Applied Thinking Nokia Winners Announced

A LAOIS mother-of-five, a Dublin student and a Kildare man in his 20s have each won €3,000 and will have their ideas for apps for Nokia smartphones turned into reality after winning Nokia’s Apps for Ireland competition.

The three were among 1,000 entries to the competition which sought ideas for applications in the areas of sports, lifestyle and general.

Hilary Weldon, from Portarlington, Co Laois, won the general category with an app that helps households and businesses manage their finances more efficiently. It will monitor a user’s outgoings and remind them when bills need to be paid.

Kildare man Alan Duncan won the lifestyle category with his idea for “true colours”. Designed for people with colour blindness, it allows the user to take a picture on their phone and the app will then spell out what the colour is.

The sports category was won by Lorcan O’Mahoney, a 17-year-old Dublin student, who suggested an app that allows the user to track the distances and times of cycling trips. It will also show the bicycle shops in the area, including their opening times and a link to their website.

Entrants submitted a proposal for their app through Facebook and a public vote selected the winning app each week. From the resulting shorlist of nine, a panel of judges chose the winning three.

The judges were: Today FM DJ and blogger Ray Foley; fashion blogger Laura Whiston; internet entrepreneur Pat Phelan and Shane McAllister from Mobanode who will develop the apps for Nokia.

Mr McAllister said one of the key roles of the judges was to ensure the ideas could be converted into apps. Some of the more unusual ideas included an app to help locate your slippers and one which would allow different hairstyles to be virtually applied to a picture of the user.

“The hairstyle app was a great idea but it would have been impossible to build,” said Mr McAllister. “We’ll be sitting down with the winners now to turn their four or five line pitches into something real.”