Technotip.org - Part 2

Technotip.org Android App + App Service

Going forward I’ll be more active with blogging and will concentrate on writing about business ideas, entrepreneurship and startups. Will also continue writing about tools to run business and online marketing and online sales.

Today we’re excited to announce the release of our android application. It has a clean look and feel and has minimalist and straightforward options.

A user interface is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it’s not that good.

We had built this app some months back and had distributed it privately to some of our readers/friends and checked with them constantly for their feedback. After using the app for 10 days they said they are more likely to read the articles via the app than directly from the website. Mobile app display felt more comfortable for most of the users and hence we made some minor changes after getting real users feedback and today we are excited to release the app for everyone to download and take maximum advantage of it.

You can download our app from Google Play Store.

Features
1. Has a list of 8 recent articles on the homepage and user can navigate to older blog posts.
2. Clear reading experience with bigger fonts on article page.
3. Facility to bookmark the article and read later from bookmarks section.
4. Cache the recently viewed article for offline reading.
5. List of pages.
6. Search facility.
7. List posts based on Category.
8. List posts by author/contributor.
9. Invite others to our app via WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, SMS, Email.
Option to rate the app.
10. Facility to directly share the posts and pages with others from inside the app via – WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, SMS, Email etc.

Service
I’ll build your WordPress sites android application for you. You can see more about it at Android App Service For Your Blog

While on the service page, read how you’ll be earning a lot more than you invest for the development of your blogs android app. Also you can do your research and know for yourself how many active mobile users are using their mobiles to read content online.

Here is the link to Google Play Store once again for Technotip.org Android App

Custom Email Address For Your Business

Are you looking for custom email address like your name @ your domain .com ? [name@domain.com] Something which works like gmail but has an email address with your domain name – that you can even distribute to your co-workers i.e., create custom email address for all your co-workers or employees. Also you wish to have a custom URL to log into emails, like – www.yourwebsite.com/email or www.yourwebsite.com/communication ?

Business Needs
If you’re running a business you must have your own website, and for all your business communication its preferred to have your own custom email address which looks and feels professional to your clients/customers instead of simply having a general @hotmail.com or @gmail.com emails.

Also having a business/custom email gives a sense of security to your clients/customers or potential clients/customers, that the mail they’re sending will indeed reach only the authorized person within the company. Mailing to a general email address doesn’t bring in such sense of safety.

What we Recommend and use ourselves?
We have been using Google Apps for all our email needs from past 8+ years and we proudly/confidently recommend it to all other budding businesses. You also get a lot of tools to run your business with ease – tools like Calendar, online Docs, unlimited file storage etc to a few. Also you get all the Google Services with your Google Apps account that you’ll get while using Gmail. With Google Apps, you’ll have your company branding and premium service and customer support.

With the calendar we schedule all our meetings in real-time, it merges with clients and employees calendar in real-time lets us know who is attending and who is not and lets us see their schedule as well – of course the schedules which they’ve made public. These tools are such a productive ones for our business so far.

How much time we need to get used to?
Zero. Yes, if you’re comfortable using Gmail, then you’ll get started with Google Apps instantly. Everything looks and feels the same but you’ll have your company logo and name inside.

20% discount Rest assured, it has reduced the cost of our business operations and we do not mind paying a small amount every year. If you wish to make use of Google Apps then you can use the coupons we have got and get 20% discount for the first year. Here are the Google Apps coupon codes / discount codes with their expiry dates!

69YFFGCCM6KRTM – Expires on 09/2016
4RRX7MCDVEMYJG – Expires on 09/2016

Free Google Apps Account

How to set up?
It’s very easy with Google Apps. Once you create Free account(No Credit Card required – you can try it for months, after that you can decide if you want to continue or not), you’ll get some settings which you need to configure at your domain registration account. Everything will be present in the document provided by Google and if you do things as shown in the document it’ll take less than 5 minutes to configure it. But if you think its out of your hand to do those small technical things – you can simply copy the settings provided by Google and mail it to your domain registrar. The technical support team will do it for you in less than 5 minutes and you’ll be up with your custom email address and custom email login URL.

The Best Internet Radio App: Free

There are so many internet radio applications online, but I was looking for something minimalistic and straightforward, thus developed one for myself!

The Journey
I developed it for my own use and never intended to release it to the general public, but whenever people saw me playing songs using my app, they asked me about the app and they got it from me. After using it for 2 days they uninstalled other radio apps and started using our radio app. I intentionally had not revealed that it was developed by me. I wanted some honest feedback – just for fun. After seeing them use it as their default internet radio app and hearing their good feedback, I felt like it would be useful for others as well. So today I’m releasing the internet radio app to android users via Google Play Store.

Wikipedia

Internet radio (also known as web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, online radio, webcasting) is an audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means.

Internet radio involves streaming media, presenting listeners with a continuous stream of audio that typically cannot be paused or replayed, much like traditional broadcast media; in this respect, it is distinct from on-demand file serving. Internet radio is also distinct from podcasting, which involves downloading rather than streaming.

