Dan Moren, Jason Snell

Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the Wall Street Journal’s tenth annual D: All Things Digital conference, appearing at the same event that his predecessor, Steve Jobs, had headlined several times before. Answering questions from conference hosts Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Cook said his company is doubling down on Siri, played coy about Apple’s approach to the gaming and television markets, and spoke emotionally about Jobs’s death.

Double doubling down

As with any public appearance of an Apple executive, there was a good-natured give and take about future product releases. Mossberg and Kara tried to cajole Cook into revealing future product details, knowing full well that he would do no such thing. (In fact, the Apple CEO declared that the company was “doubling down on secrecy” when it comes to product releases.) However, he did offer a few tantalizing tidbits, most notably about the Siri feature of the iPhone 4S.

In a shocking twist of events, Apple plans to hold a keynote to kick off the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The event will take place on Monday, June 11, at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern.

While the company hasn't announced precisely who will be headlining said keynote, the smart money is on a tag team approach from Apple's brass. Possible appearances may include CEO Tim Cook, senior vice president of marketing Phil Schiller, senior vice president of iOS software Scott Forstall, and vice president of Mac software Craig Federighi.

That Apple is working on a substantial update to its Maps app seems a foregone conclusion at this point. But aside from the occasional vague rumor, any features that might be contained in such an update have remained shrouded in shadow.

Maps is clearly an important part of iOS, but Apple's let it languish even as other parties -- like Android -- have leapt ahead. If iOS 6 does indeed bring a new version of Maps, there are some features that might help it catch up to, and overtake, the competition.

When Apple introduced iTunes in 2001, it served one purpose: As a music jukebox app. Later that year, it added its most important feature: The ability to sync tracks with the just-introduced iPod. Originally, you could just drag tracks onto your iPod and they’d copy over. iTunes had automatic music-sync features that were rudimentary, but they did the job.

That was a long time ago. These days, iTunes is simultaneously Apple’s most important and problematic product. It’s a music and video player. It’s a store, the gateway to buying music, videos, ringtones, and iOS apps. And of course, it’s a syncing system, connecting to Apple devices from iPhone to iPod to Apple TV.

Flashback, a Mac Trojan horse that's been in the public eye since it was uncovered by security firm Intego last year, has a new trick up its sleeve: It can now infect your computer from little more than a visit to a website.

Originally, Flashback masqueraded as an installer for Adobe's Flash Player--hence the name--but the malware has changed tacks at last once since then, instead pretending to be a Mac software update or a Java updater.

Flashback, a Mac Trojan horse that’s been in the public eye since it was uncovered by security firm Intego last year, has a new trick up its sleeve: It can now infect your computer from little more than a visit to a website.

Originally, Flashback masqueraded as an installer for Adobe’s Flash Player—hence the name—but the malware has changed tacks at last once since then, instead pretending to be a Mac software update or a Java updater.

In the first findings of its investigations into labor practices, the Fair Labor Association said it found "significant issues" at three factories in China. At the same time, in a report released Thursday, the organization said it also secured "groundbreaking commitments" to reduce the hours workers put in and better the health and safety conditions for employees.

During its more than 3000-staff-hour investigation, which included a survey of more than 35,000 Foxconn employees, the FLA uncovered a number of problems. Among them were frequent examples of overtime exceeding the Chinese government's legal limits. In addition, accidents-many of which went unreported-foster a concern for health and safety at the facilities, according to the FLA. Compensation was also an area of worry in the report, both for overtime as well simply meeting the basic standard of living.

In a welcome move, Apple's iOS 5.1 update included, among other features, the return of Genius Mixes and Genius Playlist for subscribers to iTunes Match. At least, in theory. Initially, we--and many others, if Apple's support discussions are any indication--found that the Genius features either didn't work or didn't even appear on our iOS devices after installing the 5.1 upgrade.

The Genius icon vanished for iTunes Match customers. But with iOS 5.1 -- and possibly a little elbow grease -- you can now get it back.

Genius, which builds a playlist full of songs that you are likely in the mood to hear based on the initial song you select, and Genius Mixes, which algorithmically assemble mixes of your music based on Apple-identified commonalities, would at first glance seem to be perfect companions to Apple's $25-per-year service for storing your music in iCloud. But, when iTunes Match first launched, customers discovered that enabling it on their iOS devices caused the two Genius options to vanish.

The iPad has been a remarkable success story. Apple sold 15 million of the original model in the first nine months of the product’s existence, a number that blew away even the most optimistic prognostications. With last year’s introduction of the iPad 2, things kept accelerating. In a little less than two years, Apple has sold roughly 60 million iPads, dominating the market it created.

Maintaining Apple’s lead in tablet devices is the job of the third-generation iPad, a product that doesn’t mess with success. Like the iPad 2 before it, this new iPad is not a re-thinking of the original concept. Instead, Apple has chosen to focus on a few areas of improvement while keeping the overall package the same. Though it’s an approach that can frustrate people who are disappointed by anything that’s not a quantum leap, Apple executes it to perfection and reaps the rewards.

iOS 5.1, released this past Wednesday, brought a few additional features, but you might have missed a subtle new one if you're not a heavy user of the Reminders app introduced in iOS 5: Your device will now alert you if you've got a currently active geofence.

A geofence is a perimeter that triggers an alert when you pass through it. In the most common example, you set a reminder to do something when you leave or arrive at a location.

Consumers trying to decide between Verizon and AT&T on their new 4G-enabled iPad have an additional consideration to take into account: Only one of those companies will be offering Apple's Personal Hotspot feature at launch. That capability allows users to share the fast 4G connection on their iPads with other devices, such as a laptop or smartphone, via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB.

As first reported by The Verge, the Verizon iPad will offer the Personal Hotspot feature that Apple touted at its iPad unveiling this week, while AT&T will not.