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An Irish equestrian app has been shortlisted for the 2011 Best App Ever awards.
‘Save a horse’ was developed by app development firm Greyhorseapps.com to support the work of the Irish Horse Welfare Trust.

The app has been shortlisted from over 7,240 app nominations worldwide. Previous winners of the award include Angry Birds and Instagram.
App developer and founder of Greyhorseapps.com Elaine Heney relishes the challenge of making great apps.
“With the recession and European economic challenges, now is a great time to push the boundaries and create innovate products.”
The Tipperary-based firm’s roots were planted in 2004, when Heney set up irishhorsemanship.com to find people who share an interest in good horsemanship.
She set up Greyhorseapps.com in 2010 after a friend asked for permission to use the content from irishhorsemanship.com for an app.
The firm has since published over 30 apps to iOS and Android.
Voting for the Best Ever Awards ends on 24 January.

Imagine ‘checking in’ on social media just by tapping your phone against a poster? And gain instant rewards?
An Irish company is making a splash across the pond with a new platform which will offer just that.

Called RewardAble, this new platform from Betapond combines social check-ins with near field communication (NFC) and was showcased for the first time at the recent Innovation in Entertainment Showcase in Sony Pictures Hollywood.
RewardAble CEO Declan Kennedy explains that consumers will be able to ‘check in’ on social media and pick up rewards by simply tapping their phone against a poster or scanning a QR code.
The software, which will be available on all smartphones and integrates with NFC technology, will allow customers to discover new ways to get instant rewards whilst also benefiting retailers by bringing customer loyalty to the next level.
NFC authentications means customers will also have the highest level of privacy and protection.

Irish firm HeyStaks could win €225,000 at the upcoming Vodafone Mobile Clicks final in Amsterdam in September.

Being chosen as the Irish representative at the competition is a great honour for the NovaUCD spin-off, which launched its service earlier this year. HeyStaks provides a social layer on top of all mainstream search engines, allowing people to search more collaboratively.

The company wants web search to be more social and its apps make this possible for mainstream search engines such as Google and Bing.

Prof Barry Smyth, co-founder of HeyStaks, says winning the national stage of Mobile Clicks is a fantastic opportunity for the firm.
“It’s a strong validation of the HeyStaks product-set and our business opportunity, and it shines a global spotlight on our unique approach to social search,” he says.
Smyth says the company plans to build upon its product-set in the coming year to cover all major browser platforms, social networks and app platforms.

Heineken has become the latest brand to turn to mobile discovery firm Shazam for its TV advertising campaign.
The firm launched its ‘Gorgeous Girl’ ad last week, the second in a series by Irish creative agency Rothco. However, despite the official 18 July release date, fans and music lovers were given a sneak peek by ‘Shazaming’ the song from the ad. The song in question is Bossanova Baby by Elvis Presley.

The application Shazam allows users to find out about and listen further to a song they hear but don’t know.
Evan Krauss, executive vice president of advertising sales at Shazam, said last month that many firms are using the technology to “drive deeper engagement with their television ad campaigns”.
“We’re now seeing companies in nearly every industry sector taking advantage of Shazam’s second screen experience to provide consumers with additional product information or give them an easy and fast point-of-interest retail experience at the click button,” he said.

Online team management system, Teamer.net is launching an iPhone app.

The sports social platform allows sports teams to organise and engage with each other online, through email and text messaging.
Its iPhone app will be launched in July, with an Android app to follow.
The development comes as Teamer has grown to over 800,000 members in Ireland, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. It plans to enter the South African, Canadian and Indian markets this year.

Niall McEvoy, CEO, Teamer.net says: “Because of the complexity of the back-end database and infrastructure that Teamer is built on, we decided to build it ourselves.
“We’re very confident that as result of keeping it in-house we will not only have a premium product but we will have a product that we can develop further ourselves.”

While Teamer is free to use online, the app will be priced modestly, says McEvoy.