And now a word from our sponsor…

Hi all you TechRaisers!

Just thought we would drop a quick blog post and tell you a bit about our group, the Plantronics Developer Connection, and ask for your consideration when you think about your pitch for TechRaising.

The Plantronics Developer Connection is based out of Plantronics HQ, here in Santa Cruz.  As you are probably aware, Plantronics makes headsets.  We make all kinds of headsets, including Bluetooth ones, and ones you plug into your computer via USB, and even the little stereo ear bud ones to plug into your flip-phone.  So yeah, you probably know us for our headsets.

What you might not know, is that we also have a software side that goes along with our headsets.  This software is called Spokes.

Spokes software has been available Plantronics devices for quite some time now and even has a mature SDK associated with it.

What’s new is that we are now publicly exposing the Spokes SDK and inviting developers to download it, check it out, and build cool things with it.  We are presenting the Spokes SDK through the Plantronics Developer Connection (developer.plantronics.com) which also houses all the technical documentation and sample code associated with Spokes.

We launched the Plantronics Developer Connection in May and we are trying to get our story out to the developer community and promote awareness of what the Spokes SDK and all it has to offer.

What’s our story and what does the Spokes SDK have to offer?

Our story is that our headsets do more than just audio.

What else can they do?

Our headsets can detect when they are on your head or off your head. They can detect if you are near your PC or away from your PC.  Our headsets know the incoming Caller ID from the mobile phone they are paired with.  Also, our headsets all have unique serial ids that can be used within secure environments to provide an extra layer of security ID.

The best part is, developers have access to all these headset events through the Spokes SDK.

That is our story… Plantronics headsets can do some cool things beyond just providing audio, and now developers can tap into these headset abilities and create killer apps based on these actions via the Spokes SDK.  You can find the Spokes SDK and everything you need to get started (technical docs, sample code and monitored forums) at the Plantronics Developer Connection. (developer.plantronics.com)

Of course, nothing beats a good example, so here are a few examples of what our Application Partners have already built using the Spokes SDK.

Threewill:  “Popcorn for Jive” uses the Spokes Mobile Caller ID API to get the incoming Caller ID off the mobile phone and uses it to look up in Jive who is calling.  Check the YouTube video to see the demo.   Popcorn is also able to do this for Salesforce.com and you can see that demo here.

Datahug: Datahug is an enterprise connection service.  Datahug knows “who is talking to who” within your enterprise, and allows you to find connections within other companies you did not even know existed. Datahug uses the Spokes Mobile Caller ID API to monitor incoming calls on the mobile phone and pair them to your contact list. This gives a much more accurate picture of “who is talking to who” within your enterprise.  Check out the YouTube demo to see it in action.

Sococo:  Sococo Team Space integration with Plantronics.  Sococo provides a virtual office space so teams that are spread out remotely can easily meet and coordinate online in a virtual office space.  Sococo uses the Spokes “Don/Doff” API to know when the user is physically wearing the Plantronics Voyager Pro.  As soon as the user takes the headset off, their status within Team Space is immediately updated to unavailable.  Check out the video demo from Sococo to see it all in action.

Now that you have seen some examples of our SDK in action, hopefully it has inspired you to think of ways to us the Spokes SDK within your own app or service.

We really hope you do consider our SDK when you decide on what to build for TechRaising.  Also, as an added little bonus, if you and your team do decide to build something using our SDK, we will get you and the rest of your team members FREE Voyager Pro UC headsets to test your app with and then to keep and take home with you.   Don’t tell anyone, but we might even bring some unreleased hardware and firmware bundles for you to experiment with, so you can be the first developers ever to have access to these specially bundled firmware packs.  This is all very exciting to us and we hope this will inspire you to check out the Spokes SDK and build something awesome with it.

We are really looking forward to this event, and can’t wait for it to start!

See you Friday for the pitches!