"Girls Around Me, the geo-location iPhone app, is under fire for undermining women’s privacy, but the controversy seems blown out of proportion. We're quick to ask what new way tech companies have devised to rob us of our privacy, but it's hard to see this app as a real threat to privacy or women. I consider it, instead, more of a wake-up call to those who publicly overshare.

"Google Play Market bans popular Reddit Android app over spurious adult content violations.

Within the past 24 hours Google Play removed and banned indie developer Andrew Shu’s Reddit Is Fun app from its market.

Google Play’s brief email told Shu the app - a fan-created link client - is a “Violation of the sexually explicit material provision of the Content Policy.”

"After months of near silence, Microsoft is starting to talk publicly about Windows 8. Earlier this week the company started a new "Building Windows 8" blog, and Windows Live Division President Steven Sinofsky provided the first concrete information about the operating system in a post on Wednesday."

"Next time the Catholic Guilt strikes, you can start the confession process on your iPhone. Senior officials in the Catholic Church have approved a $1.99 iPhone app aimed at helping Catholic users through confession. Approved by representatives in both the UK and the U.S., the app was developed with the help of several priests by a company in Indiana."

"Aaron Titus, father of five, became more than a bit irritated when he was woken up at 4:30 by a robocall from the Prince George's County School District informing him that the start of school would be delayed by two hours. Titus was perturbed because 1) it was 4:30 in the morning, and 2) he already knew about the delay because he saw it on TV the night before, states the Washington Post. So Titus decided to take matters into his own hand by finding an online robocalling company to dish out a bit of payback.

"Through Google's work into translation and voice recognition, the company today released a new version of Google Translate for Android that features a conversation mode that allows English and Spanish speakers to communicate to one another in their native tongues via the app. While it's not quite like having a Babel Fish in your ear just yet, it's clearly a significant step in that direction." | more

Google has a new App Inventor for Android that allows users to build their app even if they aren't experienced with coding. It allows users to visually design applications and use blocks to specify application logic easily. Examples include the use of GPS-location sensor to build location aware apps whereby the app lets you check on your phone where your car is parked.

You can build just about any app you can imagine with App Inventor. Often people begin by building games like WhackAMole or games that let you draw funny pictures on your friend's faces. You can even make use of the phone's sensors to move a ball through a maze based on tilting the phone.