ROUNDUPS
In the papers 22 January
22-01-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
Revenue clamps down on online shopping | Irish scientists helping to develop 'nursebots'
The Irish Times reports that thousands of internet shoppers have been hit with unexpected charges in a customs crackdown by the Revenue Commissioners. Last year, Revenue collected almost EUR2 million in customs duty and VAT on parcels delivered by An Post from outside the EU, while further amounts were collected through private courier firms such as FedEx and UPS. Extra customs and excise staff have been stationed at sorting offices to deal with a massive growth in internet shopping, much of it using sites in the US and the Far East.
The Irish Independent says that Irish scientists are helping to develop robot nurses that could be working in hospital wards within three years. The 'nursebots' will perform basic tasks such as mopping up, taking messages, and guiding visitors to hospital beds. They could also distribute medicines and even monitor the temperature of patients remotely, with laser thermometers. Dublin City University is one of the 10 European universities tasked with delivering the project, funded by the EU at cost of EUR3.8 million. The scientists aim to have a three-robot prototype system ready by 2010.
The paper also says that Microsoft has introduced safeguards for parents to control what their children see on the internet. The new software will be included in the Windows Vista operating system, which is due to hit shops at the end of the month, and it will be fitted on all new Vista PCs as standard.
The Irish Examiner says that German engineering giant Siemens is pulling out of Sudan on moral and political grounds, its chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld said in a magazine interview. Siemens' reputation has been hit by a EUR200 million bribery and embezzlement scandal as well as by its involvement in Sudan, where 200,000 people have been killed in the four-year-old conflict in Darfur. Kleinfeld told Der Spiegel that Siemens' policy was never to pay bribes to secure contracts. "We have decided to pull out all our business divisions -- and not for security reasons," he said.
The Financial Times says that global merger and acquisition levels in the tech sector broke through the EUR100 billion barrier in 2006, for the first time since the height of the dot-com boom in 2000. According to figures published by PricewaterhouseCoopers, merger and acquisition values were boosted by 18 mega deals, transactions with a value of more than EUR1 billion. The largest of these was the EUR11.1 billion merger of Alcatel with Lucent Technologies.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a number of independent record labels have announced a global deal to pool access to their catalogues, seeking to grab a bigger share of digital music sales from the major record companies. Indies and their trade groups from more than a dozen countries have signed on to Merlin, a non-profit licensing agency that will cut deals on their behalf with download sites and mobile services, under the terms of the agreement unveiled at Midem, a music industry gathering in Cannes, France.
The Sunday Tribune reports that Carphone Warehouse, which dropped its EUR4.5 million sponsorship of TV show Big Brother, has denied that it has a contract to sponsor Big Brother 8 this summer, contradicting earlier UK media reports. On Friday, the Guardian website said that the mobile phone company "is still contracted for the flagship BB8 series this summer".
The paper also says that the Belfast-based Irish News newspaper is to launch an online video news service called in.tv. "The service will be driven forward by dedicated staff", with the content complementing the print edition, according to editor Noel Doran.
The paper also reports that the proposed EUR90 million purchase of Irish-owned telco Etel by Telekom Austria is to be investigated by the Austrian antitrust authority amid fears that it may create a dominant player in the Austrian market.
The same paper says that apartment renters in Dublin have been warned about a scam on Daft.ie that attempted to defraud potential tenants. A fake ad on the site claimed to offer rented accommodation below market prices by a Chinese businessman, who asked potential tenants to put money into a holding account until they decided whether they wanted to rent.
The Sunday Business Post reports that Des Rogers, a founder of Sterile Technologies Ireland (STI), which was bought for EUR110 million last year, has invested some of his windfall in Dublin technology firm LeCayla Technologies. Rogers and his brother Fergal owned more than 40 percent of STI and made about EUR45 million when it was bought by US firm Stericycle. Rogers has invested more than EUR1 million in LeCayla, which develops technology for software firms to measure customer use of their products.
The paper also notes that food group SHS has invested EUR300,000 in a new voice and data communications system. The system was installed and managed by Cable & Wireless under a three-year deal.
The paper also reports that two state-owned transport companies look set to bring in new smartcard systems that passengers will not be able to use for both bus and rail services. Dublin Bus and Iarnrod Eireann will each introduce their own electronic smartcards, with the consent of the Department of Transport. The department declined to say when integrated ticketing, which will allow passengers to use the same ticket on Dublin Bus, the Dart and Luas, would be introduced, even though it spent EUR1.5 million on the project last year.
Still in the Sunday Business Post, the paper says that Caribbean mobile operator Digicel is at the centre of a storm over cricket. Digicel, the main mobile network in the Caribbean, is the official sponsor of the West Indies cricket team. The players are currently up in arms, having learnt that they will receive no extra money from the sponsors for their participation in a forthcoming one-day international tour of India. The problem appears to lie with a breakdown in communication between the governing body of West Indies cricket and the West Indies Players' Association.
The Sunday Times says that the US Department of Justice has ordered the world's biggest investment banks, accountants and law firms to hand over e-mails, telephone records and documents connected with internet gaming firms, as part of an investigation into illegal online gambling. HSBC, Dresdner Kleinwort, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are among the banks that have been issued with subpoenas.
The paper also notes that Irish e-travel company Web Reservations International was valued at more than EUR400 million in an internal share restructuring of the company late last year.
The paper also says that Google is working with top book publishers on a system that would allow readers to download entire books to their PCs in a format that can be read on screen or on a mobile device.
Creating successful email surveys: Denise Cox of email specialist Newsweaver argues that you can tap into your readers' likes or dislikes by surveying them.
