The Verge’s Ellis Hamburger talked to a bunch of developers in writing this extensive article about frustrations with iCloud’s Core Data syncing features, which are necessary for apps that need to do database-style syncing via iCloud (as opposed to document-style syncing, which works fine). Syncing is hard, but Apple needs to get it right if developers — and users — are to rely on iCloud integration.

Macworld’s Dan Moren tracks down the picky details surrounding T-Mobile’s announcement that it will start selling the iPhone (the 4, 4S, and 5) in the United States on 12 April 2013. Notable facts about T-Mobile’s move include unsubsidized hardware for down payments plus monthly charges, a $50 per month unlimited plan (for talk, text, and data, with a 500 MB cap on 4G data, which includes tethering), and simultaneous voice and data (offered by AT&T currently, but not Verizon or Sprint).

According to Russian security firm Doctor Web, there are an increasing number of Mac-focused Trojans that install extensions for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. These extensions are designed to embed third-party ad code into otherwise unrelated Web pages, funneling the clickthrough revenue back to the malware authors. The Trojans use a variety of techniques to fool users into installation, including masquerading as video plug-ins, media players, download accelerators, and more. To be safe, avoid installing software from sites that prompt you to do so — always get software from trusted sources.

Is it coincidence that Google CEO Larry Page announced that Android head Andy Rubin has “decided it’s time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google” the same day Google released the latest projects that the company is dropping in “spring cleaning,” including Google Reader? It’s impossible to say what caused the replacement of Rubin with Sundar Pichai, who will add Android responsibilities to his Chrome and Apps leadership roles at Google, but it’s possible that Android was essentially getting too popular without actually contributing that much to Google’s bottom line (only $550 million from 2008 through 2011, by some estimates). What changes Pichai will bring to the Android ecosystem — and how that will affect the iOS world — are a matter for speculation.

In this discussion with host Chuck Joiner, Adam Engst delves into some of the more-subtle meanings of the news that Google Reader will disappear in a few months. In particular, Adam talks about the effects of tools morphing into platforms, the psychological effect that change has on users, and pricing models to support the concept that not all change is good for all users.

According to MacTech, Microsoft recently changed the original license agreement for Office for Mac 2011 to match Office 2013 for Windows, whose license prevented the transfer of the software from one computer to another. Microsoft reversed course on the Office 2013 licensing policies, once again allowing the software to be moved between computers (but no more than once every 90 days). Although Microsoft said nothing about the Mac version in its Windows Office announcement, MacTech learned that the reversal also applies to the Mac version. In short, we’re back where we’d expect to be, but it’s distressing that Microsoft would even contemplate such an unfriendly license, much less implement it.

Some acquisitions make sufficiently little sense when taken at face value that they signal a major future direction, are mostly about acquiring specific talent or technology, or are just utterly misconceived. Dropbox’s acquisition of the company behind the Mailbox iPhone app falls into one of those categories, but it’s unclear which just yet, given that making a quirky iOS email client seems far from Dropbox’s core mission. Despite protestations that the Mailbox app will continue, it seems entirely possible that it could share the fate of the Sparrow email app, which, while still for sale, is no longer being developed after its developers joined Google in July 2012.

At some point in his lengthy, three-part article at TechHive on why he switched from the iPhone to Android, Andy Ihnatko says, “This isn’t the story of why Android is Way Totally So Much Better Than iOS. This is the story of this one dude who switched phones. Andy Ihnatko moving to Android isn’t a pivotal moment in the history of mobile computing.” No, it’s not, but Andy’s piece is still an utterly rational, carefully presented, well argued, and nicely supported explanation of how Android is legitimate competition for the iPhone, even for serious users. That’s a good thing — strong competition is the rising tide that floats all seaworthy boats.

Another concern has cropped up with Facebook, highlighted by Nick Bilton of the New York Times. For people looking to spread the word on Facebook, traffic in the form of “likes” and resharing would seem no longer to be organic, but must instead be greased with a little green. That’s mostly a problem for those doing some sort of business promotion on Facebook, but should give anyone considering Facebook as part of a marketing strategy significant pause. For what it’s worth, we see almost no traffic from our Facebook page.

Author and media theorist Douglas Rushkoff has quit Facebook, but for a reason that goes beyond the usual concern with Facebook’s privacy problems. He says: “Through a new variation of the Sponsored Stories feature called Related Posts, users who ‘like’ something can be unwittingly associated with pretty much anything an advertiser pays for. Like email spam with a spoofed identity, the Related Post shows up in a newsfeed right under the user’s name and picture. If you like me, you can be shown implicitly recommending me or something I like — something you’ve never heard of — to others without your consent.” We find that exceedingly troubling, since it means that you lose even more control over your online persona on Facebook.

Joe Kissell joined Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and Rene Ritchie on MacBreak Weekly to discuss password security (particularly in light of the recent Evernote security breach), iCloud email filtering, and a variety of other topics.

There’s nothing all that new here — Apple has long deleted some email messages silently, even including TidBITS at various times — but Dan Moren and Lex Friedman show how iCloud can delete messages containing certain phrases with no warning to the user, even if the phrase occurs only in a zipped PDF attachment. So if something you’re expecting doesn’t show up (assuming you notice), consider asking your correspondent to send it to another email address.

We love Siri, but is Apple’s voice recognition technology the best out there? At Macworld, Rob Griffiths pits Siri against the voice-input capabilities of the Google Search app for iOS and finds that Google’s system “works better, faster, and more intuitively.” Apple won’t ever allow Google’s voice input to escape out of Google’s own apps in iOS, but Apple still needs to keep Siri competitive with voice input in Android and Chrome OS.

Adam Engst’s short interview with Steve Chiotakis of KCRW (Southern California’s leading NPR affiliate) did a nice job of explaining some of Apple’s initial attraction, what was astonishing about the iPhone and iPad, why Apple is being confronted with more competition now, and what challenges the company faces going forward.

Our staff roundtable looking at why people still support Apple after all these years got some attention from the New Republic, where Lydia DePillis used it to bookend her article “Apple Agonistes: What happens to Mac fanatics when the brand bums them out?” She talked to a lot of the right people, and the article catches some of the tensions currently being felt in the Apple community.

Stymied by oddities when outputting video from an iPad to an HDTV, the folks at Panic took a hacksaw to Apple’s Lightning Digital AV Adapter to investigate. To their surprise, they found what appears to be a miniature computer, complete with a processor and 2 gigabits of RAM (for reference, that equals 256 MB of RAM, the same amount shipped in the original iPad). Panic’s initial speculation was that the processor was outputting an AirPlay signal (which would partially explain some compression artifacts that appear on screen). However, an anonymous but apparently knowledgeable commenter, who sounds like he or she works at Apple, explained that the adapter’s approach “essentially allows us to output to any device on the planet, irregardless of the endpoint bus (HDMI, DisplayPort, and any future inventions) by simply producing the relevant adapter that plugs into the Lightning port.” See for yourself!

Apple has announced that downloads of iTunes U content have topped one billion. iTunes U doesn’t get much mainstream press, but it could be one of Apple’s most important projects, hosting over 2,500 courses (and thousands more private courses) from over 1,200 colleges and universities, plus another 1,200 K-12 schools and districts. Some iTunes U courses have as many as 250,000 students enrolled in them, and over 60 percent of the iTunes U app downloads originate from outside the United States. Put simply, iTunes U is an astonishing educational resource.

Ex-Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki has taken a job advising cellphone manufacturer Motorola, now owned by Google. He’ll be focusing on product design, user interface, marketing, and social media, and it will be interesting to see what difference his experience at Apple and in the Macintosh world in general will make in future Google phones.

Apple’s iWatch is nothing more than a rumor at this point, but Google Glass, Google’s smartglasses that can take pictures, record video, show you incoming text messages, give you directions, and much more, are real. Glass isn’t quite yet available, but Joshua Topolsky of The Verge got a chance to try out the current beta. His money quote? “But what’s it actually like to have Glass on? To use it when you’re walking around? Well, it’s kind of awesome.”

Over at CNET, Stephen Shankland looks at Google’s just-released Chromebook Pixel, a high-end laptop running the company’s Web-focused Chrome OS. Whereas previous Chromebooks have been sold at the low end of the laptop price spectrum, the Chromebook Pixel costs $1,299 (Wi-Fi) or $1,499 (Wi-Fi plus LTE, for more-widespread connectivity) and boasts a 12.85-inch, 2560-by-1700-pixel touch screen that’s visually comparable to the screen of Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. It’s driven by a dual-core 1.8 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, and features a 32 GB SSD, 4 GB of RAM, two USB ports, a headphone-microphone jack, SD card slot, and Mini DisplayPort for connecting to an external display.