PwC says recession putting IT projects on hold

MANY ORGANISATIONS have scrapped or curtailed IT projects in light of the downturn, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey of Irish chief information officers (CIOs).

One-third of those asked said planned or initiated projects in their organisation had been cancelled in the past year. Two-thirds also reported a reduction in the scope of other projects. Eighty per cent of respondents said this kind of cost-cutting was their biggest challenge as they tried to maintain service levels and innovate.

“There’s a few different directions that it [IT spend] is going,” said Pat Kelleher, director of PwC consulting. “There’s a cost-reduction focus in IT, but there are quite a lot of companies where it’s not been cut or has actually been increased in the downturn.”Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Ireland’s Government reveals its social media strategy

The Irish Government’s Information Service has built a whole new social networking-led internet platform based on WordPress, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter called MerrionStreet.ie that will see political leaders, including the Taoiseach, 'tweet' to the nation.

As first reported on Siliconrepublic, Taoiseach Brian Cowen will imminently be in a position to "tweet" to the world based on any number of issues.

A new web presence entitled ‘MerrionStreet.ie’ will go live ‘imminently’, the team behind the project told Siliconrepublic during an exclusive preview.

The team told Siliconrepublic that the project took five months to pull together.

The move will transform Government communications from the present website and press release format to a more dynamic web presence that will include photography, videos, Facebook status updates, Twitter feeds and web chat. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Irish firms reap benefits of being social

Social networking has become a mainstream business tool in Ireland with fully 40% of businesses having successfully used social networks to win new business, reveals a new global survey commissioned by global workspace solutions provider Regus.

In Ireland, 41% of companies said they planned to devote a proportion of their marketing budget to social networking activities by the end of 2010.

48% of respondents in Ireland used social networking to keep in touch with contacts, slightly below the global average (of 58%).

48% of respondents declared that the main usefulness of social networks was the possibility of managing and connecting to customer groups (globally 51%) and 53% use social networks to find important business information. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Apple faces class action lawsuit over iPhone 4

A pair of dissatisfied customers have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple over reception problems in the iPhone 4 - and it is unlikely to be the only one.

Since the arrival of the latest iPhone, there have been reports of reception problems, with Apple telling users to hold the device differently to avoid disturbing the external antenna.

Maryland residents Kevin McCaffery and Linda Wrinn filed the complaint against Apple and AT&T, accusing the firms of negligence, defective design and manufacture, breach of warranty, fraud by concealment and deceptive trade practices.

'Plaintiffs were sold defective iPhone 4 units, which drops calls and data service when held in a manner consistent with normal wireless phone use,' the filing says. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Finland makes broadband access a legal right

Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications has made 1Mb/s broadband Web access a legal right.

According a report from YLE, the country's national broadcasting company, every person in Finland (a little over 5 million people, according to a 2009 estimate) will have the right of access to a 1Mb/s broadband connection starting in July.

Furthermore, the Finns may ultimately gain the right to a 100Mb/s broadband connection.

Just over a year ago, Finland announced its intentions to make a 100Mb broadband connection a legal right by the end of 2015. The announcement made on Wednesday, brings the country one step closer to its goal.

A legal right to an Internet connection reinforces the government's intentions to reinforce a citizen freedom of speech and access to information. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Google adopts ‘new approach’ in China

Internet giant Google has announced it is adopting a “new approach” to its Chinese site, Google.cn, following complaints from Beijing that could see the company lose its government licence to provide an internet service in China.

In a blog post yesterday, Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond said that instead of redirecting Chinese Google users from Google.cn to the company’s Hong Kong search engine, the company had decided to create a new landing page on Google.cn which will link to the Hong Kong site.

Google stopped censoring its search services on its Chinese site and began redirecting Chinese users to the Google.hk site to allow uncensored search last March, two months after it discovered that hack attacks had been made on its computer systems in China by sources originating from inside the country. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Irish firm using GPS system to transform navigation for blind

AN IRISH company is testing new technology that could revolutionise navigation for the blind. Point The Way is conducting early tests of its phone application that helps visually impaired users follow GPS directions easily.

The application uses a phone’s built-in GPS receiver and compass to gauge its location. It then vibrates when the phone is pointed in the correct direction, allowing users to follow a route by touch. “A normal GPS may say ‘go straight’, which makes sense to most people but may not to a blind person,” says Tim Walsh, director of Point The Way. “Our tool will let them put it in their breast pocket and follow it quite easily.”

The company is currently running a small trial in conjunction with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland but is hoping to expand this soon. As part of this, it is already in early stage talks with manufacturers like Motorola, which has an accessibility programme in the US. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Nokia gets ready for Oxegen with festival apps

Ahead of the biggest music festival of the year here in Ireland Nokia is readying ticket holders with a selection of free apps - Apps for Oxegen - designed to be part of the festival survival kit.

Available through Nokia's app store Ovi.com these free Apps for Oxegen include three specially created apps for the big weekend: Nokia Live Link, Nokia Recommends and Nokia Video Jukebox.

Even if you're not there on the day you can follow gigs and gossip through these apps and the Live Link app give up breaking news, stage times, special guest info as well as traffic information and where the parties are happening on-site.

Live Link is created by mobile app developer Mobanode, the tech start-up behind apps including national anthem app Amhran na Bhfiann and a variety of apps for Electric Picnic. Read More

Coursey: Silicon Republic

Brown Bag Films lands Disney contract

The twice-Oscar nominated Irish animation company Brown Bag Films has landed a major contract with Disney to produce a new children’s television series.

Brown Bag will produce a 52-episode series entitled Doc McStuffins for Disney, which will be screened on the US cable TV channel Disney Junior.

Brown Bag chief executive Cathal Gaffney said the company would be taking on an additional 14 staff over the next two years to cater for the new contract.

Gaffney founded Brown Bag Films in 1994 with Darragh O'Connell, the studio's creative head. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Demise of the desktop

AS AN increasingly rare sight on retailers’ shelves, in people’s homes and even around the office, it is clear that the desktop computer is dying. So what is driving the demise of this once ever-present machine and does it have any hope of survival?

Once expensive and unwieldy, the laptop is now the dominant player in the computer landscape.

According to both manufacturers and retailers this is because of two distinct trends which, between them, are working to squeeze out the desktop – ever-improving miniaturised technology and changing customer behaviour.

“The price points [on notebooks] have come way down and the market has caught up a lot with desktops in terms of performance,” said Aaron McKenna, country manager for online retailer Komplett.ie.

Just a few years ago, money spent on a laptop would give users far less power than the same amount spent on a desktop. However, cheaper and smaller components mean this gulf has all but disappeared at consumer levels. Read more

Courtesy: Irish Times

Irish cure for vuvuzela 'sufferers'

Irish company Restored Hearing has found a novel way to combat Vuvuzela-related hearing damage from this year's World Cup by providing a low frequency therapy for people who are suffering from temporary tinnitus.

Temporary tinnitus is caused by exposure to loud environments, such as listening to the noise of the Vuvuzela horn. In noisy environments damage can be done to the sound receptor cells in the cochlea.

The cochlea is that part of the ear which converts wave-vibrations into electric signals before sending these signals onto the brain. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Connect School Evaluation Report

Connect School Evaluation Report

The Connect School Evaluation Report Launch

The Connect School Evaluation Report will be launched today by Minister Eamon Ryan T.D., Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources at the Big Picture. The Big Picture is located at the last stop of the Luas in Tallaght.

The Evaluation has been carried out by Farrell Grants Sparks.

The Connect School Project is now approaching it's final year, come September the entire student cohort will have been issued with laptops. This, in conjunction with the wireless internet access and the Virtual Learning Environment makes St Aidan's one of the most progressive teaching environments in the country. There are great benefits and challenges inherent in such a ambitious project and these issues are well developed and drawn out by the Evaluation Report. Anyone working in the field of education with an interest in 21st Century teaching and learning will be very interested to read this report.

The full report will be available online once it is launched.

Watch out for a short film on the Connect School Project which will be available here once the Evaluation Report has been launched.

Avatars play starring role at virtual seminar

THE PROGRAMME for the recent Metameets conference at Dublin Institute of Technology – flagged as Europe’s Premier 3D Internet and Developer Conference – carried an unusual little note after each speaker’s name: “live” or “virtual”.

For a conference about 3D and virtual worlds, perhaps it isn’t odd at all that about a third of the presentations were given not by someone standing before the audience, but by their avatars in some online virtual world like Second Life. That a good proportion of the audience was scattered across cyberspace too is the norm for this international event, now in its second year (it debuted in Amsterdam last year).

Add to that the oddity of having the conference organisers listed by both their real-life and their avatar names, and you get the picture.

These are people passionate about the virtual, who do not consider it just an amusing pastime, or a hobby, but a significant element of daily life and for many, their chosen area of entrepreneurship and business. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Most Irish politicians to use social media for campaigning

MORE THAN three-quarters of Irish TDs plan to use social media tools in the next general election campaign, with Facebook overwhelmingly the favoured platform.

A new survey from PR firm Pembroke Communications found that 77 per cent of politicians said they would use these web-based tools to get their message out during the next hustings. Of the 48 TDs that responded to the phone and online survey, 96 per cent said they would use Facebook, 65 per cent said they planned to use Twitter, while half said they would use YouTube and blogs.

The survey found that fewer than one-third had used social networking tools in the 2007 general election.

The recent British election saw a large number of prospective MPs use web tools to communicate with voters. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Merck's MSD to create 150 new Dublin jobs

MSD is recruiting immediately for 150 positions at a new facility to be located in South County Dublin.

MSD is a part of Merck, the world's second largest pharmaceutical company.

The new MSD shared business services centre will serve the firm's operations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Already MSD has manufacturing, research and sales and marketing centres located in Ireland - in Swords, Cork, Wicklow, Tipperary and Carlow.

The new facility will provide support in the areas of finance and accounting and the 150 jobs have all been described as high quality by the IDA which is supporting the project.

Ireland and Dublin was selected because of its track record in delivering such complex projects according to MSD and Merck.

The company says the country's educational system, quality of the workforce and proximity to European markets were all key factors in deciding to locate the jobs here.

Courtesy: RTE News

Dublin social media firm raises €500k

Dublin-based social media agency Simply Zesty has just announced news of a €500,000 investment from The Oxford Research Agency (TORA) for a minority stake in the firm.

