Apple App Store crosses the 25 billion downloads mark

If you've been to Apple's homepage in the past couple of weeks you may have seen the counter for the App Store downloads, which was rapidly approaching the 25 billion downloads mark.

Well today, on March 3, 2012, the counter finally crossed that mark, creating a new milestone for the company. But while Apple must surely celebrating this event, it has made sure that it won't be the only one celebrating. That's because as part of their traditional contest, which is held every time such a milestone is about to be crossed, the person who downloaded the 25 billionth app will be getting store credit worth $10,000 to spend on any of Apple's online stores.

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Security bug in iOS lets apps secretly access your photos

A security issue has been identified in iOS which gives third party applications and its developers unsolicited access to your photos.

According to The New York Times who uncovered this issue, an application that has the permission to use your location can also access your photos. They demonstrated this by commissioning a developer to create a dummy app (which was not submitted to the App Store) that popped up a notification asking the user for location (as seen above) and when provided had complete access to the photos stored on the device.

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Nokia 808 PureView wins Best New Device at MWC

The winner for one last category of the Global Mobile Awards - the Best New Mobile Handset, Device or Tablet at Mobile World Congress 2012 award - was left to be announced and looking at the photo of smiling Nokia execs makes it easy to guess which device took that award home.

The Nokia 808 PureView, which arguably caused the biggest splash with its 41MP camera sensor, was voted worthy of the award by a panel of journalists and analysts attending the show.

Here's what Jo Harlow, Executive Vice President of smart devices at Nokia, had to say about the award:

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Nokia officially announce Lumia 610 and world Lumia 900

After many leaks, it's now official - Nokia announce the Lumia 610 at the Mobile World Congress as well as the global availability of the Lumia 900.

Nokia Lumia 610

Running Windows Phone 7.5, the Lumia 610 is powered by an 800MHz single-core Snapdragon S1 processor and 256MB of RAM and 8GB storage.

With a 3.7" WVGA TFT LCD screen, the Lumia 610 stands at 119mm x 62mm x 12mm and weighs 131.5 grams.

The camera of the Lumia 610 is a 5MP unit with auto-focus and a LED flash. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS are on board, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack, microUSB port and a 1300mAh battery.

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MeeGo 1.2 update for Nokia N9 goes live

About a month after it was seeded to developers for testing, the v1.2 update for MeeGo goes live. The update weighs in at 284MB and it may take a while to install (up to 40 minutes according to Nokia).

But it's well worth the wait. With it, you'll get to make video calls and finally put that front-facing camera of the Nokia N9 to good use. MeeGo 1.2 also offers folders in the app launcher so you can get the place more organized.

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Nokia 808 PureView video and camera samples emerge

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Nokia unveils cheaper Windows smartphone

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia unveiled a cheaper smartphone using Microsoft's Windows Phone software on Monday, aiming to win back market share by targeting a wider audience.

Nokia last year dumped its own smartphone software in favour of Windows Phone to step up its fight against rivals such as Apple's iPhone, but the high prices of its phones have been a major weak point.

Nokia said its new Lumia 610 model would carry a price tag of 189 euros, excluding subsidies and taxes, when it goes on sale next quarter. That compares with around $600 for the iPhone and other high-end smartphones.

"The 610 takes Nokia's Lumia portfolio to an encouraging new price point in its pursuit of cheaper Android rivals," said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight.

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HTC is holding its pre-MWC event tomorrow at 8PM in Barcelona, but that doesn't mean the leaks have any intention of stopping in the meantime. After we caught a glimpse on the HTC One S smartphone (4.3” AMOLED display, dual-core chipset, 8MP camera), it now looks to be the turn of the One X.

   
HTC One X

The One X should have 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. There's no microSD slot available, but HTC will try and make up for that by providing 25GB of Dropbox online storage for two years for free.

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