Mobile app infections in the Google Play app store have increased almost 400 percent from 2011 to 2013, according to online security group RiskIQ. Just three years ago, there were around 11,000 malicious apps available in the store, but that drastically increased to at least 42,000 by 2013, with Google trying to continue to fight back.

Around 12.7 percent of apps in the store are said to be compromised, with less than a quarter of the apps removed. The following categories were targeted the most: personalization, entertainment, education/books, media/audio video, and sports apps, according to RiskIQ.

"The explosive growth of mobile apps has attracted a criminal element looking for new ways to distribute malware that can be used to commit fraud, identity theft and steal confidential data," said Elias Manousos, RiskIQ CEO, in a press statement. "Malicious apps are an effective way to infect users since they often exploit the trust victims have in well known brands and companies they do business with like banks, insurance companies, healthcare providers and merchants."

Several days ago, we told you about Microsoft's plans to release new audio and video accessories for the Xbox One in early March, and today the final piece of that puzzle was officially unveiled. Today Microsoft confirmed the existence of an official Xbox One Media Remote, something we first saw leaked on Amazon last week.

The official Xbox One Media Remote features white backlit keys that are motion activated, which illuminates them as soon as you pick the remote up. Other features include a OneGuide button for the built-in Xbox One TV feature. Channel up and down buttons, and a touch-sensitive navigation pad is on had as well. Microsoft says that the remote will be priced at just $24.95 and will release world wide in early March, confirming the timeline we mentioned in our original post.

Boutique gaming company Feenix has launched the Aria gaming headset, aimed towards providing gamers with better quality sound than regular headphones.

Using Japanese pine wood for the acoustic chamber, coupled with 50mm neodymium magnet drivers, Feenix wanted to bring audiophile sound to the gaming market. Aria owners have an immersive experience with 100% memory foam that surround the ear, and an independent clip microphone that provides "studio-grade recording" ability.

"For years gamers have been misled as to what they should be looking for in a gaming heaset," said Ashkon Shayani, Feenix Creative Director, in a press release. "Their choices have had nothing but poor sound quality, gimmicky features, and unnaturally over pronounced bass. The Aria focuses on providing high grade audio and reproducing sounds perfectly in studio monitor fashion. The result is the ability to hear sounds you never knew existed."

It appears that Sprint has yet again beat its competition to being the first to bring Android 4.4 to its high-end smartphones. Earlier this week, Sprint became the first US carrier to release the Android KitKat update for the Galaxy S4 Today it announced that Galaxy Note 3 devices on its service have began receiving the KitKat treatment as well.

Similar to the update for the Galaxy S4, and HTC One, the download is just over 500MB and is available as an OTA download. Android 4.4 brings several new features to the Galaxy Note 3 as well, including music album art on the lock screen, launcher selection setting, a camera shortcut on the lock screen and an overall improved user interface. Notifications of the update should pop up automatically, but users can also check for the update within the settings menu. Galaxy Note 3 devices on the Sprint network should show firmware version N900PVPUCNAB after the update completes.

The LED light bulb is slowly starting to replace the normal incandescent all around the world thanks to its longer life and green design. Philips is one of many companies that already offer LED light bulbs that can be controlled via a smartphone app. Philips first announced its iOS controlled LED lights in 2012.

The company has been tweaking those lights and has announced a new lighting system for retail stores that will not only light the way for shoppers; it will also help them find what they are looking for. The lighting system is intelligent and works with an app running on the user's smartphone.

The smartphone app knows where the user is in the store at all times thanks to connectivity from the lights in the ceiling. The app can help the user find exactly what they are looking for in the store isles without having to hunt someone who works there. That is a big benefit to the shopper and the lighting system helps the store too by offering the shopper timely discounts and coupons as they shop.

The first time Microsoft stepped into the tablet market with the original Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets, the hardware didn't do so well. The Surface tablets were priced too high for many buyers and the Windows RT OS proved to be unpopular with consumers and hardware partners. Microsoft came back more recently with new versions of the Surface tablet including the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2.

Those new tablets were received with mostly positive reviews and have proven more successful than the first versions. One thing that has been common since Microsoft launched the first Surface tablets is that the devices don't offer mobile broadband connectivity. The surface line has always been Wi-Fi only.

A new FCC filing has turned up that suggests Microsoft is getting ready to put 4G LTE connectivity under the hood of the Surface tablets. Microsoft's Panos Panay, VP of Surface at Microsoft had said in the past that a future Surface product would have LTE connectivity.

A couple days ago, we mentioned that rumors were circulating that Tesla and Apple had met up. The rumors were thought to indicate Apple wanted to buy the electric car marker. Another possibility was that Apple and Tesla were meeting about a battery factory. Both firms want to drive down the cost of lithium batteries.

Apple isn't the sort of company that will ever comment on rumors, other than to say that it won't comment on rumors. Tesla CEO Elon Musk on the other hand has never been afraid to tell people what he thinks or what is going on. Musk recently confirmed that Tesla had in fact talked with Apple.

Musk wouldn't say what exactly the meeting was about. He noted that he though Apple buying a car company was a good idea, but also said that the chances of Tesla selling were "very unlikely." Musk also noted that he would be willing to talk about selling if that meant his goal of making an affordable mass market EV would be closer to reality.

Volvo is a name that usually brings to mind safe, if rather boring cars and SUVs. Volvo has announced that it will be on hand at Mobile World Congress in Spain to show off its new delivery service. That new delivery service is called Roam Delivery.

The idea is that the Roam Delivery service will allow owners of Volvo cars to accept deliveries and drop packages off for pickup directly from their car. The service will use Volvo digital keys and allows the owner of the car to choose their vehicle as the drop off or pick up location. When the order is ready to be delivered, the owner of the car will get a message via text.

The digital key will allow the delivery person access to the vehicle where they can leave what you ordered or pick things up to ship them off. The owner of the car is notified when the car is opened and when it is closed again. The digital key is a onetime use item and ceases to function after the car is closed.

In a report commissioned by Emulex Corporation, the research team at Forrester recently surveyed 158 IT professionals regarding managing business-critical applications and the infrastructure surrounding them. Of the respondents, nearly 90% are in a management role or above and consider themselves infrastructure professionals.

Of these respondents, 56% said that over 25% of their critical performance issues cannot be solved within 24 hours. Further, that the most difficult problems can take well over a month to fix, with the majority of the time being wasted on just figuring out what is going on.

In the report, Forrester extracts 3 key findings from their research:

Over the last few years Sceptre has gone from a little known brand that pretty much only sold online to a brand that you can find in many large retail stores around the country. The company was first known for computer monitors and TVs, but it has now branched out into other product categories.

One of those other product categories is the portable speaker realm. Sceptre has unveiled its latest Bluetooth speaker called the SoundPal. The speaker uses Bluetooth 2.1 for connectivity with your portable device. It also has NFC tech inside for easy paring with NFC equipped devices.

The SoundPal has a microSD card slot so you can play your digital tunes directly over the speaker without needing to connect a smartphone via Bluetooth. The speaker also has a 3.5mm audio input jack for connecting devices that lack Bluetooth.