IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 28 June
28-06-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
New RTE plan will leave west without DTT | Foursquare closes in on funding deal
The Irish Independent reports that RTE's plans for a nationwide rollout of digital television will leave large chunks of the country without any coverage. Revised proposals submitted to the Department of Communications mean that some areas in the west, northwest and southwest will not receive Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT). RTE wants to cut back on the number of transmitter sites it has to erect, from an initial plan of 150 to about 50. RTE has argued that terrestrial channels will be available via satellite, but this would involve additional cost for households, including the erection of a satellite dish.
The paper also notes that Galway firm Eire Composites Teo has been awarded EUR1.9 million in research and development contracts from the European Space Agency. Thanks to these contracts, the company will be able to create three new graduate engineering positions and support seven more engineering and technician positions.
The Financial Times says that the US administration has detailed a sweeping strategy to make online transactions more secure. Howard Schmidt, President Obama's cybersecurity co-ordinator, released a strategy paper after 12 months of discussions led by the National Security Council and involving dozens of private sector groups, infrastructure owners and privacy advocates. The strategy seeks the creation of a system for identity management that would allow citizens to use additional authentication techniques, such as physical tokens or modules on mobile phones, to verify who they are before buying things online or accessing sensitive personal information.
The Wall Street Journal reports that US start-up Foursquare is close to obtaining a new investment that would give it funds to expand, according to a source. Foursquare runs a website that lets people "check in" at bars, restaurants and other places via their smartphone. The funding deal, led by Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, is likely to be announced as early as this week.
The same paper says that Pakistan has moved to begin monitoring for anti-Islamic content on major websites, including those of Google and Yahoo. The Pakistan announcement on Friday came a day after a communications minister in Turkey, which has blocked thousands of sites including YouTube, said the video site was "waging a battle against the Turkish Republic" and suggested that the situation could change if Google were to register and pay taxes. Authorities in Pakistan said they would start monitoring major search engines, including Google and Bing, as well as e-commerce giant Amazon. The move follows an action last month against Facebook, which Pakistan blocked for several weeks after it hosted a page where users could post pictures of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Sunday Business Post reports that online gaming company Popcap Games could double its staff numbers in Ireland to 100 in the next couple of years. Chief Executive David Roberts said Dublin has become a strong environment for online games firms, and with the cutting of tax benefits in the UK for game developers, the country is set to look more attractive. Popcap Games has annual revenues estimated at more than USD200 million and makes games for Xbox consoles, smartphones and web services. Its Dublin office is its European base.
The same paper reports that MyHome.ie has upgraded its iPhone app, adding new mapping features, including 'My Location', which can be used to find nearby properties. It will also allow users to zoom in and filter through properties on the map. The app is available free from the App Store.
The Sunday Tribune carries a report on child pornography in Ireland which says there have been close to 5,000 detections of individuals in Ireland who are downloading or trading in child pornography in the past six months. Some individuals are accessing the images hundreds of times each month. The report says an average of 800 computers in Ireland every month are downloading or trading the images of abuse. The information was compiled by software company TLO. A detective from the Garda Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Investigation Unit has attended a seminar in Denmark run by TLO on how to use its technology, and will now be able to implement the software to detect when Irish-based computer users are downloading and trading child porn on certain peer-to-peer networks.
The Sunday Times reports that telecoms group Telefonica is considering a STG1 billion stock market listing for its call-centre arm, Atento. The company is seeking to bolster Atento with acquisitions, and is in talks with retailer Next to acquire its call centre unit for more than STG50 million.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 