The Promise: Instant Fame and Credibility

BrandPush operates as a newswire service, crafting and distributing press releases to its network of over 200 media outlets. This includes household names like Business Insider, Fox News, AsiaOne and MSN, potentially putting your brand in front of millions of eyes. They also offer attractive add-ons like “As Seen On” badges and social media promotion, further amplifying your reach.

The Reality: A Mixed Bag of Benefits

Undeniably, BrandPush offers a fast and relatively affordable way to gain media exposure. Positive reviews highlight the ease of use, quick turnaround times, and the undeniable boost in website traffic and brand visibility. However, the picture isn’t entirely rosy.

Quality Control Concerns: Several reviewers raise concerns about the quality of the press releases. While BrandPush provides templates and editing services, some complain of generic content lacking the necessary punch to grab attention. Additionally, the sheer volume of outlets can lead to placements on less-than-reputable websites, potentially diluting your brand image.

Targeted Reach vs. Organic Growth: While instant fame is tempting, BrandPush’s approach prioritizes immediate exposure over organic growth. Building genuine brand loyalty and long-term relationships with journalists requires a more nuanced strategy.

The Verdict: A Tool, Not a Magic Bullet

BrandPush is valuable for businesses seeking a quick burst of media attention. It can be particularly effective for launching new products or generating buzz around specific events. However, it’s crucial to approach it with realistic expectations. Don’t expect overnight success or a substitute for long-term PR efforts.

Alternatives to Consider

• Invest in high-quality content marketing: Create valuable blog posts, infographics, and videos that attract organic traffic and establish your brand as a thought leader.
  
• Build relationships with journalists: Engage with relevant journalists on social media and pitch them well-crafted story ideas focused on your unique expertise.
  
• Leverage social media: Build a solid social media presence and engage with your audience directly.

Ultimately, the success of your brand lies in a multi-pronged approach. BrandPush can be a useful part of the puzzle, but it’s not the only piece. Remember, building a strong brand takes time, dedication, and a commitment to creating genuine value for your audience.

So, is BrandPush a PR rocket fuel or flashy hype? It’s neither. It’s a tool, and like any tool, its effectiveness depends on how you use it. Use it strategically, alongside other branding efforts, and you might just see your brand soar. But remember, sustainable success comes from building genuine relationships and providing lasting value, not just chasing fleeting headlines.

Push your brand on over 200 news sites that give you traffic and brand push. Click here to get your order done today.

I hope, you found this article useful. If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave comments. Your feedback helps me to become better.

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As you dive deeper into the world of React, it’s important to continually strive for excellence in your code. To assist you in this endeavor, I’d like to share four tips that have been invaluable in helping me write better React code. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting out, I believe you’ll find something of value in these tips. So, let’s dive in and take your React skills to the next level!

1. Return functions from handlers

For those of you who have a background in functional programming, you’ll likely recognize the concept of “currying”. Essentially, it involves setting some parameters for a function ahead of time. By implementing this technique in React, you can streamline your code and make it more efficient. So, let’s delve into the world of currying and see how it can improve your React code.

We have an explicit problem with the boilerplate code below. That technique will help us!

export default function App() {
  const [user, setUser] = useState({
    firstName: "",
    lastName: "",
    address: ""
  });

  // First handler
  const handleFirstNameChange = (e) => {
    setUser((prev) => ({
      ...prev,
      firstName: e.target.value
    }));
  };

  // Second handler!
  const handleLastNameChange = (e) => {
    setUser((prev) => ({
      ...prev,
      lastName: e.target.value
    }));
  };

  // Third handler!!!
  const handleAddressChange = (e) => {
    setUser((prev) => ({
      ...prev,
      address: e.target.value
    }));
  };

  // What if we need one more input? Should we create another handler for it?

  return (
    <>
      <input value={user.fisrtName} onChange={handleFirstNameChange} />
      <input value={user.lastName} onChange={handleLastNameChange} />
      <input value={user.address} onChange={handleAddressChange} />
    </>
  );
}

Solution

export default function App() {
  const [user, setUser] = useState({
    firstName: "",
    lastName: "",
    address: ""
  });

  const handleInputChange = (field) => {
    return (e) => {
      setUser((prev) => ({
        ...prev,
        [field]: e.target.value
      }));
    };
  };

  return (
    <>
      <input value={user.firstName} onChange={handleInputChange("fistName")} />
      <input value={user.lastName} onChange={handleInputChange("lastName")} />
      <input value={user.address} onChange={handleInputChange("address")} />

      {JSON.stringify(user)}
    </>
  );
}

2. Separate responsibilities

Making a “God” component is a common mistake that developers make. It’s called “God” because it contains many lines of code that are hard to understand and maintain. I strongly recommend dividing components into sets of independent sub-modules.

A typical structure for this would be:

• UI module, responsible for visual representation only.
• Model module, containing only business logic. An example of this is a custom hook.
• Lib module, containing all required utilities for the component.

