Unless Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky is a big fat liar, it looks like he’s just confirmed a Windows 8 app store in his post about the many teams involved in the project. If you look in the bullet-pointed list, it’s somewhere between ‘App Compatibility and Device Compatibility’ and ‘Blimey, We Have Quite a Lot of Teams, Don’t We?’

As is often the case, Apple leads and Microsoft goes “woof” before pissing up a tree and eventually following, but I’m glad it’s doing so in this case. Although I have some problems with the Mac App Store (very passive update alerts, slightly too strict entry requirements, odd bugs when it comes to upgrading from beta software), the general experience of using the store is excellent.

On Windows, installing software isn’t quite the nightmare that some people make it out to be, but it’s rarely better than the ‘mount DMG/drag to /Applications’ dance Mac users put up with, and it’s certainly more hassle than clicking ‘install’ and twiddling your thumbs for a bit. The question is whether Microsoft can ape Apple’s user-experience rather than just the concept. I can’t imagine Microsoft would have a great deal of trouble populating its app store, but it might have problems in focussing and in saying ‘no’ (say, to large companies who want options for install numbers and so on, versus Apple’s ‘take it or leave it’ approach). Time will tell, but of all the things mentioned in Sinofsky’s list, the app store is the most exciting for me.

It’s Matt Rosoff’s turn to fire some crazy juice into your brain. For Business Insider, he says:

The only way WebOS will survive is if HP licenses it to the big handset makers who are suddenly stuck between Microsoft-Nokia and Google-Motorola.

I remember people arguing the same about Apple in the 1990s, and look where that got the company during the short period where Mac clones did exist.

Of course, the mobile market is very different to PCs, but it’s arguable success is coming either for players who release really tight software/hardware integration (well, player; well, Apple), and whoever can fire their wares over the widest area (currently, Android). The problem with the second of those things is it usually results in gaining the low-profit area of the market, which really isn’t where HP needs to be scrapping. Instead, having found itself in an Apple-like position, HP should be pushing that all the more. It should make WebOS devices better than Apple’s equivalents, and the only chance it has to do that is if it keeps hold of everything itself. Licensing WebOS would just be a bag of hurt for the company.

What’s that, every tech blog on the internet? The iPad 3 has been delayed, possibly due to “Retina display issues”? Would this be the iPad 3 that Apple hasn’t bloody announced yet, let alone offered a release date for? The one that DigiTimes and other papers with an accuracy rate just shy of a golfer using a loaf of bread instead of clubs said would arrive in September? Or maybe November? Or maybe whatever month they hit on their calendar with a dartboard, to get you to report on their story that carries no weight whatsobloodyever?

How about the iPad 4? Has that been delayed too? What about the iPhone 7? The only thing that’s been delayed is the tech industry’s return to common sense and reporting on news rather than rumours.

From the Google Blog and other sources, Google is to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn. Naturally, Larry Page’s note bangs on about how great Motorola is and how terribly unfair everyone’s being regarding so-called “anti-competitive patent attacks on Android”, along with, laughably, saying the “acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform”.

Like hell.

Google has already been tightening its Android ship and this will further continue to do that. At best for Googorola’s competitors, they’re now going to be competing against a company that has the potential to produce something Apple-like in its integration of hardware and software. Bar the low-end market (unless Googorola goes for that too), they’re screwed if the new superteam gets that right.

But I think this acquisition is good news for everyone aside from existing Android vendors. It should ensure better Android devices in the future and also give Apple a kick up the bum regarding improving iOS and iOS devices. It’s also further vindication that Apple’s got the business model right: control the hardware and the software and you create a better user experience. HP gets this. Google now, seemingly, is starting to understand this. All we need now is another big press release that Microsoft has bought or merged with Nokia and we can look forward to a hugely entertaining scrap as the smartphone and tablet vendors aim to better each-other.

Update: Note, of course, that this could also be a patents land-grab, which would be a massively missed opportunity for Google. I’m being more optimistic than that, though. I think Google’s starting to understand that its ‘open’ system is merely open to being screwed up by vendors, and so it wants to put a stop to that. If not, that shows a stunning lack of vision. However, quotes by Android partners saying they are behind the deal mean nothing. Their businesses largely rest (at present) on Android’s success, so they were hardly going to respond with “screw you, Google”, although there is also some truth in this acquisition potentially safeguarding Google and Android to some extent against the Apple/Microsoft patent threat.

After yesterday’s flurry of posts, today’s clearly been a whole lot quieter on Revert to Saved. As magazine and website deadlines lurk menacingly, I’m unsure whether I’ll be writing anything today; I therefore thought this would be a good opportunity for me to make some recommendations of other tech blogs you might enjoy if Revert to Saved doesn’t make you want to gouge out your eyes with a spoon. (That is, I like these blogs, so you might, too.)

• Technovia: Infrequently updated, but essential when it is. Written by Ian Betteridge, who’s one of the smartest guys in tech.
• Curious Rat: At a glance, Harry Marks’s blog comes off a bit like Daring Fireball’s earlier days, but Marks’s voice is fresh, and his ongoing commentary is always enjoyable to read. (i.e. read, don’t glance.)
• Ignore the Code: Extremely smart UI concepts and opinions by UI clever-clogs Lukas Mathis.
• Matt Legend Gemmell: iOS coder WITH A HAT offers guidelines, general cleverness and quite a lot of hatness.
• Bigmouth Strikes Again: Gary Marshall’s blog. Gary is officially 47% funnier than I am at any given moment, writes great op-eds for .net and also penned Coffin Dodgers, which currently costs only 99p on Amazon. Don’t buy it and I really don’t want to speak to you.
• Fraser Speirs: He said: “Let there be iPads!” And everyone was happy, as long as they were people who studied in his school and not idiot publications accusing him of wasting money on ‘toys’. His reports on dealing with dozens of devices have been fascinating.
• The Brooks Review: Occasional commentary by Ben Brooks, and lots of handy links, along with a quote of the day, usually from someone terribly clever.