Whether you’re snapping photos at a party, at the office, or just around your neighborhood, it’s great to have a smartphone that can make every one of those photos count. But there are some limitations to the camera that is built into your smartphone — such as a lean selection of lenses. Namely, one.

This Cult of Mac Deals offer gives you what you need to supercharge your smartphone camera — a 3-in–1 lens kit for only $24! Having these lenses in your back pocket gives you artistic versatility so you can adapt to any photo opportunity. And you can get this kit right now at a savings of 65%!

Around 200 of the media and tech journalism elites are gathered at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California today for the unveiling of new iPhones. The majority of planet earth will never have the opportunity to attend an Apple press event in person, but that doesn’t mean you can’t live vicariously through those who do go.

Here’s what it’s like to wait in line for hours at attend an Apple event as a member of the media:

Apple is going to introduce the iPhone 5S and 5C in less than two hours, and the last-minute leaks are coming in fast. It looks like there could be a leather case announced for the 5S today, according to packaging that has leaked out of China.

We already shared a great wallpaper based off Apple’s invite for today’s iPhone 5S/5C event, and now the same designer has created a pack of wallpapers that experiment with the colors in the invite. There are four variations that are available to download for free for all iOS devices. They look great in iOS 7. You can download them at the source link below.

Apple put up banners yesterday at Town Hall, the on-campus venue where the keynote will be held, that feature the same multi-hued dot design seen in the media invite. Keep your browser locked to Cult of Mac, and we’ll have the latest Apple news throughout the day. Today’s keynote kicks off at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.

Source: Surenix

If you were hoping to spend some cash on the Apple online store this morning, you’re going to have to wait a little while. It’s just gone down ahead of today’s press event in Cupertino, and when it comes back up, we expect it to be populated by at least two new iPhones, and possibly new iPods and a new Apple TV as well.

Apple has been targeted by a class action lawsuit for falsely advertising a Season Pass for the final season of Breaking Bad. The season was split into two parts, but those who purchased a Season Pass were angered when they discovered that the eight episodes included in the second part were not included, and that they would have to pay extra to get them.

Samsung has earned quite a name for itself copying Apple’s most successful products, but it’s not only in smartphones, tablets, computers, and accessories where the South Korean company sources its inspiration from its closest rivals. British manufacturer Dyson is suing Samsung for allegedly ripping off one of its inventions in a new vacuum cleaner that was unveiled at IFA in Berlin last week.

With Apple set to unveil new iPhones today, we’re probably about a week away from a widescale release of iOS 7, which will mean that Apple’s seventh-generation operating system will end up dropping about a year after iOS 6. So 365 days later, how is iOS 6 doing?

Really well. In fact, according to data released by Chitika Insights, really well: it’s installed on 92% of all iOS devices.

Opera, the Norwegian web browser company that announced earlier this year that it was throwing in the towel on its own web-rendering technology and shifting to WebKit across all products has just released a new iPad browser: Coast.

According to Opera, Coast is “the browser your iPad deserves.”

It’s looking increasingly likely that when Apple takes the stage today at the official iPhone launch event today that they will actually be unveiling seven new iPhone colors.

It’s new iPhone announcement day! That customarily means a number of last-minute bombshells and leaks in the hours before the event, and this year is no exception: documentation for the new iPhone 5S has leaked out, giving us a closer look at the redesigned home button with fingerprint sensor… or, as Apple is calling it, the Touch ID sensor.

When Apple introduced Photo Stream to iCloud back in 2011, the Cupertino company made it incredibly quick and easy for its users to share their favorite photos with their friends and family without syncing them to their computer first. But Photo Stream has a downside, and that is that it’s only available on iOS.

Fortunately, there are plenty of awesome alternatives with cross-platform support, and one of those is Kicksend. Not only does Kicksend let you share photos with friends — regardless of the smartphone platform they choose — but it also lets you print and send real photos to those who don’t have a smartphone at all.

UPDATE [We said the case is available for the iPhone 5, which it isn’t.]

BikeConsole addresses the single biggest problem with using your iPhone as your in-bike computer: battery life. The iPhone clearly makes for an awesome brain for your bike, with maps, GPS and all manner of bike and fitness apps available, but leaving it running up there with the GPS and screen burning is a great way to kill your battery, fast.

So the BikeConsole does the obvious thing: it adds a battery.

NoteCube is another one of the “new generation” of note-taking apps, started by Q Branch’s Vesper, which are ultra-clean (in the iOS7 style) and work with pictures (the other one being Whitespace).

