NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 11 September
11-09-2009
by Deirdre McArdle
PIEMAN delivers broadband advances | Twitter embraces advertising
Broadband in Ireland took a step forward on Friday when the Tyndall National Institute in Cork demonstrated advances in fibre-to-the-home networks. The breakthrough came from an EU-funded research collaboration, called PIEMAN, between BT, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks, the Centre for Integrated Photonics (CIP), Ghent University and Tyndall. The group has designed a large-scale, high-speed network that has a span of around 100km (compared to 20km that is typically available today). The network also features multiple colours of light to allow sharing of optical fibre and components across many sub-networks, which means that over 16,000 customers can be supported from a single network hub, leading to a dramatic fall in the costs associated with operating a fibre network. "Cutting-edge projects such as PIEMAN are helping to drive the development of next-generation networks, which are key enablers of the future Smart Economy," said Minister for Science, Technology & Innovation Conor Lenihan.
Dublin-based mobile firm Movida won a Mobile Content Award for 'Best Technology Innovation' at a ceremony in London on Thursday night. Movida won the award for its MA1110 multimedia processor, which allows users to edit video and apply video effects in real-time on a mobile device. The Mobile Content Awards were hosted by Visiongain Research. Other winners on the night included RIM, Nokia, HTC, Samsung and Orange.
Social networking site Facebook has officially launched Facebook Lite, a trimmed down version of its site aimed at users with slow connections. The launch was first mooted in mid-August, when reports suggested it would focus on the developing world. For now, Facebook Lite is available in India and the US and it's received a good response from users there. In fact, as a result of the positive reaction, industry watchers said they believe that even users with good internet connections may well flock to Facebook Lite because of its new look and ease of use. Users of Facebook Lite are limited to writing on their 'wall', posting photos and videos, viewing events and browsing other people's profiles. There are no apps or special boxes.
Micro-blogging phenomenon Twitter has expanded its terms for users to allow advertisers to reach its more than 45 million monthly visitors. In a company blog, Biz Stone explained that the news terms "leave the door open for advertising". Here is the new advertising clause: "The services may include advertisements, which may be targeted to the content or information on the services, queries made through the services, or other information. The types and extent of advertising by Twitter on the services are subject to change." Twitter also said it is working on guidelines for the development of APIs for the site.
The US Justice Department has asked Yahoo and Microsoft for additional documents as it continues to probe the search deal signed by the two giants at the end of July. The pair have confirmed that the Justice Department's antitrust division had made a second request for documents. This indicates a decision to conduct a deeper review that could take months. According to Reuters, antitrust experts generally expect the deal to get close scrutiny from regulators, but that it will ultimately be approved. On signing the deal Microsoft and Yahoo said they were hopeful that it would be finalised in early 2010.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 