Author: Antara Raisa Rahman

Are you someone whose expertise lies in the tech arena and is looking for site development tools? Well to make your life a bit easier, we handpicked the top 20 tech tools to provide you with all the relevant information you need for your site development, app development and etc… So, to help out the tech geniuses here we have the top 20 tools & plugins!!! Now you can make your site look professional in a zippy. And the most important thing is all are free. So grab the opportunity and start working.

[button link=”https://www.behance.net/gallery/ENYO-font/15544405″ size=”large” target=”self”]Enyo[/button]

It’s a trendy looking font which has a retro look in it.

[button link=”http://lab.hakim.se/avgrund/” size=”large” target=”self”]Avgrund:[/button]

It helps you see a design layout before entering the site.

[button link=”http://dehats.com/illustrator-layer-exporter/” size=”large” target=”self”]Layer Exporter:[/button]

It’s a great plug in for Adobe Illustrator users to export your content in JPEG and other formats

[button link=”https://www.behance.net/gallery/10-free-retro-logos-Badges-PSD-files/15838543″ size=”large” target=”self”]Retro logos:[/button]

Sample 10 retro looking logos for PSD users.

[button link=”http://codepen.io/EduardL/pen/aBGAy” size=”large” target=”self”]Side sliding menu:[/button]

A simple coding to experiment with menus.

[button link=”http://fontsofchaos.com/portfolio/amsterdam-superstar-fonts/” size=”large” target=”self”]Kirvy:[/button]

It’s a sans serif font and the design is available in 4 sizes.

[button link=”http://fontsofchaos.com/portfolio/amsterdam-superstar-fonts/” size=”large” target=”self”]Amsterdam Superstar:[/button]

It shows your font in caps lock layout.

[button link=”http://w3layouts.com/purple-ui-kit-flat-responsive-web-template” size=”large” target=”self”]Purple UI kit:[/button]

A really cute HTML UI kit for girls.

[button link=”http://stockindesign.com/free-business-newsletter/” size=”large” target=”self”]Business Newsletter:[/button]

A very informative template for business newsletter.

[button link=”http://awesomekit.me/” size=”large” target=”self”]Awesomekit.me: [/button]

It helps to create or design Wire frame for iOS.

[button link=”http://fikristudio.com/mabur-free-portofolio-psd/” size=”large” target=”self”]Mabur:[/button]

A basic PSD portfolio template for beginner web designer.

[button link=”http://ortheme.com/jqgrid-jquery-grid-plugin/” size=”large” target=”self”]Jqgrid:[/button]

Jquery grid plugin is for those who want to customize programming language.

[button link=”http://www.iconshock.com/mobile-icon/” size=”large” target=”self”]Mobile icons:[/button]

It’s a bundle of more than 10000 icons for websites.

[button link=”https://dribbble.com/shots/1482642-Free-UI-Kit-PSD?list=likes&offset=1″ size=”large” target=”self”]Free UI Kit [PSD]:[/button]

Another great tool for developers who are design online stores.

[button link=”https://dribbble.com/shots/1017934-Free-responsive-wireframes-GIF” size=”large” target=”self”] Free responsive wireframes:[/button]

You will find image scroll, navigation and product gallery for your website layout.

[button link=”http://www.cssauthor.com/mobile-wireframe-kit-psd/” size=”large” target=”self”]Mobile wireframe kit PSD:[/button]

It’s especially designed for mobile platforms to make the websites or apps more interactive .

[button link=”http://www.sketchappsources.com/free-source/18-google-android-ui-xhdpi-asset-kit.html” size=”large” target=”self”]Android UI XHDPI Template:[/button]

By using this file one can easily customize an android app .

[button link=”https://www.behance.net/gallery/PROMESH-TWO-A-Free-Athletic-Font/14773639″ size=”large” target=”self”]Promesh Two:[/button]

A free retro looking font.

[button link=”http://www.egidiofilippetti.it/focus/focus.html” size=”large” target=”self”]Focus:[/button]

A very simple looking font for headlines.

[button link=”http://dandkagency.com/velositey/” size=”large” target=”self”]Velositey:[/button]

A very innovative and cool website builder.

Who doesn’t want their app to top the app store list? But without knowing proper ways to promote your app in the right path you tend to lose your target consumers. However your worry will soon be over since I have come up with 12 great and very useful ways to help your app climb to the top in the app store. Without any further ado lets see how this can be done.

[button link=”#” size=”medium” target=”self”]1) Make your audience know about your app[/button]

Many of us fail in this field. We often don’t know who our target audience is.For that we need to do some research. What you can do is you can put a link of your app on your website to download. Also, if you have friends who operate tech blogs tell them to write a review about your app with screenshots which will help it reach the target audience. If you know who your target audience is mail them or send them the download link in the social media page.

[button link=”#” size=”medium” target=”self”]2)Keyword research & search engine optimization[/button]

A great way to meet your target audience is keyword search. Suppose you develop a heartbeat app, so the keyword is heart. Therefore a lot of app users will not know about your app. But if they search your app using the tags, or the keyword heart, then they will be able to find your app. In this way you can help consumers avail your app.

[button link=”#” size=”medium” target=”self”]3) Share your app in different sites[/button]

Another way to reach your target audience is to become a volunteer advocate about your product. Say good things in tech sites or start a forum discussion and debate on that. Request people to review your product and be proactive.

[button link=”#” size=”medium” target=”self”]4) Maintain public relations online and offline[/button]

PR or public relation is a key tool to succeed in any business. Therefore, in order to do so you may hire a guy with expert PR skills, who will take care of publicizing your app on your behalf . If that is not possible then talk to your local journalist or news agency and put a qrcode on their tech magazine or publication. You may also ask them to write about your app or review it.

[button link=”#” size=”medium” target=”self”]5) Give free promo codes[/button]

Who doesn’t want free stuff? Whether it’s a free pen or a free chocolate bar, everyone is up for grabs. Similarly you can post your app promo code in different social media sites or tech magazines,which will encourage the target consumers to download or avail the service. This will be a win win situation.

[button link=”#” size=”medium” target=”self”]6) Promotion[/button]

A very famous person once said doing business without promotion is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does. So promotion is a must. Whether you have a big budget or a small one, make a plan on how you will promote your product. You can do so by promoting in tech sites or app related pages, or promoting on social media sites such as twitter or Facebook. You may also pay for an add in other popular pages.

[button link=”#” size=”medium” target=”self”]7) Share videos[/button]

No one has enough time to read about an app review. Unless it’s written by someone who is followed by millions. Therefore, make a cool video about what the app does & how to use it. Trust me it will help you to reach a lot of consumers before hitting the market.

[button link=”#” size=”medium” target=”self”]8) Make it available in every country[/button]

What I find useless is making an app available in the United states, but not other counties. Users from other countries will not be be aware of your app or review it. So make your app available in every country and break the barriers, after all we live in a global community.

[button link=”#” size=”medium” target=”self”]9) Make it convenient & easily shareable[/button]

Make your app connect to Facebook or other popular social media page. What it will do is, it will drag a lot of users attention from the social media page. If it’s a game, then make the score shareable on Facebook or whatsapp. People will then know about your app and will try to test it.

[button link=”#” size=”medium” target=”self”]10) Before launching tease your audience with a dummy site[/button]

What I am going to say is before giving it away make it available in the webpage so that users can try it out and share feedback & suggestions. It will help you to find out what they like and the changes they want. After all, the customer is always right.

[button link=”#” size=”medium” target=”self”]11)  Be pleasant & cooperate[/button]

Rather than focusing on making money, try knowing what the consumer wants. What I have seen is in many free apps, companies put a lot of ads which disrupts the user experience. Instead of following this trend, be cooperative and stop putting ads on the free version. It will work wonders when you will launch the paid version.

[button link=”#” size=”medium” target=”self”]12) Launch with care[/button]

Take time before you launch, because once it’s live you can’t put it down or make changes. Therefore think twice before you make the final choice. Focus on design, layout performance & then test it and finally launch it. If you are still confused launch a beta version and then launch the original one.

 That’s all folks.

