New Bar Design Ireland

Today in the press

NOONAN HAS 'CHATTY' MEETING WITH GEITHNER - The US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner was scheduled to spend just half an hour with Minister for Finance Michael Noonan when they met for the first time late on Tuesday, but the men talked for more than 45 minutes, says the Irish Times. "It was I [who] had to finish it up because I had other meetings," Mr Noonan said. "He was in quite a chatty mood, we could have stayed a bit longer." Mr Geithner said he would use his influence in Europe to seek lower interest rates for the Irish, Greek and Portuguese bailouts. "American politicians at the top level, in my experience, are the best briefed people in the world," Mr Noonan said. "Tim Geithner had a very detailed knowledge of Ireland. He is as well briefed as my colleagues in Ecofin would be." The treasury secretary gave Mr Noonan his personal phone numbers. "If something happens suddenly, I have someone to talk to," he said. Mr Noonan sought advice from investors and officials in New York and Washington. All gave the same counsel, he said. ''Stick to the programme. Restructure the banks as quickly as possible, which we are doing anyway. And keep controlling the deficits, get the economy back to growth again and pick up confidence at home so that the export-led growth is matched by growth in the domestic economy."

*** AFFORDABLE HOUSING SCHEME AXED - Affordable housing schemes will be scrapped under new plans to encourage people to rent, instead of purchase, their home. The Irish Independent says that Housing Minister Willie Penrose will today announce a major shift in housing policy. The State will no longer help middle-income earners to buy a property by subsidising the cost. Affordable homes were offered to first-time buyers who could not afford to purchase on the open market because prices were too high. Affordable homes were different from social housing, where a local authority provided a house and the tenant paid rent. Under the affordable scheme, owners had to live in the property and could earn up to €60,000 a year. Subsidies of up to 40% of the asking price were on offer, and in the region of 30,000 affordable homes were sold since the early 1990s. However, the new housing policy says that 'over-stimulation' of the housing market was a key factor in the economic downturn, and that people chose to buy homes 'on the basis of investment'. It says that if a household has sufficient income to rent a "high quality home in a vibrant community" but lacks the money to buy an equivalent home, that household has no need of any state assistance.

Nokia N9 Officially Announced

The body of the Nokia N9 is made from unibody polycarbonate material. There are no front-facing buttons at all. You unlock the phone by just double-tapping the screen. The Nokia N9 has the latest Nokia Maps with free, voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation for walking and driving. It will also be NFC-enabled. You can go and experience the Nokia N9 for yourself at swipe.nokia.com .

The full specifications are listed here .

“With the Nokia N9, we wanted to design a better way to use a phone. To do this we innovated in the design of the hardware and software together. We reinvented the home key with a simple gesture: a swipe from the edge of the screen. The experience sets a new bar for how natural technology can feel,” said Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia’s head of Design in the press release . “And this is just the beginning. The details that make the Nokia N9 unique – the industrial design, the all-screen user experience, and the expressive Qt framework for developers – will evolve in future Nokia products.”

No specifics yet on pricing and availability, but Stephen Elop says it will come out later this year. It will come in three colors – black, cyan, and magenta. I’m liking the Cyan blue. What do you think so far?

This phone looks so awesome. That was a very impressive demo. I only with this had been Nokia’s presentation last fall. I’m so excited by what I saw today. I can’t wait to see what they do with WP7, but I can’t imagine it being more impressive than the N9. Were they holding back? Are they gonna blow our minds with the new WP7 devices later this year? I can’t wait to see what’s next. Nokia is definitely not dead!

This phone looks so awesome. That was a very impressive demo. I only with this had been Nokia’s presentation last fall. I’m so excited by what I saw today. I can’t wait to see what they do with WP7, but I can’t imagine it being more impressive than the N9. Were they holding back? Are they gonna blow our minds with the new WP7 devices later this year? I can’t wait to see what’s next. Nokia is definitely not dead!

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