Apple says it is incorporating speech technology into new versions of its OS X operating system which will make Macs more accessible to users who are visually impaired as well as people with learning difficulties. Additionally, Apple released today updated Powerbooks and iBooks. BBC has an article about the G5-based laptops in the future.

Moataz Bhatti wrote an interesting article on the new Wireless Era that awaits computing, for our sister site, New Mobile Computing.

Sun Microsystems launched a handful of initiatives Monday designed to promote its talent to run Solaris on x86 systems. The company is trying to build on its install base of Solaris deployments, which are popular in the telecommunications, financial services, healthcare, and government sectors, but have experienced increased competition from Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and enterprise Linux offerings from Red Hat or SUSE.

On Monday, Michael Robertson of Linspire (née Lindows) preannounced two new applications, Lsongs (screenshot) and Lphoto (screenshot). Although details are scant, the applications appear to fill a gap in the Linux world currently being filled by iTunes, WinAmp, RealPlayer, iPhoto, and other apps on other platforms. The latest Michael's Minute has more, as does this flash presentation on Lphoto.

A data model provides application developers a much better understanding of the overall application architecture, even though generally speaking they are not required to know in-depth about database architecture details. A database designer can use a tool like Rational XDE to model and visualize the database, ensure database rules, add different database objects, and play around with relationships. The article shows you the basics of how to model a DB2 db using Rational XDE Developer for Java.

Ian Geiser at SourceXtreme, Inc has posted the second in a series of articles on development with KJSEmbed. KJSEmbed is the KDE JavaScript engine with bindings for Qt/KDE.

For years the development scene has been dominated by the C family of languages, primarily C itself and its immediate successor C++. Recent years have given rise to other C-descendents, however, such as Sun's Java and Microsoft's C#.

On April 1, it was announced that Corel would start selling WordPerfect for Linux as a pilot project to assess customer demand. It is now available from the Corel store. This version is based on the WP8 for Linux series, which was alot more stable than the later winelib based versions. Linux Journal recently reviewed the updated WordPerfect for Linux. Editor's Note: The Corel site is a little misleading - as noted above, this is NOT Word Perfect Office 12 - it is an updated version of WordPerfect for Linux.

Apple today introduced Xsan, a high-performance enterprise-class Storage Area Network (SAN) file system priced at US$999. Xsan is a 64-bit cluster file system for Mac OS X that enables organizations to consolidate storage resources and provide multiple computers with concurrent file-level read/write access to shared volumes over Fibre Channel. A beta version of Xsan is available immediately to qualified customers. The final version of Xsan is expected to be available this fall. On other news, Apple introduced Shake 3.5, Final Cut Pro HD, DVD Studio PRO 3 and a new application named Motion. Go to MacMinute.com for up to the minute updates on the new products unveiled as we write this.

"New Linux distros still fail a task that Windows 95 -- yes, 95! -- easily handles, namely working with mainstream sound cards. That sends the cost of commercial, paid versions of Linux dramatically higher", says Fred Langa for InformationWeek.

Underscoring Novell's commitment to the Linux operating system, the company's chief financial officer on Friday hinted at further acquisitions. Joseph Tibbetts, pointing to Novell's purchase late last year of two leading Linux companies -- Boston's Ximian and Germany's SuSE -- said the networking giant is on its way to becoming the world's leading Linux solutions provider. Elsewhere, alternative to Windows should play to its own strengths, says Novell Linux guru.

With increased laptop, notebook, and Tablet PC sales, Microsoft recognizes the value of improving mobile PC use. Longhorn will emphasize a number of mobility scenarios that application developers should be aware of as they design Longhorn-compatible software.

Hyperion Entertainment and the Amiga OS 4.0 development team announced that after nearly 30 months of painstaking development the Amiga OS 4.0 Developer Pre-release has gone gold and will be sent to the duplication plant on Monday, April 19, 2004.

MadPenguin takes a look at the upcoming Personal edition of SUSE Linux 9.1.