Premium Internet Radio App: Free

Features:
1. Free
2. Works in 2G network too. Works best in 3G, 4G(LTE) and WiFi.
3. Multi-tasking enabled. You can play a song in our app and keep moving around to your play list, settings etc or even let the app play your music in the background and you can continue using other apps like photo album, check your appointments, calendar app etc.
4. Automatic play and pause: Whenever you get a phone call, the audio stops by itself and resumes once you end the call.
5. Our app recommend radio stations near you.
6. Search for radio stations via keywords like – artist, radio station city or country name, music genre etc.
7. You can add your favorite radio station to your favorites list and access them any time.
8. Swipe and remove favorite radio stations from your favorites list.
9. Additionally play a small game inside the app while listening to radio.
10. You can post your game score online and also see top 50 scores on our score board.
11. Play the game at different levels – different levels of difficulty.
12. This game we have inside the internet radio app increases your mental ability to add and subtract numbers.
13. Over 30.000 stations to listen to. Supports all music genre.
14. Online Score board for Internet Radio Game.

Update:
Added Sathya Sai Baba Bhajans, Discourse, ‘Mann Ki Baat‘ radio show from Prime Minister of India Sri Narendra Modi etc.. and many more radio channels. And option for adding your own radio station and/or podcast made super easy.
Add your own radio channels – with IP address.

How to use?
Home Screen: You can search for the radio station using keywords, your language, city, country or genre etc.
Play Station: You can play the radio by clicking on individual stations displayed.
Games inside app: You can keep hearing the radio and play the game simultaneously.
– The simple numeric game present inside the radio app will improve your numerical abilities.
Submit Score: You can go to settings tab and submit your score to online score board.

No Registration/sign up Required
Listen to your favorite radio stations any time, anywhere using our Internet Radio App.

Help us reach more people by rating us on Google Play Store. Also let your friends/family know about the app, so that you can all together take maximum advantage of the application.

Get The Best Deal: Scan IT App

Ever purchased something from the mall only to know that the same thing is available for much cheaper online?

You can look at popular items from different countries at SCAN IT! International

How To Use Scan IT ?
1. Install it to your phone, take it to malls or any local shops while going for shopping. When you see any branded items, simply scan the barcode of those branded items using Scan IT! Scan IT searches online and brings you the best price/offer for the product.
2. When you run out of any products like toilet soap, shampoo, hair oil, cooking oil, paste etc, simply take out your phone, scan the barcode present on those empty product boxes and order the items instantly.

Why use Scan IT ?
Usually local show rooms or malls charge higher price for the products, so before making any purchase decisions it is wise to check the cost of the products online. This way, there are more chances of saving your hard earned money, which you can invest in something more productive.

Usually books will be charged at MRP rates(or maybe they give you 10% discount) in local stores. But in most of the cases books will be available for lot cheaper than at local store. What’s wrong in checking before buying, right?

Branded cloths cost more in malls and showrooms as they levy additional charges so that they can pay for AC charges, showroom rent charges, employee charges etc. All those add up to the percentage of cost you pay for the cloth.

Scan IT works on all barcodes?
No. Scan IT works on most barcodes. But not on barcodes printed by local shops – as they do not allow their product information online, there is no chance for the application to fetch such data. And there are so many fake barcodes available on products, on which Scan IT doesn’t work.

Barcodes printed directly on the product(example, barcode present on backside of the books) or the rate tags attached on branded cloths etc works best.

Features:
1. Automatically detects most barcode types. Faster detection, less use of phone memory.
2. History of all the successfully scanned products – for later use.

3. You can delete your scan history by pressing and holding on the individual result.
4. Aadhar card QR Code scanning supported.
5. You can view whats popular in your country – by looking at the scan results of others(user identity not revealed).
6. Doesn’t access your contacts or email or any personal data. 100% Safe and secure – we respect your privacy.
7. Helps get the best deal for a product – scan items like popular books, branded cloths, kitchen items, beauty products, grooming products etc.

8. Countries supported:
You can use this app from anywhere, but the product/store results are accessed from –
i. United States
ii. United Kingdom
iii. India
iv. Canada
v. Spain
( ..more countries will be added very soon)

9. You can copy the decoded barcode info by pressing and holding on the result.
10. You can optionally share the result page with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, SMS and via email.
11. If you can’t find the product via its barcode, then you can directly enter the product name or its brand and get its information with the click of a button.
12. Supports following barcode types:
UPC
EAN
QR_CODE
DATA_MATRIX
CODE_128
CODE_39
CODE_93
CODABAR
ITF
RSS14
PDF417
RSS_EXPANDED ..etc

Google Play Store link: SCAN IT!
iOS app coming soon ..

Help us reach more people by rating us on Google Play Store. Also let your friends/family know about the app, so that you can all together take maximum advantage of the application.

Premium HD Wallpapers App: Free

Happy to announce the launch of The Best / Premium HD Wallpapers App for android. It has millions of High quality images from world-class professional photographers – you’ll never be disappointed.

