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

In celebration of Valentine's Day today, February 14, numerous companies have launched sales for a variety of products, ranging from iPhone and MacBook accessories to Bluetooth speakers and more. Below we've rounded up a few of the sales going on today, most of which will be ending by midnight tonight or early tomorrow. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When...

HomePod acoustic tests performed by Fast Company and published Tuesday appear to support Apple's claim that algorithms built into the smart speaker make it capable of distributing sound evenly throughout a room. According to Apple's marketing material, music played on HomePod is evenly distributed so that it sounds similar regardless of where the listener is standing or sitting in the room....

Apple's mobile news platform has been accused of "living in the past" by the co-founder and head of rival news curation service Flipboard. The comments were made at Tuesday's Code Media event in California, where Flipboard CEO Mike McCue participated in an onstage Q&A regarding the future of content curation in the digital mobile space. Now in its eighth year, the Flipboard iOS app organizes...

Facebook has started promoting the Onavo VPN client it acquired back in 2013 directly within the Facebook app for iOS devices. A link to the Onavo VPN client is available in the Facebook app in the United States under a new "Protect" section of the Facebook navigation menu. To get to it, tap on the hamburger menu in the right hand side of the app, and then scroll down. "Protect" features a...

Facebook in October introduced a new feature designed to let publishers sell subscriptions to their news sites directly on Facebook, but the social network could not work out a deal with Apple, preventing the news subscription options from being available on Facebook for iOS. At issue was Apple's demand for its standard 30 percent cut of any subscription revenue brought in through the Facebook ...

Apple is expanding discounted student memberships for Apple Music to 82 additional markets, making half price subscriptions available in nearly all regions where the Apple Music streaming service is available. According to iMore's Rene Ritchie, student discounts are available in 79 new regions as of today, with an additional three to be added on February 26. New countries where Apple Music...

Instagram is testing a new feature that will send an alert whenever you take a screenshot of a story, effectively putting an end to the practice of covertly taking screenshots of the temporary story posts on the social network. News of the new feature was shared on Twitter by a user who posted an image of a screenshot warning message. Instagram plans to offer a one-time warning letting...

Apple today shared three new iPhone tutorial videos on its YouTube channel, providing quick walkthroughs on shooting a Portrait mode selfie, editing a Portrait selfie, and creating a Live Photo that uses the "bounce" effect. The first two videos pertain to the iPhone X, which is the only iPhone that supports Portrait mode selfies thanks to the front-facing TrueDepth camera, while the Live...

Apple recently updated its Maps app to add transit directions and data for Tucson, Arizona. Transit directions have been available in Phoenix, Arizona since October of 2017, but transit information for Tucson appears to be new. Apple Maps users in Tucson can now select public transportation routes when getting directions between two locations, with SunTran bus lines available as a transit...

If you're having trouble with HomePod and need to return it to its factory settings, there are two simple methods for resetting the device and erasing all of your content. You can either use the Home app on the iPhone, or manually reset the HomePod on the device itself. Here's how: Resetting HomePod with iPhone Open up the Home app. 3D Touch or long press on the HomePod icon. Ch...

Siri on HomePod lets you listen to any show found in Apple's Podcasts catalog with a few voice controls that are similar to those for Apple Music playback. In this guide, we've listed some of the most useful ‌Siri‌ controls for Podcasts, along with basic commands that will help you do things like pause and rewind parts of a Podcast you might have missed, subscribe to a podcast, change the volume, ...

iOS game developer Snowman today announced that "Alto's Odyssey" will launch on the iOS and tvOS App Stores on Thursday, February 22. With the confirmation of a release date, Apple today shared a new card on the iOS App Store noting the launch, along with snippets of an interview with the game's developers (via TouchArcade). The game was originally set to debut in the summer of 2017 but got delaye...

Update: EMagin's Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Lucas told Bloomberg that Apple has not invested in the company, despite the document filed with the Securities and Exchange commission. Emagin listed the companies in the document because it "has had discussions with them at industry events." Lucas says Apple did not actually invest in the company and the filing was misinterpreted. Apple has ...

Google's upcoming software update for its Android smartphone operating system will "embrace" an iPhone X notch-like design, according to people familiar with the company's plans speaking to Bloomberg. With the software, referred to as Android P, Google is readying a "new generation" of Android smartphones that will be "mimicking" the iPhone X's front-facing camera cutout design. Just like...

One of the main uses for Siri on HomePod is to control your Apple Music collection. There are ‌Siri‌ voice commands for accessing content like playlists, genres, moods, liking or disliking songs, playing more music based on something you've heard, starting a new radio station, and much more. Because the list of ‌Siri‌ commands is so extensive, this guide won't be covering every possible...

Apple's new $349 HomePod sounds incredible and is the ultimate speaker for Apple Music subscribers, but it's also an excellent way to manage your HomeKit-compatible devices through Siri voice commands. Controlling HomeKit accessories with Siri on HomePod isn't radically different from controlling them via an iOS device, but there are some extra HomePod benefits to be aware of. Subscribe to ...

HomePod has built-in Siri functionality, which means it can be used to do a lot of the same things that can be done with an iPhone or an iPod, like setting an alarm or a timer. If your HomePod is in the kitchen, setting a timer while cooking can be useful, and it's as simple as using a single Siri command. All you need to say is "Hey Siri, set a timer for [x amount of time]." You can...

There are many commands that Siri can understand on the HomePod that make it super simple to take quick notes and set up reminders for later, which all sync to any iOS device connected to the smart speaker. As long as you allowed the ‌HomePod‌ access to Contacts, Messages, Reminders, and Notes in the initial pairing process, you'll be able to ask ‌Siri‌ to do the commands in this guide. First, ...