IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 1 April
01-04-2009
by Sylvia Leatham
Eircom asks staff to take pay cuts | Spotify to take on iTunes
Getting into the spirit of the day that's in it, the Irish Times says that electronic tagging for 'high net worth' tax exiles is being considered by the Department of Finance. The paper claims the Office of the Revenue Commissioners is in discussions with a US-based security company called 'FailProof' (try rearranging the letters) for the provision of the service.
On a more serious note, the paper says that Eircom staff are to be asked to take voluntary pay cuts that will last until June 2011. In addition, no performance-related bonuses will be paid over the same timeframe. Individual letters will be sent out shortly to Eircom's 7,000 full-time staff and those on contract "inviting a pay reduction". The company is seeking to implement the voluntary pay cuts from May as part of a plan to save EUR113 million a year. By law workers have to volunteer for pay cuts. Eircom's unions have opposed the proposed pay cuts.
The paper also reports on the winners of the NUI Maynooth 'Imaginate' competition, which was entered by some 1,600 second-level schoolchildren. The winning senior entry was a 'Zen workstation', proposed by Zachery Holmes from Sutton Park School in Dublin. It includes a flat panel screen with an in-built touch-screen computer. School books are available on the workstation, which links up with the teacher's computer.
The Irish Independent reports that a state-of-the art multiscreen digital cinema complex is to open in Carlow later this year. The EUR10.4 million project at Fairgreen Shopping Centre will provide seating for around 1,500 in eight separate cinemas -- two of them equipped with the latest 3D technology. It will be operated by Omniplex Cinemas.
The paper also says that free music service Spotify is taking on iTunes by signing a deal to sell MP3 downloads, as well as stream them. Tracks on the Spotify player, which looks not unlike Apple's iTunes software, will now come with a link leading European users to downloadable MP3 copies of songs and albums via the London-based online music store, 7Digital. While the service will begin by offering individual tracks and albums, it will soon allow users to buy entire playlists either constructed by themselves or shared by other users. (Spotify's streaming service is not yet available in Ireland.)
According to the Wall Street Journal, Hewlett-Packard and other PC makers are considering using free software developed by Google to run some of their netbook computers. PC makers are testing the Android mobile operating system for use in new models of mini-laptops. "We want to assess the capability Android may have for the computer and communications industries, and so we are studying it," said Satjiv Chahil, a vice president of HP's PC division. If successful, the move would open up a new front in the fight for dominance between Google and Microsoft.
The paper also notes that Facebook is seeking a new chief financial officer after announcing that Gideon Yu is leaving the company. Facebook did not give a reason for his departure. The social networking firm has begun searching for a successor with experience at a public company. The move is the latest shakeup in executive ranks at the firm. In the past year, two Facebook co-founders -- Dustin Moskovitz and Adam d'Angelo -- have left. Matt Cohler, an early employee who was a senior executive, also left last year.
The Financial Times says that estimates for spending on technology this year have been cut further by two leading research firms, who admitted they underestimated the speed and severity of general economic decline. Gartner forecast a 3.8 percent fall in global spending to USD3,200 billion, compared with the USD3,400 billion recorded in 2008. It said this would be worse than the 2.1 percent decline in IT spending in 2001, after the dot-com bubble burst. Forrester revised its forecasts for spending by US businesses and government on IT goods and services, almost doubling its previous prediction for a decline. It said it expected sales to shrink by 3.1 percent in 2009, compared with the 1.6 percent previously projected for the year.
The paper also says that anti-capitalist protesters are turning to social networking sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to co-ordinate their activities around the G20 meetings. Many protest groups already use the internet to co-ordinate their activities, but the popularity of social networking websites has made it even easier to publicise campaigns. Hundreds of videos from Saturday's 'Put People First' march in central London have been uploaded to YouTube and thousands of photographs to Flickr.
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