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

In early 2016, AT&T began its first test of a fixed wireless 5G cellular network within Austin, Texas and expanded that test to new local businesses this past June, including a car wash, an apartment unit, and a church. Today, the carrier announced that its test of next-generation 5G cellular connectivity will be expanding to new businesses and residential customers in three new U.S. cities by...

Bicycle sharing service Citi Bike released version 6 of its iOS app on Tuesday to bring Apple Pay support to customers in New York City and New Jersey. Now that Apple's mobile payment system is supported by the service, riders using the app are able to purchase a single pass or Citi Bike membership using their digital wallet instead of plastic. The app includes a color-coded map of New...

Xiaomi has announced that it will unveil the second-generation version of its nearly bezel-free Mi MIX smartphone on September 11, just one day ahead of Apple's expected "iPhone 8" launch event in California. The Chinese mobile maker confirmed rumors of its event in Beijing next month by sharing a launch poster over microblogging site Weibo featuring a profile of the "full screen" Mi MIX 2 and ...

Western Digital today announced the launch of its latest personal cloud storage solution, the My Cloud Home. My Cloud Home is designed to make it easy for customers to set up and use a personal cloud storage solution to meet all of their storage needs. The company is aiming to make My Cloud Home the one stop storage destination for all of a person's devices, aggregating photos, videos, and...

As two new episodes of "Carpool Karaoke: The Series" air tonight, Apple has shared trailers for next week's episodes, which will pair Michael Strahan with Jeff Gordon and Shaquille O'Neal with John Cena. The first trailer features media personality and former football player Michael Strahan and Fox NASCAR announcer and former professional race car driver Jeff Gordon. The two dress up with...

Amazon today added a new Alexa feature that allows several Amazon Echo devices to be synchronized and controlled across multiple rooms in a home. Echo owners can now target music to a specific Echo device or play the same music on more than one Echo. The feature works with a variety of music services, including Amazon Music, TuneIn, iHeartRatio, and Pandora, with support for Spotify and...

Instagram has allowed users to share multiple photos in a single post since February, but those photos have been limited to the traditional square aspect ratio, preventing users from sharing landscape or portrait mode images in a multi-photo post. Starting today, that limitation is changing. Instagram is now allowing users to share multi-photo posts in any aspect ratio, including taller...

Apple today updated its developer site with new sample code for ARKit, providing developers with additional details on what can be done with the upcoming feature. According to Apple, the new code is available alongside new ARKit "best practices" published in the Human Interface Guidelines. Apple also asks developers working on an "amazing" ARKit experience to share it with the company. Design ...

Google today announced its "parking difficulty" indicator in Google Maps for iOS and Android will now appear in 25 additional cities around the world. The feature was previously available in the United States only. The simple feature shows a "P" icon with a difficulty level such as "moderate" or "limited," based on how easy it will be to find parking at the destination entered. The feature...

Google today announced a new developer platform for augmented reality apps that won't require dedicated hardware, which it's calling "ARCore." The company originally began making inroads in the AR space a few years ago with Project Tango, which required manufacturers to implement specialized equipment so that smartphones would be compatible with Tango's AR features. Now, Google is "effectively ...

YouTube today announced a few changes coming to the company's mobile apps and desktop site, including a visual update for the well-known YouTube logo. Instead of emphasizing the "Tube" part of the branding, the new icon places the TV-like icon to the left of the company's name. Designed for our multi-screen world, the updated Logo combines a cleaned up version of the YouTube wordmark and...

In a statement sent to multiple Chinese media outlets today, Apple said iPhone and iPad users in China can now use WeChat Pay as a payment method for App Store and Apple Music purchases."We are glad to offer users in mainland China the option of WeChat Pay for their favorite mobile app or Apple Music products. We continue to be dedicated to provide multiple simple and convenient payment methods...

Elgato has announced five new HomeKit-enabled devices coming to its Eve product line, including the Eve Thermo, Eve Lock, Eve Window Guard, Eve Smoke, and Eve Aqua. The announcement was made ahead of IFA Berlin 2017, a consumer electronics and home appliances trade show taking place from September 1-6 where Elgato will showcase the devices in more detail. The new Eve Thermo marks the second...

Apple today announced a new partnership with Accenture, a global management consulting and professional services company, which aims to combine iOS with Accenture's business expertise to guide companies in unlocking new revenue streams, increasing productivity, improving customer experience, and reducing costs. The partnership will result in a dedicated iOS practice inside of Accenture Digital ...

The New York Police Department has confirmed it will begin transitioning to iPhones for its 36,000 police officers in the fall, less than one year after completing a rollout of Windows Phones to its police force. Image: ABC7 Eyewitness News - WABC-TV New York Jessica Tisch, the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Information Technology, said "improvements in Apple controls" will enable the...

Amazon cut the price of its Music Unlimited subscription service for U.S. students on Tuesday, matching a similar deal available for Apple Music (via TechCrunch). For students who are non-Prime customers, Amazon Music Unlimited will now cost $4.99 per month, which is the same amount of money Apple charges students for its streaming service. For existing Prime Student members, however, Amazon...

In an effort to better protect user privacy and improve its image, Uber has decided to remove a background GPS tracking feature that allows riders to be tracked for up to five minutes after a ride ends, reports Reuters. Uber is expected to announce the privacy change starting on Tuesday, with the update expected to roll out to iPhone users this week. The same update will be made to Android...

Following its May acquisition of sleep tracking product Beddit, Apple has taken over all support for the device. The Beddit support site, which previously provided customers with a Beddit customer support email address to use, now includes a link that directs customers to instead contact Apple support for any issues. It's not entirely clear when the change was made, but it was noticed today by ...