NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 20 November
20-11-2008
by Deirdre McArdle
DTS creates jobs in Limerick | Obama names tech team
Entertainment technology firm DTS is to create 50 new jobs in Limerick as it locates its European headquarters in the National Technology Park in the city. The Limerick facility will have responsibility for licensing, management, administration, business development, marketing, sales, finance, and potentially research and development and gaming. DTS first introduced its audio technology with the release of the 1993 film Jurassic Park, and since then many other major Hollywood film studios have adopted its format.
UK-based e-payments firm PayPoint has posted pre-tax profits of STG15.3 million for the first half of the year, a 6 percent increase on the year-ago period. Revenues rose by 5 percent to STG109.3 million for the six-month period. Despite the slowdown in consumer spending, PayPoint said it expects further growth in UK transaction volumes and revenues and said it was on track to meet its target of 1,500 additional terminals for the year.
Denis O'Brien's Digicel has launched in Honduras with an investment of USD450 million. The mobile operator will build a GSM network in the Central American country, where mobile penetration is currently at 60 percent. Digicel has said it aims to increase penetration to 80 percent within the next five years. Digicel has also created new jobs in Honduras, employing 450 people directly in its operations and 3,000 people indirectly.
Queen's University in Belfast is to become the UK's leading centre for developing technology to counter cyber-attacks. The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) will bring together researchers in the areas of data encryption, network security systems, wireless enabled security systems and intelligent surveillance technology. The centre has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (STG6.95 million), the Technology Strategy Board (STG2.5 million), industry partners (STG7 million) and Queen's University (STG8.8 million).
Barack Obama, the US President-elect, has appointed three members to his technology team. The technology, innovation and government reform policy working group will be made up of Blair Levin, a former employee of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); Julius Genachowski, former chief counsel to the FCC; and Sonal Shah, head of Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm. The team's responsibility will be to devise IT priorities for Obama's government and decide which policy issues, such as net neutrality, will be addressed. The team will also be in a position to provide Obama with advice when he chooses his chief technology officer.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 