6 THE IRISH TIMES Business This Week
Technology&Innovation
TECH
TOOLS
Compiled by
Ciara O’Brien
Mili PowerSpring 4
¤57
The iPhone 4 battery may
be better than its
predecessor but if you’re
checking your e-mail, going
online or just playing games,
you'll still find yourself with
a dead battery before long.
The iPhone 3GS external
batteries won’t fit the new
version of Apple’s phone,
but Mili has unveiled a
battery pack specifically for
the iPhone 4.
Not only will the
PowerSpring 4 give you
more talk, internet and video
time, it's also been designed
Kinect
¤149.99
Kinect is the
latest in video
games technology,
a motion sensing
device that turns
your body into the
controller. The
Xbox sensor uses
cameras
and
micro-
phone
s to track your body
movements and
translate that into
commands for the game.
You need a bit of room –
about six feet between you
and the sensor, plus plenty
space to allow you jump
around.
Samsung
Galaxy Tab
From ¤79 on
selected bill pay tariffs
The newest challenger to
Apple in the tablet market is
Samsung. The Galaxy Tab
runs on Android, so if you are
used to using Google's
system, this will be a breeze.
The device is smaller than
an iPad, with a seven-inch
screen, but you can hold it
properly in one hand, which
is a definite bonus. It
multitasks too, and runs
Flash so you can watch RTÉ
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Friday, November 12, 2010
Success is
to be thin, so you don't spoil
the look of your shiny new
sticking to
toy.
The phone will first draw
its power from the Mili case,
and only when that is
depleted use the iPhone's
own battery. It will also
function as a hardshell case.
It charges via USB so you
creativity
can charge up your power
booster easily.
www.iphonemili.co.uk
The more light
there is, the better.
You also need to be
careful where you to be customisable. When it comes to our phys-
place it, not too close
A Kilkenny woman’s gum ical world, we just don’t have that flexibility.”
to noisy fans or product is nominated today as The e-tail channel on her website (www.
speakers. sugru.com) displays the slogan “Hack things
That said, Kinect is one of the inventions of the year, better”. In this context, the word “hack” con-
actually quite good. notes innovation and improvisation.
Its launch games
writes Kevin Casey Shoppers can browse a gallery of Sugru
include titles such as tricks submitted by users from all over the
Dance world such as patching up Wellington, custom-
I
Central, T’S A brand of goo. Sounds like glue. ising lamps from Illinois and adding colour to
Kinect Spelled S-u-g-r-u. Inspired by the Irish bikes from Edinburgh.
Sports word súgradh, meaning play. But what People protect their gear with it, such as
and does Sugru do? mobile phone and make the world a little bit
Kinectimals – a virtual “It’s basically a bit like plasticine or safer and softer if there is a baby around.
pet. modelling clay,” explains Jane Ní Dhulchao- It’s not just for sticking your iPod back
And although it’s a little intigh (31), the inventor. “When you take it out together after you boogie too hard though.
more expensive than your of the packet, you have 30 minutes to shape it “Only about 25 per cent of the things we see
average controller, one into anything you want. Then, you leave it over- people do are repairs,” claims Ní Dhulchao-
controller covers two night and it will set into durable silicone intigh. “Most people use it for improvements
players. rubber.” and modifications.”
www.xbox.com It doesn’t sound that interesting until you The only limiting factor is human inventive-
realise that Sugru moulds to most of the other ness. “It sounds absurd,” she says, “but there
materials in your home. Working with metal, are hundreds and thousands of things that
glass, ceramic and hard plastic, Sugru is people do.” Despite its recent online fame, the
extremely versatile stuff. idea for Sugru (2003) predates social media
“It started with the idea, ‘What if a material platforms Facebook (2004), YouTube (2005)
existed so that everything in the world could and Twitter (2006). company but it’s all so easy that we can Above: Sugru Sugru has enjoyed extensive coverage in
be more flexible’,” explains Ní Dhul- “When we started off, it operate like that. I absolutely love that.” inventor Jane Ní Forbes magazine and the British newspapers.
chaointigh. A graduate of wouldn’t have been pos- Sugru also retails through small craft stores, Dhulchaointigh. The Even Time magazine is getting in on the act.
