John:
John posts a video where he and Gavin explain how Wind Up Robots is about to go prime time on Ultrabooks in a new football strategy game iteration. Read More ›

Andreas:
Andreas is excited to start work on his HTML5 vocabulary trainer program, utilizing the Ultrabook to convert it to a touch-enabled Win8 app. Read More ›

Chris Maunder
While Chris is impressed with Week 1, he'd like to remind contestants that mind games, electrified touchpads, and Easter eggs in code would really spice things up. No Comic Sans, though, please. Read More ›

Jon Rettinger (TechnoBuffalo)
Jon is geeking out about the possibilities of Ultrabook feature integration, and is looking forward to what each contestant can bring to the table. Read More ›

John:
We get to see a touch screen build as John gives us our first taste of robot vs. monster gameplay. Read More ›

Andreas:
Push notifications give Andreas just a bit of trouble, but he makes great progress on a functional UI. Read More ›

Chris Maunder
Chris sees two themes in this week's progress: easily discoverable app UIs and messy samples for Windows 8 sensor support. He likes how contestants are handling project challenges. Read More ›

Jon Rettinger (TechnoBuffalo)
The thrill of seeing new technology and what can be done with it is Jon's take on the contest this week. He's looking forward to what each contestant can accomplish with their apps. Read More ›

George & Suresh:
Intel Smart Connect integration, advanced touch behaviors, and a beta preview of Moneybag with Ultrabook features from George and Suresh this week. Read More ›

John:
John's video updates technical details such as platform, monetization, and the use of Unity 3D 4.0 as part of the Wind Up Football development process. Read More ›

Andreas:
A brief stint of incompatibility between Visual Studio and Windows Live Apps challenged Andreas this week as he made his vocab app even more user-friendly. Read More ›

Chris Maunder
Chris reminds contestants that the focus needs to be on the platform and not on the app, showcasing the features of an Ultrabook running the newest version of Windows. Read More ›

Jon Rettinger (TechnoBuffalo)
Jon is enjoying how challengers are taking on coding obstacles and solving complex problems. He also really likes the video updates, and encourages all contestants to consider more multimedia. Read More ›

George & Suresh:
George and Suresh share a new app website, a new Moneybag demo video, and Ultrabook development ebook this week. They also worked on API integration and fine-tuning the Ultrabook's touch features. Read More ›

John:
John reports that the features list for Wind Up Football is complete. The Soma team remains focused on touch, performance, and graphics, and discussed how to optimize touch for consumers. Read More ›

Andreas:
Andreas gives us a step by step look at how the vocabulary training within his app will look like from the user's view. He plans on adding a few enhancements, i.e., a word card game, that would add to the overall learning experience. Read More ›

Chris Maunder
Chris notes that contestants are well into the "let's impress the judges" phase. He's got his eye on three developers for the ultimate winner, but the title is still up for grabs. Read More ›

Jon Rettinger (TechnoBuffalo)
Jon is impressed with Blue Innovations' beta release, but wonders if Althea's tilt feature will go over well with consumers. He likes how Soma has completed their features list, and is interested to see how Lee and Shailesh will continue refining their apps. Read More ›

George & Suresh:
Refreshed and recharged from time spent with fellow developers at IDF, George and Suresh refine NFC for their MoneyBag app. Read More ›

John:
The Soma team discusses the true nature of Ultrabooks, coming up with innovative features built on top of Ultrabook sensor capabilities. Read More ›

Andreas:
Andreas improved the interface for his vocab trainer, streamlining space and giving users the ability to delete folders.Read More ›

Chris Maunder
Chris admires the stamina and organization the contestants have shown thus far. All apps are in their final stages, but he encourages developers to push just a little further. Read More ›

Jon Rettinger (TechnoBuffalo)
Jon likes how teams have incorporated NFC technology into their apps, especially in regards to innovative user interaction. He's having a hard time picking a favorite (good news for contestants!) Read More ›

