Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams have finally revealed the name of their first spin-off project since restarting Obvious Corporation, the incubation company that spawned Twitter.

Lift is the name of an app and a start-up run by chief executive Tony Stubblebine, along with Jon Crosby and Connor Montgomery.

In a brief blog post entitled Unlocking Potential, Stone explained that, in exchange for some equity in the start-up, Obvious will help with things like "strategy, design, funding and recruiting".

The project remains in a private alpha stage at present, but interested parties can sign up to be part of the Lift beta when it arrives.

"It's important never to delude ourselves into thinking that technology changes the world. People are responsible for change. Technology just helps out," wrote Stone.

"Our approach is threefold: build, partner and invest. We've started working on some ideas ourselves, we're researching how best to create an investment vehicle, and today we're thrilled to announce our first official partnership."

Obvious is not the only the only buzzy Silicon Valley venture gearing up for a big launch in the coming months.

Over in the Mission District of San Francisco, Digg founder Kevin Rose has been incubating his own projects with his latest company, Milk.

Focusing on mobile development, the Milk first project, dubbed Oink, already has its own Twitter account and holding page.

The hip young power couple of the Royal Family, Wills and Kate, are to use their winning smiles and dashing good looks to charm former colonial subjects into investing their wealth in the tech start-up hub of Old Street in London.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will big-up the Tech City initiative and London itself as a great investment location at a panel debate on Friday in Beverley Hills to discuss how the UK can emulate the success of Silicon Valley.

Trade and investment minister Lord Green said he is pleased that such a famous and awe-inspiring couple will talk about the region, as it is vital that the UK's technology sector thrives.

"I am delighted that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are giving their very public support to Tech City and to British business. Tech City is key to Britain's high-tech future," he said.

"The government is committed to bringing innovative investment to east London and to every part of the UK. It is Europe's fastest growing technology hub and so far over 300 organisations have set up there."

It's great that everyone's favourite royal couple is doing its bit for Blighty and encouraging investment but, while Wills and Kate could persuade investors to look at London, it doesn't strike V3.co.uk as enough to convince hard-nosed Silicon Valley venture capital managers.

After all, would you embrace London and its rain and dull grey skies as a better location to set up shop than the endless blue skies and confidence-inspiring warmth of the Californian climate?

No, didn't think so.

With the European Commission publishing its first Digital Scorecard report, V3.co.uk picks out some of the most interesting graphs from the interactive data section of the report, to see how the UK is performing in comparison with the rest of the nations in the European Union.

As you can see, the UK has stayed consistently ahead of the curve for broadband access.

This has meant that most households in the UK have internet access at home, at a growth increase almost identical to that of Europe.

Since 3G coverage has been available within Europe the UK has been ahead of the trend, although that gap is closing.

Most firms are well aware of the benefits of having broadband connections to help facilitate their business, with only a fraction still on dial-up or not online at all.

Many large enterprises use online access to generate sales, although the UK was hit hard by the recession as many firms went out of business or cut down on online investments.

SMEs have also been quick to embrace the internet, but were also hit hard by the recession.

The government, always keen to try and promote online interaction with its citizens, has managed to entice a proportion of the population to contact it digitally, and is starting to pull away, for the second time, from its EU neighbours.

However, the UK is slipping when it comes to letting firms bid for tenders online, something the government has been criticised over before.

Since 2005 the UK has seen a notable decrease in the number of people yet to ever experience the internet, staying below the EU as it does so.

The UK are also a creative bunch, with more people creating and uploading content such as photos, videos and blogs than the EU average.

All images courtesy of the European Commission.