Hardin Design & Development Blog

5 Great Apps Created Using Open Data

January 11, 2013

hardin Android, iOS, Madison, Mobile Devices, Politics, Software Development, Technology, Uncategorized Leave a comment

The city of of Madison launched it’s open data portal this week, and boy are we ever excited here at Hardin Design and Development! Madison, if you can believe, is only the second city in the country to pass an open data ordinance.

You might be wondering what the buzz is all about concerning open data and the Wisconsin State Journal has a great in-depth article explaining the concept, but basically it means the public will now be able to use data collected by the city to develop an app of their own design – for free.

With the copious amount of city-data now posted online developers will have plenty of information to dig and sort through to create an app, but where to start? To help fuel the creative juices we found five great apps created from open data portals from cities around the country to inspire the Madison area developers.

1. BusRadar (http://busradarapp.com/) Madison

A locally produced app that simplifies your bus experience. Allows users to see what buses will be arriving at any stop in the Madison Metro system. Tremendously useful to any seasoned or first-time bus rider.

2. Don’t Eat At_____ (http://donteat.at/) New York City

An app used on foursquare that allows users to receive an alerts when they check into any NYC restaurant that is at risk of being closed for health code violations.

3. Chicago Works (http://www.2pensmedia.com/) Chicago

Graffiti on your store sign? Abandoned car outside your apt? This iphone app that allows Windy City residents to submit and track reports to the 311 Chicago city services department.

4. MomMaps (http://mommaps.com/) (Originality San Fransisco, now over 30 cities)

Helps parents find kid-friendly locations (children’s museums, indoor play areas, kid-friendly restaurants etc.) while on the go.

5. Ottawa Biking Problems (http://ottawabikingproblems.ca/) Ottawa

A mapping website that allows cyclists to share information with the entire cycling community. Users provide data on specific locations in the city such as road work, busy intersections, poor bike lanes and more.

To get started on your exciting pathway to open data app development click the link to the official City of Madison Data Portal featuring all of the current datasets available to the public. We can’t wait to see what our fellow Madisonians are going to develop using our great new resource – we do know that will be great!

Venture Draft: St Louis 2012

August 14, 2012

hardin Scott Resnick, Startups, Technology Tech Conferences, Venture Draft 1 Comment

The first annual Venture Draft Conference was held in St Louis this weekend. The mission of the conference was to bring professional athletes, venture capitalists and technology experts face-to-face to create business opportunities (aka allow entrepreneurs to mingle with and teach current and former NFL players about technology). A tip of the hat to the Brandon Williams Economic Development Corporation: the Venture Draft was a success.

Rarely do I experience a “wow” moment at a tech conference. However, this one was different. Maybe it was the personality of the highlighted speakers (who attended every event) or the charm of St Louis, but there was something special about Venture Draft.

My “wow” moment came right after I had the opportunity to bounce business expansion ideas off keynote speaker Henry Wong of Garage Technology Ventures at a local cigar bar. As I was walking out of the bar to a sponsored after party, Jim Sorgi struck up a conversation about his future with the Colts and time on Gilman Street. Wow, this conference was pretty cool.

I was not alone. I was one of twelve who drove to the conference from Madison, WI (6 ½ hour drive). Our entire contingency felt the same. Maybe it was watching Yao-Hui Huang of the Hatchory bust a move on the dance floor or experiencing the humble nature of Daymond John of ABC’s Shark Tank, the conference was a positive experience for those who attended.

The city also played a positive role on conference experience. The food was fantastic and nightlife a great change of pace. Since many of the keynote speakers were from out of town, their attendance at post conference social events added a new dynamic to the event. I’ve never been to a conference that had the opportunity to chill with the CEO of FUBU overlooking the Arch. Usually the keynote speakers are back home or quickly jet setting to their next event. This would have been a very different experience if the conference was held in New York or Las Vegas.

Brandon set the bar high for the Venture Draft. I was glad to attend the first annual, and excited for the second.

Daymond John with Madison’s Portable Scoreboard team

Adobe Shadow

August 3, 2012

heinen Android, iOS, Mobile Devices, Software Development, Technology, User Interfaces 2 Comments

Gone are the days of the tedious workflow to test websites on a mobile device.

