Ravi Shankar

Tweaking Apps

Tips

Checklist needed when an issue is reported in your mobile app.

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The major work when a bug is reported in your production app is to identify the steps required to replicate the issue.

  1. Get the app version of the device.
  2. Get the operating system version, device model, user locale. Incase of iOS the number of parameters or less where as in case Android it is more.
  3. If it is visual or display error then try to get a screenshot.
  4. If it is a crash then check Firebase Crashlytics or other crash recording framework that you are using.
  5. Check if the crash or issue happening in previous version of the build. This way you can isolate if it is problem related with the latest build.

if you would like add any other steps, please use the comments section. Thank you.

Preserve iPhone battery by reducing brightness

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Earlier we had seen how to turn on lower power mode automatically using shortcuts. This is another shortcuts tip to preserve iPhone battery by automatically reducing the brightness when iPhone battery falls below certain percentage.

Launch Shortcuts and tap Personal Automation.

Select Battery Level option and set the battery level to 50%

This automation will be triggered when the battery level falls below 50%. In the Actions screen, select “Set Brightness”

Reduce the brightness to 30% or whatever percentage you are comfortable with.

Turn off the “Ask Before Running” option.

This will ensure that the automation will execute without prompting you for the permission.

11 tips to avoid distraction and increase productivity

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We are seeing lot lot of work going remote but people are finding it difficult to be productive.

Here are 11 productivity tips to reduce distraction and increase productivity.

  1. Create a to-do list before starting the day.
  2. Define working hours.
  3. Have a separate work desk. If possible have a separate room for work.
  4. Define in your working space with some productivity quotes
  5. Take breaks in-between working hours.
  6. Use a Pomodoro timer. Whenever you are starting your work use the timer to enter a zone.
  7. Try to avoid night pyjamas when doing your work.
  8. Use apps like Self Control to block websites.
  9. Keep your Phone away from your work desk.
  10. Use browser extension that blocks YouTube recommendation like DF YouTube.
  11. Try to get a good night sleep.

Create distribution list in Gmail

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Distribution list or mailing list is quite useful when you want to send email to multiple recipients at the same time. You can create a distribution list using Google Contacts and this can be used in Gmail for sending emails.

  • Access Google Contacts. – contacts.google.com
  • Click “Create Label” option available on the left hand sidebar.
Create labels in Gmail
  • Provide a name to the label. I am planning create a mailing list for all freelancers.
  • Go to contacts and select the contacts which you want to add it as part of “Freelancers” label

Once all the contacts have been added, navigate to Gmail compose window . Now the newly added distribution list / label will be available..

De-Clutter Gmail Inbox using filters.

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One way of organising Gmail Inbox using the Filter option available as part of the settings. Let us say you want to move all your “Amazon” related emails from Gmail Inbox to another label.

Navigate to Gamil Settings then “See all settings”

Click “Create a new filter” option under Filter and Blocked Address tab.

In the From field enter “Amazon” or the address/mails which you want to move from your Inbox then click “Create filter”

I have gone with the above option, Skip the Inbox, Mark as read, Move the emails to a label “Amazon”. To apply this filter immediately, select “Also apply filter to matching conversation.

Now all the matching emails will be moved to the “Amazon” folder and marked as unread. Initially this operation might take time depending upon the no of emails matching the filter criteria. Any new email matching the filter condition will be automatically moved to this label.

Mac Screenshot App – Change default screenshot and recordings location

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Screenshot app in Mac OS Big Sur is quite useful tool for taking screenshots and screen recording. The default location for saving screenshots and video recording file is Mac desktop.

Mac OS Big Sur users can change the default location to documents or any other location by using the option menu

Launch Screenshot app.

Click the options menu and select Other location. Then create a folder of your choice. In this example, I have created a folder “Screenshot” under desktop.

Any screenshots or recordings will be stored under the newly created folder.

Turn on/off Wifi using Keyboard shortcut

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Mac users can turn on/off Wifi using option available as part of the Menu bar.

Wifi Menu bar option

Add quick action in Automator app

Launch Automator app on your mac and choose Quick Action.

Automator – Quick Action

Choose action as “Run Shell Script” then set Workflow receives to “no input” and set it to run for for any application and select an image for your action.

Then under the run script window add the following script.

set_wifi_on_or_off() {
  networksetup -getairportpower en${n} | grep ": ${1}";
  if test $? -eq 0;
  then
    echo WiFi interface found: en${n};
    eval "networksetup -setairportpower en${n} ${2}"
    return 0;
  fi
  return 1;
}

for n in $(seq 0 10);
do
  if set_wifi_on_or_off "On" "off"; then break; fi;
  if set_wifi_on_or_off "Off" "on"; then break; fi;
done

You can test the above script using “Run” option and check if Wifi settings turned On or Off based on the current state. Save this quick action by providing a name as “Wifi”

Assign a keyboard shortcut for quick action

Launch Keyboard preferences using System preferences and navigate to Shortcuts tab.

Keyboard Preferences

The newly added Wifi quick action will be available under Services. Now assign a keyboard shortcut for this action.

Note :- Make sure to select 3 letters or more keyboard combination for your shortcut. Sometimes other apps might be using the same set of key combination and this would prevent launching the Automator action.

References

A trick to flip a column upside down in Excel

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Excel users can sort a column using the Sort feature available as part of Sort & Filter menu. But what if you want to flip a column upside down. Let us see this with an example column having some text values as shown below.

We will not be able to apply sort feature directly on this column to flip the data instead we can add a dummy column and use that for sorting the text values.

Step 1: Insert a new column before the existing column.
Step 2: Now use Auto Fill feature to fill the temp with numbers as shown below

Step 3: Now you can use the Sort feature on column1 and make sure to sort by descending order. Also include the column2 in Sort sleection list.

Step 4: Once the columns are sorted, delete the temp column with numbers.

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