NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 20 October
20-10-2009
by Emmet Ryan
SFI fund to attract researchers | U2 to perform live on YouTube
The Government is to provide EUR7.9 million in funding under the Science Foundation Ireland Starting Investigator Research Grant awards. The money will help 15 researchers across seven institutions to progress towards a fully independent academic research career. "It is vital that we have in Ireland the mechanism to keep and attract to Ireland highly skilled, early-stage career researchers," said the Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Conor Lenihan as he announced the Government funding.
U2's sold-out concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California this Sunday will be streamed free, in full and live on YouTube. It's the first time a show of this size will be streamed live over the video sharing website. The Rose Bowl show is the penultimate U2 show this year, and is expected to have over 96,000 fans in attendance. The partnership with YouTube is part of an effort to give access to fans worldwide.
Data recovery firm Kroll Ontrack is to launch its new Ontrack Eraser Degausser 3.0 product in the Irish market. The product generates a strong electromagnetic field to destroy all traces of data contained on defunct magnetic media, such as hard drives. Businesses across the public and private sectors can use the electromagnet to permanently wipe 100 percent of data from magnetic media in a matter of seconds.
Dublin-based mobile software firm Movidia has re-branded itself as Movidius. The firm said the name change was based on market feedback to create a more distinctive presence in the mobile handset sector. The move follows the firm's launch of its MA1110 product in January. Since September 2008 the Dublin business has secured over USD14 million in funding.
IT security firm Espion has said that e-mail is the most used method to steal information from corporations by employees. Research by the firm found that hard copy printouts are the second most popular method used. Mobile devices, such as USB memory sticks and data CDs, are not as commonly used, accounting for less than 10 percent of the cases where data has been stolen from an organisation, according to the firm.
Telecoms provider Colt has won a seven-year contract to provide Celesio with a converged pan-European data and voice network. Celesio is a pharmaceutical trading firm and the value of the contract is several tens of millions of euro. Under the terms of the contract, Colt will take on the management of the wide area network and delivery of converged IP services, connecting more than 2,500 Celesio locations in 14 countries across Europe.
A total of 50 of Ireland's top medical devices companies showcased their products to 200 key decision makers from 90 international life-sciences companies at Enterprise Ireland's 'Med in Ireland' event on Tuesday. At the last 'Med in Ireland' event in 2007, over EUR35 million worth of sales were generated. This year, over 580 individual meetings have been organised between Enterprise Ireland clients and potential international buyers.
Dublin firm IdentiGEN has established a wholly-owned subsidiary in Canada as part of its growing business in that region. The announcement was made by the Tanaiste, Mary Coughlan, during Enterprise Ireland's trade mission to Canada involving 35 companies from sectors including software, telecoms and financial services aiming to grow their exports and extend their trade links with Canada. IdentiGEN provides DNA-based meat traceability solutions to track meat from the farm to the retail store.
ComReg has published its Response to Consultation on Ireland's Digital Dividend. The regulator said Ireland's Digital Dividend provides a unique opportunity to develop new forms of broadcasting and communications services. In the statement ComReg said it would further develop its position on Ireland's Digital Dividend and will consult again on the matter.
Swedish-owned digital music service Spotify will be made available to customers of British mobile operator Three through a new HTC Hero phone. The news follows Spotify securing deals to provide a service on the iPhone and on phones enabled with Google's Android operating system. The HTC Hero is also based on the Android system. Spotify has more than 6 million users in Europe and over 5 million tracks available.
Price cuts helped Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) become the top-selling video game console in the US for the first time since its release. The PS3 knocked the Nintendo Wii from the top spot, according to research firm NPD. Microsoft's Xbox 360 came in third. Total sales of video game hardware and software in the US rose by 1 percent to USD1.28 billion. The top video game was the XBox 360's Halo 3:ODST.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 