NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 13 July
13-07-2009
by Emmet Ryan
EUR11.3m funding for SFI programme | Companies set to skip Windows 7
The Tanaiste Mary Coughlan announced Government funding of EUR11.3 million for 68 research projects under Science Foundation Ireland's Research Frontiers Programme for 2009. She made the announcement at NUI Maynooth at a meeting of the board of the foundation. "The Research Frontiers Programme supports innovative, cutting-edge and internationally-competitive research in a broad range of disciplines in science, mathematics and engineering," said Coughlan. The funding for the 68 projects is spread across 13 different areas including genetics, geosciences, astronomy, neuroscience, engineering and environmental science.
The majority of companies surveyed in a new study have said they plan to give Windows 7 a miss. The survey, by ScriptLogic, revealed that about 60 percent of those surveyed said they have no plans to deploy Windows 7. Thirty-four percent said they will deploy it by the end of 2010 and only 5.4 percent will deploy it by the end of this year. Amongst those avoiding the new operating system, 42 percent said their main reason was a lack of time and resources. Windows 7 is set for release in the third quarter of this year.
PopCap Games has announced the beta launch of Zuma Web Connect, a version of its action puzzle game Zuma designed for social networks. The game challenges players to score as many points as possible to earn medals and outscore their friends. Bejeweled Blitz, a one-minute social version of PopCap’s flagship franchise on Facebook, has reached 5 million monthly users during a just-completed six month beta phase.
File-sharing appears to be declining amongst UK teenagers. According to the annual Leading Question survey, the overall percentage of music fans file-sharing regularly has gone down since the last national survey. In December 2007 22 percent of UK teens regularly file-shared tracks, but in January 2009 this figure had dropped to 17 percent.
LG has joined the long line of mobile makers, including Apple, Nokia and Research in Motion, to develop its own application store. The LG Application Store, which has around 1,400 dedicated apps, will have an initial focus on the Asian market before expanding to the global market. The move comes shortly after Apple's App Store celebrated its first birthday.
Finally, the British Royal family has set up a Twitter account. None of the royals themselves will be tweeting however, so fans of Prince Charles and the Queen may be disappointed. The new @Britishmonarchy account will instead be run by their representatives to keep followers informed of events involving the family.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 