NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 29 September
29-09-2009
by Emmet Cole
Vodafone to sell iPhone in Ireland, UK | Microsoft seeks Irish geeks
Vodafone and Apple have reached an agreement whereby Vodafone has won the rights to sell the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in the UK and Ireland from early 2010. Until now, O2 had exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in the UK and Ireland. Beginning Tuesday, Vodafone Ireland customers can register their interest in iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS at www.vodafone.ie/iphone. Pricing, tariffs and availability information will be announced locally in the future. On Monday, Orange announced that it had reached an agreement to sell Apple's iPhone in the UK later this year. While an exact date for the launch was not released, an Orange spokesman said the iPhone would be available on its network by Christmas.
Enterprise Ireland in association with the Internet Growth Alliance (a business-led initiative supporting the international growth of Irish e-businesses) launched a new initiative on Tuesday, called the Internet Growth Acceleration Programme (iGAP). Designed to give internet-related companies a major boost to their growth development prospects, iGAP will provide businesses with the tools and skills to help them develop aggressive international growth plans and scale their business. The focus is on internet-related companies with global growth potential and the ability to meet critical growth milestones. The programme is specifically geared to add significant strategic and business value to companies in both B2B and B2C markets with practical learning modules, support from implementation coaches, access to business advisors and industry networking. Recruitment for the programme -- which begins in November-- is now underway.
Broadband penetration is considerably higher in regions with cable internet due to infrastructure competition, according to a report by Solon Management Consulting on the state of play of the European cable market. The EU industry report also projects positive growth for the European cable market in 2010. According to the report, cable accounts for 43 percent of Ireland's broadband market, compared to 62 percent in the UK.
Microsoft launched a nationwide search for Ireland's biggest "inner geek" on Tuesday. The company is calling on the general public to nominate geeks by 6pm on Wednesday 14 October. The competition is being held to celebrate the launch of Windows 7 on Thursday 22 October. To nominate a geek near you, log onto celebrategeek.ie, enter your nomination and outline the important role that gadgets and technology plays in your nominee's life. The winner and the prize will be awarded at a special party being held in The Temple Bar Music Centre in Dublin on 21 of October 2009. The winner will receive a home entertainment package including a copy of Windows 7, a laptop, an Xbox 360 Elite, Xbox LIVE subscription, a selection of video games and a mobile phone.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has released its free, Security Essentials computer security package to the public. Available for download from Microsoft's Security Essentials website, the software is designed to provide basic protection against viruses, Trojans, rootkits, and spyware. Codenamed Morro, the software is available without registration and imposes no limits on the amount of time it can be used for. However, the software has to be installed on a PC whose Windows operating system has been verified by Microsoft. Until mid-2009, Microsoft was offering 'Windows Live OneCare' -- a paid security software package, but failed to win a significant user base in the consumer market. That software has since been withdrawn.
There's a kind of hush all over the EU, with news that the European Commission has issued new volume standards for MP3 players that will require small technical changes to iPods and other MP3 devices so they play at a 'safe' volume by default. The devices will also come with a health warning so consumers who choose to override the default settings understand the risks involved. According to European Union Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva, 5-10 percent of MP3 users risk permanent hearing loss if they listen to a music player at high volume for more than one hour per day, each week over a five-year period. Now, the Commission plans to adopt the standards as the norm for new products. According to the EU Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks, listening to personal music devices at high volumes for long periods of time can cause hearing loss and tinnitus. In January, the EU warned that that up to 10 million young people are in danger of damaging their hearing by playing their MP3 players too loud.
Businesses and organisations in the Asia/Pacific region are starting to view open source software as a viable option in an attempt to reduce operational expenses, according to a pair of new studies from market analysts IDC. The "Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) Open Source Software Adoption in 2009" and "Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) Open Source Software Adoptions: Customer Case Study" studies reveal that Indonesia has the highest percentage of respondents planning to deploy new open source CRM applications (34.5 percent) over the next 18 months. Meanwhile, according to IDC's Asia/Pacific Continuum Study 2009, the open source software most likely to be implemented over the next 18 months include CRM applications (9.7 percent), database management (8.4 percent), and virtualisation software (7.4 percent).
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 