Author Archives: Rob Spectre

About Rob Spectre

Your friendly neighborhood Developer Evangelist - New York, New York.

hackNY Raises The Bar Again For Student Hackathons

Occupying New York University once more, hackNY students again raised the bar for the hackathon this weekend.  With the fifth installment of their long running companion event to their successful fellowship program, the joint NYU / Columbia venture hosted over … Continue reading →

Posted by Rob Spectre on March 30, 2012

Trying To Save The World In A Weekend, Penn Students “Hack The Change”

The Philadelphia tech scene assembled late in the afternoon last Friday with a spectacular ambition – change the world in a single weekend.  Dubbing the event Hack The Change, University of Pennsylvania students from the Penn Society for International Development organized … Continue reading →

Posted by Rob Spectre on March 29, 2012 Tagged , , ,

Banters Adds Twilio-Powered Siri Integration with Relaunch

Brooklyn darlings Banters just relaunched their conversation sharing app and website with a new name, a fresh coat of paint and a tasty Twilio integration that enables their service to be used with Siri.  Formerly called bnter, the fun brainchild of … Continue reading →

Posted by Rob Spectre on January 30, 2012 Tagged , ,

Making an SMS Birthday Card with Python and Flask

My friend Sonya turned 30 this past weekend and I wanted to whip up something heartfelt and crafty to herald the glorious conclusion of her twenties.  Given that my competency with glue guns and popsicle sticks is lower than Lee Evans’ … Continue reading →

Posted by Rob Spectre on January 27, 2012 Tagged , , , ,

Undergrad Doers Take Aim At SOPA and PIPA at PennApps

PennApps, the bi-annual tradition for engineering’s best and brightest students across the Eastern Seaboard, came to a close Sunday afternoon with top tier weekend hacks. Packed tight in the University of Pennsylvania Towne Building, bleary-eyed students gathered from top universities including … Continue reading →

Posted by Rob Spectre on January 20, 2012 Tagged

Hack Hatched At Twilio Conference Grows Into Full Business

What began as a prize-winning hack at Twilio Conference enters a promising beta this week as Billy Coover and Barry Harkness from SideBox announce their new product, Nearby Now.  A helpful search tool for connecting with real service professionals in … Continue reading →

Posted by Rob Spectre on December 13, 2011

Siri Developer Contest Produces a Trio of Tasty Hacks

A few weeks ago we let loose our developer community on Siri, the iPhone 4S virtually assisting sensation that has been the subject of several tasty Twilio hacks.  Using Twilio SMS, Siri can be easily bent to the developer’s will, … Continue reading →

Posted by Rob Spectre on November 29, 2011

Hack Til You Drop With Our Shopified Holiday Developer Contest

With barely enough time to recover from your tryptophan-induced Turkey Day coma, the holiday shopping season is already upon us.  Black Friday sales grabbed big headlines over the weekend, setting up what promises to be a record breaking Cyber Monday, … Continue reading →

Posted by Rob Spectre on November 28, 2011

New Twilio Developer Contest: Set Your Receivers To Boost – This Is London Calling

Just over three weeks ago, Twilio announced our expansion into Europe and the demand is positively rabid.  Twilio phone numbers in the United Kingdom has opened up new levels of trans-Atlantic possibility to our developer community, from opening up existing … Continue reading →

Posted by Rob Spectre on November 14, 2011