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

Even though the first two days of this week were spent by most Americans celebrating the Fourth of July, there were still a ton of happenings in the iOS gaming arena. Kicking things off was a story surrounding a puzzling update from Five Nights at Freddy's creator Scott Cawthon. Now, this comes with the massive caveat that Cawthon is no stranger to (intentionally or unintentionally) trolling his...

Last week, Jay-Z's new album "4:44" debuted exclusively on his own music streaming service Tidal, and then reports predicted that the album would expand to Apple Music and other services one week later. Now, 4:44 has begun streaming on Apple Music, and is available for $9.99 on iTunes [Direct Link]. Earlier in the week, Jay-Z debuted a video for one of 4:44's tracks, The Story of O.J., on...

Apple Maps has been updated with comprehensive transit data in Calgary, Alberta, enabling iPhone users in the Canadian city to navigate with public transportation, including the CTrain light rail system and buses. Apple Maps transit directions are also available for buses in the smaller Southern Alberta cities of Red Deer, Lethbridge, and Medicine Hat. Apple Maps enabled transit routing...

Amazon is offering Prime members who have yet to try its Music Unlimited streaming service a steep discount in the run-up to the company's Prime Day on July 11. Prime subscribers can currently sign up for four months for a total cost of $0.99 (or 99p in the U.K.), with the service reverting to its usual price of $7.99 (£7.99) per month thereafter. The non-Prime price for the service is $9.99 ...

Samsung tipped its best-ever operating profit on Friday, with likely record earnings in the company's second quarter ending in June (via Reuters). The Apple rival predicted quarterly operating profit of 14 trillion won ($12.11 billion), a 72 percent jump from a year earlier. The estimate includes sales from the Galaxy S8 for the first time, but analysts pointed to Samsung's components business as ...

In May of last year, speaker and fitness tracker company Jawbone ended production of its fitness trackers and started seeking a buyer for its speaker business, leading to speculation that the company was going out of business. Jawbone denied claims that it was shutting down and planned to pivot to medical products for direct sale to clinical practitioners, but that may not have panned out, as T...

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming tvOS 10.2.2 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the fourth beta of tvOS 10.2.2 and over a month after releasing tvOS 10.2.1, a minor bug fix update. tvOS 10.2.2 is only available for the fourth-generation Apple TV. Registered developers can download the update by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C...

ElevationLab's latest product is the BatteryPro, an Apple Watch and iPhone charger that's got some clever design elements and a built-in Apple Watch charging puck for convenience. Priced at $99, the BatteryPro isn't cheap, but if you value ease of use over cost, it's worth checking out. At first glance, the BatteryPro doesn't look like much. It's similar in design to many external battery...

Uber in June announced plans for a "180 Days of Change" initiative that added a new long-desired tipping feature for drivers. Tipping was initially limited to Seattle, Minneapolis, and Houston, but Uber said tips would be available to all U.S. drivers by the end of July, and the company is making good on that promise. Starting today, tipping is rolling out in 121 cities across North...

During a Nintendo Direct event this morning, Nintendo announced plans to release a new "Nintendo Switch Online" app on July 21, the release date for Splatoon 2. According to Nintendo, the Nintendo Switch Online app, available for iOS and Android, is designed to "enhance your online experience for compatible games on the Nintendo Switch console." At launch, the only game compatible with the...

Instagram today announced that it has added an option to reply to Instagram stories with a photo or a video, allowing Instagram users to do more than simply comment on a friend's stories. When watching a story, you'll see a new camera button that can be used to snap a photo/video or choose an image that was taken within the last 24 hours from your camera roll. There are options to use...

Hulu today announced that subscribers will now be able to add HBO's programming into their Hulu subscription for $14.99 per month, as well as Cinemax for $9.99 per month (via TechCrunch). Hulu currently offers Showtime for $8.99 per month as an add-on package to the basic streaming service. HBO will be available as an add-on package for both Hulu's new live TV service (beginning at $39.99...

Apple has updated its regional websites to indicate that Apple Pay is expanding to additional banks in France, Italy, and Spain. In France, Apple Pay will be available later this year at Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne, Crédit Mutuel du Sud-Ouest, and Crédit Mutuel Massif Central, which are the three regional federations of Crédit Mutuel Arkéa. Apple Pay is also coming to Crédit Mutuel Arkéa's ...

One year ago this week, Pokémon Go began appearing on the App Store in the United States and around the world. Following the announcement of various in-game and real life events celebrating the anniversary, Niantic CEO John Hanke recently sat down with The Verge to talk about the game's first year, including for-profit cheaters, a six-month development delay due to the huge success of the game,...

AirPods continue to have a 6-week shipping estimate when purchased through Apple's online store, but AT&T's website currently has the wireless earphones in stock with free delivery in 3-5 business days. AT&T sells AirPods for $159, the same price as Apple charges, but the carrier only ships to addresses within the United States, excluding P.O. boxes. AirPods occasionally appear in stock...

Apple's upcoming range of new iPhones could be hit by a 30 percent shortage in the supply of storage capacity chips, according to a new report by DigiTimes on Thursday. The article claims that both SK Hynix and Toshiba have suffered from lower-than-expected yield rates for their 3D NAND flash chips, resulting in fewer supplies available for Apple's 2017 series of iPhones. Apple is said to have ...

Chapter one of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! fantasy role-playing game is currently available for free for a limited time on the App Store. Usually $4.99, the critically acclaimed interactive adventure by Inkle is the first in a four-part series loosely based on the mechanic so successfully employed in the popular Fighting Fantasy role-playing gamebooks of the 1980s. The fully interactive...

Spotify has quietly added the ability for users to adjust the playback position of the currently playing track directly from the iOS lock screen. The option to adjust the progress of a playing track – also known as audio scrubbing – from the lock screen has been a feature of Apple's native Music app for some time, but the ability has been missing from Spotify until very recently, as noted...