SONY is to revamp its Walkman but this time it will be a digital version and not much bigger than a credit card.

It is a direct move against Apple's iPod and will be able to store more songs and will be cheaper than its rival.

However, it will only be able to play music that is bought in Sony's digital format (www.connect.com) and not the more popular .mp3.

The new Walkman is less than half an inch thick and will go on sale in Japan in July and should hit the shops in the UK by autumn.

IF you are heading off to France this summer for your holidays then you might want to brush up on your language skills.

A useful place to stop is the realfrench.net (www.realfrench.net) website that is run by Manchester Metropolitan University.

The site is a collection of free French-teaching resources that covers vocabulary, grammar, verbs and loads more.

An original feature of the site is a set of vocab-teaching games and activities, including flashcards, hangman, crosswords, and wordsearch. The site is simply laid out and easy to browse around and is definitely one to place in your favourites folder.

WELCOME to the world of worm-charming! That is how a site dedicated to the art opens its page.

The site (http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/wormcharming/) provides all your need to know about charming worms from the ground. If you do enough practice you could even enter the world championships. The rules are there in Tibetan if required.