Apple Tweaks iOS 6 App Store to Make (Its) Free Downloads Easier

US officials say energy companies are believed to have fallen victim to cyberattack assaults by Iran-backed hackers. The hackers were unsuccessful in manipulating oil and gas pipelines, which is what officials suspect they were attempting to do, but one former official told the Wall Street Journal that they got “far enough to worry people.” [Source: Wall Street Journal]

Technology Review reports on a new molecule-sorting material that could lower gas prices and reduce the need for cancer-linked additives. During the refining process, gasoline molecules are sorted by size to achieve certain octane levels. But this new hydrocarbon-sorting material would remove many steps from the process thus making gas less costly to produce. [Source: Technology Review]

According to a memo obtained by Fox News, the Department of Homeland Security warns 3D-printed guns may be “impossible” to stop: “Significant advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing capabilities, availability of free digital 3D printer files for firearms components, and difficulty regulating file sharing may present public safety risks from unqualified gun seekers who obtain or manufacture 3D printed guns.” The memo closes with, ” [Source: Fox News via Venture Beat]

3D printing. It’s not just for guns. In fact it’s hardly for guns at all. Will 3D printing save more lives than it ends? That’s not a stretch to say. The latest milestone comes out of the University of Michigan, where a team built a tracheal splint that allows a child with a collapsed windpipe to breath again. [Source: New England Journal of Medicine via Gizmodo]

Tim Parsey, Yahoo’s SVP of user experience design, will step down for reasons unclear, sources told AllThingsD. He has been a part of many of the company’s major redesigns, including the homepage, Flickr and email. [Source: AllThingsD]

The streaming music service reported total revenue of $125 million, with $16 cents a share. Analysts had predicted revenue of $123.9. Total mobile revenue grew 97 percent year over year. [Source: Pandora]

The media giant tapped Demand Media’s Joanne Bradford and former Los Angeles Times CEO Jeffrey Johnson to help the flailing San Francisco Chronicle. Johnson will be the newspaper’s publisher, while Bradford will be the president. [Source: AllThingsD]

The company announced today that users can surface personal photos from Google+ plus accounts just by searching through the main Google search homepage. A user has to be logged in for it to work, and they can search through friends’ photos too. [Source: Google]

Intel has a lot riding on the upcoming release of its new chip line. To add to the excitement, the company released some details about its power consumption, including that it draws 50% less power than the current Core processor line members on “active” workloads. [Source: The Wall Street Journal]

SimpleRelevance, a company that gathers customer data to send more personalized mass emails, has raised $1 million. Funding was led by Hyde Park Angels and Hyde Park Venture Partners. [Source: VentureBeat]

Yahoo appears to be tinkering with a new search results page. For some users, when logged in and using Firefox, they are directed to a new results page that looks markedly different than the old one. [Source: Search Engine Land]

iOS music app maker Smule reportedly made $12.6 million in revenue in 2012. It is also supposedly on track to make $20 million this year. [Source: GigaOm]

Facebook today highlighted its developer platform, in celebration of the six year anniversary of being open to independent developers. The company threw around some numbers about third-party apps, such as: more than 500 million users use third-party apps through Facebook as well as those users sharing 1 billion stories a day. [Source: CNET]