Last week, Apple announced the App Store is approaching 50 billion app downloads. In celebration of the milestone, Apple is giving away a $10,000 App Store gift card to the lucky person who initiates the 50 billionth download. Read CNET's Josh Lowensohn's news coverage here.

As part of the celebration, Apple listed out the top 25 apps -- both free and paid -- for iPhone and iPad. None of the apps listed are particularly surprising (especially to someone who studies the most popular list every day), but one thing that did strike me is that a lot of the all-time best sellers still sit near the top of the current most popular lists. In other words, once an app gains a certain degree of popularity, it seems to have a way of keeping its momentum and staying at the top. But with over a million apps available, it seems to me that a lot of people are missing out on great apps that didn't get the publicity, perhaps didn't come from well-known developers, or simply slid under people's radar.

So instead of trotting out the apps we all know like Instagram, Angry Birds, YouTube, and ... [Read more]

As part of the rebranding effort, Adobe redesigned all its marketing iconography -- called totems -- with decreased readability. Except for that unmistakable cloud graphic on every application totem.

In a move that's bound to tick off a lot of (probably formerly) devoted users, Adobe's finally made the jump we've been expecting to an all-subscription model for the applications that used to be part of Creative Suite. Adobe's not just rebranding all of its professional applications with the Creative Cloud moniker (except Lightroom -- so far). Now it's created a supercell composed of Photoshop CC, Dreamweaver CC, InDesign CC, so on and so on, ad infinitum. You'll only be able to get individual copies of those packages by subscription, though that individual-product subscription toll has dropped to $10 a month from $20. The updates will roll out to all CC subscribers on June 17.

The company says it will keep CS6 for sale (or "perpetual license), but I doubt it will remain available for more than a year, if that much; once the company revs Adobe Camera Raw again, Photoshop essentially gets cut off from new cameras, and that's the lynchpin of the suite. It's also offering a price of $20 per month to encourage current CS6 owners to upgrade. (For more pricing information an... [Read more]

Adobe's Creative Cloud subscription includes software, services, and tools for social networking and collaboration.

In a major shift for its business and its customers, Adobe Systems on Monday announced it no longer will sell its Creative Suite software as it moves instead to the $50-per-month Creative Cloud and other subscription plans.

"We have no current plans to release another perpetual release of the CS tools and suites. Creative Cloud is going to be our sole focus moving forward," said Scott Morris, senior director of product marketing for Creative Cloud.

When Adobe launched its Creative Cloud subscription last year, executives weren't sure how long it would offer it alongside the traditional perpetual-license sales for its software. But customer enthusiasm for the Creative Cloud, combined with the awkwardness of maintaining it alongside the slower-moving CS products, led the company to move aggressively to the subscription plan.

"We expected it to be a couple years before this happened. But we were surprised by how successful Creative Cloud has been," Morris said. "We know that's going to be a difficult transition for some customers, but we think it's going to be the best move in the long haul."

It's not just a big difference... [Read more]

If the next Gmail message you receive on your iPhone launches YouTube or Google Maps, don't be alarmed. The Internet giant enhanced its official Gmail app for iPhone and iPad today, adding two small but appreciated features for heavy users of the Web-based mail service.

First, the default behavior for opening YouTube, Google Maps, or Web links has changed. Now, when you click on any of those kinds of links, Gmail will spawn the respective native YouTube, Google Maps, or Google Chrome app for iOS to handle it. Formerly, such links were instead handled by the relatively inelegant built-in Gmail browser.

If you don't want those links to spawn their native apps, i.e. you prefer the old default behavior, click into the Gmail menu using the button marked with the three horizontal bars, and then click the configurations button with the gear icon. At the bottom of the preferences screen, click the large button labeled "Google Apps." You'll be presented with the option of turning off Chrome, Google Maps, or YouTube links.

iOS users can customize which links in Gmail spawn new Google apps.

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