IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 26 May
26-05-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
EA to create 200 new jobs in Galway | Dell to launch tablet PC
The Irish Times reports that while almost 44,000 Irish farmers have applied for EU farm grants online this year, only three have made submissions to the European Commission on the future of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). Last week Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith said there were more than 43,500 online applications from Irish farmers for EU grants, a 26 percent increase in the usage of the online facility. However, there have only been a total of eight submissions from Ireland to an invitation to contribute to the debate on the upcoming reform of the CAP. In contrast, Germany has made 275 submissions, and France has submitted 229.
The Irish Independent says that videogaming firm Electronic Arts has revealed plans to create up to 200 new jobs in Galway. “The company will be a significant employer in the West of Ireland, hiring multilingual customer support service agents and technical support staff, and will contribute to the further development and attractiveness of the region as a location for additional investment,” said Taoiseach Brian Cowen. A new location in Galway is being sought and is expected to be up and running next year.
The paper also says that an animated Google logo designed to mark Pac-Man’s 30th birthday caused millions of dollars in lost productivity, according to one analyst. The launch of Google’s animated Pac-Man doodle last Friday led to almost 5 million wasted hours and cost economies around USD120 million, according to Tony Wright, founder of Rescue Time, a tool that enables businesses to measure how time and attention is being spent. He estimated that Google had around 505 million unique users on the day the doodle went live, and that the game consumed 4,819,352 hours of employee time.
The same paper reports that Twitter has announced it will no longer allow third parties to pollute the Twitter stream with messages advertising products and services. Dick Costolo, chief operating officer, published a blog post to outline Twitter’s commitment to the “user experience”. “It is critical that the core experience of real-time introductions and information is protected for the user and with an eye toward long-term success for all advertisers, users and the Twitter ecosystem,” he wrote. “For this reason, aside from Promoted Tweets, we will not allow any third-party to inject paid tweets in to a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API.”
According to the Financial Times, PC maker Dell is to launch a tablet computer next month, a small device with a 5-inch screen that will be available in the UK through O2. The Streak device will run Google’s Android operating system and a chip based on a design by ARM. Automatic updates later this year will add support for Flash videos and video chat. The device boasts telephone functions but, like the iPad, it lacks a keyboard and is controlled by finger gestures.
The same paper says that Microsoft has announced that Robbie Bach, its longest-serving top executive and head of its entertainment and devices division, will leave the group. The software group has depicted the departure of Bach, who is 48 years old, as a retirement. Along with the departure of J Allard, who had been seen as one of the most prominent rising stars, the move signals a shake-up after a period in which the company has fallen behind Apple and Google in the smartphone business. The heads of the Xbox and mobile software businesses will now report to CEO Steve Ballmer.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the US Department of Justice is making preliminary inquiries about Apple’s practices in the music business, according to sources. These people said the agency’s antitrust staff have contacted music labels and internet music start-ups about Apple, whose iTunes music service plays a dominant role in the distribution of digital music. The questions are not part of a formal investigation, these people said, but rather a routine initial attempt to learn whether complaints the agency has received deserve further examination.
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