In case you haven’t been keeping an eye on HuffPost Tech recently, they have been doing a series of posts about Women in Tech.

In a recent post they highlighted several Women in Tech that readers should be following on Twitter.  And one of the featured women … our very own head of Marketing, Chia-Lin Simmons.

If following on Twitter isn’t enough, you can also check out the On Digital Media podcast she hosts with three of her technology/marketing geek friends.  Look for  it in the Manage Stations section.

-Ryan

People all over America took the day off today to gather in the morning hours at local bars and pubs and watch Team USA in the World Cup Semis.

Not us … we take our jobs very seriously.  (As you can see.)  If you approach your work with similar levels of seriousness, you may want to check out our jobs page.

Working Hard

Our new home (page)

If you have been with us for a long time you remember that our original app was named Aha Mobile.

That was also the name for the company, as well as the URL for the website.

Unfortunately, when we changed the name to Aha Radio we didn’t own the AhaRadio.com domain, and a long overdue website overhaul had to wait.

Well, I’m extremely excited to announce that the wait is over.

Say hello to our new website … www.aharadio.com!

You can also update your bookmarks, because the blog is available at www.aharadio.com/blog.

Take a look around the new digs, and let us know what you think.

-Ryan

My favorite poster in the office

As I’ve posted before, our new office has been something of a work in progress.  We had furniture, and a boatload of fun tech gadgets, but something was missing…and that something was personality.

Our walls were white and naked.  Our window sills were unadorned with miscellaneous crap stuff.  Well that’s not the case anymore.

With much help from our lead visual designer, we now have an eclectic mix of artwork that mostly follows an automotive theme.

By far my favorite addition to the office is a poster featuring Wolverine and Nightcrawler from a recent issue of X-Men.  What makes this my favorite?  The fact that they are listening to one This American Life!

In fact, there is a part of me that likes to believe that they are listening on a Pioneer head unit, with full Aha Radio integration.

Below are a couple more shots from around the office.  It’s hard to find a better pop culture automobile for my generation than the Back to the Future DeLorean.

Keeping an automotive theme

Moving onto the office I share with said visual designer.  You can see the X-Men poster just to the left of my seat (so I can enjoy it).  As well as my Star Wars banner (I said “mostly automotive”), some Star Wars themed Mr. Potato Heads, and some South Park characters.  And believe it or not…we use that pencil.

X-Men poster, Star Wars banner, and even some toys

We also needed a table for behind the couch, so we got a little creative.

Custom surfboard table by Bill Boothby of Cambria, CA.

-Ryan

Picture Day!

You all remember those special picture days from your childhood.  All dressed up in the clothes you don’t usually wear.  Showing up with a check and an order form that inexplicably calls for hundreds of wallet sized copies of your mugshot.  Such good times.

Well, most of us don’t get a chance to relive that experience very often.  The same can’t be said for our exec team, who had the distinct pleasure of waking up early to come in and take their executive headshots.

The fancy pics will be available when we relaunch are website (stay tuned for that).  But in the meantime, here are some fun, and only mildly embarrassing pics, of some of our fearless leaders.  And just so no one accuses me of exploiting this opportunity, I’ve included the only “picture day” image of myself that I had available.

Airbrushing the face

And it’s not just about having your make-up just right (as done by Maria from www.pmastyle.com) … it’s also about how you carry yourself.

No, this is how to stand "casual"

And don’t forget…if you are hoping to relive your childhood photo experiences, you may want to check out our JOBS page.  If things work out we may someday need a headshot of you!

-Ryan

I’ve told you all about this snazzy new office we have, but believe it or not we still have some seats to fill.  We are looking for people in a lot of areas, and even if you don’t see a listing that fits, feel free to send your resume along.

Basically, if you are a rockstar, superstar, ninja, or whatever the kids are calling it these days, check out our jobs page and send along your information along.

And if ping-pong, big speakers, fresh espresso, video games, and all the other trappings don’t float your boat … you can at least be confident you can get away with wearing ridiculous shoes like mine and hardly anyone will notice.

-Ryan

As we reported recently, the new Aha Radio / Harman office is really coming along.  Lots of great new desks and furniture, a special “conference room” table, and even a phone booth.

But all of that pales in comparison to our latest addition… the home theater!  Harman was kind enough to send along a new harman/kardon reciever, a blu-ray player, and a rocking set of JBL speakers (with a monster sub woofer to rock the downstairs neighbors).

All of this combines with our new display to create the ultimate viewing environment for (see after the jump)…

Read more…

We got a box! But what's in the box?

It never fails.  Whenever an unknown package arrives, and there is any kind of question about what’s inside, I lose control of my mouth and begin to manically shout, “what’s in the box?  WHAT’S IN THE BOX?!?!?  WHAT’S IN THE BOOOOOOOOX!!!”

Sometimes people recognize it from Seven.  Other times they kind of remember it, but aren’t sure from where.  Still other times people look at me like I’m a total nut.  Today, sadly, it was mostly the latter two.

But that won’t dampen my spirits over what was actually in the box.  It was a new an Aha Radio integrated Pioneer head unit, with Aha prominently featured on the packaging!

It's on the box

Granted we’ve had t-shirts with our logo and name on them, but there’s something decidedly different about seeing your logos on a box like this.

If you’d like to see a demo of the Pioneer head unit in action (with Aha) you can check out this video from CES.

Enjoy the weekend (I have a feeling we will!)

-Ryan

Back when Harman acquired us in September we were still taking up space at our VC offices, but within a few weeks they had staked out a place for us on University Ave. in downtown Palo Alto.

Not only is the location great (overlooks University and is a short walk from the train) but it also has some history.   Just about 11 years ago, back when I first started working for the newly merged PayPal/X.com, the companies actually occupied two University addresses.

The original PayPal office resided at the now famous 165 University, which boasts Logitech and Google among its past occupants.  X.com was located just a few blocks east, on the corner of University and Waverley  I was among a handful of employees who remained on University, in the X.com office, after the merger.

I guess when you have nice, windowed, offices overlooking a bustling downtown corner, you don’t give that up very easily.  Eventually we joined the rest of the team at an office complex nearby, but always remembered 394 University fondly.

Overlooking the corner of University & Waverley

So you can imagine it was a nice surprise when I learned that the office we were going to move into was the very same office I worked in a decade earlier.  And unlike before, when the office was gutted by all the moves to the new office, things were clean and sparkly when we moved in.

Harman provided the stereo

Still have seats to fill

Boothy greets visitors

The only problem was that we needed time to get the place furnished. Well I’m excited to report that the time has passed and we are now fully furnished, and even have a few seats to fill.

And of course, we can’t forget Boothy, who you may recall joined the team in January.

Stay tuned for more updates from the new office.  And be sure to visit our other pages to stay up on all things Aha Radio!

• twitter.com/AhaRadio
• facebook.com/Aha.Mobile (soon to be facebook.com/AhaRadio)
• GetSatisfaction.com/AhaRadio

-Ryan

Aha Radio Team

In case you missed it … Robert chatted with Ryan Sperling of bnet.TV at CES.

Robert breaks down the basics, and also demos our integration with the Pioneer AVIC-X930BT and AVIC-Z130BT navigation head units.