Latest Opera browser gets vocal

Latest Opera browser gets vocal

Net browser Opera 8.0, due for official release at the end of next month, will be "the most accessible browser on the market", according to its authors.


The latest version of the net browser can be controlled by voice command and will read pages aloud.

The voice features, based on IBM technology, are currently only available in the Windows version. Opera can also magnify text by up to 10 times and users can create "style sheets", its developers say. This will enable them to view pages with colours and fonts that they prefer.

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Source: BBC News

Spaniards develop chart-topping program

Spaniards develop chart-topping program

A small Spanish company says it can use artificial intelligence technology originally developed for the banking and telecoms industries to predict if a record is going to be a hit or not. It boasts an impressive track record, having successfully predicted hot sales for Norah Jones and US band Maroon 5.

Barcelona-based Polyphonic HMI reckons it has identified 20 elements of song construction - including melody, harmony, tempo, pitch, octave, beat, rhythm, fullness of sound, noise, brilliance and chord progression - which its "HitSongScience" program matches against a database containing 30 years' worth of Billboard hit singles. The database, currently containing more than 3.5m songs, is updated weekly with new releases.

Each song is mapped onto a grid called "music universe" and is positioned according to its mathematical...

How to make a greener computer

How to make a greener computer

The hi-tech industry is starting to get more environmentally aware. Bill Thompson thinks it's about time.

My first car ran on four star petrol and pumped vast quantities of lead into the atmosphere as I drove around Cambridge.

Now you can't buy petrol with lead additives, and we're all better off as a result.

Chip giant Intel recently began shipping computer circuit boards that are lead free too, reflecting a growing awareness on the part of the technology industry that products have to be designed and built in more environmentally friendly ways.

Full Story: HERE

Source: BBC

Veritas retools its Backup Exec baby

Veritas retools its Backup Exec baby

Veritas has once again beefed up its popular storage software - Backup Exec - aimed at small- and medium-sized customers by adding a number of tools typically found only with its more expensive products.

Veritas CEO Gary Bloom today unveiled Backup Exec 10.0 in front of a large crowd full of reporters, analysts and customers here at the Essex House hotel in New York. The software meant for customers running Microsoft Windows servers should make it easier to backup data in small chunks, to use higher performing disk storage instead of tape and to monitor a large number of systems from a single management point. Overall, Veritas has brought some of the tools found in its pricier NetBackup product down to Backup Exec and made the new software work better with its Storage Exec and Replication Exec products.

"The number one thing (SMBs) need is efficiency," Bloom said. "They need low cost IT. We are talking, in...

Microsoft offers subscription Outlook

Microsoft offers subscription Outlook

Microsoft said Wednesday that it has started offering a paid-subscription version of its Outlook e-mail program, marking the first time the software giant has made a component of Office available as a subscription service.

Known as Microsoft Office Outlook Live, the service includes a subscription version of Outlook 2003 to connect with Hotmail or MSN e-mail accounts. For $59 a year, customers get an e-mail account with 2GB of storage and the ability to send individual messages with up to 20MB of attachments. Customers can also check multiple e-mail accounts, including corporate accounts that are managed through an Exchange server.

Rest of Story: CNET News.com

An MP3 player you can talk to...

An MP3 player you can talk to...

A US firm specialising in metadata for music files is working with a voice recognition company to enable voice-controlled music devices for use where hand control is impractical. Gracenote is working with voice recognition specialist ScanSoft and early products will be aimed at Japan.

Ross Blanchard, a Gracenote veep, said voice recognition would make devices easier to use: "For example, these applications will radically change the car entertainment experience, allowing drivers to enjoy their entire music collections without ever taking their eyes off the road."

Alan Schwartz, vice president of SpeechWorks, a division of ScanSoft, said speech is a "natural fit for today's consumer devices, particularly in mobile environments, and the increasing portability of large libraries of music and video files make speech a necessary interface for safety and convenience for entertainment devices."



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Google's No-Google tag blesses the Balkanized web

Google's No-Google tag blesses the Balkanized web

Karl Auerbach's prediction that the internet is balkanizing into groups of people who only accept traffic from each other took another step closer to reality today. The veteran TCP/IP engineer and ICANN board member has warned of the effect for years.
"The 'Net is balkanizing. There are communities of trust forming in which traffic is accepted only from known friends," Auerbach told Wired last year.

The trend can be seen at various levels. At the user level, where we see bloggers repeating each other in an echo chamber and reinforcing their views; in the middle of the network, where Verizon recently blocking off inbound email from Europe, and it's happening deep down at the packet level too, as a result...

IBM frees 500 software patents

IBM frees 500 software patents

Computer giant IBM says 500 of its software patents will be released into the open development community.

The move means developers will be able to use the technologies without paying for a licence from the company.

IBM described the step as a "new era" in how it dealt with intellectual property and promised further patents would be made freely available.

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Microsoft debuts security tools

Microsoft debuts security tools

Microsoft is releasing tools that clean up PCs harbouring viruses and spyware.


The virus-fighting program will be updated monthly and is a precursor to Microsoft releasing dedicated anti-virus software. Also being released is a software utility that will help users find and remove any spyware on their home computer. Although initially free it is thought that soon Microsoft will be charging users for the anti-spyware tool.

Paid protection The anti-spyware tool is available now and the anti-virus utility is expected to be available later this month.


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News source: BBC News

Cyber crime booms in 2004

Cyber crime booms in 2004

By Mark Ward
Technology Correspondent, BBC News website

The last 12 months have seen a dramatic growth in almost every security threat that plague Windows PCs.

The count of known viruses broke the 100,000 barrier and the number of new viruses grew by more than 50%.

Similarly phishing attempts, in which conmen try to trick people into handing over confidential data, are recording growth rates of more than 30% and attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Also on the increase are the number of networks of remotely controlled computers, called bot nets, used by malicious hackers and conmen to carry out many different cyber crimes.

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Source: BBC News