The latest insight from research2guidance reveals that the Android Market contains 319,161 applications - having added 42,000 in September alone - while the Apple App store has 459,589 apps.

The actual number of applications that have been published on the Android Market exceeded 500,000 last month, with the Apple App Store seeing just over 600,000 successful submissions.

Cathy Majtenyi of voanews.com writes:

In the slums of Kenya's capital, residents and aid groups are using new technology to send and receive money.

Irene Okoth and her five children have been living on 50 cents a day in Nairobi's Korogocho settlement.  That is what she earns recycling garbage from the nearby dump.

Telefónica UK has announced a new brand for beta versions of mobile apps.

Some new O2 products will be branded as ‘1st Edition’, indicating that the company is looking for feedback from customers before the application is launched. The first app badged as 1st Edition will be the new O2 Connect VoIP service.

HTC Corporation is spending $13 million to acquire Inquisitive Minds, the company behind the Zoodles brand.

Zoodles is a free app for smartphones, tablets and computers that puts the device into a child-safe mode. It’s currently used by over two million people.

A newly-published piece of research from Denmark has found that mobile phone use apparently resulted in no increased risks of tumours of the central nervous system.

The study looked at all Danes aged 30 or above and who were born in the country after 1925. Information about the risk of tumours of the central nervous system came from the Danish Cancer Register; this was then processed along with details about mobile phone use.