National College of Art sible to build an online science museums, bike shops and hardware substance can be Today Sugru is being nominated as one of the
and Design in Dublin, community for Sugru like stores. The upshot is, they’re selling 5,000 used to tidy cables, magazine’s Top 50 Best Inventions of 2010,
she had the idea for we have now,” she says. But packs a month. pad your bike’s rubbing shoulders with the rocket scientists of
Sugru while studying now all geographic barriers have The company had two employees last handlebars or Nasa and the gadget gurus at Apple.
for her masters at the been wiped away. “I can get a message [in Christmas, with six this year but there are no protect your phone, If you could wrap publicity like that in foil
Royal College of Design in London] from somebody sitting at the kitchen plans to super-size the business by going with a among countless packets, you could sell it for a fortune. So, does
London. She wondered, table in Alaska working on their headphones major retailer. other applications. Sugru have a special PR machine next to the
what would happen if people saw everything in and we have a bit of banter about favourite “It’s a very organic growth strategy for a magic gum mixer? Ní Dhulchaointigh laughs
their house as unfinished and they were the songs.” business but it also is quite solid because, and denies any such machine exists. “It’s
Player ones to finish it off? Social media makes the shopping experi- through those feedback loops, you’re making timing,” she believes. “There’s a mood. It’s not
and other From the outset, she wanted to design a ence more like browsing in an old shoe shop or iteractive improvements all the time to your just the recession, it’s a post-consumerist
Flash-based catch-up user-friendly and accessible product. That’s a record store. But one that reaches out to any- product, customer service and distribution mood which is complicated.”
services. why it has certain properties like being dish- where. “People don’t normally expect to be system. You’re learning all the time and it’s all In some respects, it’s not because people
You can get online via Wi washer-proof, it looks good, is durable and is able to speak to the managing director of a based on evidence.” can’t afford new things, it’s because, due to
Fi or through 3G networks, safe to use. environmental concerns it suits them to waste
and you can share your own It is design-led all the way but Sugru is less and conserve more.
mobile data connection by
turning the device into a
backed up by some hard-core science and tech-
nology. “To design a new material from
BEST INVENTIONS LIST For aspiring entrepreneurs, she sees e-tail
as the way to go. If you can forge a connection
wireless hotspot.
Surprisingly, it also works as
scratch does not happen overnight,” says the
Kilkenny native with understatement. She col-
FROM ‘TIME’ MAGAZINE with people, you can trade with them from any-
where. “Creativity is free,” she points out.
a phone. laborated with a team of experienced mate- Time magazine have made it to the air-powered Pogo stick, and “The people who know their thing, love what
http://galaxytab.samsung- rials experts through countless experiments publishes an list and crossed the Bow-lingual dog they do, whether musicians, designers or what-
mobile.com over five years of research and development annual list of into the public translation device ever, have a massive opportunity ahead.”
before they were ready for market. Best Inventions. imagination include (right, 2002) And Sugru is growing. “We believe it has the
Is the market ready for them? “I realised Past luminaries the Large Hadron for potential to be as big as Blu Tack.”
very early that in order for people to think as include Nasa for Collider (left), the inter- As a reference point for the future, it’s
designers, as I hoped they would, they would their Ares invisibility cloak, preting worth remembering that another great brand
need to be inspired,” explains Jane. “It was not rocket (2009), the Mars rovers, canine based on the native word for “play” is Den-
Tranche NAV Valuation Date about the material so much as about how Apple for the iPhone camera phones and the speech. mark’s Lego.
people perceived it.” (2007), YouTube for their world’s fastest Unfortu-
Word about Sugru spread through internet video platform (2006) and computer. Some nately, it was Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh will be telling the story
8G 126.19p 07 Oct 2010 communities. “Something that encourages Apple again for the iTunes inventions which are still never released of Sugru (www.sugru.com) at the Paccar The-
people to share their ideas becomes very pow- music store (2003). awaiting the big time outside of atre in Dublin’s Science Gallery today at 1pm as
10G 127.75p 07 Oct 2010 erful,” she says. “Because we use the internet Other inventions which include the Airgo (2001), an Japan. part of Science Week. Admission is free.
more and more, we expect everything online See: www.sciencegallery.com
11G 127.74p 07 Oct 2010
We get the business culture we deserve
14G 127.12p 07 Oct 2010
15G 127.10p 07 Oct 2010
19A 101.81p 07 Oct 2010
State can produce entrepreneurs. entrepreneurship, including capital F. Witness the blogs, equity in a promising company
“
21G 111.18p 07 Oct 2010 While many of the attendees were elements of education; discussion forums, Twitter, that has already received one of
second or third generation mentorship; government support; private conversations at business the largest equity investments on
diaspora – and thus their business and finance, from angel events, and there’s still a bit too this island.
23G 118.95p 07 Oct 2010 success could not be seen to have investments through to high-level much barely disguised glee at Candidates would have seen a
24G 107.12p 07 Oct 2010
any immediate connection to
Ireland – there were others who
venture funding.
All encapsulated in various
There’s still a company crashes, a belief that
their leaders deserve to fail.
significant advancement in their
own career by taking the position.
