Avatars for all

You've probably already heard of avatars, a kind of digital persona. Well, Stratumsoft has given the avatar an intelligent personality, and could revolutionise online shopping and data gathering. EVAAs, or Electronic Virtual Assistants/Artistes, are the front end of a sophisticated intelligence engine that gives the avatar the ability to respond to natural language questions and intelligently search databases. ...more

Opera floats to the value of ?11mn

Opera has welcomed the response to its IPO (initial public offering) ahead of the company being listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE). The company sought to issue 12.5 million shares and it claims the IPO was oversubscribed by a factor of twenty. ...more

HP reveals five new notebooks but keeps quiet on Microsoft's Ultra Mobile PC

HP today announced a broad swathe of notebooks and mobile technologies at its second annual Mobility Summit in San Francisco. But it was notable that amidst all the glitz and glamour of HP's new marketing campaign, Microsoft's Ultra Mobile PC initiative - codenamed Origami - didn't get a mention. In the UK, the most notable new products are five business notebooks, and it was the lightweight tc2400 that stole most of the limelight. ...more

Live 8 throws up new records

Apart from putting the pressure on the leaders of the G8 to come up with a solution to poverty in Africa, the Live8 concerts put up a few records of their own. In the 20 years since Live Aid, technology has made marked advances, much of which was used to get the message across on Saturday. The BBC, which covered the Hyde Park event, reports that 26. ...more

Windows Vista pricing petition gains more support

There is one month more until the end of the e-petition lobbying the government to investigate the international pricing discrepancies for Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista. The e-petition, which was set up by disgruntled user Paul Milne has gained a great deal of support since it was launched last month, with 9,149 signatories to date. 'There is a huge difference in the price that people in the US and the UK are paying for Windows Vista the new Microsoft operating system,' says Milne's petition. ...more