Celebrating its one-year anniversary earlier this week, the investment now values the social media company at €1m. With clients including Vodafone, Universal Pictures, Nokia and The Body Shop, Simply Zesty was co-founded by chef Niall Harbison and social media marketing consultant Lauren Fisher in May 2009. TORA is a long-standing market research agency founded in 1982, whose repertoire includes retail and shopper insight, social research and simulated test markets.

"This is a huge vote of confidence for our young company and we are delighted to be partnering up with such a well-established and reputable company," said co-founder Niall Harbison.shopper insight, social research and simulated test markets. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Irish diaspora create their own social networking site

Some 5,000 members have already signed up to join a social networking site called RendezVous 365 that aims to link the 80m people of Irish heritage across the world. It is poignant that such a site is being established by emigrants as the spectre of emigration returns.

RendezVous353 was created in response to modern-day emigration, providing a resource for Irish people all over the world to stay connected with each other and to provide a link between those in Ireland and the Irish-connected people outside of Ireland. Since the test site was created in February, 5,000 members worldwide have already signed up. The newly launched version of the site aims to connect Irish business people around the world, encouraging social interaction and creating a platform for business networking amongst the diaspora. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

State urged to support clean technology

THE GOVERNMENT and public services should be using their purchasing clout to aid the development of the Republic’s clean technology sector, according to some of the industry’s leading figures.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) yesterday published a snapshot of the sector, Inside the Smart Economy, at a seminar for the industry, its financiers and relevant State agencies. After the event, SEAI chief operations officer Dr Brian Motherway said one of the issues that the report identified was the need for State support for the industry, which was just beginning to find its feet.

Mr Motherway said that did not necessarily mean grants but through adjusting procurement policies so that the companies involved could sell their technology, goods and services to the State.

He said this would give the businesses a meaningful revenue stream on the one hand and also allow them to demonstrate the worth of their products to other potential customers. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

At last the west awakes to broadband

FOR SEÁN O’Flannagáin broadband access is more than simply a luxury. The former investment banker left Merrill Lynch earlier this year to set up a small investment management firm, Kinsale Capital Management. Based between Dublin and Inisheer, the smallest of the Aran Islands off the west coast, O’Flannagáin depends on high-speed internet access to successfully run his business.

“When we decided to set up the business, we knew that dependable, high-speed broadband was imperative,” he says. “It wasn’t just a matter of having access to e-mail and the internet, we’re increasingly using cloud computing so we need to access data remotely.” Much of the firm’s work involves the use of web-enabled applications. Because it works with global banks, it needs to have secure and speedy access to finance programs.

The arrival of wireless broadband to the remote islands in November last year allowed O’Flannagáin to base his business in Inisheer.

He eventually hopes to work full-time from the area. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Users explore alternatives to Internet Explorer

THE FACT that Microsoft is airing primetime television advertisements to promote its Internet Explorer 8 web browser says more than bragging by its competitors ever could.

Years of security threats regarding Internet Explorer and innovation by more nimble rivals have given the iconic browser a bad reputation and shrinking market share, both of which Microsoft is now trying to reverse. Just a few years ago this kind of push was unnecessary. As late as 2004 the blue “e” was a standard feature on almost all PC and Mac desktops. For many users it signified “the internet” as opposed to an application of any kind.

However, 2004 was also the year that Mozilla launched its alternative Firefox browser, rekindling competition that had not existed in the market for years. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

New online space for visual artists

Visual Artists Ireland (VAI) has launched a new social networking site, www.thecommonroom.net. VAI has been helping professional visual artists since 1980 with an ever widening level of services.

Following discussion and research, VAI wished to supply a further level of public service to the visual arts. Noting the benefits of social networking sites for increasing a person's circle of contacts and connecting users to familiar and new people through mutual acquaintances and common interests, VAI created The Common Room Social Network for the Visual Arts. Read More

Courtesy: RTE news

Video meetings are taking off

TECHNOLOGY VENDORS will give a long list of reasons why you should invest in conferencing solutions but until this week volcanoes were not among them. BT alone reports a 27-36 per cent rise in the usage of its audio and video conferencing products by customers while Citrix claimed “a dramatic increase in demand” for GoToMeeting, its online video conferencing software.

Such tools offered an impromptu solution for stranded business travellers, highlighted at an Ibec conference in Dublin where two speakers stuck in Brussels were still able to give their presentations to 200 delegates using Microsoft Live Meeting.

Now that the volcanic dust has settled, organisations might be more inclined to put technology in place to avoid repeating a week of missed meetings and costly delays. Uptake in these products has been steady for a number of years. Organisations looking to cut costs have found an easy way to reduce travel with desk-based solutions that keep employees in the office. At the same time, lowering the carbon footprint has ticked a useful box around corporate and social responsibility. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Start-ups gaining from technology recovery

THE INTERNATIONAL recovery in the technology sector, as shown by strong corporate results from Intel, Google and Apple, is reflected in the latest update to The Irish Times Tech50.

The constituents of our ranking of Irish technology firms are largely export focused and so have benefited from the upturn in global technology spending, even if the local economy remains in the doldrums.

