NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 28 October
28-10-2009
by Emmet Cole
Android smartphone to hit Ireland | Google drives into navigation market
Samsung Mobile Ireland announced on Wednesday that the Galaxy Spica handset (i5700) -- the first Android-powered phone to hit the Irish market -- will be available exclusively on the O2 network from mid November 2009. Pricing and exact availability details will be confirmed by O2 in the coming weeks. The phone comes with Google applications for those with a Google account, including the Chrome Lite browser and Google Maps. The phone also provides up to 250MB internal memory and external memory up to 32GB.
Minister for Science, Technology & Innovation, Conor Lenihan met with Europe's Ambassador for the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009, Damini Kumar on Wednesday. Minister Lenihan also met with young entrepreneur Dominic McVey (the UK's 'Pioneer for Entrepreneurism') to discuss greater innovation and entrepreneurship amongst young people. Kumar commented: "Young entrepreneurs should be supported, mentored and encouraged to take risks and be innovative. This will be a huge benefit to the future of Ireland as entrepreneurship is an increasingly important source of competitiveness and we need to encourage it, especially in this economic crisis. I believe that design and creativity needs to be fostered and encouraged at an early age so that the next generation has a more open and flexible mindset that will lead Ireland to be a more innovative nation."
Provider of online reservations to the budget, independent and youth travel market, Hostelworld.com announced on Wednesday that it has expanded its existing video content by launching a range of new "How to" videos. Presented by Hostelworld.com editor Colm Hanratty, the videos give tips on how to save money in cities around the world and will increase Hostelworld's presence on popular "How to" video sites such as Howcast.com and 5min.com. Currently, the firm has created "How to" videos for London, New York, Paris, Amsterdam and Edinburgh.
Ispace.ie, a new 'online shopping centre' with several hundred Irish shops launched on Wednesday. Developed by Gerry Kilby of Equinox eBusiness Solutions, the site hopes to take market share from the estimated EUR300 million market in goods sold online to Irish shoppers -- much of it from UK and US online retailers. Ispace.ie is designed to return the most recently updated/added shops and products first in order to deliver consumers the freshest results. Any Irish shop with a presence in the country (such as a physical address) is allowed to join Ispace.ie -- including those who don't sell online but do have an online catalogue.
The eighth annual Toys 4 Big Boys gadget festival will kick off on 5 November and will run until 8 November at the RDS, Dublin. An estimated 30,000 visitors are expected to visit the show. With over 120 exhibitors, the show will span 20 acres of RDS hall space. Toys 4 Big Boys has compiled a Top 10 Big Boy wish list, which includes Disgo Net Browser 3000 (RRP EUR150), the Canon Powershot D10 (RRP EUR359), and the Palm Pre (RRP EUR419).
Google is set to include technology for driving directions into new versions of its Android smartphone software. Its new Google Maps Navigation product will provide real-time, turn-by-turn directions. The product also features speech recognition and a visual display that incorporates Google's online archive of street photographs. The new navigation product taps into various existing Google products and technology, including Google's search engine, as well as Google satellite images and Google Street View. The service will work with Google's forthcoming Android 2.0 software. The service, which will initially be limited to driving directions in the US, will be free for consumers.
Lord Mandelson, the UK's business secretary, delivered a warning to persistent illegal file sharers on Wednesday, as he revealed some details of the UK government's online privacy prevention plan. Speaking at the UK government's digital creative industries conference, Mandelson confirmed that the internet connections of persistent offenders could be blocked from the summer of 2011. The move, which will be officially set out in the UK government's digital economy bill in late November, will involve a staged process of warning notifications, much like the process Eircom agreed to implement here in Ireland, with internet suspension being enforced as a last resort. The legislation is expected to come into force in April next year. The UK government has set a target of reducing illegal filesharing by 70 percent by April 2011.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 