The speed and magnitude of a change in the skyline is representative of how rapid a city has changed through a a century or more. Others clock in development in just a few decades. For instance, one of the most prominent changes to a city has got to be Dubai, which over the course of 20 years transformed itself from a desert to becoming the most heavily populated city in the United Arab Emirates.

(Image Source: bongorama & mediavida)

In this post, we will look at the rapid growth, by way of skylines, of 20 cities from around the world to give you an idea of how the world has, is and will change through time. You might also be interested in the amazing skyscraper compilation we have, as well as a list of stunning futuristic skyscraper concepts we have.

Recommended Reading: 100 Imaginative “Cities of the Future” Artworks

New York City, USA. 1870 vs today. (Image Source: DailyMail)

Shanghai, China. 1990 vs 2010. (Image Source: TheAtlantic)

Long Beach California, USA. 1953 vs 2009. (Image Source: JeffGritchen)

Eiffel Tower, Paris. 1900s vs today. (Image Source: FineArtAmerica & WallpaperUp)

Panama City, Panama. 1930s vs Present day. (Image Source: SkyscraperCity & MagnificTravel)

Shenzen, China. 1980 vs 2011. (Image Source: TwistedSifter)

London, England. 1900 vs Present Day. (Image Source: DailyMail)

Toronto, Canada. 1930s vs today. (Image Source: BlogTo & farzinphoto)

Hong Kong. 1920s vs 2000s (Image Source: Hongwrong)

Singapore. 1990s vs Present day (Image Source: AsianUrbanEpicentres)

Bangkok, Thailand. 1988 vs 2007. (Image Source: WebUrbanist)

Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia. 1930 vs present day. (Image Source: sydneysiders & wikipedia)

Venice, Italy. 1970 vs Today. (Image Source: fdmount & roughguides)

Doha, Qatar. 1977 vs 2010s. (Image Source: businessinsider)

Dubai, UAE. 1990 vs Present Day (Image Source: Abdolian & worldpropertychannel)

Tokyo, Japan. 1945 vs 2011. (Image Source: bongorama & mediavida)

Fortaleza, Brazil. 1970s vs 2011. (Image Source: ourswift)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 1990 vs today. (Image Source: adamroslan & tinmoi)

Athens, Greece. 1860 vs today. (Image Source: ourswift)

Los Angeles, USA. 1970s vs today. (Image Source: kcet & citydata)

Not only are there great apps and widgets found in Google Play Store, but there are also plenty of tips and tricks you might not know of. The store isn’t just for you to scour through lists and lists of apps and reviews to download an app to pass the time. It actually has a few settings and configurations that can help you better manage your downloads, choices, purchases and even your devices.

In this post, we’re going to share with you 15 tips and tricks for Google Play Store that you probably have no clue about (yet). Be it the Android Play Store app or the web version, there are a few things you might find here that will make your app downloads a lot easier to manage.

Recommended Reading: 10 Useful Android Tips And Tricks You Should Know

1. Use Password To Restrict Purchases

Don’t like to find surprise purchases on your account? Like on Apple products, you can use a password to restrict the purchases made on your Android device. This is particularly handy if there are other people using your device as well. To restrict purchases with a password:

1. Open Play Store app > Settings.
2. Tap on Password.
3. Enter your Google password then tap OK.

2. Filter Apps Content

App content on Google Play are rated in terms of maturity. Some of the factors that determine what level of maturity an app is at include the presence of gambling, violent or crude humor elements among others. You have some control over the apps that turn up, by filtering them:

1. Go to Play Store app > Settings.
2. Tap on Content Filtering.
3. Tick or untick the maturity level according to your choice. Then tap OK.

3. Redeem Your Gift Card & Promotional Code

If you don’t want to link your credit cards to your Google account, you can buy a Google gift card and redeem it as Play Store credit. Here’s how you redeem code or gift cards:

1. Open Play Store app.
2. Swipe to right at the left side of the screen.
3. Tap on Redeem.
4. Enter your code and tap on REDEEM.

4. Display All Your App Orders

Stay on top of all your app orders or in-app purchases that you have bought with your Google account. You can easily look for all your orders in the web Play Store.

1. Visit web Play Store.
2. Click the Gear icon > My orders.

5. Add App To Wishlist

Do you know that you can add apps to a wishlist? It helps you keep track of the apps that you might want to buy one day (but not now). If you want to create your own wishlist, do it this way.

1. Find the app that you’re interested in getting.
2. Tap on the + banner at the top to include the app into your wishlist.

6. Display Your Wishlist

Once you have added apps to your wishlist, you can access your list from within the Play Store app itself. To do that, just follow this steps below.

1. Swipe to right at the left side of your Android device screen.
2. Tap on My Wishlist.

7. Disable Updates Notifications

By default Play Store will automatically update all your Android apps if there is a new version available. If you happen to have disabled that feature, but still receive notifications telling you to update your apps, here’s how you can totally disable those annoying notifications.

1. Open Play Store app > Settings.
2. Untick Notifications.

8. Don’t Auto-Add Widgets For New Apps

For apps downloaded from App Store, a widget shortcut is created for each app you download. Over time, your homescreen will be filled with unwanted widgets. If you do not want Play Store to do that automatically, here’s how you can disable it.

1. Open Play Store > Settings.
2. Untick Auto-add widgets.

9. Display All Your Android Devices

Every device that is connected to your Google Account and used to access the Play Store, will automatically be added as one of your devices. You can access a list that will show all the available Android devices that is under your account. If you’re interested, this few steps will lead you to your list.

1. Go to the web Play Store.
2. Click on the Gear icon > Settings.

10. Hide Device From Menus

You can hide your device from showing in your menu list when you’re downloading an app. This can be done from within the settings page of Play Store web version. Here’s how you can hide your device from menus.

1. Visit web Play Store.
2. Click on the Gear icon > Settings.
3. Untick Show in menus for the device that you want to hide.

11. Ring, Lock & Erase Your Device With Android Device Manager

If you haven’t noticed yet, ever since Google released Play Store service version 3.2.25, an app called Android Device Manager has been introduced. This app lets you control your Android device from the web version of the Play store. You can ring your device, lock it remotely or erase data from the device in case it was stolen. To access such feature, follow this steps.

1. Go to web Play Store.
2. Click on Gear icon > Android Device Manager.

12. Choose Your Device In Android Device Manager

Android Device Manager can help you track all your other devices registered under the same Google account. If for some reason you want to locate any one of your devices from the web, here’s how.

1. Visit web Play Store.
2. Click the Gear icon > Android Device Manager.
3. From the drop-down, choose the device you want to track.

13. Download App From Web Play Store

Do you know that you can also download apps to your device from the web version of Play Store? You can also download any app to any of your Android devices from within your desktop browser. To do that, follow this steps.

1. Open web Play Store.
2. Search for the app that you would like to download.
3. Tap on Install.
4. Choose the device that you want to install the app on than press Install.

14. Optimized For Tablet or All Apps

Because Play Store caters for both smartphone and tablet apps, you might want to filter your app search results for apps that are optimized for tablets. There is an option for that. Just follow these steps.

1. Open the Play Store app > tap on APPS at the top.
2. Then pick any of the top categories e.g TOP PAID.
3. From the drop-down, choose Designed for tablets or All apps.

15. Request For A Refund

Don’t like an app that you have just bought? You can get your money back in a 15-minute window. If however you have surpassed that 15-minutes, you need to request a refund from the developer with the following steps:

1. Click on the Gear icon > My orders.
2. Find the app that you want to refund, click on the favicon than choose report a problem.
3. Choose I’d like to request a refund from the drop-down and describe your reason.
4. Next click on Submit.

Storytelling is a key factor in successful design, and content creation in general. Without telling some kind of story, there’s no way to get people excited about the content you have to share. Many times, however, people will lose interest in a story for a variety of reasons, which we’re going to cover in today’s post.

Where, exactly, do you lose a user’s interest when telling a story? What are the key ideas that must be utilized when you’re attempting to convey a key set of ideas? Let’s look at the elements of a good, shareable story, and what goes into creating content that sticks in people’s minds.

Recommended Reading: How Telling Stories Can Nail You More Clients

Be Like A Politician

A story is like a marketing meta message from your client to your users. Think of a story like a democratic government, and your users as the voters. You, the designer, the political campaign machine — you develop key storytelling elements that excite and compel people, and get them fired up.

If they vote to share your content, then your campaign is a winner. If not, then it’ back to the drawing board.

Go Back To The Story

If you ever observe politicians running for office, you may start to notice something very peculiar: no matter what question they’re actually asked, they will always make a point of coming back around to their prepared “talking points”, or a specific set of topics that they wish to stress to voters.

People often express frustration with politicians for evading the question being asked, but part of the goal of politics is to shape public opinion in the direction the politician wants it to go.

You can do something similar (though not nearly as slimy and manipulative) with your own storytelling to make sure people get the main message. Crafting a list of key points that you absolutely want to convey no matter what will help you stick to only those ideas that get people the most excited.

Look For Commonalities

It’s said that we humans are all far more alike than we are different. There’s no better example of this right now than the fascinating website, Humans of New York. Photographer Brandon Stanton finds people from all walks of life, and interviews them to draw out their unique, individual stories, which he then posts an excerpt from beneath their photograph.

It’s a brilliant example of the universality of storytelling in action, and the fact that Stanton’s book of the same name went straight to the top of the New York Times Bestseller list reinforces the idea that people are looking for common experiences with their fellow humans.

The very best storytellers find common joys, fears, complaints, and truths that bring people together and tell the story of how they can overcome their trials and succeed in accomplishing their goals. Pick things that everyone can relate to, universal ideas that people will always want to share with others.

Read Also: 5 (Genuine) Wedding Proposal Videos You Have To Watch

Use The Right Emotions

The fact that we have common emotions in storytelling is all well and good, but what if you want to cut to the chase, so to speak, and get people to really share what you create, enough so that it goes “viral” and puts you, the storyteller, in the spotlight?

