For the record 20 December

20-12-2006

by Jonathan Farrelly

'American Idol' is a top search term for 2006 | IRCSET announces EUR8.6m funding for postgrads

The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology IRCSET has unveiled a EUR8.6 million scheme to fund the early career formation of up to 120 doctoral and masters researchers in the sciences, engineering and technology sectors. IRCSET on Wednesday issued a call for applicants to a competitive process that will award funding to students intending to pursue postgraduate research in the sciences, engineering and technology sectors. A number of additional scholarships will also be awarded through IRCSET's Enterprise Partnership Scheme which co-funds research scholars with a range of industry partners. This allows applicants a second chance at obtaining funding and gaining research experience with an industrial slant. Current partners include Pfizer, Microsoft and IBM. Professor Jane Grimson, chair of IRCSET commented: "There is a wealth of research talent in Ireland and a strong desire by many graduates to pursue a career in research. IRCSET is encouraging and facilitating this new generation of highly motivated researchers so vital to Irelands future economic success."

DATAC Control International is celebrating 25 years in business on Wednesday. Founded in Dublin by Cyril Kerr in 1981, DATAC is a manufacturer and supplier of Automation and Control Systems, Telemetry and wireless Machine-2-Machine communications.

Sony, Panasonic and Samsung are cresting the wave of leading mobile, PC and consumer electronics companies targeting "the connected home" as their next major growth opportunity, according to a new report. The report assesses the key business challenges facing major technology vendors intending to flourish in the digital home. In contrast, the strategies of PC vendors H-P and Dell exhibit significant weaknesses, such as limited proprietary technology ownership and inability to penetrate emerging device segments. Report author Peter King said: "In spite of the tendency of the general media to focus on emerging players from the PC and mobile sectors, our analysis suggests that traditional consumer electronics companies are currently best placed to dominate the emerging digital connected consumer market. In our view, with their strengths in both consumer electronics and mobile markets, Sony and Samsung are best positioned to address emerging connected device segments."

Labour's Communications Spokesperson Tommy Broughan TD has strongly criticised NTL's recent decision to charge customers a handling fee for not paying by direct debit. Any NTL customer who does not sign up for a direct debit will now be charged EUR2 extra per bill. "It is appalling that consumers are in effect being forced to pay by direct debit by the addition of this extra handling charge. This extra charge will particularly affect senior citizens and low income households, some of whom may not even have a bank account," said Broughan.

Motorola predicts 2007 will be the year Wi-Max will become a mainstream wireless technology. As evidence, the electronics giant points to growing consumer awareness and an increasing number of commercial launches of mobile Wi-Max networks. Dan Coombes, chief technology officer at Motorola Networks & Enterprise, said: "When we look back one year ago and reflect on all that the industry has accomplished, it is truly astounding the pace at which next generation broadband solutions are evolving. Wi-Max no longer is just a promise, [but] a potential." Wi-Max is a wireless digital communications system intended for wireless "metropolitan area networks". Wi-Max can provide broadband wireless access (BWA) up to 50 km from fixed stations, and 5 - 15 km from mobile stations.

Trashy TV talent show American Idol was the only search term to make it into the top 10 search terms of 2006 across most major search engines. 'American Idol' appears on both Yahoo and AOL, but not Google, according to the BBC. The top three results for Google were: 'Bebo', 'MySpace', and 'World Cup'. For Yahoo they were: 'Britney Spears', 'WWF', and 'Shakira'. And finally, for AOL the top terms were: 'Weather', 'Dictionary', and 'Dogs'. One user of the BBC website commented on the story: "Looking back over the results, I think I can suggest the following market segmentation: Google users are dweebs, Yahoo users are horndogs, and AOL users are geezers. Googling is bad for your libido, consider yourself warned."

Citrix Systems has announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Ardence of Waltham, Massachusetts. Citrix said it selected Ardence as its technology reinforces Citrix' overall application delivery strategy and positions the company as a strategic vendor for desktop delivery infrastructure. Citrix hopes this acquisition will boost its application delivery infrastructure by enabling the real-time, on-demand provisioning of desktops, server images and service oriented architecture objects. Assuming the transaction closes as expected, the acquisition is expected to add approximately USD15 million to USD18 million in revenue to Citrix' fiscal year 2007. Upon close of the transaction, the Ardence team and products will remain based in Massachusetts and report into the Management Systems Group (MSG), also based in the Boston area, under Lou Shipley.

ComReg released its quarterly report for the three months from July to September on Wednesday. The report shows there are now almost 4.5 million active mobile subscriptions in Ireland, equating to a penetration rate of 106 percent. Irish mobile subscribers talked for almost 1.8 billion minutes during the third quarter of 2006, and sent 1.4 billion text messages. Look out for report analysis on ENN on Thursday.