In this episode of Device Squad, Steve and Glenn interview Bernard Desarnauts, Founder & Principal of Wristly, a Smartwatch User Research Firm, and discuss Apple Watch trends and user impressions, Apple's strategies for the Watch, UX and performance improvements in the new WatchOS and also spend more time than we planned to talking about the magic of Apple's watch bands. 

In this quickie episode of Device Squad, Propelics' strategists and PMs take you on a tour of Boston's TechJam conference. Enjoy the snarky commentary and the reviews of products and services that run the gamut from sublime to so lame. 

Hosted by Propelics Sr. Mobile Strategist & UX Architect Steven Brykman

Links from the Episode:

Amazon Robotics

Care.com

edX

Oomf

SmartSwapp

In this episode, we speak with Crimson Hexagon CTO Chris Bingham about the world of social media analytics. Or as Chris describes it, the "democratization of consumer insight." Crimson Hexagon helps brands utilize insights derived from social data to drive strategy across their organizations.

Chris and I discuss everything from how today's largest corporations are benefitting from analyzing social media to trends in manscaping and the rising popularity of Sherlock Holmes-o-erotic fan fiction.  

Hosted by Propelics Sr. Mobile Strategist & UX Architect Steven Brykman

Links from the episode:
Crimson Hexagon Website

This week, Propelics Mobile Strategist James Hoshor talks with us about what insurance companies are currently doing in mobile along with his assertion that many insurers need to rethink their existing UX strategies. 

This podcast also covers:

• How mobile is disrupting traditional user experience methods and engagement processes for agents and customers.
• What insurance companies are doing well—and not doing well—in mobile.
• Why every company needs a mobile strategy that includes a clear roadmap and an organizational plan to support mobile.
• The expanding role of social media in the insurance industry

Hosted by Propelics Sr. Mobile Strategist & UX Architect Steven Brykman

Links from the episode:

Bain & Company’s 2015 Global Digital Insurance Benchmarking Report

Tune in as two old college buddies, Neal Kaiser and Steve Brykman, reminisce about the scams they pulled in the glory days of the internet and discuss the 20-year evolution of Neal's eCommerce platform, Upshot Commerce.

As promised in the episode, here are links to some of Steve & Neal's earliest websites (circa 1995) in the Internet Archive: 

Make A Store (now Upshot Commerce): https://web.archive.org/web/19980207090739/http://make-a-store.com/

Joke City: https://web.archive.org/web/19961221003117/http://jokecity.com/

Joke City: Main eCommerce Menu: https://web.archive.org/web/19961108053338/http://jokecity.com/cgi-bin/jokecity/Shop/frontpage.pl

Feldheim Publishers: https://web.archive.org/web/19990922042915/http://www.feldheim.com/aa/index.shtml

Click the Wayback Machine timeline to follow the evolution of these early designs. 

In this episode of Device Squad—the Enterprise Mobility podcast

We'll also touch upon the expanding role Swift will play now

If your organization is thinking about taking the plunge into Enterprise Mobility, you won’t want to miss this podcast from Propelics Partner, Eric Carlson. He’ll cover the basics of Enterprise Mobility, including why it’s so important, and how it can streamline and simplify your business processes to save time and money and produce happier, more productive employees. 

If your business has yet to develop an Enterprise Mobile App, the question is: what’s holding you back? There is no downside! The initial investment is manageable and the benefits are huge.

“[Propelics] has truly improved the quality of life for our Field Leadership team. You have provided them with a tool that makes their job easier, improves communication, and lays the foundation to advance our team significantly farther and faster than ever before in our history.”— Josh Jewett, Family Dollar CIO

This is an update on our earlier podcast detailing the situation between Apple and the FBI.

As you’ll recall, Apple rejected a judge's order to help the FBI hack into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, calling the action "an overreach by the U.S. government.” The FBI had now dropped its case against Apple, claiming they were able to successfully break into the phone.

LA Times just reported Apple wants the FBI to reveal how they hacked into the San Bernadino phone but so far the FBI hasn't said how they did it or who they hired for help, though the consensus is it was the Israeli cybersecurity firm, Cellebrite. 

"One way or another, Apple needs to figure out the details," said Justin Olsson, product counsel at security software maker AVG Technologies. "The responsible thing for the government to do is privately disclose the vulnerability to Apple so they can continue hardening security on their devices.”

“There is very little debate that it is in everyone’s best interest that Apple find out about this vulnerability and everyone should be asking why that is not the case,” said Alex Rice, chief technology officer at San Francisco security company HackerOne.

Does Apple have a right to know how the FBI broke into the phone?

Tune-in and find out!

What's all the buzz these days in the world of Agile software development? It's Scaled Scrum! In this conversation with Propelics Project Manager Scott Abate we discuss the basics of Enterprise Mobile App Development practices, compare Agile and Waterfall software development approaches, and answer the following questions:

How does scaled Scrum apply to mobile app development?

What is Scrum, and what does it mean to scale Scrum?

How does a company go about scaling Scrum?

Why is scaling Scrum suddenly so important?

What are the differences between each version of Scrum?

What's the next big thing in Agile software development?

Despite all that Propelics is doing to deliver gorgeous, intuitive Enterprise Mobile experiences, the fact remains: for the most part, Enterprise UI/UX is still struggling to match the sophistication of B2C mobile interfaces.

Why is this still the case when flat design and native controls already give designers such a large head start?

Propelics Design Lead, Andres Reaza has some answers. Tune in and find out!