It's the quiet in between storms. Both BlackBerry Live and Google I/O 2013 are over, yet #TM13 and more importantly, WWDC 2013 are fast approaching. Tomorrow's a public holiday here in Canada, but I'll be working through it. And there's a bunch of reasons for that. Cue the bullet list...

• BlackBerry Live, fun as it was, and awesome as the CrackBerry crew and John P. from GeekBeat.tv was to work with, it kept me away from a lot of what I had to do here on iMore. Both Peter and Richard, our new Mac and gaming, and news editors respectively, more than helped keep things going, but June is one of our busiest times and I'm going to have to haul ass now to catch up. There are still a lot of iOS 7 wants I have to add to my list. And if you have any as well, throw them in the comments!
• We're changing up the iMore show. It's going to move back to Wednesdays, move to earlier in the day, and take on more of a panel, more of an encompassing format. We won't just be talking news, but apps and accessories, and taking your help and how-to questions as well. In other words, it'll be more of a Mobile Nations-type show. And we'll be starting that in just a few days. If you have anything specific you want to see in the all-new iMore show, let me know asap!
• If you're a fan of the current iMore show, where I talk to other Apple and tech-centric people about specific subjects, don't worry. That won't be going away, it'll just be moving over slightly. Stay tuned!
• Georgia's show, ZEN & TECH will be adding something new to the mix. I'm calling them moments of ZEN & TECH, but Georgia hates that name so it'll likely change. Basically, they're going to be short segments on specific topics. Again, stay tuned.
• We just might be getting our media-centric podcast, Ad Hoc, back in gear. If you think this timing suggests Iron Man 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness episodes, you're either a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, a Vulcan, or both. The size and diversity of people we have on those shows makes scheduling them tricky, but we're going to get them done.
• Speaking of Vulcans and Avengers, if you hadn't heard already, Derek Kessler has gone full time on Mobile Nations. He'll be working across all our sites, and that means you should be seeing him even more often here on iMore. He's fantastic, we're lucky to have him, and please take a moment to join me in welcoming him into his new role!

And some news bites:

• Sounds like Yahoo! is buying Tumblr for 1.1 billion, at least according to Kara Swisher of AllThingsD. We'll cover it more fully in the near future, but for now I'm curious to know what the Tumblr users among us think? Yahoo! hasn't taken anything approaching good care of its web properties in recent years, but will new management and a hot new property make any difference?
• Apple sold 5 million iPhone 5 devices in one weekend, failed to meet expectations, and got lambasted for it in the media and the market. According to Philip Elmer-Dewitt in Fortune, Samsung has shipped (not sold) 10 million Galaxy S4 devices in 10 weeks. Yet that doesn't seem to have failed to meet any expectations, or gotten them lambasted in any of the same media or markets. Again, we'll cover that more fully in its own article, but in the meantime, does that tell us more about the expectations placed on both companies, the general perceptions, or both?

Photo: Mobile Nations Tango & Cash by Martin Reisch... Though I have no idea which of us is meant to be which of them...?

It's been a busy, busy week on iMore, and this time the iOS headlines have been dominated by news from ostensibly competing conferences -- BlackBerry Live and Google I/O. The main conversation topic this week was cross platform messaging from BlackBerry and Google both, though also making the headlines was Google's answer to Game Center, Amazon taking on iTunes on the desktop, and the App Store finally hitting 50 billion downloads. Read on for the recap!

The big story early in the week came from BlackBerry Live in Orlando. While we may have expected some news of the enterprise kind that affected iOS devices, we weren't quite prepared for what came next. CEO Thorsten Heins took to the stage and announced that their signature messaging tool, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) would be coming to iOS this summer. Some see it as too little, too late, but there seems to be a healthy early interest in the product. We'll be looking forward to putting it through its paces later this year. It also now means, as Rene pointed out, that each competing platform owner now makes apps for iOS. Apple by contrast, makes squarely nothing for any of its competitors.

• BlackBerry Messenger coming to iOS this summer
• Every major mobile competitor makes apps for iOS

Messaging was the talk of the town over in San Francisco too, at Google I/O. Much-rumored leading up to the conference, Google debuted their new, cross-platform, Google+ Hangouts messaging service, now available on iOS as well as Android and the web. Hangouts seems to amalgamate the existing Hangouts experience of group video chat, with the existing Google Talk instant messaging service. Early impressions are good, but for the complete run down be sure to check out Leanna's full review.

• Google+ Hangouts for iPhone and iPad review

Also coming out of Google I/O was news of an iPad version of Google Maps heading our way this year, updated Google Now cards and Google Play game services. Google's answer to Game Center, the game services API's are going cross-platform and are available to developers of iOS games too. Our own Peter Cohen gave his take on Google's new services following the announcement, so be sure to give it a read.

• Google Maps for iPad, new features coming this summer
• Google takes on Game Center with Google Play game services

The third competing platform announcing a move to Apple products this week was Amazon. Until now, Amazon's Cloud Player music service has only been available via the web browser, but the launch of a desktop version takes on Apple's own iTunes. Initially, Cloud Player is only available for Windows PC's, but there is a version for the Mac in the works. This is great news for Amazon MP3 Store customers however, as getting your music onto your Mac and into iTunes isn't the most user friendly experience as it stands.

