“Despite the ongoing recession, we've noticed a marked increase in technology vacancies,” said GCS Ireland manager Tim Dunne. “More and more Irish businesses are beginning to appreciate the need to attract the best technology professionals to the country.”

Dunne went on to say that Ireland could be a major global player within IT, especially within cloud computing where analysts suggest we could enjoy a 20pc market share.

“Through the efforts of forward-thinking leaders, the engagement of the best and brightest within the technology sector, and solid investment of time and money, our IT industry could well be the key to Ireland's recovery,” Dunne added.

“Recruitment businesses can be described as barometers for the economy,” commented GCS founder Chris Bartlett. “GCS cannot expand unless our clients are hiring. After a period of business uncertainty in Ireland, it appears companies are feeling confident enough about the future of the Irish technology marketplace to invest time and money into ensuring that they have the best permanent and interim talent available.”

The EuroNanoForum will showcase nanotechnology innovations and speakers from industry, government and research.

Representatives from companies and research institutes such as Nokia Research Laboratories, Intel, Acciona, Philips Healthcare, Diageo and Max-Planck Institute will be discussing the economic and technological impact of nanotechnologies.

Speaking in advance of the forum Education Minister Ruairi Quinn, TD, described nanotechnology as being the new frontier of technology in Europe and in the world.

Ireland and nanoscience

Right now Ireland is ranked sixth internationally for nanoscience research and eighth for materials science research.

Two Irish research institutes where pioneering nanoscience research is taking place include CRANN in Dublin and Tyndall National Institute in Cork.

Just yesterday Siliconrepublic.com reported on two Irish companies – Crospon and Adama Innovations – that have been chosen to take part in a new European research project to pioneer new manufacturing techniques for medical devices using nanoscience.

And, earlier this year, CRANN was selected to take part in a major research project that has been awarded €1bn from the European Commission to explore the commercial potential of graphene. Described as the wonder material of the 21st century, graphene is believed to be 200 times stronger than steel but is just one atom thick (think one hundred-thousandth the width of one human hair).

At the minute nanoscience is linked to €15bn, or 10pc, of Ireland's annual exports, supporting 250,000 jobs nationwide, according to Quinn.

The EurNanoForum exhibition will also host a market place to engage clusters, companies, start-ups and spin-outs from research institutes.

The event has been organised by Enterprise Ireland and Spinverse. It is taking place against the backdrop of the Nanoweek series of events happening around Ireland until 21 June.

Main Nanotech image via Shutterstock

The innovative Great Rocky Mountain mobile game challenges fans to pilot a customised sled through the Rockies, navigating various obstacles to win ‘power ups’ and go the furthest distance to win prizes.

The game has already attracted 6,000 downloads and 75,000 plays.

Fans can play to win one of 3,500 prizes (from paintballing and pouched hoodies, to bobbing moose heads) up for grabs every week and winning pints of Coors Light can be redeemed in over 800 pubs across Ireland, from 10 June to 31 August.

Coors Light has hundreds of pints a day on offer to thirsty players across Ireland – with a maximum of one pint per day, per player. Mates win too with Coors Light’s Gift it Fridays.  Every Friday, for the duration of the campaign, winners are immediately awarded an extra ‘mate’s pint’ which can be gifted to Facebook friends through the app.

The app is available on the iTunes and Google Play stores and Coors Light fans can register on Facebook.

All doctors who wish to practise in the Republic of Ireland should be registered with the Medical Council.

The first step, however, is to complete a recognised degree. Once a student earns said degree, he or she should register with the Medical Council and complete an intern year with one of the hospitals recognised for this purpose, according to NUI Galway.

The pursuit of a career as a doctor requires commitment. Junior doctors, for example, work an average of 54 hours a week, Irishhealth.com reports.

In terms of compensation, the same report points out that basic junior doctor salaries in Ireland range from €30,000 for an intern just out of medical school to €76,000-€79,000 for a specialist or senior registrar. These figures do not include allowances juniors are also entitled to receive.

The 2013 astronaut candidate class comes from the second largest number of applications NASA has ever received - more than 6,100 entries.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who is set to retire from the Canadian Space Agency in July, has praised the astronaut selection, calling it a "hugely impressive" group via his Facebook page.

The octet will now embark on technical training at space centers around the globe in order to prepare for future space missions to low-Earth orbit to the International Space Station, as well as potentially heading to an asteroid and Mars one day.

"These new space explorers asked to join NASA because they know we're doing big, bold things here – developing missions to go farther into space than ever before," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced today. "And they're ready to help lead the first human mission to an asteroid and then on to Mars."

The new astronaut candidates comprise four females and four males. They will begin training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in August.

Eight new astronaut candidates

Josh Cassada (39) is a former naval aviator who hails from White Bear Lake in Minnesota.

Christina Hammock (34) is from Jacksonville, North Carolina. She is currently serving as station chief of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in American Samoa.

US Navy lieutenant commander Victor Glover (37) hails from Pomona in California and Prosper, Texas. He currently serving as a Navy legislative fellow in the US Congress.

Tyler Hague (37) is a lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force. He is from Hoxie, Kansas.

Nicole Aunapu Mann (35) is a major in the US Marine Corps. Originally from Penngrove, California, she is currently serving as an integrated product team lead at the US Naval Air Station in the state of Maryland.

A major in the US Army, Anne McClain (34) is a OH-58 helicopter pilot and a recent graduate of the US Naval Test Pilot School.

Andrew Morgan (37) is a major in the US Army and is also a qualified doctor. He has experience as an emergency physician and flight surgeon for the Army special operations community.

Hailing from Caribou, Maine, Jessica Meir (35) is currently an assistant professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

An eclectic bunch

"This year we have selected eight highly qualified individuals who have demonstrated impressive strengths academically, operationally and physically," said Janet Kavandi, director of Flight Crew Operations at Johnson Space Center.

