NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 4 April
04-04-2008
by Emmet Ryan
Arantech sets up office in Italy | Wii trounces PS3 in Japan
The dot-eu (.eu) domain celebrated its second birthday on Friday and over the course of those two years the domain has been chosen for over 2.8 million European internet identities, making it the fourth most popular top level domain in the EU and ninth worldwide. In terms of total number of dot-eu registrations per country of origin, Germany has the most, accounting for 31.4 percent of all registrations, followed by the Netherlands, the UK, France and Italy.
Irish mobile software firm Arantech has opened a regional office in Italy in a bid to keep pace with developments in customer experience management. Based in Milan, the Italian office will provide sales and operational support activities for new and existing clients across Southern Europe.
Nintendo's Wii game console outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) by three-to-one in Japan in March but its DS handheld machine fell behind the PlayStation Portable for the first time in six months, according to research by gaming magazine publisher Enterbrain. Nintendo sold 265,542 units of the Wii in the five weeks to March 30, compared with 81,579 units of the PS3. Sony sold 415,415 units of its PSP during the month. That beat DS sales of 255,124 units.
Internet crime is at an all time high across the pond, according to figures from the FBI, which said that losses totalled USD240 million last year. The US agency's Internet Crime Complaint Centre received 206,884 complaints of web-based crimes in the US last year, and said that total losses had risen by USD40 million compared to the previous year
Apple has overtaken Wal-Mart to become the biggest music retailer in the US, outselling the big CD retailers for the first time, according to figures from market research firm NPD Group. Sales at iTunes over January and February also surpassed Best Buy and Amazon, which took third and fourth places respectively. NPD's measurements base one CD as representing the same as downloading 12 tracks on iTunes.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 