• Amazon taking the fight to iTunes on the desktop with new Cloud Player client

One piece of big Apple news this week, was the App Store finally reaching its milestone 50 billion downloads. The lucky winner was one Brandon Ashmore, who downloaded Say The Same Thing to win the $10,000 App Store gift card. Congratulations to Brandon!

• Apple announces 50 billion app downloads. For real

Elsewhere this week, the iMore staff gave us their thoughts on a variety of subjects. Leanna gave us a sterling round up of the best photography apps for the iPhone, while Peter weighed the pros and cons of all three (!) of Apple's current 13-inch MacBook offerings, and also gave us the arguments against touchscreen Macs . All excellent items well worth reading if you missed them the first time round.

• Best apps for iPhone photographers
• Battle of the 13-inch MacBooks: Which one wins?
• Time for touchscreen Macs? Hell no!

Rene, meanwhile, is still pining on a better way to surface files on iOS. Four years of that and counting. Will Apple finally put him out of his misery?

• iOS 7 and my continued, unrequited desire for a Files.app!

There you have them, the best of iMore for week. What stood out for you in everything that went on in the last 7 days? What do you still want to comment about? Have at it below!

Every week, the editors and writers at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps. This week's selections include a war game, a videography app, a classic board game, and a popular twitter client for Mac.

Sky Gamblers - Storm Raiders - Peter Cohen

World War II air combat on the Mac - dogfighting in the skies above Pearl Harbor, Midway, France and more. Fly historic planes with cross-platform multiplayer, Game Center and iCloud support. If you've played the game on your iOS device, you know what to expect. But Atypical Games has reworked Sky Gamblers - Storm Raiders to work on the Mac, which makes it an even more fun game on a bigger screen.

The game costs a paltry 99 cents to download, but content like new planes and weapons come at a price - in-app purchases for a couple of bucks here and there. Still, lots of fun to play and not a lot of coin to make it happen.

• $0.99 - Download now

Luma Camera - Rene Ritchie

While I was at BlackBerry Live -- or was it iMore live? -- one of the developers in attendance came over and showed me Luma Camera for iPhone. It's a video shooting app that offers filters both real-time and for post-processing, as well as optional HD video storage space via their website. The most interesting feature, however, is the image stabilization. Real optical image stabilization requires hardware, but Luma does a respectable job using the iPhones built in sensors and it's powerful graphics processing capabilities.

I haven't had much of a chance to play around with it yet, but it looks like fun. If you try it, let me know what you think!

• Free - Download now

Ticket to Ride Online - Richard Devine

I must confess to being an avid fan of the Geek and Sundry YouTube Show, TableTop starring Wil Wheaton. It's via that show I first became aware of the board game Ticket to Ride, and now I've found and begun playing the Mac version -- Ticket to Ride Online

I've never played the board game, but the Mac version is a beautifully colourful recreation of the original, and follows the rules to the letter. You choose a series of routes, and the objective is to lay trains on as many of those routes as possible before the game is up. The longest routes get an extra reward at the end, and incomplete routes loses points. It's really simple to pick up and play, and there's a comprehensive tutorial game to help you get to grips with the gameplay.

In-App purchases are available to extend the game boards, with new ones available for Europe, another USA board and for Switzerland. And, the online play supports competing against other Mac, PC, and iPad players. I've not tried out the iPad version just yet, but you'll find a link for that too below.

• $9.99 (Mac Version) - Download Now
• $6.99 (iPad Version) - Download Now

Tweetbot for Mac - Ally Kazmucha

There are a wealth of amazing Twitter clients for iOS but when it comes to Mac, there are less to choose from. While I tend to use Twitterrific on my iPhone and iPad, I've never really liked the feel of it on Mac. Tweetbot is my second favorite for iOS and when they released a Mac client a while back, it definitely didn't disappoint.

The price point is quite a bit higher than other Twitter offerings in the Mac App Store but honestly, it's the best available, hands down. If you want the iOS Tweetbot experience on your Mac, there really is no other option.

• $19.99 - Download Now

Your choice?

Now that we've chosen our favorites for the week, we want to hear yours! Did you pick up a killer app, accessory, or game this week? Let us know in the comments below!

According to the internet, Apple has to everything everyone else has ever done, plus make real everything science fiction has ever imagined, or WWDC 2013 will be a disappointment, and Apple will again and forever be doomed. No pressure there. But what exactly is this unattainable goal being set for Apple? Justin Willaims of Carpeaqua has placed tongue firmly in cheek and laid it plain.

With WWDC just a few weeks away, I thought it’d be beneficial to the Internet at large to compile a working list of everything that is expected of Apple during their Keynote and subsequent “State of the Union” addresses in order to appease the Internet. Failure to introduce each and every one of these features and updates will result in another stock price plummet, calls for Tim Cook’s ouster and an infinite amount of comments on tech blogs decrying that Android is superior to Apple’s iOS.

