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Tracking of Android and iOS based smartphones and how to stop it

 

One of the biggest concerns of the 21st century is Data Privacy. Applications that you have installed in your smartphone, ask you to allow them to have a peek into areas, which they feel needful. So, while you are watching something or surfing something on the Internet, it might be possible that someone running that application may have complete information about where you are and what you are doing. Allowing applications for all the permissions they ask is like giving remote controls to that application maker for our future navigation or deeds. And without knowing the person or algorithm which has the access to all this information, we cannot say whether we are in safe hands or not.

 

So, as recommended by many experts on the topic of data privacy, one is suggested to turn off the location feature on your phone, when not needed. This goes for any smartphone holder, be it Android or iPhone. In this article, we are going to discuss applications that need access to your location, and how to prevent an Android or an iPhone from seeking your location. First things first, we'll talk about the applications.

 

Phone apps that demand knowing the location of your device

We do not imply here that every application that asks you access to the location feature, asks you without a valid reason. There might be applications that genuinely need your permission for displaying the content accordingly. But we do imply that with these applications that genuinely need your permission, there might be several others that take benefit of your clicking on "yes"/ "always" when asked whether you allow the application to access your location. And we imply that it is important for you to know the difference between those applications.

  • The most common example that requires the location of your smartphone is Google maps.
  • Apart from Google, the applications which use Google Maps to ensure your transportation or some other things also fall under the category of applications that genuinely require access to your smartphone's location. And these applications are Uber, Lyft, etc. They need your location to figure out which driver is the nearest to you, from all.
  • Apart from the two categories of application, there are applications that, for offering your deals as well as coupons, ask for location access. This category of applications tries to take as much as data they can, for displaying your advertisements related to your area, as they have planned to display. So, they sometimes are known to customize the content for a specific user.
  • Then there are news and other weather-related applications that track your location data for providing specific information regarding your locality's news and weather.
  • You would be surprised to know that even streaming platforms such as Netflix, require your location. And the only logical reason why they do is, to make sure they are not violating the laws by letting you see a video that your government doesn't want you to see.
  • In case you are not yet able to know how Facebook is able to figure out who stays nearby you and precisely offer you his or her suggestion as a friend, it's because that application uses your location. And not only Facebook but almost every social media application also uses your location to offer you the best suggestions.
  • Spying applications, which are the most trending on the list of applications, are also known to use location tracking features. They do so for allowing the owners to real-time monitor a device, and indirectly the person who has the device at that moment. Some of the big names in this category of applications include Spyic and Cocospy, which permits a parent to monitor his or her kid, an employee to monitor employees and a lover to monitor partners.

How to prevent your Android or iOS from getting monitored?

Although this procedure needs to be specified from phone to phone, in general, it remains the same for Android as well as for the iPhone. You will have to go to the Settings tab of your Android phone, look for location, and toggle it from on to off. Once that is done, no applications will have access to your smartphones' location. Although this comes with a risk of not letting Google track your location even when it's stolen. But what good thing was ever risk-free?

 

In case you are an iPhone user and you wish to turn off your smartphone's location you can simply go to the Settings tab, select Privacy, in which you need to tap on Location Services and toggle the Services and turn it off. Doing so would impact some of the services such as Maps as well as find my iPhone, but as said earlier, no good thing is ever risk-free!

 

Things can also be done in a different way if you choose to restrict certain applications from using your location. This would mean that you are not asking all the applications that do not have access to your location, but only those applications about which you think, it is unnecessary for them to need access to your locations. This you can do by going to the Settings tab, select location, and then select app permissions. Under this category, you can toggle off the location permissions to the applications you do not wish to give away the locations.

 

The Conclusion

You are very responsible for toggling off and on permissions for any data that can be monitored and collected from your phone. So, it is getting important day by day to understand the complexity and concerns of the technology that you are using and the privacy you are allowed to enjoy by small toggling. Location is a very important criterion and giving access to it, to someone, means handing over some important part of the steering of your virtual car to some. This will not only let the steering holder turn wherever the steering holder feels it's okay to but in general giving all access to your virtual freedom to someone.


Best Features on Online Sports Betting Apps

 

The transition from placing bets on the high street or at kiosks to online sports wagering has accelerated in recent years thanks to the increase in technology, and now, it is betting apps that are taking the market by storm.

 

From a convenience standpoint, there has never been a better time to be a punter. You can pick up your phone and lock in your bets within seconds, and this means there are more opportunities to find value and make your knowledge count.

 

There are also more options that have surfaced on betting apps as operators constantly try to innovate in order to steal a march on the competition.

 

Face ID Login

The ability to log into a betting app without having to enter login details is a crucial technological advancement. For people wanting to place in-play bets, the process is smooth and super fast.

 

You can set up a Face ID within your account settings on most betting apps, and some will also let you set a pin instead or stick to the classic username and password.

 

If you have an older smartphone model, you may have to go for a fingerprint login.

 

Cash Out

It is hardly a new feature, but cash out is available on most if not all betting apps. The quality of each site's cash out can differ from bookie to bookie.

 

Some betting sites in Canada allow you to cash out for a full stake refund before the event has started, whereas others only let you do it in-play.

 

Either way, the easiest way to cash out is through a betting app as you can do it whilst on the move. It is also preferable if the option to partially cash out is offered.

 

Push Notifications

Many betting apps will send out push notifications that make you aware of upcoming games and special promotions.

 

You can control what you do and don't receive so that they don't become annoying - but on the whole, it is an excellent added service that helps you make sure you don't miss out on anything.

 

Bet Builder

The bet builder is one of the latest additions to many betting sites, and it has been a hit because of the freedom it offers punters.

 

While most bookies now facilitate same game parlays, some only allow you to do it on mobile. Whether you can do it on desktop or not, it is easier to do it on a betting app.

 

You can do bet builders for soccer and in some cases basketball, tennis, and American football.

 

Live Streaming

Some of the more established betting sites have a live streaming catalogue and you can follow the action through the app.

 

Soccer, tennis, and basketball are among the most common sports you can watch through betting apps, as well as horse racing, which is offered by more bookies.


Resources for Responsive Mobile Web Design

 

Responsive mobile web designing is advancing beyond simply adjusting the alignment of webpages. For instance, the current web designing theory believes that a designer should deliver a website in many ways depending on the screen's width. While designing a responsive web application, various questions might arise in your mind. Certain practices can help you get an insight into everything that it takes to build a proper, efficient, and responsive web application. This article will discuss all the practices that a designer must follow to create a successful, responsive web application.


What is a Responsive Web Design?

Responsive web design is one of the advanced practices that are common in the present Software Development Industry. In this process, the designer creates the website to be accessible on all devices irrespective of the screen size, resolution, and device platform. Additionally, Viewer proximity is also considered to be a crucial part of responsive web designing. In simple words, this process allows you to ensure that every customer can access your website on their respective device. Thus, responsive web design can ensure that a company will have control over the entire user base.


Best Practices for Responsive Web Designing

1. Hidden Navigation Menus

On smaller screens, you can keep the layout simple by hiding the main navigation menu. Additionally, you can use icon, text, or a combination of both to indicate the user about the main navigation menu's position. You can either use a dropdown or overlay method to make the menu visible to users when they try to access it. However, it would be best to remember that the menu will expand inside and gradually cover the entire screen. This process will hide specific details on your website. Thus, you must organise all the details depending upon their importance. In a desktop view, you can use a simple company logo to indicate the user about further options available on clicking the button.


Furthermore, you can also try to customize the menu to attract your user's attention and make it more visually appealing.


2. Horizontal Swipe-able Menus

A horizontal swipe-able menu is another excellent way to make the menu available on a smaller screen while maintaining a simple website layout. In this process, you keep the website visible while ensuring the content overflows to the edge of the screen. Major companies use this method with a call to action button. This button's primary function is to show all the available options when the user clicks on it. It is a perfect example of integrating different methods in the available space.

