On Thursday, April 25, 2013 The Birmingham Business Alliance, along with Jeffrey Bayer, hosted our official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony followed by our Open House. We would like to start off by thanking everyone in the community for all of the support in this new chapter of our company’s journey and a special thanks to The BBA and Jeffrey Bayer.

Our new office space resides on 1st Avenue North in Birmingham, AL. Filling our new space with our favorite office furniture from Herman Miller, Turnstone, and a custom made conference table has been a constant reminder of how far we’ve come as a company over the past year. We now have a place to call our own. The building was constructed in the early 1900’s and over the past year has been in the process of being converted into two commercial spaces, four residential spaces, a stone masonry office and a restaurant and bar. Both commercial spaces, one being the MotionMobs office space and the other being a 2600 sq ft, available for rent, commercial space and two residential units are currently still owned by Taylor and Spencer Wyatt. The restaurant space is owned by David Carrigan and will open as Carrigan’s Public House later this summer. We can’t express how excited we are for our ever growing community and for being in such good company.

We would like to re-iterate how thankful we are to our clients, friends, family and everyone who has shown us such an overwhelming amount of support. It was our pleasure to host the Open House and have all of you join us for good food, drinks, and celebration.

This year, our Communications Intern, Haley Shelton won “Student of the Year” for the AAF (American Advertising Federation) Ten Awards 2012.

Haley has been a huge asset to our team, and we’re so proud of her work here.

We’re excited to announce that NuMee has launched! NuMee is an iPhone app that helps you keep track of your fitness goals and helps motivate you to succeed. You can quickly enter your information and goals and the app will calculate the steps you need to take to accomplish those goals.

Once you’ve got your goals you can create multiple workouts with a wide variety of options. The app follows you through your workout with a few taps and don’t try to quit early….or bear the shame of sharp remarks from your phone.

We look forward to adding more features in the future and a brand new website with tons of great info on eating healthy will shorty be integrated with the app.

We look forward to seeing you at the gym working on your NuMee!

Click here to see NuMee in the App Store!

We’re looking for self-motivated, passionate people, who want to make a impact on our small, thriving start-up.

If you’re organized, professional and passionate about your work and have any of the following skill sets, please contact us at info@motionmobs.com:

iOS Engineering

iOS Engineering requires a lot of attention to detail. iOS engineers at MotionMobs will work together everyday to create complex, usually database driven, applications. iOS engineers must understand how to use and implement custom layouts and designs.

Job Overview:

• Work on database driven iPhone & iPad applications
• Implement creative, custom design work & layouts
• Work with our lead developer to follow his direction & strategy
• Gain loads of business experience in a variety of industries: healthcare, education, non-profit organizations, and more.

We’re excited to announce that PicktureThis has launched. PicktureThis is a mobile photo scavenger hunt with a social twist. The game is simple: you can “take” or “rate”. To “take” photos, you will be presented with a word and you have to find something around you that would be fitting for that word or category. The profile section of the App keeps up with the number of wins you have from the photos you’ve taken. To “rate” photos, you will see a match-up of photos and you pick the best photo for that category or word. It’s a simple concept, but be warned: it’s addictive. If you’re a master at the iPhone’s camera or even if you just enjoy a creative spin on a fun concept, this is the App for you. The photo match-ups allow you to compete head-to-head with players around the world.

Oh, did I mention it’s completely free.

You can download Pickture This here.

We would love to hear your comments and suggestions. Please comment below with any feedback on the App.

When I came to MotionMobs a few short months ago I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Would I be gaining that supervised practical experience or would I in fact be the new barista?

As it turns out I accomplished both. (Truthfully I only brought coffee one day)

I never knew I could accomplish so much, in such a short amount of time, until I became a member of the MotionMobs team.

My first day I was eased into things. When I say eased, I mean I sat in on a client meeting, began working on content for social media pages and was given a run down of a list a mile long of things we were going to accomplish this summer.

