The big App for the small festival

Today we resleased a new App - nothing new there you say, sure isn't that what ye do....but this time there's one small difference. Most Apps MobaNode builds are bespoke custom work and thus take a good bit of time, energy, resources and therefore costs. However, not all our clients have the budgets to build bespoke Apps, so at MobaNode we're developing a system/platform/framework/thingy (can't decide what to call it!) to provide the same high quality apps, at a fraction of the time and cost. The first App out the gate using this "thingy" is our App for the Helium Festival 2011. A small festival in Ballymahon ,Co. Longford with just 1200 attendees shouldn't be derprived of a really cool App so that the festival goer could keep up with the schedule, and they weren't...as MobaNode was happy to oblidge...

We were glad to help out the team from Helium with this App, as the event itself was for charity and to raise money for FASI - the Friedreichs Ataxia Society of Ireland. So if you are lucky enough to be heading to the Helium Festival....go get the App on the Appstore now...

So you're you a small Festival, Event or Tourist Attraction and think Apps either aren't for you, or you can't afford one, give us a shout here at MobaNode (hello@mobanode.com) and we can have a chat (preferably over coffee and cake!)

St. Patrick is coming...

...to a mobile screen near you.

Yes, it's that time of the year again and MobaNode is delighted to be working with the St. Patricks Festival team once again to produce the St. Patrick's festival apps. This year, the Apps will be available for iPhone and Android and as well as containing all the usual features of the list of events, maps etc this year we have fully integrated Twitter & Facebook and for all the Irish Diaspora around the world, they can now watch the Parade on the 17th Live through the App (Courtesy of RTE)

You can download the apps by visiting the following link - 

http://www.stpatricksfestival.ie/index.php/interact/apps

If I sold 51 million...

...of ANYTHING, I'd retire to a sun drenched tropical Island!

According to the latest reports, Apple managed to have their best quarter ever with the iPhone. In total, Apple shifted 8.75 million of the shiny devices. This brings the total to just over 51m for the complete history of the iphone (all three models) - not counting iTouch's (which Apple usually throw into the equation to beef things up). Other, more established handset manufacturers slightly pooh-pooh these numbers, but this last quarter for Apple is a 130% growth, year on year - not many of the "others" can boast that!

(Image courtesy of MobileCrunch)

With all this though, it is worth pointing out that the iphone is not the best selling phone ever, nor the fastest selling ever. And at the same time, Android is catching up, selling 60% of the volume of iphones, and other platforms are out there. The point is that whilst the iphone is significant, it’s not the only handset out there! And at MobaNode, we cater for all platforms!

Wordpress for iPhone

Just downloaded the wordpress plugin for my iPhone. I'm hoping that this will allow me to more frequently post as for me, blogging is a downtime activity and I seem to be having less and less downtime these days. Hence the iPhone app should enable me to post during my "dwell" times - on a train, plane, in traffic, waiting for someone/something or indeed anywhere you like - and I'm not going to divulge where I am now as I write this! ;-) Looking forward to testing the power of it!

There can be only ONE!

Anyone who knows me know that I firmly believe that in the end, there will only be one - one device that is and that it will be the mobile phone - the one true convergent device - one device to rule them all! Anyone who thinks otherwise, is just plain daft and out of their tree. The proof? If any proof is needed, you need only look at the iPhone - bah, rubbish, I hear you cry, it doesn't do MMS, Copy and paste and lots more, but that's not my point - the point is that the iPhone today is more powerful that the first bondi coloured iMacs that came out 10 years ago. Don't believe me - see this comparison here - iphone wins on all counts. Taking that a step further and future-casting, the phone you will have in you pocket in 10 years time will be more powerful than the desktop or laptop you are reading this blog on today, it will connect with your bluetooth keyboard so you don't have to type on a small device (that is, if typing is still the preferred input method!) or else it will project it's own keyboard like itech's Virtual keyboard (see here). But what about the display, well, as of today, you won't have to be squinting at your tiny screen either - the first mobile phone with integrated projector is now available...The Lanye N70 - complete with it's iPhone rip-off menus.

You can actually buy this phone here for just $345 and although it needs two batteries to perform it's projection trick at the moment, that's sure to change. So you heard it hear first - in 2018 all we will carry is our iPhone like device and that's it - at work, at home, at play. It will store and manage your entire digital life, project it's screen to make it sufficently large not to loose your eyesight, and provide you with an appropriate input mechanism. Someone's over at the now defunct www.inewidea.com already had a mock-up attempt at this, but I think they missed the screen bit, but worth a look all the same... Can I call myself a futurist now?