IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 1 June
01-06-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Eircom phone charges set to rise | Apple sells 2 million iPads
The Irish Times reports that the Eircom employee share ownership trust (Esot) took a writedown of EUR193.8 million on its 35 percent stake in Eircom in its results for the year to the end of June 2009. This was largely behind a 64 percent fall in the value of the Esot’s net assets last year, which declined to EUR154.27 million from EUR432 million the previous year. The writedown was the result of a EUR720 million impairment charge taken by Eircom. "The impairment charge reflected both the impact of the Eircom pension deficit and changed economic circumstances in the wake of the global financial crisis," according to a members’ update. The other factors were a tax-free distribution of EUR69.7 million to members and movements in the Vodafone share price and the sterling-euro exchange rate.
In more news of Eircom, the paper says that customers will see their phone bills rise by an average of 3 percent from July when a new pricing structure is implemented. Eircom said that from 1 July, calls that exceed the terms of a customers' bundle will be rounded up to the next minute, rather than the current per-second billing. "The industry is moving in that direction... in terms of charging," said a spokesman. The National Consumer Agency said it was disappointing to see Eircom moving away from per-second pricing and back to the "old style" per-minute pricing, "where the customer is paying for time on the phone that they’re not using". Dermott Jewell, chief executive of the Consumer Association, said the price hike was poorly thought-out and represented a backwards step.
The paper also says that reforming Ireland's intellectual property regime is to be discussed at Tuesday's first meeting of a group set up to drive the recommendations of the Innovation Taskforce. Minister for Enterprise Batt O’Keeffe has appointed an expert group of technology-transfer practitioners and cross-sector industry representatives to implement the IP-related recommendations of the Innovation Taskforce report.
The Financial Times reports that Apple has sold 2 million iPads since the launch of the device two months ago. The disclosure followed three full days of international sales in the UK, Germany, Japan and six other nations. Analysts who projected sales of 1.5 million units for the quarter ending in June might revise their projections upwards on Tuesday, providing a possible further boost to Apple's stock market value.
The paper also says that Google will this week offer a compromise to European data protection authorities, which are demanding that the internet giant hand over data it intercepted from private Wi-Fi connections while taking photographs for its Street View service . Data protection authorities in Germany, France and Spain have asked Google to hand over the hard drives containing the payload data for an investigation. However, other data protection authorities and privacy campaigners fear that handing over the hard drives would harm privacy further. Google said its external lawyers had advised the company not to hand over the data. The company is expected to propose a compromise solution this week, but it did not outline what this would be.
According to the Wall Street Journal, chipmaker Intel has announced plans to offer chips specially designed for tablet PCs. The company said it will offer a product for tablets in early 2011 that is known by the code name Oak Trail. Oak Trail is a system on a chip (SoC) that combines a microprocessor with other specialised circuitry. Intel said the new product will offer a 50 percent reduction in average power consumption over its existing products as well as the ability to play full high-definition videos.
The paper also says that Pakistan has lifted a ban on Facebook after officials from the social-networking site apologised for a page deemed offensive to Muslims and removed its contents. The move came almost two weeks after Pakistan imposed the ban amid anger over a page that encouraged users to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. "In response to our protest, Facebook has tendered their apology and informed us that all the sacrilegious material has been removed from the URL," said Najibullah Malik, secretary of Pakistan's information technology ministry. Facebook assured the Pakistani government that "nothing of this sort will happen in the future," he said. Facebook said the company didn't remove the page from Facebook but is preventing users in Pakistan from accessing it "out of respect for local standards and customs."
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 