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September 2010 ( View complete archive page )

October 2010 ( View complete archive page )

  • Google goes trick-or-treating with Scooby Doo Google is celebrating Hallowe'en this year with an interactive Scooby Doo comic in place of their logo. The comic is split into five frames each of which features Scooby, Freddie, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy.
  • More images of PlayStation Phone emerge Gadget blog Engadget have posted more information and images of the rumoured PlayStation Phone. The Android powered device, codenamed “Zeus”, has not yet been verified by Sony, but Engadget are adamant about its authenticity.
  • Dorsey and Tubridy become Twitter BFFs Following his appearance Twitter founder Jack Dorsey (@jack) and RTE presenter Ryan Tubridy (@TubridyTweets) swapped a few tweets this Saturday...
  • Twitter founder Jack Dorsey talks entrepreneurship and Ireland Ireland needs to more to encourage and support entrepreneurs, according to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Speaking on the Late Late Show Dorsey said that Ireland's technology and internet entrepreneurs need more support from the state, including possible legislative change, to compete internationally.
  • Has #newtwitter killed the fail whale? Since being upgraded to #newtwitter we at The Sociable have noticed that when our Twitter account is over capacity we are being presented with the message below rather than Yiying Lu's famous (or infamous) Fail Whale image.
  • A quick tour of this year's Eircom Spiders awards and nominees The nominations for this year's Eircom Spiders was announced today. There are 20 categories this year so join us as we take a quick tour of this year's nominees.
  • RTÉ Digital receives muted launch RTÉ has soft launched its digital terrestrial service, Saorview, today. The announcement comes ahead of the official launch of the service in the spring of 2011.
  • South Park and the perils of Facebook A funny sketch from South Park where Kyle has to deal with Facebook issues and associated peer pressure.
  • Rainbow add-on for Firefox records audio and video In keeping with Mozilla’s vision of innovation and progression around its popular browser Firefox, Mozilla have extended the browser’s media capabilities by adding audio and video recording functionality to the browser also. Mozilla Labs have released an early developer prototype of a Firefox add-on called Rainbow that allows users to record audio and video with a few lines of JavaScript.
  • 3 quick and nerdy ways to browse the web more securely We have published a few stories about security and privacy threats recently so we felt it was time to have a look at how you can securely browse online.
  • Dublin Web Summit (#dws4) kicks-off tonight The fourth event in the successful Dublin Web Summit series has commenced in the Chartered Accountants House, Dublin. This summit spans across two days (October 28th-29th, 2010) with around 50 speakers confirmed for the event.
  • PlayStation introduces PlayStation Rewards – A new way to gain exclusive status and recognition Today PlayStation launched their newest venture PlayStation Rewards, a new program that recognises and rewards users for simply doing what they love – playing games and interacting with any content that PlayStation has to offer.
  • Google donates $5 million to encourage innovation in digital journalism Google are donating $5 million in grants to non-profit organisations in an effort to encourage innovation in digital journalism. The announcement was made by Nikesh Arora, President of Global Sales Operations and Business Development in an official Google blog post.
  • Google launches Boost, a local business advertising solution In an official blog post Google have announced the availability of Google Boost, an online advertising solution that aims to make it easier for local business owners to begin advertising on Google.
  • And now you're done: Amazon's $269 million tax bill The state of Texas is persuing online retailer Amazon for $269 (€192.61) million in unpaid taxes according to Publishers Weekly. Tax officials in Texas believe that the presence of an Amazon distribution centre in the site provides the company with the presence in their jurisdiction and makes them subject to Texan tax laws.
  • #newtwitter is down, again [Breaking News] Twitter's status blog reports that the social network's new interface is down. Users currently logging into Twitter are seeing blank screens, no error messages are being shown. Twitter clients such as TweetDeck and Hootsuite are not affected.
  • 3 simple ways to protect your privacy on Facebook From accusations that it has outed gay users to poor security that allowed apps to leak user information to advertising agencies the Facebook has not had a good week. But in between these claims and accusations Facebook's users have genuine concerns for their privacy.
  • Irish Data Protection Commission to quiz Facebook over user ID leaks Speaking in response to an information request from this site the Irish Data Protection Commission said that as Facebook's Europe, the Middle East and Africa are based in Dublin it will be discussing the privacy issue with the social network.
  • Is Facebook Places about to launch in Ireland? Rumours have been circulating around Twitter in the last few days speculating that Facebook Places is about to launch in Ireland. While The Sociable can confirm that Places is not live in Ireland yet, we do expect this to happen in the very near future.
  • Microsoft announces new browser-based game marketplace Microsoft have announced Games for Windows Marketplace, a new browser-based PC game store that combines Microsoft’s Windows Games on Demand store with the ease of the web. The marketplace will launch on November 15th and will offer users a large selection of games, simplified navigation and purchase, and recurring specials such as "Deal of the Week".
  • Bloomberg: Google's Dublin offices saving Google billions in US and Irish tax Bloomberg has published a damning article accusing Google of using “a complicated structure” of overseas accounts, including its Dublin offices, to avoid paying US tax. The article accuses Google of using a number of non-US locations to manage and filter profits to avoid paying tax and charges in The States.
  • Google’s 1 gigabyte broadband trial In a blog post today, Google announced their plans to trial an ultra-high speed broadband network on part of Stanford University’s campus. This is the first time Google will experiment with new fiber optic technologies outside of their own premises, with speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second achievable.
  • Apple's “Back to the Mac” event in brief Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled several new products at the “Back to the Mac” special event in California yesterday. We've summarised all the main announcements, including the new MacBook Air, iLife '11, Mac OS X Lion, and FaceTime for Mac.
  • There is a Mozilla App store for that Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, have released specifications for an open app store standard in the hopes to combat Apple’s domination of the lucrative apps market. Their release follows Opera’s calls on Monday for an open browser addon standard.
  • Google to digitise and publish Dead Sea Scrolls Google and the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) have reached a deal that will allow Google to scan the complete collection of Dead Sea Scrolls, and publish them online for the world to see.
  • Your Facebook privacy questions answered As you have no doubt read Facebook is in the middle of another privacy scare, but what exactly happened and should you be concerned? We answer your questions and put your concerns to rest.
  • Ubisoft release new trailer for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood [VIDEO] Ubisoft, the makers of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, have released another excellent trailer to their forthcoming installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, which gives further insights into the plot of the solo campaign. The gameplay is set in Rome and features Ezio and his “greatest enemy” Cesare Borgia.
  • Mozilla makes us drool with concept phone Have you just bought an iPhone or an Android? Do you think its awesome, well think again. Mozilla, as part of their concept series, have released designs for a concept phone called Seabird, and it looks amazing.
  • Opera calls for open addon standards The makers of Opera are calling for the creation of web opera browser addon standards. Håkon Wium Lie, the chief technology officer of Opera believes that the browser addon market needs to be standardised to help both programmers and users.
  • 2010 Irish Web Awards winners announced Congratulations to all the finalists and winners at last night's Irish Web Awards in the Mansion House, Dublin. The Irish Times scooped the prestigious Grand Prix award, as well as the award for Best online Publication.
  • Cut the Rope: Fastest selling iOS game, ever From the makers of Angry Bird comes another highly addictive mobile game for iOS: Cut the Rope. The game which is currently topping the paid app charts on the App Store is available for 79c for the iPhone and €1.59 for the iPad version.
  • TED introduces first mobile app for iPad TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a non-profit dedicated to circulating “ideas worth spreading”. This week TED released an iPad app, their first official mobile app.
  • Skype for Windows gets Facebook integration and group video calling In a blog post yesterday Skype announced that their latest version of Skype for Windows includes a number of deep Facebook integration features.
  • CNN tries to woo advertisers with social media research In an effort to stimy falling revenue CNN are anxious to understand how they can monitise social media content. By understanding what stories are shared by its readers CNN hopes to be able to charge a premium to advertisers who wish to be placed on articles that perform well on social media.
  • Meteor leads the way with 3 great Android phone offers Mobile services provider Meteor is leading the smartphone push in Ireland with the announcement of three Android handsets, each available for as low as €119.99 online.
  • How to get the latest news on the Chile mine rescue In a story that was almost designed to compliment the always on, 24 hour, digital newscycle web news organisations have turned to live blogging to report the rescue of the 33 trapped Chilean miners.
  • Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 beats rival FIFA 11 It’s that time of year again where football gaming fans around the world must make that important decision: FIFA or PES? This year the contest is particularly close as the two games become more and more alike. Having played both titles, both of which have impressed, I’ve decided to pin this season’s hopes on PES 2011, and here’s why.
  • Ireland’s ISPs “not responsible” for internet piracy The debate about internet piracy, in particular music and movie piracy, reemerged yesterday after a High Court decision in favour of UPC stated that the company was not responsible for piracy policing on its network.
  • HTML5, a threat to privacy The governing body of the web, World Wide Web Consortium, is to hold a special two day conference to discuss issues of privacy and security with the development of HTML5.
  • UPC wins landmark case against ‘big four’ record labels UPC has won a legal action taken in the High Court in Dublin today by the ‘big four’ record labels over music piracy on its network.
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops set to outsell its predecessor Modern Warfare 2 According to GameStop’s senior vice president of merchandising Bob McKenzie, Call of Duty: Black Ops is outperforming its predecessor Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on preorder sales, although no exact figure has been quoted.
  • Don't Panic: Rumors of web time bomb virus prove false
  • Is RTE HD ready?
  • Firefox 4 beta available for Android Mozilla, makers of the popular Firefox web browser, have made available Firefox 4 beta for mobile for the Android platform. The app is built on the same technology as its desktop counterpart, with the main focus of this release on “performance and responsiveness”.
  • White House goes Green [Green Tech]
  • Ireland’s first GAMER Expo to take place later this month [UPDATED] Ireland’s first GAMER Expo takes place from the 29th - 31st October 2010, at the Citywest Convention centre, Dublin. It is expected that over 24,000 people will attend the games exhibition over the three days.
  • Four best arses on Street View Ireland In the week since Google launched Street View in Ireland we've been busy scouring the country using the new service with a highly unorthodox intention: discovering bare Irish arses.
  • Facebook gives you more control It was a busy day at Facebook HQ in Palo Alto, California yesterday, where Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made three very important announcements, largely giving Facebook users more control over what they share and precisely who with.
  • Today FM and Newstalk release Android apps Within the last day both Today FM and Newstalk have released free Android apps for their listeners.
  • Shussh, don't tell Buzz but Gmails joined Twitter
  • Skype now available on Android Skype, a service that allows you to make voice and video calls over the internet, have just released their much anticipated app for the Android platform.
  • Zuckerberg to appear in The Simpsons
  • Watch out: Here comes Google TV Google TV is one step closer to actuality as Google today launched a new website providing information about the apps and features to expect from the product.
  • Microsoft to launch Windows Phone 7 on October 11 It is expected that Microsoft will officially launch its new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, next Monday October 11, which potentially is a real competitor to Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android OS.
  • By the numbers: Mobile OS statistics for September 2010 in Ireland For the month of September 2010 most mobile OS witnessed a decline in market share, with the exception of Android, and to a lesser extent Samsung.
  • Ireland gets paid Android apps for the first time In a post on the Android Developers blog, Eric Chu, Android Developer Ecosystem manager, announced the support for buying and selling Android apps in Ireland.
  • An introduction to Street View in Ireland [VIDEO] This is an official video (1:49) from Google introducing Street View in Ireland. Interestingly, it was posted on Wednesday September 29th, one day before the service was officially announced!

November 2010 ( View complete archive page )

