When the VLC iOS app was pulled from the App Store in 2011, a little part of me died inside. I own a large collection of movies in different file formats, and VLC is my go-to media player for files that aren’t supported by QuickTime and iTunes. While there’s hope that VLC will return to the App Store, I’m not holding my breath. And I don’t really care anymore because I’ve found something better.

For several months I’ve been beta testing an iOS app called Infuse. Support for 14+ file formats, an intuitive interface, and some slick details make Infuse the best third-party media player out there.

Ever tried to record a selfie on Vine? Normally, it’s been a pain in the ass ever since the app came out, because you couldn’t use your iPhone’s front-facing camera, but times are a changin’ as the app is now ready to help you record all your vain selfies from the comfort of your front-facing camera.

The days of awkwardly clutching your iPhone infront of you while pressing the record button on the other side are over. A new version of Vine just hit the App Store and it includes the ability to use the front-facing camera on your iPhone. Oh, and you can finally mention people in posts and comments now too.

The free update for Vine 1.1 is available in the App Store now.

Source: iTunes

I’ve madea a point of trying to read more books this year than ever before. The fact that I can have books on my iPad, e-reader, and even on my phone (along with good old-fashioned paper books), I’ve got more to read now than ever before and that’s a good thing. But with all of that reading material it would sure be nice to up my reading speed.

That’s what this Cult of Mac Deals offer aims to do. In fact, with this Speed Reading Course, Udemy guarantees you will read at least 33% faster – or you have 30 days to get your money back! And you can get this course for only $49 for a limited time!

Jawbone has today launched a new platform for iOS that allows third-party apps to work with your Up wristband. The API is called the Up Platform, and provides access to all of your fitness data, including steps, calories, and distance traveled.

The Up Platform has already been integrated into ten iOS apps, including IFTTT, LoseIt, Maxwell Health, MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, Notch, RunKeeper, Sleepio, Wello, and Withings.

Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has revealed that he recently spent $100 million on Apple shares in anticipation that they will rebound. The 59-year-old believes that Apple is a “very promising” investment, despite the current share price being almost 40% off its peak last September.

Apple and Samsung will again go head to head in court this November after presiding Judge Lucy Koh called for a new trial to recalculate the damages awarded by a jury last August. The move comes after Judge Koh cut $450.5 million from the $1.05 billion originally awarded to Apple due to uncertainty over the jury’s findings.

Smart Playlists are fantastic, and they really do work to help you listen to the kind of music you’re in the mood for, using a variety of user-controlled criteria. You can create a Smart Playlist for any given Artist in your iTunes library fairly easily.

But what if you want a playlist that includes more than one Artist? Well, that’s pretty simple, too.

Popular jailbreak tweak biteSMS just got a new update that introduces a quick compose widget to your iPhone’s Notification Center. The feature promises to be a simple and convenient way to send text messages in a pinch.

Boost Mobile is to begin prepaid iPhone sales during the third quarter of 2013, according to information leaked on Twitter. Boost would become the third prepaid provider to offer Apple’s popular device, following its introduction to Cricket and Virgin Mobile in 2012.

The latest Lensbaby in the lineup is the Edge 80 optic, a plug-in 80mm blur-tastic chunk of glass for your existing Lensbaby body. It offers the same movable sweet-spot of all other Lensbabies, but in a portrait-friendly length.

What if your local coffee shop offered free phone charging along with free Wi-Fi? What do you mean, it already does? Yeah, sure, you can plug your phone in while you sip your delicious cup of pour-over, but you still have to bring your own charger.

ChargeAll’s answer is to sell multi-point charging stations to store owners, and have them provide the service to their customers.

Spotdox is combo Mac app and iOS-accessible web-service which lets you access any file on your computer via Dropbox. That is, you can even get remote access to files which are in, say, your movies folder as long as your Mac is running. How? Magic.

MirrorCase: Handy tool for meetings and lectures, or creepy accessory to help snap pictures of people without them ever knowing (until they find them on some revenge porn site, I guess)? The answer is a resounding “both!” Find out why…

EE has today announced that its 4G network is now available in another 12 towns across the United Kingdom, bringing the total number of 4G connected towns and cities to 62 in just six months following its launch. That’s 50% of the U.K. now covered by 4G, and EE is aiming to increase that to 70% by the end of the year.

