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

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Grovemade to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win an enormous desktop accessory package that features Grovemade