Our Latest Launch - Calmacryingbaby.org

Today we launched an important informational site for Children's Hospital Colorado. Calmacryingbaby.org addresses the issue of  Shaken Baby Syndrome, serving as a prevention resource for parents and caregivers giving them the tools they need to stay cool and calm a crying baby without resorting to shaking. Shaken Baby Syndrome is a real problem, and this site aims to solve it. Click here to learn more.

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Favorite iPad App

One of the most common questions I get is "Matt, what are your favorite iPad apps?" This is a very difficult question to answer for a few reasons. The primary reason is the personal nature of the iPad. It's really meant to be a one man device. Unlike most modern day operating systems, the iOS was really not built for multi-user support. There is no way to setup multiple users that can access the device via unique logins which access unique profiles. The other reason is the personal nature of the apps I use. I tend to favor nerdier apps, apps that allow me to do my job, source code managers, remote desktop apps, file management apps, which most of the people who ask me would find no use for. That said, I think I can point to a single app that any iPad user will fund useful. AppStart for iPad is kind of like a guided tour of not only the iPad, but the world of tablet computing. It includes a ton of app recommendations for all sorts of purposes. It also explains how to do everything from printing to shopping to file management. All of the content is packaged in a very clean, user friendly, tablet-centric, touch interface. It even recommends The AppAdvice App if you seek more iPad app knowledge. Check it out!

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Our Latest Launch - WaterPik Showers

I'm excited to announce our latest digital product launch - WaterPik Showers. This is the second to last piece in a year long overhaul of Waterpik.com. Following the navigation and architecture developed through previous portions of the project, the WaterPik showers site is right at home in it's new setting. There is nothing like an invigorating shower in the morning, and this new launch really brings that notion to life. Check it out!

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Future of Gaming Arrives - OSN Shows Madden 12

The future of gaming is finally here! The Onion Sports Network gives us a glimpse into what EA has been developing for Madden 12.


  Onion SportsDome

One of my life dreams was to be in the NFL. Looks like I finally can live that dream, without getting the nice paycheck...

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The Problems with Application Development for Facebook

Over the last year we have really dug our heels into the world of Facebook application development. Like so much of the internet, it it very much a wild west in Facebook land. As everyone knows, Facebook often changes layouts, formats, designs, and functions without much warning. In the early days of Facebook one of my favorite functions was your personal friend timeline. When you added a friend you also indicated the time and context in which you befriended that person (in real life). Based on that data a timeline of your life was generated that showed your life's timeline and the people you met along the way. I loved this feature, and one day a few years ago, it was gone. Bummer. Facebook's most recent change is to a new layout for fan pages. We have an application running that we are scrambling to test and modify, and that's just the problem. Facebook really does not have a real development environment. Sure, they have a sandbox mode for developers, but we need more than that. Typically we have 3 environments in our workflow, dev, staging, and production. The absence of a staging environment can be a real challenge, especially when reviewing an iteration with a client while the application is still in development. Boo. Top all that off with poor and out of date documentation, and you have a mostly unfavorable development workflow. My last gripe is with platform stability. While Facebook does not suffer from the prevalence of the fail whale like Twitter (will they every get it right), their are often bugs and quirks with the platform that are beyond a developers controls. When an issue arises I absolutely hate telling someone "it's a Facebook problem, we are waiting for them to fix it." In the middle of a lengthy campaign last week the Facebook Page Insights went haywire, and the data became inaccurate. There was nothing we could do. Mark Zuckerberg, if you are listening, HELP!

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Waston ties for first round of Jeopardy

Watson, the IBM super-computer designed to "understand the complexities of human language," had its debut on Jeopardy tonight facing off against the show's most successful players: Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. Thankfully, James Cameron's judgment day will have to wait a few more years, as Watson proved itself quite fallible; and although its answers were at times uncannily fast and accurate; it didn't seem quite devious enough to be planning a nuclear holocaust. Three more rounds will happen the next few nights. Now if only Darrell Hammond would show up as Sean Connery, this could turn into an epic event.

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