NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 9 November
09-11-2009
by Emmet Ryan
HeyStaks claims European award | ThirdForce management offer buyout
Nokia users could quite literally be in for a shock. The handset maker is recalling 14 million phone chargers because of fears that they could cause electric shocks. Nokia is recalling the AC-3E, AC-3U and AC-4U models which were made by the Chinese firm BYD and sold mostly in Europe and North America. There have been no injuries caused by the chargers as yet and the handset maker said the move is precautionary. Free replacements will be provided to all users. You can check if your charger is affected here.
Continuing the manic start to Monday's Daily Digest, IT security firm Trend Micro has discovered that Google Reader URLs are being spammed by Koobface malware on social network sites. The attack works by having a Google Account controlled by the gang behind Koobface host a page with a fake YouTube video. When a victim clicks on the fake YouTube video it redirects to a compromised website, which hosts another fake YouTube video. The compromised website leads to user infection, with the subsequent result of the victim becoming part of the Koobface botnet. Trend Micro said it had discovered 1,300 fake accounts spammed by Koobface and that it had alerted Google of the situation.
In more positive news, research by organisers of an IT business confidence survey has found a growth in public confidence in the economy. The it@cork sentiment survey found that 52 percent of respondents thought the global downturn was past its worst point. The report found that 83 percent felt the technology sector would play a key role in economic recovery. The study was carried out ahead of the it@cork conference which takes place on 18 November.
Translation services firm Lionbridge reported revenues of USD97.8 million for the quarter ending 30 September. This was down USD16 million on the same period last year. Despite the drop in revenue, operating income rose by USD1.3 million to USD2.2 million. In a statement the firm said this was due to ongoing cost management initiatives.
O2 has launched a new mobile broadband Wi-Fi network router, creatively titled the O2 Wireless Router. The router allows multiple users to wirelessly access the internet from a number of PCs or laptops at the same time. The device is made in Ireland by Cork-based firm Option Wireless.
e-Net, the company which runs the Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) programme, has unveiled a self-funded extension on the network in Little Island, Co Cork. In total, almost 7km of cabling has been deployed across the local area connecting Eastgate Business Park, Euro Business Park as well as the Sitecast Industrial Estate. e-Nnet said several businesses have signalled their interest in connecting to the infrastructure.
HeyStaks Technologies the University College Dublin spin-out company has won the inaugural, Europe-wide, UNICA Entrepreneurship Competition for Students and Young Researchers and a prize of EUR20,000. This follows our report earlier this month that the firm had been shortlisted. HeyStaks has developed a social internet search platform which enables searchers to better organise and easily share the resources they find while searching and browsing the web.
Online IT retailer Komplett is working with children's online safety organisation ChildWatch.ie to deliver 'Teen Safe Computing' seminars to secondary school children. The seminars are delivered to students of Transition year and above and deal with the topic of illegal activity on the internet relating to children and threats to teenagers. Komplett is sponsoring the program as well as providing information in the form of an instructional leaflet to be distributed with all PC or laptop orders, and by making further information available on the web.
The chief executive and chairman of e-learning firm ThirdForce have made a formal offer for the company. LearnVantage, an investment vehicle formed by chief executive Brendan O'Sullivan and chairman Pat McDonagh, have offered three payment options to shareholders. One is a straight swap of one LearnVantage share for each Thirdforce share, a second offers three LearnVantage shares plus EUR0.12 for every four ThirdForce shares. The third option is EUR0.105 for each ThirdForce share, which the e-learning firm said valued the company at EUR27.2 million.
Finally, Daily Digest has decided to mark this day, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in our special way. One man brings together internet fads and the fall of communism in Europe, and he did it all by the wall 20 years ago. We'll find any excuse to bring you some David Hasselhoff.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 