Blog

Wander App Becomes Open Source

“In open source, we feel strongly that to really do something well, you have to get a lot of people involved.“ words of Linus Torvalds. Snowdog is thrilled to announce that Wander App is now open source. Wander app was designed to make travel simple. We aspired to create a platform for people to create and experience stories. As of today, we are going open source. We believe in the power of the community, so we want everyone to assist us in shaping tomorrow of this project. We have open-sourced our Android and iOS app. You can find them on our GitHub page.

Is Your Idea for an App Worth a Billion Dollars?

There are around 2 million applications ready to be downloaded on Apple’s App Store and at least thrice as many apps that failed to get there. How do you know if your idea is brilliant, has the power to stay on the market or is generally worth pursuing? I am not trying to discourage you from following your instincts. This blog post is aimed at helping you clarify your vision. I also love thinking about new and exciting ideas; my notepad is full of them.

Diving into Retail with a Humanoid Robot: Our First Adventure

By removing all shoes from the shelves, eObuwie.pl has done the opposite to what most shoe stores do. They have taken the success of their online eCommerce to the next level by opening innovative brick-and-mortar stores where customers can shop by browsing on tablets and waiting 3 minutes for a delivery of shoes to try on from the warehouse. Their latest store opening took place in Gdańsk on the last weekend of June, and this time Snowdog team was there with Pepper robot to make a first step towards implementing a humanoid robot in retail.

Revitalizing Retail Commerce: Exploring the Impact of Kiosk Shopping and Interactive Robotics

Last year we worked with eobuwie.pl, one of the largest online shoe retailers in Poland and Central Europe to open a physical shoe store without any products on display. Utilizing Snowdog’s Magento Kiosk app, the store allows customers to browse on tablets through the entire catalogue, select shoes to try on and then collect them at a service point. It was a huge hit at the latest store opening in Gdańsk, where Pepper also featured as a guest store greeter and entertainer.

Unveiling the Mechanism: How Robots Recognize Faces and Pepper's Journey to Remember and Greet Familiar Visages

Today’s world is focused on face detection more than ever before. Just take a look at latest release of smartphones; most of them now allow you to unlock your phone with face, or at least capture the picture of someone potentially stealing your phone. Looking to social media, Facebook offers to automatically tag you and your friends, or find images in which you are included but not yet tagged. Snapchat is providing us with the ever popular face filters to make us look like a pirate or puppy. In Google Photos, we are able to group photos by similar faces to easily find all photos of our best friends. Finally, face detection technology has been involved in some controversial topics such as DeepFakes or FindFace.

Turning your Android app into a kiosk - Step by step tutorial

Kiosks devices have become an increasingly common sight in public places such as train stations, museums, and hotels. These devices can offer a range of functionalities, including information dissemination, communication, commerce, and entertainment. If you're an Android app developer, you might be interested in turning your app into a kiosk. This can be achieved by configuring it as a COSU (Corporate Owned Single Use) app or a Single-Use device. In this blog post, we'll guide you through the process of enabling kiosk mode and building a simple application for this purpose. Whether you're creating a public information kiosk or a self-service checkout system, this tutorial will help you get started.

How to manage background tasks with the Task Scheduler in iOS 13?

The article discusses Apple's BackgroundTasks framework, which can be used to schedule and control the execution conditions of background jobs. The framework has various task types, including the App Refresh Task and Background Processing Task, which can be used to update app data and perform heavy computations. The article also provides guidelines for implementing background tasks and debugging them using Xcode debugger. The author concludes by stating that the BackgroundTasks framework is an excellent way to schedule heavy work with the best user experience.

Building a GitHub search app with Combine framework - Part 2

If you're an iOS developer, you're probably familiar with Apple's Combine framework, which provides a declarative way to handle asynchronous events. In our previous post, we talked about some of the fundamental concepts of Combine, such as Publishers, Operators, and key-path Bindings. In this post, we'll dive deeper into Combine by exploring Subscribers and Subjects. We'll also discuss how to work with Schedulers and debug Publisher chains. By understanding these key concepts, you'll be better equipped to use Combine to build robust and efficient apps that can handle asynchronous events with ease. So let's jump right in and explore the power of Combine's Subscribers and Subjects!

Teaching a robot new languages - How to do it?

We love working with cool technologies, and the Snowdog robotics department is no different. Our work with Pepper has taken us to many different events thanks to the great collaborations and interest in using robotics as a commercial and organizational resource. On our last event on June 12–17, we traveled with Pepper on tour to Hessentag, the largest state festival in Germany held in Bad Hersfeld. Hessentag is a cultural fair and festival, bringing people from all over Germany to learn about Hessian culture, traditions, and contemporary lifestyle and issues. We attended on behalf of Wielkopolska, who is a partner of the region of Hesse. This was the first event where Pepper had the opportunity to go abroad, learn a new language and tell visitors about his hometown. It was a special experience and we learned a lot from it.

How to speed up your daily development? 37 Xcode Tips and Shortcuts - The guide to becoming a pro Xcode user

Learn how to navigate Xcode like a pro with our guide to the 37 most important tips for improved efficiency and productivity. Don't miss out on these powerful shortcuts and features that could take your programming skills to the next level!