Fast Track to the Mobile App winners had the 'best case scenario' track: get their apps developed, tested and in the Marketplace by early February in time for promotion before (and hopefully during the) Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. However, sometimes life throws wrenches in the best-laid plans. In this installment, we continue reporting on the next steps of the app development process, implementation and testing, and check-in on our winners—both those who are developing apps themselves and those working with Microsoft developers.

To be on track for Barcelona, a contestant's next step is implementing the app's core functionality. For each app, that will differ. Geof Harries and Michael Johnson's cash flow management app, Cash Hound, requires financial functionality so they programmed the ability to add, edit and delete income and expenses in order to run calculations to determine spendable income. They then created charting tools to visualize that knowledge. With that functionality in place, they tested the app to see what worked, and in light of that, what needed improvement.

The testing phase can only take place on a workable prototype (discussed in our last article). Implementing the aspects that make the app functional mean dealing with the real-life problems that may arise. The time for theoretical conjecture is over: at this stage, developers are considering specifically the "hows" and "whats" to best bring the app's concept to life. Pratik Kothari's Social Mints tracks what's being said about a chosen topic of interest (e.g. your company, a celebrity, a sports team, etc.) by fetching data from social media sites. Kothari focused on the core functionality of the app's responsiveness by improving the sluggishness he initially encountered. He reworked the architecture so a filtered set of results would now fetch from a cloud component, making the initial download of information smaller and faster. Cacheing mechanisms were applied so when multiple users searched for the same topic (aka 'Mint'), quick response times would be maintained.

Testing makes any necessary modifications to the interface more obvious based on the app's actual use. Visual elements that don't fully serve core functionality will be adjusted so they do. Then, more testing, testing, and still more testing. This may mean removing or adding data to test how the app behaves in every imaginable circumstance, and finding and fixing bugs. It's in this phase that an app developer sees the last holes in the app's construction and patches them up.

After seeing Samsung's Smart Window, the car-minded among you probably thought the technology would be cool on a windshield (though it would undoubtedly lead to some cars wrapped around trees). To see what a similar concept would look like in an automotive application, check out the "Windows of Opportunity" conceptual project, done in collaboration between General Motors' Human-Machine Interface Group and grad students at Israel's Bezalel Academy of Art and Design:

Gracing the Art Skybridge at the Eugene Lang College of The New School is the interactive light and sound installation Artfix Mori, a collaboration between visiting artists Jason Krugman a kinetic light sculptor and media artist John Ensor Parker.

The Bombyx Mori is a species of silkworm valued for its production of silk. This silkworm produces a rare form of silk material that is harvested by being boiled while the insect is still in its cocoon. The harvested silk is then used in production of everything from touch screens to hydrogels. These cocoons are made up of silk string that can span up to a mile wide when unravelled.

Spanning the curved corridor is a series of branches lit with LED lights tipped by the delicate silk cocoons of the Bombyx Mori. The branches are mechanical actuators that convert electricity into movement. Emanating light from the cocoons' emptied interiors, the branches of light bend and sway in response to the proximity of a passerby, creating a gentle clicking sound from the motors powering the system. Underlying the installation space is the warm drone of a sound piece designed from recording the wings of a hatched Bombyx Mori larva that would have emerged from its cocoon, playing back the lifespan of a Bombyx Mori at a frequency audible to humans.

Earlier today, video sharing site Vimeo announced that they will be rolling out features of the "new Vimeo," their first site redesign since 2007, with a private testing period in anticipation of a public launch in several weeks. As sometime users of the site, we're fans of Vimeo's clean interface and they've retained their overall aesthetic with a host (a "zillion," per their announcement) of minor tweaks; the biggest update to the actual viewing experience is a double-size full-width video player.

Similarly, they've reaffirmed their commitment to high-quality user-generated content with new privacy features, a batch uploader, and even "a new section that enables users to browse videos that are subject to Creative Commons licenses." Additional search filters—"by relevancy, length, credits, copyright license," etc.—and streamlined social features—"following," in keeping with current trends—also represent user experience improvements.

Nevertheless, the most significant upgrades are largely technical:

Vimeo rebuilt the site from the ground up using current programming languages and open web standards to deliver optimized site performance and easier, faster browsing. The cleaner codebase allows for more rapid development so the team can release site updates and new features in less time.

There aren't many short automatic rifles. The recoil and muzzle rise of automatic fire makes anything under 16" in length inaccurate and impractical. However, the Swiss-based Kriss Systems has developed technology to compensate for the kickback of automatic fire, creating a short, light, and usable firearm named the Vector. Capable of shooting 1200 rounds/minute, the gun translates the horizontal energy of the recoil into vertical energy. To see the mechanism behind what Kriss is calling "The Most Significant Advance in Weapons Operating Systems in More Than 120 Years," check out the video after the jump.

