If I told you that Apple had a monopoly over all of the apps sold through the iTunes App Store, what would you say? Would you stammer for a little bit, eyes boggling, trying to understand how an injustice like this could happen in our tightly regulated markets? Or would you say, “No kidding, Sherlock. The App Store is their exclusive proprietary platform. It’s a walled garden,” and then, perhaps to emphasize what an idiot you think I am, slowly twirling one finger around your ear while using another to rapidly flick your lower lip up and down while googling your eyes?

I can’t blame you; I’d probably do the latter myself. Yet would you believe that an antitrust complaint was filed against Apple because there aren’t third-party app stores allowed on the iOS platform? Of course someone did. The case has been dismissed by a U.S. District judge, but not because it was a stupid complaint, but because the plaintiffs made a procedural mistake.

I should probably start a Tumblr for weird and amazing Kickstarter videos, but I’m sure someone has made it already. If I was starting one, then my first video would be this one, from Dave Garcia and GearLeash. The product is called the iPhone Bumper Case and Holster, which will probably conjure up images of polo-shirt-and-chinos-clad office drones practicing their Travis-Bickle-style quick-draws in the bathroom mirror.

And that would be pretty rad. But Dave has managed to go one better: His Kickstarter promo features muggers, gymnastics and girls leaping down stairs. And that’s just for starters.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities is one of the few analysts who routinely predicts Apple’s moves correctly. Yesterday, Kuo sent out a research note to investors that was filled with details about the iPhone 5S, including Kuo’s belief that we will see a gold-colored iPhone 5S available with 128GB of storage.

I showed the picture of this Victorinox knife block to The Lady and she asked the obvious question: “What could possibly go wrong?” Indeed, what mishaps could possibly befall the user of an iPad stand which also houses a clutch of heavy, sharp metal knives? Nothing, clearly.

Goal Zero’s new Lighthouse 250 Lantern and USB Power Hub is a camper’s best friend. By day, it’s a USB charger with a backup battery, ready for juicing your waning iPhone. By night, it’s a lamp which will run for up to 48 hours.

PhotoSync is one of the most used apps on my iDevices. It lets you share photos between iOS devices, as well as from iOS-to-Mac (and PC), and it’ll do so over your Wi-Fi network, or automatically over Bluetooth (with no configuration).

v2 has jsut been released as a free update to existing users. I’ve been using the beta for a month or so, and it is awesome.

Apple spotlights a new iOS app each week as a special pick: the App of the Week. Last week, it was a gorgeously designed alarm clock, Rise, that caught Apple’s editorial fancy.

This week, it’s Namco Bandai’s Doodle Fit 2: Around the World, a delightfully drawn puzzle game that’s sure to keep you frustrated yet coming back for more with its maddeningly simple concept.

We weren’t expecting Apple to drop a new iOS 7 beta so soon, but Apple just dropped iOS 7 beta 6 in our laps this late Thursday afternoon. Developers can download the new beta build from the Dev Center or as an OTA update.

Once we dive into the beta we’ll let you know if there are any big changes, but it looks like it’s mostly just a fix for an issue with iTunes in the Cloud.

Here are the direct download links:

Apple doesn’t buy other companies very often, so when it does, there’s usually a very strategic reason. When it was reported that Apple had acquired Matcha a couple days ago, the reason seemed obvious.

Matcha was a small startup that specialized in aggregating programming guides from sources like Netflix and Hulu into a nice interface. Apple has been getting more serious about maturing the Apple TV, so the two seemed to fit like a glove.

But according to a recent report, Apple wanted Matcha for something else.

Automatic is a really cool product that has been in private testing for quite some time. A little dongle attaches to your car’s onboard computer and communicates with a beautifully designed iPhone app. The app tells you things like when you’re braking or accelerating too hard, a report of your gas mileage and more.

Today Automatic announced that it is delaying shipment of its Link hardware again. Instead of shipping to non-beta testers by late August or early September, the release has been pushed back a few weeks.

When Ryan Orbuch and Michael Hansen set out to make a task manager for the iPhone, they were both 16 years old. Now they’ve won a 2013 Apple Design Award for Finish, their app that specializes in combating procrastination.

Today, version 2.0 of Finish landed in the App Store, and among a design refresh, the update packs a ton of new features.

This highly anticipated game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe is now available on Mac and PC via Steam. The digital game is based on the popular two-player board game of the same name from Games Workshop, originally published in 1989.

The current digital iteration will feature a single player campaign of 15 missions, each set on the giant derelict spaceship (the “hulk” of the title), “Sin of Damnation.” There will also be multiplayer head-to-head action, oh yes.

Remember Corel? They were the company behind CorelDRAW, which was arguably the most popular vector graphics editor software of its time. The company hasn’t exactly gone away over the years, but they’ve been less inclined to throw their name on products. Corel has acquired a slew of companies (including Roxio and Pinnacle), but I’ve rarely seen the name “Corel” on many products since the days of CorelDRAW.

