NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 31 March
31-03-2009
by Bryan Collins
Solaris awaits Kazakhstan rocket launch | Samsung enters netbook market
On Friday, a rocket will launch in Kazakhstan carrying software belonging to Irish mobile media content provider Solaris. The ILS Proton Breeze M rocket will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying the Eutelsat W2A satellite. Once the satellite is in orbit it will enable Solaris to provide mobile TV and infotainment communications to mobile phone, cars, PDAs, game consoles and other devices. Lift-off is scheduled for 3 April in a launch window that opens at 22:24 local time or 16:24 GMT.
Irish firm Web Reservations International (WRI) has signed a deal with Pegasus Solutions' reservation service, which will see Pegasus's content feature on WRI's boo.com site. Pegasus's UltraDirect hotel distribution service provides content, rates and availability for over 90,000 hotels around the world and will give WRI access to "the largest collection of electronically bookable hotels in the world", according to CEO Feargal Mooney. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
Irish SMEs are being encouraged to check if they qualify for research and development tax credits. Potentially eligible R&D activities include: integration of telephony and voice technologies, smartcard interfacing, integration of mobile technologies, improvement in processes and operations, and automation of manual activities. SMEs who want to support their claim must have proper records; a feasibility plan; progress reports; a list of personnel involved; lab reports and any patents or patent applications. "In particular, the definition of what can be termed R&D is broader than most business people realise and tax credits are not being claimed due to this lack of awareness," Donall Curtin of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland and partner in Byrne Curtin Kelly.
SQS (Software Quality Systems) has appointed three new software testing consultants to its Irish team. Colm O'Murchu, Sarah Devlin and Richard Lynch will take up positions within SQS in its Dublin office where they will test software for clients of the company. The trio recently completed an induction in SQS's South African training centre. The firm currently employs over 70 people in Ireland.
Dublin-based Macallahas been revealed as the company behind Permanent TSB's recently launched emergency cash service. Macalla's mobile payment platform already powers a number of other mobile and banking services with the likes of Vodafone and WESTERNCARD. The Permanent TSB service, which was launched in January, allows its text banking customer to send an SMS to the bank nominating anyone in Ireland with a mobile phone to receive an emergency payment. This payment can then be withdrawn from a branch of Permanent TSB without an ATM card.
Samsung Electronics has entered the netbook market with an ultra-light 10.2 inch offering. The Mini-Notebook NC10 weighs 1.33kg and has a WSVGA (1024 x 600) SuperBright non-gloss LED screen. It is powered by an Intel Atom processor and has 160GB hard disk storage alongside Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR and 802.11b.g wireless LAN for internet access. The netbook also features a digital motion camera, a three-in-one multi-memory card reader, a VGA connection, three USB ports and an anti-bacterial keyboard. Samsung's offering is available from Elara Online, Laptop Shop and 3G Mobile stores nationwide and prices start at EUR399.
Firefox 3.0 is the most popular web browser in Europe. That's according to Irish web analytics firm StatCounter, which found that last week Firefox accounted for 35.05 percent of the European web browser market followed by Internet Explorer 7.0 with 34.54 percent. However, the popularity of the Firefox browser is partially attributed to the release of Internet Explorer 8, which has somewhat fragmented Microsoft's market share. "The data shows that Firefox is closing the gap and is now just 10 percent behind all IE versions in Europe," said Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder StatCounter.
Microsoft is cancelling its long-running encyclopaedia service Encarta. The Redmond giant is pulling the plug on the service thanks in part to the rise of free reference services from the likes of Wikipedia, and has promised to refund subscribers. The premium service, which will finish up this June, was first offered to customers as a software product in the early nineties. "People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past," a Microsoft spokesperson said on the MSN website.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 