I have several favorites. Give the whole things a read, then tell me yours.

Source: Carpeaqua

If you own a Mac running OS X Mountain Lion and either a second or third generation Apple TV, you have the ability to display content from your Mac on your TV wirelessly with AirPlay Mirroring. If you are familiar with how AirPlay works for iOS with display mirroring, it's very similar.

If you've never used AirPlay on your Mac before, follow along and we'll show you how.

1. Turn on your TV and your Apple TV.
2. Make sure your Apple TV and your Mac are both connected to the same wifi network.
3. In the task tray in the upper right corner of your Mac, look for the AirPlay icon.
4. Click on the AirPlay icon and you should see your Apple TV available for mirroring. Simply click on it.

The content on your Mac screen will now automatically be shown on your TV screen.

Apple has $102 billion in cash overseas. It wants to bring that money back to the U.S. but it doesn't want to pay the 35% in taxes the U.S. government is demanding. Apple calls it smart business, Congress might end up calling it tax evasion. Who's right?

It’s quite popular for people reporting on Apple’s financial position to quote the absurdly high level of cash the company holds on its balance sheet. At the end of last quarter the $145 billion is more than a rainy day fund, which is why the board of directors approved a massive stock buyback and dividend hike. Of course Apple won’t be using much of its cash to do this. Instead, it raised debt. Why? Because so much of the cash -- about $102 billion -- is not on US soil. Instead this money is held in other countries.

Apple is playing a waiting game with Congress, and I’m betting they will win it. Apple doesn’t need the money onshore nearly as much as Congress would like them to bring it on shore and encourage more US investment.

Tim Cook is scheduled to testify in Washington next week. According to all the headlines on this subject, the government wants to know if Apple is evading taxes. I’m certainly no tax expert but I’ve seen smartly organized tax systems work for a variety of companies in my time following stocks. There are a number of perfectly legal ways to generate profits outside of your home country, avoiding domestic taxes on that profit. Companies can be quite aggressive by establishing high internal costs in another country, therefore siphoning more profit away from the USA, and into the country where they establish internal high costs. Or they can be less aggressive, as Apple claims is their case. Either way it’s legal.

Would Apple like to bring home the bacon? Yeah, of course they would. It would simplify things and make it easier for them to invest locally. But with a 35% tax rate applied to this repatriated cash, according to Tim Cook as quoted by this excellent Politico article, there is no way in hell they’re going to do it. They’ll wait. And I hope US Congress can get their thumbs out of their asses long enough figure out that they can’t win against companies as big as Apple with as many other global opportunities available to them for investing this cash. And of course with Apple’s stellar balance sheet they can avoid repatriating cash forever if they want. They can continue to rely on local debt markets if they need more cash than they have.

If you want Apple to invest more in the USA, make it more attractive for shareholders

To me this seems like a no brainer -- If you want Apple to invest more in the USA, make it more attractive for shareholders. After all, shareholders run the company and shareholders don’t care to pay 35% repatriation tax. For Apple to do anything less than fight this battle would be irresponsible.

People can scream all they want about tax avoidance and “dodging” tax responsibilities. Bottom line: The US government created their laws, and Apple is playing within the rules. So are many other companies.

If you don’t want people dodging taxes, stop throwing dodge balls at the places that hurt them most.

It's been said time and time again that the camera on the iPhone is an excellent camera. In fact, it's become such a popular camera that there's a whole genre of photography known as 'iPhoneography'. iPhone photographers not only use the camera and lens built into their iPhone, but also an assortment of apps to edit, enhance, and show off their work. There are so many great apps out there, so we've narrowed it down to a few of our favorites.

KitCam

The first app we're going to take a look at is a fantastic tool for taking your photos. With it, you can adjust exposure, white balance, lenses, and film before you even take the photo. It also features convenient shooting modes like a timer, multi-exposure, time-lapse, and more. You can also view each photo's histogram and make adjustments to levels, brightness, contrast, and saturation. If you're looking to take more control over your iPhone's camera, definitely grab KitCam.

• $0.99 - Download now

See also:

• Camera+ - $0.99 - Download now

Photoforge2

KitCam does offer some nice editing options, but if you want even more, Photoforge2 is an excellent choice that's bursting with advanced controls. The most notable is the ability to use multiple layers and masks and make advanced adjustments including curves, levels, color balance, channel mixer, white balance, noise reduction, and more. You can also add over 25 different filters and FX and combine different films lenses, filters, and textures.

• $3.99 - Download now

See also:

• Snapseed - Free - Download now
• iPhoto - $4.99 - Download now

VSCO CAM

Complex and advanced controls are great, but sometimes you want something quick and easy, yet awesome -- like VSCO CAM. This gem features a sleek design with minimal processing options, but the options are good. There's a nice variety and all the basics are covered. VSCO CAM is a great app to have in your grab bag of editing tools.

