When the Android mobile operating system was first unveiled back in 2007, it was a sad-looking ripoff of the BlackBerry operating system. But when Apple launched the iPhone that year, Google immediately realised that it had seen the future of smartphones and it quickly went back to work in an effort to make its new mobile software more like the software on the iPhone. Fast-forward to 2014, and Google is the clear leader in terms of global market share, and its mobile software has grown by leaps and bounds. In fact, the tables have turned and it is now Apple that is copying features from Android with each new iOS update.

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We all spent last week rushing around trying to find the perfect gift for Father’s Day, and now it’s time to sit back and enjoy a gift for ourselves. App developers have a hard time competing for exposure now that there are about 115,000 applications in Apple’s iOS App Store, but one of the best ways to get some attention is to make your paid app free for a limited time. We’re always on the lookout for great paid apps that go on sale, and today we have four solid ones to share with you.

Remember, these apps are free to download only for a limited time. They were all free at the time this post was published, but these sales could end at any moment — so if you see something you like, you should click through to the App Store and download it immediately.

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Following the large number of 4.7-inch iPhone 6 dummy unit photos that have flooded the web, a similar image showing the bigger 5.5-inch model has surfaced. Insider Sonny Dickson, who published images of unreleased Apple devices before their launch last year, has now posted new images on Twitter showing the two iPhone 6 models side by side.

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Microsoft’s return to the mobile space following the epic downfall of Windows Mobile has been slow going so far. In fact, the company’s Windows Phone operating system was first unveiled four years ago now, and Microsoft’s share of the global smartphone market still sits in the low single digits. But despite the company’s struggles to regain its footing in mobile, Microsoft continues to make billions from the smartphone and tablet markets. How? By using a list of patents it claims have been infringed by Android to pressure smartphone makers into licensing deals. And now, for the first time, that secret list is no longer a secret.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook seems to get a lot of grief from investors and analysts because he’s not Steve Jobs. However, as a new profile of Cook in The New York Times makes clear, Cook is smart enough to understand that he’s not Steve Jobs and that nobody alive right now really is. However, just because there’s no Steve Jobs that doesn’t mean Apple is devoid of vision or talent and the company under Cook is relying more on teamwork than it did when Jobs was running the show.

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There are countless technology products and devices that are released on what seems like a weekly basis, and unfortunately, a lot of them suck. They’re gimmicky, they have minor updates, they are buggy, they are hard to use, and they break. So, we thought that there has to be a way to help the regular consumer cut through the noise and determine that they are buying a quality product. And based on feedback we have received from many consumer electronics manufacturers, they would also love a way to highlight their best and most quality products.

With that, we are very excited to introduce the BGR Seal of Approval and also announce the first product we are awarding it to.

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One of the coolest software features Apple unveiled on stage during WWDC 2014 may not be available to all iOS and Mac users, German publication Apfeleimer speculates. “Continuity” / “Handoff” or the ability of iOS 8 and Yosemite users to pick up actions started on one platform and continue them on the other – including calling and full SMS support for Macs running Yosemite – may only be available to iOS and OS X devices that have Bluetooth 4.0 LE support, which is apparently needed to establish a connection between devices.

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AT&T late last week confirmed that three employees of one of the company’s vendors accessed personal data belonging to some of its customers for almost two weeks in April. The company did not say how many accounts were affected during the data breach, or why it took so long to confirm it.

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Although Portland, Ore. is known as the city that’s perpetually stuck in the early 1990s, it might be about to get a fiber network that’s very 21st century. The Oregonian reports that Portland’s city council has voted unanimously to approve Google Fiber’s franchise agreement with the city, which paves the way for Google’s high-speed fiber network to set up shop in the northwest for the first time.

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Following Target, Neiman Marcus and Michael’s Stores, all major retailers which have been targeted by hackers in the past months, restaurant chain P.F. Chang’s China Bistro on Thursday confirmed that its payment system has also been breached, with credit and debit card data from some of its locations having been exposed.

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