Here’s a small demo example to help illustrate this concept.

export function ListComponent() {
  // Our local state
  const [list, setList] = useState([]);

  // Handler to load data from the server
  const fetchList = async () => {
    try {
      const resp = await fetch("https://www.example.com/list");
      const data = await resp.json();

      setList(data);
    } catch {
      showAlert({ text: "Something went wrong!" });
    }
  };

  // We want to fetch only on mount
  useEffect(() => {
    fetchList();
  }, []);

  // Handler responsible for deleting items
  const handleDeleteItem = (id) => {
    return () => {
      try {
        fetch(`https://www.example.com/list/${id}`, {
          method: "DELETE"
        });
        setList((prev) => prev.filter((x) => x.id !== id));
      } catch {
        showAlert({ text: "Something went wrong!" });
      }
    };
  };

  // Here we just render our data items
  return (
    <div className="list-component">
      {list.map(({ id, name }) => (
        <div key={id} className="list-component__item>">
          {/* We want to trim long name with ellipsis */}
          {name.slice(0, 30) + (name.length > 30 ? "..." : "")}

          <div onClick={handleDeleteItem(id)} className="list-component__icon">
            <DeleteIcon />
          </div>
        </div>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
}

We should start by writing our utils that will be used in the model and UI modules.

export async function getList(onSuccess) {
  try {
    const resp = await fetch("https://www.example.com/list");
    const data = await resp.json();

    onSuccess(data)
  } catch {
    showAlert({ text: "Something went wrong!" });
  }
}

export async function deleteListItem(id, onSuccess) {
  try {
    fetch(`https://www.example.com/list/${id}`, {
      method: "DELETE"
    });
    onSuccess()
  } catch {
    showAlert({ text: "Something went wrong!" });
  }
}

export function trimName(name) {
  return name.slice(0, 30) + (name.lenght > 30 ? '...' : '')
}

Now we need to implement our business logic. It simply will be a custom hook returning things we need.

export function useList() {
  const [list, setList] = useState([]);

  const handleDeleteItem = useCallback((id) => {
    return () => {
      deleteListItem(id, () => {
        setList((prev) => prev.filter((x) => x.id !== id));
      })
    };
  }, []);

  useEffect(() => {
    getList(setList);
  }, []);

  return useMemo(
    () => ({
      list,
      handleDeleteItem
    }),
    [list, handleDeleteItem]
  );
}

The final step is to write our UI module and then combine it all together.

export function ListComponentItem({ name, onDelete }) {
  return (
    <div className="list-component__item>">
      {trimName(name)}

      <div onClick={onDelete} className="list-component__icon">
        <DeleteIcon />
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

export function ListComponent() {
  const { list, handleDeleteItem } = useList();

  return (
    <div className="list-component">
      {list.map(({ id, name }) => (
        <ListComponentItem
          key={id}
          name={name}
          onDelete={handleDeleteItem(id)}
        />
      ))}
    </div>
  );
}

3. Use objects map instead of conditions

When it comes to displaying elements based on specific variables, you can use this powerful tip to simplify your code and make it more intuitive. This approach helps make your components more declarative and easier to understand, while also making it easier to extend their functionality in the future. So, whether you’re working on a complex project or just starting out, implementing this strategy can have a significant impact on the overall quality of your React code.

Problem

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function Roles({type}) {
  let Component = UsualAccount

  if (type === 'vip') {
    Component = VipAccount
  }

  if (type === 'admin') {
    Component = AdminAccount
  }

  if (type === 'superadmin') {
    Component = SuperAdminAccount
  }

  return (
    <div className='roles'>
      <Component />
      <RolesStatistics />
    </div>
  )
}

Solution

const ROLES_MAP = {
  'vip': VipAccount,
  'usual': UsualAccount,
  'admin': AdminAccount,
  'superadmin': SuperAdminAccount,
}

function Roles({type}) {
  const Component = ROLES_MAP[type]

  return (
    <div className='roles'>
      <Component />
      <RolesStatistics />
    </div>
  )
}

4. Put independent variables outside of React lifecycle

One important concept to keep in mind is separating logic that doesn’t require the React component lifecycle methods from the component itself. This approach can greatly improve the clarity of your code by making dependencies more explicit. As a result, it becomes much easier to read and understand your components, leading to more efficient and effective development. So, make sure to keep this technique in mind as you continue to work with React and improve your code.

Problem

function useItemsList() {
  const defaultItems = [10, 20, 30, 40, 50]
  const [items, setItems] = useState(defaultItems)

  const toggleArrayItem = (arr, val) => {
    return arr.includes(val) ? arr.filter(el => el !== val) : [...arr, val];
  }

  const handleToggleItem = (num) => {
    return () => {
      setItems(toggleArrayItem(items, num))
    }
  }

  return {
    items,
    handleToggleItem,
  }
}

Solution

const DEFAULT_ITEMS = [
  10, 20, 30, 40, 50
]

const toggleArrayItem = (arr, val) => {
  return arr.includes(val) ? arr.filter(el => el !== val) : [...arr, val];
}

function useItemsList() {
  const [items, setItems] = useState(DEFAULT_ITEMS)

  const handleToggleItem = (num) => {
    return () => {
      setItems(toggleArrayItem(items, num))
    }
  }

  return {
    items,
    handleToggleItem,
  }
}

In conclusion, there are many ways to improve your React code and make it more efficient, effective, and user-friendly. Whether it’s through currying, separating logic from components, using variables to display elements or some other technique, it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest tips and tricks in the world of Frontend development.

I hope, you found this article useful. If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave comments. Your feedback helps me to become better.

Keep these tips in mind, and never stop striving for excellence in your code.
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Happy coding!

You get all excited with your, as you are finally fleshing out the long-held dream to run your online business. You are all ready to open your shop.

In simple terms, your WordPress website is completed and you are ready to rock the party. But you get aero customers.

Even after doing hours of hard work you’re not getting customers as you except earlier. After some research and analysis, you came to know that the main problem is customers are not able to find your website. Nobody knows about your website and you’re offered service. In other words, you can say there is a lack of visibility of your website.

So, what will be the solution for that and what can you do to get your website visibility?

There are so many questions that come to mind if you will deep drive into this. But there is one solution for all your questions and that is “Marketing”.

Marketing the one medicine for all your pains. A well marketing plan and strategy can help you to grow your online business and get visibility on your target audiences.

Normally it’s very difficult to find your website and business in the comparative market where thousands of website and business are going live daily. In this situation marketing has great role for your services or product.

To get effective results you need to promote your website. Marketing your website is always the best result to create an audience for your brand and product.

With marketing you are conveying your message to a large group of people. But you need to follow an effective marketing strategy.

Before discussing more about marketing let me tell you some basic things which helps your marketing to reach the goal, like choosing a web development technology, user-friendly and engaging web layout and design and SEO friendliness of website.

If we will talk about technology then, I will recommend “WordPress” for all of you. WordPress is the best CMS platform with custom plugins and best for marketing of any type of websites.

Why WordPress Is Best For Marketing?

WordPress is basically search engine friendly and that helps your website to gets more traffic.

A WordPress site gets an average of 23 billion page views each month. The number grows each passing day.

There are 75 billion websites that run on WordPress.

You can set your entire marketing strategy with the WordPress dashboard using the plugin and integration when needed.

And the best thing is you don’t have to become an expert in coding.

Let’s come to the main topic,

How To Market Your WordPress Website?

Any marketer can develop posts, manage calendars, increase search traffic, and post the content directly into WordPress.

So, here are a few marketing tips you can follow to market your WordPress website.

1. Develop Mobile Responsive WordPress Theme:

Now a days all the marketing activities results are completely depends upon the bid daddy Google. Google keeping eye on every websites activities and resulting those websites which has good content, layout and user centric information. Here website contents also play a great role in marketing.

Google loves mobile-friendly websites. So you need to make your WordPress site optimized with your mobile.

Go for the themes that are marked as mobile-friendly. Most of them are optimized to some level but not all of them are completely optimized.

2. Develop Quality Content And Never Forget To Market Your Content:

Good content is important for achieving success on your website. By content, it refers to both visual and textual form. If the website is a blog or magazine, then it’s obvious that the main focus will be on text.

If you have a portfolio site, then visual content should be put on the maximum level.

Quality content refers to:

• Long form
• Informative
• Shareable
• Engaging
• Relevant to your niche and to the topic content
• Well written
• Competent

It is important to keep your content unique and fresh. This will create more traffic to your website.

It is also important to have a captivating image with a catchy headline along with a caption that describes the post and attracts more traffic to your website.

When you offer your audience something valuable to read or view creates trust and a strong relationship with your audience.

How To Get The Most From Content Marketing?

Filling up 100 papers or flooding your page with videos and images doesn’t add any value. Content marketing needs to be properly put up and approached as any other marketing collateral strategy.

• Develop a Content Calendar: A content calendar helps you to be on track by publishing daily with content pushed back to any particular goal or theme.

To remain on a particular schedule, develop and follow the content calendar. Maximize the content marketing efforts by scheduling posts to share on social media.

• Make Different Types Of Content: Don’t just stick to a particular form of content rather focus on various types of content. Always develop fresh blogs and follow the trend.

3. Develop An XML Sitemap:

Website crawling and indexing is important factor to come in the search results of major search engines. So before coming to search result your website must be crawl and index by search engine like Google. XML sitemap helps the web pages to crawl by search engines.

WordPress automatically develops the sitemap for you, but those are not optimized. One can easily and quickly optimize the sitemap with a plugin like Google XML Sitemap Generator. It is a handy tool that not only helps you to maintain your track on the index pages but it also tells Google about your update.

Whenever you post any new blog or create any changes, it notifies Google to re-crawl your website. This helps to improve the ranking of your site in the search results.

4. Customized Permalinks:

Your content can be optimized by ensuring the URLs of the blog post have relevant keywords. With WordPress you can create more permalink, but before you push it live make sure it is rich in keywords and readable.

You need to optimize these permalink that reflects the content easily to your visitors.

5. SEO

The first page of Google has become a refined and crucial part, in comparison to the second and other pages. From the second page and beyond it is considered as the dark web for some. Hence a strong SEO presence is important in the present day.

Also, you can go for the paid search campaign, but put more focus on the organic SEO.

According to a report by Business2community.com 70%-80% users don’t follow paid advertising.

How To Gain More From SEO?

When someone hears about the term” SEO”, it leads them to think about the experts and the obscurities. But the only secret to success is time and consistency. It states you can do it on your own by following some best practices.

Good SEO helps to generate leads. You need to put the information in the marketing database. So you can later push the content.

• Include image: Whenever you add an image to your content, it helps in visitor engagement and that tend to increases the search engine ranking.
• Repurpose Content: Rather than developing new content every time, you can create some changes to the old content. Make the most from your old one, all you need to do is update and republish the last blogs. This increases visitor traffic.
• Email Marketing: For any business, email marketing is an effective way to stay connected with prospects. You also need to address their contact and behavioural information.

