The votes are in, and it’s official … Aha has won the 2012 CTIA E-Tech award for Social, Media & Entertainment Mobile Application.  And not to get all “humblebrag” on you, but coming away with an award like this with competition from the likes of Disney, Washington Post, and even Team COCO, is a really weird experience.

It would have been nice to bring home a 2nd award, but as they always say … it was an honor just being nominated (and much easier to accept seeing as how we won one anyway!).  You can read more about it here.

-Ryan

CTIA E-Tech Finalist

Like LeBron said, “Not one, not two, not three.”  OK, well actually it is two.  Aha is up for TWO awards this year in the CTIA E-Tech awards.

What does CTIA stand for, you ask?  That is an excellent question (I asked the same thing).  And it may surprise you that no one seems to know for sure.  But that doesn’t matter.  CTIA is a wireless association representing a wide variety of interests on behalf of the international wireless telecommunications industry (thank you Wikipedia).  We don’t care if they use an acronym that isn’t really an acronym.  WE WANT TO WIN THIS!

Here are the categories (with links to voting):

• Mobile Applications: Automotive, Safe Driving & Transportation
• Mobile Applications: Social, Content, Media & Entertainment

Be sure to vote in each category, because we want to win NOT ONE…

-Ryan

In celebration of the Hindu spring festival many of us around the office took part in the main custom associated with Holi … the application of colored powders

Aha gets down with Holi

Santa is rocking out

It seems amazing, but it’s been a full year since we Harman snapped us up and moved us to our new digs in downtown Palo Alto.

With all the dust settling last year (and since we were without furniture) we didn’t even have a chance to deck the halls.

Fortunately we had plenty of time this year, and our efforts have compelled an early visit from jolly old St. Nick.

After stopping by the Starbucks downstairs, the old guy swung through to show us the headphones he’s been rocking in his sleigh.

We’re still waiting to see if we get any visitors for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Soyal, Winter Solstice, or Yule.

At the very least I’m hoping we can scare up a Festivus Pole by Friday (fingers crossed).

Happy holidays from the Aha Team!

-Ryan

If you’ve been looking for a chance to WORK IT on something new, different, and exciting, you should take a look at our jobs page.  We’ve been growing, but still have some positions to fill.

And if you need a reminder on some of the reasons you might want to work here (besides the whole reinventing the way people consume media), here’s a list:

• Employees get a PHAT discount on a wide variety of Harman products (that includes JBL, Infinity, & AKG)
• We run a Mac shop, so your computer won’t be lame
• Every employee gets to program a mix station for the Aha Community
• Competitive salaries
• 401K matching
• Well stocked kitchen with breakfast, snacks, and drinks
• Health, vision, dental, and life insurance
• Generous PTO and Vacation days

While in town for the event, Robert (our Aha GM, and the fearless leader mentioned above) also participated in a digital town meeting focused on the the emerging Connected Lifestyle.

There are a lot of interesting things covered during the session.  Definitely worth a look!

-Ryan

Max explaining his strategy for serving in Ping-Pong

And the timing couldn’t have been better.  Not only had I recently finished setting up the SoundBar and PS3, but our design guru was able to put some additional touches on some of the office decor that he had put up over the last few months.

Not only that, but the blu-ray set of Star Wars came in a couple weeks ago, and my LEGO Hoth Playset arrived with just enough time to assemble.

All in all it was quite a successful day.

-Ryan

Snack time

Time goes by so fast.  It seems like only yesterday (ok, a month ago) that we welcomed the very first Aha interns to our world.

Alas, school had to go and start again.  That means that Emily and Kyra are en route to the great Pacific Northwest (especially lovely this time of year) to return to the wonderful world of academia.

And since Friday’s before three day weekends are notoriously vacant days around most offices, we opted for a Thursday Sundae Bar Day (try saying that 10 times fast).

Mmmmmm

Thanks again to Emily and Kyra for all the great help!

-Ryan

But something was still missing.  We needed MORE electronics devices and more speakers.  Fortunately Harman came through with the SB 16 wireless SoundBar.

Which is a fantastic add because the speaker and woofer are wireless and don’t take up a lot of space.  That is something that is critically important for our music or motion based games, like Guitar Hero.

Taking a break for some RAMMSTEIN! Me (Ryan) on guitar, with Viktor on the skins.

It is also important to make sure we have plenty of space around the “Conference Table”, seeing as how we are in the middle of a very important, rotating, double-elimination, set of 1:1 “meetings” called King Pong.

Don’t forget, we are hiring!

Have a good weekend,

Ryan

Say hello to Emily and Kyra.  They will be here for another couple weeks helping us out with a few important projects.  And while I can assure you that isn’t code for “fetching Starbucks”, I can’t go into much more detail.

Emily and Kyra

Emily comes to us from University of Portland, and is currently leaning toward Secondary Education and History.  When not in class there is a good chance she could be found reading Harry Potter.

Kyra is in town from Western Washington University, where she is currently a Biology major who splits her free time between dancing and being obsessed with Disney stuff.

Stay tuned and I will try to shed more light on what exactly they are working on.

-Ryan