IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 24 August
24-08-2009
by Sylvia Leatham
Ocean Energy's wave power test complete | China Mobile to launch more 3G handsets
The Irish Times reports that Ocean Energy has successfully concluded two and a half years of testing a system for generating electricity from wave power. The Cork-based firm, which has been testing a prototype of the system in an area off the Galway coast, said the successful completion of the trials mean it can proceed with the next stage of developing its system commercially.
The Financial Times reports that mobile operator China Mobile hopes to launch over 100 new phone models in China by the end of the year, in a bid to lure users to switch to 3G services. According to company chairman Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile, which has a user base of 493 million, "still has a lot of room to develop" value-added services, such as music and games downloads, but is stymied by a lack of advanced devices that support China's home-grown TD-SCDMA standard for 3G services.
In other mobile news, the paper also says that handset maker Nokia has pledged to strike back at Apple and produce phones that will compete effectively with the iPhone. Nokia chief Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said it was aiming to be "even more competitive" following criticism that it had failed to come up with a handset to match the iPhone. In an interview, Kallasvuo also insisted that Nokia would succeed with its strategy of transforming itself from a mobile manufacturer into a supplier of services on handsets, such as maps and music.
In other news of Apple, the Wall Street Journal reports that US mobile operator AT&T has told federal regulators that it played "no role" in Apple's decision to keep the Google Voice application off the iPhone, while Apple said that it hasn't rejected the software. The Federal Communications Commission is looking into why Google's phone app wasn't approved for Apple's App Store and whether AT&T, which has exclusive rights to offer the iPhone to customers in the US, had anything to do with it. Apple told the FCC that it is still studying the application but that it has concerns about how it places the Google brand on Apple's device.
The paper also notes that a Chinese court has sentenced four people to prison and levied around USD1.6 million in fines against them for software copyright infringement. Hong Lei and Sun Xianzhong, founders of Chengdu Gongruan Network Technology, and two others within the company were sentenced to two to three and a half years in prison and collectively fined CNY11 million by a district court. The defendants were accused of illegally distributing software, including Microsoft's Windows operating system, which they re-created and distributed free under their own brand on Tomatolei, a site offering free downloads. The state-controlled Xinhua news agency said it was China's biggest software copyright infringement case.
The Sunday Business Post says that online backup provider KeepITsafe has agreed a new deal that could potentially grow its customer base significantly. The deal, which will see accounting software provider Relate Software offer its approximately 5,000 accounting customers KeepITSafe's services, could have "huge potential", the online backup company said.
The same paper reports that Dublin-based start-up DecaWave has completed a seed funding round, with up to EUR850,000 invested by Enterprise Ireland. The fabless semiconductor firm has a new ScenSor chip, which has just had five prototypes shipped to firms based in the US, Germany, France, Israel and Korea. The new chip could be used in real-time location systems technology, including the tagging of people, equipment and communications devices. It can also be used in health, security and manufacturing industries.
The Sunday Tribune writes that an e-mail claiming to be from the Make a Wish foundation is currently trying to dupe unsuspecting people into sending it on by claiming to have an arrangement to donate EUR0.07 every time the mail is forwarded. The money, the e-mail claims, will go towards a terminally ill Irish child. Government TDs, senators and Government departments are among those who have received the e-mail, but the foundation says it does not get involved in the use of chain e-mail.
The Sunday Times reports that a new website has been set up urging Americans to boycott Scotland over the decision to let convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi return to Libya on compassionate grounds. The site, boycottscotland.com, calls for US visitors to avoid business and leisure travel to the country, and is accompanied by a campaign on Twitter. It suggests Ireland as an alternative destination for travellers. It is not known who has organised the campaign.
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