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.
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!
Sometimes you just have to let your colors show, and we did just that today.
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
More details to come, but I’m here to confirm that the rumors ARE TRUE! Aha is now available on Android devices. Along with the recent major update to our iOS app, we are debuting the new design and functionality for Android.
A dramatic redesign, featured content, internet radio, music services, audiobooks, and even more podcasts. All available on your smartphone from a single, simple, interface.
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.
We may be hard at work on the major overhaul that will come with versions 1.0 for Android and 2.0 for iOS (as glimpsed in this recent screenshot), but that doesn’t mean we can’t make some changes here and there for the existing iOS users.
The most important update is for anyone out there who is connecting to a compatible Pioneer system. Some of you out there have reported repeated pause issues when playing Aha content on Pioneer, and as it turns out it stems from a Pioneer bug with iOS5.
We were able to work with Pioneer to find a workaround and incorporate a tweak to our code that prevented them from having to release a full fledged head unit update … and that tweak went out with today’s update. That won’t fix the Pioneer bug for all interaction with Apple apps, but it should fix it for Aha.
The other changes won’t be as noticeable, as they involve optimization for a variety of iOS5 things. So for big whizbang excitement you will need to wait for the massive overhaul that is “coming soon”.
So get that phone out and make sure you check for updates! And of course enjoy the holiday weekend!
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.