This cute little iPhone 5 case comes from Poketo, and not only coddles the iPhone within but also packs slots for your cash and cards. The twist here is that the cards sit safely on the inside instead of in a set of rear-cut slots on the back, and the whole thing snaps shut with a clicky clasp.

WordEver is neat new iPad text editor with a big gimmick: the keyboard. Instead of using Apple’s built-in keyboard,it has a custom version which is both good and bad. Good, because it brings some geniunely useful features to the iPad. Bad, because it can be hard to type and lacks auto-correct, which is why the original version of this first paragraph was so bad.

It’s a bit of a challenge to describe Spreecast in a nutshell — hence the clumsy headline.

Watching the service is sort of like eavesdropping on a videochat between a small group of people; only you can also interact with other viewers, and the videochatters (I hereby coin this word) themselves, through live (text) comments. Spreecast has been used by a bunch of big organizations and famous people — a few standout examples include Reese Witherspoon, The Wall Street Journal, VH1 — to broadcast conversations and interviews. Of course, peons like me (or you) can also use Spreecast to broadcast our own chatter.

Spreecast is old news, since it’s been around since late 2011; but now it’s available as an iPhone app.

Previously teased as an untitled Mystery Game, Anomaly 2 is releasing in just a couple of weeks. Coming May 15th for Mac (and PC, Linux), this real time strategy/tower offense game is the sequel to the 11 Bit Studios’ previous efforts, Anomaly: Warzone Earth and Anomaly Korea, both originally made for iOS.

If you pre-order now, you’ll get two copies of the game, one for you and one for a friend, for $13.49, which is 10 percent off the final retail price of $14.99. You can grab this special deal at Steam or the official Anomaly 2 game site. However, before you head off to Steam, the devs promise an extra gift come launch day if you order directly from them. So, there’s that.

Consumer Reports, the popular magazine and website for figuring out what consumers think about all sorts of products and services, just published its annual reader survey on computer tech support.

Apple not only claimed the top spot in the list this year, beating out all other computer manufacturers, it got an even better score than it did in last year’s survey.

JailbreakCon, the only convention dedicated solely to the iOS jailbreak community, took place last summer in San Francisco, California. We brought you on-the-ground reporting from the convention floor, including profiles of people like pod2g, the luckiest jailbreak hacker in the world.

Now JailbreakCon is coming to New York City on August 23rd-24th.

Last week, Apple announced its plans to return $100 billion in stock to investors over the next few years. The increase more than doubled Apple’s original capital return program of $45 billion. Quarterly dividend payments also increased 15%, or $3.05 per common share.

Apple may have a huge cash pile, but even the world’s most valuable company will have to go into debt to finance a return program of this size. It’s the first time Apple has borrowed since 1996.

Donald Trump thinks Apple should increase the iPhone’s screen size… or else. The real estate tycoon talked about how much he wants a larger iPhone on his Facebook page today. If Apple doesn’t wise up and release a phablet, The Trump says the company will “lose a lot of business.”

As the CEO of Square, and co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey has quickly become one of Silicon Valley’s most admired CEOs. His Square payment system is quickly changing the way consumers buy things, and it’s making businesses and consumers interact on a more personal level.

Square’s goal is to make payments quicker and easier for both business and consumers, so the company has an intense interest in wearable tech. When asked in a recent interview whether he thinks Google Glass is an interesting product, Dorsey answered that he doesn’t see much value in Google Glass right now, but he’s intrigued by devices that wrap around the wrist – like Apple’s rumored iWatch – because they feel more natural.

When asked whether he’s looked into Google Glass, Dorsey had the following to say:

Working at the Apple Store has its benefits. You get sweet discounts on Macs and iPhones. You get to talk about Apple products all day. And you get an endless supply of cool Apple t-shirts.

A Genius Bar employee posted the photo above of all the t-shirt’s he’s received while working for the Apple Store at the Westchester Mall in New York. There’s 45 t-shirts total, though Apple’s had many more that aren’t pictured. Which one has been your favorite?

Click here for a higher res picture.

Source: Reddit

With all the sites we visit on a daily basis on our iPhones and iPads, we are capturing and storing where we visit in the background of every web page we see. You may want to clear your browsing history or other stored web data from your iPhone from time to time, if you’re of a security or privacy turn of mind.

iOS makes it fairly simple to do so; here’s how.