25G 119.49p 07 Oct 2010
KARLIN
came through the Irish
educational system, built
ways the yearning to see Ireland
turn into a mini powerhouse in bit too much I wonder too about where the
technology entrepreneurs will
But the company has been unable
to fill the role because people are
LILLINGTON companies here or succeeded
abroad.
the area of technology, innovation
and entrepreneurship. barely come from and how they will
build their companies when – as
turning it down as “too risky”.
Too risky? At a time when no
F.ounders and the Dublin Web And yet. And yet. Over the highlighted in one of the Sunday job is guaranteed?
27G 118.08p 07 Oct 2010
NET RESULTS Summit, meanwhile, focused on
the current spread of smaller
years, I’ve seen some fantastic
successes in the technology sector
disguised glee newspapers last week – many of
our leading home-grown and
Even setting that aside, the
finances are there to keep that
28G 121.30p 07 Oct 2010
Some soul-searching is Irish tech companies and
company founders, although the
– some large-scale, some more
modest, some barely noticed
at company multinational technology
companies can’t get people with
job running for long enough to
significantly improve someone’s
30G 117.70p 07 Oct 2010 needed if we are serious majority of press and publicity
around both events was more
because the company story played
out mostly outside of Ireland.
crashes the education or work experience
to fill the jobs they have lying
résumé – even were the company
to collapse and the individual to
32G 59.87p 07 Oct 2010
about developing an about the international And while I am convinced vacant. find him or herself back on the
entrepreneurs coming here. there are superb individuals who Talk to those trying to hire, and job market.
entrepreneurial culture The latent hope is that some – will always climb the ladder, build they say too many graduates have In Silicon Valley, it is such
34G 110.14p 07 Oct 2010 either the ones who’ve already companies, create jobs, and do cookie cutter, bland IT skills, poor senior management figures who
D
OES IRELAND have a made it or the ones who might what an entrepreneur can do, I independent reasoning and, tend to be the next round of
35G 53.88p 07 Oct 2010 sufficiently make it some day – would worry that there is something thanks to the recent boom, didn’t entrepreneurs after their
entrepreneurial culture? eventually consider Ireland as a within Irish culture that is deeply bother going abroad to get any company is sold. If Irish-qualified
That question is base for their companies. anti-entrepreneurial. I believe it is international experience. individuals fear even going into
36G 103.28p 07 Oct 2010
regularly mulled over at various And then there was the evident even within Ireland’s own This is not the random IT job management, how will they have
events. Recently, the issue has Innovation Taskforce report, a business community, the very here or there that can’t be filled. the guts to start their own
37G 100.11p 07 Oct 2010 had its highest profile in the form massive tome of 160 pages that community and sometimes the We are talking about tranches of companies?
of debate and discussion at three examined numerous aspects of very individuals who say they jobs – of 50 to 100 at single We should definitely be
38G 117.18p 07 Oct 2010 major venues. innovation and entrepreneurship, want a Silicon Valley-like companies – lying open during an focusing on how to create an
Firstly, at the Global Irish and how to foster the right entrepreneurial culture here. So economic crash; it’s nearly innovation culture and an
Economic Forum at Farmleigh environment within Ireland. much so that most who achieve unthinkable. I’ve been hearing entrepreneurial environment
39G 98.17p 07 Oct 2010 just over a year ago. Secondly, as All three of these projects are success do it outside Ireland the same story for months and here – our economy depends on
a key plank of the considerations ultimately quite similar in some of (witness Farmleigh). spoke to people in recent weeks it. But some national
40g 105.81p 07 Oct 2010 in the Government’s Innovation their conclusions and intent. All The business community here who told me about up to 50 soul-searching is in order.
Taskforce report. And finally, as a three recognised the importance is still too ready – too eager – to developer jobs unfilled at several A country gets the business
backdrop to the Dublin Web of the multinational presence and tear down Irish companies and indigenous IT companies. culture it creates – which is a
41G 102.47p 07 Oct 2010
Summit and its sister event, the possibility it creates for a entrepreneurs publicly and Last week, I talked to a reflection of its own values – and
F.ounders, just over a week ago, support ecosystem for indigenous privately. And while so many like well-known Irish entrepreneur ultimately, that it earns and
42G 109.32p 07 Oct 2010 which attracted some of the companies. to quote that line about failure who is trying to find an individual deserves.
world’s leading technology All three delved – formally or being a badge of honour in Silicon to take on a senior engineering
43G 103.82p 07 Oct 2010 entrepreneurs. informally – into issues around Valley, the sad truth is that failure management position within a klillington@irishtimes.com;
Farmleigh is proof that this how best to promote and support here is still mostly Failure, with a start-up – the individual would get Twitter: @klillington