Whether you play Angry Birds, Infinity Blade or Scrabble, the one thing our smartphone games have in common is that they're all virtual; everything takes place on screen and in your mind. But now a Colorado-based robotics company called Orbotix has added a physical element to phone games, going way back to play basics: An actual ball.

It's no ordinary ball, of course. The Sphero is a self-propelled orb that you control via your phone or tablet, using your choice of interfaces depending on what game you're playing with it: A real-time driving app that lets you play pilot via tilting or button tapping, a "Draw N' Drive" app that has the ball follow a course you scribe on-screen with your finger, and a golf-like app that lets you "flick" the ball with on-screen gestures. Another cool thing is that you can change the color of your Sphero via on-screen commands, allowing you to differentiate yours with others you're competing against.

Hit the jump for video:

As our British readership may already know, this past Sunday marked the completion of Helen Skelton's 500-mile journey to the South Pole. But this wasn't just a run-of-the-mill visit to the bottom of the world: Skelton made the record- (and precendent-) setting trip for BBC's Sport Relief 2012 fundraising initiative in 18 days, two days under her projected goal. Accompanied only by "Norwegian explorer Niklas Norman, a small BBC team and a logistics crew," the 28-year-old British television personality and adventure sports enthusiast reached the South Pole at 11:40 AM on January 22, after two and a half weeks of travel by kite ski, snow bicycle and cross-country ski.

Skelton is best known the host of Blue Peter, (the world's longest children's television show, according to Wikipedia), though lately she's been garnering recognition for more extreme exploits: she's been known to run ultramarathons (she completed a 78-miler just under the 24-hour limit) and she kayaked the 2,000-mile length of the Amazon for Sport Relief 2010. The latter effort yielded two world records: longest solo journey by kayak and the longest distance in 24 hours by a woman.

Skelton's latest superlative feat is a record for the fastest 100km by kite ski (regardless of gender): seven hours and 28 minutes. In fact, she completed the majority of the journey in tow of the fierce Antarctic winds, which average 80 mph, covering a total of 329 miles over the course of 8 days' time on kite ski, with another 68 miles (3 days) by cross-country ski.

Still, perhaps the most notable accomplishment is the 103 miles (7 days) on a custom snow bicycle, a first for any Polar adventurer.

Between the physical challenge, the freezing temperatures (which dropped to as low as -48°C), a 180lb supply sledge, Skelton's achievement should certainly inspire UK residents to enter the Sport Relief Mile charity run in March.

See her cross the finish line on the bike (plus details on that too) after the jump...

From the You've got to be kidding me department: Azerbaijan-based artist Rashad Alakbarov creates images by setting up ordinary objects (sometimes suspended in mid-air via wires) and shining a light onto them, turning the wall behind them into a canvas "painted" with light and shadows.

Senior Industrial Designer
PreSonus Audio Electronics
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

PreSonus Audio Electronics is seeking a Senior Industrial Designer to support the conceptualization and development of Pro and Consumer Audio products having a higher-than-average level of difficulty and complexity. Includes creating aspects of form, aesthetics, and physical interfaces between the corporate products and the end user.

» view

The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

That's Singapore's trippy Helix Bridge, designed by Australia-based Cox Architecture & Design after they beat out 35 other entrants in a design competition sponsored by the city-state. Constructed as the final link in a walkway surrounding Singapore's Marina Bay, the bridge also doubles as an outdoor gallery for local children's drawings and paintings. (Beats being stuck to the front of the 'fridge, sharing magnet space with takeout menus.)

Anyone who sits at a desk for eight+ hours a day knows there are a few basic needs this sedentary lifestyle requires beyond food/water/air. Nay, needs is not quite strong enough. Let us call them essentials—the two most important being a good chair and good lighting. I've pretty much got the former covered (I'm a chair obsessive), but I'm in serious need of some decent light in my life (you don't even want to see the three random lamps I have MacGyvered at various angles and heights around my desk).

This personal deficiency is probably why I was so struck by Mantis, a new desk lamp designed by Berlin-based studio Bottcher+Henssler for the Sloveian lighting company Vertigo Bird. With just three main components—two maple pieces and a bright turquoise aluminum tube—the Mantis is a masterpiece of minimal design with a pleasing color palette to boot. The real kicker is that it doesn't require screws, knobs or bolts of any kind. By harnessing the power of gravity, the height of the LED lamp can be adjusted by simply sliding the aluminum tube through the base. You can swing, raise and lower the lamp to your exact specifications without fussing with knobs or unscrewing and then rescrewing the arm into place. Many a lamp in a past checkered with lighting struggles has gone the way of the Goodwill for just such a reason. But as soon as Mantis is available (which should be by April, I'm told) I may never chuck another lamp again.

