NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 22 May
22-05-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
Kitchen firm offers VoteAssist software | Apple gets hit with class-action lawsuit
Online shopping portal Buy4Now saw its net profit grow 33 percent to EUR800,429 in the financial year ended 31 March 2007, up from EUR602,635 the year before. Group turnover also increased by 33 percent, to EUR6.83 million, and the Dublin-based firm noted that 38 percent of group revenues were generated from US operations, up from 29 percent the previous year. The firm also said that registrations with Buy4Now.ie, its Irish shopping portal, are now running at 4,000 per month, with over 170,000 customers now registered to shop online.
With just two days to go to the General Election, a Dublin-based company that specialises in fitted kitchens has come up with a tool to help indecisive voters make up their minds. FX3's VoteAssist is an Excel-based application that aims to help users decide which political party best represents their views. The interactive tool can be downloaded free from FX3.ie. The kitchen fitters say they have no political affiliations and that they developed VoteAssist "as an entirely non-partisan service".
MySpace and Bebo continued to dominate the UK social networking market in April, according to online analysis firm Hitwise. Together the two sites accounted for 67 percent of all visits to social networking sites in the UK last month. While MySpace maintained a slight lead over Bebo in April, Bebo looks set to overtake MySpace with its share of UK internet visits in May, as it has ranked number one in this category for the past three weeks, said Hitwise.
BridgeDoc, formerly known as ScanData Systems, has announced the global launch of its online paperless records service. The company claims this is the first service of its kind in Europe, and it will be managed from the firm's head office in Cork. The launch, which was attended by Enterprise Minister Micheal Martin, follows a EUR3 million investment in the service's development over a three-year period. The online record management service will also be supported by a EUR2 million marketing campaign over the coming two years.
Waterford Technologies has appointed Gary Cosgrave to the position of sales director. In his new role, Cosgrave, who has over 10 years' management and IT consultancy experience, will be responsible for all commercial aspects of Waterford Technology's Irish operations, including account management, pre-sales, sales and client relations.
Hardware distributor PC Cubed has been presented with the small business marketing award by the Marketing Institute of Ireland. The Bray-based firm, which distributes a range of electronic point-of-sale and mobile handsets, was given the award in recognition of its growth over the past number of years.
MacBook owners have hit Apple with a class-action lawsuit, claiming the company falsely advertised that the MacBook and MacBook Pro displays are capable of 8 bits per channel, which may display as many as 16 million colours. Instead, the suit claims, Apple used displays that support only 6 bits per channel, resulting in "grainy" displays. The lawsuit was filed by Fred Greaves and Dave Gatley on 3 May in San Diego County Superior Court.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 