  • Dublin Tweeters concerned by snow but all is clear in Cork The Irish east coast might not have received the 25cm (10") of snow predicted on Monday but the blizzard conditions are still occupying the minds of Irish tweeters - or at least those in the nation's capital, or so says Trendsmap.
  • SanDisk, Sony, Nikon join forces to improve HD photography SanDisk, Sony and Nikon have announced that they are to join forces in the development of new high capacity CompactFlash memory cards for professional photographers.
  • Copān game postponed due to hazardous weather Copān, the augmented reality game due to begin today, has been postponed due to the severe weather conditions being experienced in Dublin, and indeed across the country. Players that had signed-up for the game were notified this morning by email.
  • Google Earth 6 beta available for download In an official blog post Google Earth product manager, Peter Birch, has announced the availability of Google Earth 6. This latest version of Google Earth introduces integrated Street View, 3D tress, and easier-to-use historical imagery.
  • Watch live tweets from the #ictumarch Despite plummeting temperatures, the Irish political landscape will heat up on Saturday as thousands of people are expected to take part in the planned Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) march.
  • IPv6, Ireland, and the future of the internet A lot of debate has been circulating in recent months about the subject of IPv6 and how it will be the saviour of the internet as we know it. In this article we try to explain what exactly IPv6 is, why it’s so important for the continued success of the internet, and how prepared Ireland is for its imminent deployment.
  • The Copān game guide [VIDEO] A short video guide on all you need to know about Copān - the augmented reality game that takes place across Dublin. The game can be played on your iPhone or Android device, with prizes for those who earn the most points.
  • New HYLAS 1 satellite to bring broadband to rural Ireland A new satellite, known as HYLAS 1, is due to launch later this evening and promises to bring broadband to many rural locations in Ireland for the first time. HYLAS 1 is the first dedicated satellite to deliver high speed, two-way data services across Europe.
  • Bing Maps Ireland's #bailout Tweets Bing Maps showing Twitter overlayFor a second consecutive week only one topic has been occupying Irish Twitter users – the €85 billion EU/IMF #bailout.
  • Twitter sentiment towards Brian Cowen - 88% negative Although this figure may come as no surprise to most but almost 9 out of 10 tweets concerning our incumbent Taoiseach Brian Cowen are negative in nature according to TweetFeel. TweetFeel is a service that combines real-time Twitter search with sentiment detection algorithms to determine whether a tweet is positive or negative.
  • Google and Facebook fight it out over your homepage Over the next few of weeks profiles for the social network's half-billion members will be changed to include a link prompting them to set Facebook.com as their browser's default homepage. Facebook hopes this will increase the amount of time users spend on the site and bolster the site's already impressive €60 million ($80 million) ad revenue.
  • Copān - an augmented reality treasure hunt across Dublin More details have emerged today about the mysterious augmented reality game based in Dublin known as Copān. The game is part of an innovative marketing campaign surrounding the launch of the new Copān Bar venue in Rathmines, Dublin.
  • #imf, #bailout - Twitter tells the story of a difficult week for Ireland The economic and political crises in Ireland is the only topic of discussion on Twitter this week. In a day that has seen the collapse of the Irish government and calls for the Taoiseach to resign, the crises has occupied each of the social network's regional trends for Ireland.
  • iOS 4.2 update now available Apple have today released their much anticipated iOS 4.2 update for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Much of the update brings existing features from the iPhone to the iPad, particularly the long awaited multitasking ability.
  • IMF shows sense of humour on Twitter as Dublin accepts massive bailout As the Irish government finally admitted that it would accept a massive bailout worth "tens of billions" from the International Monetary Fund, the IMF has been sharing the joke on Twitter.
  • Winners of The Spiders 2010 announced Congratulations to all those who won at last night’s Eircom Spiders in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin. Fota Wildlife scooped the prestigious Grand Prix, as well as winning the Best Travel and Tourism Website award.
  • Postman Patrick - Hilarious Postman Pat spoof This Postman Pat spoof from YouTube user johnser007 has been getting a lot of hits over the last few days and it's easy to see why - it's absolutely hilarious.
  • British communications minister opposes net neutrality In a speech at a telecoms conference in London recently Ed Vaizey, Minister for Communication, Culture and the Creative Industries in Britain, made clear his opposition to net neutrality.
  • MySpace to get Facebook integration Is MySpace about to be get Facebook integration? The media in San Fransisco have all been invited to a joint announcement from MySpace CEO, Mike Jones, and Facebook VP of Partnerships and Platform Marketing, Dan Rose, that will take place tonight.
  • Google Docs editing comes to Android and iOS As we speculated in this morning’s article Google Docs now supports editing on Android and iOS devices, including the iPad. In the coming days Google will be rolling out their ‘new documents editor’ that supports editing on mobile browsers.
  • Two-thirds of Irish companies use Google Analytics According to a survey by Irish web analytics consultants, Analytics.ie, almost two-thirds of Ireland’s largest companies are using Google Analytics.
  • Three new features in Google Docs In a blog post on the official Google Docs blog three new Google Docs features have been announced and will be made available over the coming days: auto-corrections, LaTex in equations, and images in spreadsheet cells.
  • Do you want to use Facebook Messages right now? Well, you can't. Not just yet anyway but you can request an early invite to the service from Facebook.
  • How one Irish company uses animation to explain complex topics like NAMA International interest has been gathering lately around an innovative concept from Dublin based animations company, Igloo Animations, known as ‘Gimme The Short Version’.
  • Facebook announces new “modern messaging system” Today Facebook unveiled their new “modern messaging system” that promises simpler real-time communication across any medium or device. Speaking at the press event in San Francisco Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, is quick to confirm that this is “not an email killer”, but “a messaging experience that includes email as one part of it”.
  • What will Facebook announce this evening? Facebook's "Project Titan" announcement in San Francisco is a little over two hours away. While all the excitement focuses around Facebook allegedly creating a fully fledged webmail application, or a 'Gmail killer' as it is often referred to, I'm sceptical as to whether this will happen.
  • .CO domains on the verge of mainstream .CO domains are about to go mainstream as domain registry site Go Daddy makes .CO domains the default option for new registrations. This change is fairly significant as Go Daddy accounts for nearly fifty percent of all internet domain registrations.
  • News in brief - Jack Dorsey's Square and Jimmy Wales' Wikipedia Your news from across the web with The Sociable. Jack Dorsey’s Square Despite eager anticipation from Irish users Jack Dorsey’s smartphone credit card scanner, Square, has no plans to launch in Ireland…just yet
  • Gardaí release Google Map of Ireland's accident blackspots The Gardaí are continuing their push into digital media with the release of a Google Map and Google Earth addon showing the most dangerous roads for speeding accidents in Ireland.
  • Call of Duty franchise breaks opening day sales records, again Call of Duty: Black Ops has broken opening day sales records previously set by its predecessor Modern Warfare 2 by selling 5.6 million units in the US and UK alone, with gross earnings of $360 million dollars.
  • Exclusive PS3 only content for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Ubisoft have announced that the PS3 version of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will get exclusive down-loadable content not available to any other console.
  • Facebook to launch 'Gmail killer' [Breaking News] Facebook will launch a revamped email application on Monday, in direct competition to Gmail. TechCrunch reports that the new application, which will automatically be included in user Facebook accounts, will now become a fully fledged webmail client.
  • Early success for Garda Flickr account [Follow up] A week after its launch the Gardaí's unique use of the social networking site Flickr has seen early success and positive feedback.
  • Sharing made easy with Firefox and F1 Mozilla, the makers of the popular web browser Firefox, have released an add-on designed to make sharing content on the web “easy, safe and fast”. The new service, called F1, is an effort by Mozilla to combat the unsightly and confusing array of share buttons found on the majority of today’s websites.
  • Augmented reality game, Copán, launching in Dublin, but what is it? Mysterious posters promoting an augmented reality game called Copán have suddenly appeared across Dublin city today. But what is it all about?
  • Rumours of iOS 4.2 release this Friday Rumours circulating the blogosphere this morning suggest the possible release of iOS 4.2 this Friday, as well as a possible update to iTunes 10.1 and OS X 10.6.5 later today.
  • Gardaí use Flickr to publicise lost and found An Garda Síochána have begun using the image sharing social networking Flickr to reunite lost-and-found items with their owners.
  • Xbox Kinect now on sale in Ireland but already sold out As Microsoft's Kinect goes on sales across Ireland Irish gamers are already expecting to be disappointed as the gaming system has sold out in most major stores.
  • Google Instant Previews now live on Google Ireland One month after the launch of Google Instant, Google has today introduced “Instant Previews”, a search feature that shows an image-based screenshot of each site beside their relevant search result.
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops hidden game discovered In a little over two hours Call of Duty: Black Ops will be officially released on sale here in Ireland. The game is said to include a 'hidden game' found within its main menu.
  • @IrishRail under fire from Dublin smartphone users Commuters in several Dublin rail stations are using their smartphones to complain about Irish Rail. Commuters are unhappy that the train company has not used their website or Twitter to inform them of lengthy delays to DART and commuter trains.
  • Samsung Galaxy S Android 2.2 update begins roll out A recent tweet from Samsung UK Mobile has announced the roll out of Android 2.2 to Samsung Galaxy S devices. The update was originally planned for mid-October but had been delayed until now.
  • [Live] Traffic, travel and #stormIE, #stormwatch information Ireland is preparing itself for the worst storm of the year today as gale force winds and driving rain are expected to hit the country Sunday evening through to Monday. Latest info here
  • Irish Revenue using Google StreetView and Earth to catch tax evaders
  • Give 'em cheese
  • Sony VAT back offers available in Ireland Fancy a new camera for Christmas or perhaps something with HD in it? Well Sony want to tempt you with their seasonal offer of up to 21% off the retail price of their electronics.
  • Ireland receives high resolution imagery updates in Google Earth Google have just released a small amount of high resolution aerial and satellite imagery of Ireland. The imagery is only available to view in Google Earth but will be expanded to Google Maps “soon”.
  • The Appys 2010 winners announced Congratulations to all those you won at The Appys awards last night in the Gibson Hotel, Dublin. The Appys is a new award ceremony that celebrates the innovation and creativity in the app development industry, and rewards their creators and developers.
  • Gmail introduces five new themes Google has released five new themes for its GMail email service today. Users can now choose between a black and white theme, Android, scenic tree tops and a hand drawn inbox. There are now 40 themes (if you count the custom theme) available for GMail.
  • Microsoft Kinect launch titles
  • Microsoft’s Kinect launched today, is it a game changer? Microsoft's revolutionary Xbox controller, Kinect, went on sale in the States today and they have high hopes for it.
  • An Post iPhone app released In a recent blog post An Post have announced the release of their iOS app. The app allows users to track shipments, find the nearest post office, and calculate postage rates, all from their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
  • Follow the #studentmarch protests live on The Sociable As we reported earlier Irish students have been live tweeting their Dublin protests using the hastag #studentmarch. You can follow the reaction below using our live Twitter feed. (Feed will auto update)
  • Students use Twitter to report on the #studentmarch As the #studentmarch in Dublin today turned violent, news reports from citizen journalists at the protest came flooding in on Twitter. This is one of those occasions that Twitter, as a live blogging tool, becomes extremely useful.
  • Android OS: the fastest growing mobile OS in Ireland Figures from StatCounter Global Stats to the end of October 2010 have revealed that once again Android OS is the fastest growing mobile OS in Ireland. In fact, it’s the only mobile OS that has shown growth in the last month.
  • Google reaches $8.5m Buzz privacy settlement Google has been forced to pay $8.5m compensation for breaching user privacy with the launch of Google Buzz in February this year.
  • E-voting without fraud [VIDEO] A really interesting talk has been posted on TED.com today about a proposed method of electronic voting that offers greatly reduced possibilities of fraud. In this video [07:03] David Bismark demos a new system for voting that contains a simple, verifiable way to prevent fraud and miscounting
  • Times paywall figures revealed This morning News International have released widely anticipated figures on the Times’s paywall: 105,000 people have paid to access the site since the paywall was introduced in July of this year.
  • Facebook issues 'Zero Tolerance for Data Brokers' Facebook has announced a series of punitive measures against developers who leaked user ids. In a hard hitting blog post Facbook programmer Mike Vernal attacked applications that shared/leaked Facebook users' ids while also defending the social network's privacy policies.
  • Newspapers to become “insignificant” in Ireland by 2027 Futurist Ross Dawson has released a “Newspaper Extinction Timeline” where he maps out how quickly we can expect newspapers to remain significant around the world. The first nations to leave behind the much loved newspaper and embrace media consumption majorly through digital devices will be the USA in 2017, followed by the UK and Iceland in 2019.
  • New Call of Duty trailer has everything, even JFK With just over a week until the release of the most anticipated game this year, Call of Duty: Black Ops publisher Activision have released another teasing trailer. This trailer has everything - including assassinated president John F. Kennedy and a Rolling Stones number for good measure.

December 2010 ( View complete archive page )

  • Apple’s ‘pseudo-holographic’ display patent revealed According to a recently granted Apple patent, the computer electronics and software giant are working on a screen technology that produces a special type of ‘pseudo-holographic’ or 3D image. The technology could eventually be used to produce 3D TVs and devices that don’t require viewers to wear special glasses.
  • Primeval dinosaurs invade Dublin
  • Irish Rail to introduce free Wi-Fi on Dublin-Cork route Irish rail is to introduce free Wi-Fi on all Dublin-Cork services, the company announced today. The company tested a limited free Wi-Fi service on the Dublin-Cork route in 2010 of which it described the uptake as “enthusiastic”.
  • Has the Android Market surpassed 200,000 apps? Has the Android Market surpassed 200,000 apps? According to AndroLib, an Android app search directory, the number of apps available to download for the Android platform has reached 200,000.
  • NASA satellite photograph shows snow covered New York NASA has released a new high resolution satellite image of the North Eastern region of the United States covered in over 80cm of snow. NASA has already released satellite imagery of the continent blanketed in snow. You can see the accumulation of snow in this time lapse video.
  • The Postman Patrick series [Videos] Since all Postman Patrick videos were removed from YouTube last week, we've been searching for an alternative source. Thankfully all videos have been uploaded to Facebook, so we've collated and embedded them here in one location on The Sociable for your convenience.
  • Rare Beatles Christmas track released by Apple iTunes Apple has apparently released a rare Christmas single recorded by The Beatles in 1963 on iTunes. The track appeared on the site on December 23rd and, so far, has gone relatively unnoticed.
  • Android’s new Music app [Video] Leaked video footage [0:50] of the new Android Music app has emerged, offering a glimpse of some of the user interface features we can expect in Android 3.0. The video demos some of the new Music app features already revealed at this year’s Google I/O
  • Timelapse of snow storm in United States and Canada North eastern America and Canada are suffering some of the worst winter storms in decades this week. NASA has already released satellite imagery of the continent blanketed in snow and several areas have already declared a state of emergency. Many parts of the New York, Philadelphia and Boston have seen 29 inches (73CM) of snow and to put this into context Vimeo user Michael Black has published a timelapse video, recorded over a 20 hour period, of the swathe of snow covering the States.
  • How to watch the world ring in the New Year Come midnight on January 1st you will probably be with family and friends to celebrate the New Year but before the clock turns you can watch the rest of the world ring in 2011. Use our interactive map to see where you can watch New Year celebrations online from across the world.
  • Start your family tree this holiday season Creating a family tree is always a worthwhile experience. This week, from December 26th, 2010 to January 1st, 2011 is Ireland’s first ever Start your family tree week, and with plenty of exiles home for Christmas to gain information from, now is the perfect time to start your family tree.
  • NASA issues satellite image of storm battered USA, New York and Canada Winter stores have abated in Ireland, the UK and Northern Europe but Canada and the North Eastern United States, especially New York and New England, are currently being battered with over 29 inches (73CM) of snow.
  • Christmas Specials-[Simon's Cat, Misery Bear, Muppets, Lego, Dublin Airport & HRH The Queen] Christmas is that wonderful time of year when the world gathers together, and with one breath, prepars to laugh their socks off at some of the funniest videos produced for the season. We present to you a selection box of some of the best Christmas Specials from this year (mostly) from across the web.
  • A year in review, the global news perspective on 2010 [Video] In 2010 over 25 billion Tweets were sent and about 9 billion emails were exchanged. We watch 700 billion videos on Youtube, that is about 13 million hours or the equivalent of 1,500 years of continuous viewing (We hope you like piano playing cats). At year’s end it is natural to look back, to review the dying year and take stock of what has happened. This is what the world’s media has been doing this week, so join us on The Sociable’s review of the reviews of 2010.
  • The most searched term on Google News in UK & Ireland during 2010 - "jesus loves you" “Jesus loves you” was the most searched term on Google News in the UK and Ireland in 2010, according to Google Insights for Search. In Ireland the term was 20 times more popular than “ireland“, the next highest ranking term. “Jesus loves you” even outranked search terms such as “gerry ryan“, “weather” and “haiti“. In the UK it was 10 times more popular than the second search term “news“.
  • VLC media player coming to Android soon According to tech blog GigaOM, the team behind the popular media player VLC will release a VLC Android app in “a matter of weeks”. This follows from the release of a dedicated VLC iPad app in September of this year, with iPhone support arriving in October.
  • Is the Android Market suffering downtime because of Christmas? Archos users badly affected Some Android users are finding it difficult to connect to the Android app store today. New and old Android users are finding it difficult to connected to the market, probably as result of the number of Android devices gifted during the Christmas period. The downtime seems to be intermittent but users who can connect are finding apps slow to download.
  • Christmas through the years with RTÉ Libraries and Archives The RTÉ Libraries and Archives have published a selection of video archive content giving a general overview of programming that has been broadcast during Christmas in previous years. While the quality of Christmas TV broadcast content is always strongly debated, it’s up to you to decide if it’s improved over the years!
  • The science (and magic) of Santa Claus - a special report Santa uses a mixture of science and magic to deliver presents to the world’s children in just one night according to a special report by RTÉ, Ireland’s national broadcaster.
  • Getting a Blackberry, XBox or Apple for Christmas? Here is a buyer's guide Technology, gadgets and gaming equipment are expected to some of the best selling gifts for Christmas this year but what happens if you have a problem with your new piece of kit? If your Blackberry has frozen, your Apple has crashed or your XBox wont boot then don’t fret because the BBC has released this helpful video with instructions about how to return your new equipment if you have a problem.
  • Google sends Android Nexus S phones into space Google’s PR department showed some genuine blue sky thinking this week when they sent an few Android Nexus S phones into space. Using a weather balloon, a parachute and a polystyrien box Google floated Android dolls into the lower atmosphere this week, and recorded the entire 30Km (100,000 ft) trek using Samsung Nexus S phones attached to each box.
  • Swype for Android available in limited beta Swype for Android is one of those killer apps that few people know about. The app replaces your default Android keyboard with a Swype keyboard and an alternative method of inputting text.
  • Skype's global VOIP network is down, 'software bug' to blame Skype, the world’s largest VOIP network, has been brought down due to an apparent software bug. The bug has been preventing the many of the service’s 42 million active members from connecting to the network. Skype first reported the downtime at 5 o’clock GMT (midday EST), four hours ago. According to the company the software bug is preventing Skype applications from routing calls to correct locations through what they call “supernodes.”
  • Sony launches music streaming service in Ireland and UK Sony have today launched an unlimited music streaming service available first to Irish and UK music lovers. This puts Sony in direct competition with dominant rivals like Spotify and the Apple iTunes Store.
  • Introducing Chirpstory, a tool that curates tweets into stories Chirpstory is essentially a Twitter curation tool that enables users to compile and share collections of tweets on specific topics. The tool allows curators to easily pick and choose tweets to include on a particular topic, and to build a continuous, coherent narrative from these.
  • Watch the solstice sunrise over Newgrange online [Video] Irish broadcaster RTEhas released video of the mid-winter sunrise at Newgrange. The 24 minute video shows the sun rise over the Boyne valley and illuminate the central passage of the Newgrange complex.
  • Time lapse video of the solstice lunar eclipse It hasn’t happened in 400 years but today a total eclipse of the moon coincided with the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. This is the first time that this meeting has happened during the video age and William Castleman, an expert in photographic scientific subjects, caught the eclipse live on film.
  • First look at this morning's total lunar eclipse We were out early this morning in the freezing cold (-15 °C) to take this picture of the December 2010 total lunar eclipse. The moon is almost totally eclipsed at this stage, with the sky starting to glow increasingly red in colour.
  • NASA explains why there has been so much snow this winter With temperatures in some parts of the UK and Ireland set to reach as low as 28°C on Monday night, many have been wondering why this winter has been especially harsh. According to NASA the reason is a natural shift the the location of the Gulf Stream called ‘Negative Arctic Oscillation’.
  • Zynga launches first mobile browser-based game Zynga, one of the best known social games developers, have launched a mobile browser-based version of their existing title Mafia Wars Atlantic City. The game currently has over 20 million players.
  • Watch the solstice sunrise over Newgrange live While our North American friend will be treated to a rare total lunar eclipse on Tuesday, during which the sky will turn blood red, Irish eyes will be set on the midwinter sunrise. On Tuesday the Irish broadcaster RTÉ will be live streaming the annual illumination of Newgrange passage online from 8:55am.
  • Total lunar eclipse will turn sky red An event known as a total lunar eclipse will occur tomorrow morning where a full moon will turn deep red as it moves into Earth’s shadow. This will be the last total eclipse that Ireland will see for another five years.
  • How to follow Santa online with NORAD, Google Earth, Facebook and Twitter There are less than six sleeps to Christmas so Santa is pretty busy getting ready for the big day. So too are NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, who are preparing to track Santa Claus and the reindeer as he crosses the world on Christmas Eve.
  • The Sociable's most clicked, read and shared stories of 2010 Weather, politics, Ireland's economic problems and a good bit of humour were the stories that you have been reading on The Sociable this year. In our first annual list of Sociable top tens we count down the most read, clicked and shared during 2010.
  • Ireland receives high resolution satellite imagery update in Google Earth Ireland, among other countries, has received further high resolution satellite imagery updates in Google Earth. This follows a similar imagery release by Google last month
  • Mobile payments up 300% during Christmas shopping season PayPal, the world’s most popular online payments and money transfer service, have today announced that they’ve witnessed a three hundred percent increase in payments made on mobile devices during the official Christmas shopping season, when compared to the same period last year.
  • Cheapest Android smartphones in Ireland Android growth this year has been phenomenal, with the platform taking the top spot of fastest growing mobile OS in Ireland earlier this year. We’ve compiled this list of the cheapest Android phones available in Ireland, and just in time for Christmas too.
  • Apple App Store statistics [Infographic] App of the Day, a site that features a community-nominated iOS app everyday, have released an interesting infographic on app statistics. The infographic visualises various app data including proportionate data between paid and free apps, specific iOS platform data as regards the percentage of apps available to each, app category distribution, and app prices per category.
  • PlayStation app coming to iPhone and Android "very soon" In an official blog post Sony have announced the launch of the PlayStation app coming to iPhone and Android devices “very soon”. The app will allow basic PlayStation friend interaction and access to the latest PlayStation games and products news
  • Sony are giving away free Playstation and PSP consoles in Dublin Sony Ireland are hiding the 12 ‘presents’ across the city over the next two days and posting clues to their locations on their Facebook page. But you will have to be quick to get your hands on any of them, six of the presents have already been won with five Playstations and one PSP being given away.
  • Facebook gets face detection with new photo tag suggestions In a blog post earlier today Facebook have announced a new photo tags suggestions feature that uses face detection technology. Photo tags will be automatically suggested to uploads based on previous tagging data within your social graph.
  • Zukerberg, Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year' - Wikileaks founder, Assange, runner up Mark Zukerberg has beaten Julian Assange, Hamid Karzai, The Chilean Miners and The Tea party to be named Time magazine’s person of the year. Each year Time Magazine awards people who have had a significant impact on world events to be their Person of the Year. Discussing this year award, Time editor Rick Stengel said Zuckerberg was awarded the honour to for
  • First look at the RTÉ Player for PS3 Yesterday RTÉ announced the availability of their video on demand service RTÉ Player for the PS3. The player is now available to Irish PS3 owners as a separate icon from the PlayStation home screen, under a new ‘TV’ menu item.
  • Sony upgrades SDHC memory card range with 3D cameras in mind It's probably best to hold off on buying those memory cards for your new camera this Christmas. Sony are about to release their next generation of high-speed, high-capacity SD cards in January, and the specs look good (well, mostly).
  • Visualising the world’s relationships through Facebook [Graphic] Facebook intern Paul Butler has created this really interesting visualisation of Facebook relationships around the world. Butler used a subset of 10 millions friend pairs and Facebook social graph data to map friend connections with their geographical locations.
  • YouTube 2010 review in less than 90 seconds Not to be outdone by Google's Zeitgeist 2010 or Twitter's trends of 2010 , YouTube have released their Rewind 2010: Year in Review video collage. The eighty-six second clip summarises this year’s most popular videos on YouTube, the world’s most popular video sharing site.
  • Top ten YouTube videos of 2010 YouTube have created a channel called YouTube Rewind: The Year in Review which offers some interesting insights into the most popular videos on the platform over the past year. No big surprises exist on this year’s list with the usual viral ads, music video parodies, and of course Justin Bieber.
  • The top trends on Twitter in 2010; World Cup, Bieber and oil spills Justin Bieber just about managed to beat Paul, the Magic Octopus, to be the most tweeted celebrity of 2010 according to Twtter’s list of the top tweets of 2010. The annual list, which was released today, aggregates the most montioned events celebrities and topics on Twitter over the past year.
  • Watch ITV and Channel 4 content on your PS3 ITV and Channel 4 are both expected to launch the first commercial video content that can be viewed in the UK via the PlayStation 3 later this week. This follows a similar strategy from the BBC which launched its BBC iPlayer for the PS3 last year.
  • Top Irish iPhone weather apps to monitor next week’s #bigfreeze With temperatures set to plunge once again towards the latter half of next week, stay safe and informed with these great Irish weather applications that work on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.
  • Want to hijack your friend's Facebook page, here's how When Facebook launched their redesigned profiles pages last month they didnt expect the new design could friends to hijack each other’s profiles. But a small change to the profile has given friends mutual control over each other's profile pages.
  • Google demos new Google Maps on Nexus S Google have released a demo video of Google Maps 5 on the upcoming and much anticipated Nexus S. The Nexus S is the first phone to run Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), which was released at the start of this week.
  • Google betters 'Will it Blend' to promote its Chrome Netbook [Video] What would you do if someone took your laptop from you and dunked it in liquid nitrogen and then smashed it like a pane of glass? Or, how would you feel if they set your Netbook on fire? Well, according to Google, you would be okay with it if you were using a Chrome Netbook.
  • Copān, augmented reality game launches on Sunday 12 December Shrouded in mystery and delayed because of the unseasonably cold weather, organisers of the Dublin based augmented reality game, Copān, have announced that the event will launch on Sunday December 12th.
  • An Irishman abroad tells it like it is! Denis Ryan, an Irishman living abroad tells American interviewer Jason Calibri how Ireland's debt crisis really came about!
  • CSO recruiting 5,000 for next year’s census The recruitment process for Ireland’s 2011 census is due to begin shortly with 5,000 enumerators needed. Enumerators will work on a part-time basis for a ten week period between March and May 2011, with average earnings of €2,200.
  • Facebook lauds Ireland's talent pool, is undeterred by economic collapse As Ireland's economic position has weakened over the past two years there have been increasing calls from Europe that Ireland should give up its low corporation tax rate of 12.5%. However, despite these calls the world's largest social network, Facebook, plans to continue investing in the country.
  • NASA issues new image of Ireland covered in snow as the #bigfreeze continues NASA's Earth Observatory has released another stunning satellite photography of Ireland and the UK blanketed in snow. The image, taken yesterday (December 8th 2010) shows much of the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England and the Isle of man covered in pristine snow.
  • Ireland’s Zeitgeist 2010 - the spirit of 2010 through search queries About this time every year Google publish Zeitgeist; a collection of data and visualisations that help capture the spirit of the year just gone by based on the aggregation of billions of search queries.
  • Irish web shoppers ready for Christmas, but first the parties Irish web-shoppers are looking for bargains, and party apparel this Christmas, according to search information from Google.
  • Introducing Eircom’s free music streaming service MusicHub Earlier today Eircom, Ireland’s largest ISP, launched its free music streaming service known as MusicHub. Eircom MusicHub allows free unlimited music streaming for existing Eircom broadband customers, and music downloads for as little as 32c per track.
  • Games developer Zynga hiring in Dublin Zynga, probably the best known social network games developer, is again hiring positions for its European headquarters in Dublin. The positions are mostly international customer care agents, but there is also a recruiter and reporting analyst required.
  • U.S. moves closer to imposing federal download tax We could all be paying more for our downloads from next year if the US government's proposed tax on digital goods is passed. The House of Representatives is set to debate a bill proposing the introduction of a federal tax on downloaded good and services, including music, videos and apps, in early 2011.
  • Is the iPad 2 set for post-Christmas launch? Unconfirmed reports suggest that Apple's second generation iPad will be released in February 2011. Reuters reports that sources in Foxconn Electronics, manufacturers of the iPad, the device will begin mass production at the start of the year. Initial shipments are expected to be in the region of 400,000-600,000 devices.
  • Which Irish political party has the most influence on Twitter? Which Irish political party has the most influence on Twitter? According to social media influence calculator Klout, republican party Sinn Féin has the most influence online with a Klout score of 59.
  • Amazon to demo Kindle for the web later today Things may be set to get very interesting in the world of e-book wars as Amazon is set to demo its Kindle for the web product later today. Google announced the launch of Google eBookstore yesterday, now Amazon is set to demo new competitive features to its Kindle product today.
  • Watch the live reaction to Ireland's austerity #budget11 Today, December 7th, 2010, Ireland's government will set out the toughest budget the country has seen in thirty years. This article will automatically update with the latest reports and reaction from Irish social media users during budget day.
  • Dublin's snow covered penguins become big web-hit in the #bigfreeze The snow might be causing chaos for commuters but there are 14 residents of Dublin for whom the snow is a little bit more welcome, the penguins of Dublin Zoo. The Irish Times’ Róisín Ingle reports that Irish workers are logging on in huge numbers to view the live video feed the penguins.
  • Android Gingerbread released, boasts great spec and tech US Android users have received an early Christmas present from Google with the release Android 2.3, codenamed Gingerbread, today. The updated OS will be first made available on Samsung’s Nexus S smartphone.
  • Stunning new photo of snow-blanketed Britain taken from space Not to be outdone by our British counterparts in terms of beautiful satellite snow imagery, the University of Dundee's satellite receiving station captured this image that was received from NASA’s satellite Terra on December 2nd, 2010.
  • Loc8 generates 64,000 postcodes in first five months Ireland’s first and only digital address system Loc8 Code have generated over 64,000 address codes since their launch in July of this year. In this period the companies’ website has also been gaining considerable interest with a reported 127,000 visitors to the site since the launch.
  • How to get your new look Facebook profile now
  • New look Facebook arriving tomorrow Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, will appear on 60 Minutes laster tonight where he will announce the new look Facebook profile page. The programme is due to air at 7pm PST, or 2am tomorrow morning here in Ireland.
  • Amazing NASA photo of Ireland covered in snow While the snow may be causing general disruption all over Ireland, the UK, and northern Europe, it does provide a chance to take some beatifically imagery, and none more so than from above.
  • Google’s big Chrome OS announcement coming December 7th Gadget blog Engadget have confirmed that the Google Chrome team are holding an announcement event in San Francisco on December 7th. According to Engadget the team are expected to announce a Google-branded netbook that runs Chrome OS.
  • The future of touchscreens will change how we see the world Smartphones are expected to be one of the bestselling presents this Christmas but the Swedish usability company The Astonishing Tribe have big plans for your digital equipment next year.
  • UK one step closer to changing time A bill, known as the Daylight Saving Bill, has been provisionally approved by British MPs today, with 92 to 10 voting in favour of its implementation. The bill proposes that the UK should stay on Western European Summer Time all year round, effectively shifting the clocks forward by one hour for the entire year.
  • The strength of the gaming industry in Ireland How strong is the gaming industry in Ireland? Very strong according to Donal Cahalane, Irish entrepreneur and start-up advisor at Small Business Rebels.
  • NASA scientists discover second genesis on earth NASA scientists have discovered a second genesis of life on earth, the US space agency announced today.
  • Android 2.2 overtakes 2.1 in version statistics for the first time Google have updated their Android platform versions chart with Android 2.2 (Froyo) overtaking Android 2.1 (Eclair) for the first time. In fact, 83% of Android phones are now 2.1 or above, showing a welcome further decline in the fragmentation that once plagued the platform.
  • Fascinating BBC documentary on statistics and data visualisation The BBC will broadcast an interesting hour-long documentary next Tuesday December 7th called The Joy of Stats. The programme is hosted by internet boffin Professor Hans Rosling and will be aired at 9pm on BBC 4.
  • Google Editions to launch within weeks? According to an article published in the Wall Street Journal today Google is weeks away from launching its long awaited digital book retail project known as Google Editions. The article states that the service from Google will launch this month in the US, and internationally within the first quarter of 2011.

January 2011 ( View complete archive page )

  • O2 Ireland victim of email phishing scam O2 Ireland is warning its 1.7 million users to be aware of a fake “phishing” emails purporting to be from the company. The fake emails tell O2 customers to click a link where they are asked to provide their O2.ie login details. These emails do not originate from O2 nor are they associated with the company.
  • Facebook Places Deals launches in UK and parts of Europe At a company event in London this morning, Facebook has announced the launch of Places Deals, a service that allows people to check-in to business locations using their smartphone in order to avail of special offers, in the UK and parts of western Europe.
  • Google Maps shows high resolution Aviva Stadium under construction Google’s recent update of its Irish Google maps images, which we reported on yesterday contains high resolution images of the €410 million, 63,802 sq.m Aviva Stadium under construction. The stadium, which was built for between 2007 and 2010 can be seen in the early part of its construction – probably during the first six months of 2009, before the roof was added or pitch constructed (in November 2009). This would match the time Google’s Streetview cars were collecting images in Ireland. The satellite imagery shows cranes in the stadium constructing the stands.
  • Apple and News Corps. The Daily will launch this week Apple and News Corp. have announced that the subscription based ”The Daily” iPad news app will be released on February 2nd in the US. They also confirmed that the app’s subscription model will cost 99 cent a week.
  • Is Nokia about to abandon Symbian for Android or Windows 7 Mobile? Mobile phone behemoth Nokia may be about to abandon its Symbian operating system for Google’s Android or Microsoft’s Windows 7 mobile, if comments by the company’s Chief Executive Stephen Elop are to be believed.
  • Ireland receives large satellite imagery update in Google Earth In the past few days Ireland has received yet another high resolution satellite imagery update in Google Earth. This follows similar updates that we reported in November and December of last year.
  • 12 keyboard shortcuts to speed up your Facebook experience Although unknown to most, Facebook has a number of hidden keyboard shortcuts that can really help speed up and enhance your Facebook experience. Once learnt, the shortcuts provide quick access to the most common pages on Facebook.
  • Mashable co-editor Ben Parr among the first confirmed to speak at the Dublin Web Summit Mashable co-editor, Ben Parr, and Google’s European marketing director, Dan Cobley, are among the first confirmed speakers at the Dublin Web Summit this March in Trinity College Dublin.
  • Facebook Messages, what it does and how to use it As we reported earlier in the month Facebook Messages is being rolled out across Ireland. A new batch of users had the service activated in the past day. But many are still wondering what Facebook Messages is and how to use it. Our simple guide will fill you in on the important bits of this simple but powerful addition to Facebook.
  • Labour party turn to QR codes to bolster numbers Earlier this week we asked the question - Are QR codes ready for mainstream adoption? Labour, the centre-left Irish political party, would appear to believe so as they introduced the technology to their website last week.
  • Geolocation apps causing new privacy and safety fears for smartphone users Smartphone users are becoming more concerned about their privacy when using geolocation apps, according to a survey released by Microsoft this week to coincide with Data Privacy Day. The survey found that users have a host of concerns for their privacy when using location based phone apps Some 84% of respondents said that they fear such applications could be used to help unknown people steal personal information or identities.
  • SME and social media, for hits StumbleUpon is good but Facebook is better Statistics, it is said, are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. Earlier this month TNW reported, quoting Statcounter Global stats, that StumbleUpon had surpassed Facebook in the US as the site that created the most social media referrers. The article also reported it was the second most popular traffic-generating site globally after Facebook.
  • USI to register 50,000 student voters for #ge11 The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) will launch a campaign titled "Your Future, Your Vote" tomorrow outside Leinster House with the intention to registering 50,000 Irish students to vote in the upcoming general election.
  • Facebook and Skype testing voice calling for some users Facebook appears to be testing voice calling directly within the webpage for a limited number of users. A number of users are seeing a "Call" button beside the "Send Message" and "Poke" buttons on their friend's profile pages. When pressed the button places a call to the friend
  • BBC iPlayer app coming next month BBC iPlayer, the popular catch-up service from the BBC, is reportedly releasing a dedicated iOS app next month. The app will work on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
  • Microsoft's Bing image search gets major update - now shows trending images Microsoft’s Bing image search engine got a major redesign today with the launch of trending image gallery. The update, which is now live for all Bing users shows an image gallery of the top 20 searched terms on the image search engine.
  • Foursquare records check-ins from every country in the world, and also 1 from space Foursquare users checked in over 380,576,305 times in 2010, including once from the International Space Station, the company announced today. Describing 2010 as “an insane year” the three year old smartphone social network released some information (in infographic form, of course) about their userbase.
  • Is Google rolling out an improved search interface? Google appears to be in the process of rolling out an improved search interface for US (.com) users. The new design features a larger search box as well as a gray navigation box at the top of the screen. While Google has had a top navigation for some time it has never been this prominant or stylised.
  • Are QR codes ready for mainstream adoption? Although the editorial content of the Irish Daily Star isn’t particularly interesting in my opinion, one half-page advertisement on page fourteen of yesterday’s publication caught my attention. The advertisement contained nothing more than an image of one man’s bald head with a note saying “Warning: Coming to a head near you”, and cleverly a QR code placed neatly in the top-right-hand corner. So once again we ask the question - are QR codes popular enough to use in mainstream media?
  • Black Ops PS3 patch available for download ReconRepublic are reporting that a PS3 patch for Call of Duty: Black Ops has just gone live. This follows a recent spate of complaints by Black Ops gamers over issues with the game's online multiplayer mode.
  • Cloud computing, "an unrivalled opportunity" for Ireland Concentrated and swift efforts by Ireland to invest in and promote cloud computing will improve the country’s competitiveness and return the economy to growth, according to a reports on cloud computing released by Microsoft today.
  • The Pirate Bay to launch dedicated music sharing project in April Notorious torrent site The Pirate Bay is working on new dedicated music sharing project, entitled “The Music Bay”, which will instill further fear into the heart of the phonographic industry. The Pirate Bay is currently used by millions to facilitate sharing of (mostly pirated) music, movies, and software.
  • Will Sony introduce serial keys to combat PS3 game piracy? According to Dutch gaming site PS3-Sense, Sony may introduce serial keys along with PS3 games in an effort to combat a recent spate of successful console hacks. Last month the PS3 root key was revealed, potentially allowing PS3 users to authenticate their own pirated games.
  • National Geographic's '7 billion' goes viral, highlights global issues If global climet change, economic collapse or ancient Mayan prophesies don’t scare you than the National Geographic’s latest viral video will. The video, which went online just before New Year’s, points out that by the end of 2011 there will be 7 billion people living on the planet.
  • Sony's Qriocity online music plays gets international release Sony’s sexily titled “Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity™” was made available to international audiences today, a month after being piloted in Ireland the UK. The Qriocity music player will now be available to users in the USA, Europe and Asia on Sony’s 2010 and 2011 models of network-enabled BRAVIA TV, Blu-ray Disc player, Blu-ray Disc Home Theater system, PlayStation 3 as well as VAIO and other personal computers.
  • Guinness's 'There is more life in the dark' campaign airs on Irish television Irish International BBDO is premiering its new international ad for Diagio’s Guinness brand, Dark Life, on Irish television this weekend. The latest in Guinness’s iconic commercials uses state-of-the-art digital post production techniques, as well as some nice Canon 5D digital cameras, to superimpose the famous stout’s head settling over some global cityscapes. It was directed by French director Frederic Planchon and filmed in cities from New York, Bogota & Hong Kong
  • Duke Nukem Forever gets a release date, for real this time Duke Nukem Forever, its been a long wait, hasnt it? But today Gearbox Software and 2K Games announced that we will finally get our grubby mitts on the game, 14 years (yes you read that correctly) after it was first announced. The game will be released on May 6th (May 3rd in the States) after nearly a decade and a half of development.
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops game may be investigated by UK government A formal complaint will be made to the UK Office of Fair Trading by independent pressure group Gamers’ Voice over concerns they have with the quality of the popular game Call of Duty: Blacks Ops.
  • Eric Schmidt to step down as Google CEO [Breaking News] Eric Schmidt is to step down as Google’s CEO, the search company has announced.
  • Esquire magazine, the cover model and augmented reality It sounds like something from 80s cult classic Weird Science but next month Esquire readers and Barnes and Nobel customers will be able to ‘interact’ with a life size virtual supermodel. US lad’s mag Esquire will be giving its readers an “active and engaging experience” with its latest cover girl, Brooklyn Decker, through their iPhones. From February Barnes and Noble customers will be able interact and take pictures alongside Decker using a custom built Esquire iPhone app.
  • Bertie Ahern caught on Street View Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has reportedly been caught on Google Street View. The images were taken in early summer of 2009 so presumably Ahern is busy canvassing for the 2009 Irish local elections.
  • Top 3 free music streaming services available in Ireland With the introduction of another music streaming service, we7, to Ireland earlier this month, it’s time to write a best of post and consider the three best free music streaming service options available to choose from.
  • YouTube demonstrates just how cold it is It might be cold where you are but spare a thought for these poor Canadians. YouTube user samantha683 braved temperatures of below -30 °C (-22°F) to demonstrate just how chilly it is. In the video she throws freshly boiled water in the air only for it to evaporate in a plume of white fog before it hits the ground.
  • Nintendo 3DS to be released in March but prices already vary We knew it was due soon and today Nintendo announced that their innovative 3D handheld games console, the 3DS, will be released in the UK and Ireland on March 25th (March 27 in the US).
  • The Guardian releases updated subscription-based iPhone app The Guardian have today released an updated version of their iPhone app that now employs a subscription-based model instead of a one-off fee.
  • Android fastest growing smartphone platform in Germany According to comScore, Google’s Android is the fastest growing smartphone platform in Germany. The data from comScore MobiLens reports on the three month average period in Germany ending November 2010.
  • NASA astronauts take photograph of Australian flooding from International Space Station Astronauts on board the International Space Station have captured a true-colour image of the extensive flooding hitting Australia. This newly released photograph shows Brisbane River flooding parts of the suburbs of Brisbane.
  • Newspaper sites post more videos online than broadcast sites, Facebook overtakes Yahoo! Newspaper websites now post more video online than those of broadcasters, according to a report by online video platform provider Brightcove and TubeMongul released today.
  • BBC iPlayer viewership increases significantly, particularly on the PS3 TechRadar are reporting that viewership of the BBC’s video on-demand service, BBC iPlayer, is continuing to soar, reaching a record high of 145 million people using the catch-up service in December 2010 alone.
  • Social search with Irish start-up HeyStaks HeyStaks, a University College Dublin (UCD) web start-up that allows people searching the web to collaborate with friends as they search online in a bid to increase productivity, have opened their service to the public.
  • Scientists make a Mammoth decision - to bring back the extinct creature It has been extinct for over 12,000 years but a team of Japanese, Russian and American scientists hope to be able to clone a Woolly Mammoth within the next five.
