ROUNDUPS
For the record 4 October
04-10-2005
by
Three Ireland and RTE link up for video news bulletins | Plantronics and Eircom partner for accessible telephone handsets
Microsoft has said that it will release its first beta of Office 12, the latest version of its productivity suite, in November. New features will include the ability to save an Office document in the popular PDF format, as well as a substantially revised user interface, with common features displayed in graphical "command tabs" rather than in cascading text menus. Watch for more information at the Office 12 preview site.
BT boss Ben Verwaayen has been named the "Most Influential Person in Communications" at the annual World Communications Awards in London. BT also won the title of "Best Global Carrier" for its work in reorganising its business and promoting networked services. David Molony, editor in chief at Total Telecom, said the judges' decision was almost unanimous in favour of Verwaayen in the Most Influential category, in recognition of his efforts at taking the company in a new direction and returning it to market leadership.
Plantronics is to provide Eircom with 10,000 telephones specially designed for users who are hard of hearing or visually impaired. The dB30 HOH system is equipped with an extremely loud ringtone and oversized buttons, as well as a visual ring indicator. The expected retail price for the system, which was co-developed by Plantronics and Eircom and manufactured by Clarity, is EUR64.95 including VAT and delivery.
Roaming tariffs for all 25 EU Member States have been published by the European Commission to help consumers become more aware of charges they face when using their mobile phone outside their home country. As well as listing rates in all states, the site gives general advice on managing roaming costs, including manual network selection.
Mobile operator Three Ireland has struck a deal with RTE to make a series of two-minute video news clips available daily on the company's 3G mobile handsets. About 20 clips will be available from Monday to Friday, as well as select clips on the weekend. The bulletins, which complement the operator's existing news and entertainment video downloads, will be available at no extra charge to subscribers, Three Ireland said.
IBM has unveiled a new range of servers aimed at the small and medium-sized enterprise market, including a new version of the Power 5 chip, the Power5+. The new line, IBM System p5 Express, includes four systems with chip speeds up to 1.9 Gigahertz and up to 72MB of on-board cache memory. IBM said all the systems are available with a combination of AIX 5L UNIX, Red Hat or Novell SuSE Linux.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 