Tag: ios

July 30, 2020

Best iPhone Apps of July 2020

Your phone is capable of nearly anything these days, from boosting your dating prospects to looking up recipes. If you have an iPhone or iPad, Apple’s App Store offers a large collection of applications to download and enjoy. With so many various apps available — and in so many categories — where do you start? Also, since prices can vary between different options, which ones are worth the higher cost and which ones aren’t even worth it for free? We’ve gathered the best apps, showing which options rise above the rest.

WWDC 2020

Monday marks the start of Apple’s 31st WWDC! Unlike any year before, this year is virtual and free for everyone! Let’s dive into the details of this year’s WWDC.

What is WWDC?

WWDC is Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Every year Apple engineers, software developers, and people from all areas of the tech world come together to participate in in-depth sessions covering a wide variety of topics. Apple uses this platform to showcase its new software and technologies to a variety of developers.

What are this year’s expected announcements?

We are expecting to hear an array of news from tvOS 14 to new in-house chips. This online event will allow millions of developers to access the future versions of iOS, tvOS, macOS, watchOS, and iPadOS.

We are expecting Apple to announce the transition from Intel chips to chips made in-house. This will give developers time to prepare for the change as the first Macs with these new chips aren’t expected until 2021.

We anticipate the unveiling of a newly redesigned iMac that will utilize the “iPad Pro design language” and feature thinner bezels of those on the Pro Display XDR.

We believe Apple will preview the new software updates that could be launched as soon as September 2020, which includes iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS 10.16, tvOS 14, and watchOS 7.

watchOS 7

Medical

It’s rumored that Apple may release an update to detect your blood oxygen levels for the Apple Watch. It is unknown if this will be something older models of the Apple Watch can detect.

Parental Features

It looks like watchOS 7 will be a blessing for parents as it’s believed Apple will allow parents to manage which apps can be used during specific hours and add additional features for managing your child’s Apple Watch.

Control Center

It’s believed that Apple will add new features to the control center for noise detection and sleep mode.

iOS 14

Third-Party Apps and Packs

Apple may be allowing users to set third-party apps as their default music, mail, and browser apps in place of Apple’s apps as well as allowing developers to create wallpaper options for the iPhone that can be installed in the Wallpaper section.

Home Screen Changes

You may see changes to your home screen with iOS 14. Apple may allow users to view their home screen as a list so the user can see every app installed in one comfortable place.

Messages

Messages are expected to get a slew of features, including the ability to @mention someone in a group chat, retract iMessages, mark messages unread, and typing indicators for group chat.

There are expected to be many other announcements and unveilings, so we encourage you to follow Pioneer and drop-in on Apple’s WWDC 2020.

pioneerapplications.com | #pioneerwithus

June 8, 2018

Florence: Development in the Mobile Gaming App Industry

Florence

Can you imagine a game on your phone that had no levels, no high scores, and no way to win? Is it even a game? Florence, an app that embodies this strange concept, actually won the title of Apple’s Game of the Year in 2014, breaking ground in the app industry.

If it’s not a competitive game, then what exactly is it?

Ken Wong, the designer and app developer, created the app as an interactive story-telling game for users. His gaming company partnered with a film studio in order to create the game in which you follow the life story of the main character, Florence. As you progress in the app, you see her go through relationships and hardships, delivering an entertaining game while invoking an emotional response in users.

It definitely changes the pace of the mobile gaming atmosphere, and will be a trend to watch in years to come with further gaming app development.

Check out “Florence” in the App Store today!

About Pioneer

Pioneer Mobile Applications is a one stop shop for bringing your app idea to life. It is our mission to provide personal, affordable, & reliable app development for individuals, organizations, and businesses by being with our customers from the idea stage to launch and everything in-between!

With several years of expert mobile app development experience, United States app design and development company, Pioneer Mobile Applications is committed to the success of our clients. Whether your business is at the idea stage, currently in development, or already has a million users, Pioneer Mobile Applications can help create an affordable, reliable, and beautiful experience for your users. As a United States app design and development company, Pioneer Applications prides itself on being a full service development agency. We don’t just make apps, we will take a simple idea and create an application personalized for your business. Our goal is to ensure that our clients are succeeding. We accomplish this by providing idea conceptualization, market validation, app design (user experience & user interface), iOS, Android, and web development, testing, and marketing! We are constantly keeping up with new technology as it comes along to be sure that your app is using the latest, most cutting edge tech. United States mobile app design and development agency, Pioneer Applications is a United States based organization that is a team player on every project both small and large.

We have over 5+ years experience working with all different types of clients such as BuzzFeed, UMass Amherst, All in One Music Applications and many more! Our strategic process provides quick turn around times which lets us keep development costs down, saving our clients money!!

Services

iOS & Android: We have multiple developers on hand to build your iOS and Android Applications. The code we create is always clean and easily understandable by other developers.

UI/UX: Design is a very important thing. Our User Interface and User Experience developers make sure that your app is beautiful and easy to navigate through. We’ll help you out with branding and ensuring your app is recognizable!

Project Management: When there are a bunch of different moving parts, things can get messy. Our project managers makes sure everyone is on the same page and getting their work done as efficiently as possible.

Sales & Marketing: We don’t stop once we’re finished developing the app; we want to make sure that your app gets users on it and help you get featured in the App Store. Our sales and marketing experts will help you get the word out and acquire users!

Our Process

Conceptualize, Validate, Brand, Develop, Test, Launch, Promote

May 24, 2018

Augmented Reality in Mobile App Development

Fantasy and Reality Collide in Mobile App Development

One of the latest trends taking over mobile app development is bringing virtual experiences to life through augmented reality.

This trend has been seen in a number of games or film editors that place virtual objects right in front of you using your mobile device’s camera. Also seen in social media, Snapchat and Instagram use facial recognition to create interactive filters. Perhaps the most expansive example of this mobile app development is Google Maps. They use satellite technology to give you step-by-step directions that use the view right in front of you through your camera. Google even recently introduced a new feature that brings a virtual fox on your screen to follow for directions.

While these technological advancements seem daunting, more and more developers have obtained the tools to integrate them into their web and mobile platforms. Using physics-based techniques, companies have increased their access to 3D technology to use your surroundings and create content based on your location. This gives those companies a whole new market in mobile app development to invent useful and powerful apps that enhance consumers’ everyday experiences. It has even been said that at the rate the technology is moving currently, it will be difficult to determine the difference between a digital and physical scene.

The possibilities of these advancements are near endless. They have already been used in games like Pokemon Go, social media platforms, as well as navigation and public transportation apps. As augmented reality progresses, it will no longer be a figure of speech to say you have the “world at your fingertips”.

August 4, 2017

Testing Localhost On Your Phone

Often times, developers find themselves in the situation that they want to test code on a remote device (ex. Their iPhone) from their local server(computer) rather than having to push it to a remote server each time there is a change.

For example, if you are creating a node.js application on your own personal computer and you wanted to see what it looks like on your cell phone. You would have to push the code to a remote server and load the ip address/ url on your phones browser.
Luckily ngrok helps solve this issue.

This tool securely exposes your localhost’s port to you network and creates a url that you can simply put in on a device on the same network.

Here’s how to use it.

Download ngrok
Run your application (ex. “npm start” for node.js) –> Note the port that your application is running on (ex: localhost:3000, 3000 is the port)
In terminal, just type “ngrok http <port>” where <port> is the port number that your application is running on
On your device, type in the forwarding ip address that is printed out.
All set! Test more efficiently!

October 12, 2016

How to Launch a New App

We talk about strategy all the time when it comes to developing an app, but it shouldn’t just stop there. With millions of apps in the App Store and Google Play Store, your app won’t magically become successful. This is why it is important to strategize how you are going to launch your new app. This blog post from ladder.io discusses an App Store Launch Plan that can help get you downloads fast, which is critical when it comes to mobile app marketing.

Overview of Phases:

Phase 1: Make sure everything works

Beta test your app
Build and test a final version
Seed early reviews

Phase 2: Get the word out!

Inform your insiders
Run ads
Make sure your App Store Optimization (ASO) is on point
Social, blog, and press

Phase 3: Keep the momentum

Re-engage your uses
Keep everyone updated when you update

Read it all here

October 3, 2016

Save Money! Design Your App

Having an app developed can sometimes be a little costly. This could become a burden when you have a tight budget. Luckily there are ways to help cut costs! One of these ways is to have a clear understanding of what you want entailed in your app. This includes creating a feature list, branding, and designing wireframes for your application.

Some of you may be great at design, some of you may hate it, but trust me when I say it saves time! You don’t have to be an all start designer to create wireframes and get your idea across. There are websites and apps that actually make this really easy too!

Prototyping

Invison

Get high-fidelity in under 5 minutes. Upload your design files and add animations, gestures, and transitions to transform your static screens into clickable, interactive prototypes.

Marvel

Create screens directly in Marvel or add your images from Sketch or Photoshop. You can even sync designs from your cloud storage!

Pop

Have an app idea? Draw it on paper and use POP to make it come to life on your iPhone & iPad!

Color Schemes:

Coolors.co

Create, save and share perfect palettes in seconds!

Paletton

Logos:

Free Logo Design

99designs

Last, but not least do your homework. It is also crucial to find similar apps out there that have features that you want to include. This will help save time and help ensure that your app stands out!

