SPOTIFY LAUNCHES APP MARKET

Spotify's CEO and founder Dave Ek confirmed Spotify will launch a “truly integrated” application platform inside Spotify that will be “tailored to you and your user tastes.” Third party developers can easily build HTML5 apps using a simple API. The first generation of applications will be featured within the “Spotify platform.”

Examples of the capabilities apps might feature include the ability to automatically find song lyrics from a track that is currently playing, or the ability to find upcoming concert dates and locations without ever leaving Spotify. The company has partnered with Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Billboard and more for additional applications. Rolling Stone, for example, will help users find new music and albums from staff recommendations and even essential daily playlists.

MAC APP STORE APPLICATIONS MUST BE SANDBOXED BY MARCH 2012

As of March 1st, 2012, Apple will require all apps available in the Mac App Store to be "sandboxed," which Apple says is "a great way to protect systems and users by limiting the resources apps can access and making it more difficult for malicious software to compromise users' systems." The other side of that coin is that by limiting access to said system resources, applications are also more limited in what they can do, which has left some developers facing a tough decision: either comply and get in the App Store, or go it alone. They will be able to request access to some resources, but they'll have to provide a justification for it to Apple as part of the submission process. Apple had actually intended to implement the requirement this month, but it's apparently decided to give devs a bit more time to get used to it.

US DEVELOPING 'PANIC BUTTON' SOFTWARE FOR ACTIVISTS

According to a fresh Reuters report, the US State Department is currently developing a software-based "panic button" that would wipe a phone's address book and beam out emergency alerts to fellow protesters if they were apprehended. The goal here is to protect the privacy of those captured while promoting their best interests, and to let others know that trouble is brewing.

RIM RESPONDS TO BLACKBERRY HACKING AT PWN2OWN

It's not just desktop web browsers getting hacked at this year's Pwn2Own challenge -- mobile browsers have also been targeted for vulnerabilities, and a fairly big one has now been found in RIM's browser for BlackBerry OS 6.

Apparently, there's a JavaScript-related bug that could let a "maliciously designed" website gain access to data stored on both the phone's media card and built-in storage, but not data stored in the storage portion for applications (such as email or contact information). For its part, RIM says that it hasn't actually seen any evidence of anyone exploiting the vulnerability, but it's nonetheless urging folks to disable JavaScript on affected devices, and it's now busy providing IT departments everywhere with guidelines on how to do so. If that proves to be complicated, it's suggesting that you simply disable the BlackBerry Browser altogether until it can be patched.

HOW TO TURN ON "HIDDEN" MULTI-TOUCH GESTURES IN iPAD FOR ONLY $5

If you are running iOS 4.3 on the iPad 2, or even the original iPad, you can turn on 'hidden' multi-touch gestures for only $5. These gestures include the ability to swipe your hand left or right to move through running applications or using 4 or 5 fingers, return to the home screen with a pinch.

Unfortunately, Apple doesn't want you have these yet. They could have included them as part of the preferences of the just released iOS, but they have been deemed only for developers for now.

To get access to these gestures you will need to download the new Apple Xcode 4 application and install it. Don't worry that you don't have iOS developer credentials during the install, just click cancel and disregard the error.

Once Xcode 4 is installed go into your iPad's general preferences and turn on the new multi-touch gestures.

This may also work on the iPhone 4.

ANDROID ONE QUARTER OF MOBILE WEB TRAFFIC

Analytics firm Quantcast has released a report showing one-quarter of mobile web traffic is from a Google OS Android device.  According to the data chart, iOS, Rim OS and Other OS are in decline while Android is rising.

The iOS data does not take into account the iPad however, which would probably show the iOS trending higher and on an upswing.  Also, the data is for web traffic and more and more users are using applications rather than actually accessing the internet. [Engadget]