The USP of NoteCube is that it syncs with Evernote, which means that a) it actually syncs, unlike the other two apps, and b) it gets access to Evernote’s neat text recognition in photographs.

If you happen to have a bunch of Four Thirds lenses lying around, and your in the market for a new camera, then Olympus has you covered: The new OM-D E-M1 is an SLR-style body which will accept old Four Thirds lenses, as well as new Micro Four Thirds lenses. And more importantly, they actually work, and focus at a decent speed.

The iPhone 5S has already been expected to feature a fingerprint sensor for months, and now The Wall Street Journal has corroborated the rumor less than 24 hours ahead of Apple’s planned unveiling of the device tomorrow.

For those of us waiting for a hardcore iPad version of massively online battle arena (MOBA) game like League of Legends or Defense of the Ancients, Open Feint founder Jason Citron might have the solution. His latest gaming company, Hammer & Chisel, has been hard at work creating the tablet-only MOBA, Fates Forever.

We spoke with Citron a while back about the development challenge of a more core game for iPads. Citron calls this one a “reinterpretation of the world’s most popular hardcore game,” Riot Games’ League of Legends, for tablets like the iPad.

Check out the video below.

Gamestop-owned Kongregate games has gotten into the mobile gaming space recently, and the latest published by the online gaming portal, Sheep Happens, has a lot going for it.

Sheep Happens throws just about everything at players, like wacky characters, missions to complete, and plenty of power-ups to earn and/or purchase. While the humor is a bit over the top, the gameplay finds a pretty decent balance between difficult and engaging gameplay fairly early on. For players willing to spend some time and/or a little bit of cash, the later game ramps up nicely, making Sheep Happens a nice diversion for those of us who haven’t gotten sick of the endless runner.

We’ve already explained why the iPhone 5S will probably feature a redesigned home button with a fingerprint sensor, and now concept designer Martin Hajek has given the idea a proper treatment in Photoshop.

Hajek consistently makes some of the best Apple concepts around, and these are no different. His imagining of the ring around the home button looks great, and while the actual product may not look exactly the same, the concept gives a nice visual representation of what is being rumored.

After years of intentionally keeping its in-house marketing and ad team small, Apple is on a hiring spree and looking to double the department’s head count. According to a new report from AdAge, “the group could grow to 500 or 600 staffers from about 300.”

Under Steve Jobs, Apple would often outsource its marketing needs to firms like TBWA\Chiat\Day, and while it’s still doing that, the move to add more creatives to the payroll signals a shift in strategy.

Apple’s big iPhone extravaganza is tomorrow, and some colorful banners went up outside of the company’s Cupertino headquarters today.

Unlike most product launches, Apple is holding this event at Town Hall, its own auditorium on campus. The last time Town Hall was used was in the fall of 2011 for the iPhone 4S, and this year will reportedly be the unveiling of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.

The banners match the multi-colored dots in the event invite Apple sent out to the press last week:

While I still use Apple’s own Maps app from time to time, mostly because it’s built in to iOS, I tend to prefer Google Maps more. It just feels more complete, though that’s just my own opinion; I haven’t done any scientific analysis or comparison.

That said, the Google Maps app is pretty darn great, and there’s a couple of hidden features you can access with just a swipe (and maybe a tap or two). Here they are.

Yahoo released a brand new video app for iOS today that aims to bring a TV-like experience to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. The new app – called Yahoo! Screens  – allows users to browse through TV clips and episodes by swiping left-to-right as well as up-and-down.

Users can customize the experience to their liking and use Screen to discover new content and shows. To kick things off, Yahoo partnered with Viacom to pump out clips from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live, as well as other series and movies. The free app is available in the App Store now.

Here are the full release notes:

Simply put, Ona makes some of the nicest, most fashionable camera bags that Cult of Mac has ever had the pleasure of testing, and the Bolton Street camera backpack is no exception. But unlike their line-up of messenger bags, Ona’s Bolton Street is a bag for the kind of fashionable, London-trotting photog who can only carry his gear around by putting it on his back. It’s an expensive bag, and has a few niggles, but we love it. Read on.

Sir Jony Ive and famed designer Marc Newson have teamed up with Bono to a mega-auction of fancy master-pieces of design that will be sold to benefit (RED). Among the list of items up for grabs is a custom pair of Apple EarPods made of solid rose gold.

Jony and Marc actually did all the curation of the collection themselves over the past year, as well as collaborating on two custom made items – a  Leica Digital Rangefinder Camera, and an  aluminum desk produced by Neal Feay Studios. A total of 40 items will be auctioned off, including pieces from space travel, lighting, contemporary art and rare automobiles.

Here’s what Jony had to say about his contribution: