OK, folks—this is something seriously cool. Over at The Next Web (and Liliputing, and probably a million other tech-obsessed sites and blogs by the end of the day), there's a recently-published post about a new app known as WindowsAndroid that actually allows you to run an Android operating system (Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, to be specific) "as a native application on your Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 machine," according to the TNW post. A Beijing-based startup called SocketeQ is the company responsible for the app; you'll want to head over to their site in order to grab the download form...

Vanity Fair has an article on Microsoft’s corporate culture, and some ways in which that culture crippled innovation at the company. One of those ways is responsible for Microsoft—and Bill Gates in particular—rejecting a prototype for a touchscreen e-reader—in 1998. According to [writer Kurt] Eichenwald, Microsoft had a prototype e-reader ready to go in 1998, but when the technology group presented it to Bill Gates he promptly gave it a thumbs-down, saying it wasn’t right for Microsoft. “He didn’t like the user interface, because it didn’t look like Windows,” a programmer involved in the project...

On Pando Daily, Farhad Manjoo discusses why Microsoft felt the need to build the Microsoft Surface itself, rather than farming Windows tablets out to an OEM. He casts the explanation in terms of the trackpad on your laptop or netbook. Because Apple builds its own hardware, it is able to make the trackpad on its Macbook computers perfectly responsive in a way that Windows hardware manufacturers never can. Because Windows-based computers are built from commodity parts, the touchpad just doesn’t cut it much of the time. Why does any of this matter? Because PC makers’ inability...

Update, July 6th: It appears Hamster's guts are actually the Calibre ebook conversion engine. To save yourself the trouble of dealing with unnecessary/untested programs, you can just download Calibre, which is cross-platform. (Thanks, Peter!) (Windows platform only.) From Lifehacker: "Hamster Free eBook Converter allows you to convert eBook files in proprietary formats for Sony, iRiver, Amazon, Kobo, and other eBook readers into a version that can be read on any other reader, or on all of them as a simple PDF or file format they all understand." Free from HamsterSoft, or you can check out a demo video below.  HAMSTER Free eBook...

From the press release: Readers at 15,000 public, school, and corporate libraries can now download eBooks and audiobooks directly to their Windows Phone with the free OverDrive® Media Console™ app. This new app enables users to find a library that offers digital books, and then download and enjoy EPUB eBooks, as well as MP3 audiobooks, on their device. Libraries offerbestselling titles, such as “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen and “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand, which can now be borrowed and enjoyed on popular Windows Phone devices, such as LG Quantum™, Samsung Focus™, and HTC Trophy™. The OverDrive app for Windows Phone is now available for...

As Paul posted, I broke my arm yesterday. (And thank you to all those who have already left well wishes there for me.) It was not a pleasant experience—all the more so because it was the elbow of my dominant left hand.  However, I have used it as an excuse to figure out how to get Windows speech recognition up and running, and I am using that to write this post now. I know that some authors, such as David Weber, use speech recognition for most of their writing.  Up to this point, I had been dubious of how...

GooReader, a Windows application, allows you to download and search from Google Books, rather than using the Google Books interface. It comes in a free version and a $20 version that enhances the search facility and proved additional features that let you create and save PDFs. If anyone tries it out please let us know. I don't have a Windows machine any more....