Crucial offers Radeon x800 Pro

Crucial has topped off its graphics card line up with the latest Radeon X800 Pro 256MB for a penny less than ?270 inc VAT. The new ATI-based card offers 256-bit quad-channel GDDR3 memory interface with the latest atest DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL 2. ...more

Opera 9 goes public

Opera has announced the first public Beta of Opera 9, its forthcoming browser. Features of version 9 include support for widgets, thumbnail previews, site-specific preferences and improved pop-up blocking. By the term 'widgets' Opera means small Web apps that run directly on the desktop. ...more

Macromedia completes MX product family with Dreamweaver and Fireworks

Macromedia has completed its MX product family with the launch of new versions of Dreamweaver and Fireworks. The company also announced ColdFusion MX, a new version of the server scripting technology it acquired when it merged with Allaire last year. The MX brand was launched with the release of Flash MX earlier this year, and is designed to integrate Macromedia's entire product family to enable the building of what the company calls 'Rich Internet Applications' ? that is Internet services with more complex user interfaces, two-way communication, and Web-based business applications. ...more

Watch Travis live in the studio

Top popsters Travis have installed a Webcam in the studio where they are busy recording their new album. The Webcam updates every 40 seconds or so and at the time of writing, doesn't make for very interesting viewing. Pop Web site Worldpop reports that the band, voted Bet Act In The World at this year's Q awards, have so far recorded a cover of Dylan's You're A Big Girl Now and a new tune called Shut The Folk Up for their forthcoming third album. ...more

Comment: Microsoft's vision of the future: A Newton

Since he abandoned the Microsoft CEO job in favour of a role as chief software architect, Bill Gates has obviously been thinking hard about the future, and what people will expect from the PC over the next few decades. And he thinks he's found the answer. A truly personal computer Gates used his influential keynote speech at Comdex in Las Vegas yesterday to demonstrate a prototype of the Tablet PC, a machine, running the next version of Windows, that's about the size of an A4 pad, and that forsakes a keyboard in favour of doing everything through pen and voice recognition. ...more