Today's other technology stories in brief
Mobile money service meets approval
A service that allows money to be transferred or mobile phone credit to be topped up using a text message received 95 per cent approval from consumers at a recent field test of users aged 18-55.
The survey demonstrated Anam Mobile's SMS money transfer and SMS top-up products to prepay phone users in Kilkenny who received €30 phone credit for attending.
Anam has partnered with fellow Irish firm TR2 Communications and is talking to several mobile operators about implementing the service.
Celebrities back PS3 game levels
The latest celebrity endorsement is computer game levels. Comedian Jason Byrne, musician Cathy Davey, TV presenter Baz Ashmawy and radio DJ Ray Foley have created their own levels for PlayStation 3 game LittleBigPlanet, which can now be accessed by other players. The game combines social networking with gameplay and encourages players to create and share their own levels.
55m put towards internet safety
The European Commission has earmarked €55 million to make the internet safer for children. The investment as part of the Safer Internet programme will run from 2009 to 2013. It aims to increase public awareness of online threats, provide a network of contact points for reporting illegal content and create a database of new technologies that have consequences for children.
According to the commission, 80 per cent of children in Ireland use the internet compared to the EU average of 75 per cent.
TerminalFour wins Specsavers deal
Irish content management company TerminalFour has won a contract with Specsavers to build websites in Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Spain, New Zealand and Australia.
The software will enable Specsavers staff in each country to manage their own website rather than the central management which had been practised to date.
Telecoms contract for Middle East
Dublin-based telecoms technology specialist i-conX Solutions has won contracts worth almost €1 million in Palestine and Iraq on the back of the Government's recent trade mission to the United Arab Emirates.
The telecoms service provider assists telecoms to establish interconnections with other operators. The contracts are with Palestinian fixed and mobile operator Paltel and Iraqi mobile provider Newroz. Newroz is based in Iraqi Kurdistan, where most of the country's telecoms are located.
ComReg chair to head EU group
ComReg chairman John Doherty has been elected to chair the European Regulators Group in 2010.
The group represents telecoms watchdogs in the 27 EU member states and was established by the European Commission to act as an advisory group.
