NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 1 October
01-10-2009
by Emmet Ryan
Intune nets EUR22m in funding | Bing's loss is Google's gain
Dublin-based telecoms equipment firm Intune Networks has secured EUR22 million in its most recent funding round. Financier Dermot Desmond and venture capital firm Kernel Capital led the investment with additional funding provided by existing investors Balderton Capital, Amadeus Capital, Spark Capital and some long term private investors. Intune, which has operations in Dublin and Belfast, said this was the the largest private equity investment in the global telecoms optical equipment sector in 2009. In July Intune was named to lead the Government’s programme to build Ireland’s Exemplar Smart Network. The network is designed to be the first step in creating a next generation smart and green communications infrastructure for Ireland.
Cloud computing projects in Ireland are proving successful but a lack of knowledge is limiting take-up, according to research by the Irish Internet Association (IIA). The IIA survey found that 85 percent of cloud computing projects in Ireland are successful, with 94 percent of respondents saying they planned on doing further projects in the future. Despite the apparent interest in cloud computing, Ireland is lagging in adoption of the technology, according to 65 percent of respondents. Lack of understanding was the most cited cause for this problem on 26 percent.
Innovation Dublin is a week-long festival of events taking place between 14-20 October, which will highlight and promote innovation in the city. There are a wide range of events taking place around the city during the week including: Connect School: showcases the use of ICT in the classroom, a presentation called Technical Innovations for the Sports Sector and 140 characters a series of short films shot in Dublin City featuring 140 people answering the same question using 140 characters or less. Check out the website for information on other events going on during the festival.
A Wexford firm has called for more work to be done to encourage senior surfers. "Usage of computers and internet is growing although as yet has only reached a minority of those aged over 65. Many older people are still losing out and there is a need to reinforce efforts to encourage and enable older people to use these technologies," said Elizabeth Browne, manager of Westgate Computer Centre. Browne cited figures from the Central Statistics Office which showed that only 22 percent of 65 to 74 years olds had ever used the internet.
Dublin car hire firm CarTrawler has won the Best Technology Provider Award and the Best Car Hire Award at the Travolution Annual Travel Industry Awards. The awards took place in London’s Dorchester Hotel on Monday. CarTrawler provides a car rental distribution system to firms such as airlines, hotels, and travel agents.
Fujitsu Services, Fujitsu ITPS, and Fujitsu Siemens have merged to form a new entity. Fujitsu Ireland combines the three business units and is an effort to give the firm a greater breadth of service and product offering to become a dominant player in the Irish IT solutions market.
Bing's monthly market share in the US and globally has fallen for the first time since Microsoft launched the search engine, according to analysis conducted by web analytics firm StatCounter. Bing's share of the US search market in September fell to 8.51 percent from 9.64 percent in August. Globally, Bing's decline was less noticeable, dropping from 3.58 percent to 3.25 percent. Yahoo also saw a decline in September, dropping from 4.84 percent to 4.37 percent globally and from 10.5 percent to 9.4 percent in the US. The losses for Bing and Yahoo were to Google's gain as it rose to an 80.08 percent share in the US, and a 90.54 percent share globally.
A study by Oxford University and the University of Oviedo has found that the quality of broadband connections globally is generally improving. The second edition of the Broadband Quality Study found the quality of consumer broadband improved in 62 of the 66 countries surveyed. The global average download speed rose by 49 percent to 4.75Mbps while upload speeds shot up 69 percent to an average of 1.3Mbps. Unsurprisingly, South Korea, which regularly performs well in broadband research, topped the study's broadband leadership table. Sweden, in fourth, was the best placed European nation in the rankings. Denmark, while still ninth in the table, was somewhat lower than expected by continental standards as only the fifth best ranked European nation.
The European Union has launched a free satellite navigation network that fine tunes the accuracy of the US global positioning system (GPS) to around 2 metres. The EGNOS system, which could be used by pilots, drivers and even blind people, uses three satellites and 34 ground stations to narrow the horizontal accuracy of GPS from its previous best of 7 metres. "It will make all personal navigation applications much more precise, giving birth to new possibilities like guiding aids for blind people," the Commission said in a statement.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 