily images or any other visuals. If you answered resoundingly 'yes' to the question and a consistent Instagram feed is what you strive for, then you can't do without professional counsel or watchfulness in terms of visuals. Two different visual approaches, each depending on a target audience and business goals. You can start with replicating or reproducing visuals of those accounts you personally find appealing. Then, as the time passes, you will start to comprehend what you should do better, fuel your creativity and get yourself to the next level. But our answer to the question we stated in the title is definitely a yes! Tips That Contribute to Visual Concept on Instagram Visual aesthetics and concept largely depend on your audience, or rather how big it is. If you create a niche product and is narrow enough, you can simply dig deeper into what they like and create visual images that they will find attractive. your target audience If you have , which is diverse, then it makes things a bit more complicated because your visuals can't be equally appealing to all of your followers. Yet, even if this is the case, there are tips that might be helpful: large followership Analyse which visuals your audience engages with the most. You can do it by experimenting with the visual content, posting something that you think might get a response in stories (pets or memes, for instance), or simply asking your followers what they'd like to see. Or you can incite emotions by mixing different styles or colours: leveraging 3D, unusual textures, or gradients will also be on point when trying to draw people's attention. Evoke emotions with your visual content. Instagram account is built on great colours, rounded images, emojis, and funny photos. PICK's profile uses a consistent template, bright colours and fancy fonts. Readymag's is an example when chaos in the grid is right on point. Testfm 2. . Play with your audience motivating them to learn more by concealing part of the visual or using word plays in the images. Be mysterious and unspoken 's page is all about graphics and dynamic logos Shedhalle 3. . Leverage your own photoshoots or create graphics that doesn't look like someone else's. Be unique leverages owned photos as backgrounds, and minimalistic plain fonts building a unique atmosphere Stackenschneider 4. . No need to create a polished feed all the time; sometimes, photos made with your smartphone will do even better. Don't worry if there are imperfect angles or details you didn't intend to include in your photos. Be honest and sincere profile has a simple look with photos taken on a smartphone with plain editing Taka's 5. . Especially if that is a text-based image. Align text left, use capital letters, and be consistent with the sizes of the text blocks – a title should be bigger than the text body and captions should be smaller than all other text blocks. Note that you shouldn't add more than four different text sizes. Use clear typography 6. . This will make your feed looks a lot more endearing. Mix close-ups and wide shots skilfully plays with different angles Black Lines Drinks 7. if you're promoting a self-service or product you make on your own (coaching, teaching, freelance work, DIY stuff, etc.). This will make you and your service a single whole, build up engaging communication with your followers, increase trust and credibility to your service or product. Mix your selfies and stories about you with posts about your service Absolute Don'ts in Visual Aesthetics on Instagram As our product designer Max says, what you should avoid by any means is to ! Sometimes, even stock images might be presented in an interesting manner and look even better than original yet low-quality photo content. be boring and afraid to experiment It's better to do something than not to do anything at all! There are no strict rules – everything depends on the specific context and your goals. If you're just starting building your visual brand voice on Instagram, Max suggests that . Instead, choose one for headlines, another one for a caption, and this will be enough at this point. you shouldn't use more than two different fonts and their sizes in one image Here's the project that can perfectly showcase this approach. Image Source Besides, think through the colour palette in advance, considering the main colours and their shades. But in order not to overload your audience. don't use too many colours For a start, you can use this colour chart and pick a palette from it. Image source As per Sasha, 'If you're new to photo editing, you should use apps that allow you to create presets that you can apply to different images to make sure the visuals look consistent'. Images with different brightness and saturation don't look particularly good on Instagram. Another piece of advice here is not to use too many filters on your images, keep them consistent in terms of colours, and use . Apart from the colour chart, you can also pick a palette on or generate one in the AI-based solution . no more than six colours at once Adobe Color Khroma Tips to Use When Taking Photos of Your Products If you build the Instagram visual concept around the products you sell, then of extreme importance should be good lighting for photographs and background colour. Max implies you can create a pro-level photo studio right at home or office. Here are the tips he suggests: Find sources of natural daylight or bright artificial light sources. Use a home-made paper light filter to make your images look soft and devoid of contrast shadows. Experiment with colour backgrounds or hang your products on an invisible transparent fishing line to make them look creative. Sasha adds that you should find the inimitable style and visual language of your photos so that people could easily recognise your brand. How to do so? With a unique background, a detail that is necessarily present on each photo, single photo preset, or a whole unique picture frame. account is a perfect example of profile consistency made through flatlays and objective shots with the same presets and pastel backgrounds MO's Simply put, be creative – your followers will appreciate a unique approach! Don't forget to clearly and concisely showcase your product, not just create a smashing visual. Apps to Build Visual Aesthetics on Instagram To make your Instagram photo content look consistent and aesthetically appealing, you can use a wealth of image editing apps. Some that our designers recommend are: – photo-editing app for iPhones and Android smartphones with enhanced functionality. Snapseed – renowned app with plenty of filters. VSCO – a toolkit for storytellers with elegant presets. Unfold – a handy mobile photoshop. Picsart – an award-winning photo editor and graphic design app that helps you easily create beautiful photos, professional designs & stunning collage art. Bazaart – super handy app with advanced functionality for photo editing. Lightroom – a photo editing tool that allows you to edit visuals like a pro. Splice – an absolute must-have for aspiring and seasoned designers alike. Figma – the app allowing you to find a talent of a motion designer. Plays: Animation Design Kit These are simple, easy-to-use apps that even novices can handle; some of them have pre-made templates and presets that you can start with. 💡 Suggested read: 28 Best Instagram Apps to Create Smashing Visuals in 2022 Custom Fonts on Instagram: Pros and Cons You've probably noticed that many brands and creators on Instagram use custom fonts to draw followers' attention to their captions. We've talked to our design team to once and for all figure out if the custom fonts should be used or this is old news. Our Lead Designer Sergey considers that there's nothing wrong with using fonts unless it's appropriate enough. Custom fonts can be attention-grabbing, though sometimes it's tricky to read them. So the advice is to use fonts that can be easily read. Pick fonts that can be easily comprehended: make sure that your followers can recognise the words behind them as hassle-free as you do. Max, on the contrary, thinks that a . And to keep it simple on the field that is so competitive for attention might be your unique point. plain caption with a native Instagram font can be your advantage as custom fonts create an additional cognitive load According to Sasha, 'I think the Unicode custom fonts are a bit old-fashioned, but . For instance, if the concept is ℭ𝔬𝔪𝔦𝔠𝔞𝔩 𝔊𝔬𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔠, this font will be well on point'. they do no harm if they correspond with your account's concept 💡 : Suggested read How to Write in Different Fonts on Instagram Instead of a Bottom Line Hopefully, our design team helped you with the Instagram aesthetics struggle and provided you with the plain counsel. Just remember that even if Instagram is a visually-based platform, being responsible before your audience, ethical as a brand, and transparent when you deliver your values and images mean a lot more than a polished look. On occasions, words and concepts are more precious than the most delightful pictures. Also Published Here

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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.