NewBay, a maker of software that enables telecoms companies to provide access to social media services, remains Ireland’s strongest technology company on our index. NewBay increased its score from 81 to 83 since the Tech50 was introduced last December. The increase is on the back of a deal with Deutsche Telekom, which is using Newbay’s software to allow subscribers to instantly upload content from their handsets to the operator’s Media Centre. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Samsung warns of physical dangers of 3D TV

While 3D TV is the hottest thing to arrive in the TV world, one of its proponents, Samsung, has outlined some of the physical dangers – namely, it’s not a good idea to use your 3D goggles if you’ve already got beer goggles on.

“We do not recommend watching 3D if you are in bad physical condition, need sleep or have been drinking alcohol,” the consumer electronics giant warned in a note on ‘Viewing TV using the 3D function’.

The company says that ideal conditions for using 3D Active Glasses involves turning off all fluorescent lighting and blocking sources of direct sunlight before watching in 3D mode. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Putting up barriers to a free and open internet

THE GOVERNMENT has had extensive private discussions on introducing internet blocking – barring access to websites or domains – according to material obtained under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

The approach is used by some internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile network operators to block access to child pornography. But increasingly, governments and law enforcement agencies are pushing for much broader use, ranging from blocking filesharing sites to trying to tackle cybercrime and terrorism. Critics say internet blocking creates many problems with little real effect on illegal activity. For example, internet users and businesses have complained about the side-effects of domain blocking, where barring access to domains can shut down hundreds of personal and business websites as well as e-mail addresses associated with them.

The exact nature of the Government discussions cannot be determined as many of the requests for key documents were refused by the Department of Justice. However, the ongoing high level of discussion on the subject is indicated in the detailed description of each refused item in the list of materials returned by the department. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Why a security crackdown on our personal data is needed

THE DATA Protection Commissioner’s 2009 interim annual report, released last week, reveals that personal data security breaches – the loss of sensitive personal information by companies or organisations – were up almost 50 per cent on 2008.

Surely this is overwhelming proof (if any more were needed after the appalling tales of data loss by Government departments, semi-State agencies and a variety of companies) that Ireland needs to legislate for mandatory disclosure of data breaches.Such laws are increasingly the norm across the world. In the US almost every state has such a law. There is formidable evidence that it was only legislation of this sort, introduced at the start of the decade in California, which led to the realisation that some massive breaches were happening at all.

It was only when Californians had to be notified of such losses that the national scale of some of these breaches was realised: in some cases, tens of millions of records were accidentally lost or stolen in single incidents. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Is Facebook becoming the new Bebo?

Once it was pretty clear. Bebo was for the teens. Facebook was for the 20 or 30 somethings and LinkedIn was for the professional types. But now seems Facebook has inherited many of the teen-related problems that dogged Bebo in its heyday.

The news of the demise of Bebo this week shocked many. AOL acquired Bebo for US$850m only two years ago but revealed that it would require a "significant investment" to stop the once-unstoppable social networking behemoth from folding. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Ireland’s first Twittering Taoiseach to tweet to the nation

The Taoiseach of Ireland Brian Cowen TD is about to follow the example of UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama and start writing his own blog and send tweets on Twitter. Sources have told Siliconrepublic.com that Cowen is extremely interested in making use of social media and is planning to construct a blog using WordPress.

It is understood that Cowen and his aides have been mulling over the best approach to take and aides have been working on setting up the WordPress blog and Twitter feed from the Taoiseach’s office. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

YouTube, Facebook and Twitter 'redirected to China'

Visitors to some of the world's most popular websites - including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter - were reportedly redirected to servers in China this week.

One of the Internet's main DNS root servers was reportedly rerouting traffic via China, giving visitors to those sites first-hand experience of what life is like behind the country's firewall. Sites such as Facebook and YouTube are banned in China, which has infamously strict web censorship rules.

The "hijacked" visitors were either sent to Chinese equivalents of the sites, or shown error messages claiming the sites were unavailable, according to a report on CNet.com. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Facebook partners with anti-bullying orgs for web safety

Following a meeting with the UK Home Secretary Alan Johnson Facebook says that it plans to add an extra layer to its reporting function in order to better protect younger users against cyberbullying and sexual predators.

The new layer of functionality will include links to support services i.e. BeatBullying and CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) at the end of Facebook reporting function as well more support and advice as part of Facebook's Safety Centre .

'It's crucial that people who feel they have been bullied online, can quickly get help. That's why Beatbullying are pleased that Facebook are taking the right steps by working with third sector organisations like us and referring their users to a safe environment where they can get the correct support and advice they need," said Emma-Jane Cross, CEO of BeatBulling. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Mum of two's autism communication idea

A Co Wicklow based mother of two children with autism, Lisa Domican, has launched a new iPhone application (app) that she hopes will help children with autism better develop their communications skills.

The app, which has already been successfully trialled in the Saplings school in Rathfarnham for children with autism, is called "Grace" (named after Lisa's daughter) and is based on the principle of picture exchange communication. It has been developed by Lisa in conjunction with software developer Steve Troughton-Smith, and with the support of Telefonica O2 Ireland.

The new app is designed to be used in a similar way to how the existing Picture Exchange Communication System is used by parents and tutors of children with autism - allowing them to build sentences using a book of laminated pictures attached to a board by Velcro. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Facebook Tool Pays Out For Pizza Orders

Facebook users whose friends have a penchant for pizza could find themselves cashing in with the launch of a new advertising tool.
Social networkers who add the new Domino's Pizza advert to their profile or blog will earn a cash reward every time one of their contacts clicks on it to place an order.

