NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 19 June
19-06-2009
by Deirdre McArdle
Entrepreneurial spirit our key asset | Google to get tough on porn in China
Ireland's entrepreneurial spirit is considered our best asset by 60 percent of the inaugural winners of Deloitte's Best Managed Companies Awards programme. A third of companies think our educated workforce is a key advantage while just 6 percent see our low corporate tax rate as being a significant benefit. When it comes to the biggest challenges facing Irish firms, 60 percent said cash flow management is proving difficult, while a third of firms each identified the high cost of doing business, availability of funding and lack of customer demand as the most pressing issues.
Irish directory enquiries firm 11850 has announced the appointment of Susan Branchflower as its chief executive officer. Branchflower previously held the position of director of marketing with Three Ireland, and will now assume responsibility for the strategic direction of 11850.
In a creative alternative to letting staff go, telecoms firm BT has asked employees to volunteer to work in "like-minded" companies for at least a month, during which time they would be paid by the firm to which they are being "lent". The initiative is aimed at BT's UK staff and does not apply to the firm's Irish workforce.
Apple's iPhone 3G S hit shelves in the US on Friday, but consumer reaction was decidedly less muted than previous launches of the iPhone and the iPhone 3G. Though several of the stores selling the device did see crowds gathering in the early morning, the numbers were fewer than in previous years. Analysts believe this is due to the fact that the latest version of the popular iPhone isn't wildly different from the iPhone 3G; instead it offers some extra features and faster speeds.
A new spammed malware attack is imitating messages from micro-blogging site Twitter.com. Researchers at security firm Symantec said the attack purports to be an invitation to join Twitter with the message: 'Your friend has invited you to Twitter'. The message also contains images of the Twitter logo. Rather than send the user to Twitter via a URL, however, the message asks the user to open an attachment called 'InvitationCard.zip'. On launching the attached file, the user is infected with a malicious worm that attempts to send out mass email messages. Users are advised not to open the invitation attachments or any other unsolicited or suspicious email attachments.
Google has updated its Google Books service, adding new features aimed at making the site easier to navigate, and books easier to share. New features include the ability to view pages within books and magazines as thumbnails, and title contents as a dropdown menu, along with improved search features. Google has also added the ability for users to embed previews of books on third-party sites and blogs. Click here to find out about more of the new features.
In more news of Google, the internet giant has said it was working to block pornography reaching users of its Chinese service -- Google.cn -- after the Chinese internet watchdog warned the search engine for turning up large numbers of links to pornographic and "vulgar" sites. In a statement, Google said that company officials had met government representatives in China "to discuss problems with the Google.cn service and its serving of pornographic images and content based on foreign language searches". Reports on Friday claim that the Chinese government had disabled some search functions on Google.cn, although details were not given.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 