When it comes to surfing the web, it's easy to get lost at sea. So let Moncrieff's regular guest Darragh Doyle, a man who knows a thing or two about what's weird and wonderful online, steer you in the right direction.
You can listen back to his full segment below, but here's what you need to know from the Internet this week...
- An opening video
Arguably the most important website for young people in the country today, SpunOut.ie celebrated its 10th birthday yesterday with a new look, all fancy, dynamic, responsive website full of up-to-date, factual information, free of any shame or bias. SpunOut provides information to about 80,000 readers a month, aged between 16 and 25, to empower them with the information they need to live active, happy and healthy lives.
- Web Summit
Should you invest in the electronic cereal dispenser that measures current fill level? The one that doles out according to actual need. Or the app that manages the clothes you own and loan, helping you understand what you wear and make better decisions about what you buy or the new African currency based on cows held by the owner, but “way simpler”?
The Web Summit is back and showcasing the best and brightest of Irish innovation. Here are some of the Irish picks of what to see:
Amidst the high-octane power broking, networking and deal making at Web Summit 2015, some of the youngest techpreneurs at the event - Katelyn, Chloe, Ben, Nadine and Daniel - from St. Audoen’s School, in the heart of The Liberties, will be hoping to win attention for the BullyBug.
With the ambitious aim of ridding Irish schools of bullying, the BullyBug is a wearable technology wristband created by kids for kids. It consists of a wristband, which when pressed, sends a message (via Bluetooth) to an app on a teacher's phone. The app instantaneously pushes a notification to the home screen of the handset while also recording the time, date and name of the student who activated their BullyBug.
The Irish Yapping motto is that everyone knows what’s happening at the other side of the world now a days but people don't know what’s happening a mile down the road and in there own community a lot of the time so they hope to make a difference there.
So the App is a new app - there are about 300 users there at the moment - that allows you to geofence the content and the messages you see, so you can see what’s being posted in your own area - anything up to 50 kilometers away, and you can chat about relevant stuff there - the neighbourhood watch, the local sports, who won the parish bingo and so on.
Go Cambio is a start-up in Co Cork that has a platform that connects people who want to travel with people who have a spare room and a desire to improve a skill - particularly a language! With 7500 members from 115 countries already since March, this could be a huge one for founders Ian O’Sullivan and Deirdre Bounds, who have ambitions for a million users by the end of 2016.
You swap two hours of your skill per day for free accommodation.
So, in exchange for a couple of hours a day helping someone improve the way they communicate in the guest’s language, guests get a place to stay and a warm welcome from a local Host. And Hosts get to improve a language they are trying to master.
Access Earth can be described as a Trip Advisor for the mobility impaired, providing reliable and up-to-date information on the accessibility of buildings and premises.
Access Earth’s mission is to empower people to embark on adventures to new venues and places without having to worry about their destination not being easily accessible. The content is user generated. The platform allows users to rate and add reviews of the accessibility of premises they visit, wherever in the world they are.
You need to find someone in a crowd, why not use your smartphone as a beacon.
Just agree upon a color in advance and hold your phone up in the crowd with one of the flashing colours so your friends can locate you - your screen flashing green, red, yellow, blue and purple. Simple but massively effective.
- And finally...
IKEA in Malaysia do love a good pun - here’s all their product names in a song advertising a sale in Cheras.
To see what got covered last time, click here. You can listen back to this week's segment below:
