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

Johny Srouji, Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies at Apple, will speak at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh next week. The university's School of Computer Science today announced that Srouji will attend a distinguished industry lecture on Monday, September 18 at the Rashid Auditorium, where he will speak at 5:00 p.m. local time. Johny Srouji, Apple's SVP for hardware tech, ...

Apple has updated its website to indicate that Emirates NBD, the largest bank in Dubai, will soon offer Apple Pay. Emirates NBD has confirmed Apple Pay is coming soon in a recent email to customers, including MacRumors reader Hafez. ‏ @MacRumors Apple Pay is coming to Dubai pic.twitter.com/IsfjXCUP74— Hafez (@hafezberg) September 15, 2017 Last month, Apple announced that Apple Pay will exp...

Chinese ride-hailing company Didi has added Apple Pay as a payment option to the full range of its personal mobility services (via TechCrunch). Apple's mobile payment platform can now be used to fund Didi Express, Didi Luxe, Didi Premier, and ofo, a partner bicycle rental service embedded into the main Didi app. Image via Technode Support of the digital wallet adds another Apple feature to ...

Apple has quietly included support for playback of FLAC audio files on the 4K Apple TV, iPhone 8, and iPhone X, with compatibility also added retroactively to the iPhone 7 when iOS 11 gets its public release. Support for the lossless compression codec now appears in the technical specifications on Apple's website for all of the above devices. However, as it stands, Apple's Music app does not...

Each week, Apple chooses an "App of the Week" to highlight in the App Store, making it free to download for seven days. This week's pick is pinball app INKS, which is normally priced at $2.99. INKS was first released in May of 2016 and has never been available for free before. INKS was also a 2016 Apple Design Award winner. INKS is a modern interpretation of pinball, combining the fun of a...

Apple on Tuesday announced the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X, all of which will launch with inductive wireless charging support on Qi-compatible accessories. Since Apple's first-party "AirPower" mat won't be available to buy until 2018, new iPhone owners will be left to sift through the current market of Qi-compatible wireless charging pads, which is pretty large. For this reason,...

Apple Watch Series 3 is available with built-in cellular capabilities, allowing you to make phone calls, send and receive text messages, stream music, get directions with Apple Maps, use Siri, and more without a paired iPhone. The freedom comes at a cost, however, as Apple Watch Series 3 models with cellular are priced $70 higher than those with Wi-Fi and GPS only. Also, to access LTE, the...

Snapchat will now allow users to view their Bitmoji characters in augmented reality, through an addition to its previous "World Lens" feature. With the update, Bitmoji will be able to do yoga, skateboard, drink coffee, and more, all taking place in real-world surroundings in AR (via TechCrunch). Image via TechCrunch Similar to Snapchat's popular dancing hotdog character, the Bitmoji will...

Google has launched a new advertising campaign and teaser website for its upcoming "Pixel 2" smartphone. The site teases visitors with an October 4 event date, aimed at anyone who might be "thinking about changing phones" (via TechCrunch). The page presents no other information, and asks for the user's email address to stay up-to-date with alerts regarding breaking news ahead of the October 4...

Apple has officially introduced the iPhone X, its new flagship smartphone with dozens of new features. It won't be available until November 3, but here's a preview of 50 changes and improvements coming. ...

Spotify has introduced an iMessage application in its latest update this week. As spotted by iGeneration, Spotify in Apple's Messages app allows you to search the entire music streaming service for a specific song and send it to a friend. When they receive it, they'll be able to listen to a 30-second clip, and then tap a button to jump into Spotify to check out the whole track. This differs...

Apple's new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus have smaller batteries than the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, respectively, according to details discovered today on China's official communications certification board. The TENAA listings were highlighted by mobile leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer in a tweet, revealing that the iPhone 8 comes with a 1,821mAh battery, while the iPhone 8 Plus has a 2,675mAh...

Sport headphone company Jaybird today announced two new pairs of wireless headphones, including its first pair of truly wireless Bluetooth earbuds. The Jaybird RUN True Wireless Headphones feature a four-hour battery life and come with a pocket-sized charging case providing an additional eight hours, for a total of 12 hours of battery life on the go, while a five-minute charge gives around one ...

Conan O'Brien, host of late night talk show Conan, last night did a skit covering Apple's keynote and the new Face ID feature designed to unlock the iPhone X with a facial scan. A fake Craig Federighi takes the stage to answer inane Face ID questions from the audience. "Does it work with the butt?" asks one person. "What's the maximum number of faces that the phone can recognize?" asks another ...

Apple at its annual September event introduced the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. iPhone 8 Plus on left and iPhone 7 Plus on right iPhone X is Apple's new flagship smartphone, with a radically redesigned edge-to-edge OLED display and a TrueDepth front camera system with Face ID facial recognition, but it's also considerably more expensive at $999 and up. iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus...

While the Apple Watch Series 3 officially launches September 22 in the first wave of countries, those interested in Nike+ models will have to wait a bit longer. In fine print, Apple announced that new Series 3 models of Apple Watch Nike+ will be available in limited quantities starting Thursday, October 5. Apple Watch Nike+ pre-orders still start September 15 like regular Series 3 models. ...

With the launch of a new Apple Watch comes a few refreshed collections that the device is available in, requiring users to choose from specific case/band combinations to enter the Apple Watch ecosystem. The Apple Watch Series 3 is available in both non-LTE and LTE-capable models, but there is one downside: if you want a Series 3 in Stainless Steel or Ceramic, you have no choice but to buy a...

Ahead of the Nintendo Direct coming this afternoon, Nintendo recently updated its Switch Online voice chat iOS app with a few useful tweaks to the way the software handles chatting online with friends. Prior to the update, you had to keep the app open at all times to hear and be heard by your friends while playing games like Splatoon 2. Now, Nintendo explains in the app's update notes that you ...