To capture this information, you have to gain attention in new ways so you can get more people to website.

Rich snippets are an effective way to increase search traffic. But many times they are ignored by marketers as they require some coding to create.

Conclusion:

Marketing is a creative job and you can do a lot with your WordPress website if you prepare the right marketing strategy and use the right marketing tools. With the WordPress dashboard you can handle any kind of task that is essential for marketing with the help of plugins within a very less time like SEO, image optimization, Social Media sharing, and many more.

More and more businesses are moving towards digitized mode of business, and you are still following the old method of business. Noting gone away now. This is the right time to start new things. Let Andolasoft help you in your WordPress website development and online promotion of your business.

Andolasoft is one of the trusted web and mobile appdevelopment companyhas long expertise in all technology like WordPress and digital promotion of product and services. We have helped many businesses on theirtech development and business growth. Our case studies will tell more about this.

Contact us have a free consultation about your business ideas or issues and hire our dedicated developers and marketing experts to take your business to next level.

WhatsApp has published additional information on the changes of the policy, underlining the data shared with Facebook does not include anything from personal chats or groups, and only relates to chats with businesses, and that the app still has end-to-end encryption:

However, many people are still turning to Signal and Telegram, searching to replace WhatsApp as their chat app

Signal is a cross-platform encrypted messaging service that has recently seen an enormous increase in use and downloads so that the company had to add new servers to accommodate the growing number of users. Reportedly, the week between January 6th and January 10th seems to hold the record of weekly or even monthly installs in Signal’s history. The app offers chat features such as groups, message reactions, and even video calls.

Here you can see a comparison done by Forbes using Apple’s App Privacy labels. It might give you a picture of the alleged data that these apps collect about you:

Get Signal Private Messenger from the App Store | Google Play

So, Stay tuned with us for more updates and leaks about the IT industries. Thank you!

About three years ago, WhatsApp introduced this option with the promise that it will “help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support and market it services and offerings,” but users could opt out from this trial.

Unfortunately, this has become mandatory this year, so those who don’t comply won’t be able to use WhatsApp starting February 8. Well, it looks like Facebook’s decision had drastic repercussions for its customer database.

Telegram, a similar messenger service with a lot less users, has just announced a surge in the number of active users immediately after Facebook’s announcement. First, the founder of the company, Pavel Durov, pointed out that Telegram surpassed 500 million monthly in the first week of January 2021..

More importantly, soon after WhatsApp announced the new changes, Telegram reported a massive surge in number of users. No less than 25 million users joined Telegram in the last 72 hours, Durov said in a post. According to him, most of them are coming from Asia (38%), Europe (27%), and Latin America (21%).

Apparently, this is an important increase compared to last year, when “just” 1.5 million users signed up every day. Durov went on to say that while Telegram had surges of downloads before, “this time is different.”

So, Stay tuned with us for more updates and leaks about the IT industries. Thank you!

In past years, OnePlus has used its T-series of phones as a half-step between its numbered flagships. They typically feature modest improvements in similarly designed phones. Last year, for example, the OnePlus 7T featured a higher 90Hz refresh rate compared to the OnePlus 7 and added a third camera to the rear of the device.

OnePlus’ own software suggests that the OnePlus 8T will look similar to the OnePlus 8 from the front, but leaked renders published by PriceBaba — based on information provided by leaker OnLeaks — show a different rear camera layout featuring four rear sensors compared to the three the OnePlus 8 had, thanks to an additional 2-megapixel portrait sensor.

PriceBaba also reports that the phone will have a 120Hz refresh rate compared to the 90Hz display on the OnePlus 8. The phone’s battery will reportedly be a little bigger at 4,500mAh compared to 4,300mAh last time around, but it could charge at a maximum of 65W rather than 30W.

Last year, we saw an OnePlus 7T Pro announced as well as the OnePlus 7T, but this year there are conflicting reports about whether we’ll see an additional OnePlus 8T-branded device.

It’s been a busy year for OnePlus. As well as releasing the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro earlier this year, the company also launched a new mid-range device called the OnePlus Nord in Europe and India, and there are reports that there could be another Nord device on the way that will release in the US. If this device actually exists, the OnePlus 8T might not be the only device the company announces in October.

So, Stay tuned with us for more updates and leaks about the mobile and IT industries. Thank you!

1. Pronunciation – Alphabets/Numbers or Singular/Plural Words

The most common penalty area that leads to incorrect answers in Section 1 of IELTS Listening is related to pronunciation. You may be facing difficulties in correctly understanding the pronunciation of carefully such as alphabets (when a speaker is spelling the name or addres) or numbers (when speaker talks about phone number).
Another type of pronunciation issue one can find in IELTS Listening in other Sections as well is related to singular or plural words. Many a times, it is seen that candidates do not hear it clearly whether the word is singular or plural, for example, if the speaker says “admission forms”, candidates do not concentrate properly or not able to recognize whether they need to write the word “form” with or without “s”.

Useful Tip:

To overcome this, you should listen to foreign accent stuff such as group discussions, radio shows, talk shows etc. and also get used to the foreign accent pronunciation of every alphabet and number by listening to it again and again. Just Google for the pronunciation of alphabet/number in the UK/US foreign accent and keep on hearing it till you absorb the right pronunciation well.

