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Your iPhone could be spying on you, according to the latest trove of documents from Wikileaks, which looks like it could be the biggest scandal yet.

Called the Spyfiles, it’s a trove of documents about the “mass interception industry” — the massive post-9/11 surveillance community that electronically snoops on entire populations.

The industry is selling software to government agencies — some of it delivered by Trojans — that can take over your iPhone. It can track its every use, follow your movements (even in standby), recognize your voice, record conversations, and even capture video and audio from the room it is in.

Just a day after the injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 was lifted in Australia, allowing Samsung to sell the device down under for the first time, Apple has won a one-week extension that will once again put the tablet’s launch on hold while it prepares its appeal to the High Court.

Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber can’t touch the iPhone’s popularity, at least if Yahoo’s top search term results for 2011 are to be believed. Apple’s coveted smartphone edged past celebrities and major news topics to become the most-searched term on the Yahoo search engine.

With the recent controversy surrounding Carrier IQ, U.S. Senator Al Franken has jumped back into the fight for privacy and sent an open letter yesterday to Carrier IQ asking the company to answer a number of questions concerning the company’s key-logger and data logging software. Senator Franken’s letter contains 11 pointed questions mostly asking why the company logs information, what type of information they’re tracking, who receives the information, and how is it used?

Carrier IQ’s software is currently running on millions of smartphones in the U.S. Apple released a statement on Thursday promising to eradicate all traces of Carrier IQ’s software with a new software update. Android manufacturer HTC released a statement today blaming carriers for the inclusion of CarrierIQ on their phones. Samsung also released a similar statement.

If you’re in New York December 5, it would behoove you to stop by the West 14th store for a free workshop with Dan Marcolina.

Marcolina’s the guy behind the acclaimed iPhone photography book and app “iPhone Obsessed” (currently on offer for $3.99 in iTunes) and he’ll be sharing tips and tricks including how combining picture choice and multiple app processing can turn a simple snapshot into a statement.

Angry Birds Seasons has been updated for the holidays with a new “Wreck the Halls” edition for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Mac. The company behind the massively successful franchise, Rovio, releases updates for its Angry Birds Seasons app alongside new holidays, with the previous update being for Halloween.

For Christmas, Rovio has released an update with 25 new levels and several other added features. The Angry Birds “Wreck the Halls” update can be downloaded in the App Store right now.

Spotify is working on an iPad app, and the highly-anticipated release is on the near horizon. According to Spotify UK managing director Chris Maples, the company is making its official iPad app “a priority” and it is “absolutely in the pipeline.”

Spotify is already available on most devices, and the iPad will be a welcomed companion to the service’s iPhone app.

Apple comments on the presence of Carrier IQ on some iPhones:

We stopped supporting CarrierIQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update. With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so.

Seems like that says it all. Carrier IQ’s not seeing a lot of support from the big boys here, is it?

[via All Things D]

If you have a Mophie Juice Pack, you might want to back up a bit: Mophie’s Juice Pack Air for the fourth generation iPod touch is being recalled for burning so hot it can potentially damage the device. If you’ve got one of them, check to see if it has a serial number starting with between TR113 and TR120, then head on over to Mophie’s web site to get it replaced.

Mophie’s not the only company with some battery problems today, though. Best Buy’s in-house Rocketfish brand battery case for the iPhone 3G and 3GS are also being recalled after 14 iPhones caught on fire while charging. You can check your eligibility here, with affected owners getting a gift card for $70 USD or $105 CDN.

Carrier IQ’s not having a good day. The invasive keylogging software which comes installed on over 140 million Android, Nokia and Blackberry smartphones is embroiled in controversy, and it’s not just creepy… it’s probably illegal, and Senator Al Franken — who once grilled Apple over the so-called LocationGate — is now demanding answers.

If Sprint’s new “network enhancements” were designed to quiet complaints by iPhone 4S users, the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier may need to return to the drawing board. Following tweaks for peppier 3G downloads, many Sprint customers still complain of turtle-like connections while lusting after Verizon’s faster network.

Robin Williams popped up on the Ellen DeGeneres show the other day to talk about “the new future” that Siri offers, and as he is wont to do, he used it as an opportunity to break out an outrageous impression of Siri as a stereotypical, cheese-sniffing Frenchman, dripping with contempt for the American bourgeoise.

