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

Last week at WWDC, Apple announced a new feature coming to Apple Pay that will let iOS users pay one another directly within Messages, placing the funds in a new "Apple Pay Cash" card that can then be transferred to a bank account or spent anywhere Apple Pay is supported. In addition to current competitors in the peer-to-peer payments space, including Venmo and Square Cash, a coalition of five...

This summer, Minecraft: Pocket Edition on iOS [Direct Link] will gain a free update that plans to introduce cross-platform play between most devices that the popular survival crafting game is available on, including iOS and Android smartphones, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows 10 PC, and VR. So if you're playing on iPhone or iPad, you can still join in with a friend who only owns the game on...

The official Apple Store app is currently offering free redeem codes for AirPano's City Book app, which lets iOS users explore bird's-eye view panoramas of 10 famous cities from around the world. Each high-resolution cityscape consists of multiple connected spherical photo panoramas that users can rotate and zoom 360 degrees via touch or by physically moving their iPhone or iPad in the...

This week in iOS gaming was a littler quieter than usual, likely due to two things: WWDC, obviously, causes most other people in the Apple universe to avoid the week as news from Apple dominates everything. Secondly, the surprise launch of Monument Valley 2 likely had many iOS developers scrambling to push the release date of their games back. In TouchArcade news, we posted our hundredth...

Apple revealed more details of its new Business Chat feature for iMessage at a WWDC developer preview on Friday. Coming in iOS 11, Business Chat allows real customer service representatives to communicate directly with users, making the feature separate from existing AI chat bot systems. Users send the first message to start a Business Chat conversation by tapping Message icons that appear...

In a Friday session at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple revealed some major updates to is native Podcasts app that will be coming in iOS 11. Some of the changes will affect podcast listeners, while others should make it easier for podcasters to learn more about their audience's listening habits. As mentioned at Apple's WWDC Keynote earlier this week, the Podcasts app is getting an...

Slickwraps recently began selling fully customizable skins for the Apple Pencil, which help to give the drawing tool a more personal touch. Using the Slickwraps design tool, customers can create their own skin with custom images, text, emoji, and clipart. The skins are available in gloss and matte finishes for $8.42 each, regardless of the design, plus shipping. Slickwraps already sells ...

Apple updated its App Store Review Guidelines this week to indicate that developers may now sell virtual currencies in the form of in-app purchases to enable customers to "tip" content creators within apps. Like all other in-app purchases, Apple will now receive a 30 percent cut from the virtual currencies used for tipping. Tipping within apps is popular in China, where live-streaming...

Apple today uploaded a pair of new iPad Pro-specific ads to its YouTube channel, each focusing on the advantages of owning the 10.5-inch or 12.9-inch iPad Pro. In the first video, a Twitter user asks, "What's sooo great about the Apple Pencil?" Apple responds that its stylus is just like a real pencil and that when users write on an iPad Pro, "there's basically no lag." In the second...

Earlier this year, Apple announced a few App Store review policy changes, which included the reveal of an official API for in-app review and rating requests that developers had the option to put in their apps beginning with iOS 10.3 and macOS Sierra 10.12.4. Additionally, Apple limited how often app developers can push out such prompts to just three times each year. Today, 9to5Mac spotted a...

Fox Networks Group this week announced that Fox Now, its main app for streaming shows like Empire and Prison Break, has gained additional content from the company's other networks, including FX, FXX, and National Geographic (via Variety). The update arrives first on iOS and tvOS and will continue to roll out on other devices throughout the year. In total, around 500 hours of TV shows will now...

Taylor Swift is making her entire back catalog of music available across all major streaming services, bringing Apple Music's exclusive content deal with the singer to an end (via TechCrunch). Beginning today, rival services including Spotify, Amazon Music, and Tidal will all be able to list the artist's existing discography, including Swift's album "1989", which has sold 10 million copies...

It's just under a month until the one year anniversary of Pokémon Go, which began appearing on the iOS App Store in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand in early July of 2016. To celebrate the occasion, developer Niantic today revealed a few events coming to Pokémon trainers both inside of the game and outside, in the form of real-life Pokémon Go Festivals. Starting...

Former Apple employees who worked on Siri believe the virtual assistant is struggling to catch up with its rivals because of a lack of ambitious goals stemming from the company's overarching concern with user privacy, a report by The Wall Street Journal revealed on Thursday. Unlike Amazon and Google, which leverage and retain user data off-device to inform and enhance queries put to their...

WhatsApp gained a handful of new features this week, including photo filters, quick replies, and automatic albums in chat threads. The photo filters in WhatsApp 2.17.30 are similar to those found in Snapchat and Instagram: users can now add one of five filters to photos, videos, and GIFs before sending, enabling them to enhance the look or correct poor lighting. Pop, black and white, cool,...

Apple has taken steps to make its HomeKit smart home platform more accessible to third parties in order to encourage faster adoption, the company announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference on Wednesday (via Forbes). Apple told developers in session that they no longer need an MFi (Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad) license to test out HomeKit smart products before bringing them to market, and...

Best Buy has launched a limited time promotion offering customers up to a $50 Best Buy physical gift card with their pre-order of the latest iPad Pro models, announced at WWDC 2017 this week, through its website. Specifically, Best Buy is offering a $50 gift card for the second-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and a $25 gift card for the all-new 10.5-inch iPad Pro. Best Buy estimates both...

Apple's micro-LED plans are making headlines again today, with Nikkei quoting industry sources that believe the Cupertino company is still on track for a wide adoption of micro-LED screens in its wearable devices "as soon as 2018." That timeline fits into a previous report from May, which pegged Apple for a trial production of micro-LED displays by the end of 2017, and a predicted inclusion on an ...