Android apps on Windows? Microsoft might let it happen

Microsoft may have a solution in the works for its Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 app deficit, but some inside the company reportedly aren't on board yet.

It's simple: Microsoft's desktop, tablet and smartphone operating systems lack the bustling app ecosystem of a platform like, say, Android - so why not enable Android apps to run on Windows and Windows Phone devices?

That's exactly what the company is considering, according to The Verge, which spoke with "sources familiar with Microsoft's plans." But these sources report that Microsoft executives are torn, with some of the mindset that the long-term risks might outweigh the benefits.

Besides, as The Verge points out, this has been tried before - by BlackBerry - and it didn't work then. Why would it now?

Forking Android over

Of course, Microsoft is not BlackBerry. That much is obvious.

And if Microsoft is really letting Nokia, which it bought in 2013, go ahead with the Finnish phone maker's "Normandy" Android device, then the Windows company is clearly not totally repulsed by the idea of using Android for its own means.

Of course, the most recent report suggests that the Nokia Android phone will ship without many of the Google apps and services typically found on Android devices - including the Google Play Store itself - in favor of Nokia- and Microsoft-built alternatives.

But The Verge's sources say Microsoft doesn't want to deal with the hassle of creating its own "fork" of Android, and that simply enabling Android apps to run on Windows might be an easier solution in the short term.

To that end the site suggests Microsoft might work with BlueStacks, a company that for years has been enable Android apps to run on Windows devices.

Whatever happens, it seems Microsoft is at least considering taking drastic measures to solve its app deficit, which may be a sign of just how desperate things have become for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.

• Here's what TechRadar thought of Microsoft's latest OS update, Windows 8.1.

Gary Marshall: Sony Vaio: time to say goodbye to the 'fun Macbook'

It looks like we're about to lose another iconic tech brand: Sony's saying goodbye to the PC and selling off its Vaio computer division.

It's a victim of what Sony calls "drastic changes in the global PC industry", and it's a real shame for a range that boasted Steve Jobs in its fan club.

Vaio's logo represents the move from analogue to digital technology - the VA is an analogue wave, the IO binary - and the brand helped make PCs fun after more than a decade of beige boxes.

The first Vaio landed in the early 90s and the PCG-505 showed the best and worst of Sony: a terrible naming system attached to a really nice product.

Where other firms gave you a choice of beige or black, Sony's first generation Vaio came in bluey-purple - and it did so in a case that, for the time, was incredibly thin and light. Add in an unusual cylindrical battery and co-ordinated add-ons and you had something considerably more interesting than other firms' fare.

Robot dogs and orange blobs

That wasn't the only odd or interesting thing from Sony.

There was the late-90s PCG-C1, a subnotebook with a rotating "Motion Eye" camera:

The mid-2000s Vaio U and UX series, ahead-of-their-time tablets that turned up in Bond movies and Terminator: Salvation but which were hobbled by their desktop Windows operating systems:

Then there were the oddly-shaped, Android-powered Tablet P and S:

The extremely orange and extremely wide Vaio P Series:

And most recently, the Vaio Flip hybrids and the Vaio Tap tablets.

And that's just the computer line: over the years Sony has also delighted us with mad-looking MiniDisc machines, the decidedly odd Rolly rolling alarm clock and the much-missed Aibo robot dog.

I've long thought of Sony as the mad Apple, a firm that not only makes beautifully engineered, bomb-proof products but that also gets wildly overexcited and puts out really odd things for the sheer hell of it. Orange laptops! Robot dogs! Alarm clocks you have to chase around the house!

In most firms, ideas like that would be laughed at. Sony launched them.

That's why it's a shame that the Vaio brand appears to be going. The mad machines may have been in the minority, but at least Sony made them. The world of tech will be that little bit duller without them.

• So why did Sony sell? Dan Grabham has all the answers

HP to charge for server firmware updates and service packs

HP has announced that, from February 19 2014, customers will be require a valid warranty, Care Pack Service or support agreement in order to receive firmware or service pack updates for its ProLiant range of servers.

In a blog post on its website, the company was keen to stress that it would continue to provide an easy means for customers to download updates.

"This decision reinforces our goal to provide access to the latest HP firmware, which is valuable intellectual property, for our customers who have chosen to maximize and protect their IT investments," wrote Mary McCoy, vice president for servers and support.

Customer choice

According to McCoy, HP's intention is to offer long-term value in their products. "We are in no way trying to force customers into purchasing extended coverage. That is, and always will be, a customer's choice," she wrote.

HP has acknowledged that the move is a change to how it has previously operated, with updates previously downloadable regardless of a customer's warranty, Care Pack or support status. The company contends that the move brings it in line with industry best practices.

Customers had previously been notified by email of the impending change and HP has published an FAQs page that provides further information.

• Tech trends for 2014: what's in store this year?

Analysis: Why Sony couldn't make PCs work any more

It's really hard to make money out of PCs. There are a lot of them about. And when you're a company battling massive losses and struggling with a business unit that's no longer core to what you do, then it's time to call it quits.

And that's what Sony is doing – it has decided to sell its PC business to investment fund Japan Industrial Partners.

The deal is slightly unusual in that Vaio isn't being sold to another big PC brand – Sony previously said it was discussing a joint venture with Lenovo.

The timing of the sale may prove prescient. Things are only going to get tougher: as alarming as it is to admit, we all know the PC market is in huge decline – even though a whopping 316 million PCs were sold in 2013, the market was down by 10%.

Down time

Announcing the sale, Sony itself bleats about the "drastic changes in the global PC industry". Sony fully admits that smartphones and tablets are where it's at for the company – even though it's hardly a leader in tablets.

We shouldn't be surprised by the move. And we shouldn't be surprised to see more huge names doing the same, either, as the industry moves towards the big box shifters that can make the slender margins work.

It was big news when IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo in 2004/5 and it seemed unthinkable when HP threatened to do the same in 2011, but for Sony it doesn't feel the same. Its strengths lie elsewhere.

Only in Japan for now?

The interesting thing about the move is that, although Vaio will continue, it won't necessarily be in all markets, with the new company initially concentrating on Japan before deciding whether to go further afield.

The Spring 2014 Vaios will be the last made by Sony.

Sony has always struggled with Vaio. The laptops, all-in-ones and even the netbooks looked great, but for the most part it charged a premium for them. And that's a hard sell when everything underneath is, essentially, the same as any other laptop.

It is a shame, because though the products tended to have a premium price, they also had a premium design. Using a Vaio said something about you. And – by and large – Sony made terrific machines, especially in the ultraportable segment. Sony made lightweight PCs aplenty long before Apple's MacBook Air appeared.

But even though it's sad that Sony is no longer involved with one of the two key consumer electronics products of the last 30 years, we can't afford to get too nostalgic. The PC market is changing and we just have to live with it.

A final thought: could things have been different without the debacle of Windows 8? We shall never know.

• Now why not check out Windows 8: what you'll need to relearn