George & Suresh:
George and Suresh share NFC integration, packaging, distribution, licensing, auto updates, data flow, and a download of their MoneyBag app. They're also launching a new Ultrabook development site. Read More ›

John:
The Soma team give a quick video overview of the challenges faced in the contest, and how their Wind Up Football app met them head on. They are happy with how the app turned out and look forward to shipping next week.Read More ›

Andreas:
Andreas added a fun memorization card game to his vocab trainer app this week, along with a user-friendly semantic zoom feature. He also gives a brief review of the HTML5 to Windows 8 UI conversion process. Read More ›

Chris Maunder
Chris is ready to tear apart the developers' submissions, metaphorically. He goes through his tests of all apps with thoughtful opinions on the pros and cons of each one, ending with congratulations to contestants for their hard work. Read More ›

Jon Rettinger (TechnoBuffalo)
Jon likes Lee's creating of an entire WinRT engine in six weeks, Shufflr's use of various Ultrabook sensor integration, and Soma Games' Wind Up Football conceptual computing features. He's going to have a hard time picking a winner. Read More ›

George & Suresh
George and Suresh are on a mission to create simple, practical, affordable and engaging apps that help people in their daily lives. This team shares Black Belt developer status for the Intel Software Network and has won three developer challenges and the 2011 “Most Valuable Developers” award for Intel AppUp. Using their artistic and development skills, George and Suresh are compelling people to use their apps every day.

John

John is Director of Communications for Soma Games and Code-Monkeys. Committed to pushing the bounds of gaming through great visual experiences, Soma creates entertaining, captivating games with the mythos of effective storytelling. The company enjoys Black Belt developer status for the Intel Software Network, and John and his team have developed a roster of popular titles for iOS, Intel AppUp and Kindle Fire.

Andreas

Andreas has many talents including software consultant, project manager, developer and author of the end-user products at AB-Tools.com. He has published a number of apps in several languages in the Intel AppUp center, including over 25 Windows and 2 MeeGo apps in English, German, and Polish. He is a leader in the software development community and a speaker at developer events such as Mobile Monday DevDay and the European Software Conference in London. Andreas has Black Belt developer status for the Intel Software Network.

Lee Bamber

Location: United Kingdom
Company: The Game Creators
Website: TheGameCreators.com

Lee's Updates

Week 6
Lee gives us an extensive video demo of his completed Love Hearts app. He also goes over sharing integration, monetization, various driver issues, and a list of all Ultrabook features integrated into the app (it's a long list!). Read More ›

Week 5
Lee enjoyed his time at IDF demoing Love Hearts, having integrated even more Ultrabook features. Finishing touches on graphics and monetization are next on the list. Read More ›

Week 4
Lee gives us plenty of video updates, including a demo of Ultrabook's NFC.He's accomplished quite a bit this week, implementing new graphics, more DirectX,and AGK WinRT sensor features.Read More ›

Week 3
Lee gives us a series of inside tips on building WinRT static libraries and pre-compiling shaders. He also shows us a "day in the life" of an Ultimate Coder developer via time-lapse video.Read More ›

Week 2
Lee gives us a sneak peek at the inner workings of his Love App. Oh, and he's also decided to write his own OpenGL library in DirectX 11. Crazy? We'll see. Read More ›

Week 1
Lee introduces us to his "Love Hearts" app and explains how he is initially working to develop it as the ultimate Ultrabook app. Read More ›

Project

Lee is building an app from scratch for a UK confectionery company that sells a well-known brand of candy called Love Hearts. The sweets are popular with young female teens and working women, so the app will appeal to those demographics with daily prizes, including games, extra messaging features and ideas for what to send loved ones. Lee and the TGC team will create the app using AGK, their proprietary development framework. To engage female Ultrabook buyers, TGC plans to add Ultrabook features to the PC-version of AGK so it will perform far better than other standard apps.

Background

With a passion for game development and a desire to streamline the process, Lee Bamber developed a set of tools and technologies that simplify common, but complex, coding tasks. The self-made programmer and Intel Software Network Black Belt developer built his company and community known as The Game Creators (TGC) around these tools to help make developing great games easier and more accessible.

Technology

App Game Kit (AGK) is a game development technology developed by The Game Creators that allows developers to write apps once and then compile and package those apps for multiple devices, including handhelds, tablets, and PCs.

John Bergquist

Location: Portland, OR, US
Company: Soma Games
Website: SomaGames

John's Updates

Week 6
The Soma team give a quick video overview of the challenges faced in the contest, and how their Wind Up Football app met them head on. They are happy with how the app turned out and look forward to shipping next week. Read More ›

Week 5
The Soma team discusses the true nature of Ultrabooks, coming up with innovative features built on top of Ultrabook sensor capabilities. Read More ›

Week 4
John reports that the features list for Wind Up Football is complete. The Soma team remains focused on touch, performance, and graphics, and discussed how to optimize touch for consumers. Read More ›

Week 3
John's video updates technical details such as platform, monetization, and the use of Unity 3D 4.0 as part of the Wind Up Football development process. Read More ›

Week 2
We get to see a touch screen build as John gives us our first taste of robot vs. monster gameplay. Read More ›

Week 1
John posts a video where he and Gavin explain how Wind Up Robots is about to go prime time on Ultrabooks in a new football strategy game iteration. Read More ›

Project

John will be parallel developing the company's Wind Up Football game to make use of Ultrabook™ touch and sensor features, advanced graphics and enhanced performance. This fun game sees the robots of Wind Up Robots fame taking a break to play mash-em, crash-em football. The last robot standing wins.

Background

John is Director of Communications for Soma Games and Code-Monkeys. Committed to pushing the bounds of gaming through great visual experiences, Soma creates entertaining, captivating games with the mythos of effective storytelling. The company enjoys Black Belt developer status for the Intel Software Network, and John and his team have developed a roster of popular titles for iOS, Intel AppUp and Kindle Fire.

Technology

John and his team use cross platform technologies such as Unity and HTML5 to develop their apps and games.

George & Suresh

Location:United Kingdom
Company: Blue Innovations
Website: Blue Innovations

George & Suresh's Updates

Week 6
George and Suresh share NFC integration, packaging, distribution, licensing, auto updates, data flow, and a download of their MoneyBag app. They're also launching a new Ultrabook development site. Read More ›

Week 5
Refreshed and recharged from time spent with fellow developers at IDF, George and Suresh refine NFC for their MoneyBag app. Read More ›

Week 4
George and Suresh share a new app website, a new Moneybag demo video, and Ultrabook development ebook this week. They also worked on API integration and fine-tuning the Ultrabook's touch features. Read More ›

Week 3
Intel Smart Connect integration, advanced touch behaviors, and a beta preview of Moneybag with Ultrabook features from George and Suresh this week. Read More ›

Week 2
George and Suresh share a quick video of their design evolution, different code challenges, and give us a demo preview of their app. Read More ›

Week 1
With over 30 design concepts already under their belts, George and Suresh are starting to finalize Ultrabook features for their money management app. Read More ›

Project

George and Suresh will be porting their existing app, MoneyBag, a successful money manager app for notebooks. They will optimize the app to leverage the features of Ultrabooks like ISCT, touch and sensor capabilities, graphics, and others.

Background

George and Suresh are on a mission to create simple, practical, affordable and engaging apps that help people in their daily lives. This team shares Black Belt developer status for the Intel Software Network and has won three developer challenges and the 2011 “Most Valuable Developers” award for Intel AppUp. Using their artistic and development skills, George and Suresh are compelling people to use their apps every day.

Technology

George and Suresh are cross platform developers. They use Adobe technologies to create Flex and AIR applications, Objective-C to develop native applications, and HTML5, as well.

