NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 9 July
09-07-2007
by Emmet Ryan
Google buys IT security firm | RTE.ie scores a hit with Oxegen festival
Google is to acquire IT security firm Postini in a USD625 million deal. Postini's services are used by 35,000 businesses and 10 million users worldwide. "With this transaction, we're reinforcing our commitment to delivering compelling hosted applications to businesses of all sizes. With the addition of Postini, our apps are not just simple and appealing to users, they can also streamline the complex information security mandates within these organisations," said Eric Schmidt, chairman of the board and chief executive of Google.
The Government's decision to invest in a EUR2.45 million research programme on mobile entertainment, reported on ENN on Monday, has been welcomed by Professor Kieran R Byrne, director of Waterford Institute of Technology. The institute's Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG) is leading the project. "Ireland has a growing reputation for innovative development and use of mobile technologies and all of us at the institute are proud of the leadership shown by TSSG in driving forward the research agenda in this exciting field," said Byrne.
RTE's two live online Oxegen broadcasts received a combined total of 18,109 hits on RTE.ie over the festival weekend. RTE 2fm's Oxegen broadcast received 10,597 online hits from music fans throughout Ireland. The broadcaster's new digital radio station, RTE 2XM, which broadcasts music from up-and-coming alternative rock and pop outfits, received 7,512 online hits for its Oxegen coverage.
Cable & Wireless has signed a deal with Inuk Networks to provide IPTV services via broadband. The agreement is worth around STG70 million over five years and the contract sees Cable & Wireless providing Inuk with access to its multicast network enabling the delivery of television, telephony and broadband services.
dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi internet domain, is making approximately 650 city names available to city governments. "With thousands of .mobi sites now live and more than 600,000 domains registered, consumers now understand that sites built on the .mobi domain give them the freedom to take the internet with them, wherever they go," said Neil Edwards, chief executive of dotMobi. The first city to trial the process was Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki's investment promotion agency, Greater Helsinki Promotion, created http://Helsinki.mobi and is also responsible for its continued development and marketing.
Business communications provider Damovo has announced revenues of EUR500,000 from the supply and installation of speech recognition technologies in Ireland over the last 12 months. Damovo expects voice recognition revenues to triple to at least EUR1.5 million within the next year. The firm said advancements in the software used for voice recognition would fuel demand.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 