Now we have done lots of thing for your high performance WordPress blog. You must be already experiencing the difference. You have optimized theme, smaller yet well designed images and video and finally highly optimized and compressed JS/CSS files.
Now your page size would be very smaller due to compression, its making lesser HTTP requests to server and consuming lesser bandwidth. This all fuel the rocket to fly faster. Today we are about to take another important step towards high performance WordPress blog. It’s browser caching.
Roadmap
What Is Browser Caching?
When you are loading your blog page, if you take a closer look, you will figure out that most of the content are static. This means they are not changing over time. But when a visitor comes again and again, he will have to load them every time.
If browser cache is enabled in the initial visit, browser will save static content in visitor’s computer. If he comes back to the website, the static content will be loaded from cache, not from server. Obviously it will be many times faster.
Most of the modern browsers are automatically doing it. What you can do is instruct browser to do it properly in an optimum way. There are several ways to get it done. However, none of below will work if visitor has disabled browser caching in his browser.
How to Enable Browser Caching?
In order to get this done we have to use .htaccess again. Go to Dreamweaver, access the remote site you have configure through FTP and open .htaccess file. Then put the below code there.
# BEGIN Cache Control
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresDefault A31556926
ExpiresByType text/html A3600
# END Cache Control
Now your server is instructing all visiting browsers to cache entire static content for one year. (31556926 is one year in seconds). However I’m caching HTML content only for one hour since it’s subject to frequent changes.
Now you are almost there to have a high performance WordPress blog. Generally you are now in a good shape. But if you like to go the extra mile, there are few things to do. Optimizing the database is coming up next.
Contact me @MalindaOnline to claim your Free Website Performance Review. I’m giving you a detailed report with identified performance bottlenecks and optimum cost effective solution.
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Back ion November 2012 Google completed the whole Nexus family by introducing Nexus 4 the Smartphone, improved version of Nexus 7 the mini tablet and Nexus 10 the full size tablet. But there is one missing link to complete a family of mobile devices.
Few years ago Samsung Introduced the Galaxy Note. It was too big to be a Smartphone and too Small to be a mini tablet. So people started calling it a Phablet introducing a new mobile device category.
So far there is no Phablet in nexus family. In past week there were tons of rumors about Nexus 5, a phablet for Nexus family. That’s something worth taking a closer look at.
Rumored Spec and Features of Nexus 5
Design: Expected to be same as Nexus 4 // Front facing stereo speakers
By the first look you will figure out that Nexus 5 going to have many hardware improvements we have never seen before.
We have already seen the power of Snapdragon 600 processor with HTC One and Snapdragon 800 is expected to be 50% faster. Adreno 330 GPU has twice the power as Adreno 320. You need no more details to picture this beastly power.
The camera is expected to be manufactured by Nikon a leading professional DSLR manufacturer. For the first time we are going to have 4K videos in a mobile device. That’s what you can do utilizing the power of Snapdragon 800 processor. You will be able to record near Hollywood quality videos just with your Phablet.
The battery is also pretty big, so you can expect a decent battery life out of this device with OLED display and Snapdragon Processor.
Rumors say that this is expected to be realized in last quarter of 2013 and that would be a perfect time. I have a gut feeling that this will be one of the most rumored Android devices. I’ll update this post as new information flows in.
Generally Android Smartphone are using power button to lock the screen. You must be pressing this button many times every day. It locks the screen as well as shut down the display. This is a good power saving strategy. If you take a look at power consumption report in your phone, display is the one which drains the battery out so fast.
However, power button is a valuable piece of hardware in your Android Smartphone. Using it many hundreds of times every day is not a good idea. It’s OK to use it to switch the phone on and off. But it’s better to have some other way to lock and unlock the screen. You can always set a screen lock time, but not a perfect solution.
The best solution out of bunch of apps I tried so far is Smart Screen ON. It uses a truly smart way to lock and unlock the screen. Let’s take a closer look in to this great piece of app.
Getting Started with Smart Screen ON
Go to Google Play and find Smart Screen ON app.
There are two versions of app, you may try the free version first.
Download and install the app. It will add icon to your home screen as always.
Launch the app and access its configuration dashboard.
In Basic section enable both smart screen ON and OFF.
Then comes the magic. In the below basic section you will be able to find Wave Hand Mode section.
The app uses Proximity Sensor and Hand Gestures to lock and unlock screen. All you have to do is Wave in front of proximity sensor.