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Access to training data is one of the largest blockers for many machine learning projects. Luckily, for various different projects, we can use data augmentation to increase the size of our training data many times over. Instead of trying to find and label more data points, based on what data we already have. we can construct new ones Note: This article was written by Sergios Karagiannakos on Lionbridge AI Wait? Can we do that? Sure we can. Though it is not always easy and it might not produce the best results, it’s still a viable alternative. Expanding a dataset with Data Augmentation methods is not only helpful for the challenge of limited data. It can also reduce overfitting and improve the generalization of our models because it increases the diversity of our training set. So let’s cut to the chase: How can we perform Data Augmentation? I think the says it all. In this article, we will focus on image augmentation as it is currently the most active field of research, but most of these techniques can be applied to all sorts of data. image below Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40537-019-0197-0 Basic Image Manipulations The first simple thing to do is to perform geometric transformations to the image. You might assume that machine learning can easily distinguish two identical images with different rotations, but it can’t. Image flipping, cropping, rotations, and translations are some obvious first steps. We can also change the color space of the image using contrast, sharpening, white balancing, color jittering, random color manipulation and many other techniques (called photometric transformations). If you’ve ever used Instagram filters or Snapseed, then you’ll get what I’m saying. You can get as creative as you want. Moreover, you can mix images together, randomly erase segments of an image, and of course, combine all the above in all sorts of various ways. Source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1809.06839v1.pdf Data Augmentation using Machine Learning Besides basic image manipulations, more and more engineers are starting to use machine and deep learning techniques to augment their data. Think about it this way: We can use machine learning models to produce more data to train more machine learning models. Some of the most promising works are below: Feature Space Augmentation and Autoencoders In the above examples, we transformed images on the input space. We can also apply transformations in feature space. With Neural Networks we can very efficiently map high dimensional inputs (such as images) in lower-dimensional representation (known as feature or latent space). Think of it as encoding a 3D tensor into a 1D vector without losing too much information. Having an image encoding in a few dimensions makes it much easier to perform augmentations. Many interesting papers suggest different ways to do so such as joining k nearest neighbors together, adding noise, interpolation, and more. have proven the best choice to extract feature space representations. Autoencoders are a special type of neural networks, which try to reconstruct the input. They consist of two networks, an encoder and a decoder. The encoder takes the input and encodes it into a vector in lower dimensions (feature space). The decoder takes that vector and tries to reconstruct the original input. Autoencoders By doing this, the latent vector in the middle contains all the information about the dataset and can be extracted to do all sorts of things, including data augmentation. GAN-based Data Augmentation Generative Modeling is one of the most exciting techniques at the moment because it can produce completely new images. Generative models can generate new patterns in data because they learn the distribution of the data and not the boundary between them (as is common in most machine learning models). In that direction, have become the industry and research standard. GANs consist of two networks, the generator, and the discriminator. The generator’s job is to produce fake data with nothing but noise as input. The second model, the discriminator, receives as input both the real images and the fake images (produced by the generator) and learns to identify the image as fake or real. Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) As these networks compete against each other, and by training them simultaneously (in a process called adversarial training), the magic begins: The generator becomes better and better at image generation because its ultimate goal is to fool the discriminator. The discriminator, in turn, becomes better and better at distinguishing fake from real images, because its goal is to not be fooled. The result is incredibly realistic fake data from the generator. GANs have produced some of the most realistic images and videos we’ve ever seen. Remember deep fakes? That was all the work of GANs. So why not use them for data augmentation instead of replacing Jack Nickolson with Jim Carrey in the Shining? Meta-Learning Last but not least, we have . Meta-Learning is a relatively new area, in which we use neural networks to optimize other neural networks by tuning their hyperparameters, improving their layout, and more. In terms of data augmentation, things get a little more complicated. Meta-Learning In simple terms, we use a classification network to tune an augmentation network into generating better images. Take a look at the image below: By feeding random images to the Augmentation Network (most likely a GAN), it will generate augmented images. Both the augmented image and the original are passed into a second network, which compares them and tells us how good the augmented image is. After repeating the process the augmentation network becomes better and better at producing new images. Source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.04621.pdf Of course, this procedure is not the only one available, but it’s a very good starting point for the different research papers in the area. Conclusion Data Augmentation is by no means an easy task. There have been quite a few interesting works (here is a of them) but there is still much room for improvement. For example, we can still improve the quality of GANs samples, find new ways to use Meta-Learning, and perhaps establish a taxonomy of different augmentation techniques. collection And of course, we can still discover new ways to use these techniques in other forms of data, such as text, tabular data, graph data, and more. Why not also expand beyond that? How about Reinforcement Learning? Or search algorithms? The stage is yours. Hopefully through data augmentation, you can increase and improve the quality of your training data. Author Profile Sergios Karagiannakos is a Machine Learning Engineer and founder of AI Summer, an educational blog focused on Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning. Also published on: https://lionbridge.ai/articles/data-augmentation-with-machine-learning-an-overview/

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I first felt the need to upgrade my iPad on Sep 13, 2016, the day iOS 10 launched. That was when I finally accepted that Apple wasn’t going to give any more OS upgrades for my iPad 3. However, the missing update by itself, didn’t seem to me a strong enough reason to upgrade to an expensive new iPad. Firstly, my iPad and I have been together for six years now. It’s still functional albeit a bit slow, and I didn’t feel good about breaking up with it. Secondly, manufacturers always push us to upgrade, but we need to delay doing that to avoid adding to the world’s electronic junk. Thirdly, an iPad is not cheap in India where Apple products can be prohibitively expensive. (The base model of the iPhone X was launched in India for $1313, or ₹89000). So I decided to hang on to my iPad till I got a good deal on the latest iPad model. But this turned out to be a neverending cycle. The more I waited for a price drop, the closer I got to the launch of the newer iPad model, and the more I felt like waiting a bit longer for that newer model. But new models will always cost a bit more, which brought me back to square one. So two years and another iOS update later, I was still sitting on the fence with my iPad 3, waiting for the right moment to jump for an upgrade. The device I didn’t want The first time I laid hands on an iPad was when a friend got the original iPad in 2011. Seeing apps on that large screen was intriguing. But I couldn’t quite figure out how it would fit into my life. So I didn’t bother to get one. A year later, in March 2012 to be precise, Apple launched its third generation iPad with the A5X chip and the then brand new iOS 5.1. Though it was theoretically the iPad 3, Apple simply called it the ‘New iPad.’ I saw that iPad a month later, displayed next to the iPad 2 at a mall, and its picture absolutely popped in comparison (2048x1536 @ 261 ppi vs 1024x768 @ 132 ppi). The new iPad is dead; Long live the new iPad I was instantly sold on it, and picked it up, in what marketer’s aptly term as an ‘impulse purchase.’ In November of the same year, Apple launched the 4th generation iPad. It came with a processor that was twice as fast, and the new lightning connector. In just seven months, my just launched ‘new iPad’ had become the old iPad. Six years later, I still feel the pain. There’s an unwritten rule in the market which states that if you pay a premium price to buy a newly launched product, then you should be allowed to savour your status of having the latest version of that gadget for a certain period of time, which is usually around a year. Fortunately, Apple seems to have finally got the memo. There has never been another Apple product with as short a life cycle as the iPad 3. My iPad finds its place Anyway, after I purchased my iPad 3, I realised I had been right about wondering if I really needed it. My iMac with its 21" large screen was perfect for working, while my then iPhone 4 was my portable device. There was no a place for the iPad. Beside, typing on the iPad screen is inconvenient for anything more than a few minutes. I have tried using it with a bluetooth keyboard, and the small screen and low height still make it a pain, literally. However my iPad slowly inveigled itself into my life. It was perfect for when I had work, but was forced to be away from my Mac for some reason. Its larger screen allowed me to type much faster and more easily than on my iPhone 4’s piddly 3.5" screen. It was also much better for reading, and surfing the net. After I had got used to the screen, I slowly began to use my iPad at home too. Like at breakfast, where it began to supplement the daily newspaper, partly because it was more updated on breaking news, and partly because I could follow more links on stories that I was interested in. I did make one mistake though. I had gone for the iPad with a cellular connectivity. That turned out to be redundant as India’s cellular networks allow hot-spotting or sharing of your phone’s data connection. So I never did use a SIM in my iPad. 6 years old, and ready to retire I have been using my iPad for six years now, and it’s slowly inching its way into obsolescence. Apple expects people to use its devices for 2–3 years max, and then replace them as technology advances make it hard for new software to run on older hardware. My iPad 3 is a 32-bit device, and a lot of the 64-bit iOS and app features will not work on it. In fact, I heard Apple is discontinuing all 32-bit apps (or maybe has already discontinued them). So apps on my iPad 3 are often outdated and sometimes don’t exist. Besides newer OSes are designed for new hardware, and many features don’t work well or don’t work at all, on older hardware. Like when iOS 9 was launched in September 2015, I happily installed it on my iPad. But to my horror, the new OS made my iPad sluggish. Like if I typed in a sentence, there would be a distinct lag before the typing appeared on screen. Or when I restarted my iPad, the screen would be visible, but take another minute or so before it would respond to my touch. My solution was to erase the iPad, do a clean install of iOS 9, and put in only the basic apps. Safari and Mail are built in apps, and I use them often. I also downloaded Pages for writing, a couple of news apps, Skype, YouTube, VLC and a few other apps including the Medium app. With just these apps, the iPad seemed to run a bit smoother, though the lag in response remained. Apple decides I need a gentle push What made my iPad issues so obvious is that I own an iPhone 6S Plus, running iOS 11. My iPad on iOS 9 is not just slow but also misses a lot of the iOS 11 goodies. Things like live photos, ‘Airdrop,’ ‘Handover,’ the new notification and control centres, the night reading mode (Apple had removed Flux from the App Store even though it enabled night reading on older Apple devices, which was not a nice thing to do). But what really made me decide that it was time to upgrade was this set of well-made . (Be warned, some apps shown are paid apps). Links to the other videos of this series can be found on the same page. videos by Apple It made me realise what I was missing out by not upgrading, and also that the iPad 6 can do stuff my phone can’t. So when the 6th generation iPad was launched, I was definitely interested. Is my iPad’s battery about to die? That’s straight from the horse’s mouth There was one other factor that contributed to my decision to make the jump for a new iPad. From the , it would seem Apple recommends replacing batteries which charge only up to 80% of their original capacity. After that, I assume battery performance will degrade and not be very predictable. above I used a free app called (there are ads at the bottom) to check my iPad battery’s health. I had installed the app while doing a previous story on the . Battery Life right way to charge phone batteries 20% wear level at 492 charge cycles — my battery performance may start degrading fast It would seem my iPad’s battery health is down to the danger level of 80% wear though it hasn’t yet touched 500 cycles. I assume the age of the iPad (6 years) has added to its wear level. Basically, from this point on, any additional time I get on my iPad is a bonus, and not guaranteed by Apple. Yup, time to move on. Hobby horse vs Workhorse We would all like to own Ferraris but end up with cars within our budget. My iPad was no different. I wanted the 12" iPad Pro but was it overkill for my needs? I’m no artist and my iPad will be mostly used for surfing and viewing media and a bit of writing. In fact, I usually do most work related stuff, including this post, on my Mac. So a bit of research seemed in order. The above reviewer made a lot of sense to me. He’s an artist who owns an iPad Pro, which he uses as a work horse. His earnings from work done on his iPad Pro is several times more than what he spent on it, which was around $1400. He believes the iPad 6 is Apple’s best ever value-for-money device, and more than enough for student artists who may not yet be generating much of an income. As my use of an iPad will be even less than that of a student artist, this argument definitely applies to me. So I finalised on the iPad 6, and decided to hold off on Apple Pencil. And yes, I’m aware its Retina Display is the same as my six year old iPad 3. The only thing left was to look out for the right time to buy it. This would basically be when the big online retailers had a sale going. Price Surprises Price is an issue in India as Apple products are generally prohibitively expensive here. That’s because the Indian government imposes heavy taxes on products made outside India. This is in order to encourage local investment by those foreign companies. For instance, the 6th generation iPad costs $329 (₹22,375) in the US Apple store, but was selling for $412 (₹28,000) in Amazon India (Apple Stores are not present in India). In mid April, Amazon had a sale, and I managed to get the iPad for $360 (₹24,499) by buying it then. An offer on my credit card knocked ₹1500 off the sale price of ₹25,999. But it still cost $30 (₹2,040) more than in the US. An offer on my credit card knocked a further ₹1500 off but it’s stil $30 more than the US price If I had waited a few months, I may have probably got a better deal, but like I said, it’s a neverending cycle of price drop vs latest tech. So I went ahead and ordered the iPad 6. I recall spending $397 (₹27000) for my iPad 3 six years ago, but that’s not too surprising as prices drop when technology advances. India may have the world’s least expensive iPhone There’s another angle to prices