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

Each week, Apple chooses an "App of the Week" to highlight, which means it can be downloaded for free. This week's pick is a puzzle game named Colorcube, which is normally priced at $0.99 and has never been free before since its July 2016 release. Colorcube requires players to turn differently shaped pieces to blend colors and solve puzzles. The game is described as a "minimal yet visually...

Ulysses, the company behind the popular Ulysses writing apps for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, today announced that it is transitioning to a subscription model going forward. Starting today, Ulysses will be priced at $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year, with a subscription plan unlocking Ulysses for use on all devices. Ulysses is also offering a student plan with six months of access for $10.99, and...

Ride hailing app Uber today announced an in-app chat feature that lets riders and drivers communicate with one another without leaving the app. Uber said this update allows drivers to better communicate with riders when sudden road closures or other delays happen en route to the rider's location. Riders can also send chats to drivers to indicate where they're waiting for the car, or give a...

A group of 28 developers in China have enlisted a local law firm to file a complaint against Apple in a case alleging that the company engaged in "monopolistic behavior" during some of the actions it has taken to regulate the App Store in China (via The Wall Street Journal). Lin Wei, an attorney with Dare & Sure Law Firm, filed the complaint this week and targeted Apple for removing apps from ...

EENA, short for the European Emergency Number Association, has called on Apple to integrate a solution called Advanced Mobile Location into iOS to improve the safety of iPhone users in emergency situations. Advanced Mobile Location recognizes when an emergency call is made and, if not already activated, activates a smartphone's GPS or Wi-Fi to collect the caller's precise location...

IKEA's Trådfri smart lighting system is now officially compatible with HomeKit, Apple's smart home management platform. The support was confirmed in IKEA's response to a question posted on its Facebook page this morning, after a customer noticed a change in the technical specifications on the company's Trådfri product page. According to a >thread in the Philips Hue developer support...

Popular accessory company Anker launched its own low-cost smart speaker with built-in Alexa on Wednesday called the Eufy Genie. Costing $35, the Genie is a little bigger than Amazon's Echo Dot, which retails at $50, but claims to offer stronger bass and double the volume of Amazon's equivalent device thanks to a 2W speaker. The Genie's list of features pretty much tallies with Echo Dot's...

Facebook today announced the launch of an upcoming platform called "Watch," which is designed to Facebook-exclusive TV shows. Watch is Facebook's official platform for shows on Facebook, and it will be available on mobile, desktop, and in Facebook's TV apps. According to Facebook, its shows are "made up of episodes -- live or recorded -- and follow a theme or storyline." Watch includes a...

Following the release of iOS 10.3.3 on July 19, Apple has stopped signing iOS 10.3.2, the previous version of iOS that was available to consumers. iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch owners who have upgraded to iOS 10.3.3 will no longer be able to downgrade their devices to iOS 10.3.2. Apple routinely stops signing older versions of software updates after new releases come out in order to...

Nike is discounting its selection of Apple Watch Nike+ watches by 30 percent, dropping prices by a significant amount. For the 38mm Apple Watch Nike+, the discount drops the price from $369 to $258.97, while on the 42mm model, the discount drops the price from $399 to $279.97. The discount applies to the 38mm Apple Watch in Silver/White and Black/Cool Grey. For 42mm models, the discount...

After an introduction at CES in January, and an expected launch date of April 2017, Chamberlain's MyQ Home Bridge has today been made available for users to purchase. For users already in the company's MyQ ecosystem, the MyQ Home Bridge will upgrade any MyQ garage door opener with the addition of Apple's HomeKit. This will allow users to control their garage door with Siri, set scenes within...

During its quarterly earnings report yesterday, Disney revealed that it plans to remove all of its content from Netflix and debut a streaming service of its own in 2019. The announcement didn't make clear which exact Disney-related pieces of content might be found within that service, but more information from the earnings report has been shared today by TechCrunch, with Disney CEO Bob Iger...

Microsoft released a "completely rewritten" version update of OneDrive for iOS on Tuesday, promising bug fixes, performance improvements, and several new features for Office 365 subscribers. Version 9.1 of OneDrive now offers users the ability to scan as many paper documents as they want and save the pages into a single PDF, with options to crop, rotate, or delete the scanned pages....

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming tvOS 11 update to its public beta testing group, two weeks after providing testers with the third beta. The tvOS 11 public beta marks the first time public beta testers have had access to pre-release tvOS software, and this fourth beta corresponds to the fifth developer beta released earlier this week. The tvOS 11 public beta can be obtained by ...

Instagram today announced that it's testing a new feature allowing live video streamers to invite a friend to their stream. When using live video with a friend, the screen is split into two and viewers see both streams at the same time. Adding a guest or a friend can be done by tapping the "new" icon on the bottom right and then tapping "Add" on anyone who is currently watching an ongoing ...

Facebook has removed two of its standalone apps from the iOS App Store: the high school chat app "Lifestage" and community-focused gathering place "Groups." Lifestage had been on the App Store since August 2016, while Groups had been around as a standalone app since 2014. The company discussed the closure of Groups directly on its website (via TechCrunch), assuring users that the feature will...

The official Wikipedia app for iOS [Direct Link] has been updated this week with an all-new dark mode, letting users adjust the app for better Wikipedia browsing and reading in low-light environments. Aside from expected darker colors, the new dark mode is said to include "image dimming," so brighter pictures aren't as harsh when scrolling through Wikipedia entries. A separate option in...

Last month, Apple supplier Japan Display reportedly asked local banks and its own shareholders for around $897 million to fund part of an "extensive" restructuring effort of its business, which would see the supplier's manufacturing output shift from LCD to OLED panels. Now, the company is said to be seeking an outside partner to help pay part of the funds (via Nikkei). Japan Display is...