NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 8 May
08-05-2007
by Emmet Ryan
H-P raises financial guidance | Father Ted tops Three Ireland comedy charts
The Irish Computer Society and market research company Amarach is inviting IT professionals to join the ICS Informed research panel and participate in Wave 2 of the research series. ICS Informed aims to generate information on key issues from Ireland's IT community by surveying information and communications technology professionals on a regular basis. The second survey in the series, which has just gone live, investigates the theme of decision-making relating to IT budget planning, allocation and spending. Those interested should register at www.ics.ie/informed to receive an email link to the online survey. Existing panel members need not re-register as they will be automatically emailed the survey link.
Hewlett-Packard raised its financial guidance for the April-ended quarter, citing "strong operational results" in its PC and server businesses, reports the Wall Street Journal. The tech giant expects second-quarter revenue of about USD25.5 billion and earnings of 64 cents or 65 cents a share. H-P said it was providing the update following the "inadvertent disclosure" of financial information in an internal e-mail that was sent Monday to someone outside the company. H-P did not identify the recipient.
Father Ted is top of the Three Ireland comedy download charts. Three customers have downloaded over 1.5 million comedy clips since the launch of the service last year and the clip of Ted and Dougal singing My Lovely Horse has proven the most popular amongst users of the service. The service also provides scenes from shows such as The Office and Little Britain. On Tuesday Three has announced a new deal with Aardman studios to provide more clips for the service with excerpts from the likes of Wallace and Gromit and Creature Comforts.
Skype is to provide a new version of its internet telephony service for salesforce.com. The service enables salesforce.com customers to make and receive Skype calls or initiate text chats directly with other people whose Skype contact names and presence indicators can now be added manually or imported automatically into Salesforce. SkypeOut calls to non-Skype users' traditional phone numbers can also be initiated with a single click. Conference calls of up to 10 participants (including the host) can now be conducted using Skype for Salesforce and can accommodate any combination of Skype and non-Skype users.
A new centre to encourage the formation and incubation of high-tech and knowledge based start-up businesses was officially opened by President Mary McAleese in Newry on Tuesday. The first purpose-built incubation and innovation centre in the Northern Ireland Further Education sector, called Greenshoots Newry, has been
established as a joint initiative between Newry Institute and the University of Ulster. The centre will offer technical support, business management assistance, help with product development and training to graduates and young entrepreneurs on a cross-border basis.
Fibre network operator euNetworks announced on Tuesday that it has concluded an agreement with UNET, one of the Netherland's largest fibre to premises providers. Under the terms of the agreement, euNetworks will deploy priva nex, a high capacity private fibre ring for the rollout of voice, video and data services, in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht.
Nearly half of all Americans only occasionally use modern gadgets according to a new study by Pew Internet & America Life Project. The study found that 49 percent of Americans have little or no interaction with IT. The study found that 23 percent make heavy use of IT to keep up with social networks or to be productive at work. A further 8 percent are deemed very active by the study, regularly using Web 2.0 applications such as blogging.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 