(Credit: CNET )

Now that you have your iPhone 5, you've probably noticed that not all apps take advantage of the wider screen. I've been noticing that the updates have been pouring in fairly quickly, but unfortunately, I still have a lot of "letterboxed" apps and games that show black spaces on each side.

For this week's collection I put together three games that look absolutely fantastic on the iPhone 5's larger display. The first is the latest in a popular arcade-style racing franchise and gives you more viewing area as you blaze around the track. The second is an action RPG that pits you against demonic beasts as you hack and slash your way to saving a kidnapped queen. The last is the newest version of a popular soccer series that might be the best sports game available on iOS.

Asphalt 7: Heat is an excellent racing game that's been upgraded for iPhone 5

Asphalt 7: Heat Asphalt 7 has all the bells and whistles of a great arcade racing game and looks amazing on the iPhone 5. To start off, you get 60 licensed cars from manufacturers all over the world, including Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Aston Martin, all intricately detail... [Read more]

Lookout now warns you when you tap a malicious phone number link from your mobile browser.

Android fragmentation security patches, too. Instead of waiting to see which devices have been protected against a Dialer app vulnerability discovered earlier this week, Lookout Mobile Security (download) has stepped into the breach with a patch for it today. So far, it is the only known Android security app to block the exploit, but even their patch requires initial user input.

The vulnerability allowed some Samsung phones to be remotely wiped from the Dialer app, the "phone" part of your smartphone. While Samsung pushed out a patch quickly, it's not clear if other phones have also been patched. In its blog post announcing the fix, Lookout said that just because Google issued a patch for the default dialer months ago doesn't mean that all devices have it.

Related stories

• Samsung smartphones vulnerable to remote data wipe
• ... [Read more]

Uploading a YouTube video causes it to be converted to the format used for streaming by the service. If you ever lose your videos, you could always grab the converted versions from the YouTube site, but what if you want the originals?

Google Takeout is now offering the ability to download the original versions of your videos, as mentioned by the Google Data Liberation blog. Takeout allows you to export data like settings, groups, or photos from Google's other Web sites and services.

Unfortunately, you can only download all videos together at this time. There's no option to select individual ones that you need to replace on your hard drive or external storage. But if you're desperate to get an original copy of one or more of them, at least you can.

Here's how to grab the original versions of your videos:

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET )

Step 1: Open the Google Takeout Web site in your browser. 

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET )

Step 2: Select the Choose Services tab at the top area of the page.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET )

Step 3: Click the button labeled YouTube and then a card will pop up in t... [Read more]

CopyTrans Contacts makes it really easy to view and edit your contacts, back them up, and export them to other platforms.

Remember the PalmPilot? Remember how it synced all your contacts to either Palm Desktop or Outlook? That was pretty nice.

If you're a Windows user, there's no such desktop option for managing your iPhone address book. Sure, it gets backed up when you sync with iTunes, but there's no way to view or edit all those contacts. Your only real option is to switch to syncing with iCloud, which affords limited browser-based contact management.

Thankfully, there's another option: CopyTrans Contacts. This simple Windows utility lets you organize, edit, back up, and export your iPhone address book.

It works like this: Connect your iPhone to your PC, let iTunes do its sync/backup thing, then shut down iTunes and launch CopyTrans Contacts. (FYI, the program is portable, meaning there's nothing to install -- you can run it from a flash drive for on-the-run address-book management.)

In seconds you'll see your entire address book. You can click a contact to view or edit it, add a new contact, and so on. The program also lets you create and manage groups.

CopyTrans performs backup and migration duties as well. You can back up one or more contacts to your PC (e... [Read more]

Whether you're an old-school gamer or a recent fan of Valve's Steam games, don't miss the chance to play (or replay) the critically acclaimed classic first-person shooter Half-Life in its latest re-imagining for free with the total conversion mod Black Mesa (download, 4GB).

After eight years of development, the Black Mesa Modification Team has finally released a remake of the award-winning FPS Half-Life. Utilizing more than 40 developers and headed by project leader Carlos Montero, the team has reconstructed the fan favorite into a polished Source Engine version complete with new models, maps, textures, voice acting, and even an original soundtrack.

Comparison between Half-Life and Black Mesa.

Born from the realization that Half-Life: Source was not all it could have been, Black Mesa lovingly and meticulously reconstructs the Half-Life universe utilizing the Source engine to its fullest potential. The project is less of a mod and more of a re-creation that gives new life to the beloved single-player game. Black Mesa reintroduces the player as Doctor Gordon Freeman, along with the original cast of memorable characters and familiar environments of the original game. Not satisfied with a simpl... [Read more]

A new company called ZeroVulnerabilityLabs says that it has solved the Gordian knot of exploits, slicing through the complicated, Hydra-headed problem with a single stroke from a software weapon it calls ExploitShield.

Available exclusively today from Download.com, the first ExploitShield Browser Edition beta (download) appears to stop all manner of exploits, from those affecting browsers directly to browser plug-ins like PDF readers, Flash, and Java, to Microsoft Office components, to a handful of media players. The potential for raising the level of computer security here is huge, as a vast number of threats are actually mutations of malware, sold in kits like BlackHole, exploiting the same security holes in the same security programs.

The Windows-only ExploitShield is freeware for individuals and non-profits, part of ZeroVulnerabilityLabs' attempt to prove that the technology is so important that it's worth giving away. The company is working on a licensed version for businesses, although they don't have a timeline for its release yet.

Software exploits have long been a thorny software problem, hard to prevent because of source code complexity. For some notorious software, such as Java, Flash, and QuickTime, it can sometimes seem as... [Read more]