Tuesday 4 October 2016

Hello Allo! Tips to Use Google New Chat App in a Best Way

Allo

Google Chat App `Allo’


Google has progressed tremendously from the basic looking GTalk to Hangouts and has modified its messaging services with altering needs as well as time. Presently with its latest chat app `Allo’ the company has once again made efforts to rewrite the way people tend to utilise chat apps. It would not be discriminating to call Allo only a chat app since it tends to do much more than only chats. Together with an AI that seems to learn quickly regarding the users, it also has many other features which could be helpful for users in planning, locating information as well as be more communicative in chats. Announced at the I/O 2016 of Google, the app is said to be available in the Play Store. The following tips would be helpful to the users:

Share videos rapidly: It could be tiresome in sharing videos in chats. One could first long press the link, copy and then open the chat window where you desire to share it. With Allo, Google seems to solve this issue. Just type @google in any chat and the inbuilt AI assistant of the company will appear in the text box. Select the same and then ask the videos you desire to view. For instance, type @google show me the video of making Matar Paneer and the AI tends to respond with an expanded video link of the recipe

Organize your text size: Text size tends to assist in conveying the message. Allo provides the user with the option to alter the size of the text in a chat on the fly. You could just slide the send up or down in order to increase or reduce the size of the text in a message.

Hola Allo, find me flights: Allo seems to be much more than only a chat app and has four kinds of chats such as one to one, group chat, Chat with Google Assistant and Incognito chat. If one seems to be chatting with Google Assistant, you could ask the AI to display the plane tickets, hotel availability and much more. It portrays the Google search result.

Allo Sets reminders: The AI in the app also tends to set reminders and alarms for the user. You could go to Google Assistant in the app and ask for setting the alarm which it tends to do.

Play games: In Allo one could also play games. For instance, the chat game is said to be one of the interesting ones wherein in this game you could opt for the game type and the AI would play that game with you.

Search for restaurants: The AI chat assistant tends to utilise one’s location and suggests accordingly the restaurants which are in the vicinity. The users can view the restaurants by clicking on Google map.

Incognito chats: Similar to WhatsApp, Google Allo also tends to assure safe and encrypted chats though it is only likely in Incognito mode.The Incognito Mode tends to ensure that chats are encrypted once toggled.

Group chats: Like WhatsApp, one also has the possibility of creating groups in the app with options of deleting, adding people or mute group. Read message seem to have double ticks similar to the way how they are there in WhatsApp. Moreover you could also long press on a message and view details like the precise time it had been delivered and read.

Why SEO is important when considering web hosts

When you’re selecting a new web hosting provider, SEO is probably not so high on your list of considerations. However, the web host you choose can have a bearing on how successful your SEO is.

However, this is not a case of a web host offering certain services that give your site an SEO boost, instead a web host that is considered ‘goof for SEO’ is actually one that does not do anything that can harm your SEO.

Furthermore, there are some important ranking factors in SEO that can be influenced by your web hosting. If you choose a bad web hosting provider, then these will soon become apparent.

Here are four ways in which your web hosting can affect SEO:

  1. Website speed Although it’s not as high up the list of importance as good quality content, website speed is a factor that can play a part in how search engines score, or rank, your website. If your website has great, unique content that is relevant, even if it loads a little slower than a website with bad content, it will still rank higher. However, when you’re competing with other websites that offer strong content, having a website that loads quickly can be important for SEO. Largely it comes down to usability, which is something Google take seriously in their rankings. Websites that offer a poor user experience are often penalised, and a website that loads incredibly slowly will almost certainly incur such penalties.

     
  2. Access for robots Although this is a lot rarer these days, in the past there have been countless web hosting companies that just did not understand SEO, and as a result the website which they hosted would suffer. An example of this was some hosts were putting in place scripts that would block access to the site for certain robots, including those from search engines. As a result, the websites were poorly indexed or not indexed at all. This is less of a concern now, but there are still web hosting companies with scripts that could cause conflict with search engines.

     
  3. Uptime For anyone who has worked with websites and web hosting professionally, one of the key concerns of clients is “uptime”. Put simply, what percentage of the time the website is available. Most hosts now offer uptime guarantees that are well above 99%, however this is not always the case. A website that is often down or unavailable will not be favoured by Google. The reason for this? Well if the website has been indexed and then Google comes back to re-index it and it’s no longer there, Google will see a 404 error which essentially means it believes the page no longer exists. 404s are bad for SEO and usability, and your site will be penalised.


     
  4. Security The internet has around 650 million websites active and available at any one time, a staggering statistic.For all the big name and trusted websites that you can name, there are millions of others competing for this space. A considerable number of these websites are targeted maliciously by hackers, or are set-up with one sole purpose – to infect a user’s machine with malware. A web host that does not take security seriously leaves themselves open to potentially becoming victim of a hacker who will put malware on your website.

     

The first you find out about this will be when Google webmaster tools (if you use Google Analytics) sends you a note basically saying Google is now blocking traffic to your website because of the harmful nature of the malware found. It goes without saying that this can harm SEO ranking massively, so ensuring your website and web host is secure is imperative. Check that any web hosting company you are considering using regularly updates server software and takes other steps necessary.

Samsung, Woolworth’s Team Up

Samsung

Samsung in Partnership with Woolworth – Family Hub Refrigerator


Samsung has declared a partnership with Woolworth in an effort to purchase groceries utilising the Woolworths app directly from the fridge door. This is in time with the launch of its latest internet-linked appliance of Australia known as the Family Hub refrigerator. This does not seem to be the first linked fridge hitting the market.

Since 2013, LG and Samsung have also been playing with screens on the fridges and from early 2000, the internet fridges have been making headlines. However Samsung intends making good use of the technology by resolving a genuine linked home where the fridge needs food and now your fridge can purchase the food.

If one tends to drop AU$7,499 on a Samsung’s flagship fridge, you would be in a position to order groceries directly from the Woollies app that has now been made more appealing for the Family Hub’s 21.5-inch screen. The user can navigate for items directly or search through recipes by cuisine, tap a tab in the recipe section for ingredients and thereafter tap another tab for shopping on those products.

Well-Designed Feature


You could prepare a list on the mobile and later push it to the fridge screen and due to the built-in fridge door camera of the Family Hub; you can view the contents of the fridge from the screen on the door and your phone while you are at the supermarket.

It is said to be a simple interface though not clear how convenient it would be in general experience in making a full shopping list by probing through the grocery option while waiting at your fridge. A search for tomato sauce during a demo had brought about innumerable options.All the same it seems to be a well-designed feature in association with Woolworths eventually bringing in a real-world advantage which would essentially be useful on an associated fridge.

However, in comparison to the original internet refrigerator in 2004 that had a price tag of $17,000 this model seems to be relatively cheaper with the grocery-ordering app on its door. There are three cameras within to enable you to check on its contents before purchasing the food in a store.

Four-Door – Utilised in Controlling Other Devices in Home


The fridge tends to have four-door which can also be utilised in controlling the other devices in the home such as robot vacuum cleaners, playing music or TV shows via its speakers as well as the screen. Jeremy Senior, Samsung Electronics Australia home appliance head had stated that the Family Hub fridge had been designed for huge household having crowded kitchens with little time to plan the grocery shop visits.

He added that there was obviously new tech adopter who would prefer this though realistically, busy families seem to be its audience. In their research, they have seen online shopping and food management seem to be big draw-cards for this type of fridge. Mr Senior also mentioned that the teaming with grocery chain Woolworths had been vital in demonstrating why anyone would prefer to link their fridge to the internet.

Kate Langford, Woolworth’s digital retail general manager had stated that smart fridge owners could bring a grocery shopping list on the fridge and complete the same on the computer or else send it to their smartphone. The Family Hub fridge is said to be available initially as a French door, 671-litre model with a black finish according to Mr Senior.

Monday 3 October 2016

Get Sharper Text on Your Windows Screen

text

ClearType – Text Sharper/Easier to Read on Screen


We tend to spend long hours of our time in reading on the computer each day though our computers are probably not enhanced for reading and the text on the monitors may not be adequately sharp or could be too small, particularly in the case of high-resolution monitors.

Generally, websites are not augmented for reading long-form articles and are mixed-up with several navigation components, with advertisements popping up and tends to use texts which are too small. Windows 7 comprises of a built-in service for configuring `ClearType’ that tends to make text easier to be read on LCD monitors. Since the days of Windows XP, Microsoft used a system wide technology – ClearType which made the text sharper and easier to be read on the screen.

