Ford looks to the future of "drivables" with first hackathon

(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/the_guitar_mann)

Automotive giant Ford held its first hackathon in Tel Aviv last Sunday with the aim of building new apps catered for the car, or "drivables" as they are becoming known. The new term is due to the design similarities which applications for the car share with wearable apps, such as offering the relevant information with as little interaction required as...

By Ryan_Daws, 12 October 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

Hackathons meet religion at 'Code for the Kingdom'

(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/Dimitrios Stefanidis)

Religion is often misunderstood due to all the negative things you hear about it from the worldwide media, but it's also often a power for good. A group of faith-motivated programmers have come together at the 'Code for the Kingdom' hackathon in Seattle with the hope of solving a few societal problems. 

The event, now in its second year, was sponsored by the Deaf Bible Society, the Leadership...

By Ryan_Daws, 07 October 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

Winners of Ubuntu's first Indian hackathon will receive a Dell laptop and BQ phone

Canonical, developers of the world's most popular Linux distro, Ubuntu, are hosting a hackathon October 15th – 16th with some interesting prizes for the winners. The hackathon was announced yesterday and will take place in Bangalore, the capital of India's southern Karnataka state. 

"With Bangalore being a developer hub, we are very excited to meet all the talented developers from across India and are get them hacking on the latest operating system to hit the Indian market," said Amrisha, Social Media and...

By Ryan_Daws, 06 October 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon, wearables.

Techfugees use the power of a hackathon to help refugees

(Image Credit: Techfugees)

Earlier this week, developers came together at the Wayra accelerator in London to help tackle some of the biggest problems faced by refugees as part of the Techfugees hackathon. The crisis is growing as more and more people flee conflict in areas such as Syria – risking their lives – in the hope of finding a better future whilst countries scramble to deal with the influx. 

It's a horrific situation which seems to have no end in sight, but that won't...

By Ryan_Daws, 05 October 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

TrackHack will be at the NFC Solutions Summit

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NFC is finally taking off, but at the moment it's mostly just for payments. TrackHack, a hackathon focused on proximity-based technologies, wants to change this with an event during the NFC Solutions Summit in Phoenix, Arizona on October 7th – 8th. 

Combining various tracking innovations such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Near Field Communication (NFC), and...

By Ryan_Daws, 01 October 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

Microsoft could be grabbing developers for Google Cardboard rival at hackathon

Microsoft's HoloLens is perhaps the most impressive demonstration of what VR could become in the not-so-distant future, but it's sure to arrive with a cost out-of-reach for most ordinary folk. Google Cardboard, on the other hand, is an incredible example of how to create a VR experience yourself or for just a small amount of your local currency. 

The uphill battle the entire VR industry faces is proving that virtual reality is worth...

By Ryan_Daws, 29 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon, wearables.

Sainsbury's helps people to "Live Well" through digital innovation

(Image Credit: Sainsbury's)

Retail giant Sainsbury's doesn't want the creative ideas of their employees going to waste, and therefore invited 161,000 colleagues across their business to submit ideas on how technology can help make the lives of their customers and staff easier – regardless of technical background. 

Over 100 ideas were submitted, and the best six were put forward to be turned from concept into a prototype within 24 hours during a hackathon at the Sainsbury's...

By Ryan_Daws, 18 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

Comedy Hack Day seeks coders and comedians

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Most of us know someone with a sense of humour, a coder - or if you're lucky - both. These are the kind of people the organisers of the Comedy Hack Day in Chicago are looking for to help create hilarious projects which puts a smile on people's faces. 

The event will be held over two days across October 3rd and 4th at the aptly-located Cards Against Humanity offices. Organisers say...

By Ryan_Daws, 16 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

Robots at 'Get Your Bot On' hope to fix the world's health problems

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The hackathon title 'Get Your Bot On' leaves little to the imagination when it comes to what participants are expected to create, but this year's theme for robotic inventions was "Healthy: People and Environments." 

Over 36 hours, teams created a range of incredible robots aimed towards solving real-world problems in relation to improving the health of...

