NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 7 April
07-04-2009
by Emmet Cole
Digital media hub opens in Derry | NUI Galway to offer energy degree
A digital media hub -- Digital Media Works Incubator -- was officially launched in Derry City on Wednesday, with the hope of creating 150 new start-up jobs. Managed by Northern Ireland Innovation and Business Centre, the new facility provides incubation space and business development support to new digital media businesses, including animation, music technology, computer game programming, and 3D design. The incubator is designed to provide entrepreneurs with access to office space with state-of-the-art ICT facilities, business mentoring and advice.
Waterford-based enterprise widget services company, FeedHenry, has received an award at the CTIA Wireless 2009 Emerging Technology Award competition. The Irish firm placed third in the Mobile Applications & Widgets category for mobile marketing and mobile advertising. The company also unveiled an end-to-end IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) widget platform and an IMS widget engine for mobile handsets at the Las Vegas trade event.
NUI Galway is set to offer a new, four-year degree in Energy Systems Engineering. The degree is designed to produce professional accredited engineers to drive emerging energy solutions. Both the National Development Plan and Programme for Government and the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation have identified energy as a research priority. The new degree programme can be applied for in the coming months through the CAO as a 'change of mind' option.
E-learning group ThirdForce has posted revenue of EUR26.9 million for the year ending 31 December 2008, an 18 percent increase on the EUR22.8 million figure for 2007. The revenue figure included a full year of sales from US firm MindLeaders, which ThirdForce acquired in June 2007. The Irish firm recorded pre-tax losses of EUR2.7 million for the year, compared to pre-tax profits of EUR80,000 in 2007. The firm said this was primarily due to currency effects and increased goodwill impairment charges in its ICT sector. Looking ahead, ThirdForce said it expects 2009 to be a "challenging" year, according to chairman Pat McDonagh, who said acquisitions will continue to be a key driver for the firm.
Apple has updated its rack-mounted Xserve server range. Using Intel's Nehalem Xeon processors and a new system architecture, Apple claims that Xserve will deliver up to twice the performance of the previous system, and an 89 percent improvement in performance per watt. Xserve is available with up to two 2.93GHz Intel Xeon processors and storage options that include a low-power solid state drive (SSD) and up to 3TB of internal storage. Starting at EUR2,899, Xserve includes an unlimited client licence for Mac OS X Server version 10.5 Leopard.
Mobile phone maker Samsung confirmed on Tuesday that it intends to launch at least three phones built with Google's Linux-based Android mobile operating system. Currently, T-Mobile's G1, is the flagship Android handset. Samsung first announced its plans to build an Android-based phone in 2008.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 