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

Apple Pay adoption received a big boost in France today as two major banks officially announced their support for Apple's mobile payment system. HSBC officially launched a dedicated support page for ‌Apple Pay‌, confirming an earlier discovery by French tech news site iphon.fr. Meanwhile, BNP Paribas made good on an announcement last month to bring ‌Apple Pay‌ support to its customers by ...

The Austrian firm that supplies Apple with optical sensors for 3D facial recognition features in iPhones expects revenue to fall in the first quarter of 2019 (via Reuters). Sensor specialist AMS said its adjusted operating profit fell more than half in the fourth quarter of 2018 and it would not pay out a dividend because of slow demand from a "major customer" and restructuring costs. AMS ...

Google today updated its Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Sheets apps for iOS devices, introducing support for the new 11 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models. The update brings an optimized form factor that no longer features distracting black bars at the top and bottom of the display in portrait mode or at the sides in landscape mode. Following the update, the Gmail app takes up the entirety of the iP...

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming watchOS 5.2 update to developers, almost two weeks after seeding the first watchOS 5.2 beta and two weeks after releasing watchOS 5.1.3. Once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Apple Developer Center, the new watchOS beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General -->...

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 12.2 update to developers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the first beta and a little over a week after releasing the tvOS 12.1.2 update. Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the new tvOS 12.2 developer beta can be downloaded onto the ‌Apple TV‌ via a profile that's installed using Xcode. Once the...

The second iOS 12.2 beta introduces a significant change to the Lock screen, updating it to display battery percent rather than the date in most situations. It's not clear if this is the intended behavior, but after updating to iOS 12.2, battery percent is displayed under the time in the place of where the date used to be. Lock screen in iOS 12.2 on left, lock screen on iOS 12.1.3 on right ...

B&H Photo has kicked off the week with a new sale on Apple Watch Series 3 and Series 4, discounting select new Series 3 models by as much as $380. Both Aluminum and Stainless Steel models are available in the sale, and some of the Apple Watches even come with a free third-party band or screen protector. The biggest discounts in the sale are for Stainless Steel models, like the 42mm GPS +...

Microsoft is working on a new software development kit that will allow your Xbox Live data to sync "to almost every screen" that you own, including iOS devices, Android smartphones, and Nintendo Switch, in addition to existing support on Xbox consoles and Windows PC. The SDK will bring your Xbox achievements, friends list, clubs, and more to supported iPhone and iPad games in the future (via Windo...

PayPal on eBay today debuted the latest App Store and iTunes gift card sale, marking down the $100 iTunes gift card to just $85 for a limited time. As usual, you'll need a PayPal account to gain access to the sale, and the gift card will be valid only on purchases made in the United States. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with eBay. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may...

WhatsApp has enabled a new Face ID authentication option for iPhones that support the feature, in the latest update to the messenger app (via WABetaInfo). The Facebook-owned platform has been testing the feature for iPhone X and newer devices in its TestFlight beta releases for some weeks now, but version 2.19.20 of WhatsApp, now on the App Store, makes ‌Face ID‌ available for all users with...

Amazon appears to have recently added its popular "X-Ray" feature to the Amazon Prime Video app on the Apple TV. X-Ray lets Amazon Prime Video users get more information about the TV shows and movies they're offering, with the feature providing cast and character information, trivia, bonus content, photo galleries, and more. On ‌Apple TV‌, the X-Ray feature can be used by tapping on the...

With a new material called Gallium nitride (GaN), semiconductor components have been able to be shrunk down, leading to smaller than ever charging accessories. Several accessory makers have been taking advantage of GaN technology for new products, including Anker. Anker recently debuted the PowerPort Atom PD 1, a 30W USB-C charger that's much smaller than the USB-C power adapters offered by...

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with PhoneSoap to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a PhoneSoap 3 Smartphone UV Sanitizer. As the name suggests, the PhoneSoap is designed to eliminate all of the nasty germs on your iPhone using a UV light. Most of us take our phones everywhere, including places rich with bacteria and other little microbes. PhoneSoap says that its UV...

Incipio today kicked off a new sale on its charging products, allowing customers the chance to save 30 percent on all of the "power" products found on Incipio.com. This includes Qi wireless charging mats, iPhone battery cases, cables, car chargers, battery packs, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Incipio. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small...

Apple today issued an apology for its major FaceTime security bug that allowed for eavesdropping on calls. "We have fixed the Group FaceTime security bug on Apple's servers and we will issue a software update to re-enable the feature for users next week," said Apple in a statement issued to MacRumors and other media outlets. For absolute clarity, we've since confirmed that this means...

We're seeing an increasing number of reports across Reddit and Twitter from iOS 11 users who have been unable to access Apple services such as the App Store, Apple Music, and iTunes since as early as Thursday morning. Apple's system status page does not yet reflect any issues with any of its services beyond Group FaceTime being temporarily unavailable. The underlying cause is unclear....

Nintendo today announced that its next iOS and Android release will be Dr. Mario World, an action puzzle game set to be released later in 2019. Nintendo will be partnering with messaging app LINE to develop the new title. Little detail is available on the new game at this time, but Dr. Mario was a 1990 puzzle game that tasked players with rearranging different colored pills as they fall to...

Shortly after the 11 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models were released, some MacRumors readers began complaining of noticeable bends in their tablets, with some of the bends appearing to be worse than others. The issue received little attention until The Verge published an article on the ‌iPad Pro‌ with word from an Apple spokesperson suggesting that the bending was a side effect of the...