The age of smartphones and tablets has made just about everything a lot easier. There is an app to assist with almost everything from a simple torchlight to a compass and the more sophisticated gear needed to assist with boating, yachting and general water safety. Tablets have proven to be excellent for use as a marine navigation instrument and as an alternative to standard chartplotters.

Ultimately, choosing between an iPad and an android tablet for marine navigation will come down to personal preference. Choosing one or the other will be based on the preferred apps that each one supports, popularity, the overall layout and design of the system, price and other factors. Getting the right accessories and equipment to support your marine services is very important and requires as much research as possible. Both operating systems have their advantages so priorities will also play a part in the decision making.

iOS

IPads dominate the market when it comes to variety. There are several shared connections that users benefit from when a majority of their friends and family, also use Apple devices. According to IDC, Apple had a 34.9% market share in 2018. Apple tablets made techradar’s list  of top 10 best tablets in 2018 with 4 of their devices ranking in the top 5. The iPads on the list include iPad Pro 11 (2018) ranking as number 1, New iPad (2018) at number 2, iPad Pro 12.9 (2017) at number 3 and the iPad mini 4 ranking at 5th place. Other iPads that made it to the top 10 list include; iPad Pro 10.5 at number 6 and iPad (2017) ranking at the number 10 position. The devices on this list have been reviewed and ranked based on performance, battery life and screen quality.

Built in satellite navigation systems are very important for marine navigation to be functional at sea. Being able to connect to several satellite navigation systems is definitely an advantage for any tablet. The Apple’s operating system currently connects to GPS (American) and GLONASS (Russian) satellite navigation systems. An external satellite navigation receiver is best used to ensure adequate connectivity.

Apps downloaded from the Apple app store have been tested to ensure that they do not contain any malware. This protects the devices and prevents them from downloading any viruses or unwanted software. When choosing a tablet to use for boating or yachting activities, it is important to know which apps you want to use and which devices support them. iNavX is one of the navigation apps that is only currently designed for Apple. Garmin Bluechart Mobile is also only available for iOS. iPad users have access to a wider range of apps due to the popularity of the devices. This makes it so that several excellent marine navigation apps are only available on Apple.

Android

The android manufacturer with the largest market share is Samsung. In 2018, according to IDC, Samsung had a 15.1% market share. Huawei had 10.3% and Lenovo had 6.0%. the only android tablet to make it to the top 5 of techradar’s list of tablets to buy in 2018, was the Samsung Galaxy tab s4. The Samsung Galaxy tab 3 ranked 8th place on the top 10 list while the Asus Zenpad 3S 10 came in at number 9. This ranking is based on performance, battery life, price, and screen quality.

There is not a lot of variety to choose from when looking for excellent android tablets but the operating system does have several benefits that will better enable a number of marine services.

The Samsung Galaxy device is definitely the most popular android tablet and has a very high level of functionality. The tablet has the ability to connect to several satellite navigation systems including GPS (American), GLONASS (Russian) and BDS (Chinese). An external satellite navigation receiver will also be better used with this device to ensure optimum connectivity. Being able to connect to all these satellite navigation systems is definitely an advantage that android users benefit from.

There are many navigation apps available on the market to android users. Android devices can run apps such as Navionics, MX Mariner, Transas iSailor and Garmin Helm. Google play does not screen apps for potential malware but there are excellent antivirus software that can be used to protect the device from any viruses or unwanted software. Android devices can use USB connections to transfer data from one device to another and external memory devices to increase the available storage space on the devices. Android devices are also known to offer great battery life which will be essential in any emergency scenarios.

Before deciding on whether you should go with an iOS or an Android device for your water transport needs, it is important that you consider all the factors related to both operating systems and make an informed decision based on the benefits offered by both of them. It will definitely come down to personal preference but the systems do vary in the services that they offer so you will have to prioritize certain features. Before making a purchase, you should know the specific features that you need your navigation device to have and research which tablets offer those specific features.

Although technology makes things faster and easier, all boaters are advised by Canadian yachting to understand how to use hard copy marine charts and carry them along just in case they encounter some technical difficulties.

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WhatsApp Transfer

Gone are the days where we used to make calls to converse with our friends and family. With the onset of social networking, we have seen a shift towards a messaging culture that does more than just message ‘texts’. Apps these days can perform a lot of tasks, making it easier for its users to handle it and making their lives better. And among the networking apps, the top contender in this field has always been Whatsapp.

We as a community are so much dependent on WhatsApp that, there isn’t a single day where we don’t open the application to cater to our needs. Like I have mentioned before, it isn’t just the texting part that Whatsapp does. It’s literally everything from sending and receiving documents, photos, voice messages or even your location. The new features that the networking app adds to its platform each and every day have made it irresistible to use, in this modern age of Internet and Communications.

But a real headache is when you decide to switch your old gadget for the new one that is doing its rounds in the limelight. All those data and stuff that were once getting comfy in the old device needs to be relocated and has quite turned out to be a headache for most of us. Transferring the contents of applications such as Whatsapp is where the real trouble lies. People often find it difficult to transfer WhatsApp messages from iPhone to Android often ends up losing all their messages, photos, documents, and whatnot, later cursing themselves for the ordeal. This is also true when it comes to the case of content transfer of WhatsApp from iPhone to Android and vice versa.

So what’s the solution?

This is where the iSkysoft Toolbox comes into play. As a comprehensive WhatsApp transfer  tool, the iSkysoft Toolbox does more than just transfer your content and messages. It backs up your content and protects them so that you’d never lose your content even if the Application crashes or gets uninstalled.

To sum it up, the iSkysoft Toolbox is a hassle-free manner to protect and back up your entire data on messaging apps like Whatsapp and transfer it even from an iPhone device to another iPhone/Android device.

What all does this iSkysoft Toolbox do?

Literally, everything when it comes to protecting your data and carrying it with you just like anything you’d carry in your wallet.

  • Overall content transfer of WhatsApp from your iOS device into an iOS/Android device

Given the role that WhatsApp plays on a smartphone user’s device these days, it’s a pretty much needed objective to transfer all they have got on their older device into the new one when the switch their devices from the old one to new. iSkysoft Toolbox does exactly that by transferring all your contents of WhatsApp into the new gadget.

  • Backup your WhatsApp content on your device

Now one may argue that some inbuilt apps and other clouding facilities help you to do the same. But iSkysoft Toolbox does it better without confusing the user with configuration changes that always comes as a headache in the aforementioned cloud facilities.

It even helps you to access all your content even if you want to set up your backed up content onto your computer.

  • Restore your WhatsApp content onto your new device

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could transfer all of your data with just the press of a button onto your new gadget? iSkysoft Toolbox does exactly the same. With just a click all your content (backed up) gets organized into the way which it used to be on the old device smoothly.

Are you confused whether the backed up content from the iOS device be transferred to your new Android device? Worry no more, because the iSkysoft Toolbox helps you in restoring the contents of WhatsApp across different software platforms.

Additionally, you could also access the backed up data to pick and choose what all information and data that needs to be restored onto your new device giving the user the opportunity to sort out unwanted contents from the old device.

How to backup and transfer WhatsApp?

The following guide will help you to use the iSkysoft Toolbox and soon you’ll realize how easy it is to operate this toolbox to backup and restore the contents of your favorite messaging app online. The entire procedure is divided into three parts for easy execution.

Part 1: Setting up the Toolbox for backup

Step 1: Launch the iSkysoft Toolbox

Step 2: Select Restore Social App

Step 3: Go to WhatsApp tab

Part 2: Backing up WhatsApp content

Step 1: Select Backup WhatsApp Messages and connect your device

Step 2: Click Backup
(The backup process starts automatically and continues to proceed in the background)

Part 3: Restoring the backed up content onto a new device

Step 1: Select WhatsApp Transfer Messages and connect the new device

Step 2: Click Transfer
(The setup shall move all your WhatsApp content onto your new device)

Final Word

Transferring your mobile phone applications like WhatsApp into your new devices has always been a headache and a factor that pulls you back from switching your phones or gadgets. The loss of data, photos, messages and memories that you have shared and built on these apps can be really heartening. But with the iSkysoft Toolbox we could guarantee the safety of all your data and content and we can do more than just transfer it.