  • Apple CEO Steve Jobs takes medical leave [Breaking news] In an email to company employees, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, has stated that he is taking a leave of absence from the company on medical grounds. Tim Cook will take over the day-to-day running of the company with Jobs remaining as CEO during his absence.
  • Watch Brian Cowen's announcement live on RTÉ [Breaking News]
  • New developer for next Call of Duty installment confirmed Months of speculation have ended over who will develop the next release of the hugely successful Call of Duty franchise, with relatively unknown games developer Sledgehammer Games being awarded the honourable task.
  • FF Councillor on Twitter - Brian Cowen "has indicated that he will step down" Taoiseach Brian Cowen will step down as leader of the Fianna Fail party on Sunday, if a tweet from Fianna Fáil Cllr. Aengus O’Rourke is to be believed.
  • Dropbox is giving away 50GB of storage - but you have to work for it Dropbox, our favourite cloud-based storage application, is giving away 50 GB of free space in an online scavenger hunt, which began today.
  • New Facebook messaging system rolling out We've heard some reports in the last hour that the new Facebook messaging system has started rolling out to some users. We reported on the system in November of last year when it was first announced. Essentially it's a simple communication tool that integrates many different formats including email, chat, and SMS.
  • Apple delays The Daily launch by “weeks” Apple and News Corporation have delayed the launch of The Daily, an iPad-only publication, that was reported to be unveiled later this month on January 19th. Now, it is believed that this launch date will be delayed, but only by “weeks, not months".
  • Spotify has plans to launch “in every country”, but just not yet Good news, Spotify, the freemium web music service says it has plans to expand “into every country”, including Ireland, in the future, although just not yet. Responding to a question from this site Spotify says that they plan to open the music services to as wide an audience as possible as soon as they can. When asked specifically about Ireland Spotify said that they don’t foresee launching the service in the country soon, despite great interest in the site by Irish music fans. Spotify said, “We know just how passionate Irish music fans are but we don’t have any immediate plans to launch there.”
  • Plans for mobile digital TV scrapped, only Vodafone interested Ireland’s communication’s regulator, ComReg, has scrapped plans to launch digital mobile TV Ireland, it announced today. The regulator said in a policy document, ”[it has become apparent to] ComReg that use of the identified spectrum to provide a Mobile TV service in Ireland was not the subject of particularly strong interest to potential operators, and interest in the proposed procedure to grant the authorisation diminished.”
  • Irish GIS company eSpatial hiring 10 new positions in Dublin eSpatial, an Irish company that provides GIS (Geographical Information Systems), and online mapping and analysis services is hiring ten new positions for their headquarters in Dublin.
  • Hootsuite wants to give you money, for recommendations Hootsuite,the social media dashboard web app, is giving away money to users who recommend the service on their sites. Writing today, Hootsuite HQ says that paid users of the HootSuite Affiliate Program, typically corporate users, will be able to receive ‘commission’ when they recommend new users to the company’s premium service.
  • Facebook to help find missing and exploited children Amber Alerts, a US initiative designed to find and protect missing children, has turned to Facebook in its latest drive.
  • Google, Facebook, and Yahoo! commit to 24-hour IPv6 test flight Google, Facebook, and Yahoo!, along with the Internet Society, have joined forces and announced a 24-hour test flight for the next generation of the internet, IPv6, that they will all take part in on June 8th, 2011.
  • German fallout with Google over analytics privacy concerns Data protection authorities in Germany have ended year-long talks with Google over concerns that they have with the data that Google Analytics gathers on website visitors. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, German companies may face legal action if they are found to be using the free service from Google.
  • Has Facebook and your smartphone turned you into a cyborg? #ted #video Smartphones, social networking and digital technologies are changing how humans interact and evolve with potentially devastating consequences for society, according to Amber Case an anthropologist specialising in digital technologies.
  • Social news curation site paper.li raises $2.1 million Paper.li, a site that “organizes links shared on Twitter and Facebook into an easy to read newspaper-style format” has just raised $2.1 million in funding. SmallRivers, the Swiss company behind paper.li will receive capital from Highland Capital Partners, SoftBank Capitol, and Endeavour Vision.
  • Murdoch and Jobs will launch iPad newspaper later this month Rubert Murdoch and Steve Jobs are expected to appear together on stage later this month to launch Murdoch’s new iPad-only publication known as The Daily. According to Forbes journalist Jeff Bercovici this launch date could be January 19th, 2011.
  • Google Goggles can ruin your morning Sudoku Do you enjoy your morning Sudoku puzzle but find it hard not to cheat, well then don’t download Google Goggles. The latest edition of the visual search app has been equipped with a powerful Sudoku solver.
  • NASA's Kepler Mission finds first rocky planet outside our solar system NASA scientists working on the Kepler Mission have found their first planet outside of our solar system, the Agency announced today. The planet, named, Kepler-10b, stands at 1.4 times the size of Earth and over 4.6 times heavier yet it is the smallest planet found outside our solar system. But despite its large scale it is unlikely to be able to support water or life.
  • iPad 2 to launch within weeks According to Digg founder Kevin Rose the iPad 2 will launch within weeks, and possible as soon as February 1st.
  • Fine Gael’s website hacked The website of Irish political party Fine Gael has been hacked by a group calling themselves ‘Anonymous’. The attack took place yesterday evening, with the website still not operational.
  • UK government will appeal Apple’s decision to block charitable donations Currently Apple does not allow in-app charitable donations on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Apple started blocking apps that process charitable donations through online payment service PayPal in October of last year - Nick Hurd, UK Civil Society Minister wants to change this.
  • Video of an iPad2 from CES 2011 A bit like Area 52, Apple’s iPad2 doesn’t officially exist; even though, at this stage, we have all seen the pictures of it. Going one better the guys over at the iPhone blog published a video of a, supposedly accurate dummy, iPad2.
  • Irish Times website traffic up 82% Traffic to The Irish Times website has seen an increase of 82% for the twelve months prior to November 2010, when compared to the previous year. This figures highlights the growing trend of users wanting to source news information online.
  • Is Apple about to make a big announcement - #ipad2 #Verizon iPhone? Do you hear that faint buzzing sound in the background, the one that is getting ever louder? That’s the Apple fanboy rumour mill grinding into overdrive, and it is saying only one thing, iPad 2.
  • The Internet Explorer weekend exodus Looking at statistical web browsing data from StatCounter GlobalStats, a phenomenon quickly becomes evident where users migrate from Internet Explorer in their droves at weekends, and resume the familiarity of browsers like Firefox and Chrome that they’ve become accustomed to.
  • Sneak peak at Android Honeycomb [Video] We confirmed yesterday that Android Honeycomb was indeed Android 3.0. Now, just hours later Google themselves have officially confirmed this at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and have released further details and a sneak peak video of their latest version of the Android OS.
  • Signing up to Quora without an invite is more complicated than you think but it can be done It has been called “the next big thing” and “the breakout site of 2011″ but signing up to Quora is more complicated that you might think.
  • Toshiba's 56-inch 3D TV that doesn't require glasses [Video] One of many companies likely to debut 3D devices at CES 2011 in Las Vegas, Toshiba have exhibited a 56-inch HD 3D TV that doesn't require glasses to be worn by the viewer. The 3D TV is still only a prototype but is expected to arrive on sale towards the end of this year.
  • Will Twitter choose Dublin as its new European headquarters? Twitter is seeking to establish its European headquarters in 2011, with Dublin and London both at the forefront contending for the potential arrival. According to a recent Forbes article by Parmy Olson, Twitter will favour settling in Dublin rather than London, and here’s why.
  • Honeycomb is officially Android 3.0 There have been varying opinions of late as to whether Android Honeycomb would in fact become Android version 2.4 or 3.0. Now Asus, the Taiwanese computer manufacturer, has put all our minds at ease and confirmed Honeycomb will officially be Android 3.0.
  • Asus’s Android and Windows 7 tablet offerings announced Asus have announced a number of tablet offerings ahead of tomorrow’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Jonney Shih, Chairman of Asus, appeared on stage to make the announcement of four new Asus tablet devices.
  • Follow the partial solar eclipse online with NASA and Google Maps
  • Videos of the partial solar eclipse as seen around the world Watch some of the best videos of today’s solar eclipse, which was seen from the Middle East to Northern Europe.
  • Toshiba joins Android tablet gold rush Recently it would seem that electronic manufacturers worldwide are queuing up to announce plans to launch their own Android-powered tablet devices. Yesterday we wrote about Vizio’s new 8 inch tablet, now Toshiba plan to launch their own 10.1 inch tablet that will become available when Android Honeycomb is officially released.
  • Ireland.com launches iPad app Ireland.com, an online tourist guide of what to do in Ireland, have released a dedicated iPad app, following the release of their iPhone app last year.
  • January's solar eclipse likely to be overcast, health warnings issued Ireland and the UK will see their first solar eclipse of the new year on Tuesday (4th January). The partial eclipse will be visiable across the British Isles from 8:00am and will last until about 9:30am. At its peak the moon will obscure about 66% of the sun, although the amounts will vary depending on location. The eclipse will also be visible over much of Europe, North Africa and central Asia.
  • Vizio announces Android powered smartphone and tablet Vizio, the TV manufacturer giant, have announced plans to launch their own Android powered smartphone and tablet devices. The devices are expected to be known as the VIA Phone and the VIA Tablet.
  • How to follow the Dakar Rally online The Dakar Rally, one of the largest off road endurance rallies in the world, has launched from Buenos Aires. The Dakar is now a fully digital event supported by YouTube, Twitter and Facebook pages. You can get live updates on each stage of the challenge on their site and on the official Dakar iPhone/iPod/iPad app. The organisers have also released an online video game to accompany the event.
  • Chinese to overtake English as the dominant language of the internet Chinese will overtake English as the dominate language on the internet in the next five years, according to data collated by TNW. TNW says that there are over 400m Chinese language internet users, a number approaching the 530m English language internet users. Along with this already large number Chinese has also seen a 1,277% increase in online use in the past decade.
  • Winter 2011 will be "challenging" for Ireland & UK, says NASA Ireland and the UK face further bouts travel chaos, burst water pipes and closed schools with the return of heavy snow for the rest of the winter, according to NASA. NASA made the warning following the release of stunning new image of Ireland swathed in snow.
  • Play the 2011 Dakar Rally game online The 2011 Dakar Rally has begun, and while the action is taking place in Argentina and Chile this year that doesn’t mean that you cant take part.
  • New Year's Day 2011 fireworks from around the world A selection of some of the best and most spectacular New Year’s Day firework displays from across the world.
  • Stargazing with the BBC The BBC are broadcasting live over three consecutive nights of “extraordinary astronomical events” from across the UK and further afield. Professor Brian Cox (@profbriancox) and comedian Dara O’Briain (@daraobriain) host the live stargazing events that promise “epic images from observatories around the globe”.
  • How to reduce the digital divide by buying a satellite If your New Year’s resolution is to donate more to charity than you could do worse than by giving free internet access to some of the world’s poorest people. All you have to do it buy an entire satellite, something a US charity is attempting to do this year. A Human Right plans to raise over $150,000 so it can buy the largest communications satellite in earth orbit to provide free internet access to billions of people.
  • Android surpasses Symbian to become Ireland’s second largest mobile OS According to StatCounter GlobalStats, Android OS has surpassed SymbianOS to become Ireland’s second most popular mobile operating system. iOS, the operating system found on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, is still by far the most popular mobile OS in Ireland.

