IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 31 May
31-05-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
DPS Engineering wins EUR2m contract | UPC rolls out fibre broadband in Midlands
The Irish Times reports that Irish firm DPS Engineering has won a EUR2 million contract from pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Smith Kline for the design, construction, management and commissioning of a high-tech human vaccine facility in Belgium. DPS chief executive Frank Keogh said the company will have up to 35 engineers and scientists involved at peak activity. The contract is with GSK Biologicals, part of Glaxo Smith Kline.
The paper also says that cable TV provider UPC is to launch high-speed broadband in six towns in the Midlands and West over the next three weeks, following a EUR15 million upgrade to its network. Sligo, Mullingar, Athlone, Newbridge, Carlow and Portlaoise are set to receive UPC's fibre-powered broadband and digital and high-definition TV services via its cable network. This will allow homes in these towns to receive broadband speeds of up to 30MB. UPC said the investment would make its fibre-powered services available to an additional 45,000 homes.
The Irish Independent says that Labour MEP Nessa Childers has called for social networking site Facebook to come under increased regulation by the EU. Childers believes the site can become a "clear and present threat to the mental health of millions of European citizens" and that new laws should be put in place to protect Facebook users from becoming addicted. "Visiting your Facebook page frequently causes what psychologists refer to as 'intermittent reinforcement'. Messages and invites reward you with an unpredictable high, much like gambling," she said in a statement. "Action is needed at international level from the EU to properly take on the disturbing trend of addiction to sites such as Facebook, which are responsible for all sorts of problematic behaviour."
In other news of Facebook, the Wall Street Journal says that Bangladesh has blocked the site over a page urging people to draw images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The country's chief telecommunication regulator, Zia Ahmed, said that access to the site has been temporarily blocked because it was publishing caricatures that may hurt the religious sentiments of people in the Muslim-majority nation. Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favourable ones, as blasphemous. Thousands of Muslims protested in Dhaka on Friday against what they called Facebook's "blasphemous content" because of a page called 'Everybody Draw Mohammed Day' that encouraged users to post images of the prophet.
The paper also reports that Voltage Pictures, the company that produced 'The Hurt Locker', has sued thousands of so-far unidentified people it says illegally downloaded the Oscar-winning movie. The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Washington, DC, seeks damages and an injunction against 5,000 people it claims used the anonymous file-sharing protocol BitTorrent to distribute copies of the movie.
According to the Financial Times, memory chip giant Hynix Semiconductor has said it would raise its capital expenditure by one-third to SKW3,050 billion (USD2.5 billion) this year, in order to take advantage of a strong recovery in the global tech sector. Hynix had earmarked an initial budget of SKW2,300 billion for this year. Its capital spending amounted to SKW1,000 billion last year. The South Korean group said the move was needed to accelerate technology migration and focus on developing next-generation products.
The paper also says that the international launch of the iPad at the weekend is set to be quickly followed by the release of a slew of rival tablet PCs, costing a fraction of Apple's USD500 device. Tablets priced at about USD100 will be unveiled at Computex in Taiwan this week. Small Asian manufacturers such as Eken, G-Link, Bluesky and Kinstone will all be unveiling their models from Monday. Meanwhile, a USD75 tablet is expected next year from manufacturers supporting the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative, while consumers in some countries will be able to take advantage of free tablets from telecoms and TV providers in exchange for subscription contracts.
The Sunday Independent says Irish software group Openet Telecom is planning to float on the stock exchange next year in the US, with a valuation of up to EUR250 million. The news follows speculation that technology firm Cisco was seeking to buy the company, but the paper says it is understood that Openet and its backers would prefer to float next year instead. The company is thought to be choosing bankers to advise on the potential IPO.
The Sunday Tribune reports that State broadcaster RTE is facing a financial crisis after Easy TV withdrew from negotiations to provide commercial digital TV in Ireland. This is the third consortium to pull out of negotiations. The claim was made by Fine Gael TD Simon Coveney, who said RTE will now have to provide the finances for a digital TV service network without commercial support. The analogue system is set to be shut down by 2012. The shutdown will affect those without UPC or Sky services who currently rely on the old analogue system. RTE has spent EUR40 million installing masts around the country for the digital system, with another EUR30 million planned.
The Sunday Business Post says that web development company Arekibo is to design a new government news website after winning a contract worth EUR20,000. The site will include social media functions, such as links to Twitter and Facebook, and will also include podcasts. The site is due to launch in June before the Dail breaks for summer. The site is not intended to replicate the press releases and services already offered by various departments, a government source said. It is not yet known whether Taoiseach Brian Cowen will personally use Twitter.
The paper also says that more than 234,000 mobile phones were sold in Ireland between January and April, with one in three of them touchscreen handsets. The figures, from GfK Retail and Technology, said the percentage of sales that are smartphones has doubled since the beginning of the year. Some 1.9 million handsets were sold in the Irish market in 2009, with Nokia remaining top of the charts, followed by Samsung and Sony Ericsson.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 