Hasta La Gadget!

AT&T’s already working on an app to keep folks from texting while driving, but earlier this month it gave folks at a Los Angeles hackathon the chance to develop their own solution. David Grau, a creative director and designer at an interactive agency, and 11-year-old Victoria Walker were awarded $20,000 by Big Blue to bring their smartphone application to the public. Dubbed Rode Dog, the prize-winning software allows friends and family to organize themselves into “packs” and monitor their text messaging habits. Watchful users can spot when a fellow group member is texting and initiate a barking noise on the offender’s phone. Much like squawking seat belt systems, the app is designed to remind drivers of their wrongdoing and doesn’t stop the ruckus until they acknowledge it. If you’d rather have a chicken or other animal grab your attention, the duo crafted an in-app shop that offers other wildlife sound sound effects. Rode Dog isn’t expected to hit iOS, Android and Windows Phone until its fully polished, but you can sign up to receive word of its launch at the second source link below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation, Mobile

11-year-old wins $20,000 at AT&T hackathon for creating app that discourages texting while driving originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Sep 2012 05:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you are attending this weekend’s Hackathon – that is if you have tickets and are raring to go – I have some fun news. As we mentioned before, Makerbot will be in attendance with two of their 3D printers and I still have two Raspberry Pis courtesy of Adafruit Industries that will go to teams intent on building small hardware projects.

To recap, this year we’re offering one Makerbot to the team in the Disrupt Hackathon that submits the best hardware hack as chosen by some Makerbot reps. The winner will accept their prize on stage at the end of the Hackathon. While we encourage you to bring your own parts – motors, Ardiuno boards, and the like – we’d love for you to hack on (and keep) one of the Raspberry Pi mini-computers we have available. I’ve already given away two, so hurry it on up.

To request a Pi, remember that you’ll need to bring an SD card, USB keyboard and mouse, and HDMI monitor with cable. We may have some hardware on site, but don’t depend on it. If you’d still like one, email me at john@techcrunch.com with the subject line “PI ME!” and I’ll pick two folks randomly. Also remember that you must already have a ticket to the Hackathon. Got it? Good.

This will be our first hardware hack and because the Hackathon is only 24 hours we don’t expect you guys to build a ten-foot-tall robotic dancing mouse with sonar vision. Instead, we ask that you think more in terms of smaller robotics or kiosk computers for students. However, as we get better at this I expect to see ten-foot mice roaming the halls next year.