ireland

Netflix can now count 1 million subscribers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Membership ranks hit that number just seven months after the video service debuted in the two countries. Combined, that earned them a record for the fastest growth among all regions worldwide, according to Netflix.

Users are spending more time catching TV shows and movies online, says a YouGov survey commissioned by Netflix. A full 10 percent of people in the U.K. spend at least two hours each day watching their favorite shows via the Internet.

Comedy and drama are the top hits among Netflix members in … Read more

When Netflix users in the U.S. are sick of their queue or feel like they've already seen much of what's been offered on "Watch Instantly," they can just scroll down to the "Recently Added" subhead and see if the video service has anything fun and new to watch.

Until today, only U.S. and Canadian users had this feature. Now, people in the U.K., Ireland, and Latin America can see all of the new titles that Netflix has "recently added," announced the streaming service today.

Apple plans to add more employees to its European headquarters in Cork, Ireland, the company announced today.

Over the next 18 months, Apple plans to add 500 employees to its Ireland-based operation to help "support our growing business across Europe." Apple currently has 2,800 employees in Cork. In order to make room for the new hires, Apple will build a three-story office building next to the existing facility, according to Ireland's RTE News.

Although Apple hasn't said what kind of jobs will be created in the move, Cork provides a host of back-office and supply-chain … Read more

Making good on its promise to sell streaming players internationally by the beginning of 2012, California-based Roku announced today that both the Roku LT and Roku 2 XS are for sale in the U.K. and Ireland.

This comes hot on the heels of Netflix's expansion of video streaming in those same countries.

"Roku launched the first ever streaming player to deliver Netflix to consumers in the U.S. and now we are among the first to bring Netflix to residents of the U.K. and Ireland," said Clive Hudson, Roku's vice president and general manager … Read more

Netflix has brought its streaming video to the United Kingdom and Ireland, marking a new challenge to Amazon and its competing Lovefilm service.

The service costs 5.99 pounds ($9.24) per month in the U.K. and 6.99 euros ($8.88) per month in Ireland, Netflix said today.

Expanding internationally is not simple, because content providers such as TV and movie studios require new deals for new geographic regions. Netflix has been bulking up its distribution deals in recent months, and now it's got a sizable list of allies for Ireland and the U.K.: All3Media, the … Read more

Facebook today announced plans to change parts of its service in Europe following an audit by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC).

In a blog post this morning, the company said that the three-month audit by the DPC resulted in a close look at the company's various privacy features, some of which will be adjusted to better comply with the report's findings.

"We are pleased that following three months of rigorous examination, the DPC report demonstrates how Facebook adheres to European data protection principles and complies with Irish law," said Richard Allan, Facebook's EMEA's … Read more

Facebook Ireland is under fire for allegedly creating "shadow profiles" on both users and nonusers alike.

The startling charges against the social-networking giant come from the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (IDC), which, Fox News reports today, is launching a "comprehensive" investigation against Facebook Ireland for extracting data from current users--without their consent or knowledge--and building "extensive profiles" on people who haven't even signed on for the service.

Names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, work information, and perhaps even more sensitive information such as sexual orientation, political affiliations, and religious beliefs are being collected and … Read more

Facebook is getting more heat over two controversial practices--tracking users after they log out and new automatic "frictionless sharing."

The tracking, done with cookies on users' computers, has prompted criticism from lawmakers and now a lawsuit, while privacy groups and regulators in Ireland are concerned about a new sharing feature that automatically posts user activities to news feeds without users intentionally doing so.

A blogger wrote last weekend that he discovered that his Web surfing was being tracked by Facebook even after he logged out. Facebook admitted that it personalizes content by putting cookie files on user computers … Read more

China will soon overtake Japan as the world's second heaviest spender on research and development, according to a report from the Battelle Memorial Institute.

A nonprofit group that conducts scientific research, Battelle published its findings today as part of an article in its R&D Magazine. The article and its full supplementary report (PDF) looked at global R&D spending in general and across six specific segments--Information Technology, Electronics, Life Sciences, Aerospace/Defense/Security, Energy, and Advanced Materials.

Next year, China is expected to spend $153.7 billion on R&D, a big jump from $141.… Read more