Many of you probably heard of a Flipboard magazine app. It’s an app for both the Android and iOS users to read the daily news. Apart from that, one can select a particular category of news which they will be able to read on a day to day basis. People who have an idea about it or are planning to use this sort of app, there is a good news waiting for you. Yahoo, launched their very own app aka News Digest for android and also enabled the ios version available worldwide.

What it does is, it lets a user stay updated twice a day. Basically, it was available for iOS users in the UK & US. The service is free & available in four different editions. Existing US and UK versions of the app, which are now available on Android, and new editions in Canada and the rest of the world, are all available on iOS and Android.

What we came to know is that 40 percent of users use this app on a daily basis. But the number of downloads is still unknown. But we assume it’s quite high since it’s a product of the Yahoo search giant. Already developments are underway.  Pretty soon, they will launch a widget for the android users to show and display the latest news & contents. But the disappointing part of this app is that it doesn’t show news about Asian countries such as Bangladesh. Since I am a resident of Bangladesh I want to know all the daily news and want to stay updated. So from my viewpoint if they look into this matter and focus on regional and country based news then it will be a 5 star must have app of Yahoo. But for Yahoo digest the competition will be cut throat since other big players are already in the market. Let’s just wait to see what happens next.

You have probably heard of Google Glass  but for those who haven’t , it’s similar to a regular spectacle but the difference here is it’s a product of Google. And when I say that it’s a product of Google it means it must be something special. What it does is it basically works like a smartphone in a form of glass. It takes pictures, records videos, sends text messages and finds location. Now that you probably have some idea about it, rather than boring you, let’s talk about another cool feature of Google, which is the Google wallet.You will be surprised to know that Google Wallet is coming to Google Glass.

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According to some verified sources we came to know that Google, the search engine giant, is currently testing a way for Google Glass users to send money by simply using their voice and asking Google Glass to send money. So for instance, when you go to dine at a restaurant and after you have finished your food, you can just take a picture using Google glass and say ‘pay the bill’ and it will automatically pay the hotel account. Don’t you think it’s quite amazing? Never thought that this sort of sci-fi thing will be done. But as for now, it is still being tested in Google Labs. But the good news is very soon this service will be available for Google Glass users in the near future. That is the reason why I was talking about Google Glass & Google Wallet.

Now many of you would like to know about the Google Wallet service or want to use it. For those curious minds, don’t be disappointed as the Google Wallet service can also be used by any user who already has a Gmail account. By using that account, one can sign up for Google Wallet service. It works like an online payment gateway and it makes paying much more secure & versatile. However, the main disadvantage of the Google Wallet service is Google takes a 2.9 percent fee for the Wallet transactions. But who doesn’t want their online payment to be safe & secure?  And for that one can easily pay this small amount of transaction fee.

In the near future we are hoping that we will get new features from Google and a price reduction in fees for the wallet service, so that different segments of users can avail the service even if they don’t use Google Glass which is pretty expensive as of now.

Twitter released its Q1 financial performance report and it seems that all those changes which were made to make the user experience better is now paying off. The service also increased 14 million new active users in the first quarter.

However, if we look into the details, the user base for Twitter is now 255 million. This shows a sudden increase in the growth of its users, which is now at 55%. Also compared to this year’s Q1 growth, the Q4 of 2013 saw only 9 million users. If we look closely, the first quarter was slower, with a gain of 25% versus 30.3% for Q4. That’s probably why shares are down sharply in after-hours trading.

The trend continued in the first quarter, with Twitter generating $250 million in revenue, up 119% over last year. That beat the consensus Wall Street estimate (as tracked by Seeking Alpha) by $9.6 million, and the company also outperformed expectations by coming in at a break even (on a non-GAAP basis) with earnings per share of 0.0 cents.

Also Twitter raised its outlook for the rest of the world by forecasting an expected revenue of $270 million to $280 million for the Q2 and expected a return of $1.2 – $1.25 billion for the full year. That’s all for now about twitter’s fast user growth rate.

China’s leading ICT solution provider Huawei invested about 14 percent or $5.4 billion of its revenue in R&D to bring out more updated ICT products and services. This tech giant is already working with our local telecom operators for up gradation of 3G network service of Grameenphone, Banglalink, Teletalk & Airtel.

