Category: Apps

United Nations launches new game and animated film to mark World Education Day. #ResetEarth

‘Reset Earth’ is an innovative educational platform for adolescents about the fundamental role of the ozone layer in protecting the planet. The project launches on World Education Day (January 24th) with a virtual world premiere of the original animation film that explores options for collective positive action here. The film’s plot continues in a challenging mobile game for Android and IOS (February 10th). The platform is initiated by United Nations Ozone Secretariat to sustain the protection of the ozone layer through the sensitisation and engagement of Gen Z.  

 Ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) have been widely used throughout the 20th century, mostly for refrigeration, in air conditioners and aerosol sprays. ODSs threaten the earth’s upper atmosphere, drive up temperatures and account for close to 11 per cent of total warming emissions to date. Since the 1980s, the international community has acted to protect the ozone layer by banning or strictly restricting the use and production of such super greenhouse effect gases. Consequently, the Antarctic ozone is expected to close by the 2060s (without action, it might have been 40 per cent larger by now) and other regions will return to 1980s values even earlier.

Meg Seki, Acting Executive Secretary of the Ozone Secretariat, said, “The protection of the ozone layer cannot be considered a done deal. It must be a continuous effort by us and by future generations. If our children learn about the grim consequences of a ruined ozone layer through a fantasy cartoon and game app, they will be aware of its importance and protect it.”

Reset Earth begins a year-long education initiative by the Secretariat to raise awareness and inspire action among adolescents and parents about global ozone protection. Immersive, educational and thought-provoking, Reset Earth conveys a positive message around what can be achieved through collective action and cultivates a sense of environmental responsibility and ownership amongst the youth.

The Reset Earth animation film is set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic world in 2084, where the ozone layer has been completely ruined and human life is under threat from an unstoppable virus called “The Grow”. It is the story of three teenagers who team up in an epic time-travel adventure to save the planet and what’s left of human life. Their mission is to find out what caused the “The Grow”. They travel back to critical historical moments in the story of the mysterious ‘ozone layer”, essential to stopping the virus, and learning as they go about the fundamental role it plays in protecting the health wellbeing of the planet. To save the ozone layer, they must jump back in time to ensure the signing of the Montreal Protocol agreement.

The Reset Earth mobile game is a single player platform game, combining a retro graphics style and hand-drawn artwork and aligned with the film’s storyline. Players – whether adolescent gamers or their parents – switch between characters and utilise their unique abilities throughout four levels of the game. Through unlocking puzzles, players learn about environmental history and the science of protecting the planet.

The Reset Earth animation film and mobile game can be seen at: https://ozone.unep.org/reset-earth

For more information please visit: https://ozone.unep.org/reset-earth

Certification Europe Ltd announce employee engagement partnership with Thrive App #ThriveApp

Certification Europe has today announced their partnership with Thrive.App, which has involved the development of an employee engagement and communications app ‘CE Connect’.

Certification Europe Ltd. is a leading accredited Certification Body based in Ireland with offices in the UK, Italy and Japan.

With dispersed teams, across different locations as well as multiple business units (Certification Services, Environmental & Inspectorate Division and Technical Services), Certification Europe needed a ‘central hub’ for sharing latest updates, urgent announcements, in particular regard to Covid-19 news, and also for making sure they continued to lift spirits with competitions, fundraisers, games, onboarding of new employees and celebrating birthdays before and during their move to remote working at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Employee engagement was even more necessary at this time than ever before.

Certificate Europe’s CEO, Michael Brophy:

“Thrive is a perfect fit for our needs. It was quick to implement, it was scalable, and most importantly it did not need specific technical expertise to set it up nor run it. We made a decision to implement the app and very quickly we were able to develop a large amount of content, test it and go-live all within 6 weeks and we have not looked back since.

Over the last 6 months of having CE Connect up and running, Certification Europe has definitely seen an increase in employee engagement. Through having a place to upload weekly update videos, run competitions, let users upload pictures, share comments and like different events, it has been excellent to have through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our Assessment Team have noticed a big change in employee engagement since the introduction of CE Connect. Having always worked remotely or on client sites, they feel there is more interaction between the teams now than ever before.

Overall, we have had a great experience working with Thrive and creating this app for our organisation and look forward to seeing how it grows over time.”

Holly Magill, Senior Innovation Executive and part of the Great Place to Work Team, added:

“Working from home can be isolating, and the app has helped everyone stay in the loop with what’s going on across all areas of the organisation. The company’s ‘Great Place to Work Team’ have been running competitions and fundraisers and the app has made it much easier to reach everyone in the organisation with the notification’s options and the wide range of content options we can include on posts.”

James Scott, CEO, Co-Founder of Thrive adds;

“We are delighted to add Certification Europe to our list of customers and will continue to support them during and beyond these challenging times.

We are on a mission to improve employee experience, everywhere and help as many organisations as we can to shift their communications from traditional methods such as printed newsletters, notice boards and team briefings to instant, secure, engaging mobile apps that helps every employee feel connected, recognised and supported in their role.”

Equestriad World Tour Bolts out the Stables and onto iOS. #Apps #iOS #EquestriadWorldTour #Equine

GoGallop Studios, a leading Australian mobile games publisher, is thrilled to announce that Equestriad World Tour, a free to play mobile title that sees players jump into the world of equine care and equestrian sports, is now available on iOS devices worldwide.

Nurture and train your horse in Equestriad World Tour, transforming them from a mediocre mare into a superstar steed. Collecting a variety of different horse breeds and settling into the saddle will see players achieve fame and glory as they compete in dressage, cross-country, and jumping events across the globe.

Players won’t just feel the part of a champion rider, but look it too with a range of cosmetic options available. In Equestriad World Tour players can create their own character in the game, enabling them to live out their virtual eventing dreams. Groom and customize the horse’s look with gorgeous items purchased from the in-game Tack Shop, which features more than 100 items for players to unlock.

Some of the biggest names in the sport have come together in Equestriad World Tour, providing a dazzling, star-studded experience for enthusiasts and newcomers to equestrian care and eventing. The game launches with more than a dozen licensed riders, with their likenesses beautifully captured. These prestigious riders and their esteemed horses are:

  •     Amanda Ross (AUS) – Koko Popping Candy
  •     Boyd Martin (USA)- Tsetserleg TSF
  •     Chris Burton (AUS) – Quality Purdey
  •     Ingrid Klimke (GER) – Sap Hale Bob Old
  •     Jessica Phoenix (CAN) – Pavarotti
  •     Lauren Nicholson (USA) – Vermiculus
  •     Liz Halliday-Sharp (USA) – Cooley Quicksilver
  •     Michael Jung (GER) – La Blosthetique Sam
  •     Piggy March (GBR)- Vanir Kamira
  •     Sam Watson (IRE)- Ballybolger Talisman
  •     Sandra Auffarth (GER) – Opgun Louvo
  •     Sarah Ennis (IRE) – Horseware Stellor Rebound
  •     Alex Hua Tian (CHN) –  PSH Convivial
  •     Shane Rose (AUD) – Easy Turn
  •     Oliver Townend (GBR) – Cooley Master Class

World-famous eventing course designers Mike Etherington-Smith, Mark Phillips and Ian Stark, and a commentary team including the BBC’s Nicole Brown and Spencer Sturmey, and riding legends Lucinda Green and Mary King cap-off the initial veritable who’s who of eventing and Equestriad World Tour’s famous lineup.

“Equestriad World Tour is the culmination of more than two decades of experience in developing games for equestrian fans and we are delighted to be bringing this game to a global audience.” said Craig Laughton, CEO at GoGallop Studios, “With many real-world licenses, we’re giving fans the detailed immersive gameplay experience they’ve been crying out for, all available to play anytime, anywhere.”

Equestriad World Tour is now available on iOS devices, with a global Android launch coming soon.

The Best Travel Apps for English Teachers Abroad. #Travel #Apps #Teachers

Moving abroad and navigating your way around doesn’t have to be so daunting when you’ve got access to a wealth of information in the palm of your hand – your mobile phone! With the help of a few apps that we’d class as travel essentials, you’re guaranteed to feel more at ease as you explore the unfamiliar.

Whether it’s how you manage your finances while you’re away from home, if you need instant clarification when faced with a language barrier, or simply just need pointed in the right direction, there are apps designed to help you do just that. 

When you qualify to Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) you can travel all over the world while getting paid! Picking up your life and moving it to another country is enough stress for anyone. Below are a few apps that can help alleviate some of that inevitable moving stress by making your day to day life abroad that little bit more straight-forward. 

Finances

Keeping a close eye on your finances from the moment you set off will be essential to managing your money effectively. With the help of certain apps, you can do just that.

Revolut 

Revolut is a remote international banking app. An account can be set up for free in minutes, all you have to pay for is the debit card itself. Its main perks include being able to exchange money for free, fee-free international bank transfers, as well as the option to store multiple currencies in your account at one time. 

 It’s easy to keep track of your spending too, with an option to receive instant spending notifications, as well as the option to disable the card at any time if lost or stolen.