Although logically I should have been terrified, I was instead excited!

By day two I had written and edited a complete marketing plan to present, and by Friday it was pitched and accepted by a client. Yes, that is all in one week. After that week I was in love with startups, in love with my job and obsessed with all things MotionMobs.

My summer became full of marketing plans, media kits and press releases, a PR students dream! My portfolio grew from being bare bones to being so large I am going to have to pick and choose what to include for employers.

I also picked up a nice little award for my work at MotionMobs. In June I learned that Andrew had nominated me for The Ten Awards Student of the Year. A few weeks later I found out I was chosen. It was such an honor, first that I had made such an impression on Andrew that he would nominate me, and second that I had actually won!

At MotionMobs things are truly in motion. The beauty of a startup is you have a small, close team doing the work of a large company. My favorite thing about the MotionMobs team is they are all truly passionate about each project they take on

One thing I think the academic and stale definition of intern leaves out is the friendships you gain. Each person at MotionMobs has treated me like I was part of the team from day one. Andrew took me under his wing and taught me so much. His passion for each project and never-ending hard work has inspired me so much to be as great of an employee one day as he is. Taylor has also been a huge inspiration to me. Her dedication, strength and intelligence makes her the perfect role model for all young professionals.

MotionMobs has taught me more this summer than I could have ever dreamed. I can’t thank Taylor, Andrew and the rest of the MotionMobs team for the opportunities they have presented me with.

I am definitely going to miss all the crazy days in the office. However, I am very excited to get back to UA and share with my classmates my experiences at MotionMobs.

We’re excited to announce that our Lead Developer, Matthew Clark, is having his first baby. Matt and Bobbie’s love for each other is quickly apparent to everyone they meet. Being a part of this very happy time in their life means the world to us.

We’re grateful to have such a talented team member to lead our development efforts. Matt is the type of developer that fixes all of our “impossible” problems. Since Matt is such a rare gem, we’re going to encourage programming at an early age.

Matt, congratulations, we love you and we’re happy for you.

It has been a long couple of weeks since that Wednesday in mid-February. Adjustments have been made, work flows have been streamlined, and all the other usual (and at times unusual) stuff that goes along with a group bringing in another creative body has been working itself out.

From where I sit here, in our nice space in Innovation Depot on this sunny Tuesday, there is a lot of stuff to be done. Exciting stuff to be done. Fun stuff to be done. It’s the wild west all over again, and we are the cowboys.

One of the things that attracts me to mobile user experience and interface design is the same thing that attracts me to the start up lifestyle and what we are building here at MotionMobs.

With each new client and each new project, new expectations are placed on us to push walls down that we, as normal people, put up to safe guard ourselves from being told, “Well that’s just terrible.”

Someone wise told me once that the curse and blessing of an artist is being told, “that stinks,” is why you get up each day to be better than the day before, but at the same time it can be the thing that makes you hang up your digital paint brush for the day and say, well, maybe I’ll just move to the beach and surf. We’ve all been there. But we come back.

It’s the pressure of everyday that keeps me coming back. The pressure that we, as a collective industry of creative minds, use to motivate us to break new ground every day with this new platform of technology. The standards of mobile interfaces is still, at least in my opinion, being written. With each pixel we align, with each type face we choose, we are chiseling our mark onto an even greater canvas and that’s the always changing history of mobile interface and experience design.

When Taylor asked me to come on board as the Creative Director and UI Designer for MotionMobs, I have to admit that I was appropriately intimidated by the amount of responsibility that Taylor saw me taking on in the weeks and months to come. Intimidated is an understatement, honestly. More like terrified. At the same time though, and through Taylor’s continuing efforts to push me past my comfort level ever day  to build my toolbox of skills, I am feeling stronger than ever in my abilities as both a creative and as an integral part of helping MotionMobs grow.