How much they earn will depend on how much their friends spend - each sale will generate a revenue of 0.5% of the order value. An order of a large Pepperoni Passion pizza for £16.99 would therefore pay out 8.5p. Dan Clays of digital agency BLM Quantum, which launched the tool for Domino's, said it was an extension of affiliate marketing, in which a third party is rewarded for advertising on behalf of a firm. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Taoiseach on visit to Silicon Valley

Taoiseach Brian Cowen continues his trip to the US today, meeting technology entrepreneurs in California’s Silicon Valley. This morning, Mr Cowen will meet senior executives from leading US multinational companies with successful investments in Ireland.
He will then meet Irish businesses who are successfully doing business in the United States, before addressing a major business lunch in Silicon Valley.

A spokesman said he will focus on the Government’s economic recovery plan, with a particular emphasis on the smart economy and the implementation of the report of the Government’s Innovation Taskforce. He will also stress the firm action that has been taken to stabilise the public finances, reduce the deficit and restore and reform the banking system.He is also due to hold talks with the president of Stanford University, Dr John Hennessy. Stanford is one of the leading universities in the world with a global reputation for science, research and innovation.

Later, the Taoiseach will open a new Irish Innovation Centre in Silicon Valley. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Competence Centres just the business for third-level research

THE LAUNCH this week of Competence Centres by Minister for Enterprise Mary Coughlan was a formality for an industry-led research initiative that is already under way. Five of the proposed nine centres have received €1 million in start-up funding. The centres are the latest in a long line of Government research and development (R&D) initiatives, but they are a step that all involved say is significantly different.

A joint venture between Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, the Competence Centres address the biggest challenge for third-level research: turning ideas into marketable applications with commercial value. In the past, blue-sky projects have been criticised for soaking up funding with little chance of commercial payback.

The programme was kickstarted by a call for private consortiums to come forward with ideas, prompting multinationals and indigenous start-ups to join forces with academia in pursuit of common goals. The endgame is intellectual property with commercial applications owned by the university, but licensed first to participating companies. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Google opens new apps store for businesses

In a move aimed at fueling the momentum so far with 2m businesses now adopting Google Apps, the internet giant has opened a new Apps Marketplace chock-full of third party cloud apps like payroll and productivity software.

The Google Apps Marketplace allows Google Apps customers to easily discover, deploy and manage cloud applications that integrate with Google Apps.

More than 50 companies are now selling applications across a range of businesses, including:

Intuit Online Payroll: A small business application that offers business owners a new way to efficiently run payroll, pay taxes and let employees check paystubs all within one integrated online office environment.

Manymoon: The company's free work and project management application for Google Apps makes it simple for businesses and teams to organise and share information including tasks, projects, documents, status updates and links with co-workers, customers and partners. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Irish language app for Patrick's Day debut

To celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge and St Patrick's festival, Irish IT company Maithú is launching two Irish language applications for the iPhone and Google Android App stores.

The Get the Focal Irish Translator is a two-way English/Irish translator with a database of over 13,000 words.

The app can be found on the iTunes and app stores as a free download.

Maithú is also developing a premium version to includep ronunciations so you'll be speaking Irish in no time, expanded online search for over 120,000 words and full sentence translation for €2.99 from the iTunes App Store.

More details are available on http://www.getthefocal.com/

Citizens need web skills for future jobs

Citizens need to prepare for the future jobs market and engagement in society through enhanced web skills, the European Commission said today.

Bringing a close to the EU’s E-Skills Week, Martin Territt, director of the European Commission Representation in Ireland, emphasised that developing e-learning strategies are a core part of the commission's newly launched Europe 2020 Agenda, which road maps the future economy.

Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Twitter hits 10 billionth (or so) tweet

Less than five months after reaching 5 billion "tweets", microblogging site Twitter has now chalked up some 10 billion tweets.

The site Gigatweet, which "counts" the number of tweets (postings by members) on Twitter, isn't an exact science, though. Gigatweet doesn't count to an exact number, but extrapolated out when the 10 billionth tweet would hit based on previous tweet data provided by various sources, according to TechCrunch.

Most recently, the public knows Twitter is seeing about 50 million tweets per day now, because the service released that information.

Number watchers were monitoring the numbers appended onto the URL of each tweet as it was posted to determine when the 10 billionth tweet would go online. When it did reportedly happen, most Twitter users were unable to see the tweet, however, because the user has a protected stream.

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Facebook could earn more cash from virtual currency, exec says

Virtual currency on Facebook has the potential to be a bigger revenue maker than the ads business on the social-networking giant’s site, the head of its European operations Colm Long told a digital conference in Dublin this week.

Speaking at the Digital Landscapes conference at UCD this week, Long said that globally more than 400m people around the world use Facebook. In Ireland, the service is used by 1.4m people, most of whom have been active on the site in the last 30 days. He said that more than 700,000 Irish people are on the social networking site every day.

