Google released the developer preview of its next version, called as Android M, on this year's I/O conference. While Google current Android version Lollipop was aimed at visual aesthetics, Android M on the other hand, will mainly focus on optimization and enhanced battery life. So, for those who would like to know about the major differences between both the Android versions, this post will provide useful insight on what's new in Android M vs Android 5.1 Lollipop. But, before heading straight towards the differences, let us first have a brief introduction on both of these Android versions.

A Look at: Android M and Android L

Android Lollipop was introduced during the Google I/O conference – held on June 25, 2014 – and was officially named as Android 5.0 “Lollipop” on October 15, 2014. Android L, was arguably the major highlight of Google's annual developer's conference. It was a complete visual redesign that Android had seen since Ice Cream Sandwich (Android version update). In fact, overhaul of the user interface based on a design language, called as “Material Design”, was said to be the most prominent changes in the Android Lollipop.

A lot of bugs were found in Google's Android 5.0 version, however, an update was released in May known as Google’s Android 5.1 Lollipop to fix those bugs. Till date, the current Lollipop version has been made available for select devices running Android distributions such as Nexus. The successor to Android 5.0 Lollipop, codenamed “Android M” hasn't changed much in terms of look and feel, but focuses on making improvements in usability and stability.

A lot of new features were unveiled in the Android M developer preview, and it is expected that Google will likely add even a lot more features prior to the release of Android M, at the end of the year. So, for now only the early developer preview (or you can say beta version) of Android M is here. You'll have to wait for the final version release of Google's software update. As discussed the new Android version is said to bring forth many new changes such as better battery life and much more, ensuring to provide an optimal core user experience of Android.

Basically, Android M will provide familiar visual experience just like Lollipop, but it will be better compared to its predecessor Android L. The next Android software update will be a free update for all of the Android powered Smartphones, as well as, tablets. The Android M beta has been made available only for “Nexus 5, 6, 9 and Player”. However, this update will arrive somewhat late for the mainstream manufacturers Samsung, HTC, and others (i.e. somewhere around December, or most likely in 2016).

Android M vs Android L: What's the difference?

So far, we've discussed about the key aspects of both Android M and Android L. And now, it's time to unveil some major highlights of the ultimate battle between the Android versions.

1. App Permissions Will Get an Overhaul

The long overdue app permissions model will be getting overhauled. Prior to the release of Android M beta, requesting permissions for apps in Android has been a nuisance for users, since apps asked for way more information than needed. However, with Android M, the control of the app permission system will be in the hands of the user.

Unlike the previous Android versions that requested for permissions at the time when apps (like Location, Camera, SMS, etc.) were being downloaded, Android M will request for app permissions during runtime. Simply put, you can now ask for the permissions at the same time when you'll try to use some feature, and not during the installation of the app. And, you don't need to agree to the permissions that seem senseless to you.

For example, the “WhatsApp” will ask for your permission first, if it can use your microphone for recording a voice message. So, in case something wants access to your application, you'll have to approve the permission.

2. Google “Now On Tap”

Google Now is a voice-enabled personal assistant that gets right information – related to weather, traffic, and other data based on your interests – exactly when you need it. With the new Android software update, Google Now will get better. Android M, will come shipped with Google Now on Tap that will help enhance the user search experience, by providing them with real-time context.

In simple words, Google Now will help provide content – right where you're – without having to navigate from one app to another. What's more, you no longer will have to look up for the information, as Google Now on Tap will deliver the desired information to you. You just need to press and hold the home button – whenever you need to find something – and Google Now will provide you with information – that you would likely search for anyhow.

For example, in the middle of using an app or when reading an email, you might receive a prompt from your friends asking you to accompany them for a movie. But, what if you would like to have more information about that movie. Simply, long-press the home button (a shortcut) will make Google Now appear on your device screen, offering useful data based on your needs.

3. Android Pay – The New Improved Mobile Payment Solution

In order to compete with the popular payment solutions such as Apple Pay, Google has introduced a new mobile payment solution called as “Android Pay” for Android M. Although, Android Smartphones have a payment solution known as Google Wallet, but it has been a failure. Android Pay is compatible with devices that comes with NFC capabilities.

