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

Apple last week shared a new video that showcases selfies taken with Portrait Lighting effects on the iPhone X, kickstarting the company's new "Selfies on iPhone X" ad campaign across different forms of media. Next up in the campaign is a video promoting the annual Carnival of Brazil, a weeklong celebration of music, dance, food, and drink, with particularly large festivals in cities like...

Facebook this week has detailed how it plans to give its users "more control" of their privacy on the mobile and desktop versions of the social network. One of the major new additions is described as a "privacy center" that will provide simple tools to manage privacy and combine all core privacy settings into one easy-to-find interface. In order to explain how to use these features to its...

A new card on the iOS App Store today confirms that Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition will launch on compatible iOS devices on February 9, a few months after being announced last September. Players interested in the game can use the App Store's new pre-order ability and tap "Get," and when the game releases it will download onto their device and notify them that the game is available. Final...

The Copyright Royalty Board this past weekend ruled on a long-running music streaming royalty case in the U.S., favoring songwriters and music publishers in a decision that increases the royalties paid out by streaming music services by more than 40 percent (via The Wall Street Journal). Now Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music Unlimited, Pandora, and other streaming music services will be...

The United States federal government is said to be looking to build a centralized 5G wireless network across the country within three years, according to a sensitive PowerPoint presentation and a memo obtained by Axios. The documents said that the Trump administration is considering a federal "takeover" of a portion of the country's mobile network to "guard against China" and hopes to...

Immersion, a company that develops and licenses haptic feedback technologies, today announced it has reached a settlement and licensing agreement with Apple. The terms of the deal are confidential. Immersion describes itself as the leading innovator of haptic feedback systems, with more than 2,600 issued or pending patents. The company, headquartered in San Jose, California, says its...

The latest update to WhatsApp Messenger has added support for Apple's CarPlay in-vehicle connectivity system, according to Dutch tech blog iCulture. Previously in-car WhatsApp access was only possible using the app's Siri integration, but the advantage of the new official CarPlay support is that users can also receive WhatsApp push messages while driving. With version 2.18.2 of the app...

Apple was the largest buyer of semiconductor chips after Samsung in the whole of last year, according to new data collected by Gartner. The two companies together consumed $81.8 billion of the chips in 2017, up from more than $20 billion in 2016, and combined they represented 19.5 percent of the total worldwide market (via DigiTimes). "Samsung Electronics and Apple not only retained their...

HQ Trivia on Friday announced that it has dropped its $20 minimum balance requirement for players to cash out their winnings via PayPal. The change is welcomed since HQ's standard prize amount, now up to $2,500, is often split by tens if not hundreds of players, in which cases each winner ends up with a small prize like $10 or $12 that was previously not cashable. Now, anyone can cash out a...

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Anki to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win the Anki OVERDRIVE: Fast & Furious Edition iPhone-compatible racing game. Anki OVERDRIVE is an intelligent battle racing system where players construct different battle tracks for AI-controlled cars to race on. Each car that races on the OVERDRIVE track is equipped with unique capabilities,...

Verizon this morning announced an offer coming for both existing customers and new customers who are switching to a Verizon line, which will go live on Monday, January 29. With the deal, if you trade in an eligible smartphone and then purchase an iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, or iPhone X, you'll get $699 off a second iPhone 8, 8 Plus, or X. The offer is available when purchasing any combination of...

Multiple iCloud services are currently experiencing downtime, according to Apple's System Status page, leaving them inaccessible to some users. Find My Friends, Find My iPhone, iCloud Backup, Contacts, Calendar, Drive, Keychain, Mail, Notes, Reminders, Storage Upgrades, and Web Apps have all been down for some people since 8:35 a.m. Pacific Time. Back to My Mac, iWork for iCloud apps,...

Starting on February 2, the Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular connectivity will be available for purchase in Singapore and Hong Kong, according to updated information shared on Apple's Singapore and Hong Kong websites. Customers in Singapore and Hong Kong will be able to place orders for the cellular Apple Watch starting on February 2, with those orders set to arrive on February 9, the...

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.3 update to its public beta testing group, one day after providing the beta to developers and a few days after the release of tvOS 11.2.5, a minor bug fix update. The tvOS 11.2.5 public beta can be obtained by going to the Settings app on the Apple TV and navigating to the Software Updates section under "System." "Get Public Beta...

Apple's Clips video editing app received a small update this afternoon, introducing new artwork ahead of Chinese New Year on February 16. Today's update brings a new Apple-designed label and poster for Chinese New Year. The poster, which reads "Gung Hay Fat Choy" (the equivalent to Happy New Year in Cantonese) is accompanied by fireworks and can be used as an interstitial scene in a video...

If you're looking to cut down on the amount of time you spend performing certain actions on your iPhone, there's usually a solution hidden in Apple's mobile operating system. Here are five quick iOS tips that once you start using will make you a lot more time-efficient in the long run. This article assumes you're using an iPhone running iOS 11 or later, but some of these tips will work on...

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming watchOS 4.3 update to developers, just two days after releasing watchOS 4.2.2, a minor update focusing on bug fixes and performance improvements. 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...

Sonos has announced a limited time sale launching tomorrow, January 26 in the United States and United Kingdom, bundling two of the company's Sonos One speakers together for $349/£349. Individual Sonos One devices cost $199 in the U.S., so the company's new sale offers $50 in savings. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Sonos. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive...