Entry 5/17

Our engineers have finished strong and made some nice polishing touches that make our app look like a gem. There are some features that the engineers still want to add, but all the functionality that we asked for have been built. The navigation and buttons look very slick and the app performs well and is easy to use.

During our meeting we were able to decided who is going to present what aspects of the app. We were able to go over what we are going to cover and ask the engineers any questions we had.

I am excited to see all the progress that we have made. The app has evolved much overtime and has turned into something that is more amazing then I could have imagined. Our engineers have done some amazing work and they have blown me away by what they can do. Our group is looking forward to presenting our app tomorrow and showing off all the work our engineers have done.

5/10

This week we discussed the final touches we wanted our engineers to make. Since most of the design decisions were made a while back we spent most of our time going over a few key features that we and our engineers thought could benefit from tweaking.

Since we all had things happen later on campus we spent most of our meeting socializing. This was a nice break from all the tech talk. Also, it was fun to learn more about the people behind the code.

The programmers also showed us some of the code that they have written and explained what it meant. The code looks intimidating but our engineers did a good job of explaining what all the different letters and symbols mean.

One aspect of our app that impresses me the most is the map app. I really like visually being able to see where trails app. To me this is a key feature of the application and is also fun. I am excited that soon we will be able to demonstrate our app to the rest of the company.

Week of May 5

The finish line is closing in and iHike still has work to do. This week our programmers did not have anything significant to show us, so we are waiting till Monday to see what progress they have made. In class on Tuesday we talked with our head programmer. We showed him the home-screen art that I created. He told us that right now they are using filler artwork but that replacing that with what we create would be easy.

Talking about artwork we still have not finished a design for our loading screen. Andrew had an innovative idea about animating a line across the screen that would form Mt. Tam. This idea resonated with me as someone who spent over a decade in Marin County. Although I have some experience using flash I am more comfortable with Keynote and in the new version there is an option for creating simple animation. So I am going to experiment with that and see if I can create something that our programmers could then use.

Although our app has grown from a simple idea to a well executed design there will still be more steps if we want to make this an app that could be approved by Apple. Andrew mentioned copy right issues with the photos for the home-screen. Since some of the images are from Flickr getting permission for those photos would probably be easy. Other photos, such as the Gold Gate bridge may be more difficult, although in this instance I could either use photos I already have, take new photos, or better yet talk with a photographer I know from the Star newspaper at Sonoma State.

Overall I feel that our group has put a strong effort together and I am happy with the progress we have made so far. I appreciate that most of the time our entire group shows up to the meetings and I am really pleased with all the work Lindsey has put in. She has been great in facilitating communication between iHike and the programmers by creating a Facebook discussion that everyone has access to. We used this tool to gather all of our trail info for our programmers and continue to use this as our communication platform, since everyone can see all the messages in the thread.

4/27/10

This week we had another productive meeting with our programers. The latest update the programmers demoed to us was the map feature. They will use Google Maps and the user will be able to search within a predetermined radius, for instance 50 miles. The trails will appear as pins. When the user taps a pin they will get more information, like the trail name and rating. Then they will be able to get directions to the trail based on their current location.

The map feature will allow us to give users a visual representation of the trails. The map will be the most interactive part of iHike, so this is very exciting. We have also defined what the homepage will look like. We have decided that we will keep the homepage simple by putting an image in the background that will change every 30 seconds. Besides the image we will have the navigation at the bottom of the screen with a search bar at the top.

Even though there are just a few weeks in the semester left we feel that our app is coming along nicely. The features are coming together and soon we will have the trail information in the app. Seeing the evolution is a fun and rewarding experience.

Group Meeting 4/19

Tonight we met with our group of computer science students. They demoed a prototype version of Marin Hike that included the navigation and some fake trails with filler photos. This week we will gather all the trail information, for our programmers, so they can start building a database. We also discussed and finalized our features, so the computer science people can move forward with the interface. This week we are working on developing artwork for the loading screen and finalizing our homepage.

Clearly our programmers are very talented and organized. The prototype they demoed for us though basic was polished and clean. They also are very good communicators, especially in terms of bring the technical talk to our level.

For the trail information our plan is to go to the rec center and get data such as distance, location, description, and trail name.

iPad, to buy or not to buy?

By now everyone probably has talked about or heard a conversation about the iPad. Despite the horrible name the iPad is actually a pretty innovative product, but that does not mean that everyone should rush out and buy one. Though the iPad certainly does a lot well Apple did not create the perfect tablet. One of the biggest omissions is flash support, though according to Mr. Jobs Adobe is lazy and anyways HTML5 will be the new web standard for video, at least that’s the message Apple delivered. But there are other issues with the iPad as well, despite Apple's criticism of netbooks the iPad is not the best productivity tool. There is no physical keyboard, you can buy a keyboard accessory from Apple for $69, or stick with the 85% virtual keyboard. Of course the iPad runs Apple’s mobile version of OS X, the same as the iPhone OS, and therefore third party apps have to go through the same review process as iPhone apps. Currently there is no office app for the iPad so productivity users will need to rely on iWorks. Of the two iWork apps, each is $10, my favorite is Keynote, and theoretically this could work well for doing presentations on the go.

So would I recommend purchasing an iPad, maybe. Really, the iPad is primarily an entertainment device that just happens to do email, web surfing, and even lets you read books, interestingly Amazon has released a Kindle app for the iPad. So, if you want one device that fits all, music player, web browser, email, and eBook reader then the iPad is probably a good choice. If you need something for composing long emails, taking notes, editing a Power Point presentation, or you want to play Farmville then you should probably stick with a netbook, like the HP mini 311 or something from ASUS. One more thing, if Apple slashed the price to $299, then I’d go out and buy one, sadly Apple wants us to shell out $500.

Politics

As a communication student I take interest in watch and reading political news. A key skill for any politician is the ability to communicate with the media whether in print, online, onscreen, or on air. Though “Convergence Culture” did not discuss Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, this would be a good example of how to effectively use convergence media. Not only did Obama rely heavily on grassroots organizers, he also utilized the power of mainstream media. He used social networking to communicate with younger voters and did television interviews for older ones. As “Convergence Media” pointed out the downfall of Howard Dean was his misunderstanding of the power of mainstream media outlets. I agree with the book that mainstream media still has much power in our society. For instance television still sets the agenda for politics and it is also the media that many people trust. Another element of news networks is repeated material that also reinforces messages, so getting a clip in the news can provide many free hours of free advertising.