Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper might be another line of defence against an increasing backdrop of Mac malware but, according to security researcher Jacob Appelbaum, it’s been breached.

Appelbaum made the discovery at a human rights conference where a suspicious-looking macs.app was found on an attendees machine. The malware itself, which is being called OSX/KitM.A, installs itself onto machines using a signed Apple Developer ID to bypass OS X Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper functionality.

Early research indicates that the malware itself is relatively harmless (it currently saves and stores screenshots in an infected Mac’s Home folder) but the fact that it easily bypassed a security feature designed to stop Malware is concerning. It’s worth noting, however, that Gatekeeper does allow Apple to block install attempts from this particular developer ID, although existing infected machines would need to have it uninstalled manually.

According to Mac Rumors, it’s easily uninstalled by deleting the macs.app entry from your machine’s login items and unisntalling the app which could be located in a number of places including your Mac’s home, applications or downloads folders.

You can find out some more specific details about the malware over on F-Secure.

If you’re interested in finding out more about protecting your Mac from spyware or malware, check out our Secure Your Mac feature in issue 120 of iCreate.

iCreate 120 is on sale in all good newsagents and supermarkets now. You can also grab the digital edition of the magazine, or get hold of it from our online shop.

Apple has released an update to iTunes 11, bringing improvements to the MiniPlayer, as well as support for multi-disc albums and the ability to view album artwork when in Songs view. The update weighs in at 187.5MB, and is available to download through the Mac App Store’s Updates section, or through Apple’s website.

Release notes:

This version of iTunes comes with several new features and improvements, including:

- New MiniPlayer. MiniPlayer now includes a beautiful new view that showcases your album artwork. In addition, a progress bar is now built right into MiniPlayer.

- Improved Songs View. You can now enjoy your album artwork while in Songs view.

- Multi-Disc Albums. Albums with multiple discs now appear as a single album.

This update also provides performance improvements when searching and sorting large iTunes libraries.

This year’s Google I/O was packed with announcements, but Google Hangouts was certainly a highlight, now it’s available for iPhone and iPad on the App Store.

The Hangouts app is free and universal, although oddly it only works in portrait orientation on the iPad. It combines all of Google’s legacy chat and instant messaging services, bringing together group and one-to-one chat and video calling.

The Hangouts iOS is fully integrated with Hangouts on Android, Chrome and on the web via Google+. What’s more, notifications sync up across devices, so if you were to read a new message one device, alerts for it on others would be dismissed.

It’s a strong offering from Google in a relatively overcrowded market for IM apps and it certainly puts the pressure on Apple to up its game when it comes to WWDC next month.

Google in particular has embraced cloud computing across all its services, and many would argue that it works even more effectively than iCloud. Whether it’s Gmail, Drive, Google Play, Calendar or Google+, everything works in the cloud and offers a fantastic platform for its users.

Google, Microsoft and Amazon have all been pushing their cloud services strongly over the past year or so, and this seems to have paid off, with Android devices selling by the bucketload, the Kindle Fire proving popular and Windows 8 giving the old OS a new lease of life.

On top of that, services such as Dropbox, Photobucket, Flickr and Netflix allow you to store files, share images, watch movies and much more through the cloud, and aren’t constrained to just one platform or device.

“iCloud is a service that Apple could certainly be pushing further”, stated Jon Gordon, Editor of iCreate magazine. “It offers a whole range of fantastic benefits, especially to those who own a number of iDevices. However, in some ways the services offered by the likes of Google and others are outshining iCloud, and Apple could learn a thing or two from them. Once people become familiar with what it has to offer though, it can really help keep your life in sync.”

Cloud computing itself has become big business. Allowing you to store work, films, music and more online means you can access everything you need wherever you are in the world, on virtually any device.

With a huge range of guides to show you how to get more from iCloud, Android, SkyDrive, Dropbox and more, The Cloud Computing Book Revised Edition is packed with step-by-step tutorials to help you get the most from the cloud, and show you how it can help you in every area of your life.

The Cloud Computing Book is on sale now from the ImagineShop, and all good newsagents priced £12.99.

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When Realmac Software (the brains behind the gesture-based to-do list, Clear) told us they were launching a new camera and photo filters app for iPhone, we couldn’t help but get a little excited.

The company teased the new app, Analog Camera, today, which features a gesture-based interface (much like its predecessor, Clear) and eight stunning photo filters that draw upon Realmac Software’s Analog for Mac.

As well as the built-in camera (which has three modes as well as touch focus and exposure), you can quickly access your Camera Roll and Photo Stream to use images from elsewhere and send the finished result to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all manner of other apps.

If the teaser video (below) is anything to go by, it looks like Analog Camera is built for speed as much as anything else, with the big and bold buttons aiding a fast operation. The app is due to hit the App Store later this month for a price of £0.69/$0.99. We’ll be reviewing it as soon as it drops.

A new Nexus 7 tablet is set to launch at Google I/O next week, beating Apple with its second-generation iPad mini to the punch.

The report, from KGI Securities Ming-Chi Kuo, suggests the new Nexus tablet will feature upgraded specs (including a higher resolution screen, a rear-facing camera and wireless charging) but will still retail at $199.

If Kuo’s predictions turn out to be true (and he’s had a good record with predicting future Apple products in the past), then it’s more than likely that we’ll see the new Nexus 7 on sale before Apple’s iPad mini 2 which is rumoured to be delayed because of manufacturing issues.

Kuo notes that the new Nexus 7 will see a switch to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro processor as well as a seven-inch, 1,980 x 1,200 display. It’s also expected to feature a five-megapixel rear-facing camera and wireless charging courtesy of Texas Instruments’ Qi hardware.

Peter Belanger, the photographer behind many of Apple’s famous product shots has given an interview with The Verge about his creation process. The interview covers a range of topics, including how he puts together images for Apple:

“Because Apple products have such carefully selected materials it is incredibly important to light the product in a way that will showcase the various materials accurately. I pick an area to start with and think about how that material needs to be described. Once that section is done I move on to the next. This is how my sets get so complicated! I need to have control over each and every surface so when the client asks for a highlight to be elongated, I can do that.”

Belanger also reveals that he tries to do as much work as possible on the camera before turning to his Mac, where he uses Aperture and Photoshop to create a photo that’s near perfect:

“It’s similar to working on a file in Photoshop: you don’t do all your work on one layer. I think of my lights as layers that I can adjust individually to get the desired results… I try to do as much in camera as possible. Even shots that are achieved in camera need some post production. This is because no matter how well a product is made, when you magnify it at 100 percent, you see more than the human eye can see. Something that looks smooth as you hold it will have scratches, chips and other imperfections once magnified.”

The interview offers a really interesting insight, not only into the creative process, but also into the kit that Belanger uses, and into how he turned a passion into a business. You can check out the full interview here.

Featured image from Belanger’s blog, which can be viewed here.

Paper by FiftyThree, 2012′s App of the Year, was updated last night to include a number of new features.

First and foremost, FiftyThree have focussed on inspiration, introducing the ‘Made With Paper’ feed that showcases notable designs and drawings by Paper users. The feed itself sits at the end of your Paper sketchbooks and displays pages in a grid format.

FiftyThree describe Made With Paper as a feed of inspiration, “from creative minds around the world.”

Elsewhere, the app now features pinch-to-zoom functionality as well as an updated Expressive Ink Engine which runs on OpenGL for faster rendering.

The update is available now from the iOS App Store.

OnSwipe, a company that specialises in website conversion for mobile devices using HTML 5, has released data showing a spike in hits from devices running iOS 7, according to a TechCrunch report.

“SF had the most iOS 7 visits, with 18.75 percent, and Cupertino accounted for 17.9 percent of the total. May 2 saw the highest iOS 7 traffic to date, representing 23 percent, or nearly a quarter, of all unique iOS visitors to Onswipe-enabled sites. Most were visiting from iPhones (75 percent), but iPads also represented a full quarter of visits.”

Apple tests its new software internally, before sending the update out to a select few employees and external testers who use the device on a day-to-day basis. These are the final bug tests before Apple releases the new software publicly to its developer community. The increase in traffic lines up with Apple’s plans to unveil the new system at WWDC, and suggests that the final tests are taking place on the fresh, flat design to ensure there are no big issues before launch.

Alongside a selection of software announcements for Creative Cloud customers, Adobe today announced development of a Bluetooth LE stylus that can connect to your iPad and be used with Adobe’s touch apps. The pen also connects to a user’s Creative Cloud account, allowing them to quickly access all their sketches, drawings and settings in seconds. The built-in button is customisable, and the stylus comes with a rechargeable battery and a pressure-sensitive nib. Check it out in the video below.

Adobe also announced the Napoleon, which is effectively a ruler to complement the Mighty. The ruler rests on the iPad’s screen, allowing users to draw straight lines without actually needing to align anything. The stroke will follow the ruler’s line even if the pen is centimeters away from the ruler. You can also use the ruler to draw uniform shapes easily and consistently.

The pair are currently still in development, and Adobe has only officially announced their compatibility with the Adobe Touch apps for now. There is no release date for the two devices, but rest assured once they are available we will be reviewing them in iCreate.

Apple has started another countdown, this time as the total number of apps downloaded approaches 50 billion. The person who downloads the 50 billionth app will win a $10,000 iTunes gift card, as has been the case for the last few countdowns. However, the next 50 people to download apps after that person will also win a $500 gift card.

Apple has also released the top 25 lists for paid and free apps on iPhone and iPad. The lists reveal some interesting trends for app downloads, with Pages topping the paid chart and Skype heading up the free chart on iPad. 46 of the top 100 apps on both devices are games, and both Google Maps and YouTube make it into the top 25 list for iPhone, despite having been released only a few months ago.

You can keep track of the countdown here (although we’re not sure how accurate it is) and see the top 25 lists on iTunes.