By Ryan_Daws, 15 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

Gramophone created at Pebble hackathon

Sometimes the best things are when the old meets new; which most techies would agree is what's happening with smartwatches. One of the smartwatch pioneers is Pebble who has continued to grow from strength-to-strength. Instead of fading-out like most Kickstarter companies, the firm debuted a follow-up device earlier this year. 

Pebble's second big release, Pebble Time, features innovative "Smart Straps" which can add functionality to the watch through connecting with the magnetic port on the...

By Ryan_Daws, 14 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon, wearables.

Winners of #BreakMakeCreate15 announced

(Image Credit: HelloTruth)

#BreakMakeCreate15 was held in Johannesburg over this last weekend and was created to give all creative, technical-minded, and innovative thinkers the chance to tinker, craft, and play. 

The event was limited to 10 teams who competed for a first place reward of R10000, with the runners-up grabbing R5000 each. Three innovative projects have now been hailed as the winners of HelloComputer's marketing-focused hackathon. 

First prize 

The overall prize went to 'Guptas...

By Ryan_Daws, 11 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

Aging 2.0: Making travel easier for seniors

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Held at Google's campus in London, the Aging2.0 event on August 23rd brought together developers, designers, care-givers, people in the travel business, and seniors to help make lives easier for the elderly when travelling. 

Getting older is something none of us will avoid, and most of us will know someone today in their senior years who we care about that could...

By Ryan_Daws, 10 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

PennApps XII: "World's largest student hackathon" grew even bigger

(Image Credit: PennApps Twitter)

Student hackathon PennApps has now held twelve successful events, and over that period has grown to become one of the world's largest hackathons. Hackfest reported last week the event over the Labor Day weekend of September 4th – 6th was set to be the biggest yet – and it didn't let us down. 

Over 1,500 hackers took part at the hackathon's

By Ryan_Daws, 09 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

Hackathon creation ARKHumanity saves lives via Twitter

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Hackathons are often the birthplace of game-changing products, but rarely are they life-saving. A team of five students who met at 'Hacks 4 Humanity' has developed an application which aims to save lives through monitoring social media network Twitter. 

ARKHumanity monitors the microblogging service for specific tweets which contain set "crisis" keywords and ensures the...

By Ryan_Daws, 08 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

Gender equality shines at AWShine Diversity Hack

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A weekend-long hackathon was run by Amazon Women Shine which – although open to all genders – each team had to have a gender mix to participate. The organisers say this approach was successful, and reached the ideal 50 – 50 split between men and women in each participating team. 

The participants approached a problem, conceptualised a solution, and created a prototype over...

By Ryan_Daws, 07 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

Sport England launches hackathon for social good

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Sport has the ability to change lives, whether through improving personal health or taking people out from dire situations and giving them a chance to better themselves. A hackathon run by Sport England aims to harness this and create positive social change. 

Along with a £10,000 incentive up-for-grabs, teams of up to six people will develop concepts which encourage a...

By Ryan_Daws, 04 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

PennApps XII introduces "Routes" and pushes community involvement

(Image Credit: PennApps)

Student-run hackathon, PennApps, has gone from strength-to-strength over the past few years. The upcoming twelfth edition of the bi-annual event is set to be the biggest yet as it opens to more students than ever in order to include as many hackers as possible. 

PennApps XII has over 2,000 participants registered from 147 universities across 11 different countries. The fun all kicks-off tomorrow under the fist-pumping tagline of "Come...

By Ryan_Daws, 03 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.

India Gadget Expo launches "Hackathon Carnival"

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A two-day "Hackathon Carnival" will be held in Hyderabad from 18th – 21st September at the HITEX Convention Centre. Spanning the course of 30 hours, the carnival is being held alongside the India Gadget Expo (IGE) which brings thousands of entrepreneurs together.

Visitors who may not have coding skills – or are just getting started – are free to hit the floor

The...

By Ryan_Daws, 02 September 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Hackathon.