More First World Problems

I’ve been traveling a lot lately, which is bad. I’ve been consuming a lot of in-flight wifi, which is good, because there really should be no place on Earth where I’m unable to work. Plus, it’s internets at 35,000 feet. How cool is that? Today, I found myself in the throes of a decidedly first world… Read More

The Secret Project Emerges

Noel (@noelportugal) and Raymond have been working on a secret project. Here’s the latest: Thanks to AUX colleague and Friend of the ‘Lab, Rob Hernandez, for the 3D modeling. So now you know why Noel bought the slap bands, but what goes in the case? If you’ve been watching, you might know already. Those are… Read More

We Have Slap Bands

As part of a secret project Noel (@noelportugal) and Raymond are cooking up, Noel ordered some AppsLab-branded slap bands. The bands were produced by Amazing Wristbands (@AMZG_Wristbands), and Noel has nothing but good things to say about them, in case you’re looking for your own slap bands. Anyway, I’m sure we’ll have some left over after… Read More

A Smart Holster for Law Enforcement

So, back in January, Noel (@noelportugal) took a team of developers to the AT&T Developer Summit Hackathon in Las Vegas. Although they didn’t win, the built some very cool stuff, combining Google Glass, Philips Hue, Internet of Things, and possibly a kitchen sink in there somewhere, into what can only be described as a smart holster.… Read More

Taleo Interview Evaluations, Part 1

Time to share a new concept demo, built earlier this Spring by Raymond and Anthony (@anthonyslai), both of whom are ex-Taleo. Back in April, I got my first exposure to Taleo during a sales call. I was there with the AUX contingent, talking about Oracle HCM Cloud Release 8, featuring Simplified UI, our overall design philosophies… Read More

I Guess Wearables Are a Thing

For what seems like ages, the noise around wearable technology has been building, but until recently, I’ve been skeptical about widespread adoption. Not anymore, wearables are a thing, even without an Apple device to lead the way. Last week, Noel (@noelportugal) and I attended the annual conference of the Oracle HCM Users Group (@ohugupdates); the… Read More

The Misfit Shine

Over the past 12 months, the chatter about wearables (glasses, watches, bands, clothing, material) has become too loud to ignore. It almost seems like manufacturers will force consumers to like wearables, like it or not. There are good uses for wearables, and one of the most common is the fitness tracker. Although I haven’t worn one… Read More

Saying Wearables in Spanish

Friend of the ‘Lab, Bob Rhubart (@otnarchbeat) recently recorded a segment with our own Noel (@noelportugal) and Sarahi Mireles (@sarahimireles), a UX developer from our Mexico Development Center. The topic was wearables, but I only know this because they told me. Google Translate wasn’t very helpful, unless “Manos libres y vista al frente: Con el… Read More

Raspi Shutdown Key

Noel (@noelportugal) is a clever dude. He’s also passionate. If you’ve ever met him, you already know these things. Although I haven’t yet jumped into Raspberry Pi, despite Noel’s unbridled passion about the little-computer-that-could, I have captured some metadata about it, just from being around him and his passion. For example, I know the Raspi… Read More

Tweets from Jeremy’s MakerCon Keynote

Yesterday, our fearless leader, Jeremy Ashley (@jrwashley), gave a keynote at MakerCon. Unfortunately, I had to miss it, but the guys reported a positive reaction. Noel (@noelportugal) pointed me to tweets for rapid reaction. Here’s a sample: Yeah, I cherry-picked, but you can read the reactions yourself if you don’t believe me. The keynote was recorded,… Read More

OK Google, Where’s My Car?

Google Now recently added a Parking Location card to help you solve the classic dude-where’s-my-car problem. According to The Verge: The company’s Google Now assistant will now recognize when you’ve left a moving vehicle and automatically keep track of your car’s last location. There’s no magic happening here: Google does all of this using your… Read More