NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 26 November
26-11-2009
by Emmet Ryan
Three launches mobile Wi-Fi service | Commission targets cathode ray makers
Three Ireland has launched its new mobile Wi-Fi, or Mi-Fi, service. It comes in the form of a small device, called an E5830, which is a wireless router that accesses the Three network. Users can connect up to five wireless enabled devices to the internet at the same time without the need for wires or a USB connection. The service is available from EUR19.99 per month for bill-pay customers, with an additional EUR79 charge for the router. The router costs EUR149 for pre-pay customers. Three says that costs of usage vary depending on how much pre-pay customers wish to use the service.
Apple premium reseller, Compu b, is to open a new store at Opera Lane in Cork City. The new store will open on Saturday, 28 November. The Cork branch of Compu b will stock all Apple products and software including Macs, iPods and iPhones. This is the second store opened in Ireland by Compu b, a similar outlet opened in Limerick last year.
Outsourcing firm Abtran was named Outsource Partner of the Year at the Irish Contact Centre and Shared Services Awards 2009. The Irish firm was presented with the award in recognition of its business process services partnership with Sky, which was first established in 2007.
HP's Personal Systems Group (PSG) has announced a number of changes to its management team in Ireland. The new HP PSG management team in Ireland consists of Stephen McDonald, head of Corporate, Enterprise and Public Sector; Marcus McKenna, head of Channel Sales; Noel Kelly, SMB Sales and Marketing manager; and Vincent Butterly, as head of Finance.
The European Commission has sent formal antitrust charges to manufacturers of cathode ray tubes, which are used in televisions and computers, on suspicion that they operated a cartel. The Commission has not named the companies involved but Dutch electronics giant Philips confirmed it had received the charges and was preparing a response. The charges follow an initial investigation which began in 2007.
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) resumed trading Thursday afternoon after a technical hitch had put it out of action. The LSE resumed trading a 2pm having been forced to close for three and a half hours due to technical difficulties. The fault affected 2,800 firms, which trade on the exchange. In September last year a computer crash at the LSE caused a seven-hour stoppage in trading.
A website has published what it claims are 573,000 intercepted pager messages sent during the September 11 attacks in the US. The site, Wikileaks, will not reveal who gave it the messages, some of which are from federal agencies as well as ordinary citizens. Federal authorities have yet to comment on the messages though some internet analysts have said they believe the messages are genuine. The website is broadcasting each message at the time it was sent originally in 2001. The first message was from 8am Irish time, five hours before the first attack in New York, and the last 24 hours later. The messages are a mixture of mundane texts and messages pertinent to the attacks.
According to reports, US software company Oracle will present its case for buying computer maker Sun Microsystems to EU regulators on 10 December. The European Commission has objected to the USD7 billion deal, saying the combination of Sun's MySQL database product and Oracle's products could dent competition in the database market. The objection came as a surprise to many analysts after the purchase had been approved by US regulators.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 