The new payment solution enables merchants to make their phone connect to terminal equipped with touch-payment, and make them receive a digital receipt. You can use the Android Pay app as a credit-card locker, but you don't need to open up apps to make this app work: you just need to touch the app and make the payment. Google said that Android Pay will be accepted at more than 700,000 US stores shortly, however, nothing has been said about availability of Pay on other markets.

With Android Pay, you'll be able to choose the card that can be used for payment across multiple devices, and you won't have to unnecessarily provide information for the transaction. The new payment solution will be making use of virtual account numbers for presenting users' account information, which will add an extra layer of security to the process.

4. Fingerprint Support Will Be Native

With Android M, the long awaited biometric fingerprint support will make you capable to compete with iOS “Touch ID”. So far, the biometric fingerprint technology has been available with Samsung Galaxy X and Galaxy Note Devices only. However, devices with Android M will be able to have native fingerprint support via a fingerprint scanner.

In essence, Google will standardize the fingerprint scanners support for devices that will run on Android M. This new feature will make users pay for products with Android Pay in a highly secure way. Android M will make you unlock your device, or sign into any account, use Android Pay, and do a lot more things with the help of your fingerprint.

The new feature will not only bring convenience to how you access things on an Android device, but will also improve security.

5. Improve Your Battery Life With “Doze”

Another major highlight of Android M is "Doze". This feature is intended to improve user experience regarding battery life. As the name implies, it will make on your device (including the apps) doze off (i.e. sleep) when it is not being used. This will eventually help in improving the battery life of Android devices. Doze will get activated when a device is unplugged, or in the case when it is not in use, thereby saving battery life.

This feature, in particular, makes the apps stay in a low-power state or compels them to stay asleep. Once the device wakes, the apps can resume their normal activity.

With Doze enabled on your device, you can continue to receive important notifications such as Gmail alerts, texts, etc. In addition, you can even manage the apps that you would like to doze.

6. New Improved Google Photos Will Make Managing Photos a Breeze

Android M will have a standalone Photos app that will help you share and store images “independent of Google+”. It will come with cloud storage capability, and so you no longer need to worry about losing your photos – not even if you lose your device.

Google Photos app will help you automatically images in GIF format, slideshows, etc. that you can share with your friends and family. What's amazing about this app, is that will come loaded with features such as “Auto-Awesome” and “Stories”, which automatically provide suggestions about how you can use your images in a creative manner and so on.

Wrapping Up!

Android's new version has been unveiled during this year Google I/O conference, and has been named as “Android M”. When compared to its predecessor Android L, you won't see many changes in the visual aesthetics of Android M. However, the new Android software update is expected to introduce many useful features which include, improved battery life, a new mobile payment solution, better security feature and lots more.

While there is a plethora of features that have been introduced with Android M, but in this post, we've covered some of the major features that are hard to ignore.

Author Signature: Lucie Kruger is an application developer working with Mobiers Ltd, which is the leading Android app development company. She provides concrete information on latest information on mobile technologies like iOS or Android development processes.

Strength Of WordPress CMS For Websites And Mobile Apps

Unless you have been living in another world for the past decade, you will be aware of the most-favored topic in the IT industry at the moment. Daily numerous articles influx the Internet and reveals incredibly useful guidelines that help us whet our skills to develop an outstanding website, which appears great and run expeditiously on mobile devices as well as desktops. This has certainly caused a need for a remarkable tool that can deliver a fantastic web solution which can work seamlessly on a variety of mobiles.

Although there are a whopping number of web development platforms available out there, WordPress makes a much sought after choice as a powerful hosting platform. It is extolled for its invaluable offerings across the globe and empowers one to create an effective website to support any niche business that he can imagine. Moreover, it also allows you to efficiently embrace a prolific mobile presence via mobile-optimized websites and mobile applications to leverage your business.

In this article I will unleash some fabulous features of the WordPress that help it buttress both website development and mobile application development. However, before delving deep into the fascinating idiosyncrasy of this open source web platform, it will be worth to understand why and how to choose a CMS (Content Management System).

Do you really need a CMS?

A Content Management System comprises a web application that helps keep the web content in a well organized manner via a database, and facilitates one to efficiently tweak the content and web layout in the back-end to generate a requisite visual appeal on the front-end. It, thus, allows one to create and edit his web content with a breeze. Here, content includes text, media files, web page layout and everything that needs to be tinkered to handle a website. Therefore, with a proficient CMS, you will not only able to develop a requisite website, but you will also be able to update and manage it with a flair.