As part of Marvel Comic's Avengers Art Appreciation variant cover series set for release in April, artist Mike del Mundo created this beautiful homage to graphic designer Saul Bass for Amazing Spiderman #683. The cover definitely captures Bass's color pallet as well as his striking imagery, yet includes a clever integration of all of the Avengers' symbology. Now all we need is Paul Rand to solve DC Comics' peeling logo issues!

How will our future change with technology? Designers and developers gathered last week to answer this question at WebVisions in New York City. Presentations and workshops during this 3-day conference explored the future of design, content creation, user experience and business strategy. Workshops centered on embracing new technology, designing for the user and collaboration.

Much of the focus in the area of Interaction Design centered on responsive design and mobile first. None of this is new to the field, but new techniques were taught in workshops. Jason Grigsby and Lyza Danger Gardner gave an in-depth workshop on designing and developing for devices and how to build in a future friendly manner. They believe that everything will be interconnected in our future, from your internet-connected refrigerator to your app-loaded car dashboard. By designing a flexible system now, our content will adapt itself to future devices. Participants explored device APIs, CSS3 media queries, responsive web design, and PhoneGap. The workshop was heavy in technical jargon but they always brought it back to how a development methodology can directly affect the user experience.

As the field of User Experience (UX) grows many UX designers are still trying to define it. Whitney Hess, an independent UX consultant, guided us through her principles of experience design coupled with current examples to help us visualize each principle in practice. Hess used Wanderfly.com to exemplify her third principle, Limit Distractions. The Wanderfly home page is minimal with large icons to navigate to your destination. The tenth principle was the most compelling, Make a Good First Impression. "A website is analogous to your a first impression of a person. You want people to make you feel comfortable when you first meet them," she explained. She pointed to Vimeo as one of the best first-time user experiences. When a user visits the site for the first time a message asks, "Welcome, you're new aren't you?" This casual language guides you in like a friendly doorman.

From the UK comes this robot designed with whiskers to "feel" its way around, or towards, obstacles. Maybe it's just me, but seeing the insectoid way this thing reacts totally creeps me out. Take a look:

Gear heads love to mod their cars and shooting sports aficionados love to mod their guns. It makes sense then that Ashbury Precision Ordnance (APO) developed a unique modular firearm that enables user customization and changeability. Their SABER-FORSST Modular Rifle Chassis System lets one choose between interchangeable options for the gun's shoulder stock, center, and barrel/forend while sporting rails that accommodate non-proprietary accessories like sights.

I had the opportunity to fire one of the newest incarnations of the system, the ASW50. "ASW" stands for Asymmetric Warrior—asymmetric war is the kind of conflict where the combatants are not equal in resources and military power. Think guerrilla warfare. Think insurgency. The ASW50 is a long-range "precision tactical rifle" with manageable recoil and an easy trigger. It may look a little imposing, but with this rifle I was able to hit a spade-shaped target 300 yards away (and I'm no crack shot).

More interestingly, APO's parent company Ashbury International runs a Rapid Product Development Center that helps users bring customization to a whole new level. Firearm components, just like many other industrial products, are CAD drawn and CNC produced. If I had a brilliant idea for a new trigger mechanism or a maybe bump-firing butt-stock, I can send my sketch and concept to Ashbury's RPDC and have it made into a reality. I spotted several companies at SHOT that performed CNC machining or metal injection molding but Ashbury's was the only one that offered to manufacture products without pre-made CAD renderings.

Watch the video after the jump to learn more about APO's modular system and Rapid Product Development Center:

Bartholomäus Traubeck's "Years" is one of those designs that embodies much more than its one-line description might suggest: simply put, it's "a record player that plays slices of wood, [in which] year ring data is translated into music.".

A tree's year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music. It is mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently.

The design object is at once material—an interactive sculpture—and immaterial, interpreting an inanimate 'fossil' into arguably the most abstract art form: music. Thus, the record player spans the natural, pre-analog world of time immemorial and the digital alchemy of transcribing visual data (the rings of the tree) into sound, duly referencing an iconic analog medium as the bridge between the two worlds.

As with a record, the physical (i.e. analog) aspect of the recording remains opaque: we understand that there is a relationship between the infinitesimal grooves in the vinyl and the music that emerges from the black box, but it's impossible to discern what it the recording like by sight or touch. Just as a needle translates the physical into meaningful sounds, so too does the camera of Traubeck's record player read the 'pattern' embedded in a cross-section of a tree trunk.

A couple months ago, we had a look at HJC Designs' first foray into sleek-yet-playful kitchenware with the "Peel" coffeemaker. The Yorkshire, UK-based company is back with the second item with Tron-like LED details to accent the object's clean lines and signature 'peeling' surface: a "visually striking cordless kettle."

The eye-catching kettle features a matte black body with a zipper-like band that 'peels' at the spout, as well as a stainless steel ripple-effect lid, encircled with the glow of soft blue LED piping.

Lead Web Designer
Idealist.org
Portland, Oregon

Idealist.org is seeking a full-time designer to join our web development team in Portland. He or she will be primarily responsible for the look & feel of Idealist.org, and its usability on all platforms. In addition, the web designer will be in charge of harmonizing our branding on various social media sites, as well as creating online ads, widgets, etc. as needed.

» view

The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

In anticipation of the upcoming IxDA Interaction12 Conference taking place in Dublin, Ireland February 1-4, Core77 will be bringing you a preview of this year's event. Follow us as we chat with keynote speakers, presenters and workshop leaders to give you a sneak peek at some of the ideas and issues to be addressed at this year's conference. Come by and say hello to us at the Coroflot Connects recruiting event and don't miss out on our live coverage as we report from the ground in Dublin!

Luke Williams has been a champion for design innovation over the past 18 years—in consumer package goods for a company in Australia, at New York University's Stern School of Business through his "Innovation and Design" course, and as resident innovation expert at frog design. At frog, Williams has worked for the past decade to help define the global firm's practice and approach to innovation. The Core77 community might best know Williams through Disrupt, a book he wrote to, "reflect on all the different tools and methodologies I've learned through innovation...and on the meaning and terms I use with clients in the business school." We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Williams here in New York City. Besides insights and some great personal anecdotes packed into our half-hour chat, Williams shared a preview of his keynote for next week's Interaction12 conference in Dublin.

* * *

Core77: Disrupt is about shaking up current notions of an established category of business or within a market. With interaction design being a relatively new design field, what are some of the tenets of disruptive thinking that interaction designers can apply to their own work—not only towards creating an innovative product, but for the community or category as a whole?

Luke Williams: When we say interaction design is a new profession, it's true, but it's also very, very old. Because in interaction design, essentially what you're doing is designing behavior. Robert Fabricant at frog likes to say, "Behavior is our medium." What's fascinating about interaction design is that it's not about technology at the end of the day; it's not really about interfaces. For interaction design you're talking about shaping and influencing behavior. Everything at the moment is being seen as a potential interface object—that's the way ubiquitous computing is taking us.

So, every doorknob, every table and every coffee cup has potential to be seen as this interface object. There has never been a more exciting time to be in interaction design. Because interaction designers essentially get to rethink all of these basic human interactions that have been around for 50, 100, maybe thousands of years in some cases. We're at a point in time where they get to rethink those interactions. So, they challenge the clichés that have always been there about how we interact with things at a day-to-day level. And, basically see if those things can be improved.

That's a pretty exciting way to set up the whole entire conference.

It is such an important role and job because the future is going where these interactions are. Many of these interactions of the moment are simple; they're the fabric of everyday life. Now, what we risk doing when we're layering on information and connecting with information networks is to make simple, everyday interactions complex, cumbersome and frustrating.

My mother is my basis point for interaction design. She retired and decided she was going to take a computer course because she hated computers (like many parents do). And, she came back after the first lesson and she was furious. I said, "What's wrong?" She was looking at me as if I was part of the problem. She said, "The language of computers is just ridiculous." "And, what do you mean by that?" She replied, "Do you know to shut down the computer I have to go to the start button?" and that never had occurred to me before.

Now, I've since found out that that's an old joke with Microsoft and they even joke about it internally. But, this is exactly the problem. If my mother, in the future, has this same problem with her morning cup of coffee because we turn the coffee mug into an interface object, there's going to be hell to pay. So, this is a double edged sword. There's incredibly exciting potential for interaction design once everything gets layered with information and they can rethink these interactions. But, there is a big, big responsibility there for interaction design to get these interactions right.

When was the last time you wrote a letter? I don't mean typed one—wrote one. Like on actual paper. If you're answer falls somewhere between it's been awhile and what's a letter?, don't worry—you're not alone. And there's help. UK-based graphic designer Craig Oldham has taken it upon himself to get you back on the right track and put you in touch with ye olde pen and paper again with the Hand.Written.Letter.Project. He took up the cause in 2007 when he asked his fellow designers to write their thoughts on the demise of the handwritten letter on their own letterhead.

"But the project offers much more than that voyeuristic insight into the creative minds of those we revere," Oldham says. "More that it represents a visual narrative on the cultural transition in which we find ourselves. A transition on which your thoughts you are welcome to share, where all you have to do is to pick up that pen."

As an ardent letter writer myself, I find the book not only charming but visually compelling. And quite a few others do too. So many, in fact, that Oldham has released a Second Edition of the book that's double the length of the original. Some of the letters are straight forward, some are straight up cop-outs (at least I think so) and others are adorned with drawings and flights of typographic whimsy. You can see the list of contributors on the site and scroll through a few scanned entries, though I do believe the most authentic way to experience this book is to hold all its 128 pages and 8-page double gatefold cover in your own two hands.