MobaNode specialises in engaging with mobile consumers by delivering personal, targeted, relevant, content and messaging to mobile devices at events – music events, sporting occasions, conferences, expos and more…

Five Things You Should Know About Bluetooth.

1. Stupid Name? Bluetooth started as the code name for the association when it was first formed and the name kinda stuck. The name “Bluetooth” is from the 10th century Danish King Harald Blatand – or Harold Bluetooth in English. King Blatand was instrumental in uniting warring factions in parts of what is now Norway, Sweden, and Denmark – just as Bluetooth technology is designed to allow collaboration between differing industries and technologies such as the computing, mobile phone, and automotive markets.

2. Lots of devices! 2 Billion devices in 10 years – that’s a lot of Bluetooth Chips! The First Bluetooth phone only came out in 2000 – lots of change in just 9 years. Now bluetooth is in phones, cars, keyboards, mice, pc’s, printers, GPS, mp3 players, headphones, headsets, cameras, medical devices and more recently sunglasses, watches, photo frames, clothes and TV’s.

3. Strangest Bluetooth device? There are many, from cushions and banana shaped hands-free kits, to Hug-Shirts for sending hugs over a distance, but by far the oddest has to be the leather phone-trousers or Lederhosen as preferred by thigh-slapping Bavarian dancers. The keys on the side leg of the shorts and the microphone is in the suspender straps allow you to talk – supposedly to keep you hands free whilst working, but more probably used for to two handed drinking whilst on phone at Oktoberfest!

4. What is Bluejacking & Bluesnarfing? Bluejacking is sending unsolicited messages via bluetooth to phones. Usually harmless content like text, images, audio etc, however, if people aren’t expecting anything, most think that their phone is playing up. Most bluejacking is done for pranks in crowded areas – sending text to nearby phones with personal messages on it (e.g. Hello Gorgeous! I like your pink top!) . Bluesnarfing on the other hand is taking control of another phone via bluetooth and is more sinister. All phone data can be downloaded via bluesnarfing – calendar, contact list, email, images, videos and text messages. Because this involves the theft of personal data, it is illegal in most countries. Bluesnarfing and Bluejacking exploited weaknesses in the Bluetooth specifications,particularly between 2000 and 2004, but these weaknesses have been patched now.

5. What’s next for Bluetooth? The future for bluetooth is all about lower energy (and thus battery consumption) and higher speeds. Non-techy’s don’t read any further! The next version of Bluetooth, code named Seattle will have very fast data rates (480Mbit/s) and with very low poser. It will also allow for the initialisation of communication over Bluetooth, but then substituting Bluetooth for Wifi when more speed is required for larger data volumes – thus Bluetooth can become a broadcast channel as opposed to the point to point channel that it is today.

Thanks again Shane. Some good info there. This post really makes me wanna buy some new gadgets, including sunglasses, watches, clothes etc. Well, with the exception of the Lederhosen!

A page dedicated to people that help me with the weekly Five Things is here.

Five Things you should know when sending out a press release

1. Get the most important thing you need to say into an ATTENTION GRABBING headline (in bold) and first sentence of your press release

2. Include crucial information only – don’t ramble, and don’t exaggerate

3. Length guideline – 4/5 paragraphs of two or three sentences including a quote or two from relevant people

4. Research who to send it to – only send to journalists who have an interest in the subject or company, those who’ve written about you before, or send to general news@…. email addresses

5. Do not attach anything to the email – plain text only – add the fancy bits if they get back to you seeking more info!

Cheers for those quick tips Emily. I think keeping things short and to the point will always help!

A page dedicated to people that help me with the weekly Five Things is here.

Five things you may not know about the Irish Language

1. Peig is not the worst book in the Irish Language. It’s not even the worst book on the Leaving Cert Syllabus. In my opinion that honour must go to Tóraíocht Dhiarmada agus Gráinne by Nessa Ní Shé* which isn’t even written in standardised Irish. Sadly the best book on the Leaving Cert Syllabus is studied by very few and is an epic story of unfulfilled young love, adventure, humour and high jinks spread over two continents involving gambling, sailing, tattie hoking and hypothermia: a real rags to riches blockbuster. If you have the opportunity try and convince your teacher to study Caisleán Óir. It’s great craic!

2. The Irish word for English is Béarla. You probably know this but did you know it is also the Irish word for nonsense? Says a lot really doesn’t it?

3. There are many loanwords from Irish in the English language as one would expect from two countries so close to each other. Daniel Cassidy claims in his 2007 book that the Irish invented much American slang claiming for example that the word jazz came from teas, meaning heat and having specific sexual connotations. (They didn’t teach you that in school, eh?) Amongst these slang words is also the word “quid” which is slang for money said to come from “mo chuid airgid”. In fairness to him it makes logical sense but being a largely illiterate minority in the nascent United States there is little evidence to back up his claims. There are loan words (and more importantly a wealth of beautiful bardic forms) in Irish from French, of course, and Latin too. In fact there is a whole system for changing a Latin word to Irish thanks to the methodical approach of the religion that brought the words to the country. My personal favourite loan words in the English language come from a very sad source. Two quintessentially English phrases, “Smashing!” and “Bully for you!” are anglicisations of the phrases “Is maith sin!” and “Bulaigh fir!” both common phrases in Ulster Irish (You would definitely know them if you had been enjoying Caisleán Óir rather than Peig as per point 1 above). Apparently they passed from one language to the other in the trenches during the Great War. It speaks volumes about the soldiers from Donegal who managed to remain that positive during such cruel and unusual times.

4. Irish is a funny language. There is no Irish for “I love you” or “I miss you” and yet it has some of the most beautiful love poetry in Europe (see point 3 above). The Irish for “You would feel” is pronounced “Wuhohaw” but spelt “Mhothófá”. The Irish for “would not get” (Ní bhfaighfidh) is pronounced “Knee wee” in Ulster Irish. While these two pieces of information are unamusing to a monolingual Irish speaker us bilingual Irish speakers have a little giggle about it the odd time.

5. Irish and Gaelic are two seperate languages in the same branch of Celtic languages. One major feature that differentiates them from other Celtic languages is that at some point Q-Celtic speakers (us and the Scots) took a notion against the “p” sound so that Pembroke in Wales would be Ceann Broc in Ireland or Scotland or the name David Williams would be Dáithí Mac Liam in Irish or Gaelic but Dafydd ap Gwilym in Welsh. Gaelic is differentiated from Irish by the fact that is has fewer tenses, its spelling was not standardised (meaning they’ve a lot more bhs, dhs and ghs hanging about), it has many loanwords, conventions and placenames from Scandinavian languages and the Gaelic for sweets is “suiteis” which is my favourite Gaelic word.

* For the real Celtic Language nerds among you Nessa Ní Shé was Somhairle Mac Gill-Eain’s muse and the inspiration for his most famour work “Dàin do Eimhir agus Dàin Eile” which is considered a classic of modern poetry regardless of language.

Some cool points there Roseanne and you’re right I did not know about most of them. Once I got passed the first word in the first point (The word Peig gives me the cold sweats don’t ya know!) I read on happily. Tá orm piosa gaeilge beag a scriobh anois: Go raibh míle maith agat don cuid oibir, tá sé go brea. Nuair a bhíos san scoil, bhí an gaeilge go líofa agam ach anois tá sé pidgeony enough. Slán agus beannacht – Seosamh Ó Scannlain. Haha I’ve just reminded myself of speaking my name in Irish in primary school. It was more than a mouthful for a 4 year old I can assure you

A page dedicated to people that help me with the weekly Five Things is here.

Lights Off

Nuker

Same Game

Speed

Five Things You Should Know about iPhone Development

1. Never try and make an iPhone app without owning your own iPhone/iPod touch. You just won’t get it. A user will be able to tell instantly if your app was written blind. i.e. you’ll suck!

2. 60% of the time spent on development should be on the user interface, graphics, and user experience. It’s more important than the code you write! Programmers might not understand that.

3. Know your usage model; one usually pulls their phone out of their pocket when bored/etc, you have about 60 seconds of usage, max. If your app cannot ‘do its thing’ in under 60 seconds, rethink it! (Games, big apps obviously differ)

4. Think Big! You’re working on the most powerful and advanced platform in the world, take advantage of that! It knows where you are and who you are, is always with you, has a camera and even knows in what position you’re holding it. The moment you have something to sell, you have [currently] thirty million people ready to buy it globally without you having to do anything else.

