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

Google Drive no longer hijacks file opening duties in Apple's Files and iCloud Drive apps on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The app was updated today with a fix for the issue. Microsoft Word documents and other file types can now be viewed directly in in Apple's Files and iCloud Drive apps on iOS 11 and iOS 10 respectively. Since a previous update to Google Drive earlier this month, the...

ESPN yesterday announced an update to its iOS app that will let users stream their favorite sports shows on demand from their mobile device. Previously, users of the ESPN app were out of luck if they missed the live video streams of popular shows such as Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. But that's set to change, according to the channel's latest press release. "Our mission at...

Apple has expressed interest in buying advanced liquid crystal display (LCD) panels from Japan Display for use in some of its iPhones next year, according to a new report today from The Wall Street Journal. Earlier this month, Apple announced the iPhone X, its first smartphone to adopt OLED screen technology. OLED displays offer sharper contrast and brighter colors than traditional LCD panels, ...

After lengthy negotiations, Toshiba this morning officially agreed to sell its lucrative memory chip unit to a global consortium that includes Apple, in a deal reportedly worth $17.7 billion (via The Wall Street Journal). Toshiba said the legally binding agreement ensures the chip unit will remain a Toshiba affiliate even after it has become the property of the Bain Capital-led group, which...

Delta this week announced plans to offer free access to mobile messaging services on its flights starting in October. Delta will allow customers to use iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger to communicate with family and friends while in flight. Though Delta will let customers send text-based messages that include words and emoji, photo and video files are not supported. Free...

Apple design chief Jony Ive is one of the planned speakers at TechFest 2017, hosted by The New Yorker. Set to take place on October 6 from 8:45 a.m. to 6:30 p.m, the event will be held in New York City. Ive will talk about "designing the future," according to The New Yorker. No additional information has been provided on what topics Ive will cover, but with the launch of the iPhone X...

Since at least the iOS 11 beta, the App Store has been prioritizing old reviews from several years ago for some users. Now that the software update is publicly released, we're starting to receive more user reports about the change. The first review for Facebook's app is from 2008 On my own iPhone, the first review for Facebook is from 2008, the year the App Store launched. The reviewer called ...

On the heels of the launch of the Apple TV 4K with support for HDR and 4K, Amazon today unveiled its next-generation Fire TV, which also has 4K HDR support. The new device, which appears to replace both the Fire TV box and the Fire TV stick, features a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, an Alexa Voice Remote, Dolby Atmos support, 802.11ac WiFi, and 2160p video at up to 60 frames per second. Image ...

LIFX just recently introduced HomeKit support for its existing Wi-Fi connected smart bulbs, and today, the company is launching a new product with HomeKit compatibility, the LIFX Tile. The LIFX Tile is similar to the Nanoleaf Aurora, offering a series of five 7.87-inch square plastic panels that are meant to be attached to a wall using 3M adhesive. Tile panels can be arranged in any...

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.1 update to developers for testing purposes, one week after releasing tvOS 11 to the public. Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the tvOS 11.1 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that’s installed using Xcode. It's not yet clear what new features or changes might be included in ...

Since the Google Drive app for iOS was updated earlier this month, several iPhone and iPad users have been unable to open Microsoft Word documents and many other file types in Apple's Files app for iOS 11 or iCloud Drive app for iOS 10. Instead, when users with the Google Drive app installed attempt to open a DOCX file in the Files or iCloud Drive apps, for example, the Google Drive app...

Twitter last night updated its iOS app to version 7.8 to patch a bug that prevented users from uploading photos in high resolution, but the same update also appears to have removed the company's companion Apple Watch app from the App Store. As noticed by users on Reddit and Twitter, after updating the Twitter app on iPhone the Apple Watch app has subsequently vanished, and Twitter has yet to...

Google pulled access to YouTube through Amazon's display-based Echo Show smart speaker on Tuesday, a move that appears to have angered Amazon and led to conflicting public statements by both companies over the sudden move. "Currently, Google is not supporting Youtube on Echo Show." That's the message Alexa started giving Echo Show owners yesterday afternoon when they tried to access the video...

Shazam, the service designed to listen to music and identify lyrics, today updated its iOS app with support for iOS 11 and watchOS 4. The update includes an entirely revamped version of the Shazam Apple Watch app, with a new look and feel and some impressive speed improvements. Shazam for Apple Watch is able to identify songs much more quickly, and there's a new more convenient feature...

D-Link's HomeKit-enabled Omna 180 Cam HD home security camera today gained new functionality through a major app update that brings important new features to the device. The user interface of the app has been improved and it's no longer quite as slow when you open it up, which is a major plus. There's a new pinch-to-zoom feature that allows you to zoom in on the video feed from the camera,...

Twitter today announced that it is going to "try out" a longer character limit, doubling the current 140-character limit to 280 characters. The 280 character limit is going to be available in languages that are "impacted by cramming," aka all languages aside from Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. Tweet with traditional 140-character limit on left, new 280-character limit on right. According...

The iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and upcoming iPhone X include support for Galileo, Europe's Global Satellite Navigation System. While this information has been listed on Apple's iPhone technical specifications page since the devices debuted earlier this month, it's a feature update that's received little attention. Galileo joins existing support for the Global Positioning System (GPS) operated by ...

After spending hundreds of dollars on a brand new iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus, you may be debating whether it's really worth it to put additional money towards an AppleCare+ plan for your shiny new device. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but the short version is that AppleCare+ for iPhone is generally worth the investment. The long answer depends on many factors, such as the type of...