in India. When Apple finally accepted that India is a price sensitive market, they decided to test things by assembling the iPhone SE locally. This got around the tax issue, and the difference is startling. The made-in-India iPhone SE can be bought in India for $279 (₹19000), while it costs $349 (₹23,735) in the US. That’s substantially cheaper. Unfortunately, Apple has not yet been able to do this for other iPhone models or iPads. Also, there is a very limited demand for 4" screen phones in the Indian market where 5.5" screens is the standard in the iPhone SE’s price range. My wife is one of those who opted for this phone, probably because she was upgrading from a 3.5" iPhone 4. If you are okay with the screen size, I can confirm the iPhone SE is a real bargain. It has the same internal hardware as my iPhone 6S series and runs the latest iOS 11 as fast and as smooth as on my far more expensive iPhone 6S Plus. In fact, you can get it for ₹17000 ($249) if you plan your buy like I did during a sale by the giant online retailers. That‘s $279, or $70 less than the US Apple Store price of $349 — you can get it for even less. Old is Gold I just about buy into Apple’s 3-year product replacement cycle on phones. But it’s hard to accept that argument for my iPad, which I use for barely an hour a day. Or my iMac which I feel should last much longer, especially if it’s used mainly for basic writing and surfing, and not for serious photo or video editing. So I have upgraded my phone but keep pushing the envelope on my other devices. My iMac is a 2011 model, and still running smoothly on Mac OS High Sierra though many newer features like Airdrop don’t work on it. Surprisingly I do have a functional 2008 MacBook Pro, a 17” dinosaur, though it’s running an older OS (I think it’s Mavericks or Mac OS 10.9). I had its battery replaced once. But when the replacement battery ‘bulged’, I just got rid of the thing, effectively converting the MacBook into a laptop. It’s perfectly functional for basic typing and surfing. I often leave it behind at my mother’s place. This way, I have a working large screen machine to use whenever I drop in for a visit. The machine also has some ports that my newer iMac doesn't, which allows me to use it to grab video from my old DV tapes. In short, the old warhorse is still pulling its weight. The MacBook Pro battery that bulged (my iPad is acting as a table for it!) Live fast and die young As far as my phone goes, it puts in many more hours of work everyday as compared to my iPad. So I don’t seem to be able to extract as much life as I can from my larger devices. When I picked up my iPad 3, I was using the iPhone 4, which I bought around 2010. By 2013, its battery had begun running out fast. I had the battery replaced, but the phone’s ear piece lost power, and I could barely hear calls if I was in a noisy environment like a mall. So when I got a chance for an inexpensive upgrade to a refurbished iPhone 5, I did so. That phone lasted two years till one morning, when its display refused to turn on. Upset with Apple, . However knowing my love for all things Apple, my wife gifted me an iPhone 6S Plus a couple of months later. I was weary of Android by then, and gladly switched back. That was in December 2015. My iPhone is now in its third year, and isn’t yet obsolete. It does miss features like the back twin camera, and of course, Face ID. But I plan to get a new battery before the year is out (by taking advantage of Apple’s discounted battery replacement program, a response to the phone throttling disaster), and should be able to extract another year from my phone. If I can do that, I will be able to move in directly into the second generation of Face ID phones. I did hear rumours of a larger 6" iPhone, and I may go for that. It will be interesting to see if that reduces my iPad usage. I switched to Android Reincarnating my iPad I didn’t like the idea of parting with my iPad as it’s a pretty impressive device despite its age. However its battery condition meant it could drop dead anytime so I had to be practical. Amazon did have an exchange offer for my iPad 3 whilst buying the iPad 6. They were willing to give me ₹1805 ($27) to take it off my hands. Maybe I would get a bit more if I listed it on Quikr or Olx (ebay equivalents in India). Whatever! It’s still peanuts, and I think my iPad 3 is worth lot more. I mean if my iPad 3 was a non-functional piece of electronic junk, that would have made sense from an environmental pollution point of view. But this is a functioning iPad that can be used for surfing, viewing media, email, or listening to music. It may be slow but it’s an equivalent of a portable PC and video/music player combined. Besides it comes with an all day battery, and a touchscreen, which makes it handy, and easy to use (except for the lack of USB to access pendrives). This thing can easily run a couple of years if you don’t have too many expectations of it in terms of speed. The post PC world has arrived PCs may still be very much alive in offices, but they are going out of fashion on the home front. My mother doesn’t use her old PC anymore as her smartphone serves all her needs. So when it conked off, it didn’t seem worth repairing and I got rid of it, along with whole bunch of accessories and wires. It’s surprising how clean my old desk at home looks with just an old Macbook on it. My wife too recently gifted away her laptop. She had lent it to one of her friends who seemed to have more use for it. As of now, my wife’s phone meets all her computer and internet needs. Besides, she still has access to a laptop, as her office insists she carry one. The thing is after sitting in front of a screen all day, she dislikes doing the same at home. She’s also a bit of a technophobe, which makes her a perfect target for my recycled iPad. She herself realised this, and asked me to pass on my old iPad. She feels it will meet all her needs at home, which is basically watching a few videos on a bigger screen, listening to music, and checking the odd email. Though my iPad is slow, it should be fine for her. In fact if I get a new case, it’ll look as good as new as it’s virtually scratch-free. Anyway, it’s quite a relief to know the old chap will not be leaving us. Of course, that 20% wear on the battery means that I might have to replace the battery if its performance drops sharply and the iPad becomes unusable. I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. Getting to know my iPad 6 It’s now more than a week since I got my iPad 6, and I still haven’t really started using it. One reason is there’s a bit of learning curve with it. I’m looking forward to going through some of the Apple I earlier mentioned (though a few features may be iPad Pro only), and learning how to use my new toy. But somehow, I haven’t got around to doing it. videos As someone said, the best time is right now. Fine, I will start today with the Apple video on . It’s a paid app but I seem to own it, so I might as well use it. Here we go. using Pixelmator to erase stuff Before and after touching up the image using Pixelmator To be honest, the grainy feel of the lines separating the tiles make the original photo far more interesting. Besides, my crude attempts at touch-up might lead to my arty friends disowning me. But the thing is if I want to, I can do this on my iPad itself. I’m sure most basic imaging apps can do this, including the Apple’s built in Photos. However it was still impressive to me, as I usually don’t attempt tweaking images on the smaller screens of my iPhone or iPad (that does not include Snapseed, which is an honorable exception). Next, I tried using the split screen to at a time, as I can’t do this on my iPhone. Looks like it can be being pretty useful when I am in one app and need to view or use something from another app. Let me give it a go. run two apps Split view on the iPad makes it easier to work with multiple apps That whole operation was pretty smooth. Which was when it struck me that this iPad has a A10 Fusion chip as against my iPhone 6S Plus’ A9 chip. Hmm, it’s first for my iPad to be more powerful than my iPhone (and also better at conserving battery power). Let’s get a little geeky about it. Ooooh! iPad 6 vs iPhone 6S Plus Looks like I’m going to have fun discovering the capabilities of my new iPad.