There you can set Number of Waves and Interval between Waves.
2 Waves and 200ms would be a good configuration for most people. You can always experiment with different values.
In Statistics section you can see how many times this app has saved your power button. After few days the number will surprise you for sure.
Now all the configurations are done. Finally click on save and restart app. It will add item to notificationarea. It indicates that application is running. You can always access the app by tapping on notification. Now all you have to do is wave twice (according to above configuration) to proximity sensor to lock and unlock screen. If the proximity sensor in your phone is less sensitive, tap on it twice.
If you like to use unique gesture, in the app go to Set automatic values. Then wave to proximity sensor the way you want, app will select optimum configuration for you. Tap on ‘I like these values’ to set them. Make sure you tap on Save and restart app after every change you make.
The free version of app doesn’t have start on boot and tap and swipe mode. Further it’s not capable of hiding the icon in notification bar. If you like those features purchase the PRO version.
This is a must use app on every Android Smartphone and gives you long term benefits by saving power button. According to my experience power consumption of the app is negligible. Best thing about Smart Screen ON is, it will make you look like a Wizard!
You must have tried many applications to access twitter on your Android Smartphone. Twitter is having their official application as well. But I have seen many people using third party application to enjoy better twitter experience.
One major thing you will like to have in Twitter on Android is timeline management. There are millions of tweets and it’s very difficult to manage them. At the same time it’s very difficult to find out relevant people who you want to follow. Providing a solution to those major timeline management issues, there is a cool Android app for twitter called ‘Slices’. Today I’m going to take a closer look in this app and find out what it can do.
Getting Started with Slices
Go to Google play and install Slices on your Smartphone.
In initial launch you have to provide username and password to authorize app to use your twitter account.
It will take you to your time line. There you will be able to see very clear design with appropriate usage of colors.
By clicking slice icon at left top corner you can go to application dashboard.
There you can access all the application features.
Go to settings and set display, notification and services the way you want.
Now you are good to go and explore features in Slices.
Major Attractions in Slices
Timeline Design
The major attraction of timeline in Slice is its clean design. You can see replies to you highlighted with green line and your re-tweets with green and brown line. In your tweets your avatar will be displayed at right side.
By tapping on a tweet you can access detailed view. There you can follow its links, reply, re-tweetstar or Zip it (tell you later). If there is an image you will be able to see a preview. If there is a link app will display you a button to go there.
Slices
Slice is a sub-set of tweets in your timeline. It will display tweets from selected tweetps when you create it. In Manage slices you can create new slice, give it a name then add tweeps who you want to be there. If you want to add or remove tweeps from an existing slice, go to manage slices, tap in the slice then go to choose people. In the list already added tweeps will be highlighted.
There is a drop-down menu in top toolbar. There you can select your slices as well as photos and videos stream in your time line. It’s a cool feature that I can filter out tweets with multimedia content.
Statistics
In app dashboard, there is a section named My Stats. There you can see statistical data about your twitter behavior such as tweets per day, most mentioned tweeps, top tweeps and trends in timeline and many more information.
Search and Explore
There is a search button in app dashboard. There you carry out very comprehensive search in twitter with many filleting criteria. You can search for people, lists and tweets with filters such as in your time line, mentions and even based on geographical location.
Explore options is another major attraction in Slices app. There you can find hash tags, people and tweets in different categories suggested by the app. There you can see categories such as trending, featured, news music etc.
Zip it
This is very interesting feature and adds ultimate control over your twitter timeline. If you want to temporarily hide tweets form a specific tweep, trend or keyword you can Zip it up. When you go to detailed view of tweet, in the tool bar you can see the Zip icon.
By tapping on it you can access its options. If it’s a tweet will give you options to Zip creator, its mentions or re-tweeter. If you feel like adding more people to Zip you have those options as well.
If there is a hash tag in selected tweet you can Zip that as well. Then you won’t get any tweet in your timeline with that hash tag. There is an option for you to add a specific keyword as well. You can control over all Zipped items at Manage Zipped in app dashboard.
Wrapping Up
Slice is a great app which you can use to access twitter on android. UI is very carefully engineered to give the maximum user friendliness and clarity. Colors are appropriately used to give more information to the user. Detailed view of tweet is also designed nicely to handle external links and multimedia.
