Google adds 1bn pages to index

Internet search engine Google added an additional one billion pages to its Web index this week. Associated Press reports that the search engine now spans 4.28 billion Web pages.

Google has also enlarged its index of Web images to 880 million, up from slightly more than 400 million. The upgrades are being made as Google mulls an initial public offering of its stock later this year.

The company has also tweaked the formula that determines which Web sites are most relevant to a search request, it says.

Dutch wireless telecoms operator Orange is making a hands-free mobile phone kit designed for cyclists available to its subscribers, Reuters reports.

Customers who take a two-year subscription at a minimum of 30 euros a month, will receive an Orange-branded bike, a mobile phone charger attached to the handle bar and a wireless headset that will allow them to negotiate traffic while keeping both hands on the wheel.

More than 1.2 million Dutch use bicycles to get to work every day.

Alienware has signed a deal to build a research computer for Florida International University. The manufacturer, best known for building PCs for gamers, says the system will be powered by 98 Advanced Micro Devices Opteron processors.

Reuters reports that the Opteron 64-bit chip can run applications faster than standard 32-bit chips because it can process more data at once.

The university system would be used for a number of applications, among them hurricane simulation and biomedical research.