Waiter, waiter, there's no wire in my soup

A restaurant in Israel has enlisted the help of wireless waiters in a bid to improve customer service. The clientele, who mostly work in Herzilaya (Israel's silicon valley), will now be able to give their orders via a wireless handheld computer. The LAN system has been developed by Symbol Technologies to speed up the ordering process and eliminate mistakes. ...more

Microsoft Word 2003

For a full review of all the components of the Office System see the 20-page special in this month's PC Pro (already with subscribers and on the newsstand from Thursday 23 October) Word, the most heavily used application in the Office suite, has had only a moderate makeover for this 2003 version. The cosmetic enhancements to menus and toolbars improve the overall aesthetic appeal and there are some usability improvements, but the main changes are the XML support, Smart Documents and IRM (Information Rights Management), which will only appeal to corporate IT departments. Word files can now be saved as XML, with all the formatting marked up using the WordML Schema. ...more

Californian scientists make nano switch breakthrough

Californian scientists have produced the first electrical switch to be made from carbon nanotubes. They hope that eventually they will replace silicon in computer chips, leading to faster and cheaper components. The new transistors begin life as straight nanotubes before the addition of titanium-modified iron catalyst particles prompts new growth, like a branch from a tree, to create a Y-shaped tube as the catalyst is absorbed at the junction of the stem and the new growth. ...more

Google's Gmail 'Not a hoax'

Well, it's 2 April and the story which had the entire Internet buzzing yesterday, seems to be true. Google will be launching its own email service with 1GB of storage and the ability to search all past emails. To pay for this, Google will automatically scan emails for keywords and place contextual ads in the client. ...more

Intel's Centrino London lig gets a soak

The Intel Inside your Life Summer roadshow hit London town today to show us why open-air working might be better with a mac... ...more