steve@igorlabs.com • github/heyigor • @heyigor • linkedin • IGORLABS
Software specialities: Firmware and app development (iOS, macOS, Android). Bluetooth. Audio. UI/UX.
I’ve been playing with software since I found out, you could write code that broadcasted leaky frequencies from an Imsai 8080 S100 bus computer in the late ’70’s, and pick it up on an AM radio.
Created video games in the 80’s for Synapse Software, and in the mid 90‘s created the first software MIDI synthesizer that ran on a first generation Mac. Licensed it to Apple, General Magic and WebTV, and then the software became the heart of Beatnik, Inc. Licensed that technology to Sun Microsystems for Java in 1997, and Nokia around 1999. Became part of the launch team at Danger, Inc, defining the mobile audio experience for the T-Mobile Sidekick, and onto building apps and popular games for the then launched Danger Catalog.
At Nest worked on the thermostat doing UI and learning algorithms, and help build the voice for the Protect. Ran the software effort at Zuli for apps, service, and with a tiny team launched a consumer product.
I love to build products, teach others, and in my spare time, invent musical instruments, and design off beat video games about squirrels.
Deeper details about each employment role in the Curriculum Vitae
Brief employment and consulting history:
Working on something next generation.
Bluetooth diagnostics. OTA tools. Internal macOS tools.
Built a microservice with NodeJS that interfaces Google Voice Assistant APIs into the Afero platform for voice control.
Eargo Bluetooth iOS/Android diagnostics app/SDK, audio architecture, hearing aid testing apps, bluetooth automation tools.
Leading the efforts around mobile tools, and contributing to audio engine specifics.
Member of the iOS/Android mobile apps team. Shipped a control app for Kenmore, which controlled one of their Air Conditioners.
Leading the software effort, architecture, security, for the mobile apps, services. Lead developer for the iOS app, and 3rd party integrations for Philips Hue, Works with Nest, and Amazon Echo.
Worked on a iOS app prototyping tool that became the UI/UX for the Nest x Yale Lock This allowed the design team to quickly iterate UI flows before committing hard engineering resources.
Lead the iOS team in developing the mobile app. Interfaced with design, service, engineering leads to deliver updates to new products.
Designed the audio mastering pipeline for the Nest Protect Smoke alarm. This consisted of choice of audio codecs, hardware amplifiers, and audio DSP tools that could process audio files from 5 different languages that could be strung together, via a JSON file, in a way that was useful for the UX. Also was involved in the Voice Over audio editing for the first 3 languages.
Built a Linux based audio analyzer tool that could listen to a track and determine BPM, musical key, and other interesting facts that could be used to sort music playback.
Rebuilt the iOS SomaFM streaming radio app. New UI/UX design work under the direction of the founders. Brought the iOS codebase onto the macOS platform to create one of the first streaming radio apps available in the newly created macOS AppStore.
Thermostat UI for scheduling, and the feel of the wheel and UI. Built an automation engine interfacing the Thermostat’s C++ codebase into Luascript so QA could create over 200 unit tests to validate the algorithms. Designed the first version of the Thermostats text localization.
Member of the iOS client team. Focused on UI and audio.
Relaunched IGORLABS LLC as a consulting shop. Used to explore new projects, and work with various clients outside of my employee endeavors.
Created engineering best practices and built a new engineering team. Spun up a mobile apps group inside of TribalBrands called TribalGames. We launched two games, The Mighty Decider designed by my team, and in collaboration with The Mighty Boosh, and SquirrelWarz an RTS style game featuring squirrels.
Audio codecs, UX for first generation iPod Nano.
Member of the original Danger team that launched the original smart phone in 2002. Designed version 1.0 through 3.0, of the audio architecture for the Danger OS. Mentored 2 replacements. Managed a team of 4, plus one outside contractor to develop 7 games in one year for the newly created Danger Catalog. Contributed to the media architecture to support video.
Sold the music technology created by Igor’s Software Laboratories to Beatnik, Inc, then Headspace, Inc, in 1996 and joined. I then designed the Beatnik Audio Engine architecture, managed a small team, and oversaw the deployment of this technology into web browsers, JavaSound, embedded devices, and mobile phones. Over 200 million copies deployed worldwide. It became the defacto ring tone engine for Nokia mobile phones.
Clients that licensed our audio technology: Sun Microsystems for JavaSound, Nokia, Inc for mobile ringtones, Danger Inc for hiptop.
Our technology eventually became the MIDI XMF specification. v1 and v2.
Source code here.
Spun the SoundMusicSys technology into a new company with Jim Nitchals, and sold the audio technology to Beatnik, Inc to bring it to a wider audience.
Clients that licensed our audio technology: Be, Inc, WebTV, Inc, General Magic, Inc, Apple, Inc, Brøderbund Software, Inc, Learning Company, Inc
Video game contract porting house. Clients included, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Brøderbund, Maxis. Grew to an employee size of 17. Created a music technology known as SoundMusicSys that was widely licensed to the games industry for macOS. Was the first to deploy a MIDI synthesizer that didn’t use dedicated hardware. Our first license was for Prince of Persia macOS.
Pixelite was founded by the creators of The PrintShop.
Shipped a port of BannerMania for macOS, worked on two more macOS projects that didn’t ship. A Word processor, and Graphics layout app.
2D Graphics sub system engineer focused on UI.
Did a complete redesign of Fantavision for the Amiga.
Design, coded software titles: Slime, Fort Apocalypse, Dimension X, Mindwheel, SynAssembler, music tools, copy protection.
Part of the team that reverse engineered the Atari 2600 for Starpath. Wrote one of the launch titles, Suicide Mission for the Starpath Supercharger. All done in 6502 assembly.
Las Positas College, Livermore California.
Computer Science · (1979 - 1981)
Apple, Inc US20240214728A1
SpatialX, Inc
US10291986B1
Zuli, Inc
US20160323393A1
Nest, Inc
US9075419B2,
USD677180S1,
US8972065B2,
US8630740B2,
US9020646B2,
USD687047S1,
US9256230B2
Voxer, Inc
US20120162350A1
Tribal Brands, Inc
US8903940B2,
US8558693B2,
US8321527B2
Danger, Inc
US8370519B2,
US7183481B2
Beatnik, Inc
WO2000055709A3