She added that the eight candidates have diverse backgrounds and skill sets that will contribute to the existing astronaut corps.

Earlier this year, Netflix announced its first children’s original series, Turbo F.A.S.T., a collaboration with DreamWorks Animation. This show tracking the antics of a speedy snail will follow on from upcoming 3D feature film Turbo, which hits Irish cinemas in October.

Turbo F.A.S.T. will arrive on Netflix screens in December and, in 2014, users in all territories – that’s 40 countries worldwide – can expect a wide range of original series from the award-winning studio behind Shrek, Madagascar and The Croods.

Shows will be based on DreamWorks’ back catalogue and will be the first time the studio’s characters are introduced to the television market as a branded collection of shows.

Considering Netflix users streamed over 2bn hours of kids’ content in 2012 alone, the deal will have benefits for DreamWorks, which is seeking to expand its television production and distribution worldwide.

The Tianhe-2 system, better known as Milky Way-2, has earned the accolade as the world's most powerful supercomputer after pushing the US-developed system Titan into second place.

Milky Way-2 can reach processing speeds of 33.86 petaflop/s on the Linpack benchmark, making it the world's fastest supercomputer, according to the latest edition of the twice-yearly TOP500 list.

The supercomputer has 16,000 nodes, each with two Intel Xeon IvyBridge processors and three Xeon Phi processors. It is set to be deployed at the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzho, China, by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the former No. 1 supercomputer Titan, a Cray XK7 system installed at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been pushed down to second place on the listing. Titan is capable of 17.17 petaflop/s on the Linpack benchmark.

Third place went to Sequoia, an IBM BlueGene/Q system installed at DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

The remaining supercomputers that make up the top five on the list are Fujitsu's K computer, which is installed at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan, and Mira, another IBM BlueGene/Q system that is in situ at the Argonne National Laboratory outside of Chicago in the US.

The list was announced today during the opening session of the 2013 International Supercomputing Conference in Leipzig, Germany.

In its annual Digital Employment and Salary Survey 2013 Prosperity said that e-commerce multinationals were the principal drivers of the Irish digital sector.

It studied the hiring trends of the top 15 e-commerce firms operating in Ireland – 12 of them US multinationals and three of them Irish.

The leading Irish e-commerce companies comprised 250 of the 3,000 hires.

The survey found that 50pc of hiring done by multinationals is for client-facing roles, primarily in account management, sales and other duties.

A requirement for the majority of the roles is fluency in English and at least one other European language.

Most multinationals insist that applicants are educated to degree level and an interesting finding was the majority of Irish-hired have degrees from UCD.

Senior salaries static but the perks make the difference for multinationals

Prosperity said that apart from an increase in salary for more junior and entry level roles, salaries have not moved signicantly since 2011.

That said the salary levels are nevertheless attractive across the board. Salary levels in digital firms ranged from €60,000 to €100,000 and higher for people with five years-plus experience while people with mid level experience of three to five years were on salaries ranging from €30,000 up to €50,000.

In digital agencies, social media manager salaries started at the €28,000 level rising to €60,000 for seniors with five years-plus experience. A head of digital in a digital agency could expect to earn up to €110,00

User experience developers and designers could expect to start at salaries of €27,000 for juniors rising to around €60,000.

Heads of e-commerce seem to be the rock stars of the bunch with salaries of €130,000 and higher for seniors with over five years experience.

Prosperity said that time to fill jobs has increased notably in recent years due to both a lack of eligible candidates and a longer and more extensive interview process undertaken by multinationals.

It points out that SME indigenous players are struggling to compete with the benefits multinationals offer such as free food, gym, health insurance and social activity.

“There is also the fact that working for an international brand is a compelling proposition for job seeker, not only for the status but also for the career advantage of having a leading international brand on the jobseeker’s CV,” said Garry Mullan from Prosperity Digital Recruitment.

Digital worker image via Shutterstock

Taking place from 8.45am in The Marker Hotel in Dublin’s Docklands, some of the ambassadors gathering for the event hail from the countries hardest hit by youth unemployment, including Greece, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Ireland.

Ahead of the EU Digital Agenda Assembly (DAA), which runs this week from 19 to 20 June, ideas generated at the event will feed back into the DAA and the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, an EU initiative established to address the ICT skills gap.

A shortfall of 900,000 ICT professionals in Europe is predicted by 2015 and a panel will discuss ‘Skilling up for digital jobs in Europe’. There will also be Dragons’ Den-style pitches from young people.

Speakers at the event include Minister of State Fergus O’Dowd, TD, Ireland’s digital champion Lord David Puttnam, Microsoft Ireland MD Cathriona Hallahan and former professional boxer Bernard Dunne, who is also a Youth2Work champion.

JK Shin, Samsung’s head of mobile and co-chief executive, announced today that this new iteration of the Galaxy S4 will be capable of transmitting data at twice the speed of its straight-up LTE 4G counterpart.

The phone could be made available in South Korea this month and Shin revealed to Reuters that Samsung is currently speaking with overseas carriers about the phone.

LTE-Advanced is another step up from standard LTE 4G, offering twice the speed. Consumers opting for the faster device will have to shell out more, though, as Shin confirmed it will carry a higher price tag.

The service will allow smartphone-toting punters to use shopping apps, social network and check maps in 20-minute sessions for free.

The new Bitbuzz service will soon be available on Main Street, High Street, Plunkett Street and new Street in Killarney and will be expanded to additional areas later in 2013.

“We believe that complimentary Wi-Fi has become an essential service for international tourists and we are delighted to assist the town of Killarney in improving its already stellar tourist offering,” said Bitbuzz chief executive Shane Deasy.

Bitbuzz uses multi-band wireless point-to-point backhaul technology to ensure a more robust system than traditional mesh networks.

The company has seen a 46pc increase in registered users, which was boosted by the launch of Bitbuzz Freedom last year.

