5 Tips on Designing Your Mobile Website

It is time that every website goes mobile-friendly, since not all of us may have a computer at home but for sure have a smartphone. 

I've seen some websites that have slowly developed their mobile sites, and although they still need some tweaking, the possibility of navigating their site on the palm of your hand is a reality. 

Check out these few tips on designing your mobile website:

1. Keep it clean and simple. A lot of websites have chosen to go minimalistic as part of their branding, and a lot of websites that are not exactly minimalistic on their desktop sites, have gone that route for their mobile sites. The simpler your mobile site looks, the happier users you'll have. Too many colors, buttons and graphics take away your user's attention from what's really important. So keep in mind that a clean and simple theme is the best way to go when you design your mobile site.

2. Re-think the responsiveness of your website. The fact that your desktop website looks in a certain way, doesn't mean it needs to look the same way on mobile. User experience is different when the person is on a computer than a phone or tablet. On a computer your user is able to click on items, look at images and make connections between colors, logos, and text; however, when your users use their phones or tablets, they don't want to keep scrolling and scrolling to pass all the ads and graphics in order to get to where they need to, so even if you understand the idea of your website, it doesn't translate the same way on mobile. A lot of websites have chosen to have one column on mobile, while they have 5 on their desktop site. Bottom line: your mobile site needs to be simple and easy to use.

3. Make content easy to find. One big reason why we want to have a desktop and mobile sites is because of the different screen sizes, and how your desktop site won't show the same way on mobile. So if you have a few links on the footer of your site, you'll want to make those links as buttons, so when your users are on their phones, those links are easy to find and easy to tap on.

4. Know who your customer is. The fact that your customers are using their phones in order to access your site should tell you something. They're either people on the run, or busy, or they don't have time to sit at their desk and navigate the web on their computers; these people move from one place to another and want the information in that place and at that time. So make your mobile site responsive to those people; don't think you need to impress them with captivating graphics, just feed them with the information they need. Think how touch screens work, how tapping on your screen should do certain things, and how, above all, everything needs to flow seamlessly.

5. Bonus point: Make your content available on social media. From social media sites, you want to lead people to your website; and from your website, you want your users to share your content on their social media sites. So make sure your mobile site integrates well with social media so your users are able to share your content, comment, etc.

What other tips can you share with us? Leave your comments below!

Posted in <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/android/">android</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/design/">Design</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/internet/">internet</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/iphone/">iphone</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/mobile/">mobile</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/online-marketing/">Online Marketing</a> | Post Comment

Samsung Galaxy Note 5 vs. Galaxy S6 Edge+

Drum roll please! Yes, the new Samsung 6 Edge+ and Samsung Galaxy Note 5 have finally arrived, Samsung has outdone themselves this time. Now the question you're asking yourself is which one should I go for? The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ are almost the same device ... almost. Let's go through their many similarities and their main differences. Now the two handsets have an almost identical footprint, but the Note 5 is 10 percent thicker than the edge+. The Note 5 has the hight of 153mm and a width of 76mm while the Edge+ has a hight of 154 mm and the same with of 76mm. The Note 5 is also the heavier of the two, weighing at 171g and the Edge+ at 153g, making the Note 5 12 percent heavier, both devices have premiummetal frames. You'll find glass on the back cover of both handsets, however the GS5 Note has a curved edges making the two devices very alike, the edge has curved edges on the front of the glass while the Note 5 has them on the back handset. Both these beauties are offered in traditional black, the pearl white, sliver, and the gold. 

Now lets get techie! Display Resolution on these are exactly the same 2560 x 1440 %18 PPI, with 5.7-inch AMOLED panels displays. They have the exact same high-end Exynos processor 7420 64-bit octa core 2.1 GHz + 1.5 GHz. Both offer the same RAM of a 4GB memory and a storage of 32GB or 64GB, depending on which one you wish to go with. Both of these have 3,000 mAh battery, which are unremovable, and can charge quite fast via USB or wirelessly. The Galaxy Note 5 comes with the the active stylus, you can also now do notes on its black screen before you've even turned on the display. Another great feature the S pen provides to the ability to screenshots. The Edge+ offers besides the nice clean look, a display on the curved side your top five favorite contacts that are color coded and your top five apps on the edge of the screen, providing you with quicker accesses where ever you are in the OS. There you have it, quite similar but if your going for more efficiency then the Galaxy Note 5, now if you like more of the superficial side then go with the Samsung 6 Edge+. The choice is yours, good luck!

