NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 15 March
15-03-2010
by Cian Ginty
US: 80pc won't pay for news | Weedle lands USD4m new funding
Lisa Domican, a Wicklow-based mother of two children with autism, has released an iPhone application to aid children with autism to communicate. The app, which is named after Lisa's daughter Grace, was developed by Lisa and software developer Steve Troughton-Smith, with support from Telefonica O2 Ireland. According to the makers of the app, it is designed to be used in a similar way to the existing Picture Exchange Communication System which is used by parents and tutors of children with autism, although the app is more portable. O2 supplied iPhones for the creation and testing and funded the development of artwork used in the app. It is now available on the Apple App Store for EUR29.99 and can be used by up to five users, to facilitate family members accessing the app.
Dublin-based software company Openet is to invest EUR3.65 million in a research and development programme with the creation of 35 jobs, the Tanaiste Mary Coughlan said today. The 35 new positions -- including program managers, engineers and senior software engineers -- are to be created over the next year, while recruitment is to start immediately. Openet currently employs 145 people in Ireland. The R&D is to be supported by Enterprise Ireland.
Facebook said it will open offices in the city of Hyderabad in India. It follows on from last week's announcement of plans to open offices in Austin, Texas in the USA. The company said, by having multiple support centres in a variety of time zones they can provide better round-the-clock multi-lingual support. Facebook says it has 8 million users in India and over 400 million users worldwide. It added that 70 percent of users are from outside the US. Facebook is headquarted in Palo Alto, California and has offices in Dublin, Ireland.
Only about one in five of US consumers of online news said they would be willing to pay for content, a survey by the Pew Research Center found. Meanwhile the vast majority of those surveyed, 8 out of 10, say they basically ignore online ads. The authors said, in short, the data shows that a good deal must change before the digital age of news will begin to sustain itself. It found 71 percent of US internet users, or 53 percent of all American adults, get news online, a number that has held relatively steady in recent years. Most people 'graze' across multiple sites without having a primary one, with only 35 percent having a favourite site. Only a minority, 19 percent, said they would be willing to pay for news online. A large majority – 82 percent – of those with a favourite site said they would find somewhere else to get the news. The survey was conducted by phone, calling both landlines and mobile phones in the US between December 28, 2009 and January 19, 2010, with a sample of 2,259 adults aged 18 and older.
Irish social media company Weedle said it has secured funding of USD4 million to expand in the US and other regions. The company made the announcement on an Enterprise Ireland supported trade and investment mission to Silicon Valley. Weedle said it has just released its platform in beta test mode, which enables anyone, anywhere to connect with other people who need their skills and to find those who have the skills they need. Leading the trade mission, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said, "Weedle is a leading-edge high-tech company developing as part of Ireland’s knowledge economy." Founded in 2008, Weedle has offices in Dublin, Ireland and Palo Alto, California.
Only 46 percent of financial institutions have a policy to restrict the printing of sensitive customer information, according to a survey of 311 companies by document printing business Ricoh. It also found that only 33 percent of public sector organisations have a fully implemented document security strategy and 49 percent of respondents are concerned about the risks from digital and printed information.
AppleInsider.com reported that it is believed Apple sold 120,000 iPads in the first 24 hours of US pre-sales. Sales numbers were tracked by bulletin board users posting their order numbers. Sales were reported to have slowed notably after the first day. Most users on the bulletin board site which was used to track the sales said they were buying the Wi-Fi only model which is set for release on April 3. 3G iPads retail at an extra USD130 and are expected to ship later in April. Half a million sales are expected before the iPad is released.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 