How to choose a good CMS?

There are several aspects to consider while choosing a good CMS. It includes,

• Fast and simple installation

• Rich functionalities

• Highly customizable

• Easily-manageable administration interface

• A great community support

However, the most imperative point to keep in mind is that it must offer you superior functionalities without compromising on the usability of your site. Thus, with a good CMS, you can easily ensure an intriguing UI and a great UX.

Having said that, let's have an insight into the WordPress CMS and find the compelling reasons that make it an ideal platform for mobile app and website development.

Exploring WordPress!

Miraculously, WordPress has grown into a multifaceted web development platform from a simple blogging tool. Loaded with several amazing features, it is often loved for the way it augments the creation of appealing web designs and high end functionalities.

Here are a few of the resourceful features of this fabulous platform.

1. Extremely Simple To Use

WP offers user-friendly and highly intuitive interface that facilitates one to create an aesthetic and powerful website with a great ease.

• Powerful Dashboard - Its powerful dashboard further adds to its credibility, and makes it highly convenient for site owners to manage their website in a desired manner. Whether you want to add members to your site, enhance the functionalities or upgrade the look and feel of your site, it is absolutely simple with a WP-powered website.

• Easily Transform Web Content To App – It not only makes website development an easy task, but also helps one to conveniently transform a WP site into a mobile application. For the folks who want to create a mobile application to scale up their business and reach a gigantic mobile user base, they can easily get their existing web content into their application if they are running their site on WP platform. Yes! Unlike other CMS, you can easily transform the content from your WordPress site to an app, without overhauling everything.

2. A Plethora of Plugins

The great potential of the platform to behave as a user-friendly tool has encouraged developers to create prolific plugins and themes, and contribute to WP development. You will have an overwhelming list of plugins that can be downloaded and installed from the WP repository to improve the functionalities of a website. You can add a requisite features and make your site more functional.

• Helps Deal With The Proliferation Of Mobile - In fact, you can use a plugin to make your website responsive and run smoothly on any device. This further helps you cope with the drawbacks of the proliferation of mobile and ensure a surefire design for both mobile and desktop visitors.

• Serve Myriads Of Needs – A WP site can efficiently cater to your business needs. You can integrate almost any type of function to your site by using an appropriate plugin. For instance, you won't need a webmaster for optimizing your site for search if you have installed an efficient SEO plugin. However, for a valuable outcome, you are advisable to thoroughly research the available options and streamline your choice by taking your ultimate goals into account.

3. Extensive Themes

The look and feel of a website or an application plays a crucial role in attracting visitors and encouraging them to further interact with the design. If you are not featuring a riveting UI design, you may lose your potential business.

From a personal blogging theme to a high-end professional theme, thankfully, WordPress gives a slew of fantastic options to spruce up your website in an awesome way. There is no dearth of beautiful themes in the WordPress repository. You can easily create a captivating appearance by using a suitable theme.

While there are great themes available on the web that embrace up-to-the-minute web trends, it is not hard to seek a theme that can offer a responsive design to your website and help you make your site mobile-optimized.

4. Prodigious Control - Personalize It As Desired

This blissful CMS is not constrained to anything, rather it allows one to create any kind of website that he can imagine. This is possible as it facilitates even a layman to tailor his website in a desired fashion.

• Same Control For Mobile Applications – This astonishing feature of WP helps one to efficiently keep his application well updated with his website. This means, if you will create an app via WP site, you won't need to make strives to modify your app separately for every update in the website. Moreover, it also enables one to forward the push notifications from the site to the app for notifying the user about an update on the site.

• Great Customization Support – Whether you want to customize a plugin or want to create a fresh visual appeal with a personalized theme, the WP platform makes a great choice. However, for an advanced modification of a plugin or theme, you must possess expertise in WordPress development.

Fortunately, today, since the platform is quite popular among the masses (over 23% of the Internet is WordPress powered), more and more developers are choosing WP development as their career. Therefore, in case you don't have knowledge and want to customize your site to boost your business values, you can hire an adept professional to proficiently accomplish the task.

This certainly leads to the next point.

