• Digital Trends
    4 reasons you should learn how to create an app

    Almost every single person has a smartphone today. Because of this, there are millions of apps out there today. If there’s something you want, there’s probably an app for it as well. Pretty much every business and hobby has an app today. It’s not just games and productivity tools. Anyone can create and upload an app onto an app store. There’s also a very high demand for individuals who know how to make an app. While creating an app in itself isn’t that hard, learning the process can be time-consuming. Here are 4 reasons you should consider investing your time and money into learning how to make an app.

    Need of the hour
    There are over 7 billion people in the world today. Most people who have smartphones either use iOS or Android as their main platform. The audience is large and keeps increasing by the day. People prefer apps and hence there is a demand. App development has a lot of opportunities today. It is a skill that will always prove to be useful. If you need an app for your venture, you can even do it yourself and save yourself a lot of costs in hiring someone.

    Learning it is easy
    The Internet has made everything you need available instantly. Moreover, there are software and online classes that can equip you with all the information you will need to create an app. With time and practice, you can easily master it in no time. There is no lack of resources to learn how to create an app.

    Innovation
    You probably own a smartphone and know how to use it. You can judge other apps and use the pros and cons you have gathered from them into making your app. You can come up with ideas and implement them yourself by creating an app. Who knows? You can even be the developer of the next viral game. If your app succeeds, it will be a great source of revenue.

    Connecting to people
    Apps are a great way of implementing this simply because it is easily accessible to everyone. If you create a resourceful and creative app, you can reach millions of people all over the world with it. You can design and create an app for your own business. It can be a platform through which you can render services or sell products. You can always be creative and innovative with apps. With the limited screen size available you can showcase the best of your app and its features. Apps that are original and unique are often really popular. By learning how to create an app, you are open to a future where there are no bounds to what you can accomplish.

  • Digital Trends
    Top 5 free international conference calling services

    Development in technology has brought us all closer than ever. We can stay connected every single minute, irrespective of where we are located. This luxury brought about several services and networks all of whom have been competing to bring to us the best possible services including fast, cheap and strong connections. The best of this came about with the introduction of VoIP (voice over internet protocol). With VoIP came the era of free calling. This is the ultimate boon. However, this does not exactly mean free calling. The person needs to have an active internet connection. Once established, you can seamlessly connect to the person on the other end. Due to this, there are businesses developed depending on communicating with international clients. This was only possible because of the internet. Conference calls are not just used by businesses. They are also used by people to connect with many at once. There are tons of apps out there which allow you to make free calls.

    The best of them are listed below.

    1. Google+ Hangouts
    Who does not have a Gmail account today? After that, it is just one simple step to get your hangouts started. This is really easy to setup and really fast too. The connection is excellent with several audio and video features that have to be enabled to establish a call. The call can be made from the chat itself. More people can be added to the call through the email id. It is one of the most used conferencing services.

    2. Skype
    This is an app set up purely for video conferencing. It also allows you to make phone calls over the internet. Skype is available in most of the systems or can be downloaded from the play store. It is a free service. To enable this service, you are required to create a skype ID. Through this id, you can add others through their id. The Skype service is used by business organizations. They use it to conduct long-distance interviews or meetings. It also allows you to easily add more people while on a conference.

    3. Free Conference Calling
    This is a cleverly named service that allows you to make free calls nationally or internationally. Once you create an account, you can make calls to over 57 countries. They have features that record the call. They develop statistics based on how the call went, active participants and the members on the call. The best feature is that it allows a conference with a 1000 people.

    4. Openvoice
    Open voice allows you to connect with 500 people on the call. It is also known for its statistics and features like making calls to a specific group of people. Open voice allows toll-free calling to international numbers and has a free call recording feature. The advantage of this app is that it has an app. Once downloaded, you can make conference calls on the go.

    5. FreeBridge
    It is a conference call service that allows you to make around 100 connections in the conference. It is more popularly used by major conferences in their business activities. It is commonly used to conduct board meetings, sales, and interviews.

    They allow you to save money and time. Business processes take place faster as information is communicated hassle free via FreeBridge.

  • Digital Trends
    Genuine facts about real time face-to-face communication

    Technology is reaching new heights every day and it has touched all facets of life. With sophisticated high-speed data transfer, face-to-face communication knows no bounds. Video conferencing has changed the way the world communicates. It has a tremendous impact on how business is carried out, improving the services a company offers across the world. It has shrunk the boundaries of classrooms in education. It has brought families closer together, although they may be geographically dispersed. Companies have a global presence today and it has become a tough task for management to keep track of their remote offices. Video conferencing proves to be the most financially viable option to save time, travel, and energy of individuals.

