iTunes

Every week the editors at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps, accessories, gadgets, and websites. This weeks selections include apps for photo blogging, social gaming, podcasts, an interesting accessory, and a fun children's book.

The App Store has been around for nearly 4 years, and it is approaching 25 billion downloads. (That's 25,000,000,000!)

To celebrate, Apple is doing a countdown and giving away a US$10,000 (or equivalent) iTunes gift card to the person who downloads the 25 billionth app.

Avoid carrier SMS and MMS charges and keep all your IMs in one place with iOS iMessage right on your Mac

If you have been waiting for Apple to release a version of iMessage for Mac then that day has just become a lot closer. After the release of the beta of OS X Mountain Lion earlier today, Apple has followed it up with the release of a beta version of its new Mac Messages app. Messages, which will replace the current iChat app, brings all of the great features of iMessage to your Mac while keeping many that made iChat great as well.

Apple has sent out a letter via its iTunes Connect portal to all of its registered iBookstore content publishers advising them of some much needed improvements. The iBookstore will now allow publishers to submit screenshots of their books but even more importantly, they can now generate and issue promotional codes for any content sold in the iBookstore.

Building off of news from yesterday that Apple will be holding an iPad event in early March comes word that Apple has been in a frenzied rush with developers to finish up their iPad app efforts so they can be demoed on stage. Some of these apps may also be included in future iPad commercials showing off the new model. TheNextWeb reports:

Microsoft has rolled out its popular MSN app to the USA and Canada. It was originally launched at the end of January as a UK only release. The MSN app brings you all of the latest news, sports, entertainment and much more form the Microsoft network in a beautiful magazine style layout on your iPad.

Hasbro has announced that its next release of Lazer Tag guns will use your iPhone or iPod touch to provide augmented reality and a heads up display. The Lazer Tag guns can accept an iPhone or iPod touch which is slotted into the gun in a purpose made holder.

Apple is helping celebrate the release of Kisses On The Bottom, which came out Tuesday, February 7, with a free live-streaming Paul McCartney concert on February. 8, 2012. The event is being held at Capital Studios in Los Angeles and will be available to one and all via iTune.

The VooMoteZapper is a clip on infrared remote control device that can take the place of your entire collection of home remote controls. The device simply clips into the dock connector of your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 5 and transforms it into a universal remote controller

Kenisngton and Chelsea College in the UK, is planning a new course which will be devoted entirely to taking photographs with the iPhone’s camera. The course in ‘iPhoneography’ is thought to be the first ever course of its kind in the United Kingdom.