February 2011 ( View complete archive page )

  • First submissions for crowdfunding organisation, Fund:it, opening soon Fund:it, an Irish crowdfunding effort supported by The Department of Arts Sports and Tourism is calling for people in the business, arts and media sectors in Ireland to submit their latest business ideas. The organisation is designed to fund these new companies without the dependence on hard-to-get bank loans but through the power of social media.
  • Nintendo 3DS sells out within 24 hours of Japanese release The Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming device has reportedly sold out within 24 hours of its release in Japan on February 26. According to Andriasang, more than 400,000 units were sold in the first day alone, effectively accounting for all available stock.
  • YouTube's 'Enda's Earpiece', an early satirical take on Taoiseach Enda Kenny The election is over, the votes have been counted and the results are in – Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny will be Ireland’s next Taoiseach. And as is to be expected Kenny’s performance on the series of televised debates has become one of Ireland’s fastest growing memes.
  • Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate security update hits Ireland Microsoft is finishing rolling out its latest update to its Internet Explorer browser to millions of Windows Vista and 7 users this weekend. Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate has been issued in February’s automatic security download for Windows machines running the two latest versions of the company’s operating system, Vista and 7.
  • The 2011 Filmbase/RTÉ Short Film Awards launched RTÉ and Filmbase are offering young Irish film makers the opportunity to win €20,000 in production funding and facilities to make their next short film. The annual Filmbase/RTÉ Short Film Awards are open to new and young Irish filmmakers with a total of up to four winners to be chosen. The competition is split into two rounds, each of which will have two winners.
  • Blacks Ops First Strike DLC for PS3 coming this March 3 The first PS3 DLC map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops will be available to download this March 3. The map pack, known as First Strike, will contain five new maps in total; four multi-player maps titled the Berlin Wall, Discovery, Kowloon, and Stadium, and one zombie map Ascension.
  • Fresh Irish imagery updates in Google Earth Following on with their monthly imagery update cycles, the Google Earth and Google Maps Imagery team have released another high-resolution aerial and satellite imagery update that again includes areas of Ireland, and in particular Derry/Londonderry, Mayo, Meath, Sligo, and Tyrone.
  • The last 24 hours of the 2011 Irish General Election campaign according to Twitter #ge11 [Infographic] Last week we used the power of Google Search to predict the outcome of the 2011 Irish General Election. Now, on the eve of the election, we turn to Twitter, not to predict results, but to provide some insightful analysis on political party and political party leader performances during the last official twenty-four hours of their campaign.
  • UK Foreign Office creates Skype account, libyacharterflight, to aid citizens in Libya The British Foreign Office has created a Skype account to handle enquiries from UK citizens looking to leave Libya.The account, libyacharterflight, was created as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office chartered a 200 seat flight to evacuate Britons from Tripoli.
  • RTÉ Saorview channel line up announced - includes High Definition station RTÉ’s Saorview will launch with five digital-only channels in May this year, the state broadcaster said today. RTÉ Aertel Digital, RTÉ Plus, RTÉ News Now, RTÉjr and RTÉ Two High Definition will accompany RTÉ One, RTÉ Two (Standard Definition), TV3, 3e and TG4 and RTÉ‘s digital radio stations for the launch.
  • Apple to debut iPad 2 on March 2 Apple is expected to debut the iPad’s successor, dubbed the iPad 2, next week, Wednesday March 2, at an event in San Francisco according to All Things Digital. Although no official invites have been sent out yet, it’s rumoured that the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will be the likely venue.
  • UK’s Telegraph may introduce paywall this September The Telegraph will reportedly announce a new online paywall strategy as early as next month, with full implementation by September of this year, according to Marketing Magazine. By doing so, it will join other similar publications, including The Times and Sunday Times, and The News of the World, who have all adapted such strategies last year with moderate success.
  • YouTube and Newstalk's Digital Debate videos live - voters' questions answered The Labour Party would remove Ireland’s controversial blasphemy law and re-examine the constitution, according to a video posted on Newstalk and YouTube’s Digital Debate site.
  • Google Nexus S coming to Ireland on March 1 According to Silicon Republic, the much-anticipated Google Nexus S will arrive on sale in Ireland this coming March 1. The Carphone Warehouse will reportedly stock the device, which will be available exclusively on the Vodafone network at first.
  • Ireland ranked top EU country for the provision and sophistication of online services According to the 9th European Commission eGovernment Benchmarking report published earlier today, Ireland is ranked top out of thirty-two European countries for the provision and sophistication of online services.
  • Newstalk and YouTube's Digital Debate questions are in but no video answers yet NewsTalk and YouTube's Digital Debate questions have been announced but Irish YouTube users are wondering why no videos have gone live yet.
  • Web meme sends thousands of get well wishes to Steve Jobs via #getwellsteve With Steve Jobs seriously ill web users have been sending him well wishes online. Many taking the chance to thank him for Apple's products.
  • Job posting hints at Apple’s plan to make television sets [Rumour] A recent job posting on Apple’s website has given rise to rumours that they may be working on not only Apple TV, but on television sets themselves - a rumour that first surfaced back in 2009.
  • Can Libya's government bring down URL shortener bit.ly? Following successful mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt thousands of protesters have been taking part in demonstrations in Libya, which included a “Day of Anger” on Friday. However, concerns have been raised that if Gaddafi’s government were to shut down internet access, as happened in Egypt, bit..ly links, which are shared by millions of twitter users every day, will become unusable.
  • Brian Cowen and Vincent Browne at loggerheads following Massey Ferguson / John Deere argument [Spoof] The now infamous Johnny Yacuntya has released another spoof video to a list of already acclaimed uploads. This time he targets the outgoing Taioseach Brian Cowen and TV3 presenter Vincent Browne, where, as usual, little love is shown between the two. Browne attempts to argue his case regarding the integrity and build quality of the world's leading tractor brand, the Massey Ferguson - something which Cowen whole-heartdely refuses to accept.
  • Iconic image emerges from President Obama’s dinner with technology business leaders The White House have released this iconic image of US President Barack Obama’s dinner with technology business leaders last night in Woodside California. The aim of the gathering is said to promote technological innovation as a means to increase employment and boost the US economy.
  • TED Conversations brings industry experts and social networkers together Some of the first questions raised on TED Conversations, the topic lead social network by TED Media, the world-famous public lecture forum, will finish in just under one hour. TED Conversations is a social network which connects web users with some of the top industry minds from diverse areas such as game design, politics, economic development, digital technology and many others.
  • Google buys Ireland's tallest commercial building, the Montevetro Google have once again shown their commitment and long-term vision in Ireland by purchasing Ireland’s tallest commercial building, the Montevetro, for a reported €99.9 million. The newly built property sits directly across the street from Google’s current operations in Gordon House on Dublin’s Barrow Street, and will house their European, Middle East and African (EMEA) headquarters.
  • CNN's first iReport citizen journalist award nominees announced CNN announced the nominations for its first awards programme to honour citizen reporters and participatory journalists, the iReport Awards, today. CNN’s iReport Awards, to be held in early March, will be given to CNN iReporters who have produced “the best examples of participatory journalism in 2010.”
  • Google announces new payment and access control system for digital publishers Not to be outdone by Apple’s new subscription service introduced yesterday, Google have today announced One Pass - a system for digital publishers that controls “user authentication, payment processing, and administration” of digital content.
  • How to use Google to predict the outcome of the 2011 Irish General Election #ge11 Can Irish search traffic on Google predict the outcome of the 2011 general election? Piers Dillon-Scott examines if Google can gauge the mood of the people. If so Fine Gael will be the largest party in the 31st Dáil, with just under 40% of the vote, if search traffic on Google translates into first preferences in February 25.
  • Apple App Store introduces long-awaited subscription service Apple have today announced the introduction of a long-awaited in-app subscription service available to content-based apps in the App Store. With the new service Apple receives a 30% share of new app subscriptions, but interestingly, when a publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher retains 100% of earnings.
  • Nokia rejected Android to create fairer smartphone market - Elop Nokia’s decision to opt for Microsoft Windows Phone 7 over Android was promped by the metoric rise of Google’s mobile OS, Nokia’s CEO said on Sunday.
  • RTÉ launch iPad specific RTÉ News Now app RTÉ have today launched an iPad specific version of their popular RTÉ News Now application already available on Android and iOS devices. This app exists independent of the original iOS News Now app and is tailored specifically for the Apple iPad.
  • The future of BBC video on-demand is mobile As the BBC iPlayer video on-demand service continues to break its own viewership records month-on-month, Daniel Danker, head of on-demand programming at the BBC, believes that the future of the service is becoming increasingly mobile.
  • Fine Gael’s Valentine’s Day app - why? #socialmediacringe #ge11 Fine Gael may have yet again become political adversaries as they continue to advance deeper into the world of social media cringe prior to #ge11 later this month. In a bizarre move, Fine Gael have set up an electronic Valentine’s Day email service on their website (aka, web connection point) that lets users send their love interest an uninspiring valentine’s email, or alternatively, spam some friends.
  • Dublin Bus begins roll-out of real-time passenger information system Dublin City Council, in conjunction with Dublin Bus, have begun the roll out of a real-time passenger information service in Ireland’s capital yesterday, with electronic information signs becoming operational at ten Dublin-north bus stops. It is expected that two-hundred and fifty signs will become operational by the end of the summer, and four-hundred and fifty by the end of the year.
  • The Vatican Museum's stunning 360 VR tour of the Sistine Chapel Looking for some culture this Sunday but don’t want to leave the house? Well the Vatican Museum has come to your rescue with the release of a high definition, 360° virtual reality tour, of the Sistine Chapel.
  • iPhone security can be breached in less than 6 minutes - Fraunhofer Institute German sercurity firm Fraunhofer has found a way to gain access to passwords held on iPhones and iPads in about the same length of time it takes to make a proper cup of coffee.
  • Is this what Nokia & Windows Phone 7 devices will look like? #Photos Less than a day after Nokia and Microsoft announced their long-term partnership concept images of what the two companies’ phones will look like have been released.
  • Amazon expands cloud computing investment in Ireland - buys massive data farm Amazon Web Services plans to convert over 22,296 sq meters (240,000 sq ft) of a newly purchased industrial warehouse space in Dublin into to a data farm to house the company’s could storage data centre.
  • Forget Nokia and Windows Phone 7 - Apple's iPhone is today's big smartphone news As Nokia and Microsoft were announcing their “broad strategic partnership” which will introduce Windows Phone 7 as Nokia’s principle operating system (as widely rumoured) Apple was evading rumors that the company will introduce an entry-level iPhone along with the release of the iPhone 5 this year.
  • Newstalk and YouTube launch #ge11 "Digital Debates" The economy will be one of the deciding factors in the Irish 2011 general election, according to questions submitted to YouTube and NewsTalk's series on Digital Debates videos.
  • Online activist saves 172 doomed BBC websites for $3.99 The BBC confirmed last month that it would proceed with a 25% online operations budget reduction, with the loss of 360 jobs as a result. As part of these budget curtailments, a decision to reportedly delete and not archive 172 BBC run websites has stirred one anonymous online citizen in particular into action.
  • Nokia standing on a burning platform - looking to Windows Phone 7? Nokia is “standing on a buring platform” surrounded by innovative competitors and lax production schedule, according to a memo from company head Stephen Elop. In the memo Elop says that Nokia must take a “radical change in behavior ” to survive in the smartphone market.
  • Both BBC iPlayer iPad and Android apps now live The long anticipated BBC iPlayer iPad and Android apps have finally arrived earlier today. Response has so far been subdued, with most complaining that the apps don’t bring anything new to the table. Nevertheless, we checked out the iPad version and were quite impressed.
  • Spotify is “looking forward” to launching in the United States soon Free online music site, Spotify, is “looking forward” to launching in the United States in the coming months, according to an email reportedly from the company published by All Things Digital. In the email, which ATD published yesterday, Spotify asks some US citizens who are testing the site’s premium service to change details on their online account
  • iPad2 in production - BBC hints at HD display The iPad2 is in production and should be appearing in shops “the next couple of months”, according to The Wall Street Journal. The new iPad is expected to have front, and possibly a rear, facing camera, a faster processor than its predecessor and rumours also suggest that the iPad2 will be thinner and lighter than version one. Although, the price shouldn't be any more than version one- with prices ranging from $500 to just over $800.
  • Mobile Ireland 2011 - Smartphone usage in Ireland [Infographic] Mindshare Ireland have published an interesting infographic regarding smartphone usage in Ireland. The survey, conducted by Sponge It in November 2010, suggests that while over half of Irish consumers own a smartphone, many don’t use their device to its full potential.
  • Hero granny helps foil bank robbery, helps catch suspected thief A have-a-go hero granny, Ann Timson, helped foil a gang of bank robbers as they attempted to break into a Northamton Jewellery store in broad daylight yesterday. In the video the Ms Timson can be seen running across a busy road towards the thieves as they busily attempt to smash the glass on the Michael Jones Jewellers store front. As she approaches the thieves Timson, who is in her 70s, swings her hand bag at the robbers, eventually dispersing them.
  • Trócaire challenges Facebook users to 'give it up' for a day Irish charity Trócaire is inviting Facebook users to give up something they love for just one day, to raise money for charitable causes across the world. From March 3 to 4 this year Trócaire, which runs over 124 programmes in 38 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, is challenging Facebook users to sponsor their friends who give up using one of dozens of items or activities, including Food, The Web, Coffee, Music, Texting, Make Up, Chocolate or TV for 24 hours.
  • BBC iPlayer for the iPad coming this Thursday, complete with HD As speculated last month, Geoff Marshall, a BBC interactive operations engineer, has confirmed that the BBC iPlayer will get its very own iPad app - and better still, it’s arriving this Thursday, February 10th.
  • Google Nexus S to arrive in Ireland sooner than expected Following our coverage earlier this week regarding the intentions of Carphone Warehouse Ireland to stock the Google Nexus S smartphone "soon", we can now confirm that they have at least one of the handsets in their possession. This means that the device may become available sooner than expected here in Ireland.
  • Diagnosis by iPad, FDA approves medical iOS App Star Trek style medical scanners took a step closer to becoming reality this week following the United States’ Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a smartphone App that will allow medical professionals to scan and access medical images for use in patient diagnoses.
  • AOL to acquire The Huffington Post for $315 million American news website and content aggregator The Huffington Post will be acquired by AOL for $315 million US dollars, in a deal expected to close in the coming months. Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington will become president and editor-in-chief of a new Huffington Post Media Group, which will include The Huffington Post and other AOL content properties, including recently acquired TechCrunch, gadget blog Endadget, and micro-local news service Patch.
  • Skype is giving away free WiFi for Social Media Week To celebrate Social Media week 2011, Skype will be giving away freey WiFi access in eight cities around the world. Citizens in New York, San Francisco, Rome, Paris, Toronto, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong and Istanbul, who use Skype Access, will be able to make VOIP calls and surf for free at public WiFi hotspots for free during the week.
  • Has Trinity College copyrighted the term "The Books of Kells" for use in digital downloads Trinity College Dublin has filed several applications in the past year to copyright the term “The Books of Kells”, for use in digital media and commercial products according to records from the organisation responsible for registering European trademarks.
  • Carphone Warehouse to stock Nexus S in Ireland “soon” The Carphone Warehouse has announced that it will begin to sell Google’s coveted Nexus S phone in Ireland “soon”. The consumer electronics retailer made the announcement earlier this week on their Facebook page, with Vodafone Ireland reported to be an exclusive carrier.
  • Armchair archaeologist discovers 2,000 potential archaeological sites using Google Earth Australian archaeologist David Kennedy has discovered 1,977 potential archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia using Google Earth from the comfort of his office armchair in Perth.
  • Apple's Valentine's present - will it announce iPad2 next week [Rumor] Apple will announce details of the iPad2 on Valentine’s day, ahead of an April 2011 release, if rumors reported by the Apple fan blog Apple Insider are true. According to Apple Insider, Apple will announce details of the pending release of the second generation iPad at a special event next week. The event has apparently been called to formally launch iOS 4.3 and its new in-app subscription model.
  • Nokia to make announcement - will it drop Symbian for Windows Mobile 7 Nokia and Microsoft are to make a joint announcement next Friday, a move which suggests that Nokia may be about to abandon Symbian for Windows 7 mobile. It has been rumored for some time that Nokia has been looking to drop its Symbian OS, only last week Nokia’s Chief Executive Stephen Elop further fuled rumors the company was moving away from Symbian when he said Nokia’s future lay in “capitalising and/or joining competitive ecosystems.”
  • Facebook Places launches in Ireland After what has seemed like an never-ending wait, Facebook Places has finally launched in Ireland. The service was quietly launched yesterday evening to the delight of most Irish Facebook users.
  • The spread of Irish unemployment by county over the last eight years [Infographic] The data collected and shared by the Central Statistics Office Ireland (CSO) is both expansive and extremely important, but not very interesting as it is currently presented. We've taken the average yearly live register figures for each county and attempted to transform this raw data into something much more useful and appealing.
  • Is Google capitalizing on its Bing Sting by registering hiybbprqag.com It looks like a Google employee has found a neat way of capitalizing on the “Bing Sting” operation it carried out this week by registering the website www.hiybbprqag.com. For those not in the know Google published a blog post on Tuesday which claimed that Bing had been copying its search results.
  • Gardaí warn of sophisticated AIB ATM skimming scam in operation Gardaí and the National Consumer agency today warned ATM consumers to careful of very convincing skimming devices that have been found attached to AIB ATMs. Devises have been found fitted over the newer-style AIB ATMs which convincingly mimic the design of the distinctive green AIB ATM card slots. The only give away that the skimming device are attach is the square ‘handle’ on the top of the card slot.
  • Stunning HDR time-lapse video Photographer Patryk Kizny has combined HDR and time-lapse photography to create this stunning short film titled The Chapel. The piece explores the inside of a protestant chapel in Zeliszów, Poland built in 1797 with some great visual effects achieved.
  • Macmillan: eReaders are heralding "a golden age of publishing" eBooks and eReaders are heralding “a golden age of publishing” Brian Napack, president of Macmillan said at the Digital Books World Conference in New York. Napack’s optimism comes comes as Waterstones announces the closure 11 stores in the UK and Ireland.
  • Channel 4’s 4HD available on Freesat this April Freesat, providers of subscription-free satellite TV, have today announced that Channel 4’s 4HD will be arriving on Freesat this April, bringing the total number of high definition channels available on the service to four. Currently BBC One HD, BBC HD, and ITV 1 HD are offered.
  • NASA satellite image shows the huge scale of Tropical Cyclone Yasi NASA has mobilised its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra satellite to track the massive Tropical Cyclone Yasi, which is currently heading for Australia’s Queensland cost. According to NASA the tropical cyclone is approaching Cairns, Queensland, at about 165kmph (90 knots) and is due to make landfall early tomorrow morning Queensland time.
  • Is Facebook letting you to choose who gets access to Facebook Messages next? Facebook is, slowly, rolling out its new Facebook Messaging system but if you aren't one of the lucky few that has been given access there is apparently a way to upgrade your account. Facebook users who already have access to the Facebook Messages have been given an, almost hidden, option to invite their friends to use the system.
  • Bookseller Waterstone’s closing two Dublin stores this Sunday Waterstone’s have today announced the forthcoming closure of two popular Dublin outlets this Sunday, February 6th. The bookseller will close the iconic Dawson Street and Jervis Centre stores where forty-six people in total are employed.

March 2011 ( View complete archive page )

  • How Europeana, crowdsourcing & wiki principles are preserving European history As the Europeana digitisation roadshow starts in Germany this week we spoke to Jonathan Purday, Senior Communications Advisor at Europeana.eu, formally of the British Library, about how social media, crowdsourcing, and wiki-principles are preserving European history and bringing academia and the public closer together.
  • Microsoft to introduce NFC mobile payment technology into Windows Mobile Microsoft are rumoured to have plans to introduce near-field communication, or NFC, technology into future versions of their Windows Mobile operating system. According to sources familiar to the plan, the first Windows Mobile devices with NFC enabled may be released later this year.
  • Irish Rail's signal and points failure and its failure to make a point According to Irish Rail today's delay on the northern line was caused by a signal failure but this was not the only failure Irish Rail encountered - they also suffered a social media public relations failure.
  • Interview with Gary Delaney, CEO of Loc8 Code - Ireland’s smarter addressing system To coincide with the launch of the first independent mobile phone application harnessing the power of Loc8 Code, we spoke to Loc8 Code CEO Gary Delaney who gave us an overview of the company’s current progress in implementing this innovative technology, the benefits that Loc8 Code can deliver to Ireland and future plans to ensure their system becomes part and parcel of Ireland’s smarter addressing system.
  • Consumer Agency warns of email phishing scam targeting internet bankers The National Consumer Agency is warning AIB and other bank customers to be wary of convincing spam emails circulating at the moment. The advisory comes on foot of another warning by the agency of advanced ATM skimming scams targeting AIB customers.
  • New Irish awards ceremony, the Irish Social Media Awards, announced While the announcement of the death of the Irish Blog Awards last week in Belfast may have disappointed some, the birth of a new Irish awards ceremony again headed by Damien Mulley, the Irish Social Media Awards, will delight thousands of businesses and organisations throughout Ireland. And yes, this is Project X!.
  • Google's Near Field Communication phone retail system adds partners Google is rumored to be rolling out a smarthpone based real-world payment system using Near Field Communication technology. Well, the Wall Street Journal reports that the search giant has now brought MasterCard and Citigroup on-board.
  • Social networking through Earth Hour - did we miss the point? According to Google’s Realtime search results the greatest number of tweets about Earth Hour from Irish users came at exactly 8:30pm, just when the event started in Ireland. It then took another hour before the massive spike of #earthhour tweets subsided.
  • Google releases imagery update in Google Earth The Google LatLong team have released an imagery update which is available now in Google Earth and Google Maps. The update is extensive and includes high resolution aerial imagery updates for Australia, Japan, Scotland, Wales and the US, and satellite imagery updates for eighty-five countries, including large parts of Ireland.
  • Smartphone won't hold a charge? Try a solar panel touch screen. Wysips a young company from Provence have created a paper-thin photovoltaic film which can generate an electrical charge from any light source. The company claims that the transparent film can be fitted over a smartphone or tablet’s screen without affecting the sensitivity of the touch or dimming the screen’s brightness.
  • Crowdsourcing history: European museums need your help to digitise World War One records Europeana (@EuropeanaEU), a Europe-wide digital archive consisting of over 1,500 museums, galleries, and institutions has launched a multinational drive to digitise pictures, memorabilia, letters, notes and other family heirlooms before they decay and are lost forever.
  • Twestival 2011 kicking off in Dublin, Galway and Belfast Twestival 2011 is kicking off right about now across Ireland, bringing Twitter users together in tangible form and raising money for charity in the process. Tonight's Twestival events in Dublin, Galway and Belfast promise to provide entertainment, a chance to meet like-minded people, and of course help their respective causes.
  • The Sociable's Irish broadband speed test. Tell us how fast your internet connection is Believe it or not Ireland ranks as 13th in the world for broadband quality speed, ahead of our European friends such as the UK and Germany. But is number correct? More often than the not broadband speeds promised in the telecom’s ads or websites don’t reflect what the average home or business receives. Tell us how fast your internet connection is.
  • Chrome 11 beta introduces speech to text capabilities As news of Firefox 4’s five million downloads in the first 24 hours of public release emerges, Google have pushed out Chrome 11 beta. The most notable new feature in Chrome 11 is the browser’s ability to transcribe voice to text.
  • Commuting in Ireland: a guide for @BusAthaCliath & @irishrail customers Was your @irishrail train delayed? Didn't have exact change for the @BusAthaCliath bus? Well scenes from this classic Irish Film Board/Bord Scannán na hÉireann funded short by Monster Animation about the trials of the daily commute should be familiar.
  • Ireland's first crowdfunding network, fund:it, is launched Fund:it encourages social networking users and others to donate small amounts of money to groups and organisations who wish to set up arts or technology projects in Ireland. As with other crowdfunding networks Fund:it follows sets a minimum monetary total and a time limit for each project, if a project fails to reach or exceed its target the funding will not go through.
  • Google fined €100,000 by French privacy watchdog Google have received their first fine for illegally gathering and storing users’ personal data while using Google Street View vehicles. Google “mistakenly” gathered data from unsecured personal WiFi networks in more than thirty countries, including Ireland - something which was officially admitted to in October 2010.
  • Social Networking crowdfunding group, Fund:it, to launch on Tuesday Fund:it uses, to borrow a phrase from Chirs Andersen, “the long tail” of the web to create enough start-up capital for Irish arts and cultural organisations. What this means is that the organisation will encourage a large number of individuals to donate small amounts of money each.
  • What was the first ever tweet? Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, is celebrating its fifth birthday today. While much can be said about the platform's phenomenal organic evolution since 2006, many question what was the first ever tweet tweeted on Twitter?
  • Damien Mulley, “Irish Blog Awards 2011 will be the last” #iba11 2011 will be the final year of the Irish Blog Awards, Damien Mulley said during his closing speech at the ceremony in Belfast last night.
  • 2011 Irish Blog Awards [Photos] The 2011 Irish Blog Awards are now over and we've gotten the chance to finally share some of last night's images on Flickr. They're mainly before and after shots of the event, along with some other images we took around Belfast earlier in the day. Feel free to lift images and share, but please give us the appropriate attribution were possible.
  • Last night’s super moon as captured by Flickr users Last night’s full moon was the closest it has been to earth for almost twenty years, a mere 356,575 kilometres away. As a result, the moon appeared 14% bigger and 30% brighter than normal, granting photography enthusiasts around the world a rare opportunity to shoot the moon in such inviting circumstances.
  • Live: 2011 Irish Blog Awards The sixth annual Irish Blog Awards are almost upon us and we’ll be there to cover the proceedings in full. Starting this afternoon we’ll be live blogging and tweeting during the build-up, and throughout, the awards ceremony.
  • Flickr brings beautiful slideshows to the iPad Flickr, the most popular photo sharing social network, has made a small but welcome update to its light box feature. The update targets iPad users specifically and allows images to be viewed full-screen in the browser, with a simple swiping motion enabled to cycle between previous and next images.
  • How to watch, follow and game this year's St. Patrick's Day Parade People around the world will be able watch Dublin's St. Patrick's Day Parade live online this year. RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcaster will be live-streaming the parade through their free international on demand player.
  • Google's Earth satellite photographs SOS written on the ground in tsunami hit village Google’s Earth satellites have photographed a singular plea for help from the people of the tsunami stricken town of Minamisanriku, Japan. The SOS messages was written in the grounds of the Shizugawa High School’s football field after the tsunami hit the village early on Friday
  • Is Google rolling out NFC payment technologies and should Square be worried? Google will roll out a state-of-the-art smartphone payment system in New York and San Francisco, before the end of the summer, according to a report by Bloomberg. The system will use Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to allow consumers to make purchases at cash machines by waving their smartphones in front receivers attached to cash registers.
  • Google acquires Irish digital video technology company Green Parrot Pictures Google has acquired Irish digital video technology company Green Parrot Pictures with the intention of using their innovations to improve the quality of videos uploaded to YouTube. Green Parrot’s technology has been employed post-production on several blockbuster movies including The Lord of the Rings and Spider-Man.
  • Angry Birds St. Patrick's Day special, fun but still very, very annoying Here in Ireland we will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in the usual web (we’ll let you guess what that is) but if you can’t make it to Dublin for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade then you can take your frustration out with the Angry Birds St. Patrick’s Day special.
  • RTÉ Player now includes Live TV streaming RTÉ Player has today updated its free online video catch-up service to enable live streaming of channels RTÉ One, RTÉ Two, and RTÉ News Now. It’s not yet understood if all programming will be made available, but this certainly is a welcome move from our national broadcaster.
  • Microsoft discontinue Zune production Microsoft will no longer release further iterations of Zune hardware, but will instead concentrate on integrating Zune software and functionality into other devices like the Xbox and those running Windows Phone 7.
  • Internet Explorer 9: Why ie9 will be good for the web, and us It has been billed as the safest, the fastest, the most beautiful and “a game changer”. But however Microsoft pitches Internet Explorer 9 it is obvious that it is entering a very different environment to its predecessors.
  • Google Circles: Google announces it's creating a social network, again Google is in the process of developing a new social network called Google Circles, the search engine announced at South by Southwest Interactive today. It has long been rumoured that Google was working on one or a number of social networks and this announcement may be the result of the long mooted Google Me and Google Loop projects.
  • Google Earth: Before and after the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan Following NASA's release of images of tsunami struck Japan Google Earth has released before and after images of the earthquake and tsunami. The images show in more detail than NASA's the widespread and catastrophic damage the natural disaster has had on Japan and its citizens
  • Red Cross warns of hoax emails concerning missing Japanese earthquake victims The International Red Cross, Red Crescent has warned email users to be vigilant of hoax emails purporting to be from, or in aid of, victims of the Japanese earthquake.
  • Google remains dominant leader over US search market Google remains the dominant search market share leader with 65.4% of all explicit searches in the US in February 2011, according to comScore qSearch analysis. Yahoo! came in second with 16.1% market share, Bing at 13.6%, Ask at 3.2%, and AOL at 1.7%. Explicit searches are those that reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results.
  • NASA issues satellite imagery of tsunami hit Sendai, Japan & Pacific NASA has dispatched its array of Earth monitoring satellites over the Japanese mainland to capture images of the devistation caused by Friday's earthquakes and resulting tsunamis. One image, which was recorded 24 hours after the 8.9 magnitude megaquake by NASA's MODIS Rapid Response Team, shows large sections of the eastern Japanese coast still inundated with tsunami flood water. A fire, surrounded by flood water, can also be seen raging in the top centre portion of the image.
  • NASA shows location & intensity of Japanese earthquakes, aftershocks and foreshocks NASA’s Earth Observatory has issued a map documenting the number of earthquakes, foreshocks and aftershocks that have rocked Japan this week. According to NASA the tsunami that resulted from the 8.9 magnitude quake occurred 24.4 kilometers (15.2 miles) below the seabed, 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Sendai. The earthquake was preceded by a number of smaller foreshocks which began on March 9, including one that measured 7.2 on the Richter scale.
  • RTÉ to cut up to 60 jobs RTÉ have announced today that between 50 and 60 jobs will be axed due to the companies current undesirable “financial situation”. RTÉ management informed unions this morning that voluntary redundancy and early retirement schemes were being prepared.
  • How the iPad 2 compares to other tablets [Infographic] With the iPad 2 set to go on sale in the US tomorrow, and March 25 for the rest of us, how does it compare against other tablet competitors? Skattertech have created a helpful graphic that compares, at least technically, the iPad 2 and its three main, and as yet unreleased, competitors - the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10, the HP Touchpad and the LG G-Slate.
  • iOS 4.3 update available to download iOS 4.3 update for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad has been released in the last hour. Improvements in this release are small but welcome none the less.
  • Will FixMyStreet.ie be the government's first cloud computing initiative? We wrote yesterday about Fine Gael and Labour’s Programme for Government which plans to turn Ireland into a “leader in the emerging I.T. market of cloud computing”, so could FixMyStreet.ie be the government’s first foray into the cloud? (oh, and will the government base their site on the UK’s Fixmystreet.com?)
  • Brian Cox presents Wonders of the Universe on the BBC Professor Brian Cox has returned to the BBC in a four part series titled Wonders of the Universe. Following on from Stargazing LIVE, a very successful three day solar exploration live broadcast event at the start of this year, Brian Cox returns to our screens in a new series and “reveals how the most fundamental scientific principles and laws explain not only the story of the universe, but the story of us all”.
  • Fine Gael and Labour's Programme for Government #infographic "Government", "new" and "public" were the most mentioned words in Fine Gael and Labour's Programme for Government released this week.
  • Is Ireland's new government taking Cloud Computing advice from Microsoft? The new Irish government plans to establishment the country as a “leader in the emerging I.T. market of cloud computing”, just as Microsoft suggested it should.At the beginning of the year Microsoft Ireland published the results of a survey by Goodbody Economic Consultants which looked at the potential benefits of The Cloud to Ireland. The report suggested that private and public bodies in the country need to act quickly to reap the benefits of the cloud computing.
  • Dublin added to Startupbootcamp mentoring programme Startupbootcamp have today announced plans to expand their start-up mentoring network to include Berlin, London, Madrid, and now Dublin. Dublin will join as the third city to create a pan-European network this year along with Copenhagen and Madrid, with Berlin and London expected to participate in 2012.
  • The truth about the iPad 2 [Video] Team COCO have published a short and humorous video [1:04] that takes a satirical look at the iPad 2, and Apple fans' enigmatic loyalty to the brand. Last week the iPad 2 was officially announced by Steve Jobs, although the response so far by many has been muted.
  • St. Patrick's Festival Android and iPhone apps released iPhone and Android users will be able to watch live streaming video Dublin City’s St Patrick’s Day parade thanks to their updated iPhone and Android apps.
  • Fifth Dublin Web Summit kicks off tomorrow evening #dws5 The fifth Dublin Web Summit in an increasingly successful series is due to start tomorrow, March 8, with another distinguished list of speakers due to address the event at the Chartered Accountants House on Dublin’s Pearse Street. Prominent speakers include Ben Parr, co-editor of Mashable, Stefan Glaenzer, founder of Last.fm, and Dan Cobley, Google’s European marketing director.
  • Tweeting as Gaeilge: Social networking and the Irish language What place does Irish hold in the social media age? Is it being drowned out on Twitter or Facebook by English or will social media cultivate the language?
  • What's happening online for the 2011 St Patrick's Festival You would think that the Irish would have little reason to celebrate the son of a European tax collector but, come March 17, that is just what the country, and the world, will do. To find out what is happening online we spoke to the organisers of the 2011 St Patrick’s Festival to see what digital events are planned this March.
  • Deregulation of Electric Ireland could mean lower energy bills for struggling Irish households The Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) yesterday announced the decision to deregulate Electric Ireland, the re-branded energy supply business of the ESB, which could potentially mean lower energy bills for struggling Irish households. From April 4 Electric Ireland residential electricity prices will no longer be regulated - something that business customers have experienced since October of last year.
  • How the Irish government will fund over €500,000 in smartphone app development in 2011 This year the Irish government will spend at least half a million Euro funding the development of Android and iOS apps for artistic and cultural institutions. The majority of this money will come from the Cultural Tourism Technology fund which has allocated over €1 million for technology projects this year. Projects being funded include the Temple Bar Cultural Trust, The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin City Council, Wexford Opera and St. Patrick’s Festival amongst others.
  • International BBC iPlayer could cost less than €7 per month Speaking at the Financial Times Digital Media Broadcasting Conference in London yesterday, the BBC’s Director General, Mark Thompson, revealed that the international version of the BBC iPlayer will definitely be available before the end of this year, and will likely cost less than $10, or approximately €7.
  • Print media still influential within the technology industry Ireland’s Digital Times published a great article yesterday about the ever-present influence that print media still holds over the technology industry. The article cites a survey by Eurocom Worldwide and reports that the printed medium is still very much used by technology executives in the industry.
  • How the 2011 Irish census works #infographic With only a short time to go to the 2011 census night on April 10 the Central Statistics Office has released an infographic explaining how this year’s form was created.According to the graphic over 2 million census forms will be printed this year, these will be delivered to every home in the country from 440 regional offices. After the April 10 census night the forms will be collected, scanned and analysed for publication by the CSO from July.
  • World Book Night: Giving away one million free books in one night Several of the UK and Ireland’s largest publishers will be giving away 1 million free books to members of the public this Saturday in what is being described as “the most ambitious and far-reaching celebration of adult books and reading ever attempted.”
  • Image of the International Space Station as it orbits sky over Ireland With clear skies forecast for this week across much of Ireland an excellent opportunity presents itself for amateur astronomers to catch a glimpse of the International Space Station as it orbits earth and passes over Ireland. One such sighting opportunity occurred at 19:53 this evening, and although slightly unprepared, I managed to capture this light trail as the space station hurtled past.
  • Explore the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin with Google Street View Last year Google made available 80,000 kilometres of panoramic imagery of Irish streets and roads to access freely in Google Street View. Along with the Google car, Google utilised the Trike to capture difficult, inaccessible areas of special interest. Today we see one such release as images of the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin are introduced, allowing path-by-path exploration of the beautiful plant collection.

