Past are the days when we used to wait for the postman to deliver some communication from far off places. Also, these types of communications took sometimes 4-5 days to reach us. By that time that communication hardly made any sense. Today we live in a digital world where we can know the status of anything or anybody whether near or far away from us within a matter of seconds. Thanks largely due to the Telecom industry.
First, we had the landline but it was quite costly, then came the telegraph, quick but costly, and then the mobiles, costly but for once only and you are provided with a plethora of services. It is but natural that you hear a lot of news about mobile apps daily. Some news regarding the launch of new mobiles, others regarding the addition of new features, yet other news may be about one mobile app company acquiring another one and so forth.
Mobile app development companies have come up with or are being instructed by the governments of the various nations to include features that suit them. Some of the companies such as Mobile app development companies in Vancouver have been providing high-quality content though at a lower price.
RESEARCH:
1) NETFLIX Testing Human-Curated ‘Collections’ Recommendations:
Netflix these days is testing a new Collection that has been crafted by experts, to offer certain selections such as music or movie playlists, according to some theme. The feature as of now is available only for iOS. It replaces the current feature MyList (where did it go? In the ‘More’ tab). Some subscribers who are now used to MyList may not appreciate replacing it. It is, however, a matter of time before the users get addicted to this new option. This may or may not be a permanent feature of Netflix. Netflix and the like are likely to decrease the viewership of the Cable & Satellite TV business by nearly about 12-15 million subscribers before the end of quarter 4 of 2019. Thanks mainly due to the ever-new features that keep on adding up for attracting the users.
2) Governments look beyond Android and iOS to secure devices: Today, one of the biggest threats faced by the IT or the Mobile industry is the development in the field of hacking. This has led various governments to deliberate on the fact that they should be using ANDROID or iOS as the platform/OS in their mobile phones or not? The answer that has turned up in recent times is not. The Russian government is planning to use a little known OS called “AURORA OS”. This is further based on the Finnish OS “Sailfish OS”. Another company going by the name “Sikur”, and of Brazilian descent, has come up with a very high secure OS for mobiles, IOT, POS machines, and wearables among others. Sikur is built to be accessed from various devices responsively. India is hoping to come across one such OS that can help tighten its security when it comes to making communication within the government circles.
China, Russia, Brazil are all trying their best to find an alternative to Android or iOS to have a controlled and secure environment for their defense-related establishments and other government offices. China is furthering its cause for developing the Harmony OS to suit its needs. The need arises as the top 3 OS are from the US with the top two being Google Android and iOS. With new mobile OS, that is independent of these two, coming into the market, even users will feel safe that their details are not being used anywhere else without their knowledge. Even though there are prevention laws like the GDPR active which do not allow the details of users to be passed on. However, incidents can occur and have occurred as in the case of FACEBOOK.
The Russian government has decided to switch over 8 million of the state officials to the new operating system AURORA. It is also planning to recommend Sailfish (on which AURORA is based) powered smartphones to the officials of the state.
NEWS:
1) 27 Apps removed after they asked users to install a fake copy of Google Play: When researchers from Pune-based Quick Heal Technologies reported that 27 apps were prompting the users to install a fake copy of Google Play Store, those apps were as a result removed from Google Play Store. The purpose of these apps was to install adware by forcibly prompting the user to install the Play Store. The users were told that they were supposed to install the fake Play Store for gaming purpose. In the event of cancellation, the apps once again came up with the same prompt. If the said app was uninstalled, its parent app remained in the mobile, and at random time intervals, it came up with full-screen ads. These apps belonged to a single developer going by the name “AFAD Drift Racer”. All the apps that were prompting to so were free car racing apps. This can be avoided by not downloading from any third-party stores. If you have Android, use Google Play Store. In the case of iOS, use AppStore. Also, while downloading check for the description of the app and the reviews of various users that appear along. If the users are giving a low rating to some apps, it is always beneficial not to download or install such apps.
2) The Rise of the Virtual Restaurant: Be it American, Oriental, or Indian food, the youth of today love to eat. However, they don’t have either the time to cook that food or go to a restaurant to eat it. They can eat it at home. Luckily some services are available today to serve such youth. These include SWIGGY, ZOMATO, UBER EAT, and the Home Delivery services of the restaurants themselves. However, here we are just talking about virtual restaurants. They do exist, though in mobile apps only. Just giving an example, I have ordered food from such restaurants, I don’t even know where they exist. These virtual restaurants have made life a lot easier. According to one such restaurant owners, the delivery part in a restaurant used to be just 25%, now it is 75%.
With virtual restaurants coming up day by day, and always on the increase, one thing is for certain that these restaurant owners don’t have to worry about – building rent or other space-related worries. They just need to have an app to receive orders and place where the orders can be cooked. As far as the service is concerned, they can take the help of third parties such as Uber. For instance, Uber delivers food to your doorstep when you order on UberEats.
While things look pretty rosy from this side, they are not so when we have another perspective to look at it. Though they are creating new kinds of restaurants, they are hurting the small eateries which cannot afford their services due to the commissions they charge – 15% to 30% on every order placed. This is something that needs to be taken care of to provide a better and efficient service to the customer. Another aspect is the customer and the restaurant relationship. When you visit a physical restaurant, the staff gets obliged for your visit, and you also get discounts as a regular customer. However, this is missing in the case of virtual restaurants.
3) Govt to enable access of multiple accounts linking on BHIM app: According to an official of the Ministry of Electronics and IT, New Delhi is planning an upgrade for its BHIM app. Currently, this app links to a single bank account providing limited options to a user for using BHIM to make financial transactions. However, starting in October 2019, the app in its next version will allow its users to connect multiple bank accounts to a single BHIM UPI (Unified Payments Interface). This will enable the government-backed application edge over other private financial payment gateway apps that are in the market. With the next upgrade, not only multiple bank accounts will connect to BHIM UPI, the number of merchants who accept payment through this medium or gateway will also see a steep rise.
4) Be compassionate, bring out the app for disabled, says PM Modi: The Prime Minister of India was recently in the news for asking the app development companies to bring an app that would help the specially-abled people fall into the mainline like others. Not only, he said, this would benefit them, it would also show compassion from the developer’s side. The directions came when the Prime Minister was speaking at the PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) platform.
The Prime Minister asked the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) to explore the possibilities to develop apps for the specially-abled where they could upload their pictures and other details. This will enable to get feedback from such people, and the government will be able to provide support to them on the issues they want to be solved. The Accessible India Campaign was started in 2015, and the government purposes to cover all such institutions under the AIC by the year 2022. So far 811 central buildings have availed of this facility and there are 1662 more buildings across India have been identified to be covered. The government has released Rs. 308 Crores for covering 1000 such institutions. As of now, the 34 international and 48 domestic airports along with 1131 railway stations have now access to services such as ramps, toilets and lifts with Braille symbols and other accessibility features.