2. Spelling Errors

One of the major issues you may face in IELTS listening section is to write the correct spelling of words spoken in the audio. While candidates are not sure about spelling of words and hence they go wrong in writing them correctly. It is also seen that there are some candidates who know the correct spelling but hurriedly, they may write them incorrectly or when they do not review properly what they have written.

For example, “accommodation” is often written mistakenly as “accommodation”

Useful Tip:

To deal with this hurdle, practice reading and writing more to learn the correct spelling. You can also practice online spelling exercises by searching in Google.

3. Grammar

Apart from the above penalty areas, grammar is another problem candidates face while giving IELTS Listening test. It may usually happen when you are more concentrating on the information only and do not see the nearby words to predict the answer grammatically. For example,
All the college students are required to submit all the …………for applying to the contest.
If you see, in the above question, “all” is the word that indicates that your answer in the blank should be a plural word, not singular.

Useful Tip:

Do check your answer grammatically or predict it within the given 1 minute before the audio starts.

4. Choosing Word Instruction

Another thing is to  write your answer according to the word instruction. If instruction is “NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS”, it implies that your answer should be of one word or two words. It does not imply that you have to write only two words. For example,

Question:

Write answer in NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

Parents willing to enjoy the…………….. with the students can register soon.

Audio:

Parents who are waiting to join the most-awaited holiday trip with the students can register soon.

Answer:

Holiday Trip

*Answer should be holiday trip, not most-awaited holiday trip

Useful Tip:

Focus on understanding too, apart from matching the words in the question with the words in the audio.

5. Understanding Paraphrasing

In some of the IELTS Listening questions, especially the MCQs, you may miss out a question or skip the audio when there’s paraphrasing used in the audio. You are likely to lose confidence in choosing the right answer and may go lost in the audio.

Useful Tip:

In this case, underline keywords and focus on understanding the conversation and relate it with the underlined keywords.

Thank you for reading this article and I hope you like my article, for more articles please subscribe to your email and get updates from every IELTS articles.

Let us now discuss how to crack Section 2 of IELTS Listening, considering the example of a table completion question:

In the 1 minute given to you for reading questions, underline some keywords you can concentrate on while listening to the audio. In the above question, let us see how to underline the important keywords in this table.

As you can see, the major keywords are “simple”, “not have”(or simply “not”), “convenient”, “problems”, “improved” and “lacks” which serve the main purpose behind the question, focusing on which you can find the appropriate word as your answer from the audio.

The main key point here is that main words such as nouns, verbs, etc. are important, not the prepositions or so.

Another important thing to be kept in mind is that if you do not lose your focus or in other words, do not skip any part of the audio in these questions, you can get all the correct answers in this section.

Essential Tips on Cracking Section 2 of IELTS Listening:

1. Following up well the order of information in the audio is crucial here because if you do not go with the flow, you would get lost in the middle and it would be difficult to come back on the track again.
2. You should recognize the transition point between two rows in the question while listening so that you can keep yourself aligned with the audio to avoid skipping any part of it.
3. Always go through the questions completely including the statements as well as blanks, in the one minute given to you, to get an understanding of the topic. Familiarizing yourself with the question helps you to gain confidence.
4. Always keep in mind that you are required to write the exact word that you listen to in the audio. Since you do not have sufficient time, to analyze the information and scan the answer the way you get in the reading, exact words are expected as the answers in IELTS listening.
5. Be careful about the word instruction given at the top of every question and stick to it. For this purpose, prefer underlining the instruction like a keyword so that you may not forget it while writing down your answer. It would really be a silly mistake if you understood the audio, got the answer also but did not write it as per the instruction.

Thank you for reading this article and I hope you like my article, for more articles please subscribe to your email and get updates from every IELTS articles.

The latest version of iOS comes packed with a bunch of features and changes. Not all of these are very important, but there are some huge ones here.

Home Screen Changes

The home screen is seeing the most number of changes with iOS 14.

App Library

There is a new App Library at the end of the app pages. This is a collection of all your apps organised automatically by iOS. It has a universal search up top, and categories of apps that you can go through to find apps easily. Moreover, it shows up apps that you’ve recently installed so you can get to them faster. Also, you can quickly launch apps through the App Library if you want, which is great.

Hide App Pages

With iOS 14, you can now hide app pages from your iPhone. This is great for people who install a lot of apps on their iPhones. You can simply get into edit mode and then hide the app pages you don’t want to see.

Widgets

Widgets are getting a bunch of improvements with iOS 14. For one, they are now redesigned and come in multiple sizes, which is nice. However, more importantly, you can now place widgets on the home screen as well.

There’s also a new widget called ‘Smart Stack’. With Smart Stack you can swipe along to view different widgets if you want. However it also uses machine learning to learn which widget you need at what time. So, in the morning you might see your news, your calendar can show up through the day, and more. It sounds pretty interesting.

Compact Call Screens

This is extremely useful for me. iOS 14 shows up incoming calls as a small banner on the top of the screen instead of taking over the entire display. Anyone who has ever played PUBG on an iPhone only to have a call come in will know that this feature is a godsend.

Picture in Picture

iOS now also supports picture in picture. This is a feature that Android phones have had for a long time now. However, it’s great to have it on iPhones as well. It’s unclear which apps this will work with, but it definitely works with the TV app.

