There are a few things I really like about Kubxlab’s AmpJacket. It’s soft and squiggly, so it’s kind of fun to play with even when not on the phone. It’s also very small when you consider what it does – it’ll even slide into a pants pocket. And finally, there;s the fact that it not only amplifies the sound fro the iPhone’s speaker, but protects that iPhone and even raises it out of the way of spills in the kitchen.

Despite launching iAd in 2010, Apple’s foothold in the mobile advertising business hasn’t really taken off yet. Tim Cook even addressed Apple’s advertising strategies during his interview at the All Things D tech conference this week, and stated advertising isn’t core to Apple’s business.

Apple’s enthusiasm for mobile advertising might start picking up soon though if today’s latest rumor turns out to be true. According to Business Insider, Apple is planning to launch an ad exchange, similar to way Facebook and Twitter have recently done.

Want to give your Apple TV more power? Want to open a whole new world of capabilities? Then aTV Flash from FireCore is the solution!

This hugely popular software package gives you a ton of functionality that will make your Apple TV more powerful than you could imagine. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for only $19.99 for a limited time.

Siri knows everything (kind of). She even knows when you’re trying to use the Konami Code to cheat your way towards world domination.

In a newly discovered Siri Easter egg, if you try to give Siri the Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start), she’ll chide you for your cheating ways.

Here are two other responses you can get in the Easter egg: 

Yes, you read that headline correctly. Someone developed an iOS theme that makes your iPhone look like it’s powered by the Apple online store. It’s called “Apple Web OS,” and although you probably wouldn’t want to use it every day, it’s actually rather impressive.

EE has expanded its rapidly-growing 4G LTE network yet again to cover an additional 12 markets across the United Kingdom. This expansion brings the total number of markets up to 74, and EE claims its 4G services now covers more than 50% of the U.K. population.

Android rules the worldwide smartphone market when it comes to market share, and its dominance in China could have a lot to do with that. At the end of the first quarter of 2013, Google’s platform claimed a whopping 51.4% share of all smartphones owned in China.

Southern gentleman and Apple Chief Tim Cook fielded a barrage of questions at this week’s D11, the big tech conference that puts top CEOs on stage for long chats. And on this week’s CultCast, we analyze and scrutinize Mr. Cook’s thoughts and statements on an Apple television, iWatch, wearable tech like Google Glass, and just when we can all expect Apple’s next big thing.

All that and more on this week’s CultCast. Stream or download our new or past shows on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now on iTunes, or hit play below and let the anarchy begin.

We already have a pretty good idea of what the fifth-generation iPad will look like, thanks to the many rumors and leaked parts that we’ve seen in recent months. And the latest, a purported front panel with a new design, reinforces those expectations.

As you open applications on your Mac, you may notice your Dock getting a little crowded. That’s because OS X adds an icon for each running app to your Dock as soon as you launch it, to let you know that it’s actually doing something. It’s one of the many great visual reminders built into the operating system.

Sometimes, though, your Dock might get a little too crowded. For example, I run Google Chrome all the time. If I remove that icon from the Dock, even when the app is running, I get more space for things I may not always need in the Dock.

Interested? Here’s how.

Apple Worldwide Developer Relations has slapped down TransMedia CEO Donald Leka for suggesting no one cares about iOS in a press release for a new iPhone app. “Consumers really don’t care that much what platform they are on,” Leka said — but it turns out Cupertino does not agree.

The developers of the free, open-source Camino browser for Mac OS X have announced that it will no longer be developed after a decade-long run. They are now encouraging existing users to adopt a “more modern browser,” such as Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.

In the U.S, lucky market traders, beggars and panhandlers can stick a sugarcube-sized dongle into their iPhone’s (or iPad’s) headphone jack and start taking credit cards. Over in Europe, we don’t yet have the Square reader, so our street-folk have had to put up with old-fashioned cash. Until now that is. Thanks to a combination of Apple’s liberal policies governing how dirty you have to be before you’re refused entry to a store, and the newly-stocked Payleven chip’n’PIN machines, tramps and bums all over the EU can now take plastic.

