NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 27 July
27-07-2009
by Emmet Ryan
Website capitalises on Ikea arrival | Irish Times takes Uchoose stake
Three Ireland has announced a EUR1 million investment in its nationwide network of 21 retail stores. The investment is aimed at supporting the growth of Three's mobile phone and broadband services. Each of the individual stores will receive a "state-of-the-art interior design with full demonstration capabilities for a wide range of handsets".
A new website with a somewhat odd title has been launched to capitalise on the hype surrounding the opening of Ikea's first store in Ireland. SimpleAssemblyMeHole.com, created by web entrepreneur Maryrose Lyons, offers Ikea furniture delivery, furniture assembly and kitchen installation. Pricing is set at EUR30 per item for furniture assembly. Kitchen installations are priced at 15 percent of the cost of the kitchen. The site promises to handle deliveries in less than 24 hours.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Samsung jumped into the e-book market on Monday by rolling out a small-screen reader. The electronics giant, which is looking to rival Amazon's Kindle, will initially launch the SNE-50K e-book in South Korea, with content provided by a local bookstore chain. The device will be priced at about EUR190. The SNE-50K has a five-inch touch-screen that also allows users to write and store memos.
The Irish Times Group is to partner with Irish price comparison website Uchoose.ie. The partnership sees DigitalworX, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Irish Times Group which operates and manages Ireland.com, Myhome.ie and Irishracing.com, taking a 10 percent equity stake in Uchoose.ie. The value of the deal was not disclosed. The partnership will see Uchoose.ie powering price comparison services across the Irish Times Group network of sites.
Colt Telecom saw revenues drop by 3.6 percent to EUR401.2 million on a year-on-year basis in its latest results. The second quarter figures showed pre-tax profits rose despite the revenue drop, climbing by EUR12.3 million to EUR28.8 million. Capital expenditure decreased from EUR85.7 million to EUR41.5 million. The firm also repaid its remaining debt of EUR262.2 million during the quarter.
Microsoft has issued a security advisory to warn that it will issue emergency patches for Internet Explorer and Visual Studio on Tuesday. The patches address flaws that could allow remote code execution on both applications. The Internet Explorer patch is rated critical by the software giant and the Visual Studio patch has a moderate rating. In a statement, Microsoft said it could not go into specifics about the patches.
The European Council of Ministers has approved the European Commission's proposal to modernise the GSM directive. The updated directive now allows the 900 MHz frequency band to be used to provide faster, pan-European services such as mobile internet while ensuring the continuation of GSM services. This change aims to provide the flexibility required to foster stronger competition on Europe's telecoms market and contribute to a more rapid and more widespread roll-out of wireless broadband services. The Commission expects industry savings of up to EUR1.6 billion from the reform of the GSM directive.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 