Klip – ‘the Instagram for video clips’

There are cool apps and then there are really cool apps. We think Klip falls into the later category. Klip “aims to be for video what Instagram is for photos and Twitter is for text”. Put simply, this app is a really slick video-sharing service for your iPhone that allows you to show your videos to friends and keep track of those that are uploaded by others.
Created by Alain Rossman, the app is free, has a great interface and is very responsive. Rossman is best known for being the inventor of the Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) and founder of HD video streaming service VUDU.
Klip has many great features and one of the best is the ability for users to ‘skim’ videos much in the same way as in Apple’s iMovie on the Mac.

Enter the Appys
If you have published a great app, why not enter this year’s Appys? The Appy’s with The Carphone Warehouse – honouring the very best in app development and design.

Facebook will “become a mobile company”

The head of mobile products at Facebook, Erick Tseng, told the Mobilize conference in San Francisco recently that the social network was “going to become a mobile company”.
What he meant by this doesn’t have anything to do with manufacturing mobile phones, rather it means ensuring Facebook is set up properly for most mobile devices.
Facebook has over 350 million mobile users (out of 800 million in total), and that proportion will swing to more than 50 percent within the next year. Tseng also said, most of Facebook’s users in India, Southeast Asia, and Africa access the site via mobile devices.
Tseng also confirmed the existence of the Facebook iPad app (expected to be announced the same day as iPhone 5 on October 4). He also said he doesn’t know why the Facebook app isn’t a default app on iPhone 5, like the Twitter iPhone app.
“We believe every phone should be social,” he said, and reminded the audience that Facebook works with partners like HTC and Sony Ericsson to “bake the platform into their apps layer”. It is, he said, “the beginning of what we think of when we see the mobile/social platform. It’s kind of a version one.”

The Appys 2011
The Appys 2011 with the Carphone Warehouse are open for entries. Categories include Facebook apps and iPad apps. To enter an app or book a seat simply go to here.

Smart devices, apps and mobile sites changing way people shop

New research by HP shows that the rate of technological change, driven by smartphones and tablet devices, is dramatically altering the way people in Europe shop.
More than half of the top 50 European retailers use more than three channels to sell direct to consumers. However, shoppers’ ever increasing expectations for “seamless cross-channel shopping experiences” means retailers need to better connect the dots between their mobile, online and in-store offerings.
Nearly all of the top 50 European retailers (98%) have a physical store presence, whilst just 86% have a website. Even more surprisingly, more than a third of European retailers (34%) offer a mail order catalogue, although just 28% have a mobile commerce app and 30% have an m-commerce website. Some European retailers are also experimenting with Facebook as a channel, although just 2% are actively offering F-commerce capabilities.
According to further research from YouGov, 74% of smartphone shoppers made a purchase as a result of using their smartphone. Of these, 76% have purchased in-store, 59% online while only 35% have made a purchase via their smartphone.
“The experience in the physical store is critical to a shoppers’ final purchasing decision and retailers must combine the best of in-store, online and mobile services and offerings to provide seamless cross-channel experiences in-store,” says Kobi Elbaz, director, Client Solutions, HP Personal Systems Group.
Emerging trends outside the store, such as increased interaction with touch-based technologies (smartphones and tablets), are also creating new demands on retailers to create similar in-store experiences to meet shopper expectations.

Have you created a great shopping app?
The Appys 2011 with The Carphone Warehouse are now open for entries from retailers and agencies who have created and built shopping apps.
You can also enter branded apps and business solutions apps.
For a full list of categories and how to enter simply go to theappys.ie. The Appys celebrates the best in app development and design and the awards ceremony will be held on November 3rd at the Mansion House, Dublin. Book your seats now.

Irish app translation firm Tethras sets up shop in US

Tethras, an Irish mobile app localisation firm, has announced the launch of its offering in the U.S. market and the opening of an office in Mountain View, California.
Tethras provides mobile app developers with a way to translate apps into over forty languages. By using Tethras, mobile developers can gain access to global markets and new streams of revenue without ever having to leave their desks, give up their source code, or download any software.

Big markets
According to Gartner global mobile app market revenue is predicted to exceed $58 billion by 2014. As smartphones gain popularity worldwide, the majority of app downloads already occur outside of a developer’s local market.
According to data made public by Apple, an average of eight out of the top 10 grossing apps in China, South Korea and France are localised. Therefore, the need for app translation is obvious to maximise revenue and reach.
“Previously, app translation was a fragmented and frustrating undertaking that often resulted in a lengthy go-to-market timeline. Tethras aims to simplify app localisation with high-quality translation by real human translators and an easily scalable experience,” said Tethras co-founder and CEO Brian Farrell.