5. Aim to delight! You then won’t just have users, you’ll create diehard fans who will play a big part in promoting and advertising your app. Make something exciting!

6: Talk to me

Hmm, not too sure I approve of a 6th item in my Five Things, but I’m going to leave Steven off as it’s a good point. If you are thinking of developing an app for the iPhone you would do well to run it by Steven. He can be contacted on twitter here: http://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith and his blog is here http://www.steventroughtonsmith.com/ I’ve just had a quick look at his first tv appearance and it’s pretty cool. Well done Steven, thanks for the five six tips and best of luck for the future.

A page dedicated to people that help me with the weekly Five Things is here.

Being informed is a key part of every decision we make, from choosing a restaurant to booking a summer holiday. In an age where Google has become a verb and the media abounds with self-help experts, it is surprising how few people inform themselves about something as important as their healthcare options. Cheap airfares and expensive treatment at home are causing more and more patients to travel abroad in search of great value crowns in Budapest, a cheeky nip and tuck in Thailand, or an uplifting boob job in Mexico. Here are the five things you should know before travelling for healthcare:

1. Is the healthcare provider qualified to carry out the particular procedure and what kind of success rate has he/she?
You cannot take it for granted that your healthcare provider will be properly qualified- qualifications and training differ widely from country to country. You should contact the medical or dental council in the country of treatment to see if the surgeon is fully qualified and currently registered to practice. If you are receiving any kind of specialist treatment, it is very important to make sure they are further qualified in that area. A super-sleuth patient will also find out if the surgeon is qualified to practice in the patient’s home country. You should ask how many times your healthcare provider has carried out a particular procedure and what kind of long term success rates former patients have experienced. If the clinic is uneasy about providing this information, walk on by.

2. What will the clinic do for you should anything go wrong?

We’ve all seen the healthcare horror stories, the ripped stitches, missing teeth and ugly scars. Although these situations are the worst case scenarios and are not experienced by the majority of patients, things can go wrong and you need to know how your clinic would deal with it. Do they offer guarantees, refunds, or free remedial treatment? If something goes wrong when you get home, will they cover the cost of return travel and treatment? Make sure that you could live with the answers they give.

3. What other options do I have?

Just because your favourite celebrity has had a particular procedure done doesn’t make it the right course for you. Always ask if there are any alternatives, such as a newer, less risky or cheaper procedure. If you don’t ask, you won’t receive.

4. How much is it going to cost?

No need to roll your eyes like that, I know you’re not stupid. Bear with me on this one. Although this is generally the first thing a potential patient will want to find out about, there may be some hidden costs not originally considered or budgeted for. Things like x-rays, anaesthetics or drugs can add considerably to the cost of treatment. The last thing you want is to arrive in sunny Malaysia to be told that the boob job that you thought was going to be a snip at €3,000 is working out at more like €6,000. You could have stayed at home in rainy Ireland for that.

5. Can you speak to some previous patients?

The best way to get honest answers about your clinic is to talk to people who have been in the same situation. The clinic should be willing to put you in touch with someone from your home country who had the same procedure carried out. If they can’t or won’t, (which is in itself quite a bad omen) go online to find someone. Usually people who are either very happy or very unhappy with their experiences go online to spread the word.

The message here is quite clear and nicely put. It’s your body – do some research before travelling. Thanks again to Aoife, Calaen and all the crew at revahealth.com

A page dedicated to people that help me with the weekly Five Things is here.

Five Things bands should know when they send a CD to a radio station

1. Put your name on it:

You’d be surprised how simple an idea as this is so often neglected. I know bands send press releases and the like but they can get easily lost so your CD should have band name, track listing, contact phone and e-mail and website/Myspace details.

2. Pick your target:

Take the time to check out the station’s website and see who is most likely to play your sort of music. It’s a waste of your cash to send your ambient electronica to the guy who does the mid-morning talk show, the trad music guy or the fully pop music formatted breakfast show. If the website isn’t any help, don’t be afraid to ring reception during office hours and see if they can help. Also don’t just send stuff to the likes of us. Most of the time local and community radio have looser playlists than we do, more specialist shows and greater opportunities for sessions and interviews.