To upgrade or not; an info-era dilemma

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Schultz also found that in this state of anticipation, removing or greatly delaying the release of juice caused a complex neurological pattern associated with desire and frustration to erupt. In simple terms, it lead to an unsatisfied craving frenzy — similar to what you might feel if your Deliveroo order goes wrong. We experience similar habit loops with social apps like Instagram. If you ever watch someone opening their app, it’s almost guaranteed their eyes first flick to the notification centre and red alert at the bottom right. Why? Because over time, their brain has started to anticipate the reward of popularity or feeling important. Where did your eyes first go? 👀😏 You’ll also see many users re-opening their Instagram or Mail app just minutes after their last session. They know the chances of a reward are low after such a short timeframe, yet subconscious routine and habit causes them to check again. Over time, this automatic process becomes a strong habit loop and it leads to you more effort into posting and maintaining your profile. investing breaks down the habit loop into four stages Nir Eyal’s Hook model Habitual use can also lead to something called . Take Snapchat Streaks for example, where you get a streak score equal to the number of consecutive days you’ve sent direct snaps back and forth to a particular friend. loss aversion If you break the streak, you lose the whole status/proof of friendship, and . something that started as a pleasure is now a prison One teen’s Snapstreaks — it would be more painful to stop and break the streak than it would be to continue in perpetuity. Successful products ruthlessly prioritise features that lead to addiction or habitual use. Why? Because user acquisition is one thing, but ensuring new users is vital for long-term active user growth; you can’t sustainably grow active users with a leaky bucket. stay How do you make an addictive app? In 2014 I launched an app called . Within our first year we grew to 4 million users and 50 flings (messages) delivered across the platform, and we had a DAUMAU of over 50%. Fling billion This means on average, over half of our monthly users were using our app daily (side tip – many VCs will require you have a DAUMAU of at least 30%). Fling was akin to Snapchat, but with a twist: your snaps went to around the world instead of your friends. Those that received your content could simply reply and start a chat; you met people outside of your social circles and built friendships across the world. 50 random people The very first version of Fling that I photoshopped myself (pre-Sketch days)… The concept was super straightforward, & the design admittedly got better with a full team later on! Here’s a few ways we built initial addiction within our products: 1. Pure design If you threw a paper plane from a building into a busy street, what would you do? Walk away? No – you’d be curious to see where it went, who got it, if they read the message etc. At Fling, we virtualised this experience into our design to prompt the emotions you would feel in real life. You actually had to throw (i.e. “fling”) your message onto a world map by swiping up on the paper plane icon. We then showed you 50 pins indicating city locations of the recipients. “Flinging” — throwing your media like a paper plane out to the world We found users got addicted to the motion/action of Flinging itself. The internal emotive trigger that brought you to Fling (boredom, loneliness) was rewarded with the excitement of seeing where your message would go. However, this wasn’t enough to keep users coming back on its own and we needed to add some variability. 2. Variable rewards Introducing unpredicatability into your app or product creates in your brain as users try to process what or might happen. elevated dopamine could As the animal trainer Karen Pryor notes in , a dolphin rewarded with a fishy treat every six jumps will soon become lackadaisical about the five in-between ones. Reward it at random, however, and it’ll jump vigorously, never knowing which jump will yield fish. Don’t Shoot The Dog! This is why slot machines are so addictive — not because we know we’ll be rewarded with money, but because we be. might With Gig FM ( launched in 2017) users stream themselves performing music live from their home and can be tipped with gifts, for which you need credits to buy; it’s quite alike to virtual busking. our music livestreaming app — artists livesteam their performances from home to engage their fans and receive virtual tips in the form of “Gifts” Gig FM App During beta we wanted to celebrate our 5000th user by giving free credits to all our users. Instead of giving each user the same number of credits we told them they had received a random number between 10 and 5000 in their account; we introduced variability to keep them excited. It didn’t cost us any more in credits, but it produced high CTRs and engagement. An email campaign sent out to beta users. Gig FM Similarly in , seeing 50 scattered pins on a map became banal so we cut the experience (and dopamine) short after showing the destination of your messages. We never showed who opened it and there was no like button; users could only reply to Flings. Fling Replies were the end goal of Flinging We would see users constantly refreshing their inbox, desperate for a reply to fly in. The unknown variable of would reply to you (if anyone at all) meant that over 85% of our users opened the push notification above within seconds of receiving it. It was a great way to get users to turn on their PNs too. who Fling eventually evolved as the app grew, however we always kept the core “Flinging” and reply mechanism in place. Fling V2.0. We hired a real designer. 3. Behavioural Cohorts Finally, this is something that deserves its own post, but behavioural cohorts are fundamental to unlocking high retention in any app. You can find out where and how your users are by bucketing new users that performed specific actions into groups or “cohorts”, and finding how much retention lifts when those actions are repeated. activating In lamens terms, it means finding the exact point where your users find in your app. The more they , the more retention should increase. value repeat your core action For example, Facebook in its early years found that if you connected with 7 friends within 10 days of signing up, you were almost guaranteed to be a long-term user of their product. Their data showed diminishing returns after this point, so Facebook knew all they had to get you to do was make 7 friends in 10 days in order to activate you. Points of activation for various unicorn companies — the term “AHA! Moment” is often used to describe the inflection point on retention curves. Image credit: Aplitude. At Fling, we found our core action to be sending a chat message. Whilst sending media gave you dopamine, the end reward and was always to get a reply and start a serendipitous chat thread with a random person. You also did not need to be a content creator to begin chats, you simply replied to other peoples’ Flings. aim Activation point in Fling: When new users sent more than more than 3 messages in a single chat thread on their first day The long-term retention of new users who on Day 1 had a chat that was more than just “hello” was significantly higher than that of other cohorts. In real-world terms, this made sense; new users who engaged in conversations suddenly understood the whole point of the app and returned to find that value in the long-run. Many built long-term connections and friendships through serendipity, and some even ended up married! meaningful To this day, I still get messages from couples and friends who met on Fling: At , we were initially