MacRumors iPhone and iPad Blog: Apps, News, and Rumors

Spotify is beginning to test new podcast features for a select group of users, beginning with a playlist that suggests podcast episodes for you to listen to, interspersed with songs. The playlist is aimed at users who commute frequently in their vehicles and is called "Your Daily Drive" (via The Verge). The podcasts seen in the playlist mainly center around news shows. Spotify has been...

Niantic, known for Pokémon Go, has been working with WB Games on a new augmented reality project set in the Harry Potter universe, called Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Today, Niantic officially made an open beta of the game available in Australia and New Zealand for both iOS and Android users. In the game, players become recruits of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force and must investigate and...

One of the main features of Apple's HomePod is its "Hey Siri" function, which allows you to invoke Apple's voice-activated assistant handsfree and get it to answer queries and control functions related to other devices and services. If you don't find ‌Siri‌ particularly useful on ‌HomePod‌ or you just don't like the idea of your speaker constantly listening for the words "Hey ‌Siri‌," you...

Trading in an old iPhone, iPad, or Mac can get you some extra cash to spend on a new device. Depending on where you decide to sell your device, you can get cash back or a gift card for a specific company like Apple, Amazon, or Best Buy. What's most important to know when trading in a device is that there's no one best site or service. There are so many options out there and prices vary based...

Anker in late April announced the launch of its latest power adapter for charging Apple devices, the PowerPort Atom PD 2. Anker's newest PowerPort offers two USB-C charging ports and up to 60W of power in an enclosure that's smaller than standard stock laptop chargers. The PowerPort Atom PD 2 uses Gallium nitride or GaN, a new material that allows semiconductor components to be shrunk down,...

Google today announced a new privacy-focused auto-delete option for automatically removing Location History and Web & App Activity after a set period of time. You can now choose to delete your information manually, every three months, or every 18 months. With these settings enabled, Google will regularly clear out your data at the three month mark or the 18 month mark. Prior to this...

Netflix today announced a new feature for its streaming TV and movie service, high-quality audio, which Netflix says takes its sound quality "to another level." High-quality audio is designed to provide audio that more closely matches with what creators hear in the studio, resulting in a "richer, more intense experience." Netflix's audio bitrate now goes up to 640 kb/s on devices...

Siri is the voice assistant on Apple devices, equivalent to Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana, and Google's Google Assistant. Siri is available across most of Apple's devices, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod. You can ask Siri all kinds of questions, from simple queries about the weather to more complex questions about everything from sports scores to the...

Verizon today announced a revamped version of its Verizon Up loyalty program with new and more frequent rewards for customers. Verizon customers will now receive a reward credit every month after paying their bill, instead of after every $300 spent, which they can use towards things like a future smartphone purchase, Starbucks coffee, Uber rides, and "Super Tickets" for exclusive experiences ...

MacRumors has partnered with Elevation Lab to offer our readers an exclusive discount on the company's MFi certified ElevationDock 4 for iPhone. We've listed all the details you need to know about this sale below, along with notable discounts on the 2019 AirPods and some new offers from Sprint. ElevationDock 4 Exclusive Sale You can shop for the ElevationDock4 on Amazon in either White or...

Moment, the company behind the popular Moment lenses, today updated its Moment Pro Camera app for iOS devices, adding new features and a new pricing structure. For those unfamiliar with Moment Pro Camera, it's an iOS app that was designed to work with the Moment line of lenses, but those lenses are not required to access the features. The app also works on a standalone basis, offering up full...

Facebook's developer conference, F8, took place today, and Facebook announced a number of changes coming to the social network in the future. Facebook is set to gain a refreshed design, that's meant to be "simpler, faster, and more immersive," situating Facebook Groups more prominently. The new design will "make it easy" for people to transition from public spaces to more private ones....

When we share videos and images here at MacRumors, we often get a lot of questions about where our wallpapers are from, so we thought we'd offer a look at some of our favorite wallpaper app options so you can find new backgrounds for your iPhone, iPad, and even your Mac. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Walli (Free) - Walli is a free wallpaper app that lets...

Apple CEO Tim Cook today shared some details on upcoming Apple Pay providers during Apple's earnings call covering the second fiscal quarter of 2019. Ticketmaster is set to begin accepting ‌Apple Pay‌ for ticket purchases on the web in the near future, and more than 50 entertainment and sporting event venues are launching contactless tickets this year, including most NFL stadiums. New...

Apple CFO Luca Maestri today said that Apple's Wearables, Home, and Accessories category, which includes devices like the AirPods and the Apple Watch, set a new March quarter revenue record of $5.1 billion. According to Maestri, AirPods demands continues to be "off the charts," and Apple is "working hard to catch up with the incredible customer demand" for the earbuds. Earlier in the call,...

During today's earnings call for the second fiscal quarter of 2019 (first calendar quarter), Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple's iPhone trade-in efforts have been highly successful. According to Cook, Apple saw an all-time record response to the company's trade-in promotions, and Apple saw more than four times the number of trade-ins from the year-ago quarter. When asked which devices...

Amid declining iPhone sales, Apple today said in its Q2 2019 earnings report that the iPad saw its strongest growth in six years. Apple's ‌iPad‌ sales hit $4.9 billion in Q2 2019, up from $4 billion in the year-ago quarter, marking a 22 percent increase in revenue. Apple in October 2018 introduced all new iPad Pro models that eschew the Touch ID Home button in favor of a Face ID...

Apple's services category, which includes iTunes, the App Store, the Mac App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and AppleCare, has become an increasingly important revenue driver for Apple amid stagnating iPhone sales, and Apple has been focusing more than ever on its services category. During the second fiscal quarter of 2019, Apple's services segment brought in $11.5 billion in revenue, up from...