We’ve heard of maintaining with the Joneses, but it is getting ridiculous. First it was Verizon , then Vodafone , and now Ma Bell — with an assist from Ericsson — has built an innovation center in Silicon Valley. This new center completes the triumvirate of AT&T Foundry facilities (any other two are in Texas and Israel), and is part of the company’s option to accelerate the method of developing and delivering new products to its customers. Rapidly, there are over 100 projects in development in Palo Alto, and AT&T is calling to feature more. Those who find themselves chosen gain access to AT&T’s networks and expertise with the intention that new projects play nice with all the company’s gear, and it’s already produced a number of things that were on display on the center’s grand opening. Need a sneak peek at what’s in AT&T’s innovation pipeline? Read on past the break to get it.
The heart is concentrated on innovation and providing developers with tools to supply new apps and services, so it’s no surprise that we saw about a projects squarely aimed toward accomplishing either one of those goals. This sort of is the brand new developer API Platform, currently in beta, that seeks to make it simple and straightforward to develop new HTML 5 apps. As part of AT&T’s developer program, the platform streamlines the method for buying access to the API library, including those for app development, payments, and in-app ads.
Another project, called mHealth, provides APIs to access medical and wellness data in order that app developers can create more comprehensive personal health applications. These APIs have each of the necessary security layers inbuilt making sure that sensitive info can only be accessed in a sense that the tip user wants (and that federal law requires). It essentially gives plug and play access to all the back end infrastructure had to pull data both from devices just like the 0 Fitbit 0 or 1 Zeo 1 and out of your medical records. That way, developers can give you creative how you can use the info and make it easier than ever to get an entire picture of your current physical well-being.
While many of the projects available were app-oriented, we got some hands-on time with a nifty gadget named Ringbow. The Ringbow is (surprise, surprise) a hoop that clamps for your index finger to supply an extra approach to input commands to a touchscreen device via Bluetooth. In its current iteration, the gadget has a small nubbin d-pad that’s operated by your thumb to offer direct access to menus and other functions depending upon the app. We got a temporary demo of the hoop in action, and came away fairly impressed. It’s lightweight, and we will see its secondary input functionality being put to good use in both games and productivity applications. Obviously, we only saw prototypes that were tethered to an external power source — though company CEO Efrat Barit said to expect 5 hours of battery life when it goes into production — and it is also considering replacing the control nub with an optical pad or trackball. There isn’t a word on when it’ll hit the market, however the plan is for it to work with any and all touchscreen devices, and the Foundry aims to make that happen.
We also got to peer some new U-Verse apps in action, including social TV platform Miso (which helps you to share what show you’re watching via check-ins or on Facebook and Twitter), and an AT&T Radio app that permits you to push whatever you’re being attentive to for your phone on your TV. Moreover, there has been a finger-painting app (for adding a sweet ‘stache in your favorite talking heads, we presume), and an application that allows you to flick Facebook videos out of your handset onto your flatscreen. All in all, AT&T’s fresh new Foundry showed off a lot of promising projects, all that’s left is to show that promise into production.
Dozens of collaborative innovation projects currently underway as Palo Alto joins locations in Texas and Israel to expand AT&T Foundry constellation
PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — What happens should you open the network to developers from worldwide with new tools and services, establish a collaborative infrastructure by which dedicated project teams have direct access to decision makers which can quickly make the precise connections and open a brand new facility within the heart of Silicon Valley that’s directly associated with innovators the world over?
You get increased velocity and a broader range of innovation, with new apps and services 3x faster.
That is what AT&T* has done with its AT&T Foundry innovation centers, including the latest center, which opened today in Palo Alto, Calif. AT&T Foundries are fast-paced and collaborative environments where AT&T and technology providers team with developers to deliver the newest applications and services to customers more quickly than ever before.
“AT&T’s option to the innovation center concept is exclusive for the industry,” said Jim Goetz, general partner with Sequoia Capital. “Their strategy embraces how development gets done within the Valley. AT&T understands where it brings value to collaborations and the way they could help others innovate in new tips on how to bring new ideas to market quickly.”
The AT&T Foundry is one a part of AT&T’s overall innovation strategy that aims to accelerate technology development by collaborating with third party developers, venture capitalists and technology providers – sometimes by taking lead on a project, other times by contributing expertise, connections and resources to assist developers bring an concept to reality.
“The AT&T Foundry is a core portion of our innovation strategy,” said AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan. “This is not a technology showroom or testing facility. It is a place where real innovation is going on at an unprecedented pace with the intention to bring new products and services to our customers in a fragment of the time.”
“In here, we’re collaborating to open up our network with tools and know-how in order that developers can more quickly add new capabilities to their apps,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “We’re also developing ecosystems and platforms which include mHealth to aid drive further innovation and supply new wireless experiences for our customers.”
The teams on the AT&T Foundry search for the right way to speed ideas to market by identifying and eliminating common inefficiencies or bringing the appropriate people together to deliver access to new technologies. One project currently in development specializes in how you can eliminate developer frustration with the big variety of economic and technical relationships required to create applications. The team is collaborating on an idea that opens the network to developers through services akin to messaging, location, payments and advertising accessible via HTML5. The result’s significantly reduced complexity in order that developers can more quickly build cool new apps.
“AT&T has the resources and the vision to make real innovation happen,” said Michael Mullany, CEO of Sencha, which collaborated with AT&T to develop the HTML5 interface on the AT&T Foundry. “Together, we’re working to produce developers with the tools and access to network services that help them bring new ideas to reality in months in place of years. That suggests AT&T customers could have the most recent and greatest apps at record speed.”
The Palo Alto center, sponsored by Ericsson, is the third permanent AT&T Foundry facility to open worldwide, adding to a world network that comes with facilities sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent and Amdocs in Plano, Texas, and Ra’anana, Israel, respectively. The brand new location will join two temporary facilities inside the Bay Area where collaborative projects are already underway, many on display during today’s opening day festivities.
“AT&T and Ericsson are working to remodel the manner telecommunications companies develop concepts so as to form tomorrow’s networked society,” said Hakan Eriksson, Ericsson Group Chief Technology Officer and President of Ericsson Silicon Valley. “AT&T is actively engaged with us to mix local insights with global ecosystems to assist entrepreneurs bring innovative ideas to market as quickly as possible.”
Projects are funneled to the AT&T Foundry in different ways:
Fast Pitch, or “speed date” reviews, where companies or developers meet with key AT&T decision makers to judge projects or technologies. AT&T is on target to carry 400 of the short-pitch sessions in locations around the globe this year.
The Innovation Pipeline (TIP), AT&T’s crowd-sourcing idea-generating platform, where greater than 100,000 employees gather to share ideas and collaborate on bringing new services and products to market.
AT&T Labs, with 135 years of history in innovation and technology breakthroughs, which gives the place to begin for most AT&T Foundry projects. A lot of the organization’s 1,200 researchers also provide expertise to projects currently underway.
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