[via Techcrunch]

New York State regulators are investigating whether Apple got a ‘sweetheart deal’ when it leased space for its largest store in the city’s Grand Central Station. Reportedly, Apple paid the city’s MTA $60 per square foot for space that normally leases for more than $200. Did Apple throw around its marketing muscle to gain preferential treatment? Politicians are up in arms as Apple preps the the location for a Saturday unveiling.

Trapster is one of those apps that should be installed on every motorist’s iPhone. Not only does it alert you to speed traps, speed cameras, and road hazards, but with its latest update it finally knows where you’re going, and it’ll give you real time traffic overlays all the way there.

With Apple products showing no sign of getting any less popular, scammers are turning to the Apple ID over credit cards as a new way to fleece the unwary, said a security researcher today.

We think it’s adorable that this fat, fuzzy cat sleeps in an empty eMac fitted out with warm lights and cozy blankets, but it’s not particularly unique by itself: those old vintage all-in-one Macs have been turned into pet carriers and aquariums since time immemorial.

What sets the so-called eSleeper apart is that every time puss pushes his way in for a nap, it sends out a random tweet thanks to a controlled Arduino. And the tweets aren’t bad, although that cat certainly sleeps a lot. Less a Nyan Cat than a Nyarcoleptic one.

[via TUAW]

Thanks to the success of Apple’s iOS devices and its iTunes music store, the company’s iTunes software is installed on more than 250 Million Macs and PCs all over the world, making it one of the most popular media players available. It may not have been so popular, however, had users known it came with a security flaw that allowed government intelligence agencies and the police to monitor them.

While Siri will happily find you the ideal location to bury a dead body or pick up an escort, ask her where you can get an abortion and she’s not so happy to comply. In fact, she’ll do the exact opposite and look for anti-abortion pregnancy “crisis” centers.

This makes her an “anti-choice extremist,” according to one petition, which is calling for Apple to make changes to its new intelligent assistant.

Despite early grumbling about how it was unveiled, users of Apple’s iPhone 4S are overwhelmingly satisfied with the smartphone, ranking the Siri voice-recognition system as their favorite feature. At 96 percent satisfaction, the iPhone 4S is Apple’s most popular handset, besting even the iPhone 4.

The Carrier IQ scandal has broken everywhere since we first reported it yesterday morning. The invasive rootkit is installed on over 140 million phones the world over, and logs everything you do with your device, from the numbers you dial to the smutty pictures you send to your girlfriend.

Yesterday, we reported the story as one proving Steve Jobs right about how Android tracks everything you do, but a day later, things seem a lot less black and white. Carrier IQ’s software comes pre-installed on other devices besides Android, like BlackBerrys and Nokias, and as even the name of the software suggests, seems to be something installed by carriers. And, as it turns out, some iPhones. Luckily, disabling it is the easiest thing in the world, and it logs none of your personal information, unlike the software’s more nefarious Android counterpart.

While Apple computers today are famous for their svelte aluminum enclosures, the company’s first machine — born way back in 1976 — was made out of wood. In a bid to bring back that look, the iStation dock attempts turns your iPad 2 into the original Apple Computer.

An Australian airline revealed in a press release last week that one of its cabin crew was forced to extinguish an iPhone 4 that very nearly burst into flames shortly after the plane touched down in Sydney. As it turns out, that certainly won’t be the last iPhone to self combust.

An iPhone 4 user in Brazil has experienced a similar scenario with his own handset. While charging just inches away from his face, the device began emitting plumes of smoke and caught fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkSfIJ5ZGSw

Cables are so last month. Just a few weeks ago, iOS 5 cut the sync umbilical cord, and gave us AirPlay, which liberated the iPad from cables when streaming video or music — and today Dana Innovations’ new LaunchPort freed the iPad completely.

HP CEO Meg Whitman recently said that Apple is poised to be the dominant PC maker in 2012. In an interview with French publication Le Figaro, Whitman admitted that Apple will likely take the lead in the market next year.

Whitman says that HP “will try to be champion again in 2013,” and it seems clear that the company’s new CEO is painfully aware of the mess that HP has found itself in during recent months.

Apple is giving away free apps from the App Store on Facebook. As it has done in the past, fans can visit Apple’s App Store Facebook page and receive a free promo code for an iOS app.

This time around, fans can get codes for Where’s My Water, a game by Disney that typically sells for $0.99. If you’ve liked the App Store Facebook page, you can redeem a code for this game today.