Before the workflow was

Save and upload your (updated) files to a web server
Navigate to the page from your mobile device, usually taking ~30 seconds to type in the URL every single time
Check and wonder why things aren’t showing up correctly
Fight off the urge to throw your device through a window
Make some minor CSS tweak that probably isn’t the root of the problem
Re-upload
Re-Navigate
Re-Check
Re-Fight off the urge, etc.

The new workflow (after you have Shadow setup) is

Save and upload your (updated) files to a web server
Navigate to the URL from your desktop and have it automatically load on every device you have Shadow running on

I only have to load the webpage on my laptop and it automatically updates WHAAAAA!!!??!?!

Inspect the source of any device directly from your laptop

“Inspect the element from your PC and your mobile device updates as if it were on your PC. BAM TECHNOLOGY

Make Changes from within the developer tools and see them update instantly on your device
Go golfing with all that extra time and headache you just saved yourself

How does it work!?

You need the Adobe Shadow “server” running on your PC.

You then need to download the Chrome extension to install and manage your clients from

Last but not least you need to download the “Adobe Shadow” App on every device you will be testing from. Once it is downloaded and the Server is running your devices will recognize the computer and give you a passcode to connect.

Enter the passcode into the extension

and BINGO. You are now a wizard.

Downside?

It doesn’t work locally. – I can’t hold it against it but for all you CSS Wizards out there:

Weekly Roundup – May 25

May 25, 2012

heinen Android, iOS, Mobile Devices, Social Networking, Technology, User Interfaces, Weekly Roundup Leave a comment

Facebook has its eyes set on the mobile horizon

It is a well known fact that the Facebook app / mobile experience is lacking.

This image sums up the majority of my experience with Facebook’s mobile app. I know I’m not the only one. Facebook has been rumored to be working on their own smartphone and even if this is not true I think they should be.

Imagine if the Facebook Mobile experience could be as seamless as the desktop experience. That is why it is a big deal when rumors of an Opera acquisition start going around. While Opera isn’t the most popular browser it does boast an extremely impressive mobile market with over 168 million (mobile) users in March alone.

Whether or not this deal will transpire is beside the point that Facebook needs to improve their mobile experience. It doesn’t do much good to wait ~20 seconds for a news feed that I want to check for ~10 seconds while on the go.

The full story is available here

“Facebook officially declined to comment.“

Siri-ous problems

IBM bans Siri from Employee phones

It was released this week that all the data you have ever spoke to Siri, incidentally, has been recorded by Apple.

Full Story

Siri changes answer to the “Best Phone Ever” question

Apple may have noticed, from all their data tracking, that the question “What is the best smartphone?” was being asked by many users. Prior to this week Siri did as it should, answered honestly from a search of customer feedback.

While I personally wouldn’t agree that the Nokia – Lumia 900 is “The Best Smartphone” at least it provided an honest answer. This is what you will see now if you ask Siri what the “Best Smartphone” is.

This answers seems a bit more subjective…

Siri was also updated to include a sarcastic response “You’re kidding, right?”

Gamerchanger of the Week

The Moai, Easter Island giant head statues, have … wait for it… buried bodies!!

Pictures of an Excavation

Weekly Roundup – May 18

May 18, 2012

heinen Quick News, Social Networking, Technology, Weekly Roundup Leave a comment

To Learn to Code, or Not to Learn to Code.

One of the top stories of the week was the reaction to the new ‘Learning to Code’ fad.

Websites like CodeAcademy began offering services, (ie. CodeYear) for users who want to get their feet wet in the coding world. A popular article surfaced this week begging people ‘Please Don’t Learn to Code‘. While the article makes a good point, learn to code only if you have a reason to, the title created more than a few ripples in the interwebs.

The most popular rebuttal to this article is Sacha Greif’s ‘Please Learn to Code’.

“Learning to code” doesn’t always mean becoming the next Linus Torvalds, just like “learning to cook” doesn’t mean opening a 3-stars restaurant.

It simply means having a basic grasp of how computers work instead of blindly following whatever a talking paperclip tells you.”

Justin, from the creator of, JustinTV, wrote a great insight into why coding can help even when you’re not a programmer and in the end A couple hours of effort saved him four days of repetitive work.

“Alright guys I think we’re good”

Focusing on Integration, not Innovation.

A slightly morbid story about How Yahoo! killed Flickr

Although Flickr grew tremendously with the huge influx of Yahoo users, the existing community of highly influential early adopters was infuriated. It was an inelegant transition, and seemed to ignore what the community wanted (namely, a way to log in without having to sign up for a Yahoo account). This was the opposite of what people had come to expect from Flickr. It was anti-social.

The site that once had the best social tools, the most vibrant userbase, and toppest-notch storage is rapidly passing into the irrelevance of abandonment. Its once bustling community now feels like an exurban neighborhood rocked by a housing crisis. Yards gone to seed. Rusting bikes in the front yard. Tattered flags. At address, after address, after address, no one is home.

The CEO of Yahoo! , Scott Thompson, was seen removing Flickr from his resume, adding that he ‘Had the initial idea for Instagram’.

The future of Physics Classes?

MIT released a Video this week of a magnetic field that is interactive.

What is the practicality of this you ask? Good question I say. Yet for some reason, Real Life Angry Birds: Space comes to mind.

Weekly Roundup:

Wil Wheaton posts about the absurdity of banning Torrenting in general

Iceland uses Facebook to re-write its constitution

The idea of creating a gitHub account to include amendments is being thrown around.

How to Load your Scripts asynchronously

816-Bit computers

3D Printing and Pirate Bay: Star Trek’s Replicators?

January 24, 2012

hardin Hardin Staff, Jon Hardin, Technology 1 Comment

If you’ve ever watched any of the Star Trek variants other than the original series, you’re familiar with the replicator: a device that can replicate pretty much any physical object, for free, using base materials like proteins, carbohydrates, plastics, metals, et al. The replicators make food, drinks, and a whole host of devices and inanimate objects. The only thing they are unable to do is produce living things. This may seem like a far fetched invention, in the same category as time travel, transporters, and warp drive, but advances are being made in technology that seems to be headed in that direction. Slashdot, along with ZDNet, is reporting that Pirate Bay is now creating an archive of torrents called physibles, which are downloadable files that can be fed into a 3D printer (such as the RepRap) to produce a physical object:

We’re always trying to foresee the future a bit here at TPB. One of the things that we really know is that we as a society will always share. Digital communication has made that a lot easier and will continue to do so. And after the internets evolutionized data to go from analog to digital, it’s time for the next step. Today most data is born digitally. It’s not about the transition from analog to digital anymore. We don’t talk about how to rip anything without losing quality since we make perfect 1 to 1 digital copies of things. Music, movies, books, all come from the digital sphere. But we’re physical people and we need objects to touch sometimes as well! We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical. We believe that things like three dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby future you will print your spare sparts for your vehicles. You will download your sneakers within 20 years.

The blog writer from the Pirate Bay clearly grasps the potential significance this for society, specifically along the lines of how replicators are used in Star Trek:

The benefit to society is huge. No more shipping huge amount of products around the world. No more shipping the broken products back. No more child labour. We’ll be able to print food for hungry people. We’ll be able to share not only a recipe, but the full meal. We’ll be able to actually copy that floppy, if we needed one. We believe that the future of sharing is about physible data. We’re thinking of temporarily renaming ourselves to The Product Bay – but we had no graphical artist around to make a logo. In the future, we’ll download one.

Obviously 3D printing technology is very far from being able to replicate food, or anything biological, but it is already used regularly for prototyping mechanical devices, and is rapidly advancing. As an example, the above image is a fully functional flute that was created by a 3D printer. It will be fascinating to see it evolve over the next 20-30 years.

Evolution of Video/Pictures

January 10, 2012

swierczek Eric Swierczek, Hardin Staff, Technology 6 Comments

With a quick glance around the web (or if you follow technology to any extent), it’s quite apparent that the ability to capture visuals continues to become more incredible; whether it’s 3D, HD, gigapixel stills, or panoramic video.

