Girls In Tech

Anyone that is a “gadget-freak” like me knows that the HTC EVO is one of the most talked about smart phones of 2011.

Finally, a touchscreen phone I am proud to call the iPhone killer. That’s right, I said it (and I’ve waited so long for this moment too!).

The EVO comes with 7 home screens, an 8 megapixel camera, HDMI output, live video sharing with a front-facing camera, visual voicemail, a kickstand for hands-free and tabletop viewing, 4.3 inch screen, 4G speeds, and so much more.

But what really makes the user-experience that much better are the apps!

With that said, here are my top 5 favorite apps for the HTC EVO.

1. Tasker

This app automates your entire phone! Here are some things you can do: launch a music application when you plug in your headphones, send an automated text to someone when you’re 15 minutes away from picking them up, or set a schedule to disable certain features on your phone to conserve battery power at night.

For more info:
http://tasker.dinglisch.net

2. CamCard

For those of you who do a lot of IRL networking, this app is for you! Whenever someone gives you a business card, simply take a photograph of it with CamCard. The app scans and detects the information on the card and adds it to your phone’s address book.

For more info:
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-intsig-bizcardreader-ptBx.aspx

3. Vlingo

For a safer and less distracting driving experience, use Vlingo. Use voice commands to operate your phone. Compose text messages and emails. Use Vlingo to read incoming messages (email and SMS) while driving or get directions while keeping your hands on the wheel.

For more info:
http://www.vlingo.com

4. Lookout

People often forget that a smart phone’s operating system needs anti-virus and security just like our PCs do. Use this app to stop viruses, malware, and spyware. The Lookout app also provides a backup solution so all of your data can be safe in the cloud. And finally, Lookout will help you find your phone when stolen or misplaced by pinpointing it on a Google Map. You can activate a loud alarm to locate your phone when it’s nearby…even if it is in silent mode.

For more info:
http://www.mylookout.com/m/android

5. Caller ID Faker

For us Girls in Tech that just wanna have fun, Caller ID Faker is a must-have app. Use this app to make crank calls from any phone number, change your voice, and record the call so you can proudly review your work and share it with your friends.

For more info:
http://calleridfaker.com

6. AND A BONUS FOR YOU SUPER GEEKS!!!

This isn’t an app, but I thought I’d mention this item on Amazon.com for serious EVO users that may want TWO extra longer life batteries and a wall travel dock + USB charger on the cheap! Never plug your phone in to charge again.

Link:
http://www.amazon.com/Sprint-Battery-Charger-Verizon-Incredible/dp/B003XOUM12/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=wireless&qid=1288266335&sr=8-2-spell

Have something you’d like to share about the HTC EVO? Please leave a comment below and tell us about it.

Dimple Thakkar
Owner & Impresario of SYNHERGY ENTERTAINMENT
www.synhergyentertainment.com
@dimplethakkar
@synhergyent

Tags: 4g, Android, applications, apps, Droid, evo, gadget, Gadgets, htc, iphone, killer, mobile, phone, screen, smart, smartphone, sprint, touch
Posted in All Chapters, Los Angeles | No Comments »

Had a brief discussion with Marko to learn more about open source and android for Java developers at OSCON yesterday.

Android for Java Developers is an action-packed, hands-on presentation that takes you through the anatomy of an Android application. The sample application includes most major Android building blocks (Activities, Intents, Services, Broadcast Receivers, Content Providers) to illustrate the philosophy of Android application development. It assumes basic Java knowledge.

Tell me more about Marko and your company, Marakana

Marko is creator of Marakana Android Training series. He has taught Android to over 1,000 developers at companies such as Motorola, Sony-Ericsson, Qualcomm, Ericsson Canada, Cisco, Sharp, Texas Instruments, DoD and many others. Marko is a co-founder of San Francisco Android Users Group and regularly teaches Android Bootcamp at Marakana.

Marko founded Marakana in 2001 to help underprivileged youth, minorities, and inner-city kids learn web technologies and get ahead in life. So Marakana emerged with goal of helping people get better at what they do professionally, focused on open source software training.

Marakana founded and continue to run a few user groups such The San Francisco Java User Group, The San Francisco Agile User Group and The San Francisco Android User Group. It’s a community organized user groups.

How’s your session today?

I’ve taught Android class last year at San jose and only 10 people attended. Today we’ve had over 120! So much love in Portland. So great!!

What can we expect from your session?  Any take away for the attendees?

If you know java, then android is pretty straight forward. Learn it and use it. Mobile is where the action now. We are in the early stage but there is so much opportunity.

Open source is ubiquitous. It’s been the same since back then; but how the technology is being applied constantly changing. Also leverage our video tutorials under community; it is such a great resources http://marakana.com/forums/android/general/ and http://marakana.com/forums/android/examples/

Which sessions/keynote speakers you are most interested in?