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The Great Smartphone Debate

It could be the most heated debated rivalry of the century. It's a question that has caused passionate arguments across the world: Which is better, iOS or Android? You could walk into a room full of people and ask each one which is their favorite smartphone operating system, and the odds are pretty good that most would have a preference. Some would even be able to explain why one is better, despite having never really used the other.

it's interesting that it appears that smartphone users are split right down the middle, when the Android operating system actually dominates the global market. As of this year, 78% of smart devices run the Android operating system, with iOS making up only 17%. With such a wide gap, one could make the argument that these two products aren't really competitors in the traditional sense at all. What these numbers more accurately show, is the market share of people who are more inclined to spend money on their brand new devices versus the people who are less inclined.

iOS users account for 23% of online sales, while Android users account for only 5%. As you can see, these sets of numbers outlining market share and the amount of money being spent on them are pretty reversed. This shows to some degree that Android devices are viewed by many as the natural replacement to their previous products that do not run such software. Have you found that you use barely any of your smartphone's features? Would you agree that many use their smartphones as the new basic phone? We'd like to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

Jul 15, 2015 9:15am by Marcus Gonzales

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Extending Your Android Phone's Battery Life

Take a look at this screenshot of the home screen on my Nexus 5 smartphone. Do you notice anything unusual? Besides the fact that I use Mail.com instead of Yahoo Mail or Gmail, what is different about my smartphone is the fact that my LTE connection is turned off. I do this intentionally to preserve battery life.

I have found that leaving my internet connection on all the time burns through my battery life must faster compared to leaving it off by default and only turning it on when I need to use it.

The Gains

Prior to experimenting with this way of saving battery life, a charge would last me about a day, if that. Now, depending on usage, I regularly get well over a day per charge, but not quite two full days.

How To Quickly Toggle Internet Connectivity

Starting with Android 5.0, the Android platform no longer allows 3rd party apps to toggle internet activity due to security reasons. Gone are the days when you could simply download a widget that could quickly toggle internet connection with just one click. Now, the fastest way I have found requires 2 clicks. Simply add Settings to your homepage as a shortcut, and select Data Usage as the item to display. On my phone, this is what the new "widget" displays when clicked:

This screen enables me to not only quickly toggle internet connection, but also view where I am in my usage for the month. If you feel that your battery life is much less that what you think your phone is capable of, I highly recommend you consider looking into managing your smartphone's internet connection.

Jul 06, 2015 9:00am by Marcus Gonzales

Posted in <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/android/">android</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/apps/">apps</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/google/">Google</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/mobile/">mobile</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/technology/">technology</a> | Post Comment

Tablet Purchasing Tips

I, like millions of consumers around the globe, plan on purchasing a tablet computer in the next few months. This will actually be my second attempt at purchasing a tablet. About a year ago, I purchased a 7" generic tablet from Amazon. I figured that all tablets were pretty much the same and that I didn't need to spend more than a hundred dollars in order to get a decent functioning tablet. How wrong I was!

I soon learned that a tablet is not one of those items that you should skimp on. The device that I had was not terrible, but it failed in 2 key areas. First, the display was very bland. It had a screen resolution of 800 X 480, which does not look very good on a 7" tablet. I remember being able to see the actual pixels on some games and pictures. I mainly used the tablet to read PDF files, so seeing the text pixelated at times was quite distracting.

Second, the particular tablet that I purchased did not run and was not able to run Google Play, the official Android app store. This did not seem like such a big deal at first, as I figured downloading and using another popular app store would suffice. This proved to be unsatisfying as well, since competing app stores generally have a limited selection of apps and their versions of the most popular apps tend to be outdated.

All things said, I learned a valuable lesson in tech purchasing: don't focus your eye on the cheapest product. A new rule of thumb I use is to calculate a nice middle ground and shop within that price point. For example, a cheap generic tablet may cost about $100 and a premium tablet may cost about $500, so right now I'm comparing what kind of tablet I can get for about $300. Have you ever been disappointed by a tech purchase? We'd love to hear your thoughts and what you learned in a comment below.  

Oct 28, 2014 10:59am by Marcus Gonzales

Posted in <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/android/">android</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/apps/">apps</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/internet/">internet</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/mobile/">mobile</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/technology/">technology</a> | Post Comment

The King of Android File Managers

If you're a consumer, the odds are high that at some point in your life you have experienced the excitement of opening a box containing a brand new smartphone and marveling over its beauty, speed, and capabilities. For most people, half of the apps that come with the phone are unusable, so they go straight to their app store of choice to download some alternatives.