September 21, 2016

RAW by 500px – An interview with the Team Lead Mobile

Every once in a while, we like to reach out to other companies who are doing some awesome things with mobile apps, and ask them about their journey through from idea to launch. This week we got to interview Akbar Nurlybayev, Team Lead Mobile @ RAW by 500px.

Description of app:

RAW by 500px brings a simple and powerful photo capture, editing, and licensing workflow to your phone. Take beautiful photos with the manual camera controls. Process your photos using the fast professional style editing controls. Create and manage model releases and license your photos on the Marketplace.

Screenshots:

Where did you come up with the idea for this app?

The idea for RAW by 500px came from our Growth team and our VP of Design Adam Shutsa. 500px was traditionally at the very end of the creative process — essentially, a platform to publish your best work. With the new app, the goal was to position 500px at the beginning of the creative process. But we didn’t want to build just another app. We wanted to innovate when it came to user experience and design, and we wanted to use the latest iOS10 technologies, including support for RAW images.

What problem is this app trying to solve?

Our photographers are essential to our community. Currently 500px lets them license their work through our M arketplace. We wanted to take that one step further, and within the new product, streamline the process of giving money back to photographers.

How big is your team? What are the positions/experience of each?

The team that built the RAW by 500px app consisted of two developers — and then three developers as we approached the launch date. Design was led by Adam and we had a dedicated product manager who prioritized work and made sure we stayed on course. We also had members of our “data guild” make sure the assumptions we made building certain features of the app were proven by data.

Did you develop this app in house or hire someone else?

To fully control the user experience and overall polish, and to retain intellectual property, the decision was made to build the app in-house.

How long did development take? What factors influenced the development time?

From first commit to the version 1.0 that we shipped to the AppStore, it took 64 days. Since we had a hard deadline, which was the launch of iOS10, we had to stay focused and prioritize things that made it to version 1.0. Having a dedicated product manager to steer course helped tremendously.

Did you have a beta tester process?

We did reach out and recruit members of our community to test out the app and build an initial set of filters. We actually shipped the app with some of these filters.

How are you spreading the word about the app?

We’ve used our social channels and reached out to our media partners. We’ve also asked our influencers to promote the app through their social channels.

What are your future goals and aspirations for this application?

RAW by 500px is our mobile and photographer facing side of our Photography on Demand. This means we will be adding in photography Assignments in the near future. In addition, we are iterating on capture and editing tools so that taking and editing photos will not only be easy but also enjoyable.

Why should people download this app in one sentence?

RAW by 500px brings a simple and powerful photo capture, editing, and licensing workflow to your phone.

Word of advice to people looking to have an app built?

Stay focused and have fun!

You can download the app on Apple’s App Store here!

Have an app that you want featured? Contact us at contact@DiscoverPioneer.com

September 17, 2016

SiriKit Tutorial – Right to the Point

In this tutorial you will learn how to get SiriKit working in your iOS App! To learn more about how SiriKit works behind the scenes, check out this article!

Requirements: Xcode 8, Swift 3 Project (this is what the tutorial is built on)

Part 1. Getting a quick and simple demo running

Create & setup iOS app

Create a new ‘Single View Application’ Xcode Project. For this tutorial, lets use the project name “SiriKitDemo”
Once the project is created and opened up, select your iOS app target in project settings.
Enable the Siri capability under the “Capabilities” tab

Now its time to add the intent files to your project

4. Select File –> New –> Target

5. Select “Intents Extension”

6. Click Next and specify the name of your extension and configure the language and other options. ***For this tutorial, Check “Include UI Extension”***

Request access to Siri

7. Include the NSSiriUsageDescription key in your iOS app’s Info.plist file. The value for this key is a string that describes what information your app shares with SiriKit

8. Open up your ViewController.swift file, import Intents and under viewDidLoad, call the requestSiriAuthorization: class method of INPreferences

Running & Testing

9. Select your iOS app’s target & Run your application

10. Select your Intent Extension and run that by attaching it to your iOS app

11. Activate Siri and say “Search for messages in <appname>” —Siri should respond with what is listed in the IntentHandler.swift file

***Sometimes it takes a few minutes for Siri to process your extension, if it doesn’t work right away, don’t be alarmed***

Want to get a little bit more in depth? Learn how to add more intents, customize the way Siri handles intents, & more in Part 2!

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September 14, 2016

The importance of your App Store Video

With millions of different apps in the Apple App Store & Google Play Store, it’s becoming more and more difficult to stand out let alone receive downloads for your app. One way to help stand out is by having a preview video on the App Store for your app. Over half of the top 50 grossing apps in iOS and 84% of the top 50 grossing apps in the Android Play store are utilizing app store videos.

By having a preview video, it is possible to increase your download conversion by 20% in the Apple App Store and by 35% on Google Play!

Read the entire article on How Not To F*** Up Your App Store Video: The Ultimate Guide

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