Steve Hales • Resume

steve@igorlabs.comgithub/heyigor@heyigorlinkedinIGORLABS

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:

Apple, Inc • Senior Software Engineer, Audio, Vision Projects Group • April 2020 - Present

Working on something next generation.

Junelife, Inc • Consulting through IGORLABS • August 2019 - March 2020

Bluetooth diagnostics. OTA tools. Internal macOS tools.

Afero, Inc • Consulting through IGORLABS • July 2019 - October 2019

Built a microservice with NodeJS that interfaces Google Voice Assistant APIs into the Afero platform for voice control.

Eargo, Inc • Consulting through IGORLABS • May 2018 - March 2019

Eargo Bluetooth iOS/Android diagnostics app/SDK, audio architecture, hearing aid testing apps, bluetooth automation tools.

SpatialX, Inc • Senior Software Engineer • October 2017 - April 2018

Leading the efforts around mobile tools, and contributing to audio engine specifics.

Afero, Inc • Senior Software Engineer • November 2016 - October 2017

Member of the iOS/Android mobile apps team. Shipped a control app for Kenmore, which controlled one of their Air Conditioners.

Zuli, Inc • VP Software • October 2014 - November 2016

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.

Nest, Inc/Google, Inc • Consulting through IGORLABS • August 2014 - October 2014

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.

Nest, Inc/Google, Inc • iOS Team Lead • February 2014 - July 2014

Lead the iOS team in developing the mobile app. Interfaced with design, service, engineering leads to deliver updates to new products.

Nest, Inc • Consulting through IGORLABS • October 2012 - February 2014

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.

iHeart Radio • Consulting through IGORLABS • February 2013 - June 2013

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.

SomaFM • Consulting through IGORLABS • December 2012 - October 2013

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.

Nest, Inc • Senior Software Engineer • July 2011 - October 2012

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.

Voxer, Inc • Senior Software Engineer • May 2010 - July 2011

Member of the iOS client team. Focused on UI and audio.

IGORLABS • Founder and CEO •April 2010 - Present

Relaunched IGORLABS LLC as a consulting shop. Used to explore new projects, and work with various clients outside of my employee endeavors.

TribalBrands, Inc • VP Engineering • October 2007 - April 2010

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.

Apple, Inc • Senior Audio Software Engineer, iPod • July 2007 - September 2007

Audio codecs, UX for first generation iPod Nano.

Danger, Inc • Senior Audio Software Architect, Senior Mobile Games Designer, Systems Architect • July 2001-July 2007

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.

Beatnik, Inc • Director of Audio Technologies • October 1996 - June 2001

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.

Igor’s Software Laboratories • Co-Founder and CEO • October 1995 - October 1996

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

Halestorm, Inc • Co-founder and CEO • January 1990 - July 1994

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 Group, Inc • Consulting • October 1987 - October 1989

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.

GO Corp • Software Engineer • January 1987 - August 1987

2D Graphics sub system engineer focused on UI.

Broderbund Software • Software Engineer • January 1986 - January 1987

Did a complete redesign of Fantavision for the Amiga.

Synapse Software • Software Game Designer/Engineer • March 1982 - August 1985

Design, coded software titles: Slime, Fort Apocalypse, Dimension X, Mindwheel, SynAssembler, music tools, copy protection.

Starpath, Inc • Software Game Designer/Engineer • May 1981 - February 1982

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.

Education

Las Positas College, Livermore California.

Computer Science · (1979 - 1981)

US PATENTS

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