A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Amazon service faces backlash

A new Amazon service that lets customers store songs and play them on a variety of phones and computers is facing a music industry backlash that could ignite a legal battle.

Amazon’s Cloud Drive, announced this week, allows customers to store about 1,000 songs on the web for free instead of their own hard drives and play them in a web browser and on phones running Google’s Android software.

Sony Music was upset by Amazon’s decision to launch the service without new licences for music streaming, a spokeswoman said. – (Reuters)

SiSaf closes $600k funding round

Biotech firm SiSaf has closed a $600,000 (€423,000) funding round which has been led by a group of angel investors in Silicon Valley and Innovation Ulster Limited.

SiSaf is developing drug- delivery systems that use nanoparticles to allow active compounds to penetrate deeper into the skin.

The US investors include associates of John Hartnett, the SiSaf chairman and president of the Irish Technology Leadership Group network of Irish and Irish-American technology executives.

Magnet extends free streaming

Magnet Networks has enhanced its free TV streaming service so that it can be watched on iPads, iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

Previously magnetwebtv.ie was only available on PCs, Macs and mobile phones or tablets that supported Adobe Flash Player.

Chief executive Mark Kellett said: “There’s no denying the fact that smartphones and tablet PCs stand poised to redefine the way we consume media in 2011. We wanted to make Magnet WebTV available to all, regardless of device.”