NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 12 August
12-08-2009
by Emmet Cole
Thirty new R&D jobs for Galway | Bus Eireann gets tweeting
Michael Finneran, Minister for Housing and Local Services, announced the opening of a new research and development centre in Galway on Wednesday. Lumension, a leading player in operational endpoint management and security, will use the new facility as a product R&D hub, initially creating highly-skilled 30 jobs to help build out its suite of endpoint security solutions. Lumension's expansion into Ireland was supported by the IDA.
Bus Eireann has introduced an exclusive offer of a EUR2 single fare on its Galway-Dublin and Cork-Galway routes, to celebrate the transport company's entrance into the Twitterverse. The EUR2 tickets apply to off-peak services and can only be purchased by visiting Bus Eireann's Twitter page and clicking on the offer link. The firm said it also shortly plans to introduce a real-time passenger information system that will provide customers with up-to-the minute details on when buses will arrive and depart at individual stops across the country via their mobile phone and the internet.
Hilton Hotels, one of the world's largest hotel companies, has launched mobile services in the UK and Germany with the help of Dublin-based Mobile Travel Technologies (MTT). The solution offers travellers the ability to book hotels, access and change bookings and view hotel images and information, whilst away from their PC. A dedicated web application version of the solution is also available for UK iPhone users. A value of the deal was not disclosed.
The Moran Hotel Group -- which includes six Bewley's Hotel properties in Dublin, Leeds and Manchester plus four Moran Hotels in Dublin, London and Cork -- are selling meeting rooms using Dublin-based Meetingsbooker.com software, following the recent rollout of the online meeting booking system. Meetingsbooker.com provides hotels with online meeting room software that can be integrated within their existing websites. As part of the agreement, Moran Hotels & Bewley's Hotels will also sell their meeting rooms on the mettingsbooker.com portal website. A value of the deal was not disclosed.
Eircom has revealed the four winners of its second annual EUR100,000 Web Innovation Fund. The winners are Diaryplan.com, a start-up aiming to become the world's largest supplier of online calendar services; Societymail.com, a company that produces a plug-in for webmail that turns your e-mail Inbox into a social networking tool and search engine; BeeHerd, a company that supplies customised social widgets to sports online content producers; and, GetItKeepIt.com, an online document storage and management company. The four winning companies will benefit from a prize of Eircom funding valued at EUR100,000 to help them develop their winning concept through to production.
The European Commission has launched TalkToEU.ie -- an interactive website designed to encourage dialogue between the EU and Irish citizens. The website is part of the year-long ‘TalktoEU’ programme, created in response to research that revealed "a lack of knowledge amongst the Irish public on the European Union and its policies". The new website is designed to promote open dialogue with Irish citizens and "foster greater mutual understanding between the EU and the Irish public".
Global mobile phone sales fell in three-month period between April and June, but at a slower pace than in the previous three months according to research firm Gartner. Mobile phone sales fell 6 percent in the quarter as recession-hit consumers in both emerging and developed markets reined in spending, Gartner said, adding it still expects the market to fall 4 percent this year. Smartphone sales however, grew 27 percent year-on-year in the second quarter.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 