I like the concept of Slices or Mini feed to manage timeline and pay attention to what I really need. The UI is also nicely designed to switch between different Slices and Multimedia streams. Accessing direct messages and mentions is also easy like never before. Search, explore and Zip is also very powerful and unique design you can use to clear up your cluttered twitter timeline.
When I was continuously using Slice app it got crashed once in every few hours. Sometimes soft keys in My Galaxy Nexus go nonresponsive till I restart the application. Switching between slices is taking longer time in some occurrences. Slices developer team should pay their close attention to solve those problems down the development process.
Facebook has become the most popular website, the social network and more than everything a versatile communication tool. Lots of people around the world getting connected and communicate with each other thanks to Facebook.
Facebook is generating notification for your friends’ activities. You can find them in FB notification menu as well as in your email inbox if you have enabled email notification. What if you need better and even faster way to get FB notification?
If you are using a Android Smartphone or a iPhone it’s giving you real time notifications as you configured. Is there any way for us to get such a notification in a desktop browser? The most popular web browser, Google Chrome is offering you a solution. Let’s take a closer look.
Getting Started with Chrome Facebook Notifications
Go to Chrome Web Store and install Facebook Notification extension.
It will add new icon next to your address bar.
Click on the icon and it will show you a drop down menu.
If you are not logged in to FB, it will ask you to log in.
Once you log in it will show you your FB notification stream.
There you have an option to see FB inbox as well.
Once a new notification comes it will be displayed in pop-up windows even when browser is minimized.
New notification also will be highlighted in address bar icon.
Once click it will take you to related post or message.
Hardware: Intel Core i5 2nd Gen // 4GB DDR2
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium // 64 Bit
Browser: Google Chrome Version 23.0.1271.91 m
With this Chrome extension you will never be late to respond to FB activities even when you are away from FB and browsing other sites. It’s simple, easy to use and performance optimized. It’s not asking for permission to access your personal data in FB. Try this extension, get FB notification right in Chrome and tell us how you feel about this as a comment below.
Power management in your android phone is one of the major challenges you will face. Most of them are having super power multi core CPUs and large display with HD resolution. All together will drain its battery within less than one day. Previously I was talking about few android power management techniques using apps as well as using manual power controls and common sense.
Quick Catch-up
Today I’m going to introduce you an Android power management widget. This will give you more space for customization and more switches than previous powerful control widget. This widget is Power Controls and you can download it at Google Play for free.
Android Power Management with Power Control Widget
After installation you will be able to see power control icon in one of your home screen. Through that you can control behavior of widget. Same as Powerful control you can place the widget in home screen as well as in notification tray.
How to Use Home Screen Widget?
Go to Application drawer -> Widget.
There you will be able to find power control widget. Drag and drop it in to one of your home screen.
It will give you the customization windows.
By tapping on widget button you can move it around using the slider or delete it by pressing the delete icon.
You can set background tint and set button color down there.
By pressing add toggle you can add new buttons to widget.
There you have wide array of options going beyond traditional power control switches. You can add multimedia options and you can even add an app shortcut.
One widget support up to 8 buttons and you are free to add several widgets.
In power control app you can find icon to customize home screen widgets. There you can customize widgets even after adding them to home screen.
How to Use Notification Tray Widget?
Go to power control app.
There you can see a large button for notification widget. Check it in to enable.
Press the settings button. There you customize it and it will work same as home screen widget.
There you can select Notification icon as well as its color
This is a pretty neat widget which will give you lots of UI customizations as well as wide options of buttons. You may like to replace Powerful control with this new widget Power Control for Android power management like a Boss. Never forget to share your experience here with us.
Latest Smartphone comes with great shooters with decent mega pixels and optical systems. Most of the people are really enjoying it and we can see lots of pictures taken by Smartphone on social media. Some of them are edited as well using various mobile image manipulation applications.
However factory camera application always comes with basic features only. If you need more features you have to install some 3rd party camera app. I was trying different app in my Galaxy Nexus running with Android Jelly Bean. The best android camera app I could find is Pudding camera. Let’s take a closer look in to this app.
Getting Started With Pudding Camera
Search and download the Pudding Camera app from Google Play.
It will automatically add an icon to one of your home screen.
In camera interface you can find various controls. Before you go better to take a look at settings.
In right top corner you can see settings icon as well as tap anywhere to shoot, flasher controller and flip camera icons.
In settings you can adjust various options such as image size, geo tagging, grid display and sharing.
Right hand side you can find shutter button and shortcut to pudding camera album in photo gallery.
This app support tap to focus as any other camera app.
In left hand side you can see dial with red marker. Tap to expand it and rotate it to change exposure compensation.
Down there you can see a camera icon. That’s where the magic is. Tap on it.
It will take you to another interface where you can find different cameras and films.
Cameras will add different effects to your picture such as fish eye, panorama, depth of field etc.
Films will add different color profiles you your pictures such as vivid, vintage, monochrome etc.
You can use different combinations of cameras and films to create the effect what you really need.
There is an option for you to download cameras and films as well.
After selecting cameras and films go back to main screen by tapping on camera icon at the right top corner.
Frame the picture, tap to focus and then tap on shutter button.
Entire photos you taken will be saved in separate folder in gallery named “PuddingCamera”.
Wrapping Up
Pudding camera is having wide range of effects and color profiles in built. The way they design interface to change them is also very user friendly and unique. Whole application performance is at a greater level and having very short initial load time as well. It is applying effects within couple of seconds.
All the above futures make Pudding camera is the best android camera app in Google play for sure. You can use this as your primary camera application with no trouble. Try this and share your experience here with NOG community.
For the last few years most of the Android Smartphone took the lead in market, yet tablets couldn’t do the same. Samsung released a wide range of tablets and many other manufactures did the same, but did not succeed as expected. However, one Android tablet changed this picture and dominated a significant tablet market share. It’s Amazon Kindle Fire.
It’s the initiator of 7 inch tablet trend. This was the basic inspiration to Google Nexus 7. This popularity motivated Amazon to come up with better Kindle Fire and they did it. It came to market with the name Kindle Fire HD with much better features as well as competitive price.
Features Highlight
Display
Display is the major upgrade in Amazon Kindle Fire HD. As name says, display goes HD with resolution 800 x 1280 px. Same as the previous Kindle Fire, it has 7 inch IPS panel and giving you 216 ppi of pixel density.
Processor and Storage
Processor is the next upgrade. Now it’s, 1.2 GHz Dual Core Cortex A9 running on TI OMAP 4460 chipset. GPU is very popular PowerVR SGX540. The device comes with 16/32 GB internal storage options and RAM is 1 GB, another major upgrade.
Operating System
Previous Kindle Fire was powered with Android 2.3 and this time they have wrapped Kindle Fire HD with Android 4.0 ICS. However, you won’t be able to experience pure Android on Kindle Fire HD. It’s heavily customized to deliver Kindle branded experience.
Camera
Another attraction is, Kindle Fire HD comes with front facing camera. Now you make video calls with it. However this 1.3 MP camera won’t allow you to record video. Although it’s allowed, it won’t be practical since its front facing.
Connectivity
Kindle Fire didn’t support GSM or LTE connectivity from the first day and it continues to do the same. The primary connectivity in Kindle Fire HD is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Wi-Fi is using dual band dual antenna technology which will give you super speed data transfers. For PC connectivity there is a micro USB port.
Battery Life
Specified battery life is 11 hours but the battery capacity is not given. However battery life is highly subjective and totally depends on your usage style. Given value in specification would be true for most of general users.
Wrapping Up
Kindle Fire HD is an appropriate upgrade to previous Kindle and improved most essential features in optimum ways. High resolution display is a wise move and processing power is also in its sweet point. It’s very light weight, only 395g. Design is also great and highly portable.
If you are doing lots of web browsing, eBook reading and you need portability this is a good choice for you. If you are a big fan of gaming, Kindle Fire HD would work for you just great. It’s having decent processing power and great GPU to support it.
Kindle Fire gives you many Amazon specific features as well. It’s giving you unlimited free Cloud storage space for entire Amazon content. There are many other services such as Kindle FreeTime, instant video and lending library.
You can buy Amazon Kindle Fire HD only for $ 199, amazing price for amazing device. This would be a great upgrade for previous kindle and great choice for people who are looking for 7 inch android tablet, for web browsing, eBook reading, multimedia and gaming.
2013 is the year of 1080p Android phones. We already have Oppo Find 5 and HTC droid DNA. The new member to join the club is Sony Xperia Z. There were tons of rumors around the web and previously I rounded up all of those for you. Putting an end to all those rumors and leaks Sony Xperia Z made its first appearance in CSE 2013. Let’s go and take a look in to this amazing device, its strengths and weaknesses.
Insight for Sony Xperia Z
Design
Dimensions: 139 x 71 x 7.9 mm
Weight: 146 g
The design is following the same concept as previous Xperia. The most interesting part here is dust and water proof body. Sony demonstration about this water proof design attracted all the attention to this device.
Display
Size: 5 inches
Protection: Scratch resistant glass
Technology: TFT
Resolution: 1080 x 1920 px
Sharpness: 441 ppi
Spec is pretty impressive and same as all the other 5 inches 1080p devices. The display is TFT. It suppose to give lesser color contrast, narrow viewing angles and poor power efficiency compared to latest AMOLED displays. But due to super high resolution this display looks stunning and colors are great as any other Xperia.
Processor and Storage
Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ8064)
Modem: Qualcomm MDM9215
CPU: 1.5 GHz Quad Core Krait
GPU: Adreno 320
RAM: 2 GB
Internal Storage: 16 GB
Expandable Storage: microSD up to 32 GB
This is a pretty much standard spec for any 1080p you can find in the market. Best chipset, one of the best modem, high end CPU, GPU and storage completes this device. You will never miss 32 GB model since you have the microSD slot.
Software
OS: Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
UI: Sony UI
It originally comes with previous version of JB and expected to have upgraded to 4.2. You already know the bad side of manufacture themes. If I’ll get this device I’ll definitely flash it with naked android, probably CyanogenMod.
Camera sensor has lots of pixels and this is the new standard for Smartphone. It has a beastly hardware, so no one stops it from shooting HDR photos. Front facing camera is also above the average and 1080p self video might set a new trend in YouTube soon.
Connectivity
Mobile Network: GSM // HSDPA // LTE
Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
GPS: A-GPS
NFC: Yes
Bluetooth: 4.0
USB: microUSB 2.0
Here you have nothing else to ask for. It supports all the 2G, 3G and LTE bands. If you get a factory unlocked phone you have the freedom of switching between pretty much every mobile carrier.
Battery Life
Type: Li-Ion
Capacity: 2330 mAh
Battery Life: 11h Talk time
Battery is not as huge as I expected, but it’s pretty decent. But still I’m not sure whether this would be enough to survive a whole day with this gigantic super revolutionary display. However, answer is in the future. More the people get their hands on this, we will get the answers.
Wrapping Up
To stand out in the competition with other 1080p 5 Inches phones the best trump card Sony Xperia Z has is dust and water resistant body. This will come in handy for frequent travelers, especially outbound travelers. Even in general usage you don’t have to be over protective about your phone. Other than that it shares a common spec as any other phone in same category.
Sony was carefully building up a solid range of Android phones. They offered unique features and becoming a threat to giants like Samsung and HTC. Sony Xperia Z would be another step toward capturing more Android market share.
Soon you will be able to enjoy this device with your favorite mobile carrier. In the meantime join the discussion in the comment section below.
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Whenever a new Android version comes out, the main thing I look for is battery life. Android is already full in features than any other mobile OS, so no point of looking for features. Before the Jelly beans came out I was looking for smooth UI. But now battery life comes first.
Android 4.1 was highly optimized to save battery life along with its performance and smooth UI. But everything burnt to ground with poor battery life in Android Jelly Bean 4.2.
Recently Google rolled out Android 4.2.2 to Android devices with very minor UI tweaks. But it’s size was 44 MB. So there has to be something more than those minor UI alterations. I had a gut feeling that they must have done something to get the power management back on track. So I ran a battery life test and here we go with the results.
Battery Usage Report
I tested this on my Galaxy Nexus with original battery (Almost 1 year old). Wi-Fi was on in the whole time and mobile signal strength was also good. Screen brightness was set to 50%. Basically I was using the device to browse web, social media, email, eBay and games such as a Temple Run 2.
I took a screenshot when battery reached 5%. By then device was ON for 25h 19m (3h 16m Screen on). This is amazing compared to 12h and 53m (3h 24m Screen on) in Android Jelly Bean 4.2. Here are the screenshots of battery life report.
And here is the screen on time.
So Yeah! That 44 MB is not just for minor UI tweaks. Google have done some core level optimization to make Android less power hungry as well as more secured.
Mobile Device: Samsung Galaxy Nexus
Mobile OS: Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2
It’s good to know that Google developers are fighting against one of the major and crucial problems in Android OS. Software optimization is the best way to achieve better power management and performance, not increasing number of CPU cores or memory.
You are invited to share your experience with latest Android 4.2.2 in the comment section below.
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