IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 12 June
12-06-2009
by Deirdre McArdle
Facebook 'land grab' to begin at midnight | Windows 7 to ship without IE in Europe
The Irish Times reports Locle, a mobile phone application that allows you to share your location with friends, has launched a new feature called Serendipity, which will text you when your friends are nearby. The service is currently free, but the founders of Locle have not ruled out charging a small fee to receive notifications in the future.
The same paper says that technology entrepreneurs Aidan Gallagher, John O’Sullivan and David Smyth have taken over Microsoft's Software Licensing and Protection (SLP) services unit to form software start-up InishTech, as noted by ENN.
The paper also reports that Ireland's first commercial iPhone application development course has been launched. The five-day App School course is being delivered by SQT Training in association with Patrick Collison, who sold his start-up Auctomatic last year, and communications consultant Damien Mulley. The organisers say the course is suitable for programmers who have experience of C++, Java or other object oriented languages. The first App School takes place on 20-24 July at the Castleknock Hotel in Dublin and costs EUR1,500.
According to the Irish Independent, the Braun electrical plant in Carlow is to close its doors next year with the loss of 160 jobs. At one time the US multinational employed 1,400 people in Carlow.
The paper also reports that civil servant Fintan Towey told the Moriarty Tribunal on Thursday that the awarding of the State's second mobile phone licence to a consortium spearheaded by businessman Denis O'Brien was not part of "a sinister plot" involving former communications minister Michael Lowry. Towey is one of three civil servants who has been recalled to give evidence after the payments to politicians inquiry made provisional adverse findings against the Government last November.
The same paper says that Facebook is offering people the chance to claim a personalised web address, such as www.facebook.com/john, beginning tonight at midnight New York time on a first-come, first-served basis. At the moment, addresses typically contain a sequence of numbers. Facebook says the move is to make it easier to find profiles using search engines such as Google.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Timothy Morse, the chief financial officer of chip maker Altera, will become Yahoo's finance chief. The internet firm has been searching for a new finance chief since February, when Yahoo's current CFO, Blake Jorgensen, said he would step down as new head Carol Bartz prepared to bring in new managers. Yahoo said Morse will report directly to Bartz and be responsible for the company's finance, investor relations, and mergers and acquisitions groups.
According to the same paper, eBay chief executive John Donahoe said he sees stability in the economy, with the company not experiencing further growth declines since February. In an interview Thursday, the head of the online retailer said that he didn't have any "statistically significant" data to share about an overall recovery, but he is "cautiously optimistic" about the economy. Donahoe said he watched growth in the business decline from August last year through February but that it has since stabilised.
The Financial Times reports that, in a pre-emptive move against anti-trust action in Europe, Microsoft issued a unilateral statement saying that its Windows 7 operating system would be made available in Europe without the Internet Explorer browser included. The move was designed to reduce the legal uncertainties around the launch of Windows 7, expected in October in Europe, and "the risk of large fines", Microsoft said. While the Commission said it noted Microsoft's move "with interest", one official said that for consumers, "rather than more choice, Microsoft seems to have chosen to provide less".
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