Announcing The Appys 2011 with The Carphone Warehouse

The Appys 2011 with The Carphone Warehouse is now open for entries. The Appys is the only dedicated awards programme in Ireland for app development and design.
The Appys is designed to celebrate the innovation and creativity now abundant in the app development industry and reward the best, the most useful and the most creative apps and their developers.
Entries are open to anyone who has developed or paid for the development of a mobile app, a tablet app (e.g. an iPad app) and a Facebook app. All platforms are invited – iOS, Android, Bada, Symbian, Ovi, Windows etc.

Quality of apps 

“Apps are now part of everyday life and are having an impact on the way people share information, entertain themselves, educate themselves, search for things, shop and do business. The quality of apps, across all platforms, now available is staggering. Irish app developers are highly skilled and many of their apps are market leaders,” says Edward Conmy, event organiser.
“This year we are also delving into the rich world of tablet apps,” says Conmy. “Anyone who owns an iPad or an Android tablet will tell you that apps on these devices are incredible pieces of software. To enter your apps, simply go to our new website www.theappys.ie. It’s quick and easy.”
The event itself will be held at the Mansion House in Dublin on November 3rd, 2011. Tickets are available from theappys.ie . As well as an excellent networking event, The Appys will host a pre-show technology arena.

Closing date and how to enter

The closing date to enter your application is the 6th of October at 11.59pm. We then go into an intensive judging process and announce the short-list on the 21st of October.

You enter by filling in the form . Once you have entered all details you copy and paste the payment link to go to the shop. Data entry (your app details) and payment are two separate steps so you need to enter contact information twice I am afraid. We use Realex to process our payments securely.

If you have any questions give Alice a call on +353 (1) 284 6096. Best of luck and we are looking forward to seeing you on the night.

 

Free cross platform messaging app

A new cross-platform app that allows friends and family to send unlimited messages to each other in real-time, no matter what device they use, has just been launched.
PingMe Messenger, developed by ad network RadiumOne, also has an opt-in geo-location function that lets users find each other based on their location.
Users can connect with their friends through their phone’s address book, Facebook, or the PingMe network. The user ID is the same as the phone number, without the need for a password or new PIN. It is now available in the iPhone App Store, the Android Marketplace, or Blackberry App World, with more platforms to come.
“Consumers no longer need to incur expensive text messaging charges,” explains Rupert Staines, managing director of RadiumOne UK. “Free messaging services, like PingMe, let you stay connected, socialise, and share messages and pictures with your circle of friends when you’re on-the-go.”

Fall off in SMS
In the first three months of 2011, the US saw the number of text messages per wireless subscriber fall sequentially for the first time. Experts in the UK also predict the amount of texts sent will drop by 20 per cent in the next two years.

Heystacks reaches final seven of Mobile Clicks

Vodafone has unveiled the seven mobile internet start-ups that will go on to the final of the Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2011 competition. They are:

Republic of Ireland: HeyStaks is a one-stop mobile social search solution, combining the best of community and search engine recommendations to get you more personalised and relevant results.

Germany: Wunderlist is the first cross platform task management app that supports over-the-air sync and unlimited sharing completely for free.

Netherlands: Skylines offers a search platform for real-time images. Combining data from social media sites like Instagram, and Yfrog Twitpic, Skylines indexes over one million photos a day.

Portugal: Hole19 is a complete mobile and web performance optimisation platform for golfers, connecting them to golf instructors and golf courses.

Spain: Frogtek is an app that allows shopkeepers in the developing world to set up a financial system to run their business easily and quickly.

Turkey: BillGastro offers restaurant owners an affordable point of sale solution for a unique mobile restaurant app for their customers to reserve tables, to order food online and post news and events easily.

UK: ParcelGenie is the world’s first Instant Gift Messaging service that makes sending real gifts to friends and family almost as simple as sending an email or a text message.

Big PICNIC
The seven local winners will now be invited to represent their country in the live final at the PICNIC Festival in the Netherlands on 15th – 16th September 2011, where the overall winner will be chosen by a panel of mobile industry experts. The competition has a €225,000 prize fund.
Judges include: Rudy de Waele, founder of Mobile 2.0 Europe and dotopen; Peter Barry, Vodafone Ventures; Paul Jozefak, Neuhaus Partners; Reshma Sohoni; partner at Seedcamp and Lee Epting, Vodafone Group.
Ahead of the PICNIC presentations in Amsterdam, members of the public are invited to cast their vote for the winner. To vote, visit www.vodafonemobileclicks.com/vote

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