Mobanode crowned Limerick winner of Elevate Award

From the official press release...

A Limerick entrepreneur specialising in mobile marketing and communications has been unveiled as the Limerick winner of this year’s Impact Media Elevate Award. 

Shane McAllister of Mobanode took the prize worth €60,000 at a glittering awards event at the Carlton Castletroy Park Hotel in Limerick last Thursday.

Shane’s unique communications service uses technologies such as Bluetooth, WiFi and NFC to provide free audio, video and mixed media content to people at all kinds of events.  This novel technological approach to marketing made a big impression on Elevate judges Oliver Moloney of Instore, Michael Kearney of The Carlton Hotel Group and Niall McGarry of Impact Media, who chose Mobanode over strong competition from Sports Academy International and Travelace.

Mobanode will now benefit from a fund designed to elevate emerging entrepreneurs to a whole new level. The prize includes a generous advertising package on Limerick’s Live 95fm; full marketing, design and PR services from Impact Media; press advertising with The Limerick Post; print services from Castle Print; legal advice from RDJ Solicitors and a photographic session with Viewmaker.

“Mobanode is a very deserving winner,” said Niall McGarry of Impact Media. “The standard of entries was fantastic and Shane showed the kind of entrepreneurial drive and spirit that the Elevate Award is all about.”

Shane McAllister was delighted with his win: “Mobanode has really taken off since it was showcased at Electric Picnic last September. I’m delighted with this prize which will take the business to an even bigger stage.”

MobaNode Application makes it onto RTE News

A clip from today's RTE News - both the Six-One edition and the 9 O'Clock news

MobaNode's Amhrán na bhFiann for Nokia & Gaelchultur from MobaNode on Vimeo.

MobaNode created the Amhrán na bhFiann Karaoke style application for Nokia and Gaelchultur as a project to get Irish content onto Nokia's newly launched Ovi Store. Launched in time to coincide with the all Ireland Football finals, the application was featured on Ireland's RTE 1 news station on Septemeber 17th 2009

Nokia app teaches the Irish their own national anthem – karaoke style!

By John Kennedy, published on Silicon Republic on September 17th 2009

It’s a common enough site in the pubs up and down Ireland and at the end of a Saturday night. Emotional grown men, faces red from Guinness and with moist eyes, passionately bellow out the national anthem Amhran na Bhfiann.

But did you ever ask yourself, how many of them actually know the words or are just mumbling along. Like sex in 1960s Ireland, the subject is taboo and you just don’t ask anyone.

But that’s about to change. Mobile giant Nokia, in conjunction with Gaelchultúr, have launched an application where you can learn the words of the Soldier’s Song on your Nokia handset.

Users can log on to store.ovi.com to download this karaoke-style application for free!

Are you embarrassed that you don’t know the national anthem in English, let alone in Irish? Are you one of the many people who stand in the crowd at sports events, miming the nation’s favourite song because you don’t know the words - Olé Olé is not the national anthem!

You can now learn the national anthem in a fun, funky way with friends and family.

The application will teach you the words line by line, by following the highlighted Irish text, while the English translation is featured underneath.

Dublin firm Gaelchultúr was established in 2004 with the aim of promoting the Irish language and various aspects of Irish culture including music, song and dance, throughout Ireland. Who knows? Maybe they’re working on an app that will teach us Irish dancing.

By John Kennedy

Bluetooth provides interactive fort tour on visitors' mobiles

VISITORS TO the 1,000-year-old Caherconnell Stone Fort in Co Clare won’t have to grapple with maps or tune headsets to hear tourguide information – instead, all they need will be sent free to their mobile phones, writes GORDON SMITH 

The architectural site is testing a tourist guide which can be downloaded to any phone using Bluetooth wireless technology.

Launched this month, the guide contains an interactive map. Clicking on one of the 11 places of interest on the tour launches text about that location, a photo and an audio commentary. The information can be updated and changed.

The guide was developed by Mobanode, a Limerick-based digital agency. “Mobile is the ideal medium to reach out to tourists and provide content,” said Shane McAllister, founder of Mobanode.

“Many tourist attractions have proprietary handsets to hire or rent, which can be expensive to maintain, but everybody coming through the door already has the display technology in their pockets in the form of a phone.”

On arrival, signs prompt visitors to switch on their phone’s Bluetooth setting, and they receive an opt-in message asking whether they wish to receive the guide.

Since it was launched, 65 per cent of visitors with Bluetooth-enabled phones have downloaded it.

The application remains on the phone long after tourists have left, and it includes a “send to friend” feature. John Davoren, owner of the Caherconnell site, said this could be a useful viral marketing tool. “We’re hoping for a multiplier effect, where if they have downloaded it and know someone who is visiting the Burren, they can say, ‘Have a look at this’.”

The file is 800kb in size and can take up to 15 seconds to download.

The project was developed after a report by tourism, wireless-access and interaction-design researchers at University of Limerick.

Click here to see the original article in the Irish Times