IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 11 February
11-02-2010
by Deirdre McArdle
Geoghegan-Quinn starts EU innovation role | Apple in TV show pricing talks
The Irish Times reports on the opening of the Science and Discovery Lab at the new National Wax Museum, as reported by ENN.
The Irish Independent writes that mobile operator Three Ireland is to create 90 jobs in a major retail expansion, as noted by ENN.
The paper also says that the EUR14.8 million European funding for former Dell workers will be released to the Government within the next couple of days. The fund will rise to EUR22.8 million when the EUR8 million worth of government support is added in. The money will be used to help re-train the 2,400 workers who lost their jobs early last year when Dell closed its Limerick plant.
The same paper writes about the new European Research and Innovation Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, who took up her role on Wednesday. She says she wants to get money filtering through to small- and medium-sized businesses and make sure Europe never again loses key inventions to the US. The research portfolio has had a traditionally low profile despite its EUR50 billion budget. As member state leaders arrive in Brussels for talks on Thursday on how EU money should be spent over the next decade, Geoghegan-Quinn said she wanted to take advantage of what should be a central role for innovation in the EU's next 10-year economic plan. "There is now a realisation right across the EU 27 that innovation is the key to helping to resolve the difficulties that we have."
The Irish Examiner writes on the launch of Google Buzz, as reported by ENN on Wednesday.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is in talks with television networks to lower the price of downloaded TV shows when the company begins selling its new iPad tablet computer. People familiar with the talks said that Apple has already been testing a price of USD0.99 -- half the price of standard-definition TV episodes -- for certain shows on its iTunes service, and that it is keen to finalise a deal to offer that price more broadly along with the iPad. The sources said the new pricing has not been agreed yet. A spokesman for Apple declined to comment.
The paper also reports that Micron Technology's USD1.27 billion acquisition of Numonyx Holdings will boost the US chip maker's presence in the flash-memory chip market, creating a much stronger industry player. The move will likely threaten industry leader Samsung Electronics' market share, and could also force South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor, which has a strategic partnership with Numonyx in the development of flash memory, to look for another partner to remain competitive, analysts said. Neither Micron nor Samsung have commented on the acquisition, while Hynix, in a statement, said: "We don't anticipate a significant impact even if the partnership [with Numonyx] ends."
The Financial Times writes that Google has seen a "sharp drop" in traffic to its Gmail service from Iran, apparently as a result of censorship. The signs come as Iranian officials have reportedly said they will impose a permanent block on Gmail, although this threat could not be confirmed by the paper. The attack on Gmail comes less than a month after Google angered Chinese authorities by issuing a direct challenge to that country's censorship regime. The two events appeared to be linked, according to Ronald Deibert, an associate professor at the University of Toronto and head of Citizen Lab, which monitors global internet censorship. The move by Iran comes as it marks the 31st anniversary of the Iranian revolution on Thursday.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 