ClearType has been designed to improve LCD display. It may be likely to appear a bit hazyon standard desktop monitors as well as on some of the LCD displays. In some cases, seeing haziness could be due to manufacturing irregularity on LCD displays wherein the normal striping of red-green-blue tends to get reversed with blue-green-red.

No Support in Windows XP ClearType


Presently there seems to be no support in Windows XP ClearType to reimburse for this irregularity which could be the problem in cases wherein no ClearType contrast setting inclines to look good on a specific LCD display.In this type of situation, the best thing to be done is to turn off `ClearType’.Windows 10 also has the ClearType support which by default, is generally turned on.

 If the user tends to find the text on a screen hazy, you could ensure that the ClearType setting is turned on and fine tune the same. To get it organized one could go to Windows 10 search box towards the bottom left area of the screen and type `ClearType’. Then you select `Adjust ClearType text’ in the result list’, to open the control panel.

 When the ClearType Text Tuner control panel is opened, you could ensure that the box near the `turn on ClearType’ is checked and thereafter you could click the Next button. Windows 10 thereafter tends to check the monitor resolution ensure that it is set properly Then you could click the Next button once again.

Advanced Sizing of Text & Other Items


The next five screens present you with many text blocks prompting the user to select the one which seems best to their choices and once the choice of click the Finish button is done, your ClearType setting gets consequently tuned in.

If the user desires additional adjustments, you could go to the Start menu and select `Settings and open System’. On selecting `Display’ from the list of system settings from the left side of the box you could adjust the size of the text seen on the screen which can be changed to brightness level. Opt for `Advanced Display Setting’ link towards the bottom of the box and select `Colour Calibration’ for fine-tuning the colours on the display.

The choice of `Advanced sizing of text and other items’ could also be considered as an alternative choice, to bump the size of the text in window title bars, other screen elements as well as menus.

Saturday 1 October 2016

Google Allo Smart Messaging Apps

Allo

Google’s Allo - Chat App

Google’s Allo, a chat app having built-in personal assistant is intended to be your virtual best friend. The search giant had unveiled plans for two new communications apps in Duo and All at the Google I/O developer conference in May. Duo is said to be an unsophisticated video chat app that had been launched in August while recently, Google brought out the awareness of the far more aspiring Allo.

 Similar to Duo, one would not require a Gmail account for using Allo but you could just download the Allo app, inform it of your mobile number and edit the confirmation code send through SMS. The app is available only for Android and iOS smartphones and similar to Duo, Google does not provide a desktop client. Allo is said to be a standalone app and does not assimilate with the SMS app of the phone.

The notifications tends to appear on the lock screen just the way other communications app, as well as the phone seems to chirp up with a spoken `Allo’ which some may find it quite frustrating. Hopefully, Google will be adding the choice of changing it to a simple beep or ping for those who do not prefer their pocket to strike up a conversation when they tend to be out.

Alter the Size of Text

Allo, at first glance tends to put in just like another effort from the part of Google in attempting the congested messaging space and hurdle on the emoji/stickers lobby. However it is worth the effort to dig a little deeper. The cute chat choices of Google Allo seem to be quite disciplined when compared to the iMessage overhaul with iOS 10 of Apple.

Google has made emojis and downloadable sticker packs available for the user and one can send also send their own images and videos, with the possibility of drawing on your images. Moreover, you could also alter the size of the text in the message from a murmur to a shout, by dragging the send button up and down. It is said that a loud shot also tends to activate that chirpy `Allo’ notification even if the app seems to be open.

Incognito Chat

Allo also tends to copy the Smart Reply feature from the Inbox app of Google which is like auto-correct, providing the user to short list suitable canned responses and can also evaluate images in making suggestion, distinguishing objects and landmarks. Besides this it also gets to know the way one tends to talk so it sounds more like you over a period of time.

 The messages in the chat window displays a tick to a message indicating that it has been delivered and then adds another tick confirming that it has been read. Smart Replies on the contrary are useful when one seems to be in a hurry though the person at the other end is unable to distinguish between Smart Replies and real replies which are prone to exploitation.

Another feature of Allo is the incognito chat’ for those moments when one prefers to have more secure conversation which utilises end-to-end encryption together with nondescript lock screen notification that says `You have a new message’ without providing details of the sender or message. Besides this you could also set the message to be deleted automatically anytime between five seconds to seven days