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Twitter teases upcoming Vine features ahead of Instagram Video launch

Coincidentally or not, Twitter has just teased the upcoming Vine features just as the blogosphere lit up with a confirmation that Facebook will be releasing an Instagram video product on Thursday.

According to Twitter, they will be introducing "some exciting new parts of Vine” over the next few weeks. The rather cryptic and unusual announcement was accompanied by a rather clever Twitter-made video posted to - you guessed right - Vine...

AllThingsD confirms Facebook will unveil Instagram video sharing on Thursday

Last week, Facebook started sending out mysterious invitations to press members via snail mail for a June 20th event. At the time, no one knew what it was planning to unveil at the presser, since it's already taken the wraps off its Home project.

Today, though, it looks like we finally have our answer. According to a new report from AllThingsD, the rumors are true—Instagram has been working on a new video sharing service. And Facebook is going to show it off during Thursday's event...

Vine updated with new share button and other UI improvements

I haven't quite figured out what to do with Vine yet, Twitter's video social network, but others don't seem to be having that problem. The app is consistently listed among the top 5 iPhone apps in the App Store, and I see shared Vine videos on Facebook daily.

And if you happen to be a Vine user, you'll be happy to hear that the app received a nice little update today. The new version, marked as version 1.1.3, includes a new share button to make reposting videos to other networks easier, and other UI improvements...

How to hide the stock Mail app’s VIP folder

The stock Mail app features a VIP folder that lets you to designate specific contacts as VIPs. This allows you to separate important email from all of the rest. But not everyone uses the VIP feature, and there's no way to disable the feature within the Mail app's settings. That's where NoVIP steps in to save the day. It's a free jailbreak tweak that allows you to outright hide the Mail App's VIP folder. Check inside for a video demonstration of.

‘The Quick Brown Fox’ brings new customization options to the stock iOS keyboard

The Quick Brown Fox — it sounds like a weird name for a jailbreak tweak, but you'll quickly realize that it makes sense due to the fact that it adds some cool new features to the iOS keyboard. The Quick Brown Fox adds new features to your keyboard like Auto Twins, which automatically inserts a closing pair of parentheses or brackets when you typing the opening symbols. There's also Auto Space, which automatically places a space behind any configured symbol key.

Lastly, and perhaps most significant, you have Jumping Keys. Jumping Keys allows you to configure certain symbols to automatically jump you back to the alpha keyboard once typed. It works exactly like the apostrophe key works on a stock keyboard, but this allows you to configure apostrophe-like action to virtually any symbol key.

The Quick Brown Fox may sound a bit confusing, but that's what video walkthroughs were made for. Check inside, as we go hands-on The Quick Brown Fox, and showcase how it all works.

‘Activator’ gains collapsible menus, multiple actions

Activator beta updates are becoming like a weekly ritual around here, and we love it. The latest update, Activator 1.7.5 beta 9, was released just three days after the previous beta release. Beta 9 adds four new bullet points to the fray, and two of them are readily noticeable.

This latest version of Activator includes the ability to collapse certain groups that contain a lot of action entries. This will make it significantly less cumbersome to navigate through all of the provided actions. The second, and arguably one of the biggest features to hit Activator in quite some time, is the ability to assign multiple actions to an event. Yes, this means that you can stack multiple actions, as long as they are compatible with one another, and execute them using a single gesture or trigger.

Want to have a look at how this all works? I've demoed it on video inside...

Facebook rumored to step on Vine’s turf with Instagram Video

Facebook last week sent out invitations for its June 20 press event snail mail style, down to clean white envelopes. The graphics alludes the social networking giant has been working on "big ideas" and today TechCrunch chimes in to claim knowledge of the event's agenda.

What Facebook apparently has in store is a video sharing feature for the Instagram generation. Rather boldly proclaiming that "Instagram will get video on June 20", the story cites sketchy sources as asserting that the Instagram video service is much like Twitter's Vine, which focuses on short six-second videos...

Skype rolls out Video Messaging

Microsoft-owned Skype started testing out Video Messages in mid-February. The new feature is meant to let Skype users send short video snippets to each other up to three minutes long, even when offline. Now out of beta, Skype Video Messaging is available to everyone via a free update to Skype mobile and desktop apps across Windows, Mac, iOS, BlackBerry and Android platforms. Here's a closer look at Skype Video Messaging and how to use this new capability on your devices...

How to add iOS 7 Control Center inspired toggles to iOS 6

iOS 7 Control Toggle Icons is a new jailbreak theme that brings iOS 7 inspired toggles to lesser firmware. The toggles, based on those that appear in iOS 7's new Control Center, help bring the look and feel of iOS 7 to jailbroken iPhones.

Designed by renowned designer, Surenix, the toggle theme integrates with NCSettings, and requires WinterBoard. It's also been recommended that you add a blur effect tweak to the Notification Center window, further emulating the signature style of iOS 7.

I've installed iOS 7 Control Toggle Icons on my iPhone, and I'd like to show you how it all comes together. Check out our hands on video walkthrough after the break...

‘No More Shadows’ hides the shadow that appears when launching apps

Every time I'm convinced that there's absolutely nothing new under the sun when it comes to jailbreak development, someone comes with some far out idea that I've never seen before. Case in point? No More Shadows.

This is a jailbreak tweak that hides the shadow that appears on an app icon when tapping the app on the Home screen. Take a look at our video walkthrough inside for a before and after comparison showcasing how No More Shadows works.

‘Smudge’ adds a Gaussian blur to the area above the app switcher

Some jailbreak tweaks offer awesome new functionality, and some mainly exist for pure aesthetic reasons. Smudge is a jailbreak tweak that falls firmly into the latter category. Smudge allows you to add a simple Gaussian blur to the area above your app switcher when it's invoked. Take a look at our video walkthrough inside for more details on how it works.

Microsoft releases Office 365 for iPhone

After months of speculation and years of waiting, Windows maker Microsoft has finally relented and released the official Office suite on iOS. But don't get your hopes up too high, it isn't what you've been looking for.

As the lengthy name suggests, 'Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers' (seriously, Microsoft?) requires an Office 365 subscription, is iPhone-only and is more of an Office companion than a full-blown productivity application.

You can edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on the go, though we're talking limited editing capability here. Go past the fold for the full info...