Long said that many brands are already using its pages as a means to maintain an audience and embrace the digital opportunity. He cited the New York Times’ Facebook page as an example of a traditional brand that stands out in the social networking world, bringing print and online into Facebook and creating an identity that puts breaking news into peoples’ news feeds. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Malicious Facebook app does the rounds

The latest security threat to hit Facebook is a malicious application that spreads quickly by enticing users to create their own app that then inadvertently clones one of the template spam applications.

This malicious Facebook application is doing the rounds in the guise of ‘Who is checking your profile?’ or similar and begins with a link posted onto your Facebook wall by a friend or trusted connection, says Websense Security Labs researchers Erik Buchanan and Jason Pope.

There are other similar apps, including ‘Who Always stalks Your Profile?’ And ‘Who Always Look into My Album??’ Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

'Social Networking Could Come At A Price'

People who use social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are being warned they could face shelling out more for home insurance.

The fear is that the information users share online could alert potential burglars to their home's vulnerability, for instance by revealing when they are on holiday.

Darren Black, head of home insurance at comparison website Confused.com, predicts the eventual outcome could be big hikes – up to 10% - in users' home insurance premiums. for home insurance. Read More

Courtesy: Sky News

Building a live online map with your feet on the ground

OpenStreetMaps offers the organic result of real-world volunteers plotting their knowledge of local geography, writes DANNY O'BRIEN

IF YOU watched the news in the last month, you’ll recognise the outline in the first few moments of the data visualisation movie: the island of Haiti.

The barest outline of roads and other major features pick out Port-au-Prince and other major towns. As the date indicator crosses the “January 12th” marker, the epicentre of the earthquake appears as bold red circles. Then, minutes later, the first flashes of red and white light up the island’s silhouette. Hour by hour, the island turns from being a general sketch of the nation to an increasingly detailed street map. Within a day, the resolution is similar to an Ordnance Survey Ireland map: streets, paths, rivers are all marked and labelled.

By January 17th, a new set of icons appears: the glowing blue markings of Haiti’s refugee camps, picked out and entered into this map, which is now, after just one week, the most accurate and up-to-date geographical record of Haiti available. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

E-Skills week takes Fastrack to IT

Fastrack to IT (FIT) has revealed plans for EU e-Skills week 2010 to take place from March 1 to March 5. The week is taking place across Europe to raise the level of awareness around the importance of ICT skills for the future of the European economy.

EU e-Skills Week 2010 highlights the growing demand for skilled ICT users and professionals to drive a competitive and innovative Europe.

This campaign seeks to inform students, young professionals and small businesses about the vast range of opportunities that ICT-related jobs present. The campaign ultimately aims to increase ICT skills among professionals and to encourage more young people to take up ICT studies and careers. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Wanted: Could You Be Obama's Facebook Guru?

President Obama is looking for a social media expert to take charge of his MySpace and Facebook pages and keep his Twitter account up to date.
But this is not a role for slackers who have honed their expertise spending time on Facebook in the office.

The job application warns the successful candidate must be "ready to work hard; this isn't a 9-5 sort of job".
The job description says the right person needs to have "strong organising and campaigning instincts; you can craft messages that move people to act, and you know what actions will achieve the right impact at the right time".

It is understood Mr Obama's current ghost tweeter is stepping down, so the Democratic National Committee (DNC) wants someone to take on the broader job title of "social networks manager".
They will be responsible for managing pages for both the DNC and the Organising for America group, an organisation that drives Mr Obama's agenda at a local level.

Many politicians use Twitter to engage with voters. Gordon Brown tweets through the Number10 Downing Street page, and John Prescott and Ed Balls are also avid users.
Conservative party leader David Cameron does not have a personal Twitter account, although other members like party chairman Eric Pickles use the site frequently.

Courtesy: Sky News

WordPress outage blacks out millions of blogs

More than 10 million blogs were dragged offline for almost two hours following a massive outage at WordPress.com.
The popular blogging platform was down for 110 minutes due to a problem at the company's data centre. The outage downed 10.2 million blogs and cost them more than 5.5 million page views, according to Wordpress.

"We are still gathering details, but it appears an unscheduled change to a core router by one of our data centre providers messed up our network in a way we haven't experienced before, and broke the site," reads a post on the WordPress site. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Microsoft adds Facebook to Outlook 2010

Outlook 2010 will be able to pull in feeds and contacts from Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace using its Social Connector.
The Outlook Social Connector (OSC), announced at the end of last year, brings in content such as contacts and social networking into Microsoft's e-mail client.Microsoft said the LinkedIn beta was now available, and announced new deals that would see Facebook and MySpace follow suit. Microsoft's own Windows Live will also integrate with Outlook

LinkedIn for Outlook lets users view details and photos of contacts from the site right in the e-mail system, as well as pull in updates from the social networking site to keep contacts up to date. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Website that cost State €4m shut down

THE GOVERNMENT spent more than €4 million developing an ambitious citizen and community information website that was shut down in December.

The Mobhaile project (www.mobhaile.ie) was launched in 2004 for local authorities to use as a portal for citizens to access a wide range of local information.

It cost €4,001,319, according to documents obtained by the technology consultant and blogger Damien Mulley under the Freedom of Information Act.

