NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 20 May
20-05-2009
by Emmet Cole
First Derivatives sees profits jump | Government to apply for Dell worker aid
Adwalker, the Irish wearable computing manufacturer, has revealed a new digital wearable product, named Gen:3. The wearable unit allows companies to show a message, take orders, print out coupons and vouchers and sign up customers. The company also said it is offering the first 2,000 units of its product to companies worldwide for 'free', with the Irish market expected to take up to 400 units of the global allocation. According to tech blog www.yourtechstuff.com, however, there are some terms and conditions associated with this offer, including the payment of EUR10 per day for a minimum contract of 365 days. Adwalker is inviting companies to visit its website to pre order these units.
First Derivatives, the Newry-based software and consulting services firm, has announced pre-tax profits of STG5.4 million for the 12 months to the end of February 2009 -- an increase of 13 percent on the previous year. Revenues rose by 39 percent to STG17.5 million and the company is expecting to make further progress in the first half of this year. The company said it will pay a dividend of STG0.065 per share. First Derivatives bought Australian based tech firm Lepton Solutions last month.
The Irish Government expects to make an application to the European Commission in the next two weeks in the hope of getting emergency EU aid to retrain workers affected by the job losses at Dell. Minister of State, Tony Killeen has revealed that the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) application would be made in late May or early June. The EGF is designed to support workers in regions and sectors that have been disadvantaged by their exposure to the globalised economy. It has an annual budget of EUR500 million to assist 35,000 to 50,000 workers get back into the workplace.
Apart from worries about bankruptcy and strong competition, concerns about cybercrime are adding an additional burden of pressure to small businesses in the UK, according to a survey commissioned by internet content security company Trend Micro. The survey reveals that 20 percent of UK small business IT decision makers are concerned about personal details and confidential company information being stolen. One in four respondents said their business had been disrupted by a virus over the last 12 months, while 14 percent recognised that company data had gone missing. One in ten of those surveyed recorded the theft of mobile devices, such as laptops, mobile phones and Blackberrys. On average, IT decision makers felt happy for their colleagues to spend over half an hour (36 minutes) looking at non-work related websites. While the majority prevent staff from browsing pornographic sites (72 percent) and gambling sites (64 percent), the rules around online behaviour seemed more relaxed when concerning the use of social networking sites, online chats and online shopping.
Mobile phone sales fell 9.4 percent globally in the first quarter of 2009 due to reduced consumer spending, according to research firm Gartner. Gartner found that retailers' stocks fell by some 25 million phones in the quarter and analysts expect de-stocking to continue in the April-June quarter. Gartner is forecasting that mobile phone sales will decrease about 4 percent in 2009 compared with 2008, and handset makers' production volumes would fall around 10 percent due to the inventory reduction. Meanwhile, sales of smartphones, including the iPhone, grew 12.7 percent year-on-year in the quarter.
eBay is one of the world's top 10 website that 'users can't live without', according to research conducted by Nielson Online. A total of 7,625 online brands' popularity was tracked as part of the research. Facebook consumed the most online time for users with 13 percent of the market. MSN/Windows Live takes 7 percent of users' online time with Google accounting for 5 percent of users' online activity. eBay was fourth most popular site listed, commanding 4.1 percent of online time. Other sites in the top 10 include YouTube, AOL and Yahoo. The research also found that the average net user spends around 22 hours and 20 minutes per month surfing online, an increase of 34 percent on last year.
Google has launched an automatic translation system for its Gmail service, the company revealed on its blog. To use the service, users just need to enable the "Message Translation" option in Settings/Labs. Once that's done, Gmail will help you translate any message into another language with one click.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 