Lenovo extends touch-screens

Lenovo has introduced touch-screen laptops, including the ThinkPad T400s, which is the company's first laptop to support four-finger multi-touch input, reports PC World.

Until now, many laptop makers, including Hewlett-Packard and Dell, were offering touch-screen laptops with two-finger touch input.

Lenovo said ThinkPad T400s will allow manipulation of images using up to four fingers on the laptop. Multiple fingers can be used instead of mice to zoom into maps, or to scroll through documents.

The UK Home Office has appointed an ID commissioner to oversee and monitor the roll-out of national ID cards, reports The Register.

Sir Joseph Pilling has previous form as permanent secretary to the Northern Ireland Office between 1997 and 2005, with senior jobs at the Church of England and the Civil Aviation Authority. He has been at the Home Office since 1966 apart from a two-year sabbatical. He is also on the board of Macmillan Cancer Support.

Pilling said: “I am delighted to accept this post, and plan to be an independent voice in my work towards safeguarding the public's privacy and identity rights, as Parliament intended.”

Trials are under way of a UK service allowing people to contact emergency services by text message, says the BBC.

The system is aimed at people who cannot make normal voice calls to the 999 service due to disability.

The service sends the text to a voice relay assistant, who then speaks the text message to the emergency service and then texts back their reply.