The Oracle speaks, or rather it listens

Oracle is committing itself to speech-recognition technology across its product lines. We have all heard the promises for speech technology before, but what is of interest in Oracle's announcement - apart from a corporation of such size throwing its weight behind voice technology - is the approach taken to a speech-based interface. Oracle is boasting that - via the Oracle9i Application Server - developers will be able to create and deploy applications once, for use with any interface, be it Web, wireless or voice. ...more

Radiohead give webmasters iBlip

Everyone loves Thom Yorke and co. with their deft line in miserable ditties and neo-prog rock. Well if you have a Web site and want to give the guys some free publicity, you can install an "iBlip" onto your site. ...more

Compaq makes big noises

The Consumer Electronics Show saw Compaq moving into the crowded arena of audio equipment. The Compaq Music Centre sports a CD player, 20Gb hard drive and broadband Internet connectivity. The unit can be connected to a hi-fi and TV system and allows the user to download music from the Internet or rip audio from CDs. ...more

AMD names the days, delays the Clawhammer

AMD has announced that the 64-bit Opteron processor aimed at the server and workstation markets will be launched on April 2 However, the Athlon 64 processor - formerly known as `Clawhammer` - for the desktop and mobile markets has been pushed back to September. Originally the launch was slated for the first half of this year. The company is claiming that the delays in the Athlon 64 are due to design difficulties in getting the new Silicon on Insulator (SOI) used in the process to work at some of the target frequencies. ...more

Novell turns to Immunix to strengthen Linux security

Novell has bolstered security in its Linux portfolio with the acquisition of Immunix. Immunix builds host-based application security technologies for Linux with its AppArmor product. It can enforce preset and custom policies that define how applications can interact with each other. ...more