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Rocketeers Host Android Boot Camp

A group of Rocketeers recently held an Android Boot Camp at our Bottle Rocket offices that covered the basics of Android development. The free 6-hour boot camp combined instruction with hands-on development and was attended by those serious about getting a jump start on Android development from some of the best in the business.

The 27 attendees came from local colleges including, UTA, UT Dallas, UNT and SMU and were treated to a tour of our offices and presentations from our Rocketeers on the fundamentals of Android, mobile strategy and mobile quality assurance. Boot camp students were able to network with each other and with the Rocketeers. They left with a fully functioning app and a wealth of knowledge on the basics of showing data and interacting with users.

For more inofrmation about our Android boot camp and other events in which our Rocketeers are involved, feel free to send an email to bootcamp@bottlerocketapps.com.

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Calvin Carter Selected to Judge This Year's Tabby Awards

Calvin Carter has just been chosen as one of the judges of The Tabby Awards 2013. The Tabby Awards "celebrate the best tablet apps, in order to help both the developers and, as the case may be, their customers develop and adopt best practices, and to accelerate the development of the tablet ecosystem." It's the only competition worldwide for the best iPad, Android and Windows 8 tablet apps. 

Judges are appointed by The Tabby Awards based on their expertise in app development. Calvin joins the roster of more than 20 professionals who will be judging the submissions in a variety of categories. The winners will be announced on September 12 at the Tablet Ecosystem conference & Expo at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.

Click here to read more!

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WWE's Rockpocalypse Is Now Available

WWE Presents: Rockpocalypse is now available on iOS and Android devices! Thruster, our gaming division, has been hard at work developing WWE’s first 3D action mobile game that features WWE Champion Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson fighting a battle against a contagion that’s taken over Hollywood.

Rockpocalypse is set at a fictional Hollywood studio where The Rock is filming and everyone around him begins contracting a disease that causes destructive behavior. Players control The Rock as he seeks to solve the mystery behind the contagion and attempts to ultimately stop it while kicking some serious butt along the way!

“I am excited to partner with WWE and some of the best game developers in the world to bring something cool for fans to play,” said The Rock. "Boots to Asses style app…this will be fun!”

Rockpocalypse is available for FREE on iPhone®, iPad® and all your favorite Android devices.

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Bottle Rocket Sponsors Students for a Class at The Woodshed School

In keeping with our tradition of contributing to the community, we recently sponsored four young people, interested in improving their design skills and portfolio, for the Woodshed School Portfolio Class in Dallas. The Woodshed School is a designed for students and those in their early careers who want to take short, evening or weekend classes in Art Direction, Copywriting, Typography and Creative Thinking.

The four people we sponsored spent a Saturday with Peter Wood, the school’s Shedmaster. The focus of the session was to regenerate an existing project to create a new improved version for inclusion into the students’ portfolios.

The Woodshed School believes that thinking about a project begins with a human need and is not to be motivated by sales. The school’s goal is to teach its students how to draw on their own life and career experiences as human beings to truly understand the nature and purpose of each project. The school teaches students how to think critically and to think in meaningful and unorthodox ways while sharpening their existing talents.

The classes are not limited to students and young professionals. The Woodshed School also offers workshops tailored specifically to the creative needs of companies of all industries. These thought-provoking sessions aim to give employees a much greater idea of who their audience is and keeping them first in mind when creating a product, not unlike our approach to each and every project.

We wish our sponsored students great success! For more information about The Woodshed School, click here.

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Rocketeer Charity: Angel Flight South Central

This week, we had our second charity drawing of the month during which Angel Flight South Central was selected. Rocketeer VP of Operations, David Goldstein had entered Angel Flight South Central into the drawing as it is an organization in which he's been involved with for several years and believes strongly in their mission. Angel Flight is a charitable organization with regional offices consisting of volunteer pilots who graciously bear the expenses to fly patients to where they need to be so they can receive critical medical treatment. By providing flight transportation to patients, many are able to receive the lifesaving treatment they need and otherwise might not get due to travel expenses. 

David has flown over 20 missions, transporting patients and other medical supplies around the south central United States region. After coming across an advertisement for Angel Flight, he felt compelled to volunteer for the organization as a way for him to contribute to the community by helping those who are very ill and do not have the means to get to get a treatment facility. The experiences have proven to be highly rewarding and more importantly, those who benefited from the transportation were able to get the medicine they needed.

Angel Flight also fulfills requests on a case by case basis for humanitarian and disaster relief missions, flies children to specialty hospitals and in the summer, takes children to special needs camps. For more information or to donate, click here.

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