The documents show Mobhaile’s software development costs ran to €1,482,092 and a further €1,275,878 was spent on computing hardware and data storage. Associated salaries are listed as €431,418 and the total hosting costs between 2006 and 2009 came to €291,302. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Facebook hits 100 million mobile users - puts chat on all IM clients

Social-networking player Facebook is now being used by more than 100 million mobile phone users around the world. The company today unveiled a new feature that allows people to use Facebook chat within various instant messaging (IM) clients using the Jabber protocol.

Facebook has reached the 100-million mobile device milestone just six months after it revealed that 65 million people were using it on their mobile devices.

Chamath Palihapitiya, VP in charge of user growth, said that the usage is occurring on almost every mobile carrier in the world. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

You want Wi-Fi with that?: Burger King offers web access

DUBLIN FIRM Anacapa Holdings has won a contract with Burger King which will see it provide a free Wi-Fi service in 2,200 restaurants in 12 European countries.

The roll-out of the service has already begun in Germany and it is expected the service will be available in Irish branches of Burger King by the end of March, according to Joe Brunoli.

Mr Brunoli is managing director of the trading entity which Anacapa operates as Free-hotspot.com.

It offers free internet access in 4,000 locations in 21 countries in Europe. It currently has 76 locations in Ireland which are primarily cafes, restaurants and bars. Venue owners typically pay for the installation of the hardware and have to provide a broadband connection. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

The plight of the blogger and how to protect them

The protection of the free press in the West is a given, but who protects a blogger arrested under a repressive regime?

WHEN THE local correspondent of a Western newspaper is arrested or intimidated under a repressive regime, a huge machine grinds into action.

If the newspaper chooses to pick a fight, the correspondent has the public support of the newspaper’s editorial and the case has the ear of its readers. If the newspaper chooses a quieter route, the political department of the newspaper almost certainly has some sort of working relationship with their domestic government, and at least the attention of politicians. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Dublin-Cork rail route set to trial Wi-Fi service

IARNRÓD ÉIREANN is to test a wireless internet service for passengers on its Dublin to Cork route, starting early next month.

The trial will be used to establish demand and is likely to be followed by a public tender to equip much of the company’s main intercity lines with the necessary equipment to provide the service.

Four wireless network providers have been invited to take part in the trial, due to last for about six months. Each provider will initially be allocated a train on the Dublin to Cork line. “It’s our busiest route so it’s the most appropriate for the trial,” said Iarnród Éireann spokesman Barry Kenny.

“We will publicise the service in stations, on trains, on our website, through social media and through media activity.” Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Educationalist questions way technology is used in schools

GOVERNMENTS ACROSS Europe are not doing enough to fund technology in schools, according to an Intel survey of teachers announced at the start of BETT, the world’s largest education technology exhibition taking place in London this week.

For the 600 exhibitors and the 30,000 expected visitors, it is a sobering reminder of the gap between what could be achieved and what is actually happening.

Some 98 per cent of teachers believe being able to use a computer is critical in preparing students for work, and 76 per cent are calling on their respective governments to do more.

In the bustling aisles of an exhibition that attracts teachers from around the world, innovation and creativity were a recurring theme. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

More than 50pc of employers screen job seekers online

Whether you’re a college student on the cusp of graduation or you’re a current job seeker, it pays to monitor what you post on your social-networking site of choice as a recent survey shows that 53pc of employers do online background checks and sites like Facebook and MySpace are on the list.

With more than half of employees researching job candidates online, UK website CareerBuilder.co.uk found that 43pc are using search engines to see what they can find outside of the CV, 12pc said they go to Facebook and a further 12pc head to professional networking site LinkedIn. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Twitter joke leads to Terrorism Act arrest

You’ve heard about people being arrested following flippant remarks about bombs at airports or on airplanes, but what about venting your frustration on Twitter? That’s also a no-go and falls under the Terrorism Act 2006.

Twenty-six-year-old finance supervisor Paul Chambers found out the hard way when he put out a seemingly glib message on his Twitter account, where he said he would blow up Robin Hood Airport in Doncaster in the UK if his flight was delayed. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Google defies Chinese censorship

Google has vowed to stop censoring the results of its Chinese site, risking expulsion from the lucrative market by the Chinese government.

The search giant claimed it was taking the action after a year of increasingly aggressive online behaviour by the Chinese government, beginning with attacks on its servers and those of "at least 20 other large companies from a wide range of businesses - including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors."

However, the company claims things swiftly took a more sinister turn, as the attacks began to target the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists and their Western supporters. While Google was quick to reassure users that only two accounts were compromised - revealing only e-mail creation dates and subject lines - the company claims the actions are the last straw. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

PC markets in recovery, says research firm

Worldwide PC shipments jumped at an annual rate of 22.1% in the fourth quarter of 2009, the highest rate of growth in seven years, according to research firm Gartner.

While the firm noted the numbers were compared to an exceptionally weak quarter in 2008, that didn't stop the analysts from claiming the struggling PC market had recovered.

"These preliminary results indicate the recovery of the PC market on a global level," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, in a statement.

Kitagawa said that the US and Asia-Pacific had seen growth already last year, but more "concrete evidence" of recovery was seen in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) now. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Nokia to promote online platform

NOKIA IS to hold an event in Dublin next week aimed at attracting developers to its online application store. The Ovi Store platform, unveiled last May, provides a place where Nokia phone users can buy and download applications directly to their phones.

