NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 8 June
08-06-2009
by Emmet Ryan
Apple to reveal new iPhone? | Digicel revenues up 11 percent
Apple fans could get two interesting glimpses on Monday. The Mac maker is widely expected to unveil the next-generation iPhone at Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. The event may also see an appearance from Apple chief executive Steve Jobs who has been absent with health issues for several months, having missed the Macworld conference in January. Jobs had an operation for pancreatic cancer in 2004 and the firm has since been tight-lipped about health issues concerning the chief executive.
A quarter of Irish firms are struggling to cope with growing e-mail archives, according to research from data management firm Kroll Ontrack. The survey of 86 Irish organisations found that 25 percent of IT executives perceive e-mail mailbox management to be their biggest data challenge over the next 12 months. Kroll Ontrack said it has seen an increase of almost 20 percent in the number of requests to restore Microsoft Exchange data in Ireland over the past six months.
Irish online backup provider KeepITsafe has said it is on target for a turnover of EUR1 million by the end of 2009. The firm saw its turnover increase from EUR600,000 in 2007 to EUR800,000 in 2008. KeepITsafe currently has over 1.400 clients and 120 partners. "Many of our partners and customers have downsized but looked at their online backup strategy as a cost they could not afford to cut," said Jonathan Crowe, technical director of KeepITsafe.
Google and the Irish Software Association (ISA) have announced that they are working together to help small companies better use the internet in marketing their business. As part of a wider ISA campaign to increase cooperation between multinational software companies and small- and medium-sized software enterprises, Google's Learning and Development Team recently held the second in a series of free workshops to provide practical advice on how online advertising can be used to get ahead in a time of economic downturn.
The Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Conor Lenihan, opened Ireland’s first genome sequencing laboratory on Monday. The DNA sequencing laboratory will enable research into psychiatric disorders, cancers, infectious diseases and conditions affecting the immune system. The new facility is based in Trinity College Dublin's Institute of Molecular Medicine and is funded by Science Foundation Ireland.
Northern Ireland business software vendor Singularity has won a contract with NHS South of Tyne and Wear in the UK to reengineer key business processes as part of the health body's programme of operational improvements. NHS South of Tyne and Wear will initially use Singularity's technology to redesign and automate processes used for recruiting new employees, later extending the technology to processes such as a GP appraisal system.
Revenues at Digicel, the Caribbean-based mobile phone group owned by Denis O'Brien, rose by 11 percent in its full year to the end of March. Digicel posted revenues of USD1.73 billion as subscriber numbers jumped 9 percent to 7.1 million. Digicel said its full year pre-tax profit margin rose to 40 percent but the firm did not reveal full-year profits.
Irish IT managed services firm Calyx has completed the installation of a new security suite for EBS Building Society. The solution aims to address the security threat of data loss and virus alerts posed by USB devices. Calyx deployed applications designed to prevent unauthorised copying of sensitive information from laptops and PCs through a centrally managed port control, content filtering and media encryption. Financial details of the deal were not reported.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 