Author: Jake

Before Christmas, I ran out of gas for the first time. All things considered, I was very lucky. It was just me in the car, and the engine died in a covered parking structure, in a remote corner with few cars. Plus, it was the middle of the day, during the week before Christmas, so not… Read More

It’s been nearly three weeks, and I’m finally getting around to sharing the highlights of our OpenWorld 2015. Enjoy. Keynotes Last year, Steve Miranda showed some of our project work in his keynote. This year, our Glance framework on the Apple Watch, made an appearance in Larry Ellison’s first keynote in a video showcasing the evolution… Read More

A while back, I told you about Glance, a framework for wearables and other devices. Quick history review, Glance was born out of our frustration with rebuilding basic Oracle Cloud Applications notification functionality each time a hot new wearable device dropped, e.g. Google Glass, Pebble, Android Wear, etc. So, by the time the Apple Watch launched,… Read More

So, Mark (@mvilrokx) built a internet-connected Nerf gun, so that happened. If you read here, you’ll have seen the early stages of the build. Heading into JavaOne (@javaoneconf), where he’ll be giving a talk, Mark wanted to build something cool to show. Look for a technical post from him soon. The short version is that he… Read More

The Scavenger Hunt we ran at Kscope15 was a huge success. The players had fun, the game was mostly bug-free and our gracious hosts, ODTUG (@odtug), were happy. The Hunt went so well that we’ve been asked by the OTN (@oracleotn) to run a similar game at this year’s Oracle OpenWorld (@oracleopenworld) and JavaOne (@javaoneconf). I can’t… Read More

I’m very pleased to announce that our colleague and friend Kathy recently pushed live a page on oracle.com under the OAUX section, dedicated to our Emerging Technologies team and our work. Big moment for us. I feel like a made guy. Don’t worry. This little blog will continue to be our home and stream of consciousness,… Read More

Despite the amount of iOS and Apple Watch chatter here lately, we still have a dedicated Android user base on the team, including me. If you read here, you’ll know that projecting an Android device screen to an audience has always been important for us, and usually we have more than one screen to project. Over… Read More

Editor’s note: If you read here, you might recall that we have dos hermanos en Guadalajara, Luis (@lsgaleana) y Osvaldo (@vaini11a). Last month, the Mexico Development Center (MDC) celebrated its fifth anniversary. Here’s to many more. Reposted from VoX. By Sarahi Mireles, (@sarahimireles), Oracle Applications User Experience (@usableapps) As you may know, Oracle has a couple… Read More

A couple days after Noel (@noelportugal) wrote about reducing user friction, I got a chance to try one of Amazon’s latest friction-reducing services, Amazon Prime Now. The likes of Webvan pioneered grocery delivery back in the dot com days, and fun fact, Amazon owns and continues to operate what is left of Webvan. In those halcyon… Read More

The Year of Data continues for me, and yesterday, I finished a four-week relationship with the Garmin Vivosmart. I use relationship purposefully here because if you use a wearable to track fitness and sleep, you’re wearing it a lot, and it actually becomes a little friend (or enemy) that’s almost always with you. Wearables are… Read More

The August 2015 edition of Profit Magazine (@OracleProfit) includes a nice piece called “The Explorers” highlighting the work of our team and that of JD Edwards Labs. This article is nice companion piece to our strategic approach to emerging technologies and how we apply the “Glance, Scan, Commit” design philosophy to our work. I’m honored to be quoted in… Read More

Cross-posted from VoX. Behind the Oracle user experience goals of designing for simplicity, mobility, and extensibility is a core design philosophy guiding the Oracle Applications User Experience (OAUX) team’s work in emerging technologies: “Glance, Scan, Commit.” It nicely boils down a mountain of research and a design experience that shapes the concepts you can see from… Read More

If you follow us on Twitter (@theappslab) or on Facebook, you’ve seen some of the Summer projects coming together. If not, here’s a recap of some of the tinkering going on in OAUX Emerging Technologies land. Mark (@mvilrokx) caught the IoT bug from Noel (@noelportugal), and he’s been busy destroying and rebuilding a Nerf gun,… Read More

If you read here, you’ll recall that Noel (@noelportugal) and I have been supporters of the Raspberry Pi for a long time, Noel on the build side, many, many times, me on the talking-about-how-cool-and-useful-it-is side. And we’ve been spreading the love through internal hackdays and lots of projects. So, yeah, we love us some Raspi. The little… Read More

Here’s the first of many OpenWorld-related posts, this one cross-posted from our colleagues and friends at VoX, the Voice of Experience for Oracle Cloud Applications. Enjoy. Are you all set for Oracle OpenWorld 2015 (@oracleopenworld)? Even if you think you’re already booked for the event, you’ll want to squeeze in a chance to experience the future of… Read More

Recently, my four year-old daughter and her little bestie were fiddling with someone’s iPhone. I’m not sure which parent had sacrificed the device for our collective sanity. Anyway, they were talking to Siri. Her bestie was putting Siri through its paces, and my daughter asked for a joke, because that’s her main question for Alexa,… Read More

For me, 2015 has been the year of the quantified self. I’ve been tracking my activity using various wearables: Nike+ Fuelband, Basis Peak, Jawbone UP24, Fitbit Surge, and currently, Garmin Vivosmart. I just set up Automatic to track my driving; check out Ben’s review for details. I couldn’t attend QS15, but luckily, Thao (@thaobnguyen) and Ben went… Read More

By now, you know all about the Scavenger Hunt we ran a Kscope15 in partnership with our good friends at ODTUG and YCC. Noel (@noelportugal) talked about the technical bits in a post last week, and today, ODTUG posted an interview featuring our fearless leader, Jeremy Ashley (@jrwashley), and Noel from the conference wherein they talk about Internet… Read More

After wearing the Fitbit Surge for seven weeks, I developed an ugly skin rash. So, I took a break and let my skin breathe for a while. I’m all better now, thanks for asking. For most of the year, I’ve been test-driving various fitness bands and super watches and journaling my impressions here as one man’s research. After… Read More

I don’t particularly like protective cases for phones because they ruin the industrial design aesthetics of the device. Here at the ‘Lab, we’ve had spirited debates about cases or not, dating back the original team and continuing to our current team. I am not careful with phones, and the death of my Nexus 5, which I’ve… Read More