I love what we are building here. I love the clients we are working with. I love the people I am working with. Even at the end of a long week, when I all I want to do is not think about work … I love the work I am blessed to be able to create each day. My only hope is that as we grow we find ways to reach out to more people. That we find a way to make ourselves, as an agency, able to forge ways into new areas of art and creative services.

I am going to try and keep this blog going on a more weekly basis so you all, our users, our friends, and as a group who believes in our work, can better know what we are working on, thinking about, or even just having fun doing!

I, we, MotionMobs, thanks all of you for your support.

We are in the business of creating experiences and connecting people.

We are glad you are coming along to experience it with us.

This weekend our team at MotionMobs attended StartUp Riot in Atlanta, GA. StartUp Riot consists of multiple events, one being a weekend hackathon called MAKE. This weekend approximately ten teams competed at MAKE for a few prizes and a chance to present their idea at the StartUp Riot SHOW, an event where each team presents their idea to several groups of investors.

This is an overview of our weekend:

Friday at 12:45 we arrived at the downtown bus station in Birmingham, AL ready to start our journey to Atlanta on Megabus, one of the sponsors at StartUp Riot. After arriving at the bus, the driver informed us that the dates for our trip were incorrect. At this point, we had already loaded all of our luggage on the bus, and we were ready to start our weekend in Atlanta. After realizing their mistake with our tickets, we called customer support to get it worked out as quickly as possibly. [imagine the worst customer service experience you've ever had] The representative admitted their mistake, but explained that their “system” was slow. So, he was unable to fix our tickets in an efficient manner. Looking around the bus, we saw a large number of available seats. While still on hold with customer support, the bus driver made us remove our items from the bus. Reluctant to leave the bus, knowing we would be late for the hackathon, we begged to sit in the available seats on the bus. The bus driver then threatened to call “911″. As he picked up his phone to make the call, we gathered our items and left the bus.

Needless to say, Megabus made for an interesting start to our weekend. Megabus did offer us free tickets for a future trip. At first we were reluctant to accept, but I’m hoping our next experience will be much better.

Ok, ok, on to the good stuff:

Friday night: We created Bubble Chicken, a 2D space based physics game for the iPhone.

Later the same night: Angry Birds releases Angry Birds in Space. Knowing we had to change our idea, we spent the rest of the night formulating a new plan of attack for the weekend.

Early Saturday morning: Souris was created.

By the end of the weekend, we had created a customized 2D physics engine, the character development and storyline of Souris, the first level of the game, a teaser video for the game and a simple website showcasing that video.

The Results:

MAKERBOT! Makerbot is a 3D printer with “plastic ink” that will actually draw and create plastic objects. Still confused? Check out their website.

Our Makerbot was provided by MailChimp. In case for some crazy reason you’ve never heard of MailChimp, they are the best web-based email marketing company. Their product is easy to use and free to most small businesses. They have a library of beautiful template designs for email newsletters. Their website walks you through the process of exactly what you need to know, and it is quick and easy to use. Best of all, MailChimp is very sensitive to any users receiving their emails. So, they can be a little strict about how you obtain your email list, but it is all for the best. If your users are simply signing up for a newsletter on a website, MailChimp has a signup form that you can quickly embed on your site.

Of course, we can not say thank you enough. We’ve yet to see a Makerbot in person, and we’re already counting down the days until it arrives.

]]> http://motionmobs.com/blog/startup-riot-make/574/feed/ 0 http://motionmobs.com/blog/popular-sports-games-for-iphone/543/ http://motionmobs.com/blog/popular-sports-games-for-iphone/543/#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:17:34 +0000 Taylor Peake http://motionmobs.com/?p=543 For years, sports games have been at the top charts of PlayStation and Xbox games. Now, the same popular games are starting to make a splash in the App Store.

Below are five of the most popular sports games designed for iPhone:

Madden NFL 12

2K Sports NHL

NCAA Football

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12

FIFA 12

If you’ve played any of the above games, we would love to hear your feedback.