IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 24 August
24-08-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
Irish programmers hack Apple iPhones | Politicians call on YouTube to remove paramilitary footage
The Irish Times reports that Analog Devices is to seek 150 redundancies at its Limerick plant, as noted by ENN on Thursday.
The paper also reports that Dixons and Currys owner DSG International has said the housing downturn in Ireland will result in a lower rate of expansion at the electrical goods retailer this year. Outgoing DSG chief John Clare said the impact of the property slowdown was "not dramatic", but his warning of slower growth suggests housing market weakness is spilling into other economic sectors.
The same paper says that Datalex has reported better-than-expected revenues for the first half of the year. Read the details of Datalex's results on ENN.
The paper also notes that Smart Telecom has purchased broadband, TV and telephone services supplier Envi Communications. Read the full story on ENN.
According to the same paper, Dell's Irish customers will not experience delays with orders of its new Inspiron line of notebooks, despite production problems that are causing delays to delivery of a similar line of laptops. A Dell Ireland spokeswoman said the issue was specific to the Dell XPS M1330 and would not affect the widescreen Latitude models recently launched in Ireland. It now appears that customers who purchased the XPS M1330 may have to wait until October to receive their machines.
Selatra, the Cork distributor of mobile phone games, has won a deal with VimpelCom to supply it with an enhanced Java games service, the paper also notes. VimpelCom operates in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Armenia under the Beeline brand.
The same paper notes that the Enterprise Ireland-backed Web 2.0 Ireland group has dubbed 10-14 September "Web2Ireland Week", with a host of technical and business events taking place in Dublin. A mash-up camp and university will run in Trinity College Dublin from 10-13 September, showing the potential of taking data from two or more services to create something new. More information is available from www.web2ireland.org.
The paper also says that a small number of owners of Apple iPhones have hacked the devices to get them working on Irish mobile networks, months before they are expected to go on sale in the Republic. In the last week, two Waterford-based programmers -- Paul Watson and Jason Madigan -- have managed to get US-sourced iPhones to operate on O2 Ireland's network. The hack used is highly technical, as it involves cutting up a mobile phone Sim card and editing complex configuration files on the iPhone. It also requires purchasing a Turbo Sim card and installing this in parallel with the operator Sim card. Watson said a software-only system which would be easier for non-technical users to implement is being developed.
The Irish Independent reports that a link to a Catholic website has been hijacked by internet pirates offering sex services. The Catholic Communications Office and the Diocese of Cloyne were horrified this week to realise that a link to an old diocesan internet address had been used to offer links to websites selling sex. Bishop of Cloyne Dr John Magee ordered that immediate work be undertaken to remove all such links from the websites involved.
The Irish Examiner says that politicians in Northern Ireland are calling for hundreds of videos that glorify Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries and violence to be removed from the internet. Hours of footage of IRA, UDA and UVF violence has been catalogued on video-sharing site YouTube, including a large number of propaganda videos celebrating how the IRA "beat" the British army. Many of the videos have been posted in the past few months. The paramilitary videos are currently under review by YouTube.
According to the Wall Street Journal, European Union regulators have charged US memory chip maker Rambus with antitrust abuse, alleging that the company set "unreasonable" royalties for DRAM patents fraudulently set as industry standards. The EU's preliminary charges come weeks after the US Federal Trade Commission ruled that the company deceived a standards-setting committee, failing to disclose that its patents had been incorporated into an industry standard for memory technology.
The Financial Times reports that Hutchison Whampoa has cited a modest improvement at its struggling 3G unit as the conglomerate reported an otherwise strong 53 percent increase in net profit to HKD28.8 billion (USD3.7 billion). Losses before interest and tax at Hutchison's 3G arm, whose biggest markets are in the UK and Italy, narrowed 6 percent over the same period last year to HKD11.3 billion.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 