And it's about time. Vodafone leads the way, with a whopping 18 mobiles 'from free' with a monthly contract (including Motorola's K1, left). 3 Ireland comes next with 11 phones 'from free' and then O2, with four 'from free models'. This has been the norm in Britain for years and is a sign that ordinary competition is arriving in Ireland.
Apparently, the Irish Defence Forces (army, navy, overseas peacekeeping missions) currently relies on a mix of Novell Netware and Microsoft Server 2003. But it wants to switch to one or the other for the entire force. As per today's tender:
"The Defence Forces now requires a single software reseller to supply all its standard software requirements and assist in managing its licencesing infrastructure. A framework contract with the successful bidder will be put in place for 3 years and should be comprehensive enough to cover all future software requirements."
This one is fairly unfortunate: the Irish Council for Science, Technology & Innovation.
'Latest news' is from 18 May, 2005.
Is this the oldest, most neglected state website still drawing taxpayer funds for hosting and other costs? As far as I can see, 'Employment Initiative' was last updated in 1999! (It also appears under the 'links' section in Irlgov.ie.)
I've seen some interesting disclaimers on websites before, but this one on Irishstatuebook.ie (put up by the Office Of The Attorney General) is up there with the silliest. Basically, it asks you to accept a disclaimer acknowledging that their content may be bogus or inaccurate:
"Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information/material contained on the web site, the State and Attorney General, its servants or agents assume no responsibility for and give no guarantees, undertakings or warranties concerning the accuracy, completeness or up to date nature of the information provided on the web site and do not accept any liability whatsoever arising from any errors or omissions."
The operator has finally followed its British counterpart (and other operators around Europe) in dropping the price of the 8GB model -- from €400 to €300 -- to make way for a 3G version, expected in June. Incidentally, a fairly senior Apple Ireland source indicated to me that it wasn't wild about O2 launching the old iPhone so close to the 3G debut.
There is one PR firm which seems to be unaccountably hyper in all correspondence. I think they must have a stash of this stuff in their canteen cupboards...
Asus's follow-up to its massively successful Eee PC 701, the cheap 7 inch Linux laptop with few frills, is the 900 model. Interestingly, it can't resist adding more features (see below). Which brings it much closer to a normal laptop price. Will this dilute its appeal? Here are the specs available on the laptopsdirect.ie model (€417 plus delivery):
I don't always see eye-to-eye with Damien on broadband take-up in the country, but he does have a point when it comes to mobile broadband services not being what they're made out to be. (As does Michele.) Vodafone sales clerks, for example, tell their customers that it's up to 3.6Mbs. "That's all of Dublin and anywhere there's good 3G coverage, which is 75 per cent of the country," one told me over the phone just this morning. In fact, it's never 3.6Mbs. Or anywhere near it. It rarely reaches even 1Mbs in my experience.
This time with model Pippa O'Connor. The launch is for Mario Kart Wii.
With new models. (This is for a new company called Eight:Twenty, which specialises in 'interactive advertising'. The model is Vogue Williams.)
I don't usually do this but these Perlico shots -- sent out today -- must be in the running for the 2008 'Lovely Girls Of Tech' PR awards.
Here's what American Airlines, in its 'where-to-bring-the-kids-in-Dublin' guide, says about the seedy, 'over-18s', O'Connell Street arcade (emphasis added by me):
"If arcade games and amusements are your idea of fun, than look no further than the bizarrely named Dr Quirkey's, which features a bewildering array of amusements: from spectacular aircraft simulators to highly addictive slot machines. Due to its central location on O'Connell Street, it can occasionally get a little overcrowded and boisterous, but Dr Quirkey's is a lot of fun and is popular with both children and adults."
Slot machines, of course, are illegal in Dublin.
An impending nightmare with my week-old Apple MacBook looms. The right side of my spacebar isn’t working. This is a bit frustrating since I’m right-handed. The thing is, I bought the laptop in an Apple Store in the US. Everyone from the head of Apple Ireland to sales reps in Irish Apple retailers to the sales clerk in the Chicago Apple Store said that there was a global warranty. I’ve just called Apple support here in Ireland: they said it’s not their problem. They told me to call the Apple Store in Chicago. As I write, that store is closed. I’ve a feeling when I call them that they’re going to tell me that it’s not their problem either, since I’m in a different country to the one I bought it in. Should be interesting to see how this pans out…
When I picked up my shiny new MacBook last week -- for €300 cheaper in the US than here (€950 there as opposed to €1,250 here) -- I eagerly set about exploring the new features of its new operating system, Leopard.
One of these features is Boot Camp, a program which lets you put Windows on the computer, should you want to run regular business software or games (for all its multimedia elegance, the Mac is still poor in these categories).
After about five hours of freezes, restarts and forced shut-downs, I'm beginning to wonder why I bothered. The version of Windows I put in is Windows XP Pro, previously unused. Installing it has been a real trial.
