NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 15 February
15-02-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
First Derivatives buys Cognotec | Afilias acquires dot-mobi domain
The 2010 Mobile World Congress kicked off in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday, and undoubtedly the biggest news of the day was the launch of Microsoft's latest mobile OS, Windows Phone 7 Series. Boasting a redesigned user interface, the software incorporates many Microsoft services, such as Xbox Live games and the Zune music service. It's also designed to allow users easy access to social networking features, photos, web content, contacts and business applications. The first phones using the new OS will be available later this year from manufacturers such as Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony Ericsson.
Also at the Barcelona mobile fair, Nokia and Intel showcased their joint venture into smartphone software, dubbed MeeGo. The new platform is based on Maemo, the Linux-based software used in Nokia's N900 device, and Intel's Moblin operating system. The two companies hope MeeGo will make it easier for developers to build a single application that can be ported to a range of devices.
Meanwhile, a range of Irish companies are also presenting their wares at the Congress. The NDRC (National Digital Research Centre) will be showcasing its 'Local Social' and 'HeartPhone' projects. Local Social aims to create a "social proximity framework" enabling social networks and mobile operators to offer powerful location-based features to their users, while HeartPhone is 'e-health' software that measures, monitors and manages the weight of congestive heart failure patients in their homes.
Irish digital communications company Digital Reach Group is also in Barcelona, and on Monday announced an exclusive deal with mobile operator Meteor to provide advertising sales services and ad-serving technology for Meteor's mobile web portal. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In addition, Dublin-headquartered Dial2Do launched a voice-activated mobile application for Google's Android platform at the Mobile World Congress. As well as being able to send text messages by voice from any phone, Dial2Do users with a smartphone operating on Android can now also have incoming text messages read aloud.
Nearly half of Irish IT companies will maintain their current levels of IT staff over the coming year, according to a survey of 200 Irish Computer Society members. Although 51 percent of companies said that IT budgets and spending will be reduced this year, 42 percent said they will make reductions through contractor salaries. IT security, cloud computing and social networking projects will all see an increase in funding in 2010, according to the study, while data storage, network infrastructure and server hardware are other areas of predicted spending. Some 89 percent of IT professionals surveyed said they would recommend a career in IT to a friend.
Newry-based financial software firm First Derivatives has confirmed the purchase of Cognotec's assets, after the foreign exchange systems provider went into receivership in January. The deal is worth up to USD4.7 million in cash, USD0.5 million of which will be held in escrow pending delivery of certain agreements by the receiver. First Derivatives said it expects the transaction to be 'earnings enhancing' this year.
Dublin-based Afilias, the operator of the dot-info (.info) domain name, has acquired mTLD Top-Level Domain, the registry operator for the dot-mobi (.mobi) domain. Afilias was already running dot-mobi and other domains under contract. Taking ownership of the domain outright means Afilias will get an annual fee for each of the nearly 1 million dot-mobi names that are registered. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In other internet domain news, a new search service from Irish hosting and domain registry firm Blacknight promises to make it easier to discover available domain names. Visitors to www.dropped.ie can type in a keyword, click a button, and be presented with a range of available domain names that contain that term and related words. Users can then click through to find more information or to register the domain. "One of the biggest problems with getting your own address online is that so many domains are already registered," said Blacknight managing director Michele Neylon. "You can literally waste hours looking for the right one -- and then give up trying." Dropped.ie is currently focused on dot-com and dot-ie domains.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 