You can say what you will about Windows Phone and Windows 8's Metro interface (I refuse to drop that name) - it's inefficient, unpopular, cumbersome, beautiful, ugly, organised, clean, limiting - but there's one thing we can all agree on: it's unique and distinctive. CNet has published a profile of Microsoft's Albert Shum, the man behind Metro, and he highlights what I think is at the very core of Microsoft's problems in mobile right now.

Martin Hedberg has interviewed Jean-Louis Gassee - founder of Be, Inc. and former Apple executive. We're looking at 45 minutes (part 1, 2, 3, and 4) of talk about operating systems an their future, so sit down, relaxe, and enjoy.

As I'm working on a long and detailed article about Psion and Symbian (similar in setup to the Palm article), I need to dive into a number of devices that I have never personally owned. One of the devices that was atop my list was what I think is the ultimate Symbian device: the Nokia E7 - the last of the long line of Communicators, released in early 2011. While more detailed information about it will find its way into the Psion/Symbian article, I figured it'd be interesting to give a few first impressions.

Facebook Home is now available on the Google Play Store, for the Samsung Galaxy SII, SII, HTC One, One X, and One X+, with support for the HTC One and Galaxy S4 coming in the future. No need to download it, though; Home's single interesting feature, Chat Heads, is available in the regular Facebook Messenger for Android as well.

"A trade association that represents Google, Yahoo, Cisco and Oracle has come out in support of a controversial cybersecurity bill that is slated to be voted on in the House next week. In a letter sent to the leaders of the House Intelligence panel on Wednesday, TechNet CEO Rey Ramsey said the cybersecurity bill addresses the need for industry and government to be able to send and receive information about cyber threats to one another in real time." As I've said before - legal or no, stuff like this is corruption.

"Not many of us like thinking about death - especially our own. But making plans for what happens after you're gone is really important for the people you leave behind. So today, we're launching a new feature that makes it easy to tell Google what you want done with your digital assets when you die or can no longer use your account." Trailblazing. If you ever wonder why people tend to be favourable to Google - despite its many failing - it's stuff like this. While others are running cringe-inducing marketing campaigns or planning yet another patent lawsuit, Google gives users an immeasurably important feature like this. If you recently lost somebody, you will understand.

"A recent poll by MKM Partners reveals that an overwhelming 83% of Americans do not know that BlackBerry has launched their new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone or new Blackberry 10 platform. The company's trouble does not just include marketing woes. The Wall Street Journal reports that over 50% of customers have returned their BlackBerry smartphones after trying out the platform. That is not to say that BlackBerry hasn't reached the top of any list. We learned today that BlackBerry is the most undesirable smart phone, learning that 71% of people would not consider the BlackBerry under any circumstances." BlackBerry denies the return rate figures, but that still leaves the others. This is devastating.

"After selling 7.19 million phones in China last year, Xiaomi is now one step closer to world domination with a new device that'll take it to new territories: the Xiaomi Phone 2S (or MI-2S)." MIUI v5 also looks pretty great. When I find some time, I'll install it on my SII and see what's what.

After Microsoft's extortion racket has failed to stop Android, and after Oracle's crazy baseless lawsuit failed to stop Android, and after Nokia adopting Windows Phone failed to stop Android, Microsoft, Nokia, and Oracle are now grasping the next straw in their fruitless efforts to stop Android: they've filed an antitrust complaint with the EU, claiming Google unfairly bundles applications with Android.

The Wii U isn't doing well. "We're told by someone with access to the NPD's data that sales for January were 'well under' 100,000 units. By our estimates, sales were somewhere between 45,000 and 59,000 units for the month, which is lower than any of the three previous-generation home consoles sold in their worst months, with the possible exception of a recent performance by the original Wii." All that is old will be new again.

"After years of domination, Microsoft is finally facing serious threats at the cores of its business, Office and Windows. Consumers and businesses alike are largely purchasing devices based on their capabilities and form factors rather than the software contained within. Windows is slowly becoming commoditized and Microsoft's traditional allies are looking at Android and Chrome OS as viable alternatives, a trend that threatens the Windows monopoly. Microsoft faces a tricky balancing act as it faces a future that's very different from its existing business." Good article by Tom Warren.

Peter Bright has summarised some of the post-fork discussions on the WebKit mailinglists. "Now that Google is going its own way and developing its rendering engine independently of the WebKit project, both sides of the split are starting the work of removing all the things they don't actually need. This is already causing some tensions among WebKit users and Web developers, as it could lead to the removal of technology that they use or technology that is in the process of being standardized. This is leading some to question whether Apple is willing or able to fill in the gaps that Google has left." There's a clear winner and loser here.

Google, EarthLink, BlackBerry, and Red Hat have joined forces and asked the FTC and the US Department of Justice to address the harm caused by patent trolling. "Our comments today also focus on a worrisome trend: some companies are increasingly transferring patents to trolls - and providing incentives to assert those patents against their competitors. These transfers can raise rivals' costs and undermine patent peace. This trend has been referred to as patent 'privateering': a company sells patents to trolls with the goal of waging asymmetric warfare against its competitors." Big figures: patent trolls cost the US economy $30 billion per year.

AlienWare (so Dell) has just unveiled a gaming PC running Ubuntu and Steam, designed to be hooked up to a TV - essentially a Steambox. "With over 25 gaming titles available and more being added, users can access Steam For Linux to play online games, including your favorite titles like Team Fortress 2 and Serious Sam 3." Everything starts out small, but with Valve going full throttle with this, expect this library to grow.