You can drag the PiP window around, pinch to zoom, etc. Moreover, you can swipe it to the side to hide the video and continue playing the audio. That’s pretty awesome and I can see YouTube making a good use of that feature.

Siri Redesign and Improvements

Remember how Google now has a compact Assistant? Well, Siri is going the same route. iOS 14 has a compact Siri that doesn’t take over your entire screen when you invoke it. It now also has 20x more facts than it did 3 years back. Plus, you can now even send audio messages with Siri if you want. So far, the feature is known to work with iMessage, but it could make its way to WhatsApp and other messaging apps as well.

Messages

The Messages app is getting features that were already rumoured for it. Notably, you can now mention people in groups, and give inline replies in group chats. You can also choose to only get notifications for group messages when someone mentions you in them, which sounds useful.

There’s also a new conversation pinning feature in Messages which I’m excited about. It’s basically what apps like WhatsApp and Telegram have had for a long time, but it’s nice to have it on iMessage as well.

Other than these features, Apple announced a new Translate app, more Memoji stickers, age options for Memojis, etc. There are also improvements in the Maps app, including EV routing and cycling support. Also, there’s a new App Clip feature that works a lot like Instant Apps.

iOS 14 Release Date

While Apple didn’t announce a specific release date for iOS 14, the company has released a developer beta today. A public beta will follow in July, and a stable release should be sometime after the launch of the iPhone 12 this fall.

Let us now discuss in detail how to crack Section 3 of IELTS listening test:

In IELTS Listening Section 3, you can commonly find any of the questions such as table completion, MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions), matching headings, flow chart or diagram. However, form filling and sentence completion are not usually seen in this section.

To approach the above type of questions, there are some unique tips to be kept in mind, while the basic things that you can concentrate on while attempting Section 3 in IELTS Listening test remain the same for all kinds of questions. Let us discuss the approach you can adopt for IELTS Listening test Section 3 by taking example of MCQs types of question:

Underline Keywords

Underlining important keywords in question is the most effective strategy for solving IELTS Listening Section 3. For this, you can utilize 1 minute, given to you prior to listening the audio conversation. Let us see how to underline keywords:

Simple MCQ

Joy has been working in the hospital for

1. Three years
2. One year
3. Four years

In the above question, the main keywords you can focus upon are “Joy”, “working” and “hospital”. Hence, you can highlight these keywords by underlining them. Afterwards, when the audio starts, just keep these underlined keywords in your mind to get the gist of question while have your eyes on the three options; “three”, “one” and “four” and just avoid the common word “years”.

So, you have to choose the answer out of those three numbers only and this is how you are able to solve this type of question easily. Similarly, you can use the same strategy for a bit difficult question as well:

Difficult MCQ

John was successful in his business because he

• recruited hundred more employees
• was the highly skilled professional
• could reach out to maximum customers

Essential Tips for IELTS Listening Section 3:

1. Listen to the introduction and example audio properly to be able to recognize different voices well.
2. While focusing on the underlined keywords in the question, it is also important to understand the question because some of the keywords in the options or the complete option itself may be paraphrased in the audio.
3. Using 1 minute to get an overview of the section would help you to familiarize yourself with the questions.
4. Remember that while listening to the audio, you have to be quick enough to move your eyes over all the questions as well as options so that you are aligned up well with the audio and there is no chance of skipping a question.
5. Lastly, do remember that information in the audio always flows in the same order as the order of question. So, you have to be continuously going on by immediately moving to the next question instead of looking back for any skipped question or unsurely marked answer.

Keep listening until the recording stops, looking only at the questions that relate to the part being played.

There are often pauses in the recording between different sections. Use these to prepare for the next set of questions.

Answer Listening questions in the order they appear on the Question Paper. Remember that they normally follow the order of the information in the recording.

At the end of the recording, you have some time to transfer your answers to the Answer Sheet. Check your grammar and spelling as you do so.

1. Weight and body fat are not the same. While the number on the scale may not be changing much, as you build muscle and burn fat, the overall makeup of your body is shifting. Since muscle is heavier than fat, you may not see those results on the scale. To accurately track your goals, you should calculate your body fat percentage and measure changes over time. Your body fat percentage is a much more accurate tool to help track your progress.

2. Weight is not a measure of your fitness level. There are people of all different shapes and sizes who are healthy and fit. If you want to track your athletic ability, find and complete a fitness test and work on improving your results. How many push-ups can you do? How fast can you run a mile or kilometer? Those are the measures of fitness that really matter.

1. ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH QUALITY SLEEP?

Sleep is one piece of the fat-loss puzzle that most people underestimate, and it is one of the most critical. When you sleep, your body produces hormones that help your body repair, recover, and burn body fat.

Lack of sleep can really throw off your overall hormone function, blood sugar levels, energy level, and ability to make healthy food choices. Have you ever been tired and just craved food? It’s one of the very common side effects of not getting enough sleep. 

THE SOLUTION:

Go to bed at the same time every night. 10 p.m. is the ideal time to get into bed, since around this time your body starts to secrete hormones that prime your body for a good night’s sleep (use this sleep cycle calculator to find out the optimal time for you). If you struggle to disconnect at the end of the day, set an alarm 30 minutes before bedtime to remind you to turn off all technology, make a cup of tea and just relax. Some days we can’t always get eight hours of sleep, but do your best. You can treat yourself to an alarm-free wake up on the weekends, but don’t overdo it! Try to stick to the same schedule as much as possible.