With iSkysoft Toolbox, it is not just WhatsApp transfer that you could execute. Social networking applications such as the Line, Viber, Kik, WeChat, etc. are some of the other applications that you could backup and restore using the same iSkysoft Toolbox.

Over the past few years push notifications have proved to be a great marketing means for myriads of businesses. WordPress Push notifications plugins are appearing more effective to boost visitor engagement and drive more frequent traffic on the WordPress sites.

As of now we are well acquainted with the remarkable business benefits of WordPress push notifications plugins, as we all have discussed lots about it. Due to these enormous benefits, more and more online businesses have started to embrace the trend of integrating WordPress notifications plugin with their WordPress site, and the year 2017 is the best witness of it.

No doubt, in 2018 also, there will be a profusion of such sites and the WordPress notification plugins as well. Thus it’s going to be confusing to choose an appropriate WordPress notification plugin amongst this profusion. Here in this blog, we have listed out some most excellent WordPress push notifications plugins for mobile app and websites, to diminish your confusion.

Check Out The List:

PushCrew

PushCrew is one of the best push notifications plugins that you can add to WordPress with a simple plugin. PushCrew has the least number of supported devices. At present, it supports Chrome on desktop and Android and Firefox on desktop only.

Supporting this small set of devices, PushCrew offers certain best features like:

  • Scheduling: With this, you can schedule your notifications in order to send them at a particular time in the future.
  • Segment Creator: It is a tool that helps you to divide your visitors using custom conditions.
  • CTA buttons: This allows you to display a couple of CTA buttons in your push notifications.
  • Expiry Notifications: It will help you to ensure that your subscribers don’t get a notification when the deal has already finished.
  • RSS support: This allows you to automatically notify subscribers of the latest posts the moment you publish them.

PushCrew offers a free package that includes unlimited notifications for around 2,000 subscribers with a few feature limits. For more than these numbers, you will have to select from plans starting at $18 for a month.

ePush

ePush is a push notification service plugin for WordPress websites, blogs, and all sorts of the business websites. It is a complete push notification system that supports all type of devices, like mobile phone, desktops, and even the tablets. Among all the WordPress push notification plugins mentioned above, ePush is one that comes with several remarkable business benefits.

Some Preeminent Features Incorporated In Epush:

  • Customized Notifications: Permits you to create a unique and personalized notification for every user or group.
  • Multi-lingual: You can optimize and send notifications in any major language.
  • Unlimited Subscribers: Allows sending push notifications to as many users as you desire.
  • Tailor-made Segments: Set your own attributes for specific visitors and send customized push notifications to them.

You can get a free trial of ePush and afterward can choose a precise package suitable to your business model, starting from $19 per subscription.

OneSignal

OneSignal is a standalone and best push notification service that conveniently integrates with WordPress. OneSignal’s supports chrome on desktop and Android, Safari on Mac OS X and Firefox on desktop only. With OneSignal you will obtain the Safari notifications, however, miss out mobile Firefox notifications.

OneSignal possesses a list of great features like:

  • A/B testing: This is quite a unique one. It lets you conduct split tests to find out the high performing messages ahead of sending them to all subscribers.
  • Scheduling: helps you to schedule your push notifications to send them at right time in future.
  • Automatic Notifications: Based on set criterion you can send reminders. For instance, if someone has visited your site over the last few days or whether or not you’ve published a new post.
  • Segments: Segment and target your visitors based on various user attributes.

OneSignal is absolutely free of cost with no limits, though there are some indefinite premium plans.

PushEngage

PushEngage is another standalone push notification service for both web and mobile push notifications. Though, it provides a dedicated WordPress plugin that simplifies the integration of push notification functionality to WordPress.

PushEngage facilitates you to send notifications to both mobile and desktop versions of Firefox,   Chrome and Samsung Internet Browser.

Moreover, PushEngage comes with a number of effectual features like:    

  • Geotargeting: Allows you to send notifications to the visitors according to their specific geo-locations.
  • RSS to Notification: Immediately alert users with RSS feed whenever you publish new posts.
  • Automatic Responders: Lets you send push notifications related to customer’s actions with marketing automation for email.
  • Segmentation: Easily segment your audience according to the URL from which they received browser notifications in order that you can send them posts that probably they will like.
  • Customized Cart Abandonment Notifications: Especially useful if you’re having an online store on WordPress.
  • CTA buttons: You can include one or more call to action buttons.

