When I wrote up the Kubxlab Ultra Thin iPhone Case a short while back, I liked the look of it but figured that it would be yet another iPhone shell case to add to my stack of potential gifts (I’m serious – if you visit my home you won;t be allowed to leave without an iPhone or iPad case in your hands).

Then one arrived. Or rather three arrived, one in each color (dark, light and brown). I carelessly ripped open the packaging, picked one of the three (dark, I think) and pressed it onto my naked iPhone 4, still warm from my damp front pocket.

And I was so surprised that I actually put down my coffee.

Today Instagram announced its rumored video feature at a press event in Southern California. Instagram’s 100,000,000 active members can now shoot 15-second video clips and apply filters.

Rumors leading up to the event claimed that Instagram would launch a competitor to Vine, Twitter’s video network that lets you quickly share six-second clips with the world. After seeing what Instagram unveiled today, it looks like Vine has been leapfrogged.

Looking for a cheaper way to upgrade to the iPhone 5 without having to pay the full price? Best Buy announced this morning that it is relaunching its  program that allows customers to trade-in an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S to get a “free” iPhone 5.

The trade-in program is set to launch this Friday, June 21st, and will run for 9 days. Customers can bring in a working model iPhone 4 or 4S and get up to $150 in credit back, which can then be used to purchase a 16GB iPhone 5 for $149.99.

Apple’s clever iPad mini ads that have been featured on the back covers of Time, Wired, the New Yorker, and Surfer, were just awarded one of the most prestigious advertising award in the world today.

The Apple iPad mini campaign by TBWA Media Arts Lab won the Grand Prix in press even though the iPad mini has been viewed by many as the device that will eventually kill newspapers and magazine. To get the top prize, Apple beat out strong competition from Dove and Beijing Sports.

Marcello Serpa, chief creative officer at Almap BBDO presided over the judging and had the following explanation for why Apple won:

We were surprised that a new MacBook Pro wasn’t part of Apple’s Mac refreshes at WWDC earlier this month, but if new benchmark tests are anything to go by, it shouldn’t be too long before they’re made available. A new 13-inch model with the latest Intel “Haswell” processor has appeared in Geekbench tests showing slight performance gains over the current generation.

The new Mac Pro has been benchmarked ahead of its release, too.

It’s not uncommon for new Macs to have issues that require a firmware upgrade down the line to fix, and it looks like that’s true of the new Haswell-boasting MacBook Airs, which are reportedly having a lot of problems with their new 802.11ac WiFi chips.

Earlier this year, one of the best computer RPGs of all time, Baldur’s Gate, came to the Mac and iOS. And it was an awesome, awesome, awesome port, with tons of enhanced content and a new iPad-friendly control scheme.

Even better? Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition did well enough that the guys who handled the port, Beamdog, said they were working on a port of Baldur’s Gate II… a game which (and this is saying something) is about ten times better than Baldur’s Gate!

Fast forward to today. Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition has been yanked from all e-tailers, including the App Store. Why? Contractual crapulence.

Sonic fan? Well now’s a great time to load up your iOS device with new Sonic games, because Sega has made each and every one just 99¢ for a limited time. That includes Sonic CD, Sonic The Hedgehog 4 episodes one and two, Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing, and the original Sonic The Hedgehog.

Basically, if it has Sonic in it, you won’t pay more than 99¢ for it.

We’ve been talking a lot recently about the so-called “budget iPhone” that Apple will in all probability announce in September, but exactly how “budget” are we talking about here?

Now, the CEO of the rumored manufacturer of the budget iPhone is speaking up, and telling shareholders not to expect it to be cheap.

Don’t forget that the OS X Mavericks beta isn’t a final version—it’s meant to be used by developers to ensure that their software will work with Apple’s latest and greatest. With that disclaimer in mind, let’s check out a new little feature in the beta.

Many apps have had access to special characters before, like iChat and Messages. You’d simply click the little smiley face, for example, and get all the fun emoticons Apple has provided.

If you wanted to type a special character in a text document, though, you’d have to remember that Option-8 is a text bullet, and Option-K is the degrees symbol, and Option-2 gives you the Trademark symbol.

Now, though, in OS X Mavericks beta, you can see visually what special characters are available to you across all applications. Here’s how.

Here’s a great story: Every morning I browse through the news to find stuff to write about. One of my feeds is from the useful but flawed prMac, a site which lists new products and apps in a particularly annoying way. I found an app called Sunscreen Reapplying Reminder, which is little more than a timer app (hint: use Siri to set your reminders without having to gum up your screen with grassy sunblock).

I Tweeted about it:

Just what the world needs: Sunscreen Reapplying Reminder app https://t.co/UhmJsOy6b9

— Charlie Sorrel (@mistercharlie) June 20, 2013

And then the replies started coming. Why? The app, by developer Tania Moise, has a peculiar copyright claim…

Adobe’s entire new Creative Cloud suite has already been cracked, and it appears to be just as easy to do as it was for the old non-cloud version. Crackers have already made the tools available, just days after the official release.

If you haven’t already watched Apple’s WWDC keynote, it’s probably because you just haven’t found the time. At just under two hours long, it’s not something you can just slip into your day. But you can now watch it at your leisure on any of your electronics devices because Apple just uploaded the entire thing to YouTube.