Sagar

Location: US & India
Company: Shufflr
Website: shufflr.tv

Sagar's Updates

Week 6
Sagar and team perfect the Always On Always Connected (AOAC) feature in their Shufflr app, making it possible for video updates even in sleep mode. Read More ›

Week 5
Sagar and team implemented geo-location to Shufflr, giving users locally relevant videos. They also integrated more multi-touch gestures into their app. Read More ›

Week 4
Another "Mission Impossible"-style adventure for Sagar's team this week, as well as advances in tilt navigation, accelerometer integration, multi-touch, and Windows 8 RTM app compatibility. Read More ›

Week 3
Screen brightness, NFC sensors, and integrating the Ultrabook's accelerometer sensor into Shufflr kept Sagar very busy this week. Read More ›

Week 2
Sagar and team switch to Plan B as they encounter their first real problem: getting Metro App and WinRT to play nice. Read More ›

Week 1
Shades of Mission Impossible this week as Sagar unboxed his new toy. He's looking forward to developing a Shufflr app for the Ultrabook. Read More ›

Project

The folks at Shufflr will design and optimize their popular social video discovery app, to take advantage of touch features and the powerful processing available on the Ultrabook™ platform.

Background

Sagar knows that one day he will make his billions, go off on a solo climb to his high-altitude Himalayan cave to craft a 42-complication tourbillon by hand, while listening to Indian music and smooth Jazz - at the same time. But, when will he complete that master key to Hopcroft & Ullman's thriller?

As co-founder and vice president of engineering at Althea Systems, Sagar believes that exquisite attention to both form and function allows great products to be built. This approach has led the company to combine the latest technology, the brave, new social Web, and good old common sense to simplify online video discovery and consumption across multiple screens.

Technology

Althea Systems leverages cross platform development solutions, such as Ruby on Rails, Flash and Adobe AIR, as well as native C++ and Objective C development languages.

Shailesh

Location: US & India
Company: Clef Software
Website: ClefSoftware.com

Shailesh's Updates

Week 6
Shailesh reports that both the Windows 8 and AppUp versions of BioIQ are ready to submit. He also shares a video demo of the biology app highlighting a few of the standout Ultrabook features, and shares a coding snippet for the live tile feature. Read More ›

Week 5
The AppUp version of BioIQ has been created, and preparation for submitting the app to the Windows app store has started. Read More ›

Week 4
Monetization, performance testing, and certification validation were on the table for Shailesh and his BioIQ app this week. Read More ›

Week 3
Shailesh explored his local storage options this week for his BioIQ app, weighing the pros and cons of both SQLite and IndexedDB. Read More ›

Week 2
Metro UX challenges such as screen orientation, touch interface, and screen scaling are what Shailesh worked through this week. Read More ›

Week 1
Shailesh is working on making biology more user-friendly (i.e., easier to learn!) by integrating the Ultrabook's touch capabilities into his app. Read More ›

Project

Clef Software will be porting and optimizing BioIQ to take full advantage of the touch and processing capabilities of the Ultrabook™ platform. This interactive Biology picture game helps students learn biology, review knowledge and have fun while exploring the anatomy of plant and animal cells, the human body, and much more.

Background

Shailesh believes that much of what we learn comes indirectly—from head-fakes. He created Clef Software to bring this idea to life through mobile games. The company currently targets the high school segment with its interactive ChemIQ and BioIQ games that let students have fun while learning about science.

You’ll find Shailesh wearing many hats at Clef: app developer, consultant, advisor, product manager. To all these responsibilities, he brings a wealth of knowledge from his work at companies like Yahoo!, Quark and MitoKen, a Motorola start-up.

Technology

Clef Software develops apps and games using cross platform technologies such as Corona and HTML5.

