- Apple to create up to 350 new jobs in Ireland Consumer electronics giant Apple are to create up to 350 new jobs in Cork, Ireland, after agreeing to lease offices in Cork’s city centre, according to the Irish Examiner. The new offices, on Cork’s Half Moon Street, constitue 25,000sq. ft. and may accommodate up to 350 workers.
- Why Google+ will be a huge success Google has finally lifted the lid on the Google+ project; their most ambitious foray into the social web to date. Unlike previous ill-fated attempts at social, like Google Wave and Google Buzz, Google+ is different. Why? Because it’s not Facebook.
- Will Zynga IPO tomorrow with a $20 billion valuation? Social gaming company Zynga may file for an IPO as early as tomorrow, according to a tweet from CNBC reporter Kate Kelly. Kelly states that the IPO could value Zynga at between $15 - $20 billion.
- Even Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt is complaining about Irish broadband While the current state of broadband infrastructure in Ireland in nothing short of disgraceful, it’s a relief somewhat to hear that a person held in such regard as Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt thinks so too. Speaking in Dublin yesterday, Schmidt stated how Ireland is “behind” on the roll-out of acceptable broadband and that Irish taxpayer’s money would be better invested in broadband “that serves the citizens”.
- International Space Station to broadcast live HD video stream of Earth early next year Canadian company UrtheCast will begin streaming live HD imagery of earth from the International Space Station (ISS) in Spring 2012. Two cameras will be mounted to the outside of the ISS where the video will be down-linked and broadcast on the Internet for the world to see.
- Google to retire Google Health and Google PowerMeter Google have announced today that they will discontinue two underperforming products; Google Health and Google PowerMeter. Google Health will retire on January 1st, 2012, while Google PowerMeter will retire this September 16th.
- Huffington Post to launch UK edition this July 6th Arianna Huffington, editor of the Huffington Post Media Group, has confirmed that her popular news and content aggregation website, The Huffington Post, will launch in the UK this coming July 6th. This launch is part of the group’s ambitious plans to be present in 12 countries by the end of this year.
- The future of rail travel; non-stop high-speed trains assisted by “feeder” trams One of the main flaws with today’s high-speed trains is that they still have to stop at various locations, picking up and dropping off passengers along a designated route. UK-based designer Paul Priestman believes that by creating non-stop high-speed trains, journeys can be completed much more efficiently.
- Over 146,000 Irish households and businesses still on 2Mbps broadband or less Figures published yesterday in the latest Irish Communications Market ComReg quarterly report suggest that 146,326 households and businesses in Ireland are currently subscribed to broadband packages of 2Mbps or less. Data concerning Q1 2011 indicates that 123,934 residential broadband subscriptions and 22,392 business broadband subscriptions are currently active for packages offering between 144kps and 1.99Mbps download speeds.
- MSD officially opens two new €28.6 million health-care facilities in Cork Pharmaceutical company MSD has officially opened two new facilities at their existing Brinny site near Innishannon, Cork. The two new facilities, the Brinny Bioassay Centre of Expertise and the Brinny Pneumococcal Vaccine Conjugation Facility, represent a financial investment of €28.6 million and the provision of 70 jobs.