The Olympus DS-330 digital voice recorder has a USB connection and works with both PCs and Macs, but it's pricey and I didn't find the performance compelling. Also out: the first of Palm's new Tungsten range, Hauppauge's £129 DEC2000-t for picking up Freeview TV, a Pen Drive for USB 2.0, and the smallest ever Dell desktop PC.
Guardian Online: What's New

Multikult offers help with British bureaucracy in a wide range of languages, including Albanian. Liberati: a free art show. David Beckham kit on sale at Marks & Spencer. A Babalizer that translates phrases via multiple languages to see what comes out the other end. Road transport museum sites. Links to sites that make charitable donations. BMX XXX, Private Dancer and other rude games, and a miniature golf to play on the Web. Six of the best: Wi-Fi sites.
Web watch

Speech matters. Can you use a speech recognition to transcribe interviews with reasonable accuracy? How does Jimmy Corkhill in Brookside send voice emails, and what other software will do the job? You can get text-to-speech software that will read texts aloud, but can you save the sound to a wav file? What to do if the networking icons have disappeared from the Windows task bar (Systray). Backchat: remember, it is best to install an upgrade version of Windows to a clean drive: you only need a disc from the old version, it does not have to be installed.
Ask Jack

Microsoft enters the smartphone market. Next week, Orange will put the first smartphone based on Microsoft's Smartphone 2002 software, which is based on the PocketPC suite. It certainly has its good points, such as the ease with which you can collect email. It has its bad points: the interface is a mess. But what is perhaps more significant in the long term is that this is not just a phone, it is an attempt to redefine the mobile phone industry.
Guardian Online

What to do if Windows XP fails to start, and you suspect you may have lost data. Why your mail is returned marked "Too many hops". Trying to find a truly silent mouse (help wanted). An ad-removal program that does not need Windows 98 or later: Spybot. Is it worth upgrading a notebook PC from Windows 2000 Pro to XP? Backchat: making PDF files with Ghostscript and Ghostview.
Ask Jack

Miracle workers: South Korea is the world leader in broadband, leaving the UK in the dust. The DTI sponsored a Brunel University mission to find out what we could learn.... and courtesy of an LG Electronics press trip, I made my second visit to see for myself.
Guardian Online

Toshiba has just launched a new PocketPC, and Dell is apparently going to shake up the market by launching two models of a very cheap version codenamed Clemente.
What's New

The Ig Nobels have been awarded, with the Wooden Periodic Table Table making a memorable appearance. Sign language for art and design students. MIT's free (open) courseware. Medicine and Madison Avenue The official site for Premier League football (soccer) fans. Ford Motor's centenniel celebrations. Six of the best sites for Halloween.
Web watch

Satellite broadband, and where to get the various options. More on the Bugbear virus. Closing Windows 98 programs remotely with substitutes for the Task Manager. Changing the From: name in Outlook Express. Backchat: Liberty wireless broadband; retaining Windows XP; PDF in Mac OS X.
Ask Jack

The Bugbear worm/virus is doing well but does not affect Internet Explorer 6 users and should not affect IE5 users who installed the March 2001 security patch for Badtrans, Klez etc. Wireless broadband -- available in certain urban areas, including Slough. Ads added to messages sent by Lycos e-mail users. Windows XP is the best choice for a new PC -- and how to get rid of it. Plus: Backchat on cheap ways to create PDF files.
Guardian Ask Jack

What are the odds on the success of the Microsoft-backed Tablet PC? It has what it takes to be successful, and in the long term, could save companies money on buying multiple machines. However, companies won't be keen to buy them, and -- outside vertical applications -- the idea has been tried before and failed.
Computer Weekly > Technology > Mobile Computing > Columnists

Divide and rule: Palm is launching three new handhelds, starting with the Zire and Tungsten ranges. Separate model ranges for consumers and business professionals should help the company sharpen its targeting, while the ARM-based Tunsten PDA running Palm OS 5 should be more competitive with Microsoft-based PocketPCs.
Guardian Online

Search tips for Googlers: the world's favourite search engine delivers great results with one- and two-word searches, but sometimes you need to do something a bit more complex to get the answers you want.
Working the Web

TimeHunt looks beautiful but will you be able to solve the clues? Big Draw -- get your pencil out. Turner's gallery on the Tate's Web site. Google's great new news service; and can you write the first human words to be spoken live on Mars? Moviepooper, Bob Hope at the Library of Congress, WebListen and more. Plus: the top six sites for word lovers.
Web watch

What is a codec? Making a presentation with PowerPoint. How to open four home pages at once. How mail may automatically be marked as read in Outlook Express. Sending e-mail to Undisclosed Recipients, and another way to keep documents looking the way you want -- convert them to Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files.
Ask Jack