The first problem is that the MacBook's DVD drive is very, very sensitive. If I shift position with the computer on my lap, the drive starts to sputter and complain, pausing installation.
The next problem was that it started to freeze just as it was about to finish installation. No forced-shutdown command would work, so I had to revert to the old reliable method of physically taking out the battery and putting it back in just to shut the computer down. Hardly the stuff of 21st century computing.
This happened several times until I just let the battery run out by itself to see if that would work. Bizarrely, it did. When I turned the machine on again, it booted into Windows XP.
Hallelujah, I thought. I went through some of the functions to make sure it was working. I then shut the computer down and switched on to get back to Apple's OS X operating system.
But no -- the MacBook did not want to let me do that.
As I write, my MacBook now boots into Windows XP as a a default every time I turn it on, which isn't exactly thrilling as I could have just bought a €500 Dell had I wanted that. (The only way of getting to Apple's operating system appears to be holding the 'option' key down when you press the power button -- this gives you the choice of either operating system.)
There is a software program called Parallels which, apparently, lets you run both operating systems side by side. I may resort to shelling out €75 for that. But it's a shame -- I had thought Boot Camp was supposed to do the job.
This blog hears that UPC -- the company which owns NTL and Chorus -- has set an Autumn date for the launch of a HDTV service. But is anyone interested?
Figures from Sky, which has been selling SkyHD for close to two years, are hard to get. But I'd say they're tiny (under 5 per cent of its 513,000 subscribers). Is this because of the massive price-tag on HD (€450 installation plus €15 extra per month)? Or is that there's hardly anything available on HD, with the main Irish and British broadcasters showing no inclination to change this?
It seems that most people's image association with HD is films that cost €37.99 in HMV. And this, despite the fact that 90 per cent of the tellies sold in Ireland now are HD-compatible.
So far, HD is a flop in Ireland.
Personally, I don't think the majority of people care a fig about this issue. Nevertheless, here is what the Minister For Communications told The Sunday Business Post in November on it. Wonder if he's annoyed?
Q: We have a fairly extensive data retention law in place. Could you envisage any further use of citizens' electronically held data for reasons beyond existing legal requirements?
Ryan: I think we should do everything in our power to prevent any such use. One of the consequences of people going online is that they will be using services and in a sort of cloud. If Big Brother is seen to be taking information out of that cloud, it could seriously hamper people's trust in the whole system. We also have to make sure commercial interests do not get hold of information that goes beyond the proper dialogue between a company and its customers.
That's a good deal less than the 1 per cent Steve Jobs predicted this time last year. (In fairness, the gadget only launched in the three big European markets last Autumn.) Jobs said at MacWorld yesterday that the iPhone sold four million units last year, out of a total global market of roughly 1.2 billion units. It still has some way to catch up on Nokia's high end devices, too, with the iPhone trailing Nokia's N-Series and E-Series phones in sales by at least 13 to 1 in markets where they're competing against each other (notably the US).
Want to know how fast a group on Facebook takes off? How about zero to a million in 10 days? My 'groups' section currently exhibits a set-up called '1,000,000 Strong For Stephen T Colbert' (the US political satirist). Here are the stats of its membership figures:
10,000 Members at 10:22 PM (EST) 10/17/2007
50,000 Members at 4:48 PM (EST) 10/18/2007
100,000 Members at 12:54 AM (EST) 10/19/2007
170,000 Members at 4:58 PM (EST) 10/19/2007
200,000 Members at 9:43 PM (EST) 10/19/2007
250,000 Members at 11:58 AM (EST) 10/20/2007
300,000 Members at 7:44 PM (EST) 10/20/2007
350,000 Members at 4:43 AM (EST) 10/21/2007
400,000 members at 5:11 PM (EST) 10/21/2007
450,000 Members at 12:16 PM (EST) 10/22/2007
500,000 Members at 5:11 AM (EST) 10/23/2007
550,000 Members at 3:59 PM (EST) 10/23/2007
600,000 Members at 8:06 PM (EST) 10/23/2007
650,000 Members at 11:24 PM (EST) 10/23/2007
700,000 Members at 11:34 AM (EST) 10/24/2007
750,000 Members at 5:31 PM (EST) 10/24/2007
800,000 Members at 9:40 PM (EST) 10/24/2007
850,000 members at 4:22 AM (EST) 10/25/2007
900,000 Members at 3:24 PM (EST) 10/25/2007
950,000 Members at 9:11 PM (EST) 10/25/2007
1,000,000 Members at 5:54 AM (EST) 10/26/2007
1,100,000 Members at 3:06 PM (EST) 10/27/2007
Wow...
Those who turned up to the launch got "complimentary phones". Mine is a Samsung J600 (left). As for the service, it'll be e13 per month for unlimited calls and texts to another Tesco Mobile. They're not going much for web stuff (GPRS phone only) and it's 1 cent per kb downloaded, which is very expensive (there is an alternative €1 per day browsing package).