• $0.99 - Download now

Facetune

If you're shooting portraits with your iPhone camera, then Facetune should be your go-to app for touching up blemishes, smoothing out skin, enhancing eyes, and even reshaping. Seriously, Facetune is amazing. Check out the review for a full rundown.

• Facetune for iPhone review
• $1.99 - Download now

Fuzel Pro

Collages (or "storyboards") are an excellent way to show off multiple photos at once. They are a great way to tell a story. The App Store is also flooded with apps that help you build collages, but the one I keep coming back to is Fuzel Pro. It has an artistic design, makes it quick and easy to add photos, and gives you control over the layouts of your collages.

• $1.99 - Download now

See also:

• Diptic - $0.99 - Download now

Photolettering

After editing your photo to perfection, you may realize that it would make a great poster, sign, or inspirational message. With Photolettering, you can do just that using fonts from world-renowned type foundry House Industries. It's free with a few fonts and additional fonts are available via in-app purchase. If you're looking to mix photography with typography, Photolettering is the way to go.

• Free - Download now

See also:

• Over - Free - Download now

Instagram

You didn't think I'd get through an article about photography apps without mentioning Instagram, did you? Although there are a lot of things I would love to see changed about Instagram (especially forced square crops), there's no denying it's usefulness as a way to share photos. Yes, there's a lot of snapshots of pets and kids (my own included) and plates of food, but there is also a lot of amazing photography being shared on Instagram, as well.

• Free - Download now

See also:

• Flickr - Free - Download now

Your favorite apps for iPhone photography?

So there you have it! iMore's best apps for iPhone photographers. Did we miss any of your favorites? What apps do you use to shoot, edit, enhance, and show off your photos taking with your iPhone?

If you're shopping for a new 13-inch laptop, you may have noticed that Apple's product line in that category is a bit more crowded than in other spots. The company has three distinct 13-inch models - the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Which model should you get? Let's compare, but let me warn you at the outset: I think you should wait.

On the weekends I work at a local Apple Specialist. Anecdotally, I see more 13-inch MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs go out the door than any other model. They're all compact, lightweight and powerful machines, so it's little wonder that they hit the sweet spot between features and price.

Once you scratch below the surface, though, there's a lot of diversity there. At $1,199, The MacBook Air occupies the low end of the 13-inch price range, but it's a well-rounded performer: a dual-core 1.8 GHz Core i5 processor doesn't tell the full story of the machine's performance, thanks to the use of Solid State Disk (SSD) storage. With 128 GB storage standard, the MacBook Air may not be big enough for digital pack rats. Apple will double the storage for an additional $200. Four GB RAM comes standard, with 8 GB also available.

The MacBook Air is terrific for portable convenience. It weighs less than three pounds and measures a bit more than half an inch thick with the screen closed. Thunderbolt and two USB 3.0 ports make peripheral connection easy, and Thunderbolt's flexible enough to work with high speed storage, Gigabit Ethernet and external displays, using the right attachment.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro is yeoman model of the bunch, priced the same as the thinner, lighter MacBook Air. Its more conventional technology appeal to people looking to maximize storage (500GB hard drive comes standard; SSD is a pricey additional option) or who might still need a DVD burner. The machine also sports a faster processor - 2.5 GHz. Options like a faster processor and more RAM are available -- a well-appointed model runs $1,499.

The downsides of the standard 13-inch MacBook Pro include a heavier weight - 4.5 pounds - and a thicker frame. But that thicker frame also permits this workhorse to have dedicated Ethernet and FireWire 800 connections, along with Thunderbolt and two USB 3.0 connections.

Positioned next to a conventional 13-inch MacBook Pro, the MacBook Pro with Retina Display shines. The stunning display with its 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution, rich color and fantastic detail make it easy to differentiate, and its sleek chassis retains many of the benefits of the MacBook Air like SSD storage and a thinner and lighter design (almost a full pound lighter, and less than an inch thick). It's also priced at $1,499, though storage options can drive the price higher (upgrading SSD storage isn't for faint-hearted or those planning on keeping their warranty intact.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display wins for performance and usability - an elegantly designed machine that's flexible enough to handle everything that's thrown at it. And with SSD options stretching to 768 GB, plenty of space for big files.

If there's a downside to all three models, it's that the integrated graphics processor - the Intel HD Graphics 4000 - can get overtaxed especially when the Retina Display is driving scaled, higher resolution modes. Also, these machines are all based around Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture, which is about to be supplanted by something else that could be a really big deal for Apple's mobile Macs - something that's as applicable to the 15-inch models as it is to the 13-inch ones.

Intel's Haswell microprocessor should start shipping in quantity by the same time Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference happens next month. Haswell sports much greater power efficiency and a significant improvement in graphics performance. Even if Apple doesn't change the form factor or feature list of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro significantly, the smart money is to put off any purchase until we see how Apple's roadmap with Haswell plays out.

Are you pining for new 13-inch hardware from Apple? Besides Haswell processors, what else do you think the new models are likely to have? Tell us in the comments.

Leading UK consumer campaigner, Which?, has conducted a survey into customer satisfaction across UK high-street retail stores. While the likes of WHSmith and carrier, EE, scored near the bottom, is there any surprise who topped the table? Apple Retail Stores.