If you use Google’s maps app on your iPad, you’ll know that it kinda sucks. Search is great, and the fancy maps look ok, but the UI elements are comically big when blown up to fit the iPad screen, and they cover most of what you really want to see – the maps. And Street View isn’t much better.

Enter Streets 2.0, an update to – you guessed it – Streets, which brings Googles vector map tiles and live traffic as well as big-screen Street View.

Oh man, those guys at Everpix sure know how to have some fun. *Nerd* fun, that is. When they;re not busy making my favorite photo-looking-after-and-looking-at app for the web, Mac and iOS, they’re adding little nuggets of gold like the new Mac Memories app. And no, it has nothing to do with RAM. Unless “you”ewe” take lots of pictures of male sheep — ba-dum-tish!

Remember Merek Davis’ Mextures? They were a bunch of image files for adding textures to your iOS photos using Photoshop Touch or other layering and blending apps. Now Merek, who was so proud of these textures that he named them for himself, has made an app.

Apple has increased the prices for the iPad mini, iPad, and iPod touch in the online Apple Store in Japan.

According to Reuters, the Japanese yen continues to weaken after a devaluation across the past several months, which could be the reason for the price increase.

Apple’s two-step authentication process is designed to make your Apple ID more secure. When attempting to reset a password or make other kinds of account changes, a separate verification code is sent to an iOS device you own. That code is then used to verify that you are who you claim to be before you’re allowed to make any changes.

Many big tech companies have offered two-step authentication for quite some time, and Apple’s process is only a couple months old.

Now that security researchers have had time to dig through Apple’s implementation of two-step, some problems have surfaced. Once the login details for an Apple ID with two-step authentication enabled are compromised, there’s nothing stopping hackers from accessing iCloud data, like device backups.

Adobe has released the Kuler iOS app for creating color themes on the iPhone. Designers can use Kuler to generate color palettes with help from the iPhone’s camera. The app and new Kuler website were both previewed at Adobe MAX earlier this month.

Today Tapbots released a big update for Tweetbot on the Mac. The main addition is the enhanced media view that is already present in the iOS version. When viewing a timeline, tapping ⌘F now allows you to switch between a text and media-only experience. The media view displays a stream of images and videos from tweets in the timeline.

Tweetbot for Mac also supports cover photos for individual profiles, another feature that has been present on mobile for a long time. Viewing the details on a specific tweet will now show how many times it has been favorited and retweeted.

While speaking today at the All Things D conference, Nuance CEO Paul Ricci confirmed that Nuance does indeed help power the voice recognition service for Siri.

Since Siri’s launch in 2011, many people assumed that Apple had formed a partnership with Nuance, but neither company has officially confirmed the relationship.

During the his interview, Ricci was asked whether it’s his company’s fault if the iPhone doesn’t understand a user’s voice. Ricci confirmed that Nuance does power the voice part of Siri, but the company is not involved in speech-recognition efforts with Google.

Evernote is a fantastic notes storage system, synched across iOS, web, and computer platforms so you’re never missing your stuff.

Did you know, however that Evernote allows you to add attachments to your notes, letting you connect images and audio with ease?

It’s super easy, and I’m here to show you how to do so on your iPhone or iPad.

The SETA smartphone stand is another one of those post-Lighting iPhone “docks” which don’t actually let you dock the phone. The 30 pin dock connector was bad in many ways but it did at least give us docks into which we could dump our devices and let them charge.

The SETA pretty much ignores the dock part and just proves a handsome, minimalist spot on your desk to park your phone. And it also provides a neat way to control your charging cable.

Remember that $7 cardboard iPad case I wrote about a few weeks back? I have two here in my apartment, and I have been testing them out for the last week. The review follows, but here’s the short form: They’re surprisingly good; they’re excellent insulators; they’re good for making shopping lists.

Apple has received a lot of heat from the U.S. Senate lately regarding its international tax practices and off-shore cash, and you can now add Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to the list of Apple tax dissenters.

Woz said that he doesn’t think Apple’s tax practices are really fair, and suggested that Apple, and other large firms, be taxed on their income.

In an interview with the BBC, Woz had the following to say regarding Apple’s tax practices: