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

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...

There's a notable sale on Apple devices going on this week at Best Buy, offering those on the hunt for new MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and iPads the chance to save between $100 and $350 on Apple's devices. The largest selection of devices marked down is the mid 2017 iPad Pro in both 10.5- and 12.9-inch versions, all Wi-Fi only. The cheapest model is the 10.5-inch iPad Pro with 64GB at $549.99,...

As many of you know, MacRumors has a YouTube channel that's been steadily growing over the course of the past few years, and we're searching for a new full-time video producer who can help us take our channel to the next level. If you're familiar with making YouTube videos, love Apple products and know a lot about them, have an engaging and upbeat personality, and have a wealth of ideas on...

Uber today introduced a new feature for its iOS app that allows drivers to provide feedback when giving a rider a rating of less than five stars. As outlined by The Verge, drivers are now asked "what went wrong" when providing a four star rating or lower. Drivers can then choose from reasons like wait time, patience, number of riders, attitude, wanted a new route, or other. Riders who...

Plex today announced the launch of Plex News, a new personalized streaming news service that's available to Plex users. Plex News includes national, international, and local news from 190 providers like CBS News, CNN, A+J, IGN, Cheddar, Financial Times, Mic, and more. Plex News is a free service and it does not require a Plex Pass or other subscription fee, but it is supported by ads. Over...

Apple Maps vehicles will begin surveying Scotland and Wales for the first time starting in early October. Apple Maps vehicle via MacRumors reader Dieter A. The sensor-laden vehicles will start collecting mapping data in Fort William, a town in the western Scottish Highlands, between October 9 and November 5, according to a recently updated list of driving locations on Apple's website. In...

Instagram has grown from 700 million total users in April 2017 to 800 million, as confirmed by parent company Facebook during an event in New York City this week (via CNBC). Of those 800 million total users, 500 million are opening the app and using it every day, compared favorably to Snapchat's 173 million DAUs that the Instagram rival reported earlier in August. As it celebrates this...

Rapper Post Malone has broken a new record on Apple Music, releasing a song -- "Rockstar" feat. 21 Savage -- that was streamed over 25 million times in a single week. Apple Music confirmed to The Verge that this officially beats the service's worldwide single week streaming record previously set by DJ Khaled's song "I'm the One." According to Carl Chery, Apple Music's head of artist curation,...

Amazon has updated its Amazon Music iOS app so that its Alexa virtual assistant can now be used to play songs and discover new artists. After installing the update, users in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Austria can ask Alexa to play music by genre, decade, mood, tempo, activity, and even lyrics. The feature is activated from the app interface using a new Alexa button, which has been designed...

The iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus include support for the Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) audio codec that offers improved voice quality and better call reliability, KDDI president Takashi Tanaka told Engadget Japan in a recent interview. EVS is the first codec that offers up to 20 kHz audio bandwidth for higher quality audio, higher frame/packet error resilience, and higher compression...

Snapchat is gaining a new feature called "Sky Filters," which are able to detect the sky in an image and then layer different effects on top, much like Snapchat's existing face-based filters. Snapchat told TechCrunch that the new filters are rolling out starting today on iOS an Android. Available filters will rotate on a daily basis and will include virtual weather, sunsets, stars, rainbows,...

iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra bring new features to several apps, and some of the biggest changes have been made to the Notes app. Along with a new Document Scanning feature outlined in a prior how to (iOS only), the Notes app also includes support for pinning and tables. How to Pin a Note in iOS 11 Open the Notes app. Open an existing note or created a new one. In the list of note...

Apple's iPhone SE, introduced in March of 2016, is the sole device that the company continues to sell in a smaller 4-inch form factor. The iPhone SE wasn't updated in September alongside the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X, and there are no real rumors hinting at an imminent refresh, but that hasn't stopped designers from Curved.de from imagining what an iPhone SE with an iPhone X...

iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra bring Live Photos to FaceTime, allowing you to preserve a special memory while video chatting with friends and family. Whenever you use the new Camera button that's at the bottom of the screen on a FaceTime call, it captures a photo, but don't worry - this can't be done in secret and the other party is always notified when an image is captured. How to Take a Live ...