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

It's not Friday, but we're doing an extra giveaway this week, in partnership with MagBak. If you're not familiar with MagBak, it's a magnetic case that originally started out as a popular Kickstarter. The latest MagBak cases are for the iPhone X, Apple's newest flagship iPhone. The MagBak for iPhone X is made from a soft, flexible rubber material that protects the iPhone on all sides. MagBak...

Last month, HBO announced a new project called "Mosaic," a murder-mystery TV show that allows you to interact with and discover branching paths based on characters you choose to follow. This interactive version of Mosaic has now arrived in the form of an app for iOS and tvOS, and in 2018 a traditional, linear version of the story will debut on HBO. HBO will air the plot line that creators Ed...

Following the success of Pokémon Go, TechCrunch is reporting today that developer Niantic Labs' next augmented reality game will be themed around the world of Harry Potter. The smartphone app will be called "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" and is set to launch in 2018. Specific details about the app's gameplay have not yet been released, but it's said that "there will be significant influence"...

Instagram this week announced that users can now add photos or videos that are more than 24 hours old to Stories. Instagram removing the 24-hour limitation reflects a continued assault on Snapchat, which should come as no surprise given Instagram has essentially been copying Snapchat for well over a year. Just like you normally would, swipe up from the camera to open your Camera Roll or...

In 2009 developer Zynga debuted Words With Friends, a Scrabble-like game on the iOS App Store that quickly became one of the most popular and well-known apps associated with iPhone gaming. Today, Zynga is launching the first proper sequel to the game, Words With Friends 2, as a brand-new and free app on the App Store, and it'll carry over all of your friends, running games, and settings from the...

Samsung has decided not to include a fingerprint scanner under the display of its next-generation Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ smartphones due to continued technical difficulties, according to South Korea's The Investor. Instead, the fingerprint scanner will likely remain positioned on the back of each device, just like the current Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ models. Fingerprint scanning is one...

Postmates today announced the dual-launch of a new curated groceries and essentials delivery service called "Postmates Fresh," alongside a revamp of the company's iOS app. Postmates has long allowed customers to order groceries for delivery on its app, but the company said Postmates Fresh is its "first-ever grocery product" offering the delivery of everything from paper towels to free range...

Spectacles company Warby Parker recently updated its mobile app to include a novel implementation of Apple's face recognition technology exclusive to the iPhone X. The glasses app uses the smartphone's front-facing TrueDepth camera to map the user's face and create an ideal fit for a new set of frames. Warby Parker using the iPhone X TrueDepth camera is super super smart: pic.twitter.com/ ...

Longtime Snapchat users should prepare themselves for a radical overhaul of the way the mobile app works, based on comments made by Snap CEO Evan Spiegel in his earnings letter to investors on Tuesday. With the company falling short of lowered projections for growth, Snap put much of the blame on the fact that the social platform is simply a mystery to outsiders. "One thing we have heard over...

Apple's new iPhone X brings the first major design overhaul in years, so I'm taking a look at a wide range of iPhone X cases from different manufacturers to see what's available. This is my second review roundup post, which covers Casetify, Caudabe, and Incipio. My first review roundup on cases from Twelve South, Nomad, Speck, and Apple can be found here, and in the coming days, I'll have...

Taylor Swift's new album "reputation" will not be available on streaming music services like Apple Music for at least a week after it launches, reports Bloomberg. Swift's representatives began notifying streaming music services about the upcoming limitation this week. The album reportedly will not be available for streaming during the first week of sales, and companies are still negotiating to ...

Twitter today announced that the 280 character limit for tweets that it introduced back in September is being rolled out to all Twitter users. The new 280 character limit, which doubles the existing 140-character limit, is available for all users and is being implemented for all languages where "cramming" was a problem. Tweet with traditional 140-character limit on left, new 280-character ...

Last month, self-driving company Waymo began operating autonomous minivans on public roads in Arizona, in tests that were conducted without a safety driver "or any human at all" behind the steering wheel. Today, the Google-owned company announced it's now beginning the first steps toward launching a ride-hailing service backed by a fleet of completely self-driving vehicles (via The Verge). To ...

Apple Cash (formerly Apple Pay Cash) is Apple's peer-to-peer payments service. Once you've set up an Apple Cash card on your iPhone or iPad, it can be used to make and receive payments in Messages, or you can get Siri to send money to a friend or family member. This article shows you how. When someone sends you money via Apple Cash, it goes on your virtual Apple Cash card, which is stored...

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.2 update to its public beta testing group, one week after seeding the first public beta and one day after seeding the second tvOS 11.2 update to developers. tvOS 11.2 comes a week after the release of tvOS 11.1, the first update to tvOS 11. The tvOS 11.2 public beta can be obtained by going to the Settings app on the Apple TV and...

Apple today announced that the iPhone X will be available to customers in Albania, Bosnia, Cambodia, Kosovo, Macau, Macedonia, Malaysia, Montenegro, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, and Turkey beginning Friday, November 24. Apple also said the iPhone X will be available to customers in Israel beginning Thursday, November 23, one day earlier. In all of the countries and...

Google has teamed up with the English Heritage Trust to give users of its Arts & Culture app a rare opportunity to explore the annals of England's historical, architectural, and cultural heritage. Spanning 5,000 years of history and taking in archeological artifacts, castles, forts and monuments, the in-depth exhibits celebrate the famous sites and the stories behind them by using the latest...

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is about to make good on stalled plans to expand into Western Europe, beginning with a sale launch in Spain on Wednesday. Xiaomi will initially offer to Spanish consumers its flagship Mi A1 device (229 euros) and its all-screen Mi Mix 2 smartphone (499 euros), pictured below. In 2014, Xiaomi was briefly the world's most valuable startup in China, but intense...