IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 2 October
02-10-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
European Commission investigates Qualcomm | Palm swings to a loss
The Irish Times reports that legal history was made on Monday when an Irish businessman accused of involvement in a corporate accounting scandal was arraigned by a US federal judge via a satellite video link. It was the first time an Irish citizen has been arraigned in the Republic by a judge sitting in a foreign court. During the eight-minute link-up between the US court and the Distillery Court in Dublin, Jerry Shanahan was formally arraigned on a criminal complaint of wire fraud by a judge in New Hampshire. Shanahan, a former CEO of US software firm Enterasys Networks, has already voluntarily stood trial in New Hampshire on six charges of conspiracy, wire and mail fraud.
The paper also says that IT services firm Version 1 is to create at least 80 new jobs over the next 18 months in Ireland. Read the full story as reported by ENN on Monday.
The Irish Independent reports that prison officers have seized more than 1,600 illegally-held mobile phones in the nation's jails in the past year. New figures show that 551 out of a total of 1,644 phones were confiscated in Mountjoy jail in Dublin. Prison authorities have been cracking down on the use of mobile phones by prisoners ever since an inmate in Portlaoise jail used his phone to make a call to RTE's Liveline radio show.
The Financial Times reports that the European Commission has launched an investigation into Qualcomm's dominance of 3G mobile phone standards. Brussels said it was initiating proceedings against the San Diego-based company two years after complaints were first lodged by rival US chipmakers Broadcom and Texas Instruments and handset makers Ericsson, NEC, Nokia and Panasonic. The six have accused Qualcomm of reneging on a commitment made when Europe chose WCDMA as its 3G standard. Qualcomm had promised to license on "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms" the patents on which the standard was based.
The paper also says that Sony is to launch the world's first television using organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology in time for the Christmas market. The Japanese electronics group will start selling the 11-inch TV, which is just 3mm thick on 1 December in Japan for JPY200,000 (USD1,700). Ryoji Chubachi, Sony president, said the screen was "proof of our technical revival" in the face of critics who had claimed that Sony was no longer producing products with mass appeal.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo has launched a newly-minted Yahoo Search. The most significant aspect of the revamped engine is Yahoo's embrace of "universal search," a results-blending concept that incorporates a broad array of potential sources, such as videos or pages of books from online libraries. Yahoo's search engine also has a new search assistant, which makes suggestions if it detects that a user is having trouble phrasing a search.
The paper also reports that struggling smartphone maker Palm swung to a small loss for its fiscal first quarter as it faced stiffening competition in its core market. In the three months ended 31 August, Palm recorded a loss of USD841,000, or USD0.01 a share, on revenue that rose 1 percent to USD360.8 million. In the year-ago period, Palm earned USD16.5 million on revenue of USD355.8 million.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 