Apps and Software

With news swirling around Twitter's most recent earnings and CEO Dick Costolo's comments about taking on trolls, you may have overlooked some of this week's best new apps

Luckily, each weekend, we round up our favorite new and updated apps, so you won't miss out.

This week's list includes SwiftKey's latest update, an eye-tracking app to help improve your concentration and an app to help Windows Phone users customize their home screen.

Check out the gallery, above, to see all the apps that made our list of top picks. And if you're looking for more, check out last week's roundup of can't-miss ...

There are gizmos that let your smartphone read credit cards, sync with your fitness wristband and even function as a TV remote control. Now you can add "run an HIV test" to the list.

A device invented by biomedical engineers at Columbia University turns a smartphone into a lab that can test human blood for the virus that causes AIDS or the bacteria that cause syphilis. The device is a dongle that attaches to the headphone jack, and requires no separate batteries. An app on the phone reads the results.

The dongle contains a lab on a chip. It consists of a one-time-use cassette — which has tiny channels as thin as a human hair — and a pump, which is operated by a mechanical button and draws blood from an inlet through the channels. ...

Dick Costolo knows Twitter has a problem with abuse and trolls and says it's entirely his fault.

That's according to a memo the CEO reportedly sent to employees earlier this week in which he accepts responsibility for the problems and promises changes are on the way

The Verge got ahold of two emails, reportedly sent to Twitter employees by Costolo, in which the CEO says he accepts personal responsibility for the problems.

In the first memo, which reportedly came after an employee questioned on an internal forum whether the social network is doing all it can to prevent trolling and abuse, Twitter's top executive admits he's "ashamed" at how the company has handled these issues and promises to "start kicking these people off right and left." ...