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

Apple's watchOS 5 update, out now for all Apple Watch models with the exception of the original Apple Watch, introduces a fun new feature that mimics old school walkie talkies. With Walkie-Talkie, you can connect to your friends and family and have push-to-talk conversations right on your wrist. The video below demonstrates Walkie-Talkie in action, while the post explains the steps to set it...

Apple's HomePod was updated this week to version 12, which debuted alongside iOS 12 for iPhones and iPads. The HomePod update brings about a handful of new abilities for Apple's smart speaker, including support for multiple timers, lyric search, find my iPhone, making and receiving phone calls, and more. Because of all the useful and handy new additions arriving on HomePod this week, we've...

In iOS 11, Apple introduced animated emoji characters called Animoji, which are designed to mimic your facial expressions. As of iOS 12, Animoji have grown to encompass Memoji, which are customizable humanoid Animoji characters that you can design to look just like you. Memoji can do all of the same things that Animoji can, mimicking your facial expressions to allow for cute videos, photos,...

Apple in iOS 12 introduced Screen Time, which is designed to provide you with information on how you're using your time on your iPhone and iPad. With Screen Time, you can see how often you pick up your iOS device, which apps you're using, which apps are sending the most notifications, and other details. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Accessing Screen Time...

Spire, a company that makes small Health Tags that are designed to clip on to your clothing, is now selling its products in Apple retail stores. The Spire Health Tag, available as a single tag for $50, a 3-pack for $129, or an 8-pack for $299, tracks sleep, stress, and activity. It's meant to be an activity tracker that you can forget about, clipping it onto a shirt or pajamas and then not...

If you live in Canada and haven't pre-ordered an iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max yet, you might still be able to score one on launch day. Apple has activated its Reserve and Pickup system in Canada, allowing customers to place an in-store pickup reservation for an iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max at an Apple Store across the country, subject to availability. The page often says Apple is "not taking...

With the release of iOS 12, tvOS 12, and watchOS 5 yesterday, Apple made some quiet changes to its iTunes and App Store privacy policy on iOS devices and the Apple TV. Newly updated language in the iTunes and App Store privacy policy states that Apple is using a new device trust score to help identify and cut down on fraud. Apple says that information about how you use your device,...

Back in March, Mazda became one of the last major car manufacturers to announce launch plans for CarPlay support. Mazda's first announced vehicle with CarPlay is the 2018 Mazda6, with owners of Touring trim and above able to bring their vehicles to a Mazda dealer for a free upgrade starting this month. CarPlay will be available pre-installed in Mazda6 vehicles with Touring trim and above as of...

The iPhone XS and XS Max are Apple's most expensive iPhones yet, with the top-of-the-line iPhone XS Max coming in at a cost of $1,449 for 512GB of storage. If you want to outfit your pricey iPhone with a case that's just as expensive, we've hunted down a list of the most ridiculously priced iPhone XS cases you can get. Gray's Alter Ego line of cases available in Titanium, Stealth, Gold, and ...

If you updated your iPhone to iOS 12 this week and noticed that some Activity Challenge awards are missing, you're not alone. In a new support document, Apple has acknowledged that five limited edition awards may be temporarily unavailable in the Activity app after updating to iOS 12, presumably due to a minor software bug of some kind. They include:Thanksgiving Day Challenge 2016 Mother'...

The watchOS 5 update, introduced yesterday, brought several new watch faces that weren't available during the beta testing period. These faces are designed to work with the Apple Watch Series 4 and were shown off when the device launched, but they are available on existing Apple Watch models as well. There's a new Breathe face that's designed to let you launch into quick relaxation breathing...

Google today updated its popular Google Maps navigation app, introducing support for CarPlay. With iOS 12, third-party mapping apps work with CarPlay for the first time, giving CarPlay users an alternative to the built-in Apple Maps app. Prior to iOS 12, CarPlay users were forced to use the Apple Maps app as other mapping apps were not supported. Google's update release notes:Things we're...

For a special giveaway this week to celebrate the launch of Apple's new iPhones, we've teamed up with iMobie to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a 64GB iPhone XS Max and a copy of the company's AnyTrans software, which is designed to let you manage the content on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. The iPhone XS Max is Apple's latest flagship device, equipped with a 6.5-inch OLED display, ...

Apple this morning seeded the first beta of an upcoming tvOS 12.1 update to developers for testing purposes, just one day after releasing the tvOS 12 update. Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the new tvOS 12.1 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that's installed using Xcode. We're not yet sure what fixes and changes the tvOS 12.1...

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming watchOS 5.1 update to developers, just one day after releasing the new watchOS 5 operating system. 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 -> Software update. To install the update, ...

One year after launching the successful live game show app HQ Trivia, Intermedia Labs is planning a new game called HQ Words. Instead of a basic series of trivia questions and multiple choice answers, HQ Words has a hidden phrase presented in a series of letter blocks that look like the puzzles from "Wheel of Fortune" (via Digiday). Players will be presented with a clue for each puzzle, and...

MacRumors has received confirmation that the names of Apple's latest iPhone models are to be stylized with a capital X, followed by the S or R in Small Caps, which are lowercase characters resembling uppercase letters: iPhone Xs iPhone Xs Max iPhone XʀIf the option to use Small Caps is not available, then both the X and S or R are to be stylized in fully capitalized letters: iPhone XS iPhone ...

Now that we're just three days away from the launch of the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, Apple has given the green light for publications and YouTubers to publish full reviews and unboxing videos of its latest smartphones. In this post, we've rounded up a few unboxing videos that were shared early this morning, most of which focus on the all-new gold color of the iPhone XS and XS Max. If you've ...