My first thought on this note is the View-Master (from the 60s!). This allowed you to view single images through a private viewing device, which has grown to now allowing private video viewing through transparent glasses (article and video)! On that note, similar glasses are able to record 720p video (article and video) while remaining incredibly discreet. Now that mobile devices can support 720p or 3D video recording, where else to go besides the full 1080p? Well, 360 degrees. On display at CES, there is an adapter for the iPhone for $80 that allows you to view and record video 360 degrees around (which puts to shame this ~~lousy~~ awesome, panoramic ball camera). Another amazing improvement, which has actually been around for a year or so now, is a light field camera that captures a photograph that can be focused later (there’s a fun example to play with at that link).

I hope that the interesting uses of these have yet to be discovered, and are not actually the technology itself, but instead come via the popularity of the devices and creativity of their users. Just imagine (not sure if it will ever actually be possible) what you could do with a light field of HD, 360-degree, 3D video. Mind. Blown.

Android Update Alliance?

December 16, 2011

hardin Android, Jon Hardin, Mobile Devices, Software Development, Technology Leave a comment

At Google IO 2011, a very important announcement was made: The Android Update Alliance was setup in order to insure that Android devices in circulation would not become subject to fragmentation, and that older devices would receive timely OS updates if their hardware allowed for it. The website Android Police had this to say about it in an article they published at the time:

This is huge. Like, massively huge. Probably the best thing to come out of Google I/O so far this morning huge. I’m talking about the Android Alliance and the solution to a problem that has plagued Android users since the beginning of time (okay, maybe not that long).

The Android Alliance is a special task force dedicated to delivering Android updates quickly and efficiently to all devices for 18 months after they’re released. Among the companies involved are Verizon, HTC, Samsung (imagine that), Sprint, Sony Ericsson, LG, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Motorola, and AT&T – which basically covers most of the Android world.

This is some of the best Android related news that we’ve heard in a while, as this is the solution to the biggest problem in Android: fragmentation. It seems like the top-notch, practical solution that we’ve all been waiting on. Instead of getting a tighter grip on Android and compromising its open nature, Google decided to join together with those responsible for releasing the needed updates. It’s a genius plan, and I’ve never been happier to be an Android user.

6 months or so into the process though, many outlets (such as Slashdot and PC Mag) are reporting that the process isn’t going nearly as well as advertised by Google. PC Magazine went and surveyed all of the Android device manufacturers and carriers in the US, and the results weren’t pretty:

Motorola: ”We are planning to upgrade Droid Razr Motorola Razr, Motorola Xoom (including Family Edition) and Droid Bionic by Motorola to Ice Cream Sandwich. As we add other devices to this list, we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop.” They ignored our specific question about the Photon 4G, the Atrix 2, the Droid 3, the Droid X2, and the Admiral, and our follow-up question that if not, how Motorola would reconcile this with the pledge it made back in May.

Samsung: ”After reviewing various factors such as system requirements, platform limitations, and partner-related issues, we will consider upgrading Galaxy devices to Ice Cream Sandwich. Specific upgrade plans will be communicated separately. Samsung will stay committed to responsibility for its customers as much as possible.” Our question about the Samsung Captivate Glide, the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, the Samsung Conquer 4G, and the Samsung Exhibit 4G was ignored, as was our follow-up question about the company keeping its Google I/O pledge.

Sprint: “Sprint will begin to rollout Google’s latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, to our customers in early 2012. Ice Cream Sandwich will be available via an over-the-air update to a variety of devices, including HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G and other key products in our line-up. Please stay tuned for more details and exact timing.” Our question about the Motorola Photon 4G, the LG Marquee, and the Samsung Conquer 4G was ignored, as was (you guessed it) our follow-up question about holding to the Google I/O pledge.

T-Mobile: We asked T-Mobile about the myTouch 4G, myTouch Q, LG DoublePlay, and Samsung Galaxy S II. “T-Mobile is coordinating with Google to deliver Android 4.0. While we don’t have any information to share regarding the devices you noted … we’ll let you know when we have more details to share,” a spokesperson said in response, but T-Mobile did not mention anything about Google I/O, either.