The CEO of Huawei Technologies BD stated “We focus on making continuous investments in research and development to bring more ICT solutions and services that are dedicated to providing broader and smarter experiences to our customers,”

Mr. Baker Zhou, CEO also said he is working on building future-proof information pipes, and continuously creating value for our customers and society at large. “Based on these value propositions, Huawei is dedicated to enriching life and improving efficiency through a better connected world.”

Also to grasp the market trend and build a strong bridge between what is learned in ICT and what is necessary for the industry they organized a program. Apart from that, they also organized a training session at their headquarters in Shenzhen for eight Bangladeshi students from the Institute of Business Administration at Dhaka University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, and Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology.

To find talent for the growing demand in ICT sector, Banglalink and Huawei Technologies have organized an ‘international youth camp’ in China to help create better-equipped manpower in the fields of telecommunication and information technology. One of the students of BUET said “During the training, we came to know about the future of the telecommunication industry”.

If we look into the secondary data Huawei has already created more than 10,000 jobs in Bangladesh from the Fiscal year  2006-2013. We notice that if this trend is going steadily, then digital Bangladesh will not be a dream, rather it will become a reality.

Samsung, the Korean tech giant is already in the business of high end camera smartphones. When it launched the S4 Zoom last year, it created a big impact on portable high end cameras. Following that, Samsung announced the Galaxy Zoom, a Smartphone that sports a 10X optical zoom & 20.7 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor.

The smartphone is similar to the Galaxy flagship model S5. It has a 4.8 inch HD super amoled display and of course android OS 4.4 Kitkat. But what makes it different from other smart devices is that it includes an optical image stabilizer which helps shoot in low light conditions and stabilizes movement scenes. Instead of using the regular Led flash, Samsung used a Xenon flash which provides natural lighting. The camera also has autofocus and auto exposure, which help in different lighting conditions. There is also a pro suggest mode, which serves up filters, and for all the selfie lovers, there is a ‘Selfie Alarm’ which allows users to take timed selfies.

Other specifications include 2GB of RAM, 8GB inbuilt storage, expandable up to 64GB via microSD card, and a 2430mAh battery. The Galaxy K Zoom will be available in two variants – LTE and 3G – while other connectivity options include WI-Fi, Bluetooth, Micro-USB and NFC. The device is powered by a hexa-core processor (a quad-core 1.3GHz and a dual-core 1.7GHz), and though the company has not revealed the exact chipset, currently thought to be the Exynos 5 Hexa SoC coupled with a Mali-T264 GPU. But we expect the Galaxy K zoom is powered by the same chipset seen first in Galaxy Note 3 Neo, the Exynos 5260.

However, Samsung hasn’t announced any official price, but we are expecting a high price tag since they have put on a cmos sensor boosting 20.7 megapixels. However, from our side, we are hoping that like other Samsung’s predecessor, it will also be a hit due to Samsung’s persuasive advertising and branding.

That’s all folks hope to bring new tech & gadgets news to all my Hifi readers

Remember Samsung Galaxy Beam? It was one of those phones which had a built in projector which never caught the attention of the mass consumer. Though it lacked a good processor or an updated Android OS, it could project images up to 50’’ in size and WVGA resolution.

Keeping the old vibe, Samsung partnered with China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network and launched Samsung Galaxy Beam 2.  It’s mainly targeted to Chinese consumers who are looking for a pocket projector device. The pricing is not yet announced, but we think it will also be highly priced because the product got the Samsung brand name after all. Detailed specification or reviews are not published yet. After going through the Samsung’s webpage, we learned that the device sports a 4.66” WVGA LCD display and a quad core 1.2GHz processor with support for 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4GHz and Bluetooth 4.0. Other specifications include MicroSD support up to 64GB, a 2600mAh battery, and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The exterior of the device sports a metallic looking plastic build that is reminiscent of the Samsung ATIV S Windows Phone.

For people who are already planning to watch movies using the new projector handset, my expert advice would be to buy a handy power bank or connect it to a power outlet. Then only you can enjoy the movie peacefully and not have to worry about the phone losing charge. It seemed weird that Samsung’s official page doesn’t have any release date in China or internationally. It seemed to me that Samsung launched this device to their target audience who are apparently looking for a pocket size projector, but I think they need to focus on their design too because after all there is hardly any difference in outlook between the Beam & Beam 2. That’s all folks. I am signing out for now, keep on checking our site to stay updated with all the new tech releases.