With PushEngage you can send up to 120 notifications to about 2,500 subscribers at free of cost. For more, you’ll have to choose other plans starting from $25 per month.

PushAssist

PushAssist is another standalone push notification service that offers a dedicated WordPress plugin to simplify the setup process. PushAssist supports Chrome on desktop and Android, Safari on Mac OS X and Firefox on both desktop and Android.

PushAssist consists of a number of useful features like:

  • Scheduling: Lets you schedule notifications for particular dates and times.
  • Segmentation: You can segment users based on their interests, location, and other data.
  • Personalization: Allows you to send personalized messages, but needs some setup as well.

PushAssist offers a free plan supporting up to 3,000 subscribers with limitless notifications. Paid packages start from $9 per month.

Conclusion

There are the most helpful and easy to integrate WordPress push notifications plugins that you must try out for your WordPress site. When it comes to choosing a precise one among the all, we suggest you to first determine your exact requirements and according to them make your wise selection. If further, you have any doubt about getting the Best Push Notification Service for your precious WordPress site, just contact us we will guide you with exact solutions.

The invention of cell signal technology is a game changer in the way people work, communicate, and exchange information. This generation has become so reliant with instant communication that everywhere, there’s always someone who needs to check if there phone has a four-bar signal strength.

However, cell signals can be unreliable at times, even in urban areas.

Two common reasons for not having a good cell signal are: (1) the phone or device is out of range of a cell tower, and (2) there are signal interferences, like the weather.

These two problems can easily be fixed by:

Relocating to a Better Coverage Area

If a phone signal is not detectable in one place, the easiest remedy is to move to another area where there is better signal.

This shouldn’t be a problem in dense urban areas as most major phone carriers have multiple cell towers in one city.

For those living in the countryside, they can check with their phone provider for a map of their cell tower coverage. Or better yet, one can use their own cell phone to locate the signal by turning on their phone’s dB display.

Users can do that through these steps:

iPhone*

  1. Activate Phone Mode
  2. Dial *3001#12345#*
  3. Enter Field Test Mode
  4. Check the notifications bar to see the dB reading

*Note: This method won’t work on an iOS 11 phone and models that use Intel modems.

Android

  1. Access Settings
  2. Go to General
  3. Select About Phone
  4. Then click Network or Status to show the dB value

After the dB meter is on, one can just trace the signal and find the best spot with the strongest reception.

Adding a Phone Signal Booster

Of course, if moving out is out the question, another way to strengthen the cell signal is by installing a signal booster, which can also double as a secondary cell tower inside a home.

A signal booster is used to extend the area of a cell network. It works by amplifying what signal it receives from the original cell tower then covers its own area of transmission.

For devices that rely on 3G or 4G networks, there are boosters, like the WeBoost Connect 4G, that are specifically made to increase phone signal and wireless Internet.

Signal boosters, signal repeaters, and signal extenders all work the same way. Getting a booster may mean spending some money for it, but it’s the best option for those who regularly have connectivity problems due to weak cell signals.

Remove Obstructions

Electronic appliances and other metallic objects, not to mention concrete walls, can disrupt cell signals. The signal is strongest if it’s out in the open and away from television, computer, or any electronic devices.

What others fail to know is that the reflective part of a mirror is a metallic sheet, so it also blocks cell signal if a device sits directly in front of it.

Devices that use signals also heavily affect its strength. Examples of these are microwave ovens and wireless telephones.

Do Not Block the Phone’s Antenna

All phones have an antenna to pick up cell signals. It’s obvious with old phones, but new models have theirs tucked inside the phone.

Usually, phone antennas stand upright with the device. Holding the phone in a horizontal, landscape grip may block the antenna and dampen its reception.

So one should keep their phones up if they want to get a good signal.

Stay Connected

According to Pew Research Center, 95 percent of America use a phone. Whether people use it for personal or professional reasons, there’s no denying that mobile technology has become a necessity to almost everyone.

Knowing these simple ways of improving cell signal will come in handy in keeping one constantly connected to the world.