Verizon Wireless: A spokesperson confirmed two existing upgrade announcements for the HTC Rezound and the Droid RAZR, but couldn’t release any more information at this time. Our questions about the Samsung Stratosphere, the Motorola Droid 3, the LG Revolution, and the HTC Droid Incredible 2, and the Google I/O pledge in general all went unanswered.

This is somewhat discouraging for Android users, although it clearly hasn’t slowed down the sale of Android devices. What it means is that for developers, fragmentation continues to be (and likely will continue to be) a major problem. While Ice Cream Sandwich and Honeycomb have many awesome features such as hardware accelerated graphics, when designing an app you have to be prepared for it to be running on Gingerbread, or potentially even older devices. As developers, we at Hardin are particularly conscious of this, which is a unique challenge that we don’t face to nearly the same degree when developing apps for a lot of other platforms (iOS, for example).

Everybody Hates AT&T

December 7, 2011

hardin Jon Hardin, Mobile Devices, Quick News, Technology Leave a comment

A few weeks ago we posted a story about how before his death Steve Jobs was mulling over the idea of trying to create an Apple-controlled cell network independent of any of the carriers. Based on recent publications by Consumer Reports, it’s not hard to imagine why this might have been an attractive idea (beyond all of the additional profit Apple would have been able to keep):

Consumer Reports’ latest ratings survey of cell phone carriers revealed that Verizon Wireless scored the highest satisfaction score out of the four major U.S. service providers, earning particularly high grades for texting and data service. Verizon was followed closely by Sprint and T-Mobile USA, but all three companies earned scores lower overall than their figures from last year. AT&T was at the very bottom of the list for the second year in a row. While AT&T’s satisfaction score in 2011 wasn’t as bad as its score from 2010, the Dallas-based cell phone provider, which recently discontinued its bid to acquire its better rival T-Mobile, still ranked at the bottom of the pack. Last year, AT&T was the only carrier for the Apple iPhone, but still managed to receive the lowest scores.

It’s interesting that the two additional companies Apple chose to do business with after AT&T (who they only picked originally because they were able to negotiate the most favorable deal with them after AT&T essentially capitulated to all of their terms) were the two highest rated companies for network satisfaction.

An iPhone World Without Verizon or AT&T?

November 16, 2011

hardin Jon Hardin, Mobile Devices, Politics, Technology 1 Comment

According to John Stanton in an article on ITWorld referenced by Slashdot, Steve Jobs had plans to completely alter the landscape of mobile networks in the same way he conquered the music industry, by creating his own network that would use unlicensed spectrum rather than rely on mobile operators (i.e. Verizon and AT&T):

One of the more profound ways that the iPhone changed the mobile industry was the fact that it upended the relationship between the handset maker and the wireless carrier: Apple sells many of its phones directly to customers, and in general has much more of an upper hand with carriers than most phone manufacturers. But venture capitalist John Stanton, who was friends with Steve Jobs in the years when the iPhone was in development, said the Apple CEO’s initial vision was even more radical: he wanted Apple to build its own wireless network using unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum, thus bypassing the carriers altogether.

People often miss the fact that beyond completely revolutionizing the smartphone industry, the iPhone triggered a pretty profound shift in the balance of power between device manufacturers and networks:

Companies like Apple and Google, which develops Android, sell a variety of software and services that capture revenue streams that might have otherwise gone to the operators. [Stanton] advised operators to take some chances with new phones and services rather than invest too heavily in established offerings. Sprint, for instance, has been criticized for making a $15.5 billion four-year deal with Apple to sell the iPhone. U.S. Cellular, however, has revealed that it decided that it would not be a good investment to similarly take on the iPhone.

This shift in power has allowed Apple’s production and sale of the iPhone to be immensely profitable:

As the above charts show, the profit share of the iPhone far outweighs its actual market share, meaning that Apple is keeping a bigger piece of the pie than other manufacturers for the devices they sell. One can only imagine how profitable the iPhone would be if Steve Jobs’ vision had become true and Apple had been able to cut out the networks altogether.