TechWire

Broadband: Eircom gains, wireless makes no gain

In the EU's latest broadband report, its country-by country analysis reminds us of a few interesting trends. First, Eircom has actually gained market share in the last two years -- a full 2.7 per cent of the entire market. How does that happen in a deregulated market with strong competition?
Secondly, wireless broadband has stopped making any inroads at the expense of fixed line DSL here -- and has been kept at bay for at least three years. This gives the lie to the widely held belief that wireless has been growing much faster than fixed-line. As of July, the EU survey puts the number of broadband connections here at 842,000 lines.

Michele's debt collection woes

As I write, Michele Neylon is on Joe Duffy ('Mick' as he's being called). The subject matter: a rogue debt-collection company that Michele engaged to try and get some bad debts. Apparently the company made a hames of paperwork that Michele gave them and then wouldn't pay him back his deposit.Good luck in getting them back!

Why we suck at filing patents

Here are a few comparative figures from the European Patents Office for 2007, for countries with broadly comparable populations to Ireland (Holland and Sweden excepted):

                  Applications         Per million people
Ireland              415                          96
Denmark         1408                        259
Belgium          1900                        180
Finland            2045                        388
Holland            6999                        428
Sweden           2733                        299
Austria            1379                        166

We're not within an ass's roar.

Now here are some R&D funding numbers for Ireland:

-- €2.5 billion spent from all sectors in 2007 (source: Forfas annual report)
-- €8.2 billion committed by government in National Development Plan (2006-2013)
-- €365 million to 570 university projects last year from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)

Is patents a fair way of reflecting progress in research? If it is, we're in the doldrums.

Which university/college files most research patents?

Apparently, it's NUI Galway. Ot at least, it is for patent applications. They told me they filed 30 patent applications last year, beating UCD's 28, TCD's 24, DCU's 24 and DIT's 6. No figures yet for UCC or UL.
Interesting that the SFI granted €350 million worth of research funds to universities last year.

Amas's latest report is good reading

Irish private research companies can be spoofers. But Amas's latest State Of The Net Report makes very good reading for anyone interested in the online media and marketing spheres. It cuts through a lot of the garbage and pin-points research at stuff that counts.

Damien Mulley, PR guy

I see Damien has set up his own PR company (Mulley Communications).

Good luck, hope he does well.

He also says: "we're a Cork-based company". So guess he's taken on people already. Good start...

083 in business

Last night on Today FM's Last Word, I talked about the reluctance of business managers to move away from O2 and Vodafone. I asked Matt whether he knew of any business contacts with '083' prefixes. I probably should have acknowledged that you don't have to have an 083 number to be a 3 customer, as the majority of switchers ask to keep their existing '086' or '087' numbers. Still, I'd say the percentage of businesses with 3 (or Meteor) is absolutely tiny.

Why uploading photos to Flickr is against the law

A piece I wrote on Sunday has stirred up a debate among some amateur photographers.

I wrote that you can't upload pictures of random punters on the street to your Flickr, Facebook or blog account without their express permission. That's because their image is part of their personal data. A lot of people seemed to be unaware of this. And it does seem a little weird. Nevertheless, that's the way it is.

Here's the section of data protection law that deals with it. I had a chat with them to confirm it, too, in case there was any misunderstanding. (They've already taken action against people uploading videos to YouTube without getting consent from those identifiable in it.)

So we're getting screwed on the Blackberry Storm -- so what?

It is not just Vodafone that is slapping a massive premium on us with its Irish/British Blackberry Storm price differentials. All the operators are doing it.

For example, O2 charges €100 up front plus €65 per month for the 8GB iPhone 3G with 350 voice minutes and 1GB of data. But for the same phone in Britain, the operator charges nothing up-front and just £45 (€57) per month for a whopping 1,200 minutes talking and unlimited data.

Then there’s 3 Ireland, which charges €300 and €400 for the Nokia N96, plus a monthly tariff plan of between €20 and €100. In Britain, it offers the phone for free and gives unlimited on-net (‘3-to-3’) calls.

But hey, what’s the fuss? Let’s be honest -- you, the Irish consumer, are more than willing to pay these prices. You always have been.

Harvey Norman 'kicks out' Komplett spy from Blanch store

It's getting tough in the retail trenches. This comes from Komplett.ie (helpfully, in bullet form)...

"--  Harvey Norman sales staff removed a Komplett employee from their Blanchardstown store after noting that he was (quietly) checking their prices against Komplett.
-- Komplett employee was quietly going about his business, and was escorted out after honestly telling a Harvey Norman employee who he was and who he worked for
-- Komplett employee Rafal Cyranski was escorted out whilst being lectured on price by a clearly agitated Harvey Norman sales employee
-- Customers have been coming to Harvey Norman stores with Komplett’s flyer, recently distributed to 220,000 homes in Dublin, to demand an explanation for the massive mark ups in Harvey’s stores"

4G, Wimax and other pipe dreams

Last year, I got into a tiff with Digiweb over its insistence that it was rolling out a 4G network (dutifully reported by other media organs). I wrote a column saying that it was just marketing spin and not at all what the vast majority of people would understand as being '4G' (ie a mobile, cellular-based successor to 3G, 2.5G and 2G). I'm curious -- is anyone using its 4G service? If so, for what?
Then there is Wimax. Intel and Irish Broadband (now owned by Imagine) are insisting that this is the next big thing and is just around the corner. The same way it's been just around the corner for the last two years. Where is it? Who is using it?

A tech executive's operetta

With apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore.

I am the very model of a modern tech executive
I know my jargon back-to-front, don't care if I'm repetitive
I have a PR firm that writes
10,000 words of techno-sh**e
Of which, my friend, it is your plight
To get in weeks, consecutive.

(He has a PR firm that writes
10,000 words of techno-sh**e,
Of which, our friend, it is your plight
To get in weeks, consecutive.)

There’s ERP and ROI and IT Architec-a-ture,
There’s Custom Inno-vative Value Added Infrastruct-u-are
And KPIs and CRM
And EDIs and ILM
For sales bids they all work a gem
To pitch the public sec-a-tor.

(His bleating on of CRM
And EDI and ILM
In sales bids all do work a gem
To pitch the public sec-a-tor)

Of gold and silver partnerships in business I am certified
With Microsoft and Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu (but not Macs, I tried)
Solutions that are end to end,
And horizontally extend
From SMEs to OEMs
To Heaven you'll have gone and died.

(His services are end-to-end
And horizontally extend
From SMEs to OEMs
To Heaven you'll have gone and died)

Yes I'm the very model of a modern major CEO
I'll draw your network storage software plan like Caravaggio
And if a virus or a bug
Infects you I will sure as fug
Make clear to you that you're the mug
Who wasted fifty grand or so.

(So if a virus or a bug
Infects you he will sure as fug
Make clear to you that you're the mug
Who hired third-rate cowboys-o.)

DAB in Ireland is a flop

Looks like DAB is about hit a brick wall in Ireland. The commercial radio sector is about to pull the plug on the project, saying that no-one owns a DAB radio in Ireland and they're not going to bother investing in a digital network. That leaves only RTE, who are saying they won't roll it out any further than they have (greater Dublin, Cork and a few other places) unless the commercial sector gets on board.

Sky surpasses NTL/Chorus in Irish TV subscriptions

According to yesterday's results from UPC (NTL/Chorus), it now has 547,000 TV subscriptions in Ireland. Although Sky has stopped breaking out its Irish figures, reliable sources in the company assure me that their figures are 'significantly' higher than that. NTL was always the big dog in Ireland -- looks like Sky's number one now.

Blogs dying a death?

Wired Magazine now says they are. Twitter, Facebook and Flickr are apparently where it's at.

Steve Jobs RIP

Not quite. I hadn't seen this, I'm sure many have: Bloomberg accidentally published a pre-written Steve Jobs obituary. It's interesting reading. They took it down almost immediately, but it can be seen here.

Komplett's new facility set to shake up Irish electronics market

Rumours of Komplett's demise are greatly exaggerated. The giant European e-tailer is currently setting up a brand new facility in Blanchardstown specifically to cater for the Irish market. Expected to be ready to go by the end of the month, this will have a new 'pick-up point' and 'drop-off point'. If you order something before 1pm, instead of waiting for it to go through the post, you can pick it up at the depot the next morning (about half the postage fee will be knocked off the price). This staffed area will also act as a drop-off point if there's anything wrong with a product, saving hassle and cost of postal return.

Dept of Comms: Cars, SUVs now need TV licences

Cars, SUVs, vans and motorhomes all need TV licences if gadgets used to watch telly are used in them. That's according to correspondence I've received from the Department of Communications. Even a tent needs one if you catch Seoige and Seoige on a Sinclair.

The Department also said that any premises using a laptop or home PC to catch a TV signal needs a licence. That is, unless it's accessing the signal online, in which case it's exempt.

Mobiles are exempt.

But using a Slingboxes would mean that any device that connects remotely to it will draw down a need for the host premises to have a TV licence. Wonder what happens if you use it on the bus, though?

Fastest free wi-fi hotspot in Dublin -- The New York Grill

8.5Mbs!! And free!! (Upload is just 0.6Mbs.) It's a grill and cafe in the docklands, close to Jurys.

Where mobile broadband speeds vary around Dublin

I spent lots of last week comparing all three networks' mobile broadband products in different locations around the city for a newspaper article. Speeds vary substantially. In Dublin 9 (Drumcondra), O2 reigns supreme with speeds of over 2Mbs. In Harcourt Street, though, it shrinks to under 0.5Mbs. 3, by comparison hits over 1Mbs in Harcourt Street but falls to about 0.6Mbs in Drumcondra. And it's a similar story around different parts of the city.

Incidentally, 3 is set to switch on its extra mobile broadband speed (x2) "any day now", according to executives in the network,

A heartbeat after winning DTT licence, Boxer set to delay rollout?

It has become the Irish way of doing things: promise a timescale and then deliver way behind schedule. Such is the mounting suspicion over Boxer's DTT licence win. It promised to be up and running in January. But according to (admittedly embittered) sources in RTE, who are in a good position to know, they haven't a hope.
But this is Ireland -- why should Boxer care? They've won the licence from the BCI now: what's been promised is water under the bridge. Besides, they can legitimately argue that the usual thing for BCI winners to do, once they've nailed down a licence, is to gradually ignore the bits of the licence application they don't like (and which probably swung it for them). For examples, see virtually all commercial radio licence applications in respect of commitments to Irish language and current affairs content and compare them to the diet of Coldplay and Christina Aguilera they actually deliver, sanction-free.
In Boxer's case, they'll blame some technical hitch and won't have the national network ready until at least six months -- probably more -- after they promised.
What will the BCI do? Nothing.

Spoiler for the Dark Knight

Dell starts designing nice stuff

Simple, but effective: its new Studio Hybrid system looks great, even if it's fairly basic under the hood. Nice price, though, at €550 (including delivery and a 19 inch monitor).

Watching TV shows and movies online without downloading

Someone asked me whether watching Season 5 of The Wire on this website was legal. I said I'd get back to them on it. :)