A roundup of this week's Technology & Innovation news in brief
GameStop accepting mobile-phone trade-ins
GameStop, the specialist games retailer that offers cash or store credit on trade-ins of games consoles, computer games, CDs and DVDs, is now accepting mobile phones.
The retailer, which has 55 stores in Ireland, estimates that about 2.8 million mobile-phone handsets are sold or given to customers every year in Ireland, with the result that about 1.5 million handsets end up in landfill or gathering dust in homes and offices.
GameStop said it would only accept mobile phones in full working order and customers must bring personal identification, such as a passport or driving licence, when trading in a phone.
Mobile usage study begins
The biggest study to date into the effects of mobile- phone usage on long-term health was initiated yesterday, aiming to track at least 250,000 people in five European countries for up to 30 years.
The Cohort Study on Mobile Communications differs from previous attempts to examine links between mobile-phone use and diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders in that it will follow users’ behaviour in real time.
– (Reuters)
Call for co-investment fund
An international expert on early-stage financing for start-ups has called on the Government to help create a multimillion-euro co-investment fund to support the development of firms in a range of high-tech sectors, from information technology to life sciences. Speaking in Dublin at a seminar organised by the Halo Business Angel Network, Nelson Gray said Ireland needed to consider a fund similar to the £75 million (€87 million) Scottish Co-investment Fund.
HP introduces tools to make printing easier
HP has introduced a new suite of tools to help large businesses get a better handle on their printing, including software for BlackBerry smartphones that enables them to output documents to printers on their corporate network.
From later this year the BlackBerry software will also be able to send print jobs to 1,800 FedEx print shops around the world or to other locations in HP’s ePrint network, which includes 1,300 Hilton hotels.
The announcement is the first fruits of a strategic partnership between HP and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, announced last year.
Data-protection agencies call on Google to improve privacy
Google has received a letter from data-protection authorities of 10 countries, including Ireland, demanding that the company improve privacy for its users, citing concerns about its Google Buzz and Street View services.
Google is neglecting privacy as it releases applications, the letter says.
The company faces increasing government scrutiny as it expands its online services to areas, such as social networking, that use more personal information. Buzz, unveiled in February, pulled users’ contacts from Google Gmail accounts automatically and displayed them to others.
Google has since apologised and modified the program. – (Bloomberg)
