IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 12 July
12-07-2010
by Deirdre McArdle
Apple, AT&T face class action suit in US | Microsoft, Fujitsu plan cloud hook-up
The Irish Times reports UPC Ireland is planning to launch a EUR2 million marketing campaign to win customers from satellite rival Sky and telephone provider Eircom. UPC will roll out the campaign from the start of August.
The Irish Examiner reports that two cousins from a Kerry family -- Veronica Collins and Helen Collins -- who had lost touch for half a century have been reunited through an internet-based ancestry tracing service, Munster Ancestors. Munster Ancestors is run by three women in Killarney, Caitriona Dunlea, Mary Howard and Rachel Foley.
The paper also says that the Department of Finance is watching with interest a new British Facebook initiative, which is encouraging ideas from voters on where to cut state spending. Online users in the UK can register their ideas at a dedicated "spending challenge channel" on Facebook. The Department of Finance here is said to be following the project, but no immediate move to imitate it is planned.
According to the same paper, leading backers of the Philip Lynch-led investment vehicle, One 51, are calling for senior management to dispose of non-core shareholdings and re-focus the company as a dedicated clean technology business. The body of independent shareholders, unhappy about One 51's management, strategy and leadership, is looking for funds to go towards re-focusing One 51 into a green tech/clean tech group in a bid to bolster its existing environmental division.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a US federal judge has said a monopoly-abuse lawsuit against Apple and the AT&T mobile-phone unit can move forward as a class action. The lawsuit consolidates several suits filed by iPhone buyers starting in late 2007, including Apple's practice of "locking" iPhones so that they can only be used on AT&T's network. The lawsuit also claims Apple secretly made AT&T its exclusive iPhone partner in the US for five years; customers agreed to a two-year contract with the mobile operator, but were in effect locked into a five-year relationship with AT&T, the lawsuit alleges. Apple and AT&T haven't commented on the terms of their deal.
The paper also says that Microsoft and Fujitsu are to team up in cloud computing, and will likely announce the tie-up in the coming week, a person familiar with the matter said Saturday. The link-up would allow Microsoft to take advantage of Fujitsu's data centres and customer base, with Fujitsu offering Microsoft's Windows Azure, which gives Internet-based access to Windows software stored at data centres, the person said. Fujitsu plans to set up platforms for cloud computing at its existing data centres in the UK, Australia, Singapore, Germany and the US by the end of the current fiscal year.
The Financial Times writes that NTP, which was founded by the late mobile communications pioneer Tom Campana, has filed suits against Apple, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, HTC and LG over patents covering wireless email transmissions. The company won a similar case against Research in Motion in 2006 when the Blackberry maker was ordered to pay USD612 million to NTP. The new suits don't seek a specific amount of damages.
The Sunday Tribune reports that yet another public figure has become a victim of online identity theft. Historian Diarmaid Ferriter has had a fake Facebook page set up in his name, which has since been removed. The page described him as a "skinhead" and he learned of it after friends bought it to his attention.
The Sunday Business Post reports that DCU's Ryan Academy is to announce a EUR1 million seed venture fund for technology start-ups this week. Financed by the charity One Foundation, the fund will also offer a programme of support for the businesses to help high-tech companies develop, including office space, mentorship and specially-designed networking and educational programmes. It will be open to potential applicants in October, with the first four successful entrepreneurs announced before the end of 2010. Next year, eight applicants will be funded, with a similar number planned in 2012.
The same paper says the e-voting saga is far from over, with the storage of the machines set to total EUR3.4 million by the end of this year. However, a special taskforce has yet to figure out how to get rid of the abandoned machines. The machines were bought in 2004, but were put into storage after being declared unfit for purpose. Since then, the storage costs have been racking up, and despite expressions of interest in the machines, nothing has yet been decided on how to get rid of them. Last year, the machines cost EUR182,500 to store, and a similar cost is expected in 2010.They are currently stored in 13 locations, and work is still ongoing in terminating local lease arrangements.
The same paper says that Irish children have become part of the latest internet craze, with more than 200,000 joining Club Penguin. The Disney-owned online club allows members to play games as a penguin against other children in an ad-free environment, aimed at players between six and 14 years of age. There have also been a number of successful toys and computer games on the Nintendo system. However, it has been criticised for encouraging consumerism and the possibility of cyber bullying, although it is monitored intensely. Children are not allowed to share personal detail such as names or addresses, and a "parent timer" allows parents to set the amount of time a child can spend on the site.
The paper also reports that online auction site M6 Car Auctions has provided a boost to the industry, selling hundreds of cars in its first four months. The company has sold about 27 cars a week since it began operations in early March. The Galway-based firm allows private sellers to put their car into the auction, for a fee of EUR70, with a 5 percent sale fee charged to dealers. Sellers can enter their car details on the website http://www.m6carauctions.ie, where they are available for buyers to browse.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 