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Last Thursday, brand consulting firm Interbrand released its annual list of the world's most valuable brands, and for the second consecutive year, Apple topped it. The list valued the Apple brand at $118.9 billion, 21% more than it was valued last year. With a value of $107.4 billion, fellow tech giant Google was the only other brand to be valued over $100 billion. Coca Cola, IBM and Microsoft rounded out the top five.

Apple also received some noteworthy praise in the form of a letter from billionaire investor Carl Icahn to CEO Tim Cook. Titled "Sale: Apple Shares at Half Price," the note urges Apple to buy back more of its shares at a faster pace. Icahn believes Apple shares are currently trading at about half their value. By his estimates, Apple shares should currently be worth $203 a share.

There were a lot of big app updates this week as developers caught up with iOS 8. Zynga's Words with Friends not only received a redesign for its fifth birthday, but it is also now called New Words with Friends. The popular word game now features a flatter interface and Solo Mode, which allows users to play alone without an internet connection. Temple Run 2 was updated with NFL players starting with Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson. Temple Run 2 with both Kaepernick and Wilson is now available for free on the App Store. Be sure to check out all of this week's noteworthy app updates at the bottom of this post.

This week also saw a lot of big game announcements including trailers for Marvel Contest of Champions, Kingdom Rush Origins, Tilt to Live: Gauntlet's Revenge and Dead Mage Studio's Epic of Kings. You can watch all of these trailers at the bottom of this post.

One quick PSA, Apple is closing the date loophole in iOS 8.1 that allows users to install emulators like GBA4iOS. You can read more about the problem here.

According to a report released by the NPD Group earlier today, Apple has sold more accessories during the two weeks following the iPhone 6 launch than in the same period after any other iPhone launch.

The Group's Weekly Tracking Service showed record breaking sales of $249 million, which amounts to a 43% increase over the two weeks prior to the launch. By comparison, the iPhone 5s and 5c launch generated $195 million in mobile phone accessory sales, about 17% greater than the two weeks leading up to their launch date.

In a note to Apple CEO Tim Cook today, billionaire investor Carl Icahn revealed that Icahn Enterprises believes Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock is currently trading at about half of what it is worth. In order to remedy this, the note basically urges Cook to convince the Board of Directors to buy back more stock at a faster pace.

According to the note (which is titled "Sale: Apple Shares at Half Price," and posted on Icahn's site, Shareholder's Square Table), Icahn Enterprises' projected growth for Apple in FY 2016 and FY 2017 "more than adequately justifies using a P/E multiple of 19x our FY 2015 forecast, which along with net cash values Apple at $203 per share

Ironhide Game Studio has released the first teaser trailer for Kingdom Rush Origins -- the prequel to Kingdom Rush and Kingdom Rush Frontiers. The video doesn't reveal anything about the gameplay of Origins, but it does promise it is "coming soon"!

Kingdom Rush is a popular franchise of tower defense games set in medieval times. The first title was released as a free flash game on July 28, 2011 before being ported to iOS and Android devices. The sequel, Kingdom Rush Frontiers, was released to iOS devices on June 6, 2013. Ironhide has released several free updates for both games, including a Halloween-themed level, before capping them off with an Endless Mode on July 31, 2014.