Bruce Gain

Are you thinking about buying an Android smartphone...but want to try out the phone's apps first? Or do you already have an Android phone and now want to run your favorite apps on a larger PC monitor. BlueStacks App Player, now in alpha, lets you do both of those things on a Windows PC.

BlueStacks App Player runs Android applications such as Talking Tom 2 within Windows.Once you've downloaded the app onto a PC, an icon of the Android robot standing on the Windows logo will appear on the top right-hand corner of the Windows desktop screen. When you position the cursor on the Android icon, a menu of more than 10 default apps appears; you can open any of these apps with one click. You can also use your system's mouse and keyboard to interact with the Android apps on your PC.

AMD's latest-and-greatest chip may lag slightly behind Intel’s competing Core i5, as initial PCWorld performance-testing indicates. But these disappointing results hide benefits that AMD's "Bulldozer" FX CPU will likely offer, especially for cost-conscious small businesses.

The issue is that most CPU-performance tests don't reflect the potential computational power offered by FX, which has up to eight cores, depending on the version. Sure, computationally-wise, preliminary synthetic tests, such as PCMark 7 and Cinebench, reflect real-world computing performance and indicate that the FX lags in comparison with Intel’s Core i5. That's what PCWorld's tests showed after running the four-core FX-4100 through the paces.

Android and iPhone devices were already destroying RIM’s BlackBerry market share. But the outage that has spread from Europe and Africa to North America and South America may be the final straw for millions of formerly loyal users, who previously relied on their Blackberries as a robust and ultra-reliable way for always-on push email and Web access.

“BlackBerry subscribers in the Americas may be experiencing intermittent service delays this morning,” RIM said in a statement. “We are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience. We will provide a further update as soon as more information is available.”

As far as the outage itself goes, it's disturbing that RIM, besides lacking transparency about the cause of the problem, hasn't been able to end the crisis since Monday. It's nice to know that fixing the outage is RIM's "number one priority right now," but tomorrow is Thursday and interrupted service for several days is unacceptable. Also, what is the problem, exactly, and how secure is my data?

Think about the time you waste by typing in an address in a car’s GPS navigation system. Instead of driving where you need to go, you must first wade through the different menu prompts required to enter the destination. When running late for an appointment, you might lose typing in an address you've scribbled on a piece of paper or printed out from Google Maps.

But now, General Motors’ OnStar division has joined the roster of carmakers, including BMW and Ford, that allow you to upload addresses to your car’s navigation system wirelessly from a smartphone. Once you're in the car, up to five destinations are automatically synced wirelessly and stored in the car as destination addresses, which you can activate by voice.

Web surfing can be good for business.A small business owner might frown on the idea that employees are surfing the Web on work time to read about the state of the NBA lockout. But, when done in moderation, giving employees the freedom to roam the Internet can actually help them work better.

Surfing the Web at work is not only harmless but it can even boost productivity, according to a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore. Web surfing offers workers “immediate gratification” and helps them “restore resources that are drained as a result of work,” the researchers reported at last week’s meeting of the Academy of Management in San Antonio, Texas.

Millions of small business owners may soon realize that their Internet service could be disrupted if they're wrongly accused of illegal file sharing or downloading under the "six strikes" plan entertainment media groups announced this week.

Initiated by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and other media groups, participating ISPs will shortly begin sending warning letters to users or companies whose accounts are allegedly used to illegally share files. ISPs will send a series of up to six notices to account holders whose IP addresses are allegedly used for the "online content theft of film, TV shows, or music" as part of the Center for Copyright Information initiative. After six notices, the ISP could begin a series of "mitigation measures"--which for all intents and purposes would likely lead to the disruption of Internet services on which most small businesses depend.

The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was pick up my BlackBerry from my nightstand and check e-mails as I walked downstairs to have my first cup of coffee. Even though it was Saturday, I responded to work e-mails from New Zealand and California, which are in time zones 10 hours ahead and nine hours behind, respectively, from where I sit in Europe.

I also responded to personal Facebook comments I had received in my inbox that were part of a silly, profanity-laced debate about whether stand-up paddlers should be allowed to surf at a favorite local surf spot.

Luxury carmaker BMW is launching a nationwide campaign to build awareness about the hazards associated with driver distraction, and especially the dangers of texting while behind the wheel.

You're likely to see BMW's public-awareness commercial or online and print ads sometime this year. The TV spot is particularly frightening, as it effectively shows how children are all too often innocent victims of careless and negligent drivers who text while driving.

Some 200 technology companies including Akamai, Facebook, and Google will make the switch to IPv6 during the World IPv6 Day trial for 24 hours June 8. The test is intended to see how ready technology companies are to handle IPv6 addresses as well as what to expect when Websites are obliged to enable IPv6 in the future. There could be glitches Wednesday, but the Internet Society (ISOC) estimates that 99.95 percent of all users worldwide will not notice anything at all this Wednesday.

However, despite the larges investments in time and money these major companies are making for the World IPv6 Day trial, there is nothing small businesses need to worry about Wednesday. In fact, unless you are hosting your own Web servers, a small business has nothing to do to prepare for the when IPv4 addresses are expected to be depleted next year, either.

Android smartphone applications are rapidly emerging as powerful and widely adopted business tools, while Windows PCs comprise the vast majority of small office networks. But so far, the two environments have remained largely separate, which also adds to the workload of those who have to manage small business networks.

However, BlueStacks may help make life easier for users and small office network managers. In a nutshell, it brings the mobile Android world to the PC, and vice versa, using virtualization.

It's safe to say that employers generally frown on workers who play video games during work time. As common sense dictates, you're obviously not working when trying to win virtual gold by playing World of Warcraft or stealthily assassinating the enemy in Call of Duty: Black Ops.

But gaming outside of work or even during breaks at the office can help you in ways you might never have thought possible. Indeed, studies show that gaming can boost your ability to multitask, make faster decisions, work better in team environment, and find solutions to real-world problems.

Intel is calling its Tri-Gate 3D Transistor the most significant development since the transistor was invented over 50 years ago. But regardless of whether the claim will hold true, the CPU design will boost mobile device performance significantly while likely slashing CPU power consumption in half.

Intel's Tri-Gate 3D Transistor technology is actually not new; the chip giant introduced the processor design back in 2002. Last week, though, Intel said it would begin mass volume production of Tri-Gate 3D Transistor CPUs when its 22 nanometer (nm) production process ramps up later this year. The CPUs will be available in the fourth quarter, so expect mobile devices and PCs to begin featuring Intel's new chip by the end of the first half of next year.