“We would like to thank the business owners in Killarney for helping us to provide Bitbuzz Freedom to the town,” Deasy said.

After blasting off via an Ariane 5 rocket on 5 June from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, the ESA's ATV-4 supply ship – a 20-tonne spacecraft dubbed Albert Einstein after the theoretical physicist of the same name – docked successfully with the ISS on Saturday, 15 June.

The Albert Einstein rendez-voused with the 420-tonne space station with a precision of a few centimetres, as both entities circled the Earth at 28,000 km/h, according to the ESA.

"Such a gentle contact between a spacecraft the size of a double-decker bus and a station 20 times larger is an amazing achievement, highlighting the impressive level of control achieved by this European space system," said Thomas Reiter, ESA's director of human spaceflight and operations.

Albert Einstein will remain connected to the space station for the next four months. As well as supplying goods and propellants, it will serve as an additional rest area for the six astronauts aboard the ISS if they need some time out from the cramped conditions in the space lab.

_{Astronaut Luca Parmitano prepares to take a picture of Earth from 400km high on the International Space Station. In this photo, Parmitano is in ESA's Cupola module that is used to monitor approaching spacecraft but also as a window to our planet. Image via ESA/NASA}

Before it blasted off, the Albert Einstein was stocked with 2,480kg of dry cargo, such as food and clothing for the astronauts and scientific equipment.

In addition, the spacecraft carried propellants that will be used to regularly reboost the space station's altitude in orbit. The Albert Einstein will also pump 570kg of drinking water and two tanks of oxygen into the space station's tanks.

If that weren't enough, it will also have the capacity to swerve the ISS out of the path of hazardous space debris.

At the end of its mission, scheduled for late October, the Albert Einstein will detach from the space station after it has been loaded with waste material.

The spacecraft will be directed to burn up safely over the South Pacific Ocean during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, the ESA said.

“This breaks at least one OED rule,” said John Simpson, chief editor of the OED. “Namely that a new word needs to be current for 10 years before consideration for inclusion.”

However, Simpson and the respected publication have conceded to redefine ‘tweet’ in its social networking sense because, “It seems to be catching on.”

New words from the ever-changing and influential world of technology often emerge in the OED’s updates, which occur four times a year with the next coming in September.

As well as a new meaning for ‘tweet’ on Twitter’s terms, ‘follow’ has been given a new definition to convey its use with regard to social media, while the noun ‘redirect’ has been give a new web-based definition, as well as the verb ‘stream’.

New additions to the OED include ‘geekery’, ‘live blog’, ‘mouseover’, ‘big data’, ‘crowdsourcing’, ‘e-reader’ and ‘flash mob’. New sub-entries derived from the tech world include ‘3D printer’, ‘3D printing’, ‘search engine optimization’ and ‘SEO’.

Pop culture also has an influential role in shaping the OED, which is why we are now seeing the word ‘epic’ being redefined with examples such as, “That’s epic, dude.”

TechCrunch today, quoting sources, reported that Facebook will reveal video support for Instagram on 20 June as a way of competing with Twitter’s Vine and successful services like Keek, which has amassed an audience of 45m users.

Twitter’s Vine app lets users record a six-second clip on video and share that out on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Keek’s service lets users record videos up to 36 seconds and in recent weeks the fast-emerging social network created a new feature that enables up to 36 users to chat privately in a group using text or video messages.

Press in the US have received invitations to an event on 20 June to discover what a “small team that has been working on a big idea” is all about. Enigmatically, each invitation came with a print of a coffee cup on the bottom right corner.

Movie camera image via Shutterstock

We’ve been tracking the progress of Soundwave and the Irish start-up of the same name for more than a year now. First came a second-place People’s Choice Award finish at Dublin Beta in late April 2012, followed by an out-and-out win at NDRC’s Lift Off competition in May, which earned the team a €50,000 investment.

In the year that has passed since, Soundwave has undergone beta testing with users such as high-profile early adopter Stephen Fry and is now complete and ready for a full public release on Thursday, 20 June.

The app will be free to download from the iTunes App Store and Google Play, giving Android and iOS users the ability to see what music their friends are listening to in real-time across a number of services.

How it works

Soundwave tracks what users are listening to in their native music apps, as well as through streaming services like Spotify and Rdio. This information appears in the Soundwave feed as it happens, providing a window onto what friends and others that you follow are listening to right now.

To listen back to these tracks, users can either avail of iTunes previews or purchase directly from the app, or they can listen for free through YouTube or SoundCloud where available.

The app also tracks listeners’ location and feeds this back to other users, so if you want to see what people in a selected area are listening to, you simply draw it on a map.

As well as taking a cut for music sold through the app, Soundwave stands to benefit financially from the listening data that the app generates and collates.

A special event to celebrate the app’s release will take place in Apple’s flagship store on Regent Street, London, on Monday 24 June, with Fry in attendance, and a separate Dublin launch party is also in the works.

The director of Google Giving Jacquelline Fuller said that while the internet has been a force for good there are dark corners of the internet where criminal behaviour exists.

One of the most heinous crimes is the increasing number of child exploitation images on the internet and Google says it wants to eradicate this forever.

It pointed out that in 2011 the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) CyberTipline received 17.3m images and videos of suspected child abuse – four times what was received in 2007.

Fuller warned that the number of images of child abuse online is on the rise.

“Behind these images are real, vulnerable kids who are sexually victimised and victimised further through the distribution of their images,” Fuller said.

“It is critical that we take action as a community - as concerned parents, guardians, teachers and companies - to help combat this problem.”

A global problem that requires a global solution

It is a sad and disappointing fact of life in the 21^st century that businesses and telecoms companies would spend billions of dollars in court battles over IP and illegal downloads but far less is being done to combat a real and growing problem, that of child exploitation online.

Fuller said that more than half of the images and videos reported to the NCMEC are from outside the US.