Nokia Ireland’s Shane O’Brien says some of Europe’s best digital agencies and developers are in Ireland. “Even though the Irish community is quite small . . . there are some really good applications and content out there, not only local but also international.

“We have the Ovi Store as a platform and what we really want to do is introduce it to developers. We want to show them the process to develop for the Ovi Store and give them an idea of the support we can give to developers.” Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Seeing really is believing – 3D TV will take broadcasting to a new dimension

In a bold move, BSkyB is about to deploy 3D TV for the first time across its Irish and UK networks.

As we troop into a room festooned with TV sets, one gigantic TV dominates. We’ve been promised a first-look at 3D television, a service that Sky intends to deploy across its network beginning in 2010. In the back of my mind I’m thinking "hold up, aren’t we just getting used to high definition (HD) and things like Blu-ray?"

As my eyes take in the room I search for some new magic box. Instead there’s what seems to be an ordinary flat-screen 50-inch TV and a standard Sky HD set-top box. On the table in front of us are what look like horn-rimmed glasses that Buddy Holly would have been proud of. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Graduates to develop new media content for schools

20 graduates of technology or teacher training college courses are to get work placement positions in Microsoft Ireland to help develop digital material for the school curriculum as part of a deal signed by the Minister for Education and Science Batt O'Keeffe.

The 20 graduates, who will be based in Microsoft Ireland headquarters in Dublin, will develop digital content to support the curriculum in primary and post-primary schools.

They will work with the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) on tasks aimed at supporting the integration of information communications technology (ICT) into teaching and learning.

They will be employed under the Government's graduate back-to-work programme which allows them to retain their social welfare entitlements. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Google to exit China over cyber attacks on its users

Continuing controversy over censorship and freedom of speech and a recent spate of cyber attacks have resulted in the world's largest internet entity, Google, considering plans to exit China.

"Like many other well-known organisations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis," explained David Drummond, senior vice-president, corporate development and chief legal officer at Google.

"In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident - albeit a significant one - was something quite different. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Facebook to offer McAfee security software in bid to battle cyber crime

The increasing spate of cyber attacks on social-networking sites Facebook and Twitter has spurred Facebook to join forces with security software giant McAfee to offer users technology to protect themselves.

McAfee and Facebook last night announced an unprecedented collaboration that will provide additional security protection to a significant portion of the internet population.

Through this partnership, the two companies have jointly created security solutions that include McAfee security software, a custom scanning and repair tool, and consumer friendly education materials that Facebook will make available to its more than 350 million users. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Most priceless hard drive data is now recoverable - at a price

The offer to trash a hard drive to see whether its data could be retrieved by Kroll Ontrack’s recovery service proved irresistible. Soon a car was being revved up and the experiment was under way . . .

IT’S THAT unmistakeable sound anyone who works with technology dreads hearing. The whirring, clicking sound you know your PC shouldn’t be making, which suggests your hard drive – containing your precious data – has either passed on or is a digital breath away from giving up the ghost.

In an ideal world you would have a recent data backup that would allow you to restore all those files. But as anyone who has been in the situation where a hard drive has failed will know, we don’t live in an ideal world. Disaster invariably strikes when your hard drive or other storage is brim full of precious memories and you only have one copy (see panel).

In these instances both consumers and businesses are increasingly turning to data recovery specialists. Coming to the fore in the early 1990s, these firms were experts in the dark arts of data storage and were able to recover files which non-specialists would tell you were gone forever. The issue was that such specialised services came at a huge cost – sums of €10,000 were not unheard of to recover the contents of a drive. As a result, it was largely law enforcement agencies and businesses who stood to make big losses without the data who were willing to stump up for the service. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Irish-language spam hits a high

A rise in spam e-mails in Irish has been observed by security firm Symantec in its recent State of Spam report. The e-mails are designed to get users to open them and then click on malicious links, which can leave a laptop, PC or mobile device open to viruses.

These Irish spam messages can sometimes be identified by fluent Irish speakers because of their suspicious phrasing and spelling, a result of cybercriminals using free online translators which often make spelling mistakes and sentence anomalies. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Google Set To Reveal Its Rival To The iPhone

Gadget-lovers and industry rivals are gearing up for the unveiling of Google’s first mobile phone.

The hotly-anticipated arrival of the Nexus One marks the start of Google’s bid to challenge the dominance of Apple’s iPhone in the growing smartphone market.

The internet search giant has invited journalists to its Californian headquarters tomorrow for a press briefing on its Android mobile phone operating system, launched to attract users to its services.

It is widely expected that Google will take the opportunity to unveil the Nexus One phone, thought to be named in a nod to the 'Nexus' androids in the sci-fi film Blade Runner. Read More

Courtesy: Sky News

Firefox Mobile 'will kill off app stores'

Mozilla claims that its new Firefox Mobile browser could be the beginning of the end for the hugely popular app stores created by Apple and its ilk.

Mozilla is releasing the first version of Firefox Mobile (codenamed Fennec) on Nokia's N900 handset, with versions for Windows Mobile and Android set to arrive this year.

The foundation claims that Firefox Mobile will have the fastest JavaScript engine of any mobile browser, allowing developers to create apps for the browser instead of creating multiple versions of the same app for different mobile OSs. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News