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

Singer/songwriter Shawn Mendes has broken the latest Apple Music record, with his self-titled third album becoming the most-streamed pop album of 2018 in under one week (via Billboard). Released on May 25, the new Shawn Mendes album was accompanied by a collection of bonus material on Apple Music, including a Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe, exclusive live concert and Q&A session, playlists, and ...

Amazon today unveiled its latest "Fire" branded product, called the "Fire TV Cube." The company describes the device as a hands-free box that streams 4K Ultra HD video using Alexa voice controls. The set-top box appears to have many features similar (or coming soon) to the Apple TV 4K, with 4K HDR content, smart assistant integration, HDMI CEC, Dolby Atmos support, and more. With far-field...

Following yesterday's announcement from Sonos that AirPlay 2 will be coming to its speakers this July, more details about the company's partnership with IKEA have now emerged, after first being revealed in December. In a press release shared by the Swedish furniture maker, the two companies detail a "long-term partnership" that's beginning with a new range of speakers called "Symfonisk" (via The...

Amazon Prime Video has secured the rights to stream live Premier League football matches for three years from 2019, at no extra cost to Prime members who live in the U.K. The exclusive deal, announced on Thursday, means that from next year Amazon Prime will show every game from the first round of midweek matches in December and all 10 games on Boxing Day, with weekly highlights of all Premier...

Instagram is gearing up to launch a hub for "longer-form video," according to multiple sources speaking with TechCrunch, in an effort to continue its competition with Snapchat and the "Discover" tab, as well as YouTube. The dedicated space will feature scripted shows, music videos, and more, which will all be vertically shot and viewable in full-screen 4K on compatible smartphones. The...

Last month, when we asked MacRumors readers what they hoped to see in iOS 12, one of the most frequent requests was improvements to Siri, specifically Spotify integration. Currently, Siri can open streaming media apps like Spotify, but it can't play songs or video from third-party sources. While Apple has yet to explicitly support the functionality, one of the components in the newly-announced ...

Apple's latest version of watchOS promises to bring rich HTML content to the wrists of Apple Watch users, thanks to new Webkit optimizations that improve apps like Mail and Messages. Apple expanded on the new WebKit features at a WWDC session, in which it explained to developers how they can optimize web content for viewing on Apple Watch screens. Currently in the watchOS Mail app, rich...

Following our Spring Break partnership with Twelve South a few months back, MacRumors is again collaborating with the well-known accessory maker, this time in celebration of developers and Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. The exclusive sale includes 20 percent discounts on Twelve South accessories like the BackPack and Curve, which can be helpful additions to the workflow of developers,...

We're teaming up with Pad & Quill for a series of special WWDC giveaways this week in celebration of the developer-focused event. For those unfamiliar with Pad & Quill, it's a company that makes high-quality hand-crafted leather accessories for iPhones, Macs, iPads, Apple Watches, and more. For our second giveaway this week, we're offering MacRumors readers a chance to win a Heritage...

eBay today launched a sitewide savings coupon for Father's Day that takes 20 percent off "everything" on the online reseller's storefront, with a few exclusions including coins and paper money, gift cards and coupons, and real estate. Outside of these categories, you're free to apply the 20 percent off coupon to any other items today, including Apple products like the HomePod, down to a price of...

Australia is gearing up to release new laws that will force Australian telecommunications companies and global tech companies to comply with law enforcement agencies, when such agencies ask for access to encrypted data on the smartphones of suspected criminals (via ABC News Australia). The laws are the latest in an ongoing global data battle that hit a fever pitch in the United States in early...

In a renewed effort to clamp down on potentially threatening drone use, the United States Department of Homeland Security today will be urging Congress to approve new anti-drone legislation. Specifically, the proposed legislation would give the U.S. federal government new powers "to disable or destroy" any drone perceived to be "threatening" (via Reuters). The DHS deputy general counsel Hayley ...

Testers of the first watchOS 5 beta for Apple Watch are hailing a new option in the software's Settings menu that enables you to manually connect your device to nearby Wi-Fi networks. In previous versions of watchOS, your Apple Watch is locked to the wireless network that your tethered iPhone is using, and there's no way to browse and manually connect to networks from your wrist. But that...

Apple has announced through its regional websites that Apple Watch Series 3 LTE models will be available to pre-order in Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates on Friday, June 8. Brazilian customers hoping to pick up and Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE can expect to pay 3,119 reais (about $826) for the 38mm model and 3449 for the 42mm model. Claro will be the sole network...

Apple's Podcasts service now hosts more than 18.5 million episodes across 555,000 different "active" shows, according to a report from TechCrunch. The podcast stats, which appears to have been sent directly to TechCrunch by Apple, include other data as well. Apple's hosted podcasts come in more than 100 languages, from 155 countries. The podcast total is up from 525,000 back in April, and ...

Apple in 2014 introduced a Live Listen feature that's designed to allow the iPhone to pair with hearing aids and then serve as a remote microphone that beams the audio the iPhone picks up to the hearing aids. As noted by TechCrunch, Live Listen is coming to the AirPods with the iOS 12 update, letting iPhone users position their iPhones as a directional mic and have the audio relayed through...

In celebration of the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference, which is taking place this week, we've teamed up with accessory maker Pad & Quill to offer a series of giveaways. Pad & Quill is a company that makes high-quality hand-crafted leather accessories for iPhones, Macs, iPads, Apple Watches, and more. Our first giveaway includes the Heritage Leather Men's Satchel Bag, the TechFolio...

Apple Maps now supports transit in North Carolina, enabling users to navigate with public transportation in several metropolitan areas across the state. The largest transit options supported include CATS buses and LYNX trains in the Charlotte area, GoTransit buses in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, GTA buses in Greensboro, and inter-city PART buses in the Piedmont Triad area. Apple...