April 2011 ( View complete archive page )

  • Twitter hasn't killed RSS just yet, here's how to find your Twitter feed RSS url Since redesigning its site Twitter has been accused of killing its previously open ecosystem. The focus of the accusations comes from Twitter's removal of RSS feeds on each user's profile. Twitter has said this is a design glitch that will be fixed but until that happens, if it ever will, there still are ways to get access a Twitter user's RSS feed.
  • Sony to announce PlayStation Network restoration date on Sunday, hints at compensation deal Sony will announce findings of its internal probe into last week’s massive network security breach and a possible services restoration date tomorrow Sunday May 01. The Japanese consumer electronics giant declared earlier today that it would hold a press conference tomorrow where further details concerning the historic outage will be announced, including the possibility that 2.2 million PSN users’ encrypted credit card details have been stolen.
  • Live blog from #mindfield, Is gaming technology or culture? In this post we're at the Games Island: Is Gaming technology or Culture discussion. It's hosted by Paul Hayes from Beachhut PR with Phillip Campbell, former creative director with EA, Dylan Collins of Gruupy, Barry O’Neill from the Interactive Games Association and Willie White from the Project Arts Centre.
  • Social entrepreneurship can bring lasting social change: Mindfield festival told Social entrepreneurship has the ability to become a sustainable platform for economic change in Ireland and around the world, the Mindfield festival heard today.
  • Live blog @MindFieldIE: Social entrepreneurship and capitalism We're at Mindfield in Merrion Park, Dublin attending Social Entrepreneurship: The Acceptable Face of Capitalism.
  • Details of Microsoft's cloud computing conference, Gartner & LionBridge to speak Cloud computing is significantly changing the ways employees and employers interact, a major cloud computing conference to be held in Dublin will hear in May
  • YouTube founders acquire social bookmarking site Delicious from Yahoo! Yahoo!’s once seemingly ill-fated social bookmarking service Delicious has been sold to YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen for an undisclosed sum. Delicious will now fold into a newly created internet company AVOS.
  • Full text of Sony's explanation to PlayStation Network/Qriocity customers about the hack Following the hack which brought down its gaming networks for over three days Sony has begun contacting users who have had their personal information stolen.
  • Broadcast media check-in service IntoNow acquired by Yahoo! Only twelve weeks after launch media check-in service IntoNow has been acquired by Yahoo! for a speculated $30 million dollars. The service exists as an iPhone application that provides real-time social experiences around broadcast media programming.
  • Crowdsourcing creativity for business with the blur Group While crowdsourcing has almost become a household word its perception as an advertiser's novelty, suitable only for advertising mobile phones, is gradually being eroded. More and more organisations are realising the possibilities of crowdsourcing as a business tool and one organisation, the blur Group, is using a innovative approach.
  • Facebook introduces contextual sharing with new Send button On the first anniversary of Facebook’s now ubiquitous Like button, Facebook have introduced a new Send button. The Send button essentially brings context to the Like button, allowing users to share content with specific groups of people on Facebook.
  • What happened in Chernobyl's nuclear reactor 25 years ago? This year marks the 25th anniversary of world's worst nuclear disaster. In the early hours of April 26 1986 a series of explosions and a resulting chemical fire released large amounts of nuclear matter into the atmosphere over of much of Europe from Chernobyl's number 4 reactor.
  • How radioactive is your home? Following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan which crippled the Fukushima nuclear power plant it is surprising to hear that over 50% of the radiation we are subjected to come from Radon Gas which occurs naturally in the ground. And as we approach the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl we look at our exposure to radiation.
  • Less than 1% of Firefox users activate "Do not track" feature Less than 1% of Firefox users have activated the "Do not track" option in the latest version of the browser according to the Future of Privacy Forum think tank. Jules Polonetsky, founder of the think thank based his claim on information from two unnamed ad networks who gave access to their data. Polonetsky also reports that some ad networks are recording how many times their servers are told not to track a site's user.
  • Social networking may "come back to haunt teachers", says teachers' union Teachers who friend students or their parents on social networking sites may find their activities "come back to haunt them", according to warnings issued by the UK's National Union of Teachers.
  • Sony confirms hackers are responsible for PlayStation Network outage Sony have posted an update to their European PlayStation blog confirming that hackers are to blame for the on-going PlayStation Network (PSN) outage. The outage, which is affecting 70 million PlayStation and PSP users, has disrupted game-play and various media features like music and movie streaming on the network since Wednesday evening.
  • Prolonged PlayStation Network outage enters second day Sony PlayStation 3 owners are experiencing a prolonged PlayStation Network (PSN) outage that has more persisted for more than twenty-four hours in multiple regions, including Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. The outage which is affecting more than 70 million PS3 and PSP owners may persist until tomorrow, a update on the European PlayStation blog states.
  • Amazon "all hands on deck" but many social networking sites still down Amazon says that they are "all hands on deck" try to resolve the massive cloud server failure in North Virginia which brought down many big name social networking websites.
  • How did Amazon bring down some of the world's largest social networks? Amazon's outage has brought down Reddit, Foursquare, Quora, paper.li, Hootsuite, LiveFyre and possibly Publishers Weekly website as well as many others.
  • Friendly for Facebook iPad app attracts 3 million monthly users Friendly for Facebook, the unofficial Facebook iPad app developed by Oecoway and first released in August 2010, now attracts over three million monthly users according to All Facebook.
  • Apple continuously tracking and storing iPhone location data The Apple iPhone and iPad with 3G connectivity constantly record and store location data to a file on the user’s device according to security researchers Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan. The two uncovered the existence of a “secret” file on iOS devices complete with legacy location data and will present their findings later today at Where 2.0 in San Francisco.
  • Irish & British teens safest users of Facebook, but many breaking law to use site Ireland & the UK have some of the most secure teenage users of Facebook despite having some of the highest usage levels in Europe, a study today revealed.
  • RTÉ Player coming to Android and iPhone later this year RTÉ will release Android and iOS versions of their popular video-on-demand RTÉ Player service later this year. According to Silicon Republic, Aisling McCabe, head of platform development at RTÉ, confirmed RTÉ’s plans to release free mobile apps for the two platforms late last week.
  • Twitter picks London over Dublin for its European offices Dublin has lost out to London as Twitter’s European Headquarters. The news came as Twitter announced that it will begin a recruitment drive in London this year for the opening of its European HQ in the West End of the city.
  • Of course there is a royal wedding iPad, iPhone and Android app Do you want to take Kate Middleton down the aisle (or the nave if you want to be pedantic)? Well thanks to the wonders of modern technology you can. Westminster Abbey, the location for the 29 April wedding, has released Android, iPhone and iPad apps that allow you to do just that.
  • Smartphones disruptive technology for teens, replacing Nokia; Arekibo report Smartphone such as iPhones and Blackberries are changing how Irish teens communicate, socialise and even sleep; a white paper released by the Dublin based digital media agency Arekibo reports.
  • Google to permanently shut down Google Video by May 13 Google have announced via an email sent to Google Video users that it is shutting down the service permanently next month. Google Video stopped accepting user upload in May 2009 but has now decided to remove all video from the service which it will close indefinitely on May 13.
  • YouTube Copyright School - Lessons for pirates YouTube is sending copyright infringers to school, copyright school that is. The video sharing site has set up an online “school” to educate frequent copyright infringers about the dangers of posting material they do not own.
  • Free live TV from Magnet WebTV available to stream on 99% of devices Live TV streaming service Magnet WebTV have recently extended the availability of their service to 99% of all devices. Launched in January of this year, Magnet WebTV have upgraded their streaming service to support HTML5 video, effectively enabling a plethora of new devices that don’t support traditional Adobe Flash video, including the Apple iPhone and iPad.
  • BBC confirms reduced online services with revised service license Following on from budget cuts announced by the BBC at the start of this year regarding the national broadcaster’s online services, the BBC Trust has today published their revised service license for BBC Online. In January the BBC Trust announced a 25% budget reduction for BBC Online which would directly result in the loss of 360 jobs and the closure of over 400 BBC websites.
  • RunCoCo's Alun Edwards tells us about crowdsourcing World War One history in Germany At the start of the month we spoke to Jonathan Purday, Senior Communications Advisor at Europeana.eu about the organisations forthcoming World War One digitisation roadshow in Germany.
  • Microsoft's Streetside coming to European cities soon Streetside, Microsoft's answer to Google Street View, has begun to gather street level imagery in Europe. Microsoft's Streetview service currently only exists in fifty-six US cities.
  • YouTube film of Yury Gagarin recreates 50 years of man in space YouTube is celebrating 50 years of manned space flight by premiering a feature length film which recreates Yury Gagarin’s first orbit in outer space. The film combines original audio and video recordings of the flight with HD footage taken from the International Space Station. A new score was written epsessially for the piece by composer Philip Sheppard.
  • Google’s war on content farms goes global Google’s algorithmic change targeting content farms and low-quality websites introduced last month has been rolled out globally to benefit all English language users. Today’s rollout also takes into consideration feedback from Google Search users which can now directly impact on a site’s search rank.
  • Share a happy thought with O2 and help promote youth mental health O2 Ireland wants you to share a happy thought on Twitter or Facebook to help promote young people’s mental health in Ireland. The telecommunications company has parntered with the Dublin-based charity Headstrong, @HeadstrongYMH work to raise awareness of mental health issues in young people who are at risk of suicide or self-harm.
  • Call for entries: Digital Hub's Best in Show competition 2011 The prestigious Digital Hub Best in Show 2011 competition will be inviting entries from students studying a creative media subject who are currently working on their final year projects in April.
  • Digitise the Nation 2011 - Campaign to get more Irish people online Continuing on from the success of last year’s Digitise the Nation campaign, the Irish Internet Association (IIA) are staging another such event next month from Monday May 9th to Friday May 13th. The main aim of the event is to “help get everyone online”.
  • Hacker group Anonymous staging 24-hour sit-in protest in Sony stores worldwide Hacker group Anonymous plan to stage a 24-hour sit-in protest this Saturday April 16 in Sony stores worldwide. The offline protest has been organised in response to Sony’s recently introduced restrictions on custom software that users sometimes run on their console and lawsuits taken against such Sony PlayStation 3 modifiers.
  • What's the Craic Barack? While U.S. President Barack Obama’s security team was in Moneygall, Co Offaly, last week they were too early to pick up one of these “What’s the craic Barack” t-shirts.
  • Blacknight hosting promotes .EU domains to post #bailout Ireland Talk about a hard sell. The Irish web domain and hosting company, BlickNight Solutions, has launched a campaign to promote the .eu domain to Irish citizens and businesses, less than 6 months after the country accepted a hefty EU/IMF bailout.
  • Timelapse video captures northern lights on transatlantic flight A passenger on board a transatlantic flight from San Francisco to Paris has captured a remarkable timelapse video of the northern lights, or the aurora borealis. During his eleven hour flight he captured 2,459 images, roughly one every two miles, using a Canon 5D Mark II and a tripod, and stitched them together afterward to produce this masterpiece.
  • Android will power half of world’s smartphone market by 2012 According to market research firm Gartner, Android will power almost half of the world’s smartphone market by 2015. Android, Google’s mobile device operating system, will continue to see phenomenal growth in 2011, as it has done throughout last year, and finish with over 38% market share by the end of this year.
  • ESA astronaut photographs the International Space Station in 3D A European Space Agency astronaut, Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli @astro_paolo, has been on tour in the International Space Station since January and during that time then he has taken some amazing 3D photos of the ISS and her crew.
  • Digital democracy - Google Transparency Report gets realtime updates Google Transparency Report, the search giant's server analysis tool has added realtime analytics and added data about local outages, the company has announced. Google Transparency Report is Google's public service site in which the company shows how it interacts with government bodies and manages user access to the company's services.
  • MediaSift brings realtime sentiment and text analysis to Twitter search Under MediaSift’s DataSift brand the freemium service will allow users to search and filter Twitter’s full firehose of content according to over 40 pieces of metadata contained in each tweet. The company will also aggregate and analyse Twitter content according to user sentiment, user influence, reach and text analysis.
  • View your location history with Google Maps 5.3 update for Android Google have just released Google Maps 5.3 update for Android that introduces a Google Location History dashboard, allows users to “check-in” at home, and adds the ability to specify custom “aspects” to places when rating them.
  • Why is Google building driverless cars? #robots Sebastian Thrun is an expert on AI, Artificial Intelligence, and he is on a personal mission. As director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab he was responsible for building Google’s driverless cars. His mission? To save a million people a year from dying on the road.
  • Save 90% off call costs with “virtual landline” iPhone app Dublin based internet telephonics company Blueface have recently released an iPhone app, known as Banter, that claims to save customers up to 90% off mobile phone call costs. Upon downloading the free app and creating an account, the user is given a “virtual landline” number based on their location. With this new virtual number users can then make and receive calls at a reduced rate when compared to normal and more expensive mobile phone call costs.
  • Luas passengers get free iPhone app, free Wi-Fi coming soon Luas operator, Viola, will install free Wi-Fi on Red and Green line trams "in the coming months," the Railway Procurement Agency announced today.
  • In conversation with Mark Krieger, President & Co-founder of TweetRoost You may call him defiant, or foolhardy, but in one week Mark Krieger will do something that would make most bank managers wince, he will launch his latest start-up. His new application, TweetRoost, is a multiuser-oriented Twitter client designed to help “individuals and groups efficiently monitor, assign, categorize, save and analyze tweets from one or multiple Twitter accounts”.
  • iPhone 5 may include an 8-megapixel camera built by Sony Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer may have inadvertently admitted that Sony image sensors will be used in the iPhone 5. In an interview with Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal the Sony chief stated, possibly accidentally, that image sensors manufactured in Sony’s Japanese factories on their way to Apple may be delayed as a result of last month’s massive earthquake and tsunami.
  • Irish Rail: Twitter, social networking and keeping commuters updated Following on from our article on Wednesday we talked to Irish Rail spokesman Barry Kenny about Twitter, user comments, and the company's plans for their social networking future.

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