5. Only Limited To Your Imagination

Whether you need a platform to develop a job board, an e-Commerce store, support desk or to create any type of web presence, WordPress is a marvelous CMS that bolsters web development while ensuring an ultimate mobile solution. You just need to scrutinize your choice and think of a solution that can bolster your business. Then, by using the appropriate plugins and themes, you turn a simple website into a powerful website with cutting-edge functionalities, tailored to meet specific needs.

6. Ensures A Complete Ownership – No Need To Reinvent The Wheel!

When you develop a mobile application from an existing WP site, you can reap the benefits of the existing built-in database structure and the site's UI. This can be done by implementing the site as a back-end. With this approach, you won't need to revamp the entire structure, but you can use the existing database structure that possesses a usable format for users, media, content, custom plugins and so forth.

Let's Wrap Up:

WordPress is no doubt an ultimate platform that has made web development an easy pie. Loaded with a list of blissful features, WP is not only a viable choice for developing a website, but also makes a great choice for developing a mobile application from an existing website. This will certainly help you target colossal mobile users and heighten your business values with a great precision and ease.

Furthermore, as the platform is supported by a massive community, it is well updated with the latest web trends, and embraces advanced features. Step on the WordPress peddle and enjoy the utile offerings of this free platform.

Author Signature: Addison Cohen is a mobile app developer working with Appsted Ltd, the leading mobile application development company which delivers most comprehensive mobile application solutions. He loves sharing latest information on mobile technologies like iOS, Android development processes.

If you are a java developer, you definitely were experiencing java class not found exception with this error: noclassdeffounderror java . But what's behind this error?

We'll explain in next few lines:

Usually compiler tries to find a class within your classpath, but the class is not there. Therefore you're getting noclassdeffounderror.

Solutions:

If you are running a java command from command line:

1. Check included .jar files within your classpath

In windows environment type a command: "set"

Result should be something like:

C:\Windows\system32>set
ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\ProgramData
APPDATA=C:\Users\m\AppData\Roaming
asl.log=Destination=file
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
CommonProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramW6432=C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMPUTERNAME=BATMAN-PC
ComSpec=C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe
configsetroot=C:\Windows\ConfigSetRoot
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO
GIT_SSH=D:\Prog\TortoiseGit\bin\TortoiseGitPlink.exe
HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMEPATH=\Users\m
LOCALAPPDATA=C:\Users\m\AppData\Local
LOGONSERVER=\\MicrosoftAccount
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=6
OS=Windows_NT
Path=C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporati
on\PhysX\Common;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windo
ws\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\ProgramData\Lenovo\ReadyApps;d:\prog\Java
\bin\;d:\prog\Firefox\;D:\Prog\TortoiseSVN\bin;d:\prog\ant\bin\;d:\prog\svn\bin\
;D:\Prog\TortoiseGit\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=AMD64
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=AMD64 Family 16 Model 10 Stepping 0, AuthenticAMD
PROCESSOR_LEVEL=16
PROCESSOR_REVISION=0a00
ProgramData=C:\ProgramData
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
ProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)
ProgramW6432=C:\Program Files
PROMPT=$P$G
PSModulePath=C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\
PUBLIC=C:\Users\Public
READYAPPS=C:\ProgramData\Lenovo\ReadyApps
SESSIONNAME=Console
SVN_SSH=D:\Prog\TortoiseGit\bin\TortoiseGitPlink.exe
SystemDrive=C:
SystemRoot=C:\Windows
TEMP=C:\Users\m\AppData\Local\Temp
TMP=C:\Users\m\AppData\Local\Temp
TVT=C:\Program Files (x86)\Lenovo
USERDOMAIN=BATMAN-PC
USERDOMAIN_ROAMINGPROFILE=BATMAN-PC
USERNAME=m
USERPROFILE=C:\Users\m
windir=C:\Windows


Then,
another command: set CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH$"c:\{yourdirectorywithjarfiles}"

This should add visibility of your jar files within the classpath.

Optionally, you can specify a classpath this way:

java -jar mypackage.jar -cp c:\{yourdirectorywithjarfiles}

We're looking for guest bloggers to write articles about web technologies, latest trends, e-commerce and online marketing.

If you are interested, please drop us an email to info at codegravity dot com. Thank you !

Author Bio :

Jason Roiz is Magento developer at OSSMedia Magento development services company and is also engaged in writing informative articles on best tools and tricks for Magento development. His write-ups have proved beneficial for a wider group of Magento developers across the globe.

It is common knowledge that Magento is always in sync with the requirements of merchants planning to take their business online. When it comes to looking for the most ideal content management system to build their eShop on, Magento springs up almost instantly.

The performance levels and the scalability of this CMS has already given the other well established CMS platforms a serious run for their money. And one such feature that further elevates Magento's significance is the ability to set up and host multiwebsites and multi-stores.

This new feature under the Magento hood is built with great attention to detail. The system that allows for you to build multiwebsites and stores is called GWS (Global, Website, Store):

• Global signifies the installation in its entirety.
• Website signifies the source that hosts multiple stores.
• Store (or store view group): While a single website may be hosting several stores, but when it comes to managing the frontend-specific elements like categories and product displays, it can be done from the stores. The store view group lets you address the root categories and this is how you can make sure that you can set up more than one store on a single website.
• Store View refers to the interface between the website and the end-user. It dictates how data is showcased on the website.

Let's Take an Example

Take, for instance, a scenario where in you want to open an online store that can sell shoes, electronics and grooming products. Moving forward, we divide our catalogue into 2 stores and 2 websites. Now, we can decide on selling the electronic good from their exclusive website while shoes and grooming products can be sold collectively on the other website. So, we buy domains electronics.com and lookgood.com. Now, in order to ensure that information about customers and the order-specific details on the two websites don't get mixed up, we turn off the data sharing feature between the two websites.

On lookgood.com, we can further build two stores – shoes and grooming products. Now, both, shoes and the grooming products entail a wide range individually in terms of the variety and the price bands they belong to. So, what we are ging to do is that we will segregate these two in different sub categories of their own so that we do not have to deal with an enormous single category. With the stores finally created, corresponding root categories will be assigned to them.

Besides, it would not be a bad idea to have a catalog for both your websites in 2 different languages - English and let's say, French. To implement the same, there is the need to create an English and French store view for all the stores.

Configuration

The GWS system is utilized as a sort of tree by the Magento setup while putting up the store. The Global settings refer to the default settings that are providing the stores with their elementary structure. To explicitly state that a particular feature is only meant for the specific website or store view, we need to un-check the checkbox against that feature. For example, we can have PayPal as the payment system on both websites, but we want Nelnet to be there only on lookgood.com. For implementing the same, we need to head for the configurational settings and in there, select lookgood.com from the store view's drop-down menu. PayPal can be enabled or disabled for this website.

Settings for The Store View

When you are through with all the steps involved in creating the store view, you then have to move to modifying the configurational settings in the layout, along with makes some tweaks to the visual interface of the store view. Customers can also resort to the drop down for switching from one view to the other. On every reload, you can substitute the current page with the alternate view, without having to refresh it completely.

This also makes it possible for us to run A-B tests on different kinds of designs so that you are able to figure out which design can lead to the maximum conversions for your business. the diverse designs in order to find which one tosses at you maximum conversions.

So, with a clear-eyed understanding of how multistore and multi websites work in Magento, it would be a great idea to transform this idea into something tangible.

Author Bio :

Amy is WordPress developer by profession. She works for WordPrax - WordPress website development company and has a strong inclination for a suite of creative endeavors. Blogging meanwhile is a new found hobby for Amy.

Dropdown binding is perhaps one of the best things possible with jQuery. Eventhough it is feasible to bind a dropdown list using C#, opting for jQuery to perform the job entails utmost performance and convenience. This is a post which will walk you through the steps associated with using jQuery for binding a dropdown list.

Coming to the process of binding dropdown list using jQuery

Step 1- Add the reference jQuery Library

Prior to being able to use any particular function(s) available in jQuery, it is crucial for you to have the reference for the same within the aspx page. With jQuery 2.0 as the current working version, you can use the below line of code for providing reference of jQuery library within the aspx page:

<script src="/jquery-2.0.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Step 2- Use a function for fetching data from jQuery Library

Just use the below mentioned function for deriving data from jQuery Library:

<script >

$(document).ready(function () {

$.ajax({

type: "POST",

contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",

url: "test.aspx/LoadCountry",

data: "{}",

dataType: "json",

success: function (Result) {

$.each(Result.d, function (key, value) {

$("#ddlcountry").append($("<option></option>").val(value.CountryId).html(value.CountryName));

});

},

error: function (Result) {

alert("Error");

}

});

});

Here's an explanation of the above code snippet:

1. $(document).ready(function () {

The above function is executed once the document has been loaded completely on the client machine. It is important to note that a page can't be manipulated securely unless the document is ready.