Key Features:
1. View popular images by select date.
2. View images in real-time, as and when uploaded.
3. Download High-Quality images with a click of a button.
4. Easy navigation.
5. View collections/uploads of a particular user / photographer.
6. Click on tags to get list of relevant images.
7. Search images by search query.
8. Search images based on the device it’s clicked from.
Ex: Nexus 5, Nikon D5200, iPhone 6 etc
9. All images are filtered to show the most popular ones. Saving your time to surf through all the photos.
10. Important: You can directly send images to your friends via WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook with the click of a single button.

wallpaper-app-image-gallery wallpaper-app-popular-images

wallpaper-app-child-image

Google Play Store link: HD Wallpapers App

Help us reach more people by rating and reviewing the app on Google Play Store. Also let your friends know about the app ..thank you

Android Stock Market App

Glad to announce the launch of Stock Market App which would help investors and traders in their financial management.

Key Features
1. Manage your profile.
2. Interact with other investors and traders.
3. Send and Receive Stock Market Calls.
4. Search and follow other investors.
5. Portfolio Manager – awesome, automated, smart ROI calculator.
6. Script Lookup feature.
7. Organize scripts into categories. Ex: Bank, IT, Entertainment, Textiles, Automobiles etc.
8. List of all major indexes.
9. Tools like – compound interest and simple interest calculators.
10. Inbox / Outbox – to look at stored calls/messages.
11. Forex – Currency conversion, Exchange rates of all currencies, and watch list of currencies.
12. Overview, News and statistics for each script/stock added.
13. Charts – for 1 day, 5 days, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years ..
14. Chart Types – Line, Bar, Candle stick charts.
15. Technical Indicators – more than 10.

Download now, and do not miss the wealth of information you can get about various companies inside the app.

Google Play Store link: Stock Market App

Help us reach more people by rating us on Google Play Store. Also let your friends know about the app, so that you can get connected with each other inside the app.

Adsense Alternative: Yahoo! Bing Network

To be honest there are no real alternative for adsense when it comes to relevancy of ads and earning potential. But if we had to list an alternative then I would go with ad networks like
Chitika, Bidvertiser, Media.net etc.

Chitika
When YPN (Yahoo! Publisher Network) was shutdown they recommended their publishers to switch to Chitika, but to my disappointment Chitika was no were near to adsense. Their eCPM was low. But had good results for traffic coming mostly from search engine and on product niche sites.

Bidvertiser
Bidvertiser was yet another ad network which I tried out of curiosity and was better than Chitika on Technotip.org Their ebay ads started converting and I started earning good income!

Other small networks
I tried some other smaller ad networks and none of them even matched Chitika and Bidvertiser.

Yahoo! Bing Network

After long time I signed up for Media.net – it serves contextual ads from Yahoo! Bing Network. The name Yahoo! brought my attention and I finally signed up for it. First 2 days everything looked very promising – RPM of $0.2 But after 2 days RPM turned to be $0 and it continued for 20-25 days. I was deeply disappointed by the earnings and the ads that were being displayed. Atleast I had expected some kind of ad relevancy with the content.

When I wrote to their support team they replied on time and they asked me to wait for a month before I could see some results and relevancy of ads. It seems that, their server was still under learning mode!

After waiting for 35-40 days I checked it once again. This time I was satisfied with the ads and I was surprised with the earnings too. It wasn’t very high by the way, but better than what I had expected from an adnetwork other than adsense.

Bonus

You’ll earn a BONUS of 10% on your earnings up till 3 months from the date of sign-up, if you sign up from this link Media.net

Features
1. Highly customizable ads – you can set the ad size, color.
Sizes:
336×280
300×250
728×90
600×250
160×600
728×20
600×120
468×60
120×600
120×300
300×600
160×90
180×150
200×200
250×250

2. There are a collection of awesome looking ad skins which you can select from or you can create your own using the color pallets.

3. You can set other network ads as your back up ads when there are no relevant ads media.net can serve.

4. Mobile Docked Ads: Monetize traffic from all devices once enabled.

5. Desktop Interstitial Ads:
i. Choose between a lightbox interstitial implementation, or a welcome ad format for a non-intrusive experience.
ii. Fully control the timer, frequency and other parameters for triggering the ad.
iii. Completely customize the look-and-feel of the ad unit.

Bonus
You’ll earn a BONUS of 10% on your earnings up till 3 months from the date of sign-up, if you sign up from this link Media.net

Google Chrome’s Offline Hidden Game

Did you know there is a hidden game in your regular Google Chrome browser? And it works on your computer, android and iOS devices too, when you’re disconnected from the internet.

The Game
In this simple game, there is a T-Rex dinosaur and you need to avoid hitting cacti which comes on T-Rex’s way. After every 100 points you score there is some music variation to mark the celebration. The background music is somewhat similar to our old video games and the game itself is quite refreshing and sometimes addictive.

Watch on YouTube.

How to Play?
You need to avoid the obstacles on T-Rex’s way by jumping – use your keyboards SPACE bar key to jump. That’s it.

Note that your score won’t be saved, it’ll be lost once you refresh the chrome browser. This game seems to be in place just to keep the user engaged while the internet connection is back!