2013 iPhone Photography Awards: you won’t believe your eyes

iPhone photography fans who haven't heard about the iPhone Photography Awards yet should definitely familiarize themselves with the competition.

Trust me, the quality of the images photography buffs are taking on their iPhones will leave you breathless. It's also a nice reality check for those who happen to hold their own photography skills in high esteem.

The creativity oozing from some of these shots can't be overstated, especially given the rules prevent photo manipulation other than the capabilities provided by the photographer's camera app of choice...

How to get iOS 7 styled parallax wallpaper on your iPhone

We've got an extremely cool new Lock screen theme to show you guys and it's called iOS 7 Accelerometer Slideshow Lockscreens. This is a new WinterBoard theme that recently appeared on Cydia, and it completely transforms the iOS Lock screen.

The download includes 5 different theme packs that work well with both 4" iOS devices, and smaller 3.5" devices. Each theme pack features well over a dozen different wallpapers that all move around as you move your device.

Like the Parallax effect found in iOS 7, these new themes allow you to harness the device's built-in accelerometer for a similar stylized effect. It's something that really needs to be seen to full appreciate.

Have a look inside as we showcase iOS 7 Accelerometer Slideshow Lockscreens on video.

Brazil sues Samsung over alleged factory labor problems

Samsung is reportedly facing a $108 million lawsuit from Brazil, which is claiming "serious" labor violations at the smartphone maker's Manaus factory. At least 2,000 workers suffered injuries after being forced to work 15-hour days and not getting enough break time, a Brazilian labor organization claims Wednesday.

The website of the group Reporter Brasil cites Brazil prosecutors and the government's labor ministry. In 2011, the South Korean smartphone maker paid $200,000 to settled similar charges over working conditions made by the government...

Gartner makes it official: smartphones are outselling dumb phones

Smartphones - once the preserve for geeky first adopters - are now the norm. You notice the change on the street, on television and now with such traditional research firms as Gartner. Sales of smartphones in the second quarter reached 51.8 percent, compared to an astounding 21 percent decline in feature phones, or dumb phones as they're also called, according to the researcher. At the same time, the Asia/Pacific region marked the highest smartphone growth, reaching to 74 percent...

Infographic: the iPhone supply and manufacturing chain

Because of its size, popularity and visibility, Apple is being increasingly scrutinized for outsourcing gadget assembly to Asian contract manufacturers.

Although Tim Cook has pledged to bring some of the manufacturing jobs back to the United States with the new 'Made In USA' Mac Pro, critics still slam the company for sourcing product components from Taiwanese vendors. Per usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

For example, while iPhone screens are made by Asian vendors, its cover glass is being manufactured in the US by Gorilla Glass in Kentucky. As for the chips, the engine that drives the iPhone is Apple's in-house design, fabbed by Samsung in Austin, Texas.

I stumbled upon a very nice infographic that details the source of the many iPhone components, including the speakers, vibration motor, rear earth metals and more, jump past the fold to have a look...

Another supposed iPhone 5S rear shell shows modified Home button design

Another day, another iPhone "leak". With less than four weeks until Apple's September 10 event, a growing number of purported parts can be seen cropping up all over Asia.

The latest is this genuine looking backplate that shows enough tweaks and modifications not to be easily dismisses as an early iPhone 5 prototype design.

The most interesting bit about it is a slight change in the Home button assembly. It could be just Apple improving reliability of the Home button, but with all the rumors pointing to the fingerprint sensor integrated into the Home button, one never knows...

Loop – Social Polling: decision-making now is someone else’s job

O.K., so you are sitting around, thinking about what you want to eat for dinner, but you can’t decide. Should you go out to sushi? Maybe it would be easier to have a pizza delivered. Maybe you should finally start that diet and have a nice piece of chicken. Some decisions are too hard to make.

Loop – Social Polling makes it easy for you to ask others what they think you should do. If you need some advice about whether to cut your hair, make a Loop to see what your friends think…

Send physical handwritten notes with Felt Cards

The more advanced technology gets, the more impersonal our communications get. Kids 12 and under won’t even know what it is like to have to call a friend in order to stay in touch, let alone write a handwritten letter. Birthday cards are becoming old-fashioned in a world where a simple Facebook post is a sufficient birthday greeting.

Felt Cards is an iPad app that transforms digital technology into analog communication. Greeting cards, sent through postal mail, offer a much more personal message than a quick how-do-you-do online…

The eleMount is a premium surface mount for your iPhone and iPad

I don't currently use an in-vehicle mount for my iPhone. I've tried a few before, but each time I was more than disappointed with their build quality. But if I was going to try one again, I'd probably look for something like the eleMount.

The eleMount is a CNC machined all-aluminum mount for smartphones and tablets that looks like it was crafted by Apple itself. The best part, though, is that it doesn't use suction cups or clamps for mounting; it uses polyurethane pads...

Hands-on clip of alleged yellow iPhone 5C shell

At this point, we've seen so many photos of purported budget iPhone shells that it's hard to imagine Apple not launching the handset this fall. But just in case you are still skeptical, we're adding more evidence to the pile this morning.

A new hi-res hands-on video of a yellow iPhone shell, believed to belong to Apple's low-end handset, hit the web late last night. And it gives us an extremely close up view of both the outside, and inside of the so-called iPhone 5C's casing...

Preview: Reminisce

Reminisce is an awesome upcoming recent app launcher. It makes launching recently used apps an extremely quick exercise in finger dexterity.

I've seen a lot of jailbreak tweaks over the years, and many of them make the iPhone a more efficient device to use. With that said, you'd be hard pressed to find another tweak that makes launching recent apps as efficient as Reminisce, and that's just with the preview version.

Interested? We've got the goods. Have a look at our hands-on video inside.

Apple acquires video discovery startup Matcha

Apple has acquired second screen startup Matcha, according to a new report. The company helped users find interesting movies and TV shows online based on their own preferences, as well as those of their friends on various social networks.

The company mysteriously disappeared back in May of this year, leaving nothing but a brief note on its website saying that the service would no longer be available and that all user data had been deleted. And now we know what happened to it...