NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 11 May
11-05-2007
by Emmet Ryan
E-crime affecting an increasing number of Irish SMEs | Nokia launches energy-aware phones
A new survey from the Irish Small and Medium Enterprise association (ISME) has found that computer related crime has increased significantly in the last number of years. A survey of 400 firms found that in the past year 87 percent experienced problems with spam e-mail and 48 percent were hit with virus infections. One in ten companies has experienced theft of PC/laptop
Alcatel-Lucent has agreed a deal with online gambling firm Vivox to provide audio service to Vivox's customers, enabling voice interaction with the gambling site. Vivox aims to use the addition of voice communications to reflect a real-time physical world where players interact with each other in a natural and expressive way. Previously, communication vehicles like e-mail and instant messenger were used, but Vivox said these limited the playing experience, especially in games with a social structure.
Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios have announced that the multiplayer beta of Halo 3 will be made available worldwide via Xbox Live on 16 May at 1pm GMT, with the beta ending on 7 June at 7:59am GMT. The full version of the much-hyped game will be available to Xbox 360 users from the Autumn.
Property portal Propertynews.com, which claims to have a 65 percent market share of all properties for sale in all of Ireland, has won the Golden Eye All Island Award for the second successive year. The award was announced at the sixth annual Golden Eye T Awards event, which took place in the Culloden Hotel in Hollywood last night. The All Island Award is given to the company which has embraced the use of technology to develop/grow business on an all-island basis.
Nokia has launched mobile phones that will include alerts encouraging people to unplug the charger once the battery is full, a move the handset giant says could save enough electricity to power 85,000 homes a year. Starting with the new Nokia 1200, Nokia 1208 and the Nokia 1650, the alerts will be rolled out across the Nokia product range. The company has set goals to further reduce the energy consumption of its chargers. By 2010 it aims to have reduced by an additional 50 percent the amount of electricity a charger consumes whilst still plugged into the mains but not the phone.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 