The NCMEC’s CyberTipline is accessible to 60 countries to help law enforcement agencies execute their investigations.

In 2006, Google joined the Technology Coalition of tech companies endeavouring to develop software and hardware to fight abuse images on the web and locate missing children.

“There is much more that can be done, and Google is taking our commitment another step further through a US$5m effort to eradicate child abuse imagery online. Part of this commitment will go to global child protection partners, like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation. We’re providing additional support to similar heroic organisations in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and Latin America,” Fuller said.

Google has used “hashing” technology to tag known child sexual abuse images to identify duplicate images which may exist elsewhere.

Every image is given a unique ID that allows Google’s computers to recognise them without humans having to view the same image again.

Encrypted fingerprints

Recently, Google has started working to incorporate encrypted ‘fingerprints’ of child sexual abuse images into a cross-industry database.

This will enable companies, law enforcement and charities to better collaborate on detecting and removing these images, and to take action against the criminals. Google has also announced a US$2m Child Protection Technology Fund to encourage the development of more effective tools.

“We’re in the business of making information widely available, but there’s certain ‘information’ that should never be created or found,” Fuller said.

“We can do a lot to ensure it’s not available online - and that when people try to share this disgusting content they are caught and prosecuted.”

Via the EU's research funding programme FP7, Crospon and Adama Innovations will together receive almost €600,000 in funding. They will be joining four other companies and a number of research institutes from the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Portugal and Spain as part of the FaBiMed project.

Kicking off in September, the researchers from around the EU who are involved in FaBiMed will spend three years working to come up with new manufacturing techniques for medical devices using nanoscience.

Based in Galway, Crospon was set up in 2006 by John O'Dea. The company is developing minimally invasive medical devices for surgery in the oesophagus and stomach.

As part of FaBiMed, Crospon will lead the demonstration team and will test the effectiveness of the new devices produced during the three-year project.

Adama Innovations was spun out from the Irish nanoscience institute CRANN earlier this year by principal investigator Prof Graham Cross. The company has developed a process for imprinting patterns at a scale invisible to the human eye onto materials and hard surfaces.

Applications for this technology could include anti-counterfeiting technology, labelling or additive manufacturing to improve functionality, according to Adama Innovations.

During the FaBiMed project, Adama Innovations will examine how this micro-patterning could be used in moulds and coatings when producing medical devices.

Managing director Declan Scanlan said that being accepted onto the EU project would be a real boost to Adama Innovations

"Our research has the potential to transform medical device manufacturing, among other products," he said.

Echoing these words, Crospon's O'Dea added that the company has been working on developing more innovative medical devices for six years.

"Nanoscience research can open up a world of possibilities for the future of medicine, and the fact that the EU is recognising this and investing in this project is extremely encouraging," said O'Dea.

The news about the Irish involvement in the EU project coincides with Nanoweek, Ireland's national awareness week around nanoscience, that is running until Friday.

Apple was one of a number of technology companies including Google, Facebook and Microsoft named by Edward Snowden who claimed that US intelligence agencies were accessing their servers as part of the PRISM programme.

In recent days, Facebook and Microsoft revealed they had received 18,000 and 31,000 legal orders respectively from law enforcement agencies performing investigations.

Apple said it first heard of the PRISM programme when news organisations asked about it on 6 June.

“We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer content must get a court order.”

Apple said it has asked the US authorities to allow it to report on how many legal requests it receives in relation to national security and how it handles them.

“From 1 December 2012 to 31 May 2013 Apple received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from US law enforcement for customer data. Between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in those requests, which came from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters.

“The most common form of request comes from police investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide.

“Regardless of the circumstances, our legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfil it.”

Apple prioritises customer privacy

Apple said it prioritises the protection of customers’ private data and as a policy doesn’t collect or maintain a “mountain of personal details” about customers.

“There are certain categories of information which we do not provide to law enforcement or any other group because we choose not to retain it.

“For example, conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data. Similarly, we do not store data related to customers’ location, Map searches or Siri requests in any identifiable form.

“We will continue to work hard to strike the right balance between fulfilling our legal responsibilities and protecting our customers’ privacy as they expect and deserve,” Apple said.

Binary world image via Shutterstock

The durable new Alienware 14, 17 and 18 laptops feature all-new performance graphics, processors and components newly packaged in an anodised aluminium shell and magnesium alloy body, and the keyboard on each laptop is protected by a reinforced plate.

Each of the new laptops features quad-core fourth-generation Intel Core i7 processors, Nvidia GeForce 700 series graphics and DDR3L memory, which requires lower voltage, thus increasing battery life.

Audio powered by Dolby Home Theatre v4 is delivered through Klipsch speakers and there’s support for up to three (Alienware 14) or four (Alienware 17 and 18) storage drives.

^{Dell Alienware 14}

The 14-inch Alienware 14 (€1,429) is the more compact choice and, in response to users’ demands, now comes with an anti-glare LCD display with wide viewing angles. There’s also an option for a full-HD IPS display.

^{Dell Alienware 17}

The 17-inch Alienware 17 (€1,499) claims desktop-grade performance and this version can be configured with an optional 3D panel for immersive gaming enthusiasts.

^{Dell Alienware 18}

The 18-inch Alienware 18 (€2,199) features a full-HD display with PLS wide-angle technology, Nvidia SLI dual graphics technology as standard, and an overclocked CPU option with maximum speed of 4.3GHz.

All three laptops also come with the updated Alienware Command Centre software, which includes the exclusive AlienFX lighting control system. This allows users to create their own custom lighting themes and special effects, with up to 20 colours across 10 different lighting zones. Alienware has worked closely with game developers to incorporate AlienFX in more than 60 game titles.

Alienware also announced an update to its award-winning X51 gaming desktop, offering more performance with improved technology in nearly every category over the previous generation. The compact desktop features Intel fourth-generation Core i5 and i7 processors, enthusiast graphics up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670, and a dual hard drive configuration of 256GB SSD and 1TB storage.

More than 100 participants, including the former climate change adviser to the UK government, John Ashton, will be in Dublin for the workshop series, dubbed the Climate Gathering.

The Greens/European Free Alliance group from the European Parliament is co-hosting the three-day event along with the Climate Gathering group. The event is running to coincide with the Digital Agenda Assembly that's also taking place in Dublin this week.

'Plan C'

The goal of the Climate Gathering will be to pursue what the event's organisers are calling 'plan C' - a plan for a new, low-carbon, digital economy.

Representatives from the likes of Google, Intel, IBM, Facebook, Twitter and Siemens will be pooling ideas along with Ashton and Green MEPs Rebecca Harms and Claude Turmes, community groups, educational institutes and second-level students.

“We have participants from leading ICT industries joining our gathering because Dublin is just the place to find out how this new economy might work," said Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, who is co-convening the event.

The Dublin gathering is taking place in the wake of an initial climate gathering that took place in the Burren, Co Clare, in February.

Ryan said one of the lessons the organisers learned from the first climate gathering is that representatives from all areas of the community need to be involved in such a meeting of minds.

“Getting Plan C right makes the perspective of an adolescent just as important as that of the long-time climate expert," he explained.

Workshops will be running in inventive locations across the city, such as the James Joyce Tower in Sandycove, the Baily Lighthouse on Howth Head and community centres in Terenure.

On Wednesday evening, there will be a free public event in the Mansion House to launch the new Plan C.

Speakers will include Lord David Puttnam, Ireland’s digital champion, and Martin Curley, director of Intel Labs Europe.

Foster made the comments while delivering the opening address recently at the Clinton Centre International Summer School’s Panel Day in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, entitled ‘Women in Society’.

Foster said Northern Ireland’s female business leaders are role models who can inspire the next generation, and increasing the amount of female entrepreneurship is more important than ever.

“We are all aware of the contribution women make to our economy, whether as business leaders, business people or in politics,” Foster said.

“However, women remain the largest under-represented group when it comes to enterprise in Northern Ireland. Despite the level of female entrepreneurship rising to a record high in 2011, Northern Ireland continues to have the lowest ratio of female-to-male entrepreneurial activity rate (38pc) and is 10pc lower than the UK as a whole.

“That means that there is a vast reserve of untapped potential which could become an even more significant driver of the Northern Ireland economy.”

Foster added that the Northern Ireland Executive’s Economic Strategy sets out the steps required to boost the private sector and improve Northern Ireland’s economic competitiveness.

“We need to encourage a greater number of people to start new, innovative, globally focused businesses and Invest Northern Ireland’s recently launched Regional Start Initiative aims to do just that,” said Foster.

‘Women in Society’ featured an audience of 60 local women and young people, international young leaders from 10 countries, as well as delegates and keynote speakers from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the US.

Women Invent Tomorrow is Silicon Republic's year-long campaign to champion the role of women in science, technology,engineering and maths

EU to give consumers powers to sue tech giants in anti-trust cases

A new proposal published this past week by the European Commission aims to give consumers the power to pursue legal action against tech giants and cartels found to be behaving in an anti-competitive manner and abusing their market power.

The move could see internet giants like Google and Microsoft potentially be the target of court cases taken by private individuals seeking damages if they believe they are the victim of market abuse.

The proposal points out that the enforcement of EU competition rules is best guaranteed through complementary public and private enforcement.

However, it points out that the current existing legal framework fails to regulate the interaction between the two strands of competition law.

In two years, digital products will account for 57pc of media income – report

Now is the time for media firms to invest in digital products or face being left behind when earnings from traditional media lose out to digital sales, a new report from Ernst & Young suggests.

Following a survey of more than 550 senior executives at technology, gaming, publishing, film, broadcast media and social networking companies, Ernst & Young discovered that 47pc of all revenues in media and entertainment companies currently comes from digital products.

The professional services firm then forecast 10pc growth in these revenues over the next two years, reaching 57pc of overall income by 2015.

Xtra-vision is saved: receivers sell business to Hilco Capital

High-street video and gaming rental and retail firm Xtra-vision has been saved after its receivers Ernst & Young completed the sale of the business and its assets to a number of firms backed by Hilco Capital Ireland for an undisclosed sum.

The sale includes the business, stock and head office in Tallaght, Dublin, helping to safeguard jobs across the island of Ireland and secure a future for the Xtra-vision brand. 

Hilco Capital is an international restructuring business that invests in distressed businesses across sectors like retail and manufacturing.

Google acquires sat-nav app Waze

Internet search giant Google has confirmed its acquisition of sat-nav smartphone app Waze. Terms of the purchase have not been disclosed.

Under the deal, Google expects to enhance Google Maps with some of the traffic update features provided by Waze and enhance Waze with Google’s search capabilities.

The Waze product development team will remain in Israel and operate separately for now, said Brian McClendon, vice-president of Google’s Geo products.

Irish universities forge R&D pact with Japanese drugs giant Shionogi

Ireland’s top universities have entered into a collaboration pact with Shionogi, one of the largest pharmaceutical players in Japan and maker of the cholesterol drug Crestor.

Shionogi will implement in Ireland the Shionogi Science Programme, which the company is working on as part of its globalisation of industry-university collaboration.

Shionogi’s president Isao Teshirogi said the aim of the pact is to seed vital research projects and identify vital research talent as part of its global HR strategy.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed with NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, UCD, University of Limerick, the Royal College of Surgeons and Trinity College Dublin.

Dublin-based Keywords Studios plans stg£10m IPO

Dublin-headquartered Keywords Studios announced last week it intends to float on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM), and seeks to raise stg£10m in its initial public offering (IPO).

Keywords Studios provides localisation, audio and testing services to the global video-games market. Its client base includes EA, Disney, Microsoft, and Blizzard Entertainment.

