Red Nose Day app and mobile website drum up donations for Comic Relief

Tonight is the bi-annual Comic Relief telethon in the UK, and with this being 2011, there's an app for that. But there's also a mobile website to ensure every phone owner can join the fun.

The Red Nose Day In Your Pocket app is available for iPhone and iPod touch as a free download, with a mixture of tweets, videos and information about the charities supported by this year's event.

There are also features for sharing videos on Facebook and Twitter, as well as a 'Pick-A-Nose' game that promises to be... Well, it's never good to be rude about charity, so we'll stop there. There's also a countdown clock which tonight will turn into a 'totaliser' so you can keep tabs on how much money is being raised.

Naturally, the Red Nose Day app also lets you donate -- a feature we suspect will get plenty of use during the TV show tonight. The donations aren't handled by in-app payments, but instead use text message or PayPal. In the latter case, you sign in from your Safari browser, via a link supplied by the app.

iPhone only, though? That's a strange idea, given that there are plenty of non-iOS users here in the UK. Comic Relief hasn't launched the app for Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 or Symbian. Instead, there's an official mobile website, made for the charity by UK developer Wapple.

Anyone trying to visit the official Red Nose Day website from a mobile phone will be redirected to the mobile site. There, you'll find news, TV listings, wallpapers, fundraising ideas and a donation function. Wapple says the site will also work on the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS browsers, as well as non-smart phones.