Last week I was discussing Android applications and concluded by mentioning Google's new and, as yet, un-released programming tool for the Android operating system called App Inventor for Android (which implies that Google may also have plans for App Inventor on other operating systems).

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The more I use the HTC Incredible, the more I like it. And the thing that really makes the Incredible, er, incredible is its operating system, Android.

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Last week I reviewed the Alex e-book reader from Spring Design and complained that the device didn't support PDF or text documents. I was foolishly relying on the product specs, which didn't mention anything about PDF documents.

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What would you get if you crossed Google's Android operating system with Wi-Fi, an e-ink display and a touch-sensitive color display? You'd get something called Alex, an e-book reader with an unusual configuration manufactured by Spring Design.

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If you've been waiting for an account on Google Voice (what was once called "Central Station") you, my friend, need wait no longer … Google has just announced that is now open to the public.

Should you, for some unfathomable reason, not be familiar with Google Voice let me give you the skinny: GV provides you with a telephone number, for free no less, which Google claims is yours forever, and then throws in a heap of cool features.

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Many people are dismissive of Wikipedia. For example, back in 2005, as quoted in the Ideas in Action blog, Robert McHenry, a former editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia Britannica, argued: "Many revisions, corrections, and updates are badly done or false. There is a simple reason for this: Not everyone who believes he knows something about Topic X actually does; and not everyone who believes he can explain Topic X clearly, can."

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It has been a busy week so far and it's only Tuesday. What's absorbed a lot of my time has been Web-related stuff and somehow I wound up taking a look at Mozilla Prism.

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Well, my tribulations with the Netgear eight-port Gigabit ProSafe VPN Firewall (model FVS318G) I discussed in the last installment of Gearhead appear to have been caused by faulty hardware.

To recap: I purchased one of these devices for my network and during the first few days of use my FVS318G randomly turned into a brick with pretty flashing lights that made it look like it was working when, in fact, it was not.

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In last week's Backspin I asked for input on your experiences with the Netgear eight-port Gigabit ProSafe VPN Firewall (model FVS318G). I recently purchased one for my network and the next day I found it sitting there looking like it was working normally with all of its lights flashing happily but, in reality, it was doing nothing.

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Following last week's column on tethering (connecting a PC to the Internet via a cell phone data connection) long-time reader Morris Tabush wrote to report: "I got home last night with a bunch of work to do and my wife was out for the night so it was the perfect opportunity. Lo and behold, the cable modem was dead. After hanging up with tech support I thought to tether my Verizon BlackBerry to my Macbook. Only problem is, I'd need to find a Web site on how to do that, and alas, the Internet was down. Catch-22.

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