The company is hoping to raise stg£10m to expand its localisation services into new entertainment markets, such as online gambling and e-learning, and to make acquisitions.

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The eight clusters comprise those from Spain, Sweden, Scotland, England, Malta, Portugal and the Czech Republic. 

This marks the first occasion for these clusters to come together in a formal way.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s gathering of digital clusters, the chief executive of the Digital Hub Development Agency, Edel Flynn said:  “This gathering is one of the most important of the European Presidency. 

“As member states grapple with recovery, one issue is clear: digital now dominates the way in which we learn, do business and conduct many activities in our home lives. 

“The EU needs to prioritise and support digital growth and innovation so that digital competency is pervasive in all member states and across all aspects of people’s everyday life. 

“The experience of digital clusters – such as that of the Digital Hub – is crucial in helping to inform European policy,” Flynn said.

Digital world image via Shutterstock

Will heads roll over Snoopgate?

The never-ending car crash that is the fallout over revelations of Snoopgate – the US intelligence apparatus’ surveillance of internet data usage inside and outside the US – continues.

According to The Washington Post, top leadership reached the brink of resignation over electronic surveillance orders they believed to be illegal.

“President George W Bush backed down, halting secret foreign intelligence-gathering operations that had crossed into domestic terrain. That morning marked the beginning of the end of STELLARWIND, the cover name for a set of four surveillance programmes that brought Americans and American territory within the domain of the National Security Agency for the first time in decades. It was also a prelude to new legal structures that allowed Bush and then-President (Barack) Obama to reproduce each of those programmes and expand their reach.”

Facebook and Microsoft reveal legal orders

No doubt aware that trust and respect of privacy are their bread and butter in the digital age, Facebook and Microsoft disclosed they received legal orders to turn over details on about one-thousandth of 1pc of user accounts.

CNET reported that Microsoft and Facebook became the first companies to disclose the total number of legal orders they received for user data, including ones from the National Security Agency and from state, local, and federal police performing criminal investigations.

“The total for Facebook: About 18,000 accounts over a six-month period, or one-thousandth of 1pc of user accounts.

“Microsoft’s total was about 31,000 accounts over the same six-month period ending 31 December 2012. A Google representative told CNET this evening that the search company is working on disclosing the same type of statistics, and plans to be more detailed than Microsoft and Facebook.”

Is Edward Snowden a hero or a traitor to the US?

But the question of whether Edward Snowden, the ex-CIA contractor who lifted the lid on this veritable can of worms is a hero or traitor has been raised as reports emerge he may sell secrets he gleaned to China.

Business Insider’s Henry Blodget said: “Snowden, most people agreed, had revealed outrageous, illegal privacy abuses by the US government spying machine. Revealing these secrets was a patriotic act, people said. Snowden might have broken some laws, but he had America’s best interests at heart. Americans should be grateful.

“A few days later, however, Snowden’s motives seem less pure. And his characterisations of US intelligence activities seem less accurate, more personal, and more naive.”

New Xbox Music layout

Moving on to a more pleasant topic, music, it appears Microsoft is about to unveil a new-look Xbox Music design, according to The Verge.

The Verge reported: “Screenshots of the new Xbox Music update show a two-panel interface that appears to improve discoverability of music and the ability to quickly access a collection of songs. Xbox Music originally launched in October for Windows 8 and Windows RT devices, with the ability to access songs from an Xbox 360, too. Although the service includes most popular songs and albums, the interface has often been slow and clunky on Windows 8 and Windows RT devices. The updated app clearly aims to improve that, with a ‘simplified design and layout’, according to Microsoft.”

Google to close down AdWhirl

TechCrunch reported that Google is planning to close down AdWhirl, a platform that lets developers flit between different ad platforms, indicating a consolidation of its position in the online advertising space.

It reported: “In a letter to developers sent out today, Google said that they will wait until 30 September to decide where they would like to move their ads. It’s encouraging them to migrate to AdMob Mediation, a competing tool that it launched after the acquisition while continuing to support AdWhirl. They can also continue to use AdWhirl, if they care to use the open source code ‘to run their own AdWhirl service’. But Google won’t be involved with hosting or supporting it.”

Whatsapp with Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia is on the verge of banning mobile messaging app Whatsapp, right after blocking Viber, according to CNET.

“The Saudi Arabian government has cracked down on messaging apps before, temporarily banning BlackBerry messenger services after BlackBerry reportedly didn’t adhere to the country’s regulatory requirements. The Saudi government complained at the time that the encrypted security used in the BlackBerry network prevented the government from monitoring communications channels, which it said could be used to threaten national security.”

In March, Saudi officials threatened to block popular internet chat, call, and messaging services Skype, WhatsApp, and Viber if they did not comply with local regulations.

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Jerry Carey, managing director of IBS, said they will be opening a call centre in Cork and establishing an office in Dublin to deal with accounts and payment, 98FM reported. Most of the jobs, as a result, will be located in Dublin and Cork.

Fifty new roles in engineering, technical support, and sales and marketing will be created immediately, and the remaining 40 jobs will be filled in the next year to 18 months.

Nearly 300 people work at the company in seven locations throughout the island of Ireland.

IBS-Xerox (Ireland), operating in a sector estimated to be worth about €150m per year, is aiming to increase its market share by 5pc over the next two years.

Carey referred to how future growth will consider developments in the workplace, where ‘bring your own device’ to work is becoming mainstream in business.

“With increasing numbers of employees printing from mobile devices such as tablets, iPads and smartphones, organisations are vulnerable to hackers and malware. We’re developing innovative solutions for our customers which provide greater systems security in an ‘always on’ world,” Carey said.

Carey added the company is experiencing demand from its large corporate clients, as well as growth in the number of SMEs investing in new print equipment.

“Both are very positive signs that confidence is returning to the business sector,” Carey said.

