Google recently started requiring Android handset and tablet makers to add a very specific “Powered by Android” graphic to the boot animation when you power up an Android phone. It’s part of the revised Google Mobile Services agreement for new Android phones.

The penalty for handset makers’ non-compliance is banishment from access to the Play Store by users of those devices.

The move is no doubt intended to raise user awareness about Android and brand the platform.

Unfortunately, it could backfire. Here’s why.

Whether virtual-reality technology really takes off in a big way remains to be seen. But with Facebook having just dropped $2 billion acquiring Oculus Rift, a whole lot of people — some of them with very large checkbooks — are confident it will.

Both Apple and Google have have shown interest in virtual reality, but what exactly does it have the potential to change in our lives?

Here are seven answers:

After finally bringing its Office suite to the iPad on Thursday, Microsoft rolled out an update to its existing Android and iPhone apps that makes one major change: they’re now completely free to use.

Unlike the tablet version, the smartphone apps no longer require an Office 365 subscription.

The Blast Furnace, the development studio responsible for Call of Duty: Strike Team, is being closed by Activision. The studio was originally expected to handle all future Call of Duty mobile games, but its 47 staff are now facing redundancy.

Russian government officials have ditched the iPad in favor of Samsung-made tablets according to a recent report. The move was supposedly made to “ensure tighter security.”

Russia’s telecoms minister Nikolai Nikiforov notes that Russian officials switched over to Samsung tablets “not so long ago,” and noted that the new tablets are “specially protected devices that can be used to work with confidential information.”