Technology

Earthware are officially 'Windows 8 Elite'!

Anthony Marshall
Anthony Marshall
15 Oct 2012
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On Friday we received the good news from Microsoft that thanks to the submission of our first Windows 8 app, Meet½Way, we at Earthware are now officially ’Windows 8 Elite’!

So, what is this ‘Meet½Way’?

Meet½Way began back in August as a result of our ‘Earthware Day’.

At Earthware we pride ourselves on being technically excellent. However, in order to maintain this we understand that experimentation with new and varied technologies is vital. We also believe that in order to be a successful organisation we need to work cohesively as a team. Makes sense right? But, as with many organisations, the day to day running of Earthware does not often mean that we work as a whole, but more often as smaller units.

The need for the above is what gave birth to the idea of the ‘Earthware Day’; a day where we work together on a project involving new technology, and nothing else! We make sure that our chosen project is one that all team members can get involved with, whether they are ‘technical’ or ‘operational’, and by the end of the day we’ve all learnt something new about the technology being used, and how we can best work together.

Our most recent Earthware Day was on the 22nd August and we set ourselves the challenge of building a Windows 8 app in a day! The ‘technical’ team took charge of development, whilst the ‘operational’ team worked on aesthetically designing and marketing the app. And so, Meet½Way was born!

So, what does it do?

Meet½Way has been designed to make meeting friends and colleagues in mutually convenient places much easier. By entering your ‘start’ location as well as that of your friend’s, the app calculates a number of locations that are ½ way in driving time between these. You are able to select from a number of activities that you would like to do together, whether it be eating or going to a theme park, and the app populates a map with these options, as well as providing them in list format.

The app then allows you to share the details of your chosen location and meeting time with your friends as a calendar invite which slots straight into their calendar – so no confusion about ‘when’ or ‘where’ can arise!

How did we become ‘Windows 8 Elite’?

Although we did not manage to finish the app completely on the Earthware Day we made a really good start and have been tweaking it since. On Friday we submitted it to the Windows Store and as a result gladly accepted our invitation from Microsoft to join the Windows 8 Elite Programme.

What does this mean?

As a Windows 8 Elite member we get all sorts of exciting treats! These include invitations to various Windows 8 development events, promotion of our app through the Windows Store and magazine upon nomination, and the opportunity to represent our Windows 8 app at industry events.

When Windows 8 is launched on the 26th October we’d love it if you could download Meet½Way and let us know what you think! If you like it, you could even rate it for us! And, if you do have any suggestions on how it could be improved we’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime we’re looking forward to developing more Windows 8 apps and are incredibly proud of our new ‘Windows 8 Elite’ title!

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