3. Have a proper bio on your web presence:

The comedy one about how you all met herding goats in Namibia is great but it’d be nice to know how long you’ve been together, where you’re from and even simple stuff like how many people are in the band and their names!!! Helps when you’re researching interviews

4. Be realistic:

I know this may sound harsh but you have to think about where you should be sending your stuff based on your level. I’ve had bands send me their first ever demo, badly and cheaply recorded and fully expect me to play it at 3.30 in the afternoon. You need to have something that sounds good enough to play on the radio before presenters will play it on the radio. Remember, you’re in competition with a hundred other Irish bands and hundreds of others from the UK and beyond for limited playlist space. Be honest. Does what you’re sending in sound good enough?

5. Don’t be disappointed, keep trying:

Chances are if you’re a new band with a first, early CD national radio aren’t going to fall at your feet. Don’t let that put you off. Keep sending in stuff as you release it, keep updating the site, keep paying gigs, keep plugging. Don’t be afraid to mail to follow up your CD but remember that the further up the tree, the more CDs someone gets. I get dozens upon dozens every week. I’d love to be able to individually mail everyone back but it would take up half the working day. That doesn’t mean that I don’t listen to ALMOST everything. And remember – radio play is by no means essential in making sure a band becomes successful. A good live following, good reputation and strong online presence are far more important these days.

Some great tips for bands there. Hard to believe that some bands (after taking the effort to record their stuff and send it in) would forget to put their names on it. The bio point makes great sense also, it’s all well and good to be funny, but the facts are nice too I’d imagine. Thanks again Rick and best of luck with the Meteor award nomination.

A page dedicated to people that help me with the weekly Five Things is here.

Five things you should know about writing web content

1. Know who you’re writing for
Here’s a clue… it’s not you, and it’s certainly not the sub-committee of executives/managers who will sign off on the project. When it comes to writing effective web content (or any other form of content for that matter) you should be writing for one group of people, and one group of people only: your target audience. The better you know the people who will ultimately be using your content, the more effectively you’ll be able to tailor your writing to meet their needs, not yours.

2. Know what you’re aiming for
If you don’t know where you’re heading, there’s a fairly good chance you’ll never end up where you want to be.

It’s the same when you’re writing web content: you should have a clear goal in mind before you start writing. Write for your audience first and foremost, but do it with a particular goal in mind. Your goal could be to get someone to buy a product, request a follow up call, sign up for your newsletter, download your e-book, click through to another site or simply to inform or entertain.

Effective web content is all about aligning the needs of your target audience with your business goals.

3. Words are the key to online “findability”
It doesn’t matter how good your content is, it’s worth nothing if nobody reads it.

While social media referrals are growing as a source of targeted web traffic, the way the vast majority of visitors will find your online content is via their favourite search engine. Every piece of content you write should be optimised for specific targeted keyword phrases (you already know what they are for your site… right?).

That said the days of liberally scattering keywords through your prose and agonising over metrics like keyword density are long gone. Introduce your selected keywords organically into your writing, and use related phrases and expressions that help search engines interpret what your content is about, but always bear in mind point 4 below.

4. Write for humans, not robots
Your website is for people, not search engines, so make sure your content addresses the needs of your human readers first.

As a rule of thumb, if you find yourself doing anything to give your content a boost in the search engines at the expense of readability and usability for your human audience stop and rethink. Successful websites are about conversion, not traffic. If your content doesn’t deliver for human visitors once they arrive all traffic will do is consume bandwidth.

5. “Scanability”
Whether you choose to write short copy or long copy will depend largely on the tastes of your particular target audience — but one thing that’s almost universally acknowledged (and that’s a rare thing online) is that long passages of unbroken text are a bad thing. People simply won’t read them.

Your average web user is a fickle and impatient beast, accustomed to scanning vast seams of information quickly and extracting only the relevant nuggets. It makes sense therefore to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to scan your content quickly and pick out bits that are relevant to them.
• Summarise important information early, before going on to provide more detail if necessary (inverted pyramid).
• Use headings and bullet points to break up large chunks of text and make your content easy to scan — but only use them where it makes sense.
• Remember everything you do should be designed to make your content more useful / relevant / entertaining for your human readers.