Andreas

Location: Germany
Company: Independent Developer
Website: Ab-Softcon.net

Andreas' Updates

Week 6
Andreas added a fun memorization card game to his vocab trainer app this week, along with a user-friendly semantic zoom feature. He also gives a brief review of the HTML5 to Windows 8 UI conversion process. Read More ›

Week 5
Andreas improved the interface for his vocab trainer, streamlining space and giving users the ability to delete folders. Read More ›

Week 4
Andreas gives us a step by step look at how the vocabulary training within his app will look like from the user's view. He plans on adding a few enhancements, i.e., a word card game, that would add to the overall learning experience. Read More ›

Week 3
A brief stint of incompatibility between Visual Studio and Windows Live Apps challenged Andreas this week as he made his vocab app even more user-friendly. Read More ›

Week 2
Push notifications give Andreas just a bit of trouble, but he makes great progress on a functional UI. Read More ›

Week 1
Andreas is excited to start work on his HTML5 vocabulary trainer program, utilizing the Ultrabook to convert it to a touch-enabled Win8 app. Read More ›

Project

Andreas is working on an app for vocabulary training. It was developed in HTML5 with JavaScript/CSS3. During the Challenge, he will convert it to a Windows 8 Metro style app and optimize for touch to make it compelling for Ultrabook™ devices.

Background

Andreas has many talents including software consultant, project manager, developer and author of the end-user products at AB-Tools.com. He has published a number of apps in several languages in the Intel AppUp center, including over 25 Windows and 2 MeeGo apps in English, German, and Polish. He is a leader in the software development community and a speaker at developer events such as Mobile Monday DevDay and the European Software Conference in London. Andreas has Black Belt developer status for the Intel Software Network.

Technology

Andreas is a skilled Windows developer focused primarily in .NET/C#. More recently he has been developing HTML5-based apps.

Steve "Chippy" Paine

Location: Germany
Company: Carrypad/UltrabookNews
Website: Ultrabooknews.com

About Steve

Carrypad owner Steve "Chippy" Paine is a full-time researcher and editor for Ultrabooknews, Carrypad and UMPCPortal. Following an Internet career, he now explores the ins-and-outs of thin, light and powerful laptops. His active, in-depth reviews are frequently done in front of a live audience, making Ultrabooknews one of the best online Ultrabook™ buyer's guides.

Steve is not paid to blog for Intel. Content and opinions from Steve, linked from this site, are his own. However it should be noted Steve's website does contain Intel sponsored ads and Steve has been sponsored by Intel to attend industry events.

Chris Maunder

Location: US
Company: Code Project
Website: CodeProject.com

About Chris

Chris is the Australian co-founder, administrator, and chief editor of the Code Project, an active community where developers exchange ideas and keep up with the latest technologies to help with day-to-day programming. Chris has been programming in various languages since 1988 and is a global Microsoft Visual C++ MVP.

Chris is not paid to blog for Intel. Content and opinions from Chris, linked from this site, are his own. However it should be noted Chris's website does contain Intel sponsored ads and Chris has been sponsored by Intel to attend industry events.

Helena Stone

Location: US
Company: ChipChick
Website: ChipChick.com

About Helena

Editor in Chief of ChipChick, Helena holds a Master’s in Digital Imaging and Design from New York University. Launched in 2004, ChipChick was one of the first sites to focus on technology trends for women. It has since been recognized as one of the top 25 most influential female voices on the Web.

Helena is not paid to blog for Intel. Content and opinions from Helena, linked from this site, are her own. However it should be noted Helena's website does contain Intel sponsored ads and Helena has been sponsored by Intel to attend industry events.

Jon Rettinger

Location: US
Company: TechnoBuffalo
Website: TechnoBuffalo.com

About Jon

Jon Rettinger founded TechnoBuffalo to help people experience technology through editorial commentary, descriptive ‘how -to’ guides, strong opinions and immersive video. Created by a team of professional writers and self-proclaimed tech-enthusiasts, the site offers fresh, valuable content.

Jon is the voice behind TechnoBuffalo’s Inside the Herd “What’s Up Everyone” videos.

Jon is not paid to blog for Intel. Content and opinions from Jon, linked from this site, are his own. However it should be noted Jon's website does contain Intel sponsored ads and Jon has been sponsored by Intel to attend industry events.