Greetings from CES in Las Vegas! The Aha team is busy making headlines and having fun demoing our first Aha integration in a Subaru BRZ. Here’s a link to the press release we issued this morning announcing that Aha will be in Subaru and Honda vehicles beginning in model year 2013.
Also, Kenwood will integrate Aha into its products joining Pioneer in the automotive aftermarket head unit category. Aha’s content selection on the Aha platform will soon expand to tens of thousands of stations thanks to partnerships we just announced with with CBS Radio, MOG, Rhapsody, Slacker, AOL Shoutcast and many others. We’ll also launch new apps for iPhone and Android soon.
We’ve come a long way since last year’s CES show, and are excited to be able to share all this news. There is lots of great stuff underway that we can’t talk about yet, so look forward to more news this spring. This week, we’ll be here in Vegas hanging out in a cool new BRZ and showing everyone what the future of connected infotainment looks like.
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
Our fearless leader was in Nashville recently for a special Harman event. Partners, customers, stakeholders, and staff gathered in Tennessee to get a peek, or even test out, some of the latest and greatest that Harman has to offer.
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!
Ever find yourself at a loss trying to succinctly explain what it is we do to a friend? Or do you simply want to get a glimpse of the where we are going with the platform? Check out this great video.
Find that video, and all of our other recent videos, on our YouTube channel at youtube.com/aharadio.
Since we first launched for iOS devices there have been Android users asking when they were going to be shown some love.
We acknowledged that we have been hard at work on an Android version as well, but with all of the work on the automotive front it has taken a while.
Then many of you noticed in the recent Slacker announcement that the screenshot of our app not only showed a massive redesign … but it was on an Android device!
So now I can happily say that while there is no official release date for our Android version (yet) we are looking for some enthusiastic Android users to round out our upcoming beta.
If you are interested, please send an email to beta@aharadio.com with the following details:
I’ve always been under the impression that an office isn’t really an office until the supreme overlords from corporate have paid a visit. So I’m happy to say that our office is now official … thanks to this week’s visit from several members of the Harman exec staff.
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.
It has been a pretty busy week. Last Thursday we announced a partnership with Slacker to bring their personalized radio service into cars via Aha (check out the coverage here).
This week we’ve been demoing Aha in Harman’s booth at the biannual Frankfurt Auto Show. We’ve been showing some of our upcoming content, including Slacker, radio stations, hundreds of new podcasts, and audio books, accessing them through a new Ferrari radio.
Harman, Aha (background), and Ferrari look good together
The show itself is amazing, dwarfing all other auto shows in size. BMW has one entire hall to itself with an elevated roadway built around the top of their booth with cars driving on it. Most car companies are showing at least one all electric or hybrid concept car and there are lots of very cool designs.
The first two days on Tuesday and Wednesday were only open to the press and exhibitors and Tuesday especially seemed to be the day that senior executives from the auto industry made the rounds. If was an amazing opportunity to demonstrate Aha to chairmen, heads of purchasing, top infotainment execs, and other senior people from major car companies world-wide.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on the news the last day you have probably seen that we have ourselves a new content partner … Slacker Personal Radio!
Later this year, Aha users will be able to access Slacker content from within Aha, and in doing so connect that content to a variety of different stereo interfaces.
So if you are keeping score at home, that’s Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Inrix Traffic, podcasts, and now Slacker Internet Radio. We are getting dangerously close to something for everyone.
There has been a flood of coverage over the last day, and if you are interested in reviewing any of them I urge you to check out our Twitter feed (where we’ve been on quite a tweet spree).
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!