2. YOU ARE NOT AWARE OF HOW MUCH YOU ARE REALLY EATING

Weight loss, in its simplest form, is achieved by burning more calories than you consume. If you eat too much, your body can’t burn enough calories to lose body fat. However, if you eat too little, your body will switch into survival mode and hang on to unwanted fat for dear life. Neither situation is going to help you meet your fat loss goals. The simplest way to make sure you’re getting enough calories is to simply track them—even for just a few weeks—to get used to the correct calorie balance.

THE SOLUTION:

Use a food tracking app that allows you to log your daily food intake. It will give you a clear picture of the quantity and quality of calories you are consuming. After a few weeks of tracking, you may uncover some clues as to why you may not be making the progress you are after.

3. YOU ARE NOT ACTIVE ENOUGH

You may be working out five days a week for one hour per day, but what about the other 23 hours in your day? Of course, at least 8 hours should be spent sleeping. But the activity that you’re doing, or not doing, for the remainder of your day, maybe hindering your fat loss. Most people, even those who work out consistently, tend to have a sedentary lifestyle due to office jobs. Remember, NEAT matters. NEAT stands for “non-exercise activity thermogenesis”. In layman’s terms, it essentially means the energy you burn through everyday movements and activities such as cleaning the house, going for a walk, fidgeting, getting up for a glass of water, etc. If you are struggling to get the weight off, you may need to re-assess how much activity you are really doing.

THE SOLUTION:

Track your activity during the day with a smartwatch or step counter. There are many inexpensive options out there, and you don’t need anything particularly fancy. Try to make sure you are getting between 6,000 – 8,000 steps on a normal day NOT counting your workouts. You may find that it is surprisingly difficult, and start making different choices about how you commute to and from work, what you do on your lunch break, etc.

4. YOU ARE NOT CONSISTENT

When it comes to losing weight, consistency is truly the key to success. Many people adhere to their nutrition and training plans 150% for a couple of weeks, then they fall off the wagon. They might “start again on Monday” for another few days, but then it’s someone’s birthday on the weekend and off the wagon they go again. This is not a sustainable approach to weight loss. Someone who is 150% compliant only 40% of the time will struggle to see any progress compared to someone who is 80% compliant 100% of the time. You may have a day here or there where they you are not perfect (don’t we all?!), but it’s important to keep going regardless of small hiccups in order to achieve weight loss over the long term.

THE SOLUTION:

Don’t be so hard on yourself. Do your best each day, get your workouts in, and start small. Get in two workouts a week without overcommitting and slowly add in workouts as you have time. Focus on your nutrition and make good choices 80% of the time. Be a bit flexible with yourself when there are for fun foods to try and outings to enjoy, but don’t overdo it. 

Track your progress and do your best to stick to your plan. And if you don’t, it’s okay! Weight loss and fitness is an ongoing journey, and you can always recalibrate when you need to. 

Do any of these reasons help you answer the question, “Why can’t I lose body fat?” Where are you are lagging behind? Where you are excelling? Use our poll below and tell us which of these weight loss tips you want to work on!

Thank you for reading, and let’s connect!

Thank you for reading my blog, feel free to subscribe to my email newsletter, and ask questions and give your valuable suggestions.

1. MORE VARIETY OF MOVEMENT

So many of us spend our days at a desk in front of a computer, and the last thing we should do when we’re ready to exercise is sit on a piece of gym equipment. Bodyweight training requires a much broader variety of movement, challenging your body to work muscle groups that you simply can’t reach sitting down. Additionally, many bodyweight training programs combine cardio and strength elements, so you get a very effective and efficient workout done in a shorter period of time.

TIP:
If you’re into short, intense workouts rather than long sessions, remember that consistency is key! A quick workout here and there won’t get you the results you’re looking for. You’ll need to build them into part of your routine.

2. BODYWEIGHT TRAINING BUILDS MORE MUSCLE

Many people are under the impression that in order to build muscle effectively, you need more weight resistance than your body can provide. In fact, bodyweight training is likely more effective at building muscle in a shorter period of time.

Most bodyweight exercises are classified as closed kinetic chain (CKC) exercises or movements where your extremity (hand, foot, etc.) is fixed to an object (often the floor or a wall). When you work out this way, movement at any point in the kinetic chain requires you to move other joints in the chain creating resistance training in multiple areas at the same time.

If you work out with a piece of gym equipment, you’re often doing workouts with an open kinetic chain (pulling a weight, for example) and the exercises are actually less effective.

DID YOU KNOW:
According to the Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy, closed chain exercises are responsible for a 31% increase in lower body strength after only six weeks. While the open chain group only improved by 13%.

3. DO QUICK WORKOUTS, ANYWHERE

Of course, another clear advantage of bodyweight workouts is that you have so much more flexibility in when and where you train. You can exercise without equipment in front of the television or do a quick workout at your local park if you want to. There is no need to pack a bag and commute to and from the gym.

As a result, you’ll likely find it much easier to stick to your training plan, fitting in more workouts at home than you would if you had to commit more hours on a trip to the gym.

Of course, it’s important to build a routine and establish good fitness habits. But you might find that bodyweight training at home fits into your busy schedule more easily than the alternative.