Most of all though, get to know the people you’re writing for. Your readers are online, find them, interact with them, talk to them, listen to them. Employ social media as a vehicle to engage with and learn about your target audience, their likes, dislikes, wants and needs — then tailor your content accordingly.

Some great tips there Calvin, thanks very much. I think getting to know the people you’re writing for is a vital step in providing good content. Take care, I hope the book Understanding Digital Marketing works out well for you.

A page dedicated to people that help me with the weekly Five Things is here.

Five Things you should know about Cosmetic Ingredients is probably the funniest Five Things that I have done so far. Don’t take it from me, just read on.

Beauty is a massively lucrative business: brands breed products like locusts, department stores make serious money from prestige lines and cosmetic advertising props up glossy magazines and the print media. We all buy into it, too. Even if you’re not a high-end beauty buyer, it’s very likely you still pick up bits and bobs from budget brands in the supermarket. Find me a person who doesn’t at least buy soap, shower gel or deodorant and you can colour me all kinds of amazed. I probably won’t want to question them about it, either. Because they’ll stink.

It’s a competitive business too. In order to establish a unique selling point and attract customers, companies are constantly vying with each other for that magical point of difference, and particularly in recent years, that difference has been unlikely and sometimes pretty bizarre ingredients. Want to know my top bonkers-style beauty inclusions? Read on.

1. SNAKE VENOM
Fret not – no one is up in the Phoenix Park milking the cobras. Syn-ake is a synthesised version of the peptides found in the venom of Temple Viper snakes, and is used in skincare to mimic the effect of Botox. Of course, the claims are exaggerated by the companies using it – no topical product will have the same effect as something that’s injected into muscle, and the Botox molecule can’t penetrate the skin anyway, as it’s too big. The advantage, apparently, is that the whole skin is treated through use of a topical skincare product, as opposed to small areas being targeted as they are with Botox. So if you think you’ll get the effect of injectibles – you won’t. But you probably will get nice, soft skin.

2. WHALE SICK
Uh-huh. Whale sick. The vomit of those large mammals of the sea is known as ambergris. Starting to sound a little more familiar? Yep – that’s because it’s used in fragrance. OK, not strictly puke, it’s a waxy substance that’s found in the digestive tract of whales, so we’re close enough. It’s the original found object, too – whales have to, er, sick it up naturally and then it washes up on beaches to be collected. Hugely prized in times of yore for its earthy scent, it was used as a perfume fixative. In the face of uncertain supply, it fell out of favour and has largely been replaced by synthetic additives. Phew. Or should that be phew-eeeuw?

3. SNAIL SLIME
Discovered because the hands of Chilean snail farmers were suspiciously silky-smooth, claims state that the, ahem, secretions of the De Tuinen snail are beneficial when used on skin. It’s also being lauded as an acne cure, and Holland and Barrett capitalised on the buzz surrounding the slime last year when they released their best-selling Snail Face Gel. Does it work? The goo contains glycolic acid, which is an excellent skin-resurfacer that’s used in chemical peels, allantoin which has regenerating properties, plus collagen and elastin, necessary for skin plumpness and tautness. The key here is the concentration: are there enough active ingredients to really see a difference? I don’t know – and I don’t want to find out, either.

4. MEGA MUSHROOMS
Brands like Origins and the Japan-based Menard have created skincare lines containing extracts from Asian mushrooms such as shiitake and reishi. ‘Shrooms have been used in Chinese medicine for squillions of years, and recently they’ve found favour in anti-ageing circles too. Is there any method to the madness? Well, they’re a fungi, and so is penicillin, and Dr Weil, (One of America’s best-known complementary care physicians) says that they have immune-enhancing and anti-inflammatory effects. Right so.

PS: button mushrooms raised in poly-tunnel in Co. Louth need not apply.

5. BULL SEMEN
Balls, you may be saying (whilst admiring my pun), but it’s true. At Hari’s salon in London’s Knightsbridge, you can treat yourself to a delightful 45-minute jizz-based therapy to add that ‘wow’ factor to your limp locks. For a spend of £100stg, you can get this “world famous, protein packed Aberdeen Organic bull sperm treatment that locks moisture deep into every hair shaft.” Haha – he said shaft! Ahem. Back to business – does this work? Actually, there’s some truth in it: protein treatments are great for dry, stressed hair, but typically you’d buy them in a bottle, and not from a bollock. So while this isn’t for everyone, those with a bit of spunk might enjoy it.

When I originally contacted beaut.ie about doing a five things for me, i was expecting a “Five things you should know about caring for your skin” and was expecting the usual “Drink plenty of water, go jogging twice a week” etc. Needless to say I was pleasantly (?) surprised by the end result. I am dreading the organic searches that Google will now bring to my blog, but it’s all for the sake of the Five Things.

Thanks again to Kirstie and the crew at beaut.ie.

A page dedicated to people that help me with the weekly Five Things is here.

1. It takes more than two sticks to drum. Honest. Drummers have forever been the butt of jokes of how drummers have no brains, which is how they end up hitting things with sticks. Not true, and no, we don’t find it funny!

2. The more cymbals, the better. You can never have enough cymbals. Never.

3. We’re an integral part of the band, get used to it. All music is centred around a main beat, even rap, and drums keep time.

4. Ever heard of “surviving the test of time”? Drums are the oldest musical instrument, so it obviously means they’re needed, if they’re around so long.

5. And a note for people who are drummers now, take it from a drummer who started in 2007, stay away from wooden sticks, Carbon FTW.

Cheers for that Tommy, some good drumming tips there. Cymbals and carbon is where it’s at then. I’m taking this opportunity to add a point 6. You can’t help but look cool. If you don’t believe me check out this clip.

Tommy’s blog is under 10 months old and is long-listed in two categories in the upcoming Blog Awards. Needless to say it’s well worth subscribing to.

A page dedicated to people that help me with the weekly Five Things is here.

Designing for the web can be a rewarding and satisfying occupation. However, running a Web Design business presents greater challenges. I would like to make my Five Things relate to common pitfalls in the business end of web design and how they can be avoided.

1. Meetings, meetings, meetings – are they really necessary? In reality, it is eminently possible to design a business website without ever meeting the client face to face, however most clients want to meet at least once and this will enable you to get a better feel for their business and web requirements. If the budget for the job can afford travelling to meetings then fine, factor these into your costs.

In general, taking a website from brief to launch should not include more than three meetings:

1. Initial introduction and brief
2. Content meeting – mostly superfluous as it can all be done by email. But some clients find it difficult to assemble their content so a meeting at this stage may be useful.
3. Training meeting – Only if the job includes a content management system (CMS)

2. Set goals for your projects. Decide how long it will take to deliver and stick firmly to your milestones. Make sure that the client knows that they will be required to respond to design approval and requests for content within a reasonable timeframe in order to meet deadlines.
You may also want to limit the number of rounds of changes and charge for extra. Otherwise jobs can pile up and seem never-ending which is neither good for your client or for you.

3. Compile as detailed a brief as possible ensuring that your client knows exactly what they are getting from the outset. A client may approve your quote to complete a simple brochure site and once they see it begin to take shape they add more and more as they may not have been able to visualise the extent of their requirements from the start.
You need to be able to refer back to the original quote and let them see that they will be charged for the extra work.

4. You decide what you charge for each job based on your experience and the value you place on your work. Don’t try to compete with low cost newbies and don’t and let the client talk you down to the stage that you resent working on their project.
Nobody likes to feel that their work is not valued so don’t be afraid to walk away if the client’s budget is below what you charge. Recession or not, other jobs will come along and you will be glad that you’re not busy working for ‘el cheapo’ client when they do.

5. Juggling projects. If your budget allows it, try to outsource all or parts of some of your projects so that you can take on multiple projects. Just make sure that you can communicate well with your designer or developer and work on building a trusting relationship with them.
Use an online project management tool such as: http://teamworkpm.net/ or http://www.proworkflow.com/ to keep track of your projects or build one to suit your own requirements.

There are gazillions more things I could say about the business, but 5 is all I’m allowed.
I hope my small contribution will help someone somewhere.

Thanks again Dorothy, I hope 2009 will be a busy year for you.

A page dedicated to people that help me with the weekly Five Things is here.