It’s been reported that the Cabinet division of The People’s Republic of Bangladesh website has been hacked. It’s been found that a group of Indian Hackers hacked the site. When you visit the site (http://www.cabinet.gov.bd) you will notice an Indian Flag and a message written in English.

It’s a warning message to the Bangladeshi Hackers that they should abstain from hacking into their sites as they don’t mean to harm or get into any fight. If the latter doesn’t stop then the Indian hacker group will continue to  hack more and more Bangladeshi sites. Meanwhile, the site is down. That’s all folks, stay with us for latest tech news.

You have probably heard of Tesla Motors, Space X , Paypal and Hyperloop, but have you ever wondered  who is behind all these great inventions or who has directly or indirectly shared his knowledge in these top Brands? It’s none other than Elon Musk.  Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. He is a South African born Canadian-American business magnate, who is an inventor as well as an investor aka a 21^st century Industrialist.

What so special about  this guy is that he taught himself computer programming at the age of 12 and sold the computer code for a video game called Blaster for 500 USD. He graduated from Pretoria Boys High School and moved to Canada in 1988 at the age of 17. Then he joined South African military service to immigrate to USA. In the year  1992, after spending two years at Queen’s School of Business in Kingston Ontaria, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania where he received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School. He stayed on a year to finish his second bachelor’s degree in Physics. After that  he moved to California to pursue a Ph.D. in applied Physics at Stanford but left the program after two days to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations in the areas of the internet, renewable energy and outer space. Finally in 2002, he became an American citizen.

He started his career by developing Zip2 a web software company, which developed & marketed an internet city guide for the newspaper publishing industry. Later on, Compaq acquired it for USD 307 million in cash. He received 7% or 22 million USD from that sale.

X brand & Paypal

In the year 1999, he co-founded X.com which was an online financial services and e-mail payment company. After a year or so, He merged with Confinity, which operated a subsidiary called Paypal. His plan was to merge the two systems which unfortunately never happened. But it did have some pros.After the co-branding with Paypal with his X brand in October 2002, Paypal was acquired by ebay for USD 1.5 billion stock of which USD 165 million was given to him.

Space X

He then co-founded his third company with rocket propulsion engineer Tom Mueller. Space X was founded in the year 2002 and he is the CEO & CTO of the company. Space X manufactures space launch vehicles which mainly focus on modern rocket technology. In a 2011 interview, he said he hopes to send humans to Mars’ surface within 10–20 years. On 25 May 2012, the Space X Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, making history as the first commercial company to launch and dock a vehicle to the International Space Station.

Tesla Motors

The company was co-founded by Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, JB Straubel, Ian Wright, and Musk.  Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect, positions he still holds today. It’s an electric car company and apart from selling cars they sell electric power train to Daimler for the Smart EV and Mercedes A Class, and to Toyota for the RAV4 EV. Musk was also able to bring in both companies as long-term investors in Tesla. He is reported to have a 32% stake in Tesla, which is valued at $18 billion, as of November 2013. Apart from that, his annual salary at Tesla is one dollar, and is similar to Steve Jobs and others. The remainder of his compensation is in the form of stocks and performance-based bonuses.

SolarCity

Another venture he is a part of is Solar city which is co-founded by his cousins. But Musk remains the largest shareholder. Now it’s the largest solar power system provider in the United States.

Hyperloop

After being disappointed with the California High Speed rail. He came up with another business idea which is the ‘hyperloop,’ a hypothetical subsonic air travel machine that stretches approximately 350 miles (560 km) from Sylmar (a northern district of Los Angeles) to Hayward (east of San Francisco) and would theoretically allow commuters to travel between the cities in 30 minutes or less. This provides a shorter travelling time than a commercial air plane can currently provide. It will be operated by solar power and will make long distance travel much cheaper.

With Elon Musk coming up with new innovations, let’s just wait and see what he comes with,next to make our lives easier. That’s all folks about Elon Musk. Stay with us for more information on Tech Superheroes.