Lenovo sets $3.1 billion software budget

Lenovo has committed to spending as much as ?3.1 billion on Microsoft Windows, Office and other software during the current financial year. The agreement follows the introduction of new anti-piracy laws by the Chinese government, which decree that all PCs made in the country must have a licensed OS installed when they leave the factory. ...more

Toshiba announces power-efficient Bluetooth card

Toshiba has announced a smaller and more power efficient Bluetooth card that adds the wireless networking standard to devices with an SD slot. Toshiba claims its Bluetooth 2 card offers a 50 per cent reduction in power consumption, a flat profile and is 9mm smaller in size. It supports the latest Bluetooth standard and will be available in May for ?67 ex VAT (about ?78 inc VAT). ...more

HP banks on Eastern promise for Linux PCs

HP is planning a summer launch of Linux PCs to the Far East The Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily said it had learned from the California-based company that it would launch desktops using the Open Source operating system into 12 Asian countries this June, including Japan, China, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and India. Although the big US computer vendors have made it possible to buy their desktop hardware with the GNU/Linux operating system installed as an option, what is unusual is HP offering PCs with the platform pre-loaded. The operating systems and office applications will be bought from Japanese companies and the complete desktop will cost between ?220 and ?825, according to the report. ...more

UK pioneers speech recognition for mobiles

A UK company says it has created a revolutionary new speech-recognition technology which can be incorporated into smart cards and mobile phones. Domain Dynamics, based in Swindon, says it has rethought the way speech-recognition works, breaking language down into components rather than words. This, says the firm, means the software doesn't need the huge processing power required by rival software, which analyses data streams at huge speeds and then attempts to single out words. ...more

Microsoft re-signs NHS to nine-year licensing deal

A nine year deal has been signed by Microsoft and the National Health Service which gives the NHS a licence to use Microsoft software across 900,000 computers. Neither Microsoft nor the NHS will confirm the value of the deal although The Times today mentioned a figure of around ?500 million over the term of the contract. According to sources, this is around the same figure for a previous contract. ...more