Wellcome Trust puts ITSM in the cloud
Biomedical research charity Wellcome Trust has replaced two legacy IT service management systems (ITSM) with a cloud-based alternative and has cut £600,000 annual costs and improved service levels. The company, which is headquartered in London, has about 600 permanent staff with a relatively small IT team of 41. The projects it supports span the globe. It is replacing a combination of legacy systems in the form of software from Touchpaper and LANDesk with a cloud-based service from ServiceNow. Mark Bramwell, IT head at the charity, said its ITSM processes were "not particularly effective, efficient and joined up" and there were lower-cost alternatives in the market.
Orange takes m-wallet to Poland
Mobile operator Orange has expanded its mobile wallet offering to another market with a commercial offer targeting several thousand users in Poland. PTK Centertel, an Orange group affiliate, is deploying the largest NFC program in Poland, in collaboration with technology partner Gemalto. The move follows recent deployments in the UK and France. Poland already benefits from a well established contactless payment infrastructure of approximately 35,000 acceptance points, notably in fast food restaurants, cinemas, supermarkets and retailers, giving the technology a head start when deployed on handsets.
Sega to bring BBC Earth content to life with interactive 'experience'
BBC Worldwide's natural history division BBC Earth has teamed up with Sega to create interactive exhibition spaces set to open in Japan and the US over the next two years. The aim is to bring the BBC's natural history content to life using Sega's technology and create a "new multi-sensory adventure". The details of the "experience" are somewhat vague, but we do know that it will take up 4,000 square metres of a multi-level space where visitors will be able to explore the natural world using their eyes, ears, hands and minds.
Winklevoss twins end Facebook lawsuit
The Winklevoss twins, the former classmates and business partners of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, have decided to end their legal battle over whether the idea for the social networking site was stolen from them. The case that launched a thousand cinema trips – after it became the basis for the Hollywood film The Social Network in 2010 – ended with a whimper rather than a bang in one-paragraph court filing by the twins. They said that they would forgo a trip to the US supreme court and accept a 2008 settlement which gave them a mixture of $20m cash and Facebook stock which at the time was worth around $45m. Since then the putative value of the privately-held Facebook has grown more than fourfold, from $15bn to $70bn. The twins' stock is thus in theory worth more than $150m.
Global software market to bounce back in 2011
Having recovered from a stagnant year in 2010, the global software market is set to grow by 8.2 per cent and reach $267bn (£165bn) in 2011. This is according to the latest forecast provided by industry analysts Ovum. Over the next four years, the market will achieve a compound annual growth rate of 7.7 per cent, reaching revenues of $358bn (£222m) as companies use software to tackle huge increases in data and improved enterprise mobility.
Freescale upgrades processor architecture for data boom
Freescale has beefed up its QorIQ range of multicore processors to address the rise of the cloud, and to complement its recently announced Qonverge line of base station systems, targeting "the rest of the communications market", whether wireless or wireline. The new generation of the three-year old QorIQ architecture is labelled AMP (Advanced Multiprocessing) Series, and it expands the maximum number of processor cores from eight to 12, using the PA (Power Architecture) design. Since each is able to run two independent threads, that means a total of 24 virtual cores. The top end chip, the 24-core T4240, will sample in the first quarter of 2012, and will be showcased at the company's developer event in Texas this week.
24 Per Cent of Mobile Users Bank From a Phone
With NFC gathering momentum, the use of modern mobile phones to simplify and add convenience to tasks such as banking and shopping is here to stay. So says mobile security firm, BullGuard. With the majority of mobile users still slow to consider security for a handheld, however, the company adds that many could be leaving their financial details vulnerable to third party attack. A recent survey conducted by BullGuard showed that 24 per cent of internet users banked online from their mobile device, and many also admitted to storing sensitive data such as bank details, credit card numbers, URLs, logins and passwords and saved PINs as reminders. All of this could potentially be exploited by third parties either by a malware infection or if the phone were lost or stolen and fell into the wrong hands.
Sony Says That It Has Become Hyper-Vigilant
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) is now in a state of “hyper vigilance” to safeguard its cyber infrastructure against external threats, according to a high profile Sony executive. Acting SCEE president, Andrew House, made these remarks during his “thank you” statement to dedicated PlayStation gamers who have stuck with the company even after its poor security record over the past couple of months or more. "The first thing I'd like to say to people is that we are genuinely humbled and extremely grateful to those consumers who have continued to put their trust in us," House, said in a statement to the website Computer and Videogame.
Shazam raises $32 million for TV push
UK-based mobile discovery app Shazam has announced it has raised an additional $32 million of funding from various VCs, much of which will be earmarked to assist its expansion into TV. Shazam works by recognising short pieces of audio, then automatically finding related content online for you to access via your smartphone. So far this has mainly focused on music, allowing you to identify a song on the radio, for example, and then get instant access to buy links, other content, merchandise, etc. A natural extension of this functionality is the TV, which is the environment in which people most use smartphones, and is increasingly becoming Internet connected. While there are a lot of Internet TV initiatives already in varying stages of maturity, it's increasingly thought that people would rather augment their TV viewing via a second screen, such as a smartphone or tablet.
App downloads booming in Asia, but mainly free ones
The latest study from app store-watcher Distimo focuses on the Asian Apple App store market, and reveals that app downloads are growing rapidly in the Far East. China is now the world's second biggest app market behind the US, with Japan, Korea and Taiwan also right up there. This map below gives an indication of total app download volume per country. The lighter the shade, the more downloads. But developers are going to struggle to get Asian consumers to part with money. Only one percent of all downloads in China are paid-for, and while this rises to six percent in Japan, there's clearly a reluctance to part with money up-front.
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