Over 11,000 UK consumers responded to the survey, with Apple coming out on top with an 85% satisfaction score. Apple Retail Stores were praised specifically for their "unique look and feel" and "great customer service."

Apple Retail Stores do stand out among their competitors. The look and feel is indeed unique, but such customer services as EasyPay allowing payment via your iTunes account through your iPhone sets Apple apart from the rest. It's no doubt a great result for Apple, but 11,000 people doesn't come close to the numbers that pass through Apple Retail Stores each and every day.

Personally, I can't recall a visit to an Apple Store that I'd consider unsatisfactory, and though they're often extremely busy, there's never much of a wait to be dealt with by a member of the store team. Not counting the Genius Bar, of course. But how about you, have you ever had a bad experience in an Apple Retail Store?

Source: The Independent

Periodically, albums become available for live streaming on iTunes prior to their official release date. The hope is that not only do consumers get a chance to hear the album before buying it, but also that by offering a free and legal way to listen to the album before it’s available, there will be less motivation for eager fans to pirate leaked albums. With unreleased albums from Daft Punk and The National currently streaming on iTunes, 9to5Mac has discovered that the streams are being left completely unprotected, offering an easy way for pirates to get high-quality cuts of the albums before they’re officially released.

With traffic sniffing tools (such as Charles Proxy or HTTP Scoop) anybody can monitor their traffic while streaming the album which will show the URL of the M4P media file being streamed. Using this URL, users can easily save the album to their computer for future listening. While it’s true somebody could also just record the stream from their computer as they listen to it, it would lose some of the quality. Downloading the stream directly offers a crisp 256kbps AAC recording. It’s also true that rather than ending up with individual tracks that a listener can easily navigate through, you’re stuck with a single file that contains the whole album. You could split the album up into separate tracks yourself (though first you'd have to get around the DRM), but at that point it would be less effort for most people to just go pirate the album elsewhere. In fact, an illegal download of Daft Punk’s Random Access Memory currently available on a popular torrent site appears to have come from the iTunes M4P stream.

Admittedly, even if the streams were protected, piracy would still be happening. There are some people who just don’t want to pay for music. However, Apple’s handing these albums to pirates on a silver platter by offering up an unprotected, high-quality streams like this ahead of their release dates. Ironically, Apple has documentation available for developers that covers how to encrypt HTTP audio and video streams to protect from this sort of thing.

Source: 9to5Mac

The U.S. Department of Defense has approved the use of iOS 6 devices, which may help Apple to build some strength in a market still dominated by BlackBerry devices. The US D.O.D. currently has about 470,000 BlackBerrys in use across its networks, with 41,000 Apple mobile devices and 8,700 Android devices.

The Department of Defense is building a multivendor environment, it said in a press release, with BlackBerry and Samsung Knox devices also receiving similar approval.

The D.O.D. has cracked the door open to Apple and Android users, but it's not a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) environment: The organization doesn't support personal phones to connect to the network.

BlackBerry's security proofing of their systems is legendary, but is that enough, paired with recent products like the Q10, to keep them on the government payroll? Or is Apple (or Samsung) likely to take over, as they have elsewhere? Let us know in the comments.

[Via US Department of Defense]

The big talk of the week has definitely been cross-platform messaging. First up at BlackBerry Live, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins dropped the huge news that their signature messaging platform, BBM, would be going cross-platform this summer and coming to iOS as well as Android. Then, literally 24 hours later Google stepped up and introduced their cross-platform offering, Google+ Hangouts, released the same day on iOS. What we want to know is; are you excited by either of these products?

For many, BBM needs little introduction. Before the iPhone, many of you, like me, used a BlackBerry and BBM with it. Some like it for its security, others for the little 'D' and 'R' notifications that let you know for sure what happened with your message. There's a lot to like about BBM, and as it has evolved with the latest version on BlackBerry 10 it now incorporates voice chat, as well as screen sharing and an excellent, and free, video calling experience. While iOS will not see these video calling features at launch, BlackBerry has said they will be bringing it in future updates.

Google+ Hangouts seems to be an amalgamation of the existing Hangouts experience, merged together with Google Talk. Indeed, on Android, Hangouts has now replaced the stock Google Talk application, and on iOS we're treated to very much the same experience as our Android counterparts. Unlike BBM, Hangouts is already with us, and incorporates free, group video calling at launch.

Both are arriving on iOS after the likes of other third-party clients such as Kik or WhatsApp, not to mention that iOS has its own messaging service, iMessage. OK, so iMessage is somewhat more limited than the others in that it requires an iOS device or a Mac to operate, but iMessage is seamlessly integrated into the stock messaging app. So, when sending a message on your iPhone to one of your contacts, you don't have to worry if they have access to iMessage or not; they just get an SMS message if they don't.

So, are you excited by either of these two newly announced products, or is it too little, too late? Are you and your friends and family already invested in a third-party messaging client? Or is iMessage all you need, or even SMS? Cast your vote in the poll above, and be sure to drop into the comments and share your thoughts with us.