AfterShot Pro changed that — and it can change how you deal with photos on your Mac. And AfterShot Pro is just $39.99 for limited time through Cult of Mac Deals.

Ever go to add a website to your Home Screen in mobile Safari and notice it just looks like a jumbled, unidentifiable mess?

This doesn’t happen too often any more, as most sites have learned how to create a special icon for Home Screen bookmarks on iOS, but every so often, you’ll come across a site that won’t have a custom icon.

When that happens, here’s a quick and easy way to make that Home Screen icon look a bit better.

Before college football season gets underway, ESPN is pushing out an update for its WatchESPN app that lets users stay plugged in to more games than ever before. The update adds a new split-screen view so you can watch two games at once, while keeping tabs on game day with the new live tool bar that displays scores and video highlights.

ESPN is also beefing up the content on WatchESPN by adding “ESPN on ABC” events to the app, but you’ll be pulled over to the WatchABC app when you choose them. To top it all off, WatchESPN users who connect through a military or college network now get access to ESPN3 events automatically.

Here are the full release notes:

PopCap has finally gotten around to releasing the new zombie game that everyone and their grandmother has been waiting for — Plants vs Zombies 2: It’s About Time.

It’s been three long years since we were swept away with the original Plants vs Zombies, but we’re happy to say that Plants vs Zombies 2  is just as fun and addictive as ever, if not more so. Yes, you still plant sunflowers, harvest sun, and then use that to get more plants to destroy armies of zombies. But even though the gameplay is still the same, the adventure is more fun than ever.

China Mobile may be the world’s biggest carrier with over 740 million subscribers, but it is yet to tie up a deal with Apple for the iPhone. That could change this fall when the Cupertino company unveils the iPhone 5S and a low-cost “iPhone 5C” for emerging markets, which are expected to include support for China Mobile’s 4G LTE network.

According to China Mobile chairman Xi Guohua, the company is already in talks with Apple, and “both sides are keen” to reach a deal.

Phobic Studios are best known for the collaborative development with Backflip Studios on runaway hit, Dragonvale, but the Boulder, Colorado-based company has been in the game for quite some time, spawning several entertaining mobile titles in the process. The company has just announced its next game, an action platformer game set in, well, a solar system.

In Glare, you’ll play as The Shiner, a being of light who must travel around a beautifully rendered solar system and save the sun itself from an evil threat. Glare will release in fall of this year on Steam for Mac, Linux, and PC systems.

If you’ve already got Parallels Desktop for Mac – version 6 or 7 – then The Parallels Upgrade Mini Bundle from Cult of Mac Deals is going to get you that much-needed upgrade – along with an app that will clean up your Mac in the process.

Baldurs Gate fans, rejoice, as the classic role playing game, recently ported to iPad in Enhanced Edition, is back on the App Store after a couple of months.

The developers at Beamdog pulled the game in June after some sort of contractual dispute. That was a sad day, as Beamdog are true believers, and were planning to port Baldur’s Gate II to the iPad, while maybe even developing a Baldur’s Gate III if the second game were a success.

Almost half of the top 50 apps on iPad are unavailable or have not been optimized for competing devices that run Google’s Android operating system. That’s according to a new report from Canalys, which believes Google should be doing more to encourage top developers to build high-quality tablet apps for its platform.

Now that EE is already providing 4G LTE services in the U.K., and Vodafone and O2 are scheduled to launch their own 4G networks at the end of this month, Three was the only major carrier yet to announce its rollout plans.

But the company has today confirmed that it is on track to launch 4G during the fourth quarter of this year, and that it will come at no extra cost to consumers.

Until Apple’s Developer Center was taken down due to a security breach, the Cupertino company was steadily rolling out new iOS 7 betas every other Monday — and it appears that trend is set to continue now that everything’s back to normal.

Sources familiar with Apple’s plans say that we can expect iOS 7 beta 6 to arrive next week, ahead of a Gold Master release on Friday, September 5.

The first major movie about Steve Jobs hits U.S. theaters in less than 24 hours. Reviews have been mixed, but if you’re not interested in plopping down your hard-earned cash to see Ashton doing his best El Jobso impersonation, Open Road Films CEO, Tom Ortenberg, says you’ll be able to watch it all from your couch soon enough.

This one’s for all you Macbook and Magic Trackpad users; you know who you are. Mac OS X comes with Mission Control, a way to see all the open applications running on your Mac. Typically, you can hit the F3 key to bring up Mission Control and see what’s what on your Mac.

Similarly, you can either click on any Desktop Space across the top of Mission Control, or hit Command-Arrow (right or left) to switch to different Desktop Spaces on your Mac. This makes it easy to visually keep things separate. Some folks keep their web browser in one Desktop Space, and their word processing app in another, switching back and forth as they need the respective apps.

If you’re using a trackpad to access your Mac OS X laptop, or you’re using a magic trackpad connected to your Mac desktop, however, there are a couple of cool trackpad gestures you can use to do the same thing.