    Companies offering cell phone connections, and cell phone manufacturers, have made video calling one of their unique service points. Today, we have companies that are rolling out video call apps that have made communicating truly face-to-face.

    Here are some benefits of video conferencing.

    • Remote Work
      The concept of remote work gained prominence with video conference calling. People at different locations can get in touch with each other, from the comfort of their office or home. This helps in connecting real time resulting in establishing a better relationship with colleagues. It results in far more effective communication which is good for businesses.
    • Save Travelling Costs and Time
      Video conference calls save time, money and energy on travelling. Companies now have the freedom of planning their meeting at short notice. Today, conferences often happen remotely, helped by HD quality and enhanced sound. Documents and presentations can be shared online resulting in efficient delivery of services. Many video conference facilities allow multiple users to log in and edit documents simultaneously.
    • Infrastructure
      Video conferencing is dependent on quality infrastructure. A consistent internet connection, and high spec computer, camera, microphone and speakers and important. They play a crucial role in the success of the conference call.

    Video conferencing however comes with disadvantages.

    • Loss Of The Personal Touch
      Nothing can replace the feel and ambiance of a real boardroom meeting. Body language could be missed, and this is a real danger if there is a lag in the connection.
    • Technical Glitch
      As stated above with less human interaction, the onus of a successful meeting lies with technology. A consistent and strong internet connection is important to ensure no lag. A lag results in people not saying things they otherwise would.
    • Varying Time Zones
      Companies have to play to the time-zones of the customers which can be challenging for companies to manager.
    • Cost Of Set-Up
      Video conferencing also involves high investments to develop the infrastructure.
      There are more benefits to video conferencing than costs. Once the technology is purchased, the cost savings will start to accumulate with less travel costs and increased communication.
  • Digital Trends
    How to buy a VCR player – for new users

    VCR players are the gem of all times. No matter the age or generation, you would always find a VCR player in every home. VCR players are known as video cassette recorders and they can record movies and shows onto a blank tape. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to buy a VCR player, it can be especially tricky if you know nothing about them.

    Most users buy 2-in-1 players which feature both VCR and DVD function. A reason for this is because VCR tapes are ultra cheap and you get them at a fraction of the cost of DVDs. To top this off, some older shows are only available in the form of VCR tapes so it can difficult to procure those in DVD format. If you want to watch exclusive old-time content, VCRs can be a great choice.

    Here are a few features to look for when going shopping for a brand new VCR player:

    Number Of Heads
    One and two-head VCR players feature poor video recording and playback quality. A decent VCR player comes with four-heads. Four heads offer good recording feature and the video quality is amazing in these. Look for this feature for starters.

    Slow Motion Playback
    You should be able to play films in super slow motion whenever you want. This is a remarkable characteristic of good VCR players and they let you capture still frames and even freeze them. This, in turn, can help you look up specific scenes or hunt for that perfect moment and produce a still photo from them. You can then print and produce the photos, edit, manipulate, or do whatever you want with them by obtaining from the film.

    Slow Motion Rewind
    You should look for a VCR player that lets you rewind scenes in slow motion. This can be especially great if, for instance, the tape was ejected or you were interrupted in the middle of a scene. You can then fast forward a scene and playback in slow motion to get to that specific point and capture that climactic moment.

    Freeze Frame
    If you love studying up on your games or analyzing footage, then the freeze frame feature is a no-brainer with regard to features to look for in good VCR players. Freeze frame lets you pause the show or frame at that specific point and this can help you record or print the images. Freezing the frame will also help you take a look at it in detail and this can be especially helpful if you need to look at fine detail.

    Commercial Skipping
    Commercial skipping lets you skip ads when running VCR tapes. Good VCR players let you skip commercials and get past them. After all, who in the world actually likes watching commercials?

  • Digital Trends
    The best web hosting services of 2017

    Today, irrespective of whether you have a full-fledged business or are a freelancer, the important question is do you or your company have a website? Word of mouth publicity is passe today every business, whether brick-and-mortar or online, needs to be discoverable via the internet. The first step, in order to set up a website, is to find a web host, i.e. the platform which will store and deliver details and information about you and/or your company. There are numerous excellent website hosting options for users out there. This article lists some of the best and popular ones:

    HostGator: At a starting street price of $9, the feature-rich HostGator offers plenty of tools to webmasters at wallet-friendly prices. The web hosting platform has excellent virtual and dedicated and private server packages, along with inimitable shared plans as well. The advantages of HostGator are that it has a pretty useful and nifty site-building software of Weebly and offers great customer service. The only negatives are that the e-mail feature lacks enough security, there isn’t any one-step WordPress import and it also lacks Windows-based VPS hosting.

    1&1: At a starting street price of $6, 1&1 offers a wide variety of packages, including dedicated, VPS and shared hosting. What makes it stand out, however, is the fact that it features WordPress support. 1&1 has the added benefit of offering users its 1-month plan without asking them to choose any packages. 1&1’s advantages are that it offers both basic and advanced hosting packages, great customer support, both Windows/Linux based servers, great testing uptime and easy-to-use website creation tools, all at the cost of no setup fee. Its cons are that its moneyback guarantee period is shorter than that of its competitors.

    InMotion: At a starting street price of $8, the Linux-based InMotion allows users to create professional and personal websites, boasting of both virtual, dedicated and shared hosting, as well as numerous free e-commerce tools. The advantages of InMotion are that it offers a lengthy moneyback guarantee period, unlimited e-mail across all plans, excellent WordPress options and good uptime. The disadvantages are that the software is basic and maybe a little dated, and the platform lacks Windows servers.

    DreamHost: At a starting street price of $11, DreamHost satisfies all business and personal-related web hosting needs via its dedicated, virtual private server and shared plans that offer users numerous tools to build flexible, striking websites. DreamHost has a generous moneyback guarantee, Cloud storage plans, unlimited data transfers, and good VPS offering. However, it lacks Windows-based servers and could be a little intimidating for beginners.

  • Digital Trends
    Tips on free website hosting

    Free website hosting primarily targets amateur and first-time users who intend to freely display their content online. For those hosting free websites, you don’t need to have hi-tech technical skills or knowledge in computer programming. All you need to have is basic computer operating skills. There are number some ways in which you could host your free website.

    Ways to host free websites
    The easiest way is to get the domain from a third party, free website hosting such as WordPress, Weebly, Blogger, etc. In these websites, you could roll your own website but with certain limitations. All you need to do is to register on their website, and if the domain name is not allotted to anyone else, you could own it. The choice of the content of your website is absolutely your discretion. The third-party websites have no control over the content or the language that the users decide to use.

    Support
    Users can get all the free hosting support tools to write with and present your content. You could get options for a certain amount of space to upload your content and make templates for your websites. These are the advantages for the third-party website hosting. But in these cases, you won’t get a domain name on your own. The name of the third party will be attached to your domain, and you cannot design the page the way you want. The third-party website have some restrictions over it. Advertisements will be also present in your page which is decided by the hosting company. However, the biggest of the benefits is that they are providing absolute free of cost for an unlimited amount of time.

    Objectives
    The primary objective of web hosting is to attract traffic to your website. Several methods are used to attract traffic to your website. Links can be posted in social media forums to attract traffic. Revenues can be generated if more hits are there on the website.

    Limitations
    The free website hosting has a lot of limitations too it may not have one-click auto installers, SMTP mail, root directory access, etc. These are the things which are available to you if you pay a small amount of money for web hosting. So, the word free means absolutely everything is not free but is with restrictions.

    Free websites are ideal for beginners, individuals, and writers who wish to display their content to others without much bandwidth or size. You might find a great deal in the beginning while getting a free website but after using it, you begin to recognize its limitations. Go on with the free website only if you don’t want a long-term contract with the website.

  • Digital Trends
    Domain name registration process

    Once you have the desired domain name that you want for your website ready in your head, the first step is to check for its availability. If you found that the domain name that you desired is owned by somebody else, you can reach out to them and ask them if they are willing for to sell the domain name to you.

    There are several types of domain names available in the market. If you are willing to pay more and need to get the access from all over the world, then “.com” is a domain that you can choose. “.org” is a domain this is preferred by non-profit organizations. It is to be also taken into account that some of the domain names have copyright issues. Taking domain names of brand products or vehicles may be illegal in some cases. In such cases, you will be notified by them either to delete the domain or to sell the domain to them. Use Google tools such as SEO (search engine optimization), Google Trends, and Google Keywords for content and you can increase the traffic to your website.

    Once you have found that the domain name you want is indeed available for registration, the following steps are to be initiated. There is a list of things that you need to submit to the registrar. Registrars are organizations accredited by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and certified by the registry operators to sell domains:
    – The domain name that you desire. Always remember that the domain name must be unique, short, and crisp so as to be memorable and can be remembered easily, catchy, and readable too.
    – The name, phone number, address, email, and other information that is demanded.

    Payment information
    After you made all your payments to the registrars, your registration is considered to be done and you can host your website. Once your registration is complete, you can start using the tools they provide and can upload the content on the website on the space they provided.

    Domain renewal process is to be done from time to time else your domain shall be considered as expired. Then it will go to the common domain registration pool and can be taken by anyone who intends to register. If somebody takes your domain name in such a way, then you have no other option but to purchase the domain name from him/her. This can sometimes cost you millions. So, it is very important to look after the date at which the domain expires and to re-register the domain.