surprised to find that retention was linked to gifts, not receiving them. Our biggest lift in retention came from users who sent at least 1 gift within their first week of joining: Gig FM sending It made sense: this interaction gave the sender the joy of recognition and instant gratification as the broadcaster vocally thanked them in front of every other viewer. It also gave the artist financial payoffs from the virtual gift and gave the other viewers in the room entertaining content. Users thus understood the core purpose of the app after sending a gift to an artist. Hacking retention became easy after this data analysis, and as part of our onboarding we made it almost impossible not to send a gift (with free credits) as part of users’ first sessions. Integrating habit loops early Finding your and building this into a habit within your product by design is one of the keys to growing in a sustainable manner. core action Whether you are a social, banking or health app, or even an , it’s important to integrate habit loops, dopamine hits and variable rewards into Product Don’t wait until after launch; nurture your very first users into creating habits that make them stick. As your users become loyal, they’ll also be more likely to invite their friends and grow your product for you through referrals and word of mouth. app for buying fine wine on demand right from the start. If you enjoyed this post, please let me know with a clap. It would really make my day, cheers! Marco Nardone is the Founder & CEO of Wineapp and Gig FM app, and has previously founded 9 other apps and products, including Fling which grew to 5 million users and over 50 billion messages delivered. Follow on Medium for more posts on tech , growth hacking and product-obsessive thoughts.

Making the next billion dollar app? Create a habit that becomes a craving

When Apple piggybacks on Google, it ‘just works’ better (Image from ) Flickr The other day, my iMac crashed. As it was a 2011 model, I was prepared. Well, sort of. I had been regularly backing up my stuff via Time Machine but had stopped doing this 24/7 a couple of years ago so as to extend my Time Machine’s life. It’s a venerable 2008 model. Also, a lot has changed since 2008 as most of my files are saved online and I don’t need regular backups any more. However when I ran the ‘restore utility’ on my Mac, I realised that I had lost track of time. My Time Machine informed me that my last backup was over four months ago. I mulled it over as my mouse hovered over the ‘restore’ button. By my reckoning, the only new files of any value on my Mac that I added in that period were a few photos and songs. So I gave Time Machine the go ahead with the ‘restore.’ Once the restore was done, the Mac seemed fine. But I could not say the same of apps like Photos, iTunes, Contacts and more. Besides the last four months’ missing files, Photos had also converted many earlier videos to thumbnails. These wouldn’t play when I clicked on them as the original files were missing. iTunes too had randomly made quite a few of my song collections disappear. The Bermuda Triangle To be honest, I wasn’t surprised as it’s not the first time Apple apps have played this trick on me, and it’s not just me. Here another victim the same tune on the Apple Support forum for iTunes. And here’s a about disappearing pictures from the Photos app. The latter seems to have had a happy ending for a few individuals who recovered their photos by tweaking some settings. I’m sure expert users will be able to relocate the missing photos but my heart goes out to the ordinary folks who have lost their precious memories forever. singing thread This sort of thing should not happen, but unfortunately it does with Apple. After several unsuccessful attempts to figure out why, I gave up and concluded there’s a sort of Bermuda Triangle in Appleland where songs and photos and the rest mysteriously disappear. But unlike the Bermuda Triangle, you can’t avoid using apps like Photos and iTunes if you are in the Apple ecosystem. There were two solutions. The first was to make a clean break an emigrate out of the Apple ecosystem. The second was to find a backup system where I am not expected to expect the unexpected, so to say. When Apple just works I had tried the ‘migration’ solution by moving to an Android for a while. But it didn’t work out. I don’t know if this was because I was just more comfortable with Apple, having been on the platform for ages. Or because there were situations when my Android let me down, while Apple actually ‘just worked.’ Let me illustrate with an example. I once had to make a screen recording as a demo of how to use a certain app on Android, and send it to a WhatsApp Group. After making the demo, I sent it from my Android phone to my iPhone via WhatsApp to test if it was working. It wasn’t. Whatever compression WhatsApp had used on the one minute long video had caused the audio and video to go off sync. Now I could troubleshoot and try to figure out what when wrong. But sometimes you just want to get things done instead of spending time figuring out why it doesn’t work. So I followed my gut feeling that the video might work if I sent it from my iPhone. Accordingly, I bluetoothed the video from my Android to my iPhone, and then Whatsapped it again. This time, the video worked perfectly. I don’t know why the problem happened. It could have been an issue with the WhatsApp on Android compressing videos using a method that’s different from WhatsApp on iOS. Or it could have been a hardware issue with my Android phone, a Redmi Note 4 with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage (which are pretty good specs). Or it could have been a problem with Android itself. What I do know was Apple just worked. In that sense, Apple is perfect for people who would rather spend time ‘doing things’ rather than ‘fixing things.’ I guess that’s why the Apple will always have a strong base of loyal users. However my problem is the situation when Apple ‘just works’ is no longer true. When Apple just doesn’t work Since the migrating to Android route wasn’t working for me, I had to check the reliable online backup route. Only one entity fit the bill. Google. One thing I can vouch for after ten years of using Google apps is that there are no Bermuda Triangles. Google is almost a synonym for reliable. Google’s biggest shortcoming is a loss of privacy. Not to mention all those persevering ads trying to sell me a plethora of hair loss remedies, completely oblivious of the fact that I have a full head of hair. A lot of people I know absolutely refuse to have anything to do with Google for this reason. However having , I figured it was worthwhile for me to to share my data with Google in return for free use of their services. This is probably because I don’t have much to hide. Which means I have more to gain and less to lose in sharing my data with Google. To illustrate, Google’s bots once helped me avoid missing a flight by warning me it was due to leave at 5 am while I was under the impression it was leaving at 5 pm. Google was able to do this because I let them read my mails, and signed in to Google’s notifications. But like I said, sharing data with Google is not for everyone. weighed the pros and cons Photos In fact, Google had already solved my photo backup issue a couple of years ago when it offered unlimited online backup of all my photos in the ‘Google Photos’ app. It’s not in full resolution admittedly, but it’s good enough for me. In fact, it even backs up ‘live’ photos as tiny videos. The problem is the ISPs in India used to have strict restrictions on internet bandwidth and download limits (wifi), and speeds were very slow. But things have improved in recent times. My connection has gone from a miserly 30GB/month @4Mbps two years ago, to an acceptable 300GB @60Mbps now. Cost too has gone down to ₹1250 per month ($20). What clinched the deal is Google offers ‘image’ search. Like I can search for ‘elephant,’ and ‘Google Photos’ will visually identify all the elephants in my photo collection. I found this fascinating enough to merit its . In fact, nowadays if I need to find a photo in a hurry, my go-to app on my iPhone is not Apple’s ‘Photos’ but ‘Google Photos.’ Yup, it just works. own post Setting up automatic photo backup in Google is easy. You first install the ‘Google Photos’ app, and give the app permission to access your ‘Photos’ app. Once the app is up and running, click on the icon with 3- horizontal lines on the app’s top left. This will reveal the settings gear icon. Click on that, then tap on ‘backup and sync,’ and toggle on the switch in the next screen. That’s it. Backing up all my photos on Google Photos Music My Music backup experience on Google was a bit odd. Apple Music and Google Play Music had launched in India with free trial offers, with Google also offering a free backup of all my music (probably to compete with Apple Match). I tried out both the services, and also backed up all my music on Google using the Chrome browser on my Mac (see below). As more free music streaming services came out in India, I discontinued my Apple music subscription, and switched to the free service of Google Play Music. Not surprisingly, it’s supported by ads, which isn’t really a deal breaker as there’s an option to skip the longer video ads similar to the YouTube thingy. Uploading my music to Google Play Music via Chrome Some time later, my favorite Nobel Prize winning singer disappeared from my iTunes. Maddening, no doubt, but I sort of expected it by now from the whimsical iTunes. Out of habit, I checked my Google Play Music library, and was surprised to find my entire uploaded music collection including the missing Dylan album, still available online. I do occasionally buy music from Google so my guess is they see me as a paying customer and let me keep my stuff for free in return. Anyway, as I started downloading my lost music, Bob started singing, “If not for you, My sky would fall.” That captured exactly what I felt for Google at that instant. Contacts Apple’s mysterious disappearing tricks also happens with people in my Contacts app. My plumber once vanished into thin air, a disappearing act that drove me nuts enough to spew out an about it. Again, it was Google to the rescue as I had backed up my contacts. entire post Apple actually makes it easy to back up your contacts with Google on your iPhone. Basically you sync your phone’s contacts with your Gmail contact list. This way, you can always retrieve a contact from your ‘google contacts’ if it goes missing from your iPhone. It’s again simple to set up. First, add your Gmail account to your phone’s Mail app. Then go to Settings and enable contacts syncing. As you can see below, my personal gmail account is set to have contacts to be synced on my iPhone. Backing up my contacts on Google The other advantage of this system is you can keep your work contacts out of your phone to prevent excess clutter in your phone book. If you look at the middle image above, you can see my Work email account doesn’t have contacts synced. I save work contacts directly in my work email phonebook, and leave them there. If I need to have a work contact on my phone, I temporarily put him in my phone book. This does make him to appear in my personal Gmail contacts. But once I’m done with the job, I remove the contact from my phone, and it automatically diasappears from my personal Gmail. Should I ever need his number, I can always locate his details from my work email account. There is a better way to prevent clutter in your phonebook. Group all your work contacts in a group called Work, and then hide the group from within the Contacts app. Anytime you wish to see your work contacts, just tap on the groups link on the top left of your Contact app, and toggle the tick mark back on. This is far more convenient method except for one little issue. You can see groups in the Contacts app but you can’t create Groups in it. You have to go to your browser, sign in to your iCloud, and create the Group there. That’s just a bit too much for me. Why not in the app? Apple may have its reasons but they aren’t saying. However my issues with Apple are not just limited to backup. Image Editing Apple’s Photos offers a lot of options in editing images. But Google’s Snapseed is at altogether another level. Let me explain with one feature. Lots of times, when you shoot someone, you get a good mood shot but the details of the face can’t be seen. Now in Photos, you can brighten the whole image and see details. But doing that causes the rest of the picture to get washed out and you lose the mood. With Snapseed, you can easily brighten one particular area, say the face without brightening the rest of the image and washing out the picture. Saving the Mood: My original image VS whole picture brightened (Photos); and just the face brightened (Snapseed) See above the difference between how Photos and Snapseed fixed the image. What I want to do is see the Buddha’s smile so as to create a contrast with the mysterious jungle with menacing creepers circling around his head. With Photos, you can now see the smile on the Buddha’s face after tweaking the image but there is no more mystery as the dark, creepy jungle effect is gone. On the other hand, Snapseed lets me brighten just the Buddha’s face without losing the mood of the rest of the shot. Of course, this is no big deal for those who use editing software like Photoshop. (In fact, it may be possible to do this within Photos for all I know.) But for layman like me to whom Photoshop is a puzzle, this is a picture saver. In case, you want to know how I did it, here’s a screen recording on my iPhone. Using Snapseed to selectively brighten a small part of an image Basically you open the image from within Snapseed, tap on tools, then tap on ‘Selective’ in the second row, then tap the Buddha’s face, and you will see a ‘B’ appear on his face. Now tap the screen with two fingers apart, and a circle will appear. Slowly pinch your two fingers together till the circle only covers the Buddha’s face (the brightening effect only appears inside the circle). Then touch the screen outside and above the image, and slowly swipe right till the brightness count reads 100. To confirm, tap on the window like icon on the top left which gives me a before-after look. Finally, tap the tick mark at the right bottom corner, and then on ‘export’ which send the reworked image back to my Photos app. Image Scanning Another little gem of an app from Google is for which the closest equivalent on iOS is the scanning feature within the iOS Notes app. But unlike that, it’s perfect for scanning old paper photo albums and uploading it to Google Photos. Photos are usually reflective and it’s hard to scan them with a phone camera. PhotoScan gets around this by ingeniously shooting four shots from four corners of your image, and then combining the four shots to give a perfect scan without any reflections. In effect you are digitising your real Photo albums without having to go through the tedious process of using an actual scanner to scan each image. PhotoScan Maps Apple Maps just doesn’t work in India. It’s literally crippled and can’t give directions to any location, and instead says, ‘Directions are not available between these locations.’ I think Google Maps has too much of a headstart that Apple just stopped trying to catch up. In fact, Google is so clued into India that it offers offline maps. This is ideal for a country where the mobile network is non-existent in lots of places, and mobile data is limited. Apple Maps doesn’t work in India, while Google Maps does As for the real-time location sharing on Google Maps with one touch, I think it’s originally an Apple Maps feature. Since Apple Maps is semi-dysfunctional in India, Google gratefully appropriated this unique iPhone 3D Touch feature for Google Maps. Just hard press on the Google Maps icon, and a ‘Send My Location’ option pops up. It’s perfect for when you are driving, and have only a moment to tell someone where you are. YouTube If I wish to share large videos shot on my iPhone, Apple suggests we use the ‘Shared Albums’ feature of Photos. Unfortunately, this uses iCloud whose free version only offers 5GB of space. This 5GB has to be shared for all photos, documents and all my iDevice backups, which means it usually has very little free space. Apple would like me to buy extra space on iCloud. But that’s not going to happen when Google offers me unlimited space for free on YouTube, the world’s favorite video platform. Sharing videos using YouTube That’s why I upload videos shot on my iPhone to YouTube by default. It’s almost as easy to do as iCloud. Basically you go to Photos where your video is saved, select it, tap the share button at the bottom, and then choose YouTube from the share options. You can even ensure your video’s privacy by choosing ‘Private,’ which means only those you share its link with can view it. Mail Apple does give me a free iCloud email, but it’s not half as good as Gmail. So like almost everyone else on Planet Earth, I rely on a Gmail account. For everyday use, I operate my Gmail via the stock Mail app as it’s simple to set up. But Mail is limited in its capabilities, especially search. If the Mail app can’t find something, I usually fire up Google’s Gmail app which easily finds what I am looking for. I know there are many other good email apps. But sometimes having too many email apps to choose from is more stressful than whatever email issues I have. So I stick with combination of Mail and Gmail apps. Apple’s Mail app search feature falls short when compared to the Gmail app Google Drive and Docs Unlike the previous apps, I use these in tandem with Apple’s apps. iCloud is perfect for backing up my phone, and works seamlessly with online docs like Pages and Numbers. But I also use Google Docs as it’s easier to share across platforms. Space on iCloud is also an issue as I mentioned earlier. Google Drive is that way a far more convenient online vault as it allows me to share large files without having to worry about running out of space. Of course, there are other custom apps for large file transfers like Dropbox and WeTransfer. But that often leads to “Now where on earth did I put that file?” situations, which I would rather avoid. iCloud works seamlessly with Apple but limited space makes Google Drive a dependable standby News Google is not always the best alternative when an Apple app falls short. News is one instance where neither Apple nor Google really stand out from the other news apps. Others apps like Flipboard are more popular, at least here in India. Apple News vs Google Feed vs Flipkart — there’s no clear winner There are many more ways in which Google is deeply woven into Apple and improves my whole iPhone experience . Like every time I type something on my iPhone, I do it via , Google’s amazingly accurate swipe-to-type keyboard (it’s also a mini Google, a GIF maker and much more). To get something translated into another languages, I use . To know how to pronounce a word, I type define: xyz in my Safari browser. To play videos from my phone on my TV, I use the app (you need Google’s Chromecast device). To transfer money, I go to . To know if a flight is on time, I just feed in the Flight Number in Google… Gboard Google Translate Google Home Tez One last question. Why don’t I just get the Pixel 2XL, Google’s challenger to the iPhone? Maybe I should. Or maybe I’m just plain greedy and want the best of the two worlds of Apple and Google. That may explain things as I belong to the ‘mixed breeds are healthier than purebreds’ school of thought. iPhoogle - arguably the world’s best phone In short, I love my iPhone, but I love it better when it’s running on Google.

Apple ‘just works’ better when it piggybacks on Google

While you will find hundreds of quality articles about top-notch apps focused to help you with your day, we went through the effort and made those lists even shorter and are sharing the apps which will definitely make your day better. Our team members have vouched for the effectiveness of these apps so you are highly encouraged to give them a try for yourself and then share along with your colleagues/friends to keep the chain going :) 1 — WordWeb (Dictionary) If you often need to look up the meaning of a word on your phone or laptop and are struggling to find a good dictionary app, just download WordWeb without a second thought. This app comes in a very compact size, offers pronunciations in an easily understandable way, and the best feature individual to WordWeb is the ability to look up the meaning of a word without leaving the present app. Just select the word in the text field and choose WordWeb from the context menu. 2 — Google Keep Some people prefer to keep paper journals and some just avoid taking notes altogether because of the hassle of carrying them around. With this app, you have to use it to believe how easy it makes your life. The best feature about this app would be its availability on: Android, iPhone, Chrome App Store, and the website (keep.google.com) which can be accessed anywhere. Once you note something down (checkboxes, colors, reminders), you don’t need to remember which device you noted it down on and can open it even on a web browser to access your to-do lists or reminders. 3 — Inbox for Gmail If you use Gmail for your personal or work account, think no more and just download this app right away. It is a product made by Google themselves to make your email experience as easy as it can get. With next generation features like predicted responses, easy attachment views, snoozing emails, and automatic bundling, once you start using Inbox you won’t be able to go back to your regular Gmail website/app. 4 — Snapseed While it would be highly debatable to finalise the pick for the best photo editing app on the market, we still want to share our recommendation of a fully featured but super easy to learn app: Snapseed. After being launched on iPhone intitially, it was acquired by Google seeing its popularity and now holds its own crown in the app market. The standout part of this app is the feature set, this app will give you every option that you will find in other photo editing apps so you don’t need to have several apps for specific features you need in them. Just give it a try and see if it can replace a bunch of apps on your homescreen as well :) 5 — Mobile Banking Apps With the consistent improvement in the banking system due to advancements made in technology, one of the best outcomes have been the banking apps being offered by nearly all banks in Pakistan. Starting from fingerprint identification, to paying your bills, transferring money, or going through all functions of your bank account, everything is “literally” a few taps away now. The reason for including these apps here is the fact that most people still don’t use them despite being offered by their banks and some even haven’t turned on internet banking features altogether. So if you are one of them, just go ahead and add some comfort to the way your bank. While you try out some of these recommended apps, feel free to leave a thumbs up if you agree with our suggestions and add your own picks in the comments below (which can be included in the next post with a shout out to the users) Written by: Awais Farooq Roy

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