4. BODYWEIGHT WORKOUTS HELP PREVENT INJURY

If you do any other kind of sport activity (and even if you don’t) bodyweight training is critical to injury prevention. Bodyweight workouts can help you to build a more stable torso through back and core exercises while increasing overall flexibility– two key components of long-term injury prevention.

Of course, if bodyweight training is completely new to you, you should ease yourself in and be mindful that your body is learning to move in a new way.

5. BODYWEIGHT EXERCISES ARE FOR ALL ABILITIES

Bodyweight exercises often come with a variety of variations. You can tailor each exercise to your specific ability level making it easier or more difficult based on where you are in your training. As you progress, you can seamlessly switch to the next variation and continue to advance in your fitness.

Thank you for reading, and let’s connect!

Thank you for reading my blog, feel free to subscribe to my email newsletter, and ask questions and give your valuable suggestions.

In the online event, Apple will preview the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS. Apple will also release developer betas at the same time.

This year, Apple says it will hold a full online schedule of keynote and sessions. Apple said it will be sharing more details in the coming weeks. Clearly, Apple had to shake things up significantly as it has not announced a firm date for the keynote — just that the new WWDC will happen sometime in June.

Craig Federighi, Apple SVP Software Engineering, teases the event: “With all of the new products and technologies we’ve been working on, WWDC 2020 is going to be big”.

Apple also said it will contribute $1 million to local San Jose organizations to help offset the economic hit to the city from WWDC not being held at a physical location.

Apple says it will share more details about its plans “between now and June”.

WWDC 2020 begins on June 22 and will be accessible using the Apple Developer App (download) and the Developer website for free for all developers. Also, if you’re interested in entering the Swift Student Challenge, you can send in your entry till May 17, 11:59PM PDT on this link.

So now Pixel Buds are available for $179 in Clearly White in the U.S., Also you can check out that in your region Google Store is available or not.

Google sat down with some of the team behind Pixel Buds to learn more about what’s new, and also to hear how they’ve been using them.

Get started easily with Fast Pair

All the content from official Google Pixel Buds blogs.

I always used to use wired headphones because I had concerns about the reliability of Bluetooth® connectivity, as lots of other earbuds have pairing problems, including the original Pixel Buds. With the new Pixel Buds, we focused on improving Fast Pair to eliminate these pain points and easily connect to your phone.

– Ethan Grabau, Product Manager (Google Inc.)

Clear calls with special mics and sensor

To give you clear calls, even in noisy and windy environments, Pixel Buds combine signals from beamforming mics and a special sensor that detects when your jaw is moving. This helps so you don’t have to look for a quiet place to take a call. It’s come in particularly handy these past few weeks for me working from home with two young daughters.

– Jae Lee, Audio Systems Engineer (Google Inc.)

Adaptive Sound for better audio

Adaptive Sound is perfect for those moments like when you’re steaming milk for a latte, or when you’re washing your hands or the dishes. Those noises can eclipse your audio experience for a bit, until the latte, or your dishes are done.

– Basheer Tome, Senior Hardware Interface Designer (Google Inc.)

To help, Adaptive Sound temporarily and subtly adjusts your volume to accommodate for the new noise in your environment, and goes back to normal after it’s dissipated. It works kind of like auto-brightness on your phone screen: It momentarily adjusts to the world around you to make the experience of using your device a little simpler.

– Frank Li, UX Engineer (Google Inc.)

Hands-free help with Google Assistant

When I’m working in the yard and wearing gloves, I can use  ’Hey, Google’ on my Pixel Buds and easily control my music. I can also hear my notifications, and reply to a text message with just my voice and Google Assistant.

And when I’m taking my dog on our daily walk and using my Pixel Buds, I use Google Assistant to navigate and check my fitness progress hands-free while juggling a leash and bag of dog treats. The Pixel Buds are slim enough they fit snag-free under a hat or hoodie, too.

– Max Ohlendorf, Technology Manager  (Google Inc.)

Real-time translations with conversation mode

We set out to see how we could use Google Translate on Pixel Buds to reduce language barriers. Making the conversation as natural as possible even with the use of the phone was important, so we decided to create the split-screen UI to show exactly what was being said, and translating it in real-time on the screen with conversation mode. Any exposure to a different language is also an opportunity to learn, so we wanted to make the feature is not only as helpful as possible for things like being in a different country, but also as simple as being able to help bilingual households across generations connect through language.

– Tricia Fu, Product Manager (Google Inc.)

Peace of mind with Find My Device

The fear of losing expensive wireless earbuds is real, and in many cases a reason why people are afraid of trying them. We tried to reduce that fear a bit with Find My Device. If an earbud falls out when you’re walking or running, you know right away. But you may be less aware when you return home and absentmindedly put them down somewhere. So we built the ability to let you ring your earbuds from your phone. We also wanted to make sure we were thoughtful in what that experience is like. You can ring one earbud at a time, to focus on finding either the left or right earbud. The moment your hands touch the lost earbud, the ringing will stop. We hope people won’t need to use this feature often, but if they do, they can find misplaced earbuds more easily.

– Alex Yee, Interaction Designer (Google Inc.)

Like Pixel phones and other Google devices, Pixel Buds will get better over time with new features, including an update to Find My Device which will show the last known location of your earbuds. Check out more cool features on Pixel Buds and see which features will work with your device.