Inside Google Glass

This week we got to see the inner workings of wearable computer Google Glass, thanks to Scott Torborg and Star Simpson of Catwig. The pair’s teardown not only gives us a dissected view of Glass, but also a glimpse into the world of the elite Glass Explorers chosen as early adopters.

Their account and photo essay even documents ‘the receiving ceremony’; that is, the appointment to pick up the headset at Google’s offices in Los Angeles or New York, choose the colour you want and go through 45 minutes of UI training.

We already know what comes in the box, thanks to photo uploads from another designated explorer, but Simpson and Torborg’s account looks deeper into the smart specs.

^{Image via Catwig}

They compare the build quality to that of a high-end laptop and though they spent quite some time tearing Glass apart, they were still able to reassemble a working headset, albeit with some superficial damage.

They also attached the hub to a pair of prescription glasses, just to see how it would look.

^{Image via Catwig}

Inside, they found a proximity sensor, a (likely) ambient light sensor, a Synaptics touchpad and controller, a 16GB SanDisk flash, an irreplaceable single-cell Lithium Polymer battery of about 570mAh, a bone conduction speaker and, among other things, a teeny-tiny 640 x 360 resolution display with pixels about one-eighth the physical width of those on the iPhone 5’s retina display.

^{Image via Catwig}

Will we see a phablet from Sony on 4 July?

A Sony Mobile press invite to journalists in France says the company has a “big” surprise, and the Xperia Blog thinks it could be a 6.5-inch phablet to rival Samsung’s Note range.

The invite hints at a mobile device following the Xperia Z design language and also contains handwriting-style text and the suggestion of a stylus.

The Xperia Blog speculates the event on 4 July will unveil an Xperia Z Ultra, a phablet with a 6.5-inch 1080p Triluminos display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, 8MP rear camera, 2.2MP front-facing camera and Android 4.2.

The device in the image also appears to have sealed ports, indicating it may be water-resistant, like the rest of the Xperia Z range. Xperia Blog also expects it to be super slim at 6.5mm, which again fits the range boasting the world’s slimmest tablet, the Xperia Tablet Z.

Nokia EOS rumoured for 11 July launch

Also in mobile device launch rumours this week, we have press invites from Nokia for an event in New York entitled ‘Zoom: Reinvented’ sparking speculation that the new EOS will be unveiled on 11 July.

We featured alleged leaked images of the Nokia EOS in last week’s round-up. The rumoured smartphone is expected to feature a powerful camera with Nokia PureView technology.

Other rumoured specs include Windows Phone 8 as an operating system, wireless charging and a non-removable battery.

Accessories refresh for Xbox One

You can’t have a next-generation games console without some next-generation gaming accessories, and with all the hoopla around the Xbox One launch, its focus on TV, the sort-of-creepy potential of the Kinect sensor, licensing gripes and games announcements, we almost didn’t get a chance to tell you about them.

The Xbox One Wireless Controller claims to have more than 40 technical and design innovations over its predecessor, including an updated directional pad, thumb sticks and contours for greater precision and control. Designed to work with new Kinect, the new controller pairs automatically with the sensor for seamless player syncing.

An Xbox One Play & Charge Kit can be bundled with the new controller or purchased separately. This lithium ion rechargeable battery pack fits inside the controller and comes with a charging cable that connects to the console.

Microsoft claims the new battery charges twice as fast as the Xbox 360 model, reaching full capacity in less than four hours. It can also charge during gameplay or when the system is in standby mode.

Finally, the Xbox One Chat Headset is wired to the controller, meaning users don’t have to take their hands off the proverbial wheel to control volume or mute. The mono headset also features a lightweight and comfortable new design with wideband digital audio and a unidirectional microphone.

Samsung Galaxy NX camera image leaks

This week, images purporting to be press shots of a mirrorless Samsung Galaxy NX camera appeared on a Vietnamese website, prompting rumours that the South Korean gadget-maker may have more than just new mobile devices to show us on 20 June.

^{Image via Tinh tế}

The Android-powered camera is pictured along with a selection of lenses from Samsung’s NX range. The device is also shown to have a large rear touchscreen, and rumoured specs include a 20.3MP APS-C sensor and 1080p video capture.

Meanwhile, the brand has announced the slimmest and smallest AF fish-eye lens on the market, the super-wide 10mm f3.5 Fisheye Lens for the NX range. About half the size and weight of its rivals at 72g, the lens comes with iScene options and is fitted with a circular aperture diaphragm.

The new fish-eye lens is available in either white or black and will be released in Ireland later this year.

Samsung Galaxy Ace 3

We also have mobile news from Samsung as its ever-expanding mobile range gets yet another new addition in the form of the Galaxy Ace 3.

The new device features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, Android Jelly Bean 4.2, front-facing VGA camera and a 5MP rear camera with Sound & Shot, Best Photo and Buddy Photo Share.

Sporting a 4-inch WVGA TFT LCD display, the interface can be switched to Easy Mode for a simplified look – very handy for users new to smartphones.

There will be both 3G and LTE versions available and, while the LTE version is promised for the UK, we’ll have to wait and see if it comes to Ireland.

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Monday, 17 June:

Daxor Corp

Tuesday, 18 June:

Adobe Systems Inc

Wednesday, 19 June:

Red Hat Inc

Thursday, 20 June:

Oracle Corp

Friday, 21 June:

ReNeuron Group PLC

Financial markets image via Shutterstock

The Father’s Day doodle takes users to a search result for Father's Day.

Father's Day was created in the US in the early 20^th century to complement Mother’s Day.

The driving force behind the establishment of the special day was Sonora Smart Dodd who was inspired by a sermon about Mother’s Day to recommend to her pastor that fathers should have a special day too.

The first Father’s Day took place in 1910 but it petered out by the 1920s.

In 1938 with the help of the Father’s Day Council Dodd began promoting the day again.

It wasn’t until 1966, however, that the third Sunday in June became officially Father’s Day when President Lyndon B Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honouring fathers.

About 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, 500 years of video watched on Facebook every day, and more than 700 YouTube videos shared on Twitter each minute, ensuring there is always video trending on the web.

With so much video available for viewing, we take a look at some of the viral videos that have caught our eye this week.

Official PlayStation Used Game Instructional Video

This week we had the war of the consoles breaking out at E3 as Microsoft and Sony went head to head with press events for their next-generation games systems. By most accounts, Sony came out on top for simply sticking with the status quo in terms of sharing permissions and connectivity, while Microsoft’s Xbox One has been criticised for introducing a restrictive licensing policy and the need for a constant online connection. Just one look at this video from PlayStation demonstrating how to lend games to a friend on the PlayStation 4 sums up why you shouldn’t over complicate things.

Uploaded: 10 June 2013

Racist B&B

When Tara Flynn visited her hometown of Kinsale, Co Cork, with her African-American husband, the racial slurs spouted from a small selection of individuals shocked her into video-making action. The lesson from this video is not that you shouldn’t be racist to a talented comedian’s husband whose backlash will come in the form of a scathingly funny viral video sending up our so called ‘Ireland of the Welcomes’, but really that you just shouldn’t be racist – ever – nor should you just turn a blind eye to it.

Uploaded: 10 June

Optical illusion dance

Somehow, this mind-blowing video passed under our radar following its upload in March, but we’re delighted to have discovered it being shared on social media this week. With nearly 3m views to its name, we can only imagine how much confusion has resulted from watching this dance designed to mess with your head.

Uploaded: 20 March 2013

Tiger just wants a drink

We all know that you should let sleeping dogs lie but this video teaches us to let thirsty dogs drink uninterrupted, too. Even if you are a bad-ass tiger, this pooch is having none of your guff.

Uploaded: 6 June 2013

Evolution of ‘Get Lucky’

This video is more of an aural sensation than a visual feast, as PV Nova covers fellow French musicians Daft Punk’s feel-good hit of the summer through the ages, reworking the track in every decade’s definitive musical style from the 1920s to the future. It gets a bit more animated at the end when PV Nova turns up to let us know of his plans to make a music video from fellow YouTubers’ contributions. We’ll be keeping an eye out for it!

Uploaded: 10 June 2013

Photoshop Live – Street Retouch Prank

To pull off this creative prank, AdobeNordic enlisted the help of ‘Photoshop magician’ Erik Johansson. The photographer and retouch artist is known for his incredible surreal imagery created using Adobe’s famed software, and here he put his skills to the test with a live Photoshop challenge – to the surprise and delight of these unsuspecting public transport patrons.

Uploaded: 7 June 2013

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With the growing popularity of infographics, GetBulb is on a mission to make data visualisation more compelling via its tool - a HTML5 app that can be downloaded for any modern desktop web browser.

Oliver Mooney founded GetBulb in 2011 and has since taken part in the Startupbootcamp start-up accelerator in Dublin, as well as winning The Irish Times Digital Challenge last year.

So how did the idea for GetBulb come about? Having worked as a data scientist for a number of years, Mooney says he had always struggled to communicate his data findings in a meaningful way.

"Anybody who's ever made a bar chart in Excel has been disappointed with the results," he says. "Excel has a small set of good visualisations, but it's not great at combining them or exporting them."

Visual stories

He set out to develop a tool targeted at helping analysts express data insights visually.

"GetBulb helps people with interesting sets of data tell visual stories about that data. These range from simple visualisations to full-blown infographics."

The charts that GetBulb creates will work across web and print.

Mooney is eager to get across that anyone who can copy and paste can use GetBulb. Indeed, the start-up brought out a fun video earlier this year to pitch how easy the tool will be for users.

"Select your data in any popular spreadsheet, hit copy, switch to our app and paste in your data. You get a great visualisation immediately," he says.

GetBulb has a gallery of templates that people can choose from. Users can also add additional data sets using the app's visual elements and layout tools to tell a larger story or to compare and contrast different sets of data. There is also the scope to add in corporate logos and images.

"When you're done, you can export it for any destination, from high-resolution print graphics to shared interactive widgets for blogs or company web pages," says Mooney.

_{World map data visualisation tool created by GetBulb}

Beta mode

In July, GetBulb is going into beta mode and has already signed up about 500 users to take part in the programme. A few select users will get a peek of the app this month.

"We've already done some initial visualisations for customers using the app."

This year, Mooney ramped up the team at GetBulb and there are now six people working at the start-up, including developers and marketers.

Jane Ruffino is chief marketing officer at GetBulb and she says people can still sign up for the beta programme.

"We want to see who is using the product the most. You will be able to play with it to see how your data looks online," she explains. "It's really to figure out what features to add and what people want."

That done, Mooney says that the team will work to polish the app and get it into the hands of as many people as possible.

As well as this, the plan is for GetBulb to eventually add a system whereby designers can upload and sell their template designs.

"We will have a marketplace because we want to have a really wide range of templates that people will use," explains Ruffino.

Trial customers of Stripe

GetBulb has also been approved as one of the trial customers of Stripe, the online payments engine co-founded by brothers Patrick and John Collison from Limerick.

"We heard through the grapevine that Stripe were looking for beta customers and we jumped at the chance," explains Mooney. "Their product lets us experiment with different payment models cleanly while handling the vast majority of security and privacy concerns for us."

And, in terms of connecting with potential investors, Ruffino says GetBulb has had a lot of interest.

"We're always meeting with investors and talking to people about it and we're also talking to investors about what we should be doing."

At the moment, Ruffino says it's about getting the product out and getting some traction and then going back and doing more focused pitching to investors.

"Everybody wants data but it's actually meaningless on its own. We're making it easier for people to tell stories," she says. "That's why people like infographics. What makes a good infographic is your brain engages in a way that it doesn't with a linear narrative."