NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 15 January
15-01-2010
by Deirdre McArdle
Nintendo gets its groove back | O2 to launch fixed-line services in UK
Some 1,500 people in the Dublin area have completed training under the BenefIT scheme, which is operated by the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources. The scheme works to promote the use of computers by people who previously had little or no experience with them. The graduates include older people, people with disabilities, people with little formal education, unemployed people and late adopters of ICT. The BenefIT scheme will now be rolled out around the country, according to Minister for State with responsibility for the Knowledge Society, Conor Lenihan, who said schemes like BenefIT "open new doors" for people.
Carrying on their tradition of exploiting bad news, cybercriminals have set up websites claiming to offer news or video footage of the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti. Security firm Eset said these sites have been developed to attempt to infect visitors' PCs with malware. In addition, spammers are also abusing the catastrophe to send out mails that purport to be from victims of the earthquake calling for charitable donations. Needless to say, donations made through these mails do not make it to those in need. Eset has warned computer users to only use known and legitimate news sites for getting latest information, and to be cautious when approached by unknown "charities".
Nintendo's Wii staged a comeback in December, shipping 3.8 million units in the US during the month, an all-time record for games console shipments in a month. That's according to figures from NPD Group, which revealed that Nintendo's handheld console, the DS, also had record shipments in December, with 3.3 million units sold in the US. Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 were completely overshadowed by the Wii, shipping 1.36 million units and 1.31 million units, respectively. Overall, the games market had a positive quarter, primarily driven, it must be said, by the Wii. Revenues for software and hardware sales came in at USD5.53 billion, up 4 percent on the previous year.
Cyber attackers who recently infiltrated Google's corporate infrastructure in China, as well as that of other corporations in the country, exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Internet Explorer, reports Reuters. The flaw in Microsoft's web browser was identified by McAfee, and confirmed by Microsoft. "The company has determined that Internet Explorer was one of the vectors used in targeted and sophisticated attacks against Google and other corporate networks," Microsoft said in a blog post.
Telefonica O2 has announced its plans to launch fixed-line residential services in the UK from March. It will release three bundles, offering mobile, internet and fixed-line services, to new and existing customers, as it looks to grow revenue and target the home phone market. O2 will compete with the likes of BT, BSkyB and Virgin in this market.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 