I'm taking on a new writing assignment starting this week. In addition to my usual beats (here, there), you'll find me contributing regularly to KQED's MindShift blog. This week, I wrote about the new e-book/app from Moving Tales: Unwanted Guest.

Broadcastr is a location-based storytelling site. Hot on the heels of Broadcastr opening its beta to the general public, the startup has released a free iPhone app. Broadcastr lets you record, upload, and share your audio content, all geo-tagged. The iPhone app makes it all the easier to record your stories, obviously, but it also contains a wonderful feature that lets you easily access the storires that were recorded on the site where you stand.

CNET reports that the SETI Institute will soon be launching an Android app, SETIQuest Explorer. The idea is to crowdsource pattern analysis, relying on the power of human, not computer visual recognition.

Learning language game-maker MindSnacks has launched a new, free iPhone app for learning French. The startup also announced this week it had secured $1.2 million in funding.

Apple released GarageBand for iPad on Thursday. The $4.99 app lets you play dozens of different instruments, record songs, and miz tracks. Technologizer's Jared Newman has a great review of the app, including its pros and cons, but I'll echo him in saying this is a fabulous app for music creation. Although the new GarageBand was featured as part of the iPad 2's unveiling, it actually works on both new and old versions of the device. As Newman admits, that I can use this app on my first version iPad means I won't be upgrading.