NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 15 September
15-09-2009
by Emmet Ryan
Systems Biology gets investment | Interxion pumps EUR12m into plant
The Government is to provide EUR14.8 million in funding to help establish the Systems Biology Ireland research centre. The funding, which will be provided over the next five years, will help support 69 positions at the centre. The Science Foundation Ireland-backed project aims to use computers and mathematics to help gain a better understanding of biology. Systems Biology will look to solve complex mysteries surrounding cells and other biological behaviour.
In other investment news, data centre operator Interxion is pumping EUR12 million into a new Dublin facility, expanding on its existing Irish operations. The investment will double Interxion's workforce at the site, with eight new jobs being created. In a statement the data centre operator said the expansion is required to meet growing customer demand. The first phase of the new facility is expected to be up and running in April 2010.
Data recovery firm Kroll Ontrack has reported a 20 percent surge in demand for its services within Ireland since the recession began. With staff cuts being forced in many IT departments, the business has found a greater demand for its Ontrack Data Recovery product. The lack of support available to manage applications such as e-mail and databases is seeing greater instances of data loss, opening up opportunities for recovery firms.
A total of 26 community and voluntary groups around Ireland have been awarded a laptop and a year's free broadband by BT to help them exploit ICT. The winners were selected from over 2,300 groups across the island that applied to the BT Community Connections scheme. Applications for the scheme nearly doubled from last year for the awards, which aim to help community groups take advantage of the opportunities offered by the internet.
Irish healthcare technology company Helix Health has secured a deal to meet all the IT requirements for a newly developed School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences lab in Trinity College Dublin. The agreement includes all computer equipment and accessories and Helix Health's pharmacy management software. The installation involves building over 40 independent pharmacy systems for students to learn about dispensing, drug interactions and pharmacy management practices. The new system is due to come online later this year.
Google has launched a new service called Fast Flip to let users consume news more quickly. The new application aims to help revitalise the news sector. Fast Flip offers screenshots of webpages to give users an idea of the articles present. Stories are organised based on criteria such as popularity and the personal preferences of the reader as well as recommendations by friends. Users who want to see more of the story can click through to the publisher's website. The new service carries contextual ads around the screenshots and publishers using the service will share in the revenue from these ads.
Staying with the information theme and Entertainment.ie has launched a new personalisation service called uLike. The new feature gives up-to-date information on issues and topics selected by users as their 'Favourite Things'. This works by inputting keywords to select specific issues that users want to be notified about. E-mail updates are then sent on a daily or weekly basis to users to keep them up to speed on the topics most relevant to them.
Go2mobile Solutions has launched SMSWeather. This is a user-generated localised weather reports system that uses mobile technology. Users can submit weather information via text and information is then posted at Go2mobile's web portal, http://post4.go2mobile.com/weather/. Users of the system can receive updates about the weather in their area or the area they plan to travel to by SMS.
Intel has reached a four-year high in its share of the processor market. According to the latest information from analyst firm iSuppli, Intel took an 80.6 percent share of the chip market in the last quarter. This represented an increase of 1.4 percent from the same period last year, and a gain of 1.5 percent over the previous quarter. The processor firm is still some way short of its 2005 high of 82.4 percent, the largest share Intel ever enjoyed in the market.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 