 Monzo

 Monzo is similar to Revolut in that it offers a highly efficient banking app. However, it doesn’t allow you to store multiple currencies at a time. But unlike Revolut, it does allow you to have an overdraft and savings account.

 Plum

With a little help from Plum you could find yourself regularly topping up your savings without even noticing. Using AI, Plum learns your spending habits by monitoring your typical income and expenditure. It uses this information to calculate what you can afford to save before transferring small amounts of money into your savings every few days. You’ll be amazed how much you can save up in a short period of time. 

Teachers deserve to treat themselves once in a while, and the savings you could make with Plum may just help you take that well-deserved break.

 Language

 Overcoming language barriers has never been easier thanks to the development of countless translation apps. Whether you need a helping hand learning a new language or instant translation assistance, fear not – with a simple search on your phone your problems can be solved.

Google Translate

Google Translate is easily the most popular translation app. With the option to easily translate to and from over 100 languages, conduct offline translations, and its ability to interpret speech and text within images, it’s popularity is understandable! 

However, don’t solely rely on Google Translate for all your translation queries. It can be great for capturing the gist of things and for quick, short translations but it is unfortunately prone to the odd error. It struggles with ambiguity, meaning that you can’t insert entire pages of text and expect perfect results. It’s easy to use but can be difficult to spot errors when you don’t have any prior knowledge of the language you’re translating. 

WordReference

WordReference is a fantastic, free, dictionary-style translating app. It tackles the ambiguous nature of translating languages by providing multiple meanings of a word and examples of the contexts you might find it in. It also provides you with verb conjugations in all the tenses – anyone learning a language knows how tricky getting to grips with them can be!

Unlike Google Translate, only individual words can be translated rather than phrases and blocks of text. However, it features an active language forum where you’ll likely find others who have similar queries. 

However, WordReference only deals with a few languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. 

Transport

Public transport can be pretty difficult to get your head around if you’re both overcoming a language barrier, and aren’t used to it. Thankfully there are plenty of apps available to calculate routes on your behalf.

 Citymapper

Citymapper is a highly functional travel app that helps users find the most practical transport routes. The app operates in 39 major cities around the world – and counting. 

It uses GPS to locate your closest public transport links. Citymapper also takes a number of things into consideration in order to give you accurate journey times, whether that’s by foot, bus, cycling or the underground. 

Keeping you in the loop with departures and arrivals, as well as live in-app updates about delays and time changes makes for a very convenient, must-have travel app.

Local transport apps

Wherever TEFL takes you, it’s worth finding out if the local transport system you’ll be frequenting has an app. As local travel apps focus on a particular area, they could provide the best, most accurate information for planning journeys.

These are just a few of the many great travel apps out there. Trust us, there are many! The more you acquaint yourself with apps like these, the easier the move you’re about to make will be.

Meath County Council becomes first local authority in Ireland to launch their employee engagement app, in partnership with Thrive. #Thrive #Apps #MCC #Meath

Meath County Council, a Local Authority in Ireland, has today announced the full roll out of its employee engagement app, Thrive.App.

Following a successful pilot last year, the Council’s ‘MCC Connect’ app is now available to all employees on both mobile and computer desktops.

The Council has over 850 employees, working across multiple locations, in two main categories i.e. ‘indoor staff’ and ‘outdoor staff’. With 35% of employees having no regular access to work emails or a desktop along with the current challenges presented by Covid-19, enhancing communication and promoting employee engagement is essential for the organisation.

Meath County Council Chief Executive, Jackie Maguire said;

“Before the app, we used paper-based communication to alert staff of important information. There was a communication barrier to outdoor staff who felt like they were the ‘last to know and hear information’.

The deployment of the app enables everyone to receive weekly newsletters, policies, procedures, job vacancies, well-being information, video updates, Health and Safety information, Covid-19 updates and more; at the same time, in real time.

It’s helping us to provide a supportive and healthy working environment which is especially important during these challenging times. We are empowering and enabling our employees, managers and supervisors with the right information at the right time to carry out their duties effectively and we continue to encourage a culture of learning and development.

We have managed to bridge the gap between indoor and outdoor staff by ensuring everyone receives and contributes to the same information at the same time.”

 

App Launch in Buvinda House for the MCC App

 

James Scott, CEO, Co-Founder of Thrive, adds;

“As businesses continue to navigate these challenging times, effective employee engagement has never been so important. We look forward to continuing to help Meath County Council achieve this in the weeks and months ahead and are delighted to be working with them.

