Apple's iCloud logo revealed. Hint: it's shaped like one of those things in the sky (Digital Trends)

When a company called Apple uses an apple as its logo, it won’t come as too much of a surprise that the logo for its forthcoming iCloud music service is of – you guessed it – a cloud. The cloud in question has been spotted at San Francisco’s Moscone Center West, where the final preparations are being made for the Cupertino company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The gathering kicks off on Monday and runs for the whole week.

Apple Insider has had its face pressed up against the window of the building and in the process spotted a large banner in the lobby. On the banner are three logos – one for the forthcoming Lion operating system for Mac PCs, another for the latest version of its mobile operating system – iOS 5, and one for its cloud-based music offering – iCloud. As for the cloud, well, it looks a bit on the cumulus nimbus side, and consists of a simple black outline on a silver background. It’s nice to be able to finally put a face to a name.

After months of speculation, Apple finally confirmed the name of its new cloud-based service on Tuesday, together with news that Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave since January, will be making an appearance at next week’s conference, possibly to deliver the keynote address.

Earlier today it was reported that Apple had signed a deal with the last of the four major music companies, Universal Music, giving the green light for the launch of iCloud next week. Deals have already been struck with Sony, EMI and Warner Music Group. Details of the forthcoming cloud-based music service, such as whether consumers will have to pay to use it, are currently scant, but all will no doubt be revealed next week.

Apple’s iCloud offering will line up alongside similar existing services from Google and Amazon. Those two companies, however, have not yet signed deals with the music companies, which has left them somewhat restricted in what their respective services can offer consumers. Users of their services, for example, have to spend time loading their music onto remote servers, whereas it’s thought that, thanks to the deals with the music companies, users of iCloud will simply have their hard drives scanned thereby allowing users to access digital copies of their music on Apple servers.

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Tapjoy says Apple’s ban on pay-per-install hurts game developers (Appolicious)

This might not be a shocker to anyone, but Tapjoy is reporting that Apple’s choice to ban pay-per-install incentives in the iTunes App Store has seriously hurt game developers’ bottom lines.

The ban basically knocked out Tapjoy’s advertising program among app and game developers in the App Store. The system worked by using Tapjoy’s network to increase the popularity of games in the App Store: developers pay Tapjoy to have their apps featured in other games, and players of those games are awarded in-game currency for downloading the featured apps. Tapjoy cuts the game developers in for allowing other games to be advertised in their apps.

Apple (AAPL) recently laid a ban down on this system, however, apparently out of concerns that download incentives like the ones Tapjoy was offering were artificially pushing apps into the Top 25 rankings in the App Store because players were downloading those apps in order to earn bonuses in other games. And according to a story from VentureBeat, Tapjoy is reporting that this ban has had some major effects on the earnings of game developers in the App Store who were depending on advertising revenue from systems like Tapjoy’s in order to create a more stable financial platform. One developer, Glu, pulled down $2.9 million from incentivized downloads in the last quarter before the ban, according to a story from Pocket Gamer.

Here’s a quote from the VentureBeat story:

“Mihir Shah, chief executive of Tapjoy, met with Apple to try to convince the company to allow a limited amount of pay-per-install promotions, with a cap that prevented developers from buying their way into the top 25. But Apple disallowed even that kind of compromise, according to Tapjoy.”

Tapjoy says it surveyed 496 iOS developers that have used its services and found that users aren’t happy about losing the ability to grab in-game currency incentives for downloading other apps – about half of the developers surveyed said they’d received complaints. Tapjoy also says that by a ratio of 15-to-1, developers reported a decline of revenue after the ban, and that two-thirds of the developers surveyed said incentivized downloads were responsible for at least 20 percent of their revenues. A large number of developers also saw their game usage decrease after the ban, the survey found.

Apple isn’t really talking about the ban, but VentureBeat and Tapjoy speculate that developers might find themselves wandering over to Google’s (GOOG) Android platform to sell their games, since there are no such incentivized download restrictions there.

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Apple's MacDefender patch checks for new variants daily (Digital Trends)

Apple has released Security Update 2011-003 to deal with the MacDefender malware and known variants that have been attempting to bilk Macintosh users out of their credit card information and money to fix non-existent problems on their computer. The update is available for Mac OS X 10.6.7 and Mac OS X Server 10.6.7, and patches Snow Leopard’s built-in file quarantine system to detect MacDefender and known variants. And, in case new variants emerge, Macs with the security update will check for new malware definitions daily to make sure users’ machines stay safe.

Apple will not be offering a security update to protect earlier versions of Mac OS X against MacDefender. Users of earlier versions of Mac OS X can still follow Apple’s directions for manually removing the malware, although there’s no promise that Apple will continue to provide removal information if new variations appear, or new malware targets the platform.

Users concerned about the security software contacting Apple every day can disable the automatic update check in Mac OS X’s Security preferences.

Apple announced a week ago it would be issuing an update to Mac OS X to combat the MacDefender malware. The move marks one of the only times the company has issued a software update specifically to combat a real-world malware threat on the Macintosh platform.

The spread of MacDefender may indicate malware authors will no longer be overlooking the Mac platform as they attempt to take over personal computers and/or collect personal information—or, in the case of MacDefender, simply try to trick users into handing over their details. Although Apple has responded directly to the MacDefender threat, there’s not yet any indication the company will continue to do respond to malware threats should any appear—Apple could well leave malware and antivirus software to third parties. However, Mac OS X Snow Leopard does have a rudimentary file quarantine capability, and the daily update capability incorporated into Security Update 2011-003 could enable Apple to distribute signatures for malware other than MacDefender variants.

Apple is currently working to complete Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, which (along with many new features) incorporates under-the-hood changes intended to make the Mac OS X platform more secure.

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Apple's Jobs to unveil 'Lion' operating system (AFP)

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Ailing chief executive Steve Jobs will return from sick leave to unveil Apple's latest generation of software next week, the firm announced Tuesday.

The 56-year-old cancer survivor will present Apple's new operating system, dubbed "Lion," at a developers conference in San Francisco on June 6.

Jobs went on leave in January, his third medical absence since 2004, but has retained his title of chief executive at Apple.

He underwent an operation for pancreatic cancer in 2004 and received a liver transplant in 2009, but Apple has not released any details about his latest health issues.

"Lion" will be the eighth major iteration of Apple's operating system, "Mac OS."

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