For instance, the horizontal scroll menu available on Google is a simple list of text links. This link usually overflows to the edge of the screen and indicates that more content will be available on swiping. Additionally, each of the text links has an individual drop-down menu that appears when the user clicks on it.


3. Provide Large Clickable Areas to Buttons and Links

Many companies commit the mistake of making the button smaller on mobile devices, thinking that it will be easy to access. However, a recent survey suggests that larger buttons are more comfortable with tapping on most mobile browsers. Additionally, it has been proved that large buttons are easily accessible irrespective of the device. So, we can justify that large button size helps to increase the usability of a web application.


Along with button size, text links also benefit from a larger size. For instance, you can have a large font size for the essential text links you want a customer or user to access. Additionally, you can block the area around the text link to ensure that the user can access the link by clicking anywhere around the text. In simple terms, an easier to read website provides a better experience to all users.


4. Balance Font Weights and Text Sizes

As a designer, you must maintain a perfect balance between header and paragraph fonts. For instance, excessively large headers don't look attractive on a mobile device if stretched over a few lines. So, it would be best if you resized everything correctly according to the device.


All the new mobile device screens have high resolution. Thus, the text becomes more readable on these devices as this resolution gives you the ability to have a smaller font size while maintaining a website's readability. While designing the titles for a mobile application, you must ensure that the label never overpowers the website's other details.


5. Maintain Optimal Viewing Widths

A designer must consider a content's line length while working on websites for touch screen devices. For instance, a website's readability decreases with length text as the user can't follow every line that is present on the web page. However, two short lines also break the rhythm for reading as it confuses the reader. So, we can determine that every designer must practice an average line length of 75 characters. Additionally, you have to set the text width to a maximum of 700 pixels. This process will allow you to ensure that all the text present on the website remains readable on every device.

It is essential to maintain optimal reading with the help of simple link sharing and a well-positioned sidebar in simple terms. Additionally, a lot of white space, along with a transparent clutter-free sidebar, ensures that your website remains accessible to the user base.


6. Place All the Important Information near the Top of the Screen
As a designer, you must ensure that all the vital information present on the web page gets the required attention. For instance, you should place all the contact information, transaction details, and call to action buttons on the top of the website. A survey suggests that all mobile users want access to quick information. So, this process will help satisfy this goal. Additionally, information priority works on almost every device. Many people think that this process is no longer valid as browser sizes are continuously changing. However, major companies have stated that it is essential to map all call to action buttons at the top of the page.


For e-Commerce websites, this is essential to provide easy access to all the desired items. For instance, the user can make all the transactions on this website without having to scroll down.


7. Provide variation in Content Information Order during Screen Collapsing
Information priority is highly essential for designing a successful, responsive web application. It would help if you found out the importance of every text on the web page to sort them out according to the priority. For instance, you can use CSS to change the content order on almost every web application. Additionally, for desktop websites, you must sort the priority between text blocks and image blocks.


The placement of the sidebar also plays a significant role in a mobile website. For instance, an oddly placed sidebar would collapse and hide a lot of information present on the web page. Moreover, you can use a side by side method for the menu option to solve various text placement issues.


8. Hide Some Content on Smaller Screens
For a mobile website, you must ensure that you place the text correctly, considering the screen size. Thus, you must prioritize critical information to make them visible without scrolling. For instance, you can hide certain information to maintain a simple look for the web application. Additionally, you can go for partial data hiding mechanism by transferring the information on a different type and making it optional access. This process will improve data clustering on a web page and help users notice critical information according to their desire.


9. Provide More Content on Larger Screens
A widescreen gives the developer the freedom to display more information on the website. Thus, you also have the liberty to push more content further up the device screen. So, you can increase the visibility of the content for your website. Moreover, the layout option allows you to expand and accommodate more columns on the initial web page. For instance, users with bigger displays can access more information on the web application without scrolling down. In simple words, you must think about the layout of the device and try to maximize the space utilization for every device and screen size.


10. Give Important to Tablets in Portrait Mode
Smartphones are rapidly growing in the present industry. Many experts have suggested that by the end of 2021, there will be 756 million smartphones in the entire world. Thus, while creating a responsive web design, you must study the whole customer base accessing your mobile device application. It would be best if you also considered space utilization on all the tablet devices. So, you can use the media query option available in CSS to improve your web application layout. For tablets, you should try to display as much information as possible without disturbing the layout's proportion and orientation.


Recommended Tool for Responsive Testing - LT Browser

 

As a company, you must ensure that your application provides responsive services without any interruption. Thus, it becomes imperative to test the responsiveness of a web application. Various tools can help you with this process. However, we recommend our readers checkout LT Browser as the ultimate tool for responsive web designing. This amazing browser allows you to verify the responsiveness of your website by testing it on various ports and devices. Additionally, you can use this wonderful browser to perform live testing on more than 25 devices.

Additionally, you can use LT Browser to preview your web design on various devices. Thus, this process allows you to save a lot of time and effort. Furthermore, the customer care of LT Browser is always ready to assist you at any point.


The Verdict

 

So, we can conclude that responsive web design allows increasing the traffic on your website. For instance, the website will provide an uneven user experience on various devices if it isn't designed correctly. The number of mobile devices is increasing at a rapid rate. So, you must ensure that you provide a seamless experience on all mobile and tablet devices. This process will help you to have a firm grip over the vast market. Lastly, we would recommend our readers checkout LamdaTest to ensure the responsiveness of the web application. LamdaTest has been serving the software industry for several years now.


How to Easily Find out Who Called You

 

There are so many situations in which you might want to find out who called you. Maybe you were waiting for an important phone call that you have missed, received a phone call from an unknown caller and would rather not pick it up, or perhaps you were subject to a prank call. No matter what your reason is, it is probably best to know who the caller is before picking up the phone call or calling them back. Here are some easy ways in which you can find out who called you.

 

Smartphone Applications

Many free smartphone applications today are designed for the very purpose of finding out who called you. All that you need to do is create a free account and get started. You can paste or type in the number that called you and their identity will automatically be revealed. Some of these apps can tell you whether this phone number has been previously reported as spam. If there are any social media accounts linked to their phone number, it would be possible to view them. Some of these apps are capable of identifying spam calls on their own, and therefore automatically block the caller. They do notify you when this happens though. You can create a blacklist, as well, which will signal to the caller that your number has been disconnected.

 

Reverse Phone Lookup

There are many websites that offer reverse phone lookups. You can insert the phone number that called you and relevant information, such as the city, country, and cell phone provider will show up. This is all information is provided for free, however, if you are looking for a more detailed report, some websites may require a small fee. The reviews over at callersearch.net suggest that a good reverse lookup site will store millions of phone number records and their services should be free of charge. It is an easy and practical way of finding out who called you.

 

Social Media

Some social media, such as Facebook, can allow you to search for phone numbers in the search bar. If the person who called you has their Facebook account linked to their phone number, chances are their profile can pop up. When you type in the number in the search bar, you can also see if that phone number has been previously mentioned in any posts.

 

Google Searches

Google searches are an easy, though not very practical, method of finding out who called you. If you search for the phone number on google, you can be redirected to websites in which this phone number was mentioned. It could've been mentioned in a review here or there or on any recruitment websites. Though it is not the most reliable search method, it still won't hurt to try.

 

Google Searches

 

Spam Call Websites

Some websites will tell you if the number that called you has been reported as spam or unsafe. It is a very useful service because even if you identified the caller, you may still have no idea who they are. So, you might still be wondering whether you should call them back. In this case, you can check whether it is safe to give them a call or just block the number.

 

Anonymous Callers

Finding out who called you can be an even trickier process when the caller is anonymous, or has hidden their phone number. Fortunately, there is a trick that can reveal the number of the caller. You can dial *69 to reveal the number of the caller, as well as the exact time in which they called. Dialing this number will also give you the option to call that person back. Alternatively, you can use the code *67 to hide your own caller ID before calling them back. Afterwards, you can insert the number in one of the smartphone apps that can reveal the caller identity, or perform a reverse phone lookup. You can dial *57 as well, since it can give you more information regarding the call. However, make sure to dial this number if you believe that the caller is spamming, scamming, or harassing you, since the information will be shared with the police, and the authorities will be alerted.

 

Cell Phone Providers

Your cell phone provider can offer you a call tracing code to help you deal with a spam caller. You can also ask them to give you a caller ID for when the caller is anonymous. Your phone provider can also offer a service to help you block spammers, instead of having to deal with them on your own.

 

Cell Phone Settings

If you own an iPhone, and you have reached the point where you are extremely fed up with all of these spam calls, you can take a more extreme action. You can enable the "silence unknown callers" options. This feature simply stops your phone from ringing when someone who is not in your contact list attempts to call you. The caller will be taken to voicemail, and the call attempt will be recorded in your phone log. To do so, you need to click on settings, then phone, and scroll down till you reach the heading that reads "call silencing and blocked contacts." After clicking on it, switch on the "silence unknown callers" option. On an Android, you can open the phone app, and click on the icon with the three vertical dots at the bottom of your screen. Then, click on settings and switch on the "block anonymous calls" option.

 

Getting a call from a random number can be very unsettling. You might start wondering whether it is someone that you know or if it is an important call. On the other hand, you might be worried that it would be unsafe to pick the phone up, since dealing with spam callers and harassers can be quite a headache. This is why you should try one of the previously mentioned methods in order to know more about the unknown caller, or take certain measures to stop them from calling.


4 Benefits of a Mobile-Friendly Website

 

How important is it to have a mobile friendly website? If you're creating a website in 2020, then it simply has to be mobile friendly. The problem is, there are still so many sites out there that aren't. Don't let that be your site, and make the most of these five benefits of a mobile friendly website.

 

Traffic

The majority of traffic in 2020 comes from mobile devices.

 

Just think about all those searches you make on your mobile device; it's the same for everyone else as well, and this is the reason why mobile queries account for 50.71% of Google searches.

 

If the majority of your traffic is coming from mobile devices then it goes without saying that you've got to cater for these people. A poor mobile experience and you're alienating your traffic just like that.

 

It might take a little extra effort to make sure your website is well optimized for mobile, but the difference it will make is huge.

 

Rankings

Google has moved to a mobile-first indexing system, which means it looks at the mobile version of your site when judging where it should rank.

 

This makes sense, because Google knows at least half of its customers are using mobile, so it tries to promote the results that offer the best mobile experience. If your website is not one of them, then you're going to find it much more difficult to rank and bring in organic traffic.

 

Seeing as every website can benefit hugely from organic traffic this is a pretty big deal and a major reason to invest in mobile optimization. Working with an SEO agency such as clickintelligence.co.uk, you can make sure you're giving yourself the best chance of ranking well by optimizing your mobile experience.

 

User Experience

Your aim isn't just to get people to your website; you also want them to engage with your content and help you achieve your goals (normally selling your products or services.)

 

If your website isn't offering a good user experience, or loads slowly, then they're not going to stick around and engage with your site; they're going to bounce back to Google because they get frustrated.

 

A site that's not optimized for mobile will have errors when people view it from mobile, and this can make it extremely difficult to engage with. These user experiences are going to mean people spend less time on your site and lower your chances of converting on your goals.

 

Trust

When people engage with your website, they're looking for signs of trust. If people are going to part with their money for your products of services, then they expect you to be able to produce a website that works for mobile.

 

If you can't do this, then they're going to doubt the professionalism of your business and therefore wonder if they can trust you with things like online transactions. Issues such as poor mobile responsiveness raise doubts in people's minds and mean you've got more hurdles to overcome to make a sale.

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