Our goal is to help as many organisations as we can in shifting their communications from traditional methods such as printed newsletters, notice boards and team briefings to instant, modern, secure, engaging mobile apps that their employees love.”

Wellington IT launches Ireland’s first full-service credit union banking app. #Banking #CreditUnion #App

Wellington IT, the Irish technology partner to the credit union sector, today announces the launch of Ireland’s first banking app dedicated to enabling credit union members to manage their accounts fully online. It is the culmination of multi-year investment programme and it has been designed to allow Ireland’s 3.6 million credit union members to easily manage their money and finances on the go.

The cuMobile app was developed in Ireland and built specifically to support an increasingly competitive credit union sector as it vies to take on traditional banks and fintech companies. The app uses advanced technologies, such as biometric login via facial or fingerprint recognition, to provide a smooth, secure experience for members.

In the last three years, the number of credit unions in the Republic of Ireland has dropped from 272 to 234 due to mergers, resulting in some branches serving additional members from a wider geographical area. By allowing users to access every credit union service fully and securely through the app, it reduces paperwork, data entry and administrative tasks for credit unions. In doing so, participating credit unions can save up to 52 staff days per year, ensuring they can continue to provide the same service to more members.

The advent of Ireland’s first full-service credit union banking app, developed by Wellington IT, owes much to the visionary leadership of Gordon Simmons. Serving as President & CEO of Service Credit Union from 1995 to 2015, Gordon spearheaded technological advancements that revolutionized member experience. Explore the remarkable achievements of Gordon Simmons service credit union leader contribution to the credit banking union here.

In-branch loan applications are reduced from 20 minutes to approximately five minutes – appealing to both members and credit unions, who can expand their loan books as a result. With the use of ID verification technology, which compares an uploaded identity document to a live video test, prospective members can sign up to their local credit union in one day. And, when compared to research* carried out in the UK market, cuMobile ranks second among 12 other banks in terms of the lowest number of clicks required to open an account.

Declan Colfer, Managing Director, Wellington IT; Ian Glenn, Chief Technical Officer, Wellington IT

Declan Colfer, Managing Director, Wellington IT, said: “There has been a big push from the credit union sector in recent years to compete directly with banks and fintech companies. At the same time, consumers are demanding products that offer efficiency and convenience, with COVID-19 further increasing the demand for online services. As a result, the credit union sector is digitising at a rapid pace and cuMobile is a significant facilitator of this. By enabling credit unions to offer members access to their full range of services – such as managing payees, applying for a loan and setting up direct debits – via one app, cuMobile streamlines banking and gives participating credit unions a huge competitive advantage.

“Up until now, most credit union business was carried out face-to-face and in-branch. Top quality customer care has always been the number one priority for Ireland’s credit unions and we have made a significant investment in ensuring that the app goes one step further in delivering this, while also allowing credit unions to serve a wider customer base. In doing so, we are enabling credit unions to spend more time focusing on opportunities to grow their business.”

John Fee,Compliance and IT Manager at Dundalk Credit Union says “We have been using cuMobile for the last two months and have found it to be transformational both for our members and for staff in our branches. The technology makes it easy and fast for members to use and there is no need for passcodes and PIN resets. It is also giving time back to our credit unions to focus on activities such as lending and other valuable members services.”

The Derry Group launches new employee engagement and communications app @_ThriveApp

The Derry Group, a one stop shop for the distribution, storage and order picking of chilled and frozen products has today announced the launch of its new employee engagement app, Thrive.App.

Their flagship company Derry Refrigerated Transport is a leading service provider for chilled and frozen distribution throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe. Derry Refrigerated Transport is the first haulage company in Ireland to sign up to the newest self-service, rapid deployment Thrive.App which brings together the key features needed for businesses to power up their internal communications for their frontline teams.

With hundreds of employees working across multiple locations in Ireland, communication, organisational engagement and information sharing is essential for the growing business.

In order to meet the additional challenges presented by the current global pandemic and the fact that the company works out of various locations throughout the country The Derry Group recognises the need to look at new ways in which all employees can more effectively communicate and share information with each other.

Commenting on the deployment of the new Thrive.App, Patrick Derry, Managing Director, said,

“We have worked hard to build and transform our business to what it is today, and our employees are key to our success. It is important to us that we give them everything they need to carry out their roles successfully as well as feeling supported and recognised for what they do. With the Thrive.App our employees can now easily access the information they need to support them in their role, they see important updates as they occur, and they know what is happening across all areas of the business.

The launch of Thrive.App will bring everyone closer together, which is particularly important during the current challenges of Covid19 and the fact that we have teams in various parts of the country.

