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

A Chinese counterfeiter who participated in a scheme to traffic and smuggle counterfeit products mimicking Apple's iPhones and iPads today pled guilty to trafficking and conspiracy charges, according to a press release shared on the website of the U.S. Department of Justice. Jianhua "Jeff" Li, working through a company called Dream Digitals, conspired with several other individuals to smuggle...

Apple employees will be able to purchase one of Apple's new HomePod speakers at a significant discount, with Apple dropping the price by 50 percent for its staff members. Several Apple employees have taken to Twitter to share news of Apple's generosity, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has confirmed the discount. In the United States, the HomePod is priced at $349, so employees will be able to...

Lifeprint, a company known for its iPhone-compatible ZINK photo printer, recently introduced a new, larger photo printer that's able to print images that are 3 by 4.5 inches instead of 2 by 3 inches, the normal standard size for mini printers designed for the iPhone. The new Lifeprint 3x4.5 Hyperphoto Printer for iPhone, priced at $150, is an Apple exclusive that's designed to give customers a ...

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Mous to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win an ultraprotective Limitless iPhone case for the iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, or earlier iPhones. Mous' Limitless cases all feature a shell that's made from a high impact "AiroShock" material, TPU, and Polycarbonate. Mous says the AiroShock lining of its cases contains thousands of micro air...

Apple began selling refurbished second-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro models last month, just a few days after adding refurbished 10.5-inch iPad Pro models. This was brought to our attention today by Reddit user Chaseism, and we decided to share the news since it went unnoticed at the time. Apple has steadily added various Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + Cellular configurations with 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB...

Apple will be launching the newest activity challenge for Apple Watch wearers next week, with a focus on Heart Month. To complete the challenge, you'll need to close your Apple Watch's exercise ring for seven days in a row during one specific week: from February 8 to February 14, which fits with the heart theme and ends on Valentine's Day. Apple hasn't detailed the rewards yet, but they're...

YouTube this morning teased that its YouTube TV Apple TV app was "coming very soon," and "coming very soon" apparently meant this afternoon. The YouTube TV app is now available for download from the App Store on the Apple TV, where it is featured prominently in a banner. YouTube TV's new Apple TV app comes just in time for Super Bowl LII, which is set to take place on Sunday, February 4....

Apple Pay is set to expand to a Brazil later this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed in today's first quarter earnings call. While Apple didn't provide an exact date for the launch of Apple Pay in Brazil, Cook did say it would come soon. We began hearing rumors of an Apple Pay expansion to Brazil two years ago, but in December of last year, iPhone users in Brazil were able to see terms of...

Apple's services category continues to grow rapidly, and in the first fiscal quarter of 2018, Apple services, which includes iTunes, the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Pay, and AppleCare, saw revenue of $8.5 billion, up 18 percent year over year. The App Store saw its best holiday season ever, and Q1 2018 marked the best quarter ever for not only the App Store, but also Apple Music,...

Apple today announced that its active installed base of devices has reached 1.3 billion, a milestone the company hit in January. That includes iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch models in use around the world. The number was shared by Apple CEO Tim Cook in a press release announcing the company's record earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2018. Cook says that Apple...

One of the surprises of this year's Consumer Electronics Show was a smart toothbrush from Colgate, which, as it turns out, was designed to be an Apple Store exclusive. The new $100 Colgate Smart Electronic Toothbrush is both Colgate's first smart iPhone-connected brush and the first personal hygiene product you can get right from an Apple Store. Toothbrushes that connect to your iPhone...

Instagram today announced the launch of a new "Type" mode in stories, a feature that the company was previously testing with a small number of users. Type mode is designed to allow Instagram users to share text-only posts in Instagram Stories, and the feature is similar in design to the Facebook option that lets you accentuate text-only posts with large fonts and colorful backgrounds....

YouTube TV is YouTube's bundled streaming television service, available for customers on the web, iOS, Android, Xbox One, Android TV, and other platforms. An app for Apple TV was initially planned for late 2017, but was delayed to Q1 2018, and now a YouTube representative speaking to CNET has teased the Apple TV app's imminent launch by stating it will be "coming very soon." Apart from Apple...

eBay this week announced major changes coming for both buyers and sellers on its online marketplace, with a plan to phase out its 15-year-long partnership with PayPal and eventually integrate Amsterdam-based payments company Adyen as its "primary partner for payments processing globally" (via Recode). This will eventually affect all eBay customers on every version of the site, including desktop...

India is preparing to raise its customs duty on imported mobile phones -- including Apple's iPhone models besides the iPhone SE -- from a previous standard of 15 percent to 20 percent (via Bloomberg). The latest tax hike for imported iPhones comes under two months after the last one, which saw the taxes on imported mobile phones increase from 10 percent to 15 percent. Like the previous...

Apple has pulled popular encrypted messenger app Telegram from the App Store, following reports of "inappropriate content" hosted on the platform that violated Apple's developer guidelines for iOS apps. Users first noted Telegram's absence late on Wednesday via Reddit, after App Store searches for the app began returning results for Viber, Skype, and Messenger instead. Both the original app...

Award-winning photo editing app infltr received an update on Thursday that adds a number of notable features, including new editing tools and the ability to shoot animated GIFs. The new GIF shooting mode appears beside the regular camera shutter button within the app, and joins infltr's existing support for capturing Live Photos, depth photos, and raw photos. After selecting GIF shooting ...

Uber's latest app update appears to have removed several important iOS integrations, with the service now unavailable to both Siri and Apple Maps. If you ask Siri to get you an Uber, a feature that has been available since the launch of iOS 10, Siri will say that Uber hasn't activated that feature. In the "Siri & Search" section of the Uber options in the Settings app, there's also no longer a ...