IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 11 December
11-12-2009
by Sylvia Leatham
Video games stimulate brain: scientists | Carlow security firm to create jobs
The Irish Times reports that technology firms RedMere and Zamano have between them raised EUR6.3 million in venture capital funding. Read more on this story on ENN.
The paper also reports that online accounts firm accountsIQ has raised EUR3.5 million in a funding round, as noted by on ENN on Thursday.
The same paper reports that an iPhone app is in development that aims to turn the phone into a communication tool for children with autism. The application, which is being developed under the working title Grace, is the brainchild of Lisa Domican, a parent of two children with autism. The application is designed to be used in a similar way to the Picture Exchange Communication System (Pecs), which allows children to build sentences using a book of laminated pictures attached to a board by Velcro. Domican has linked up with app developer Steven Troughton-Smith to work on the project, which is currently being trialled on five devices in three schools.
The paper also says that new research suggests that video games stimulate the brain. A multidisciplinary team of neuroscientists at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, has discovered that video games increase brain activity. The team is set to publish findings indicating that playing video games utilises the area of the brain associated with spatial reasoning and navigation. The team found that, when playing three-dimensional games, the brain's right hemisphere is stimulated. As players navigate virtual worlds, the areas of the brain associated with spatial cognition became particularly active.
The same paper reports that remote security monitoring firm Netwatch hopes to create at least 20 jobs with the launch of a new managed service. Carlow-based Netwatch will absorb the costs of a site survey, install its cameras at the client's premises and charge a monthly monitoring fee. Netwatch currently employs 70 staff.
The Wall Street Journal says that Google and Apple have been trying to acquire some of the same Silicon Valley start-ups. Google was in serious talks to buy online music firm La La Media before Apple won the deal this month for USD85 million, according to sources. Apple also pursued a deal for mobile ad firm AdMob, say sources; Google agreed to buy the start-up in November for USD750 million. The twin pursuit of the start-ups show that the two tech giants have plans to move deeper into each other's business: Apple wanted to get into advertising, while Google sought a music service.
The paper also says that Malaysian businessman Vincent Tan has reached a deal to acquire Friendster, a social networking site that has a big following in parts of Asia but has been eclipsed globally by rivals such as Facebook and MySpace. Tan is buying 100 percent of Friendster through his e-payments business MOL Global. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. MOL is buying Friendster from a group of investors including venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and IDG Ventures.
According to the Financial Times, privacy groups have attacked Facebook following changes to its privacy settings this week. The changes allow users to apply more specific privacy settings to the content they post on the site. But many of the default settings mean that, unless users follow a prompt to go in and change their settings, they end up sharing most of their information with everyone on the internet. "Under the banner of simplification, Facebook has pushed users to downgrade their privacy," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a US advocacy group.
The paper also says that Nokia is completely redeveloping its mobile applications store after it admitted it had failed to meet the challenge of Apple's dominance of the segment. A "refreshed" Ovi Store will be released next spring. George Linardos, head of products at Nokia's media group, said the Ovi Store had been outpaced by Apple after complaints on stability and reliability. For months, Nokia has been listening to criticism of Ovi on community sites such as Twitter. "We have screens up in our offices running the Twitter feeds all day long," said Linardos. "It's like sitting there and getting punched in the face. But when we make improvements we see the impact instantly." Nokia plans to take a "tortoise and hare" approach to competing with Apple, he said.
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Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 