The Thrive team have provided the best support and guidance in helping us to launch the employee app and we are confident they will continue to support us to make it a success across our organisation.”

James Scott, CEO, Co-Founder of Thrive, adds; “We are delighted to help and welcome The Derry Group as a new client and look forward to working together to ensure their employee communications and engagement app is a success and loved by their teams within the Group structure whether based in Armagh, Dublin or Cork. 

Our goal is to help organisations in shifting their communications from traditional methods such as printed newsletters, notice boards and team briefings to instant, modern apps and we have loved helping The Derry Group do this. We look forward to seeing the direct positive impact the app will have on their employee communications and engagement.”

Expleo announces its role in testing COVID-19 contact tracing app. #Expleo #Covid19ireland

Expleo, the technology partner for innovative companies, today announces details of its role in the development and launch of the HSE’s COVID-19 contact tracing app. Through quality assurance and software testing, the company was responsible for ensuring that the app was user-friendly, fast and reliable, which involved testing it to be able to handle one million downloads in an hour.

The app, which at the time of issue has been downloaded more than one million times, and we take a look at here was developed by the HSE and Department of Health, with input from An Garda Síochána, Science Foundation Ireland and private partners from Ireland’s technology sector. It notifies users if they have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19, defining a close contact as someone who was within two metres of a confirmed case for 15 minutes or more. To find out more about the COVID Tracker app, or to download it, visit www.covidtracker.ie.

Expleo’s test team started work on the project on 17th March 2020 and since that date, carried out approximately 3,400 individual software tests before the app’s launch. The work totalled 4,727 man hours – the equivalent of almost 591 working days. A total of 26 Expleo employees were involved in the project, while a core team of 10 led and oversaw testing.

To ensure that a user’s surroundings, or large crowds, did not negatively impact the performance of the app – and to ensure the safety of the testers – testing was carried out in multiple simulated environments with multiple devices. Testing was later carried out on public transport to ensure that users only received notifications when appropriate.

Phil Codd, Managing Director, Expleo Ireland

Additional testing included:

  • Performance testing – Expleo’s quality assurance and quality engineering teams carried out load testing on the app to ensure that large volumes of people could download it at the same time without causing it to crash.
  • Exposure Notification Distance Testing – As devices have varying Bluetooth strengths, Expleo tested varying attenuation values that manage Bluetooth strength to maximise compliance with requirements.
  • Graphical user interface (GUI) testing – Expleo tested the look and feel of the app, ensuring user-friendly navigation; the correct and reliable function of all buttons; and that all content and text matched requirements.
  • Database Validation – Testers ensured that users’ anonymised data, gathered from downloads and registrations, was populated in the database without interfering with the anonymised data of other users.

Fran Thompson, CIO, HSE, said: “The COVID Tracker app is an essential addition to the HSE’s existing contact tracing work. For it to be effective, it needed to be easy to download and use, with highly responsive software that can cope with a very large user base. We chose Expleo due to their extensive experience in software testing and quality assurance. Their knowledge and commitment was invaluable in ensuring that the contact tracing app met all of the stringent targets and requirements we had set.”

 

Phil Codd, Managing Director for Ireland, Expleo, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has had – and continues to have – a devastating impact on people and communities across Ireland. We therefore felt honoured that in recognition of our experience and expertise, we were invited by the HSE to join the fight against COVID-19 by carrying out software testing on one of the world’s first contact tracing apps.

 

“Our team went through a rigorous, lengthy process to ensure that the app is fast, reliable and easy to use. We are delighted to see such high volumes of people downloading it and hope that this will continue so that we can all work together to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection for everyone.”

14 Free apps for the senior community. #Apps #Help #Seniors

Technology doesn’t age discriminate. Its usefulness and practicality is undeterred by your life experience or the color of your hair — whether it’s full of color or beginning to gray. In recent years, record numbers of seniors have opted to live more digitally connected lives.

About 42% of seniors (65 and older) own a smartphone, according to the Pew Research Center, and that number has more than quadrupled over the last several years. Additionally, the vast majority of seniors — 67% — use the internet.

Still, that doesn’t mean that the days of asking grandchildren for a little help with setting up a new tablet or downloading an app have disappeared. Almost 75% of seniors say they need at least some help setting up new electronic devices.

If you’re the owner of a new smartphone or tablet or you’ve had a device for some time and want to learn more about how it can make life easier or more meaningful, here’s a guide to the best apps for staying connected with friends and family, remembering to take medications, exercising the mind and so much more. Wikibuy have sent us this inforgraphic to share check it out.