This is why we can't have nice things.

On Thursday, Kaspersky Lab Expert researcher Denis Maslennikov wrote about a rogue app in the iOS App Store and Google Play store that secretly uploads your contact list to a remote server and then uses that information to send out spam text messages. Called "Find and Call", the app is actually a Trojan that lets users "find friends in a phone book." The app then steals your contact list and uses the phone numbers to send out spam messages on your behalf. The app has a companion website that lets you add your social networks and email accounts to the service

Apple has always honed a proud reputation for being free of malicious intrusion on all platforms. With regards to OS X, the clean record was once a permanent feature, but that ship sailed earlier this year with the Flashback malware outbreak - leading to the Apple.com claim of Macs not getting "PC viruses" to be removed late last month. Continue reading this article at RedmondPie.com

Dave Burns has been covering stock car racing from pit road for seventeen years, including spending the past twelve covering NASCAR's premiere Sprint Cup Series. These days he's a Pit Reporter for ESPN, covering Nationwide and Sprint Cup practices, qualifying, and races, all over the course of a single weekend -- every weekend -- for months at a time

As noted by our sister site TouchArcade , Apple yesterday issued a Tweet announcing that Cut the Rope: Experiments is the company's "Free App of the Week", discounted from its usual $0.99 price [ App Store ] for the iPhone version and $1.99 price [ App Store ] for the iPad version. While Apple has previously offered some apps for free through its App Store Facebook page, the new promotion directly through the App Store will make such offers more visible to users.

A group of developers in Russia recently launched the “HackStore,” a centralized location for third-party OS X applications. Like Cydia on iOS, the HackStore is a software hub that allows developers to distribute applications without having to endure Apple’s approval process. The developers behind the project claim that piracy will not be tolerated in their app store, though it is unclear exactly what measures they are taking to prevent pirated software from being distributed through the HackStore.

Update: As expected, this is not what it seems. Looks like the developer switched all of the advertised premium content over to an ad for

Sketch Nation Studio started out as Sketch Nation Shooter last year, a "game" on the App Store that actually let you make your own shooter game by using scanned-in pictures and a few scripted sets of rules. As creator Nitzan Wilnai told me at GDC earlier this year, he heard from a lot of users that they wanted to make games other than just shooters with the engine.

While Spotify offers a native iPhone app, the company still doesn’t offer one for Apple’s iPad.

Last year, patent holder Lodsys filed lawsuits against iOS developers including James Thomson, Patrick McCarron, IconFactory, Combay, Rovio and more.