Bad news this week for any users of the iOS file management apps File Lite and File Pro. Researchers over at Vulnerability Laboratory have published details for three vulnerabilities that they discovered in the latest versions of both apps.

Ranging from low to high risk, two of the vulnerabilities allow for code injection in the user’s browser when they view a file listing, while the most severe vulnerability allows an attacker to upload arbitrary files to a user’s account without any user interaction. While the impact of these vulnerabilities could be quite severe, exploitation requires a victim to be running the app’s Wi-Fi Sharing option.

The Wi-Fi Sharing method for sharing files runs a web server locally on your iPhone. It appears that all of the published vulnerabilities rely on the web server running to be exploited. If you already have the app on your phone and don’t want to lose the documents you have in it, you should be fine leaving the app on your phone, just avoid using the Wi-Fi Sharing option. Although based on the insecurities found by Vulnerability Laboratory, it’s probably not unwise to start using a different app to manage your files.

Apple recently released iTunes 11.0.3 with a number of cosmetic improvements including an updated MiniPlayer and songs view. However, this release is more than just a pretty face, bringing a number of security patches which address a wide range of vulnerabilities. Even users not interested in the visual treatments will want to grab this update.

Out of all 40 of the vulnerabilities listed in Apple’s article detailing the security content of the update, only one of them affected Mac users. The remaining 39 vulnerabilities addressed in this iTunes release only affected Windows users. Though this doesn’t mean that it’s not important to update if you’re a Mac user. The bug fixed for OS X users addresses an issue with certificate validation, where iTunes could accept an untrusted SSL certificate without alerting the user, potentially leading to intercepted or maliciously altered traffic.

Windows users were also affected by the certificate validation bug, as well as a significant number of memory corruption bugs in WebKit. These bugs could allow for a man-in-the-middle attack and potentially lead to arbitrary code execution on a user’s computer. While specific details aren’t available for all of the fixed bugs, a number of them seem to have been previously patched in iOS and Safari and are not particularly new. In fact, details of the oldest bug on the list were first discovered over a year ago, and fixed in iOS and Safari earlier this year.

If you haven’t already updated iTunes, you can update to 11.0.3 with iTunes’ “Check for Updates...” option or grab it straight from the iTunes download page.

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Intel CEO Paul Otellini has stepped down from his post, but not before divulging some interesting revelations in the process. As it turns out, Otellini and Intel turned down the chance to work on the original iPhone, now with some element of regret. As Otellini told The Atlantic:

"We ended up not winning it or passing on it, depending on how you want to view it. And the world would have been a lot different if we'd done it. The thing you have to remember is that this was before the iPhone was introduced and no one knew what the iPhone would do... At the end of the day, there was a chip that they were interested in that they wanted to pay a certain price for and not a nickel more and that price was below our forecasted cost. I couldn't see it. It wasn't one of these things you can make up on volume. And in hindsight, the forecasted cost was wrong and the volume was 100x what anyone thought."

On the one hand, at the time no-one probably did know just how much of a success the iPhone would become, and how many units would be shipped. Since then, Intel has finally begun to make moves into the mobile market, but they're very much late to the party and going their own way.

The full article at The Atlantic is a lengthy profile of Paul Otellini's time at Intel, and is definitely worth a read. If they had supplied chips to the original iPhone, though, how different their presence in mobile could be today.

Source: The Atlantic

Moshi makes some great accessories for the iPhone and the iPad, and their latest is no exception. Lightning cables are always a handy commodity to have around, but Moshi has done something a little different with theirs. They've encased them in aluminum.

Moshi claims that their new USB to Lightning cables are "almost indestructible," so definitely worth a look if you're the sort of person who keeps breaking plastic things. Better yet, Moshi's cables cost only $20, just $1 more than the Apple Lightning cables, making them extremely good value for money. The cables are available in black as well as a white and silver option, and are available to order from Moshi now.

Are you one of those people who would love a rough and tough Lightning cable? Will you be picking one of these up?

Source: Moshi

Password managers are a mightily useful thing to have around, but at the same time they're not the most affordable apps for your iOS devices or your Mac. It's tough to put a price on security, but if you've been holding off for a sale then mSecure might be just what you're looking for. For a limited time, both iOS and Mac versions are 50% off their regular price, and with the latest updates iCloud sync is now also included!

Until now, cloud syncing of your mSecure information has required a Dropbox account, so the added option of being able to use your iCloud account to sync between your Mac and your iOS device is a welcome one. While 1Password is no doubts the popular choice when it comes to managing passwords and sensitive information across your devices, mSecure is a more than competent alternative.

If you'd like to see a comparison of mSecure to some of the other leading alternatives, then be sure to check out our shootout with 1Password and Lastpass. To get a copy of mSecure for yourselves at the special promotional price, head over the the iOS and Mac App Stores.

Which is your preferred password management solution, and why? Does this price cut to mSecure make it a much more compelling choice for you? Let us know in the comments!

• mSecure for Mac ($9.99) - Download Now
• mSecure for iOS ($4.99) - Download Now

If you're looking for some new games to play this weekend on your iOS device, Gameloft wants to help you out. Starting today for a limited time only -- this weekend to be precise -- premium titles N.O.V.A. 3 and Gangstar Rio can be had completely free of charge. That's a combined saving of just under $12 if you're counting.

Gangstar Rio sits in the same vein as Grand Theft Auto, where you're exploring a 3D environment set in Rio de Janeiro. Missions, weapons, vehicles, all combine to create a game where you do well, by doing wrong.

N.O.V.A. 3 is an extremely impressive First Person Shooter with a storyline that spans 10 levels across the galaxy. It comes with 7 different multiplayer modes with support for up to 12 players, as well as in-game voice chat so you can communicate with your friends while playing.

Both are available in the App Store to download now, so go get them!

• N.O.V.A 3 (Free) - Download Now
• Gangstar Rio (Free) - Download Now

If there's one thing iMore loves even more than iPhones and iPads (and iPods!), it's giving cool iPhone and iPad accessories and apps to our awesome readers. This week we have amazing cases from both Element and Pad& Quill! The winners are:

• Black Ops Elite Case for iPhone 5 from Element
  kataran
  PrePlus79

• Aria case for iPad from Pad & Quill!
  jmecca09
  MrAlakija

Congratulations everyone! Winners will be contacted via email in the next few days. Looking for another chance to win? We always have a contest underway for something cool, so keep your eyes on the blogs for those announcements.

 

The official eBay app for iPhone just got a nice update that brings a UI refresh to the online auction service. The bump up to version 3.0 adds a general refresh to most areas of the app, and improves photos in listings making them now much larger and better looking. Photos also now look larger in search results at the tap of a button, though iOS 6 and above is required for this.

Beyond the visuals, U.S. customers in selected states now have the facility to scan their drivers license for quick and easy eBay registration. Also available to U.S. customers now, along with those of us in the UK is access to the new eBay shopping cart, giving you the option to checkout multiple items at once.

Sellers in Spain will also be happy to know that finally they can sell their wares using the eBay app, as this feature has been turned on in the latest version. Grab it from the App Store now, and be sure to let us know how you're finding it. Does it make your eBay experience a little better now?

• Free - Download Now

Hangouts for iPhone and iPad is Google's new cross-platform messaging app that lets you converse with your friends regardless of what phone, tablet, or computer they are using. It features a beautiful, clean design and support for video messaging.

The chat view in Hangouts is very traditional and flat with some subtle shading. Your messages and picture are on the right and everyone else is on the left. All users' chat bubbles are the same color, so only the picture distinguishes users from each other; something I actually like. It's simple

Tapping a user's photo will take you to their profile which includes everything they've made available on Google+, including work history, basic information, education, and more.

Video chatting with Hangouts is super easy, looks great, and also sounds crisp and clear. I had a quick conversation with Rene while he was in a noisy environment, yet I had no problem hearing or understanding him.

Google Hangouts also gives you control over who gets to hangout with you and who must send a request. You can also choose to automatically snooze notifications after 1-72 hours and block specific users.

The good

• Clean design
• Cross-platform
• Group conversation support
• Video chat support
• Get notifications only once. After you see an alert, it disappears from other devices.
• Snooze notifications
• Save history
• View collections of photos shared from each Hangout
• Emoji support
• Connect to Messages for Mac with Jabber
• Universal for iPhone and iPad

The bad

• Requires Google+, a simple Gmail account is not enough
• Can't set your status/availability
• No sound when new message comes in
• No SMS integration. This is not a fault of Google, but rather of iOS API limitations, but it's still a bummer.

The bottom line

If you chat with friends on Google Talk or Google+ often, then Hangouts is awesome and you should definitely pick it up.

• Free - Download now

There's a new iTunes update in town, and at the top of the list of new goodies is a new look MiniPlayer. The tiny little iTunes window has had a makeover that now includes a progress bar for the track currently playing, alongside your album artwork too. It may well be tiny, but it does look a lot nicer now, so good job on that front, Apple.

Also getting the visual makeover treatment is the songs view. With this latest update you can enjoy all your album artwork whilst in songs view. It's a small touch, but I know from personal tastes that having album artwork on show just makes the whole experience a little more pleasurable. But, that's just me.

That's not all though. Also improved in iTunes 11.0.3 is support for multi-disc albums. No more will separate discs be listed as separate albums, all discs will now appear in your iTunes library as a single album. Something I've wanted for some time, as I'm sure countless other users have.

Grab a copy of iTunes 11.0.3 from the download link below, or by heading into Software Update on your Mac, or iTunes on your Mac or Windows PC and hitting check for updates. Once you're done, head on back here and let us know how you like the new updates.

• Free - Download Now

Amid the extravaganza that is Google I/O, the folks from Mountain View quietly pushed out an update to one of their applications that finally catches up with the times. Google Play Books has never quite matched iBooks or Amazon's Kindle, but the latest update to their iOS app finally adds support for PDF files and ePUB books bought from other sources.