2. $.ajax({

You can combine jQuery and Ajax for getting and posting data on the server. Here, $.ajax is used for posting data to the sever and fetching data back for binding the same within the dropdown list.

3. type: "POST",

In this tutorial, I've assumed that the page just has two conditions: get and post. The above line of code represents this assumption.

4. contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",

This line of code represents as to what the content is encoded in.

5. url: "test.aspx/LoadCountry",

Th above line of code represents that URL holds the address of location where it is connected. So, text.aspx represents the name of page and LoadCountry is the name of method which allows you to connect the URL to database, followed by returning data on execution of jQuery function.

6. data: "{}",

Usually, data is passed the parameters (data) jQuery to code that's associated with the chosen method(here, it is LoadCountry).

7. dataType: "json",

This line of code represents that the all data types used in the explained example are supported by JSON. Some popular data types supported by JSON include: number, boolean, string, value, array, white space, object and many more.

8. success: function (Result) {

$.each(Result.d, function (key, value) {

$("#ddlcountry").append($("<option></option>").val(value.CountryId).html(value.CountryName));

});

},

In the above code snippet, Success is a pre-defined function available in jQuery. Also, the result is the object value $.Each which works in the form of a continuous loop until the desired values are returned. Within the lines of code:

$("#ddlcountry").append($("<option></option>").val(value.CountryId).html(value.CountryName));

• #ddlcountry is the id of the 'country' drop-down

• append($(“<option></option>”).val(value.CountryId).html(value.CountryName));

  represents that new options have been added into the dropdown list and their respective values are represented by value.CountryId and value.CountryName.

9. error: function (Result) {

alert("Error");

Here, Error is also a jQuery function which is executed each time an error result is derived from executing the function.

Now, here is the code behind the above mentioned function:

// Country POCO class public class Country { public int CountryID {get; set;} public string CountryName {get; set;} }

[System.Web.Services.WebMethod] public static List<Country> LoadCountry() { return LoadCountries(); }

The above code represents the static type method used for executing the function.

The entire code snippet is shown below:

/// <summary> /// This method returns a list of Countries /// </summary> /// <returns>List<Country></returns> public static List<Country> LoadCountries() { //create a reference of List<Property>. List<Country> CountryInformation = new List<Country>();

// Creating database context and write Linq query to fetch countries list

using (var Context = new DatabaseContext()) { var list = Context.Country.ToList(); if(list != null && list.Count > 0) { foreach(var item in list) { CountryInformation.Add(new Country() { CountryID = item.CountryId, CountryName = item.CountryName }); } } return CountryInformation; } }

We're done!

OutPut :

Conclusion

Binding dropdown list on a page has always posed as a great challenge to developers. I hope the code mentioned within this post would aid you in performing the job with utmost amount of perfection.

It's been months since I was trying to figure out WHY was PHP and Apache sooo damn slow on localhost !

I tried uniserver, xampp, wamp, all kind of server bundles which were offering PHP/Apache/MySQL. I was even thinking about developing under Ubuntu linux.

Whenever I tried to refresh a page, it took approximately 3 seconds or even more. Very annoying !

I found several posts around the internet such as:

http://drupal.stackexchange.com/questions/13316/very-slow-drupal-loading-on-localhost-via-uniform-server

Most of them are instructing you to add lines to windows hosts file. You know what? It doesn't help !

What worked for me regarding slow Apache / PHP on localhost

>>> I changed localhost to 127.0.0.1 in configuration.php of Joomla installation. That's all ! <<<<

I'm currently using Uniserver, which is really great.

If you're using Wordpress, some other CMS, or even no CMS at all, you have to change it in some main database configuration file.

Results before running command "wget.exe localhost"

Start time: 2014-12-21 15:28:18
End time: 2014-12-21 15:28:24 (6 seconds difference ! )

After the modification:

Start time: 2014-12-21 15:38:21
2014-12-21 15:38:22 (1 second difference ! )

waiting 6 seconds vs 1 second can be a huge difference if your're doing some development on localhost !

If I knew that some time ago it could have saved me hours waiting for damn f*** windows trying to resolve localhost to 127.0.0.1 even though this entry was in etc/hosts file !