The big news this week from the world of Apple was the discovery that iPhones have been tracking users' locations as they go about their daily lives. Apparently, whenever you use Google Maps, or take a picture, or do anything that consults the GPS, your location and a time stamp are recorded in a log file on your iPhone. Apple is not using this information for anything, but it's not surprising many people find this particular previously unknown feature pretty unsettling.

Like probably anyone who heard this news, I had a lot of questions about what was being recorded, why it's being recorded, and what Apple has to say about it. Fortunately, our very own Josh Lowensohn and Elinor Mills put together an extensive FAQ to help you get all the info about the iPhone location-tracking function. Apple has not yet commented, but it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks and whether the company will strip this functionality from later versions of the iOS.

This week's apps are a DJ app that lets you mix music on the go and an artistic adventure game that is both challenging and very engrossing.

Djay for iPhone and iPod Touch (99 cents for a limited time) brings two turntables to your touch screen so you can beatmatch, scratch, and record mixes of music from your library. A unique interface lets you hold your iPhone sideways to view the turntables side by side, or you can switch to vertical and view a single turntable to adjust the EQ and BPM and get more screen area in which to work with your mixes.

Djay boasts a "hyper-realistic low-latency touch-screen interface," and I found that it definitely feels more precise than similar DJ apps in the category. As an added bonus, your cover art will show up on each record, making it easy to identify your music at a glance.

Along with the basic controls for selecting songs, playing, and crossfading between tracks, Djay comes with a few more controls that will come in handy for mobile mixing. You can match songs on your own and adjust beats per minute for smooth transitions or you can have Djay autosync BPM for you. There is even an Automix function to let the app mix your music automatically. The app recognizes your playlists as well, so just queue up a big playlist of dance songs, for example, and then let the app do all the transitions for you.

Among the many other features are the ability to create a cue point trigger to start the music on one track at a specific point; full visual waveforms, so you can pick out specific parts of a song quickly; and auto-cut scratching, which lets you use two fingers while scratching for beatmatched cutting.

Overall, Djay for iPhone and iPod Touch is probably the best low-cost DJ app I've seen yet in the iTunes App Store. The unique screen orientation feature that lets you view one or both turntables makes mixing and fiddling with settings easier, and automated mixing and beat-syncing features mean just about anyone can create a good mix.

Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP ($4.99) is a stylistically unusual and engrossing action and adventure game that focuses on artistic audio and visuals. Immediately upon starting the game, you'll notice it has a very distinctive style and you'll get onscreen cues that teach you how to control your character. As the story unfolds, you'll travel across a mythic realm and solve puzzles as you go.

Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery offers a unique experience and an interesting control scheme that sets it apart from other side-scrolling games. As you travel the world, you'll run across impassable areas that require you to solve visual puzzles before you can move on. The game is sometimes frustrating early on because it's a learn-as-you-go type of experience, but even though you may die a few times, the solution becomes that much more rewarding when you figure it out.

As a mythical knight, you have a sword and shield for when you need to do battle with occasional monsters. What's interesting here is that to wield your sword, you need to turn your iPhone vertically to get into battle mode. The buttons are a little bit awkward at first, but I really like the idea of turning the iPhone to switch control modes. As you get further into the game, you'll also unlock spells that will help you defeat your enemies and solve puzzles to continue.

Overall, Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery is an exceptional game for its artistic and musical style and interesting ways of presenting puzzles you need to solve. If you're looking for hack-and-slash or shoot-'em-up action, this isn't your game, but if you want to take in an audio-visual experience while solving interesting puzzles, this app is a good option.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Do you have a better DJ app than Djay for iPhone and iPod Touch? What do you think of using iPhone orientation as a way to switch control schemes in either app? Do you like the somewhat mystical and slower pace of Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery? Let me know in the comments!

While Google Toolbar 7 for Firefox launched several months ago, the Internet Explorer version (download) went live just this week. It brings Google Instant to the popular toolbar, along with more robust privacy options and a cleaner interface.

Although the support for Google Instant search is the most notable feature improvement in version 7, what appears most interesting is the way that the toolbar lets you know that features like Instant that require tracking to work actually do track you. While this might not be news to some, it's a strong reminder that many of the data-rich features that people love do come at a cost to personal privacy.

Enabling the features is easy. After installation, which unfortunately requires a reboot of all your open browsers, the toolbar walks you through activating Instant and opens a tab with Google's toolbar tutorial video. If you choose to install without activating Instant, you can do it later by going to the Options menu. The Option menu is now accessible from the Wrench icon, just as it is in Chrome. The Options menu is also where you can toggle privacy features after installing, under the Privacy tab. A new hot key combo, Alt+G, will jump you directly into the toolbar's search box.

For people who want to have a different default search engine in Internet Explorer, this can be a clever way to have two search engines accessible directly from the keyboard.

Along with the Wrench icon, much of the toolbar's look has been tweaked to make it look more like Chrome. App icons are identical to those used for Chrome extensions, and the vertical tab choices in the Options menu also resemble the current Chrome menu.

One excellent feature in Internet Explorer 9 is that it tells you what kind of performance impact your add-ons have on the browser. My installation of Google Toolbar 7 impacted browser start time by zero seconds, according to IE's add-on management window. That is a massive improvement for a toolbar's reputation, when most are notorious for slowing down the browser launch.

It's important to note that the Internet Explorer Google Toolbar installer will also install the Google Toolbar for Firefox. You must later go into Firefox and disable it, if you only want it in one browser.

Ashampoo, a German maker of Windows utilities and security software, warned this week that customer names and e-mail addresses were stolen and could be used in targeted malware attacks.

"Hackers gained access to one of our servers. We discovered the break-in and interrupted it instantly," Ashampoo Chief Executive Rolf Hilchner wrote in a message on the company Web site earlier this week.

Billing information, including credit card and bank account numbers, was not affected, he said, adding that German law enforcement is investigating but "unfortunately, the traces of the well-concealed hackers currently disperse abroad."

Attackers often send e-mails with malware-laden attachments to e-mail addresses found in the databases they breach, pretending to be a confirmation of an order from the company, Hilchner said.

The company did not disclose how many customers were affected.

People should be cautious about opening unsolicited or unexpected e-mails, even from companies they know, and keep antivirus software up to date, he said.

The news comes two weeks after dozens of big companies in the United States, including Citibank, Chase, Capital One, Walgreens, Target, Best Buy, and Verizon, warned customers about the potential for targeted phishing attacks in the wake of a data breach at e-mail marketing service provider Epsilon.

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex