Weekly Mobile News Roundup – 17 May 2013

  Once again the week is coming to an end and that means it’s time for a roundup of the past weeks news!

Billions: How exactly do Apple and Google count app downloads? – Yesterday, during the Google I/O keynote, Google announced that it had hit 48B downloads of apps on the Google Play Store. During the same keynote, the counter on Apple’s site ticked over to 50B App Store downloads.

Sorry iPad owners, BBM for iOS will be iPhone only – RIM announced earlier this week that BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is coming to both iOS and Android as a free download later this Summer.

CW Coming To Apple TV As First Network To Offer Access Without A Cable Subscription – Well, that’s some positive news. The CW television network is bringing its television content to the Apple TV, the first network to do so directly, instead of via Netflix or Hulu. Even better, you won’t have to have a cable subscription to access the CW programming on Apple’s set top box, like many other content providers require.

Tim Cook discusses taxes before Tuesday’s visit to Congress: ‘Apple does not funnel domestic profits overseas’ – Yesterday Politico reported that Tim Cook will appear before Congress next week to testify in a hearing regarding how the company is handling its overseas finances and domestic taxes, and today Politico has published a brand new interview with the Apple CEO.

Newly Discovered Mac Malware Captures and Stores Screenshots – New Mac spyware was discovered earlier this week on a computer at the Oslo Freedom Forum, an annual human rights conference. Located by computer security researcherJacob Appelbaum, the malware, which has been deemed OSX/KitM.A, is currently being investigated by anti-virus company F-Secure, reports CNET.

New Pebble developer tools allow smart watch apps to talk to iPhone apps – The Pebble smart watch development kit was updated on Thursday to allow two-way communication between watch and phone apps, along with a new sports API for tracking exercise

What to do when you have more content than room on your iOS device – This week, I take an in-depth look at just one question. I get a lot of emails about syncing music to an iOS device, and many people find it difficult to sync when their music library is larger than the space available on their iOS device. So here’s a question about checked tracks, playing albums, and syncing.

$10,000 App Store Gift Card Goes to Ohio Customer – As you’ve probably heard, Apple’s App Store hit 50 billion downloads on Wednesday, which means we’ve all been waiting with bated breath to find out who the lucky so-and-so was — and which app they purchased.

iTunes 11.0.3 Supports AirPlay Speaker Control Via AppleScript – Also new in iTunes 11.0.3 is an update to the app’s AppleScript dictionary that adds support for controlling AirPlay speakers. The AppleScript additions contain several options: you can check on an AirPlay device’s name, activity, availability on the network, kind (computer, Apple TV, other AirPlay device, etc), network address, and even if it supports audio or video.

iPhone’s popularity among Facebook staff may have aided in Home’s lackluster launch – The launch of Facebook’s Home layer on Android appears to have been a flop, with relatively low installation rates and even lower user ratings on Google Play thus far. Now, some observers are blaming an unlikely candidate: Apple’s iPhone.