Of all of the apps on an Android device, the file manager is considered by many to be the most sensitive. People expect their file manager to work right out of the box, and they can become quickly frustrated when it can't fix the problem it was supposed to solve.  When they don't work as planned, the more popular and recognizable apps will send across a message like this: "This is the way our app is designed and this is the way it works. Good luck finding an alternative that is as good." But, because of plentiful competition and because the file manager performs such a seemingly simple task, it's unable to make such claims.

If you visit the Apps section of the Google Play Store and search for "file manager", you will be pleased to find that there are hundreds of different options. What is not pleasing is trying to guess which ones are usable, avoiding the ones that are horrible, and finding the one that is great and provides a consistent experience. I'll save you a little bit of time: somewhere around the 10th result you'll see an app by the name of "OI File Manager". Go ahead and install that one.

The OI stands for "Open Intents", which reveals that the app is very much open source. (It is so open source that you can quickly download the app in just 2 clicks from the website using any browser on any device.) The fact that the app is open source plays a huge part in why it is the best. With all of the apps that you use that contain ads, why add another one to the list? Also, why would you need to give any company access to the private files on your device?

Another reason why OI File Manager is awesome is because it allows you to extract files from a zip file. This sounds so simple, but you would be surprised to know how many different apps I had to go through before finding one that was able to do so in such a straightforward way. Straightforward is the keyword to remember. If you're frustrated with how confusing, incapable, and slow your local file manager is, check out OI File Manager.

Oct 13, 2014 8:52am by Marcus Gonzales

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Android Apps Coming To A Computer Near You

Every once in a while, a programmer makes the news for creating something extraordinary. He or she creates something that pushes the boundaries of what code was believed to be capable of. Today, that award goes to a developer by the alias of "Vladikoff". In order to understand what he built, you first need to think about the way Android apps currently work. If you want to run an Android app, what would you use to run the app?

For most people the answer is obvious: any device that runs the Android operating system. Most people believe that only Android smartphones and tablets are capable of running such apps. Those who are tech savvy know that, in addition to such devices, one can run apps on their computer using developer tools, virtual machines, emulators, etc. 

Although running Android apps in the Chrome browser is in its early stages and still prone to errors, Vladikoff created a "hack" that allows you to simply drag an app into the Chrome window and begin running it. Since Chrome is a web browser available on all major computer operating systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux), this progress is a game changer. It means that even Mac users, whom Apple has been trying to protect from the Android ecosystem, will now be able to run Android apps. Android is not far from being a part of everyone's computing experience.    

Sep 26, 2014 11:13am by Marcus Gonzales

Posted in <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/android/">android</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/apps/">apps</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/internet/">internet</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/inventions/">Inventions</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/java/">Java</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/linux/">linux</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/mobile/">mobile</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/news/">news</a>, <a href="https://www.lunawebs.com/sample/category/technology/">technology</a> | Post Comment

Accessing Developer Options on New Android Devices

One year ago, I purchased a Nexus 5 and I've loved the device dearly since then. The phone runs smoothly and the battery life is stellar. Yesterday, I wanted to transfer some files from my phone to my laptop, running Linux, but I had a little difficulty doing it. As I did research online, I discovered that I needed to activate "USB debugging" in order for my files to successfully transfer. I remembered from my previous Android phone that this setting was located within "Developer Options", so I looked for such options on my Nexus 5.

I was left scratching my head, as they were nowhere to be found within Settings. 

Now I had to research where my precious Developer Options had gone. I soon discovered that these options needed to be "activated", but thankfully the process was quite simple. All I had to do was navigate from Settings to About Phone and then click "Build Number" 7 times. (See Image). Developer Options were then visible when I navigated to the top level Settings.

This experience begs the question: Why did Google decide to "hide" Developer Options in its latest version of Android? I have done a little bit of investigation, but I can't find any official documentation from Google explaining why they made such a move. I have only been able to find speculation across various tech forums, and the general consensus is that Google did this for "safety reasons". If this is true, it does make sense to hide these settings from the general population because most people will never need them, and accidentally messing with these settings can potentially be harmful to the device. What do you think? Did Google make a smart move hiding something the vast majority of people will never use?  Or, do you think all options should be out in the open? Leave a comment below!

Sep 19, 2014 11:11am by Marcus Gonzales

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