Apple isn't likely to allow Firefox or any other competing HTML Web browser on its iOS platform anytime soon, but Mozilla's Firefox Home for iPhone, released to the App Store late last week, does at least bring the heart of the Firefox browser to your iPhone: your URLs. 

Before getting into what Firefox Home is, you should know that a browser is the one important thing it's not.

Firefox Home is not a WebKit browser, though it does incorporate a WebKit viewer, and unlike Opera Mini for iPhone, it's not  a proxy-based Web browser that displays prerendered Web pages.

Instead, Firefox Home is essentially a syncing app that ties into the cloud-based Firefox Sync service that stores data about your browsing history, bookmarks, and open browser tabs online. Once you set up Firefox Sync as an extension to Firefox on your computer, you'll be able to log into Firefox Home from the iPhone and start accessing those URLs.

Getting to tabs and our browsing history is much more convenient in the app than it is to search anew for half-remembered links. Once you have a link open in that WebKit-based viewer we mentioned, you can also launch it in Safari to interact with it there. Firefox Home isn't a Safari replacement, but is it meant to be. Instead, think of it as a reference app for your desktop Firefox browsing.

Since Firefox Home doesn't operate like the Web browser some folks expect it to be, we recommend watching our hands-on video review to give you an idea of the app in action.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

The Winamp faithful now have one more reason to hang onto the venerable multimedia player--and update it. Version 5.58 of the software includes official support for the new WebM video format. For those who don't keep up with the fast-paced world of online video streaming formats, WebM is an attractive format for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it's completely open source (read: free). In addition, the format lets you stream high-quality content with a minimal footprint in that it requires no plug-ins, unlike with Flash video--which currently dominates Web streaming. WebM will most likely be integral to the advancement of HTML5 video.

(Via the Winamp blog)

Originally posted at Webware

An update to iTunes is available, which is basically a security update to address an issue where a maliciously crafted website could lead to the application quitting or arbitrary code being executed. According to Apple's knowlegebase article on the security content of the update, the bug at hand occurs when a buffer overflow in the handling of iTunes URLs (itpc) is exploited.

Other than this bug fix, the iTunes update includes the following bug fixes over the prior version:

1. Disables older versions of some incompatible third-party plug-ins

2. Addresses minor issues with dragging and dropping items

3. Addresses a performance issue when first syncing to some devices with iTunes 9.2

4. Addresses an issue upgrading to iOS 4 on an iPhone or iPod touch with encrypted back-ups

5. Addresses other issues that improve stability and performance

The update should be available through Apple's Software Update program for both Windows and OS X, but can also be downloaded from the following locations:

iTunes 9.2.1 for OS X

iTunes 9.2.1 for Windows (64-bit)

As always, be sure to fully back up your system and the mobile devices you use with iTunes before updating. Keep in mind that updates can affect other system features as well (just like the recent Safari update affecting Mail's attachments) so be sure to check the aspects of your system you commonly use after updating. So far this update has installed just fine with no problems on my MacBook Pro (2.66GHz, 4GB RAM, 10.6.4).

---

Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or email us!
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.

Originally posted at MacFixIt

Five words that may make your day: Star Wars meets Tower Defense.

That's Star Wars: Battle for Hoth in a nutshell. The game combines obvious elements of Tower Defense with one of the franchise's all-time greatest action sequences.

In other words, it's up to you to defend Echo Base against endless hordes of droids, snow troopers, Imperial AT-ATs, and the like.

To do that, you'll deploy infantry, towers, snow speeders, and even X-Wings.

The game spans 15 levels and offers two modes of play: Classic and Fortress. It also treats you to clips, music, and sound effects from "The Empire Strikes Back."

You might expect a high-profile title like this one--especially with "Star Wars" in the title--to cost at least $6.99, if not $9.99. Surprisingly, Star Wars: Battle for Hoth sells for just $2.99. That seems like a very reasonable rate for a geek-tastic twist on the Tower defense genre.

If you've played it yourself, hit the comments with your review. In the meantime, check out five more awesome Tower Defense games.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

BrowserCheck, from security company Qualys, evaluates your installed plug-ins and lets you know if they need to be updated. It's identical in function to Mozilla's Plugin Check, although it appears to be far more limited in scope for now.

Qualys' BrowserCheck helpfully targets out-of-date plug-ins, and provides links to download updates. Oddly, the service takes a unique approach by requiring the user to install a Qualys add-on before it will scan for out-of-date plug-ins. This is likely to frustrate many users, especially in the face of Mozilla's service, which doesn't require an additional add-on and currently scans for more plug-ins than Qualys' does.

BrowserCheck's limitations are hard to brush off. It will only work with 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8; Firefox 3.0 through the current stable version 3.6.6; and Google Chrome 4 and 5. Beta versions of those browsers, as well as other browsers such as Opera and Safari, are not supported yet. Qualys checks for fewer plug-ins, limited to Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader 5.x and above, Adobe Shockwave, Apple QuickTime, BEA Jrockit, Microsoft Silverlight, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, Windows Presentation Foundation for Mozilla-based browsers, and the Windows OS support expiration.

It does let you know if your browser itself needs an update, and the add-on concept could prove useful down the road. Wolfgang Kandek, chief technology officer for Qualys, said in an interview last week that he wasn't sure how requiring an add-on would affect scan adoption. He did add, though, that there are plans to get involved in scheduling scans and other "deeper dive" scans that would require hooks into the browser that only an add-on can provide.

Although BrowserCheck's initial limitations may seem to some like missteps, Qualys isn't a neophyte to the security field. Qualys' services are used by more than 4,000 companies in 85 countries. The ability to push the service out to that many businesses alone has the potential to close off many threat vectors that might not get patched otherwise. Still, from the looks of BrowserCheck as it is now, Mozilla's service casts a wider net, and that's a key factor to preventing security breaches.

Editors' note: Each day for the next 10 business days, CNET personalities you know and love will publish slideshows of their 10 personal favorite iPhone apps. With each post, you get a chance to vote for your own favorite app. Two weeks from now, we'll collect the full list of 100 apps and announce the 10 that you, our readers, love the most.

Senior Associate Editor Jason Parker spends most days reviewing Mac software for CNET Downloads. You might imagine that he'd be too tired of software to fiddle with his iPhone after-hours. You would be incorrect.

In fact, Jason is one of CNET's biggest iPhone fans. And as you'll see in his full slideshow, Jason isn't all work and no play. He keeps his iPhone 4 filled to capacity with games, games, games, iMovie, and more games. Check 'em out:

Once you've seen all of Jason's picks, return to this poll to let us know which app is your favorite, then check back each day on iPhone Atlas to see app choices from the rest of the CNET crew.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas