Task one. Get ready to translate first four passages and to give a summary of the text.

Innovation: Hand-held controls move out of sight

14:48 23 August 2011 by Gareth Morgan

Portable computers, from games machines to smartphones, are now much more hands-on thanks to the proliferation of touchscreen technology. But touchscreens suffer from a debilitating problem: touching them stops you being able to see all the action.

For some time researchers have suggested the answer to this so-called "occlusion problem" is to put controls on the back of the device, but now there are signs that sophisticated rear-mounted controls may be inching towards commercial reality. Last week, gaming website Eurogamer reported that some who have seen the next version of Sony's PSP portable console say it will sport touch controls on its back.

Sony has refused to be drawn on the rumours, but if they prove correct, it would not be the first tech firm to explore the idea. New Scientist reported in 2007 on work at Microsoft and Mitsubishi research labs to create LucidTouch, a large, transparent hand-held LCD device with touch-sensitive panels on the rear. Subsequent devices such as the NanoTouch have demonstrated that people can use rear-mounted sensors accurately, even if they can't see their fingers.

Those prototype gadgets featured relatively simple rear-facing controls. But many of us are so familiar with full keyboards that it may be practical to put them on the rear of hand-held devices.

James Scott, a computer interface researcher based at Microsoft Research labs in Cambridge, UK, will present a paper at next month's Mobile Human-Computer Interaction conference in Lisbon, Portugal, showing how LucidTouch's panel sensors have evolved into a mobile device with a qwerty keyboard on the rear. When a key is pressed, a virtual keyboard appears the right way round on the device's screen, highlighting which key has been pressed.

To test the devices, Scott and his colleagues advertised for volunteers to take part in a typing trial. They were looking for so-called finger typists – people with a moderate ability to type without looking at the keyboard. After an hour's tuition the 12 volunteers had an average speed of 15 words per minute – far lower than their speeds on a traditional keyboard, but on a par with the sorts of speed users manage with a touchscreen keyboard. With some adjustments to the keyboard layout to make it easier to reach all the keys, the researchers think that typing speeds will increase.

TASK TWO. Discuss the given abstract.

After months of widespread anticipation, the latest version of Canonical's popular Linux distribution - Ubuntu 12.04 LTS “Precise Pangolin” -was released in its final form early Thursday morning. “For PC users, Ubuntu 12.04 supports laptops, desktops, and netbooks with a unified look and feel based on an updated version of the desktop shell called 'Unity,' which introduces 'Head-Up Display' search capabilities,” wrote Ubuntu Release Manager Kate Stewart in the official announcement. “Finding and installing software using the Ubuntu Software Center is now easier thanks to improvements in speed, search, and usability.”The free and open source operating system is available for download from the Ubuntu site. Users of Ubuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot” will be offered an automatic upgrade.