Read Also: Top Tips & Resources To Creating Content People Want To Share

Nostalgia, frustration, anxiety, pride, surprise, amusement, and controversy are excellent storytelling emotions that make people want to share. Peace and contentment, on the other hand, are terrible for storytelling.

Nobody wants to share a story in which there is no conflict. Think about the last work of fiction you read. Did the protagonists simply float through the book with no conflict whatsoever, and then live happily ever after? Probably not.

Even nonfiction must contain some type of conflict within the story it’s trying to tell the reader.

Cut The Fluff

Storytelling is very much like design. The more efficient and minimalistic it is, the better and more elegant a solution you will end up with. Each element must earn its way into your story. If it’s not serving any purpose, cut it out. Create easily digestible content.

This is a reason infographics are so popular these days. It’s a great way to amuse and inform people, and tell a story at the same time.

Read Also: 25 Interesting Infographics For Your Inspiration

Another efficiently simple storytelling medium is joke-telling. The best jokes are the ones with the least amount of setup and the most “punch” in the punchline. These types of jokes have been refined through numerous tellings, and all the current teller has to do is not mess it up (there is an art to telling a joke properly, after all).

The more you decide you don’t need to tell your story, the faster your audience will get the essence of what you’re saying, and the easier they’ll find it to share with others.

Read Also: 30 Clever Logo Parodies Of Famous Brands

Images Matter

Here’s where you really get to shine as a designer. Viral storytelling is so much more effective when there are images involved. Again, infographics are a perfect example. If people don’t have time to read a long, complex story, a compelling, well-designed image is the next best thing.

And a short, easily digestible video is even better, provided you post it in the appropriate places. What do I mean by that? It’s important to respect the digital medium you’re using, and tell your story in the way that the majority of people on the site want to hear it told. In other words…

Be Mindful Of Where You Share

People go on specific social networks for different reasons. This idea is outlined very well in Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. In it, he explains the differences between users of Tumblr versus Pinterest, Facebook versus Twitter, etc.

You need to know your audience and why they share the content they do in the places they do. If you’ve ever had the experience of being on a particular site, and feeling like the editors have made a misstep in how they presented their information to you, you know what I mean.

Read Also: Powerful Branding Techniques Through Social Media

Perhaps you didn’t feel like clicking on a video when the majority of the site is text. Or you were expecting to see more images and fewer words. You’re not always in the same frame of mind when you visit different places online, and neither is your audience.

Be aware of what kind of story they want, in which particular format, and give it to them.

What Do You Think?

What are some other things to consider when telling a story to your users? Have any interesting insights to share? Tell your own stories in the comments!

I assume that many people would do the following to install WordPress in local server: Download the Package from WordPress.org, unpack it, put the files on the local server, open the localhost followed with the wordpress directory in the Browser, and then follow the instruction as shown.

This is the standard way to install WordPress. It works fine, except it requires several layer of steps. And most of the time, I have to manually re-download the package for new installation.

Another way to install WordPress is by using WP-CLI, which I found to be more streamlined. WP-CLI is a set of command lines for operating WordPress stuff. This includes install and update WordPress Core, as well as install and update plugins.

So, if you mainly work on WordPress environment and are comfortable on performing command lines in Terminal, you can follow this tip.

Recommended Reading: Setting Up Local Server With AMPPS

Getting Started

We first need to install WP-CLI, and the easiest way would be via Homebrew. Type the following commands:

 brew tap josegonzalez/homebrew-php brew install wp-cli 

Once installed, you can type wp command to verify the it is applicable. If you got a message like what is shown in the screenshot below, it means “it works”.

Creating Project

We start installing WordPress through command lines. First let’s create our project directory. In my case, all web projects reside under ~/Sites folder. So, I can type the command below to create a folder named /wordpress in it:

 mkdir ~/Sites/dev/wordpress 

Then, we navigate to this folder with the following command.

 cd ~/Sites/dev/wordpress 

Let’s download the WordPress package to this folder.

 wp core download 

Tip: If you want to download a particular version of WordPress, you can run the command followed with the version number. For example:

 wp core download --version=3.5 

If the download has completed, we can begin the installation.

Install WordPress

First, run the following command to create wp-config.php file.

 wp core config --dbname=wordpress --dbuser=root --dbpass=root 

The above command assumes that, you previously have created a database named wordpress. Change the database name with the one that you have created for the WordPress site.

Next, we use wp core install command to install WordPress. This commands the following parameters:

• --url The website address url, e.g. http://localhost:8888/wordpress/.
• --title The website title, e.g. My Blog.
• --admin_user The admin username. It should be all in lowercase, e.g. admin.
• --admin_password
• --admin_email

Type the command below. Swap the parameters value as per your own setup.

 wp core install --url=http://localhost:8888/dev/wordpress/ --title=WordPress --admin_user=myusername --admin_password=mypassword --admin_email=tfirdaus@outlook.com 

The process should run quick. If it has completed, you will see the following message:

Let’s take a look at the database.

Yes, as you can see above, we have successfully installed WordPress through command lines.

Final thought

I hope you will find WP-CLI as a great alternative to operate WordPress. For more reference, you can head over to WP-CLI.org Commands Doc.