I’m planning to see some tomorrow and also to relax! Looking forward to seeing some of the keynote speakers. Follow Marko @marakana or go to http://marakana.com/ to learn more

Be sure to join Girls in Tech Portland Chapter at OSCON 2010 this year at Portland Oregon. Register today and receive special discount by being a Girls in Tech member.

OSCON takes place July 19-23, 2010 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon.

Register now and save 15%. Use discount code os10pgit when registering at: http://www.oscon.com/oscon2010

For More info for our local Portland chapter, go to our facebook page. If you are interested in being a guest speaker and/or panelist for our workshops and lectures, pls feel free to drop me an email: ivo@girlsintech.net

tweet @marakana @mssonicflare @oscon @24notion @gitweet

#oscon #portland #opensource

Tags: 24notion, Android, Developers, girlsintech portland, gitpdx, ivo, ivolukas, marakana, marko, mobile, mobile apps, open source, oregon, Portland, programmers, tech, technology, women in tech
Posted in All Chapters, Portland | 1 Comment »

Technovation Challenge Spring 2010

The Girls in Tech Mentorship Program recently launched its Technovation Challenge Spring 2010 in partnership with Iridiscent. The Technovation Challenge is an eight-week program that brings together teams of high-schoolers and pairs them with mentors who are female professionals in technology & entrepreneurship.

The students and mentors work together in teams to learn programming using App Inventor for Android (TM), a new language developed by Google. Each team creates a mobile app and writes a business plan for their app. Concepts in entrepreneurship are explored through lectures and hands-on exercises on topics such as product and UI design, marketing, finance, and presentation and public speaking.

As one of the mentors for this program, I got to meet some amazing women from different backgrounds.  At the mentor orientation we went through some fun and eye opening exercises where we were given programming and business concepts and asked to explain it in lay person terms. We also brainstormed ideas to provide high level topics around which the students can develop their applications. Once I met the  high school students, I was blown away by their intellect and commitment to the program.  Over the last 4 weeks, we have had amazing speakers like Bill Trenchard who is an Entrepreneurship coach, Johanna Werther of AdMob, Theresa Stevens & Forest Glick of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP). What an amazing opportunity to be able to meet and be mentored by such luminaries while still in High School!

The event will culminate in a final competition, or “Pitch Night,” where teams will demo their prototypes and present their business plans to venture capitalists (VCs) with expertise in evaluating novel ideas and technologies, for a chance to win exciting prizes. The evening will feature keynote speaker Diane Greene, founder of VMware, along with reknowned VCs and entrepreneurs, Katherine Barr, Theresia Gouw Ranzetta, and Adeo Ressi, as our Pitch Night Judges.

Come join us on April 22 and meet these amazing young women, their mentors and experience the world of young entrepreneurship. Get your tickets to this much awaited event today!

Technovation Challenge Spring 2010

Tags: Android, Google, mentorship
Posted in Events, GIT Mentorship | 1 Comment »

What we planned to do: publicize an event to girls in Silicon Valley, an iPhone app store competition in which they, grouped into teams, were to design and storyboard a brand new iPhone app.  They would have to think through a quick and dirty business plan and pitch it in 60 seconds. And the winners would take home brand new iPod Touches!

We hoped that by hosting a fun, enticing, and engaging competition, we could show the participating girls that careers in engineering and science weren’t limited to the stereotypical images of pocker protectors and protractors we see on TV.

What we did do: exactly that, and more.

As I walked around the room while the girls and their mentors were chattering excitedly about their ideas, I knew we had done it– we had clusters of girls at each table from all different schools in Silicon Valley, including a group of girls who traveled to Cupertino all the way from San Francisco that had already completed high school but were now participating in a program which prepares them for particular trades that require a certification program or two year degree. Everybody was talking to each other freely, shooting off ideas with confidence and finesse. Nobody cared that the tables were mixed up with girls of different ages (14-17) or that they hadn’t ever met before. Likewise they were interacting with each mentor with enthusiasm and respect. These mentors were women who had technical and engineering backgrounds who worked at Apple, Virgin America, and Admob and volunteered their time as resources for the inspiration and guidance of this group of girls during the competition. And everyone had a blast!

The feedback from the post-event survey was wonderfully positive. The girls said things like:

“I learned that there is a lot more to engineering than sitting behind a computer and [that] science and math really help.” “”I thought the mentors were cool and had a lot of variety of careers and I learned that a positive team-work attitude was cool.” “I learned that engineering is an option for girls and that I wouldn’t be alone.”

Ultimately, the winning app, titled “Stop, Shop and Go!” had most of the elements of a real iPhone app people clamor to use on a daily basis– the melding of geographic data, coupon codes, and (duh!) a shopping guide. All of the apps that were dreamt up that day were feasible– now if we could only create them all! The presentations, while limited to 60 seconds, were vivid, engaging, amusing, and fearless. These girls rocked it.

I would say, without hesitation, that the Girls in Tech mentorshorship debut was a resounding success. I would also say, this raises the bar so high on what’s still to come!

In the spring, we’re taking the involvement to a whole new level. We are partnering with Iridescent again to put on the Technovation Challenge 2010! This time, it won’t be one evening, but several months of teamwork, leadership, and engineering. The girls will learn, with the guidance of professional women in the tech industry, how to design and program cool mobile apps using App Inventor for Android, a new programming language developed by Google. Once created, these apps will be presented to a real team of venture capitalists for prizes, feedback, and the chance to be recruited into summer internships at some of the coolest local startups. Don’t you wish you were still in high school?

We can’t make this level of awesomeness happen, however, without help. If you are a female professional in the Silicon  Valley area, I hope that you will think about joining us for our program in February.  We will be working with the students twice a week for 8 weeks (Tuesdays and Thursdays 5pm – 7pm beginning on February 23rd).  The girls and their mentors (looking at you!…hopefully) will work in teams to learn how to program mobile apps for Android and they will develop working prototypes.  The teams will also get coaching from VCs and entrepreneurs on writing a business plan for their app ideas.  We are building an exciting team of VCs, entrepreneurs, and speakers that will focus on teaching various parts of the program, so it promises to be a great learning experience for students and mentors alike.  If you have ever done any kind of programming before or are interested in learning how to program in this new language, the girls would greatly benefit from working with you, so please consider joining.

We even had a fellow GIT pro photographer hook it up! Thanks Elizabeth McGinnis!

One of the things that we learned from our experience on Friday is that it works much better to have two mentors per team, since mentors often have other commitments and may have to step out from time to time.  So if you’re interested in mentoring in the Spring, but are not sure if you can make it to every meeting, let us know and we can either pair you up with another mentor or you can sign up with a friend!

Thanks E McG for capturing these ladies' true essence!

Girls in Tech and Iridescent made something really cool happen for a group of enthusiastic girls this past Friday. We want to do it again, on a much bigger and hopefully even more impacting scale. Will you help us?

Tags: Android, app development, app inventor for android, apple, business pitch challenge, business plan competition, challenge, competition, engineering, Girls in Tech Silicon Valley, Google, high school girls, iridescent, mentorship, pitch competition, Silicon Valley, STEM subjects, venture capital, women in technology
Posted in Girls In Tech | 5 Comments »

We are all familiar with Research in Motion’s Blackberry smart phones and Apple’s iPhone. Apple, this past summer, released the new version of their iPhone, lowering the price, running on the fast 3G wireless network, and being available in two colors – black or white. Coming up for RIM is their Blackberry Bold and Storm. From what I have seen for both the Bold and Storm is, the Bold is a dynamically revamped version of the Curve and the Storm is a direct competitor for the iPhone in terms of aesthetics and functionality. However, that’s not all the smart phone market has to offer…

Welcome T-Mobile’s G1 phone running on Google’s new software called Android. The phone is going to debut on October 22nd, priced at $180 with a two-year contract. 

The Android software’s functionality is very similar to the iPhone’s, but certainly not as attractive. What it offers is an open applications store, a Menu button with similar functionality like right-clicking a computer mouse. You can Share and Rotate a photo you’ve just taken, Delete and Archive an email you are working on, and Mute or Hold while on a call. There’s also voice dialing, picture messaging, and built-in audio recording. However, there’s no visual voice mail, no iPod department for syncing the phone and it’s quite cumbersome. I think for the die-hard Google fans, this is the phone for them or if you have been a Sidekick user, you will also enjoy this phone’s functionality. 

I have been a Blackberry user for many years. I absolutely love the iPhone and use my husband’s all the time, except I am not a fan of the touch-screen ‘keyboard’. I am not sure what is going to be my next phone. Probably leaning towards to the Blackberry Bold over the G1, i just hope the Internet functions more like the iPhone’s . All-in-all, the smart phone war is not ending anytime soon, nor should it. The iPhone has really raised the bar for what is possible with a smart phone and all the other companies are playing catch up. Which smart phone is for you?

Here is a video from phonedog.com with HTC’s Eric giving a hands-on tour of the G1 - The T-Mobile G1

Tags: Android, apple, blackberry, Bold, Curve, G1, iphone, RIM, smartphone, software, Storm, tmobile, touchscreen
Posted in Los Angeles, San Francisco | 1 Comment »