NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 5 June
05-06-2009
by Deirdre McArdle
Scientists need business skills: ASC | Bing bounces over Yahoo
Irish scientists must develop business skills alongside their science skills, according to Mary Cryan, Chair of the Advisory Science Council, who said that business skills are necessary in order to make scientific expertise commercially viable. "We must also seek out and support those with business skills, who understand science, who can see market potential and who can bring that potential to fruition in the form of products and services that are in demand globally. Science and technology are foundations of a successful economic future for Ireland, but scientists and enterprise must support each other to make sure Ireland's research is really put to work," she said. The Advisory Science Council was set up to advise Government on how science, technology and innovation can contribute to Ireland's economic and social development.
Just days after its launch, Microsoft's search engine, Bing, has overtaken Yahoo as the second most popular search site in the US and globally, according to traffic analysis firm StatCounter. In the US Bing accounted for 16.3 percent of the market on Thursday, ahead of Yahoo's 10.2 percent. Google is miles ahead with a 71.5 percent share. Worldwide, Bing has 5.6 percent market share, compared to Yahoo's 5.1 percent. Google controls a monster share of the global market at 87.6 percent. "It remains to be seen if Bing falls away after the initial novelty and promotion but at first sight it looks like Microsoft is onto a winner," said Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter.
Google has launched test, or developer, versions of its Chrome web browser for Linux and Mac OS X. The firm clarified that the test version was for developers only and warned non-developers not to download the software as it was not yet stable for everyday use. Google has three different release channels for Chrome: developer, beta and stable. In the developer channel changes that might affect rendering, performance, and layout are likely to occur on a regular basis, according to Google. The internet giant released version 2 of Chrome for Windows as a stable release in May.
Sony has confirmed that it will join the online music service currently being developed by Google's YouTube and Universal Music. The service, which is to be called Vevo, is expected to be launched later this year. Sony is the first major label, apart from co-founder Universal, to sign up with the service. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Sony Ericsson has unveiled two new 'green' mobile handsets and the company said it plans to push more eco-friendly products through over the next two years. The handsets -- C901 GreenHeartand Naite -- are built on Sony Ericsson's 'green core', which sees the firm aiming to eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals from its phones. Additional 'green' features include an e-manual, less packaging, recycled plastics and a low-power charger. Sony Ericsson also unveiled its plans to reduce CO2 emissions across the whole company by 20 percent by 2015.
In more 'green' news, Hewlett-Packard has launched a range of environmentally friendly printers onto the Irish market. The printers -- HP Deskjet D1660, HP D2660 and the HP Deskjet D5660 -- are made of recycled plastics, reflecting HP's goal of using 46 million kilogrammes of recycled plastic in printing products by 2011.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 