python's base64 module works fine ;) and yes, this is very inefficient (in more ways than one). First, the outer xml is actually gzipped twice (once by the web

python's base64 module works fine ;) and yes, this is very inefficient (in more ways than one). First, the outer xml is actually gzipped twice (once by the web server I'm guessing). The base64 decoded data is yet another xml file. (Which is only ~60K compared to the 80K encoded blob). This inner xml file is another plist containing a dictionary that is primarily a large set of links to http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/* http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/*. Most likely to update app store / itunes app functionality. It also contains some configuration parameters (e.g. "<key>eBook-store-available</key><string>YES</string>"). None of it appears to be sensitive (and doesn't appear to list any of my apps). But, there could be an id in one of the links, so I'm not going to post it yet. I'm guessing that this was meant to be downloaded relatively infrequently, so the verbosity wasn't considered an issue.