The marketing initiative for Telus Garden has kicked off in theatres and TV featuring Intergalactic’s CG/video production. Produced in conjunction with our good friends Giant Ant and Faction, the video features a combination of video and high end rendered content showcasing the amazing architecture of this massive downtown development. Team Intergalactic works on a lot of great projects but there is something particularly gratifying in seeing your work on a massive screen while eating popcorn.

Because of this we are of two minds over the announcement that Telus Garden has SOLD OUT before it even opened its doors to the general public! [Read the Globe and Mail article] While we certainly cannot take the credit for such an amazing success we like to think that our production, website, and interactive systems helped drive awareness, demand, and sales for the 428 downtown homes. We just wonder if they might let our commercials run a tad bit longer in theatres so that we can continue to point at the screen and elbow fellow theatre-goers.

We would like to thank the amazing family at Westbank and the incredible team at Magnum for allowing us to be a part of such a landmark project for Vancouver’s future.

Who We Are Looking For
Intergalactic is looking to hire a talented full stack LAMP developer to help build a new suite of products from the ground up. This will be a project you will put your stamp on while working collaboratively to create something fast, efficient, robust and scalable.  This will be a web-based application that will involve you building a set of secure back-end tools along with APIs consumed by web, kiosk, and mobile applications. It will be good times.

What Will You Be Doing
- Architect a scalable, robust solution for entering, managing, and exposing content based on provided spec docs
- Build a series of discrete components using PHP and MySQL
- Document your work during the development process
- Work with our UX designers to roll out great looking tools

The Ideal Candidate Will Have The Following
- 4+ years full stack LAMP development
- Solid knowledge of PHP, MySQL, AJAX, Javascript, HTML5 and jQuery
- Experience building scalable systems
- Experience processing, storing and managing multiple media types including JPG, PDF and MOV files
- Experience working with cloud services

Other Nice To Haves Are
- Experience with Drupal and WordPress
- Experience working with Flash/Actionscript
- Mobile experience including iOS and Android
- Experience with data encryption
- A healthy fear of Sam Niell in “Event Horizon”. I mean, that guy was freaky.

This position is available immediately and includes salary and bonus, medical/dental benefits, three weeks vacation and a great work environment.

If you are interested please send your resume and favourite sci-fi movie quote to jobs@intergalactic.com.

We recently had an opportunity to play with the new Nokia and the resolution is truly amazing for a phone camera. What struck us most about the camera is that when not shooting at 41MP it churns out smaller images of exceptional clarity.

Any digital photo has random noise of some form as a byproduct of the heat on the digital sensor. The longer the shot the more noisy it gets which is why celestial photographers have been known to cool their cameras down to chilly temperatures in order to generate a cleaner image. The key is the noise in a picture is random so if you have multiple shots of the exact same subject you can compare the images and map the changes between exposures. If the subject is exactly the same the only change between the images is the random noise of each photo. Using software you can map these differences and remove them, resulting in a cleaner image.

This brings us to the new Nokia which has such enormous headroom on its CCD that it can divide up the sensor and take simultaneous exposures of your subject. It can then take these multiple exposures and compare them and produce a single clean image. Most end users won’t know (or care to know) how the phone is functioning as it is all automated and happens in the blink of the eye. But what they will care about is that their photos will look clean and crisp. This will be especially true in challenging lighting situations wherethere are plenty of dark areas (think birthday cakes) to deal with.

In other words: Bigger things aren’t always better but in this case something bigger will get us something smaller that is better. Wow.

If you are in the mood for some deeper information on the 808 (or just want to add the term “pixel binning” to your repertoire) head over to this great explanation by DPReview. They have some stunning sample photos on the site.

Nomenclature aside one of the most important advancements in the new iPad is its ability to access LTE networks. We decided to put it to the test side by side with our iPad2 on 3G. We used Speedtest.net’s great app while connected to the Roger’s network in downtown Vancouver. We ran the test six times and although the numbers fluctuated slightly the overall real world results demonstrate a huge leap in speed with the new iPad while on LTE.

The fastest test results we saw from the iPad2 3G was 3.28Mbps down and 0.98Mbps up. The new iPad on LTE clobbered the iPad2, sucking down data faster than a hipster pounding back Shiner at SXSW (Editor’s note: we drank a lot of Shiner at SXSW). The New iPad downloaded at 31.03Mbps and returning data at 22.56Mbps.

In our minds the findings are clear: if you are watching “Futurama” on Netflix for iPad it will be vastly improved with the iPad3 iPadHD, new iPad.

We’ll be promoting Xomo, our mobile team, and Spotlight, our latest event app.

For more info on Spotlight and other mobile event guide offerings, check out the Xomo website: xomodigital.com

Intergalactic is looking for a talented mobile application developer to work as part of a team building apps for iOS (iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad).

The ideal candidate MUST have the following:

• Objective-C, C++, C, Cocoa, iPhone SDK knowledge.
• At least a few great apps on the App Store
• Experience with SQL, HTML, versioning tools
• Knowledge of design patterns, algorithms and a love for elegant designs.
• Computer science degree or similar

Experience with Android, Blackberry and/or mobile web apps would be a nice plus, as would experience programming in PHP, and doing server-side administration of a LAMP or WAMP stack.

This is a full-time position working in our Vancouver head office. Intergalactic offers an attractive annual salary with extended health and dental, a profit sharing plan plus three weeks vacation.

How to Apply

Send your resume to: jobs@intergalactic.com
Please include in your cover letter an indication of your favourite sci fi movie quote and why.

Xomo, our event app division, was lucky to participate at SXSW2011 as the provider of the official mobile app.

SXSW GO, proudly presented by HP ePrint, is the official mobile app for getting the most out of attending SXSW 2011. The app allows you to view/build your schedule, see a map of what’s happening and how to get there, navigate the tradeshow, stay connected to the social world and more!

You can build your schedule online at schedule.sxsw.com or directly on your mobile device. With SXSW® GO, you can sync your online schedule with your mobile device, so your info will always be up-to-date!

Features Include

Schedule – Search/browse the entire event list, create and save filters based on category, sub-category, track, and venue.
Map – Quickly see what’s going on around you and how to get there.
Search – Quickly find events, venues or exhibitors via keyword search
Tradeshow – Search/browse Exhibitors
Social – Check in to events with Gowalla. Share your favorite events via Twitter or Facebook. You can also keep an eye on the SXSW Twitter feed and Facebook page for all the latest news.
Discover screen (iPad only) – Find other great events at SXSW

“SXSW” and “South By Southwest” are registered trademarks of SXSW Inc. Any unauthorized use of these names, or variations of these names, is a violation of state, federal and international trademark laws.