Features such as these are likely taken for granted by users of Apple's or Amazon's eReading platforms, but anyone who is heavily investigated in Google Play Books will now see the benefit. The only drawback is that the files have to be added to your Books account via the web, for them to then become available on your iPhone or iPad.

There's also a handy dose of stability and performance improvements for good measure. Grab it now for iPhone and iPad from the App Store now. Anyone out there using Google Play Books? Does this make your reading life that much more bareable?

• Free - Download Now

Apple’s handling of location data has made its way back into headlines recently due to a tool written by security researcher Hubert Seiwert. Seiwert presented the iSniff GPS tool, which makes it easy to capture potentially sensitive iPhone user data, last July at the Blackhat USA security conference and posted the source code to Github a month later. While the tool isn’t particularly new, it has been the recipient of some media attention after being covered earlier this month by SC Magazine. While the disclosure of the sensitive information by iPhones was previously known, iSniff makes the information more easily accessible and is worth a closer look to determine if users need to worry.

iSniff has two primary components; the first extracts relevant data from traffic captures while the other provides a web interface to interact with collected data. The first component, iSniff_import.py, captures ARP requests from iPhones on the same network and SSID probes from iPhones not currently connected to WiFi. While SSID probes are something normal for all WiFi enabled devices not currently on a network to send out, these particular ARP requests seem to be unique to iOS devices and were initially reported on by Ars Technica after Mark Wuergler initially discovered them.

Normally ARP requests are sent by networked devices in order to resolve the network IP address of other devices on the network to their hardware MAC addresses. Upon joining a network, iOS devices send ARP requests addressed to MAC addresses belonging to the DHCP servers for the last three wireless networks they’ve been connected to. Nobody quite seems to understand why, but one guess is that it’s an attempt to speed up the device’s joining to the network. This means that if your iPhone is connected to WiFi at your house, then you head to Starbucks to get some work done and connect your iPhone to the network there, upon connecting, your iPhone will send an ARP request on Starbucks’ wireless network containing the MAC address of your home router. What makes this concerning is that the geographical location of most wireless access points, along with their MAC address, have been mapped, placed into databases, and are available for anybody on the Internet to lookup. If somebody on Starbucks’ network was monitoring for these ARP requests, they could acquire your MAC address and do a lookup to find out where it is located, potentially revealing to them where you live.

When your device is trying to determine your current location, it can use GPS, but depending on the availability of satellites, this can take a while to determine your location. Nearby WiFi base stations offer a faster way to determine a user’s approximate location. As you walk around with your iPhone and it detects various wireless signals, it sends anonymous data back to Apple, reporting the device’s location and information about nearby wireless base stations (concerned users can disable this in Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Diagnostics & Usage see update below). Apple adds this information to their giant database of known wireless base stations and locations. By crowd-sourcing this data gathering out to the millions and millions of iOS devices used worldwide, Apple is able to keep a fairly accurate database which allows users to get relatively accurate location services readings when they’re near any known base stations. Of course, such a database requires a way for iOS devices to read from it in order to make any use of it. This is precisely what the second major component in iSniff is for.

iSniff makes a location query to Apple’s servers with a single MAC address to find out the MAC’s location. By spoofing the user-agent in the request to appear to be from iOS’ location daemon (locationd), iSniff gets Apple to return not only the latitude and longitude of the given MAC address, but information on up to 400 nearby base stations. iSniff will then plot all of this data onto an interactive map in your browser, making it easy to view the data held by Apple’s location services servers... 400 APs at a time.

While interesting to see, this also raises a number of privacy concerns for users. But should regular users need to worry? Not really. While there are issues with sensitive information being disclosed without customer awareness or control, the likelihood of this information being leveraged in any sort of attack on a user is quite slim. While you could capture and use the information to figure out where somebody lives, you would not only need to get them to join your network, but you’d also have to know which one of the three MAC addresses, if any, belong to their home router. In specialized cases like security audits performed on companies by hired penetration testers, it might make sense to exploit this information in order to track employees back to their houses to try and acquire more sensitive information. But for day-to-day users, it’s extremely unlikely that anybody would try to perform an attack like this in order to learn where a user lived. After all, since physical proximity is required to be on the same WiFi network, in many cases it would seem just as easy to simply follow the person when they drive home.

It would be interesting to know why exactly Apple’s devices exhibit this behavior. You also can’t help but wonder if it’s possible to exploit Apple’s location services servers in other ways. In fact, Seiwert has mentioned in some of his talks that he’s currently exploring this possibility. It might be wise of Apple to try and lock those servers down a little tighter before information disclosed by them becomes a bigger concern for users.

In the meantime, this isn’t something users should be too concerned about. If you’re already joining untrusted wireless networks or networks with malicious users on them, your problems are likely much bigger than somebody getting the MAC address of your router.

Update: Seiwert has informed me that while initially it was believed turning off Diagnostics and Usage in Settings would opt you out of contributing access point data, he has since witnessed devices still transmitting this information even when the Diagnostics and Usage option is disabled.