A roundup of today's other technology stories in brief:
Infacta serving 14m net polls
Sligo-based Infacta says that it is serving up to 14 million online surveys a month through its free PollDaddy service. PollDaddy allows non-technical users to create surveys on whatever topic they like. The polls can then be easily published on users' MySpace, Facebook and Xanga pages.
Forum seeks tech pioneers
The World Economic Forum is seeking nominations for its 2008 class of technology pioneers, which will recognise the chief executives of companies that develop and use innovative technology. Previous pioneers have included Autonomy, Cambridge Silicon Radio, Encore Software, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Google and Technorati.
Nominations should be submitted by May 31st. An application form can be downloaded from the forum's website, www.weforum.org
Horizon upbeat on growth
Speaking at Horizon Technology's agm in Dublin yesterday, group chairman Samir Naji said that the IT market in Ireland and the UK was growing this year and that Horizon would grown in all business segments this year.
As a result, he said that the board expects its performance for the year to be in line with market expectations.
Online TV firm raises $45m
Joost, the internet television service set up last year by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström has received $45 million (€33.4 million) in backing from five investors. The investment was led by Index Ventures, who also backed Skype and also included CBS and Viacom, who are also making their programmes available on the Joost platform.
Mobile TV use to soar - report
Research house Screen Digest predicts that the use of video on mobile phones will explode in the next four years and will leave gaming and music in the shade.
In a report issued this week, it said mobile gaming will grow incrementally from its current value of €1.6 billion to €2 billion by 2011. Mobile music is expected to fare better reaching €1.5 billion - an eightfold increase from 2006. However, the real winner for the mobile networks will be TV, which Screen Digest says will deliver €4.7 billion of revenue from 140 million subscribers by 2011.
Slowdown in Irish VC activity
A report from DowJones Venture One and Ernst & Young shows venture capital activity in Ireland all but dried up during the first quarter of the year. The European Venture Capital Report tracked just a single investment of €4.2 million, which was in Dublin-based Mapflow, a provider of location software systems.
The total of €4.2 million compares to €26.3 million in the last quarter of 2006 and €28.6 million in the first quarter. The report seems to confirm that local venture capitalists are effectively closed for new investments as they are currently raising new seven-year funds.
The report found that across Europe, VC activity decreased, with €1.07 billion invested in 207 deals during the quarter - down 11 per cent from the first quarter of 2006.
IBM power plan to cost $1bn
IBM has announced plans to invest $1 billion (€742 million) annually in green technologies, to help itself and its customers to reduce the consumption of power in data centres.
IBM said that if current consumption continues, powering a data centre will cost 70 per cent of the value of the hardware running in it.
