Microsoft would "welcome" an iTunes app from Apple for Windows 8, according to CEO Steve Ballmer. During a conference call with analysts, Ballmer hinted that companies such as Apple and Amazon, while competitors, also represent companies that deliver a lot of media content to device users, and that is attractive to Microsoft and their new touch-centric operating system.

"We’d welcome Metro style applications from Apple in the iTunes case," Ballmer said. "I don’t know what we’d see there but we’d certainly welcome those."

Fall. Back to school. Back to scouring the web for a cheaper deal on your textbooks. Most likely, Amazon was always one of the first places you would check for lower priced textbooks -- and to check you needed lots of arcane information like ISBN numbers or the full book title with the right edition.

Well, Amazon may have just made your life a little easier.

Father Paolo Padrini. He is the Italian priest who developed an app called iBrevary that puts morning prayer, evening prayer and night prayers on the iPhone.  It is the first iPhone app sanctioned by the Vatican. 

Padrini works with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and was recently interviewed about upcoming app plans as well as the philosophy behind putting religious apps in iTunes.