The California Attorney General’s office today announced that Apple, Google, and other companies running mobile app marketplaces have agreed to implement new standards for notifying users of privacy policies associated with apps offered in their stores. The provisions will require that developers of apps that collect personal information include privacy policies with their app sthat …

What is it about video game worlds that etch themselves so vividly in our mind’s eye? A fun new user-generated blog aims to unearth the latent digital cartographer in you. Mapstalgia is the brainchild of Josh Millard, a self-described “nerd-type” from Portland, OR. It’s a Tumblr where readers submit video game maps they’ve drawn from …

Gearbox and 2K Games announced Wednesday that the sequel to the popular Borderlands will have a Sept. 18 release date for XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in the U.S., and on Sept. 21 internationally. The new trailer for Borderlands 2 released by 2K Wednesday showed off new playable characters, new skill tree selections, and …

If 15 games available at launch for PlayStation Vita wasn’t entertaining enough, early adopters of the game system are in for a treat. Free Twitter, Flickr and Netflix apps are now available for download at the PlayStation Store. The influx of social media apps brings this portable gaming system into tablet territory. The 5-inch OLED …

Last month, OnLive introduced its free OnLive Desktop service that allows users to run virtual instances of Microsoft Office apps streamed from OnLive’s remote PCs to the users’ iPads. The company has now added Adobe Acrobat Reader support to the service and introduced a paid “Desktop Plus” subscription service to provide enhanced functionality including priority …

He’s back. DRINK! The college student — whose 2007 photo of himself as a freshman catapulted into meme territory last year — has made an unexpected and triumphant return to web stardom as a senior this week. Five years ago, a photograph captured University of New Hampshire student Griffin Kiritsy as a seemingly happy-go-lucky freshman. …

Irony, thy name is patent law. Microsoft filed a complaint with the European Commission against Motorola for aggressively asserting its patents, charging that Motorola ignored commitments it made to support industry standards. The filing comes shortly after Apple registered a similar complaint. In a post titled “Google: Please Don’t Kill Video on the Web,” Microsoft …

Even as Apple is preparing to open its first Dutch retail store in Amsterdam on March 3, the company is moving closer to expanding its international reach even further as it has updated its Swedish jobs site with new postings for the complete range of retail positions. We noted last November that Apple had filed …

Zipcar’s 673,000 subscribers currently share its fleet of 8,900 vehicles. But what if they could also rent yours? The company announced on Wednesday that it’s taking a first step toward finding out. Zipcar has led a $13.7 million round of funding in a peer-to-peer car rental startup called Wheelz. Like similar startups Getaround and RelayRides, …

Pope Benedict XVI is bringing a segment of his daily papal message to Twitter, beginning Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22, according to a Vatican Radio blog post. The reason? In its post, the Vatican says that while some Catholics view Lent as a time to volunteer, give something up or study the Bible, others have abandoned …