Hazel, the must-have Mac file-wrangling utility, has just been updated to v3.1. That doesn’t sound like much, but there are some real big new features in here. for instance, it can now match dates typed inside your files, as well as upload files and more. Check it out:

"“Morning!”" That’s what this new app will say to you when you fire up your iPad at the start of the day. Only instead of bringing you bacon, pancakes and coffee it’ll put you on a more slimming diet of information: Weather, calendar, news and so on, right there on a big iPad-sized dashboard.

Not to be outdone by Instagram’s reported video product that’s set to debut tomorrow, Vine has started teasing upcoming features and design tweaks. Co-founders Dom Hofmann and Rus Yusupov have posted a couple of Vines that seem to point towards some pretty big additions, like the ability to record multiple Vines at once and save drafts.

Special video categories also seem to be in the works, allowing users to browser content based on different genres that would assumedly be curated by Vine/Twitter staff. Instead of letterboxed videos within the Vine app, a future version will likely bring make videos fill the full width of the iPhone’s screen to create a more immersive experience.

Take a look at the Vines below and use your detective skills to uncover what’s coming:

Seriously, I’m kind of tired of playing the typical RPG in which I take on the role of the savior of the world. This kind of power fantasy, wish fulfillment story has its place, but boy would it be nice if we could see some different stories out there.

The developers behind Kickstarter project, Unrest, must have felt the same way, as their new online RPG is set in ancient India, for one thing (not a Tolkeinesque forest complete with Orcs and Elves), and will let you play as the ordinary folk struggling to maintain their freedom, safety, peace, and keep their children fed and happy.

World of Warcraft, this isn’t.

Over at The Atlantic, a fascinating study has been published that connects location data from smartphones with the layout of a heavily populated city. The findings are that the most iPhone activity is coming from wealthier areas, while Android usually dominates lower income districts. 

After a string of reports that MacBook replacement batteries have caught fire, Best Buy has decided to recall 5,100 units.

AP first reported news of the recall this afternoon and said Best Buy is contacting customers individually to see if they would like a battery replacement, or a Best Buy giftcard for the value of the replacement battery.

Here’s which MacBook replacement batteries are being recalled:

Would you consider yourself a tea connoisseur? Perhaps you spend more money on tea leaves than you would care to admit and your brewing process is comparable to that of a thousand-year-old Chinese farmer. Whether you’re an addict or a one who just enjoys an occasional cup, you should check out Tea for iPhone.

The app got a 2.0 update today with a new design and plenty of features.

Apple has given developers access to the first beta of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5. Given the planned release of OS X Mavericks this fall, 10.8.5 could very well end up being the last major version of Mountain Lion before Mavericks ships to the public. A developer beta of Mavericks was made available to developers the week of WWDC.

OS X 10.8.4 was officially released on June 4th and it brought a bunch of bug fixes. 10.8.5 will likely focus on bugs fixes and compatibility issues as well.

Source: Apple

Rdio has released an update to its iOS app that brings a feature called “Song Stations.” Like Apple’s recently announced iTunes Radio, you can now create a streaming radio station based on an individual song in the Rdio app. You get unlimited skips, but no ability to vote or down-vote a track to refine the station.

Song Stations are created by tapping and holding on any song in Rdio. Another nice addition is a feature called “AutoPlay.” When a playlist, album, or station has ended, Rdio can start automatically playing similar music based on what you were listening to already.

Rdio costs $10 per month for unlimited streaming on mobile and the web. You can grab today’s update in the App Store.

Source: App Store

Image: MacStories

While alternate RSS services have started popping up left and right in the wake of Google Reader’s death sentence, the strongest contender so far is certainly Feedly. In a few months, the service already has 12 million users and a pretty sophisticated platform.

Today Feedly officially turned on its own cloud sync, effectively cutting ties from Google Reader for good. The web app has also been redesigned to adapt to multiple browsers on different screen sizes without the need for a plugin.

Lytro, makers of the crazy Light Field camera that will let you refocus an image after it’s taken, is bringing its incredible editing powers to the iPhone and iPad.

This afternoon Lytro released a new iOS app that can connect to Lytro camera to import images, edit them, and then share to Twitter or Facebook. Wait, you didn’t know the Lytro had Wifi capabilities? Yep, Lytro kept it a secret from everyone but is now enabling the feature with a firmware update.

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is just a week away and although it’s highly unlikely we’ll see any new iOS devices, we will get our first glimpse at iOS 7.

iOS 7 could be one of the biggest iOS updates to date, with many rumors claiming it will be completely overhauled with a new look and new features as Jony Ive makes his mark as the head of software design. A report that was published earlier this month claims that Apple has had to pull engineers away from OS X 10.9 to help complete it.

Personally, I couldn’t be more excited about iOS 7. I made the switch to Android just before Christmas because I found Jelly Bean on the Nexus 4 to be better than iOS 6 on the iPhone 5 at a lot of things, which I wrote about back in February.

Having used Android for four months, I’ve compiled a list of things iOS 7 should learn from its biggest rival. If Apple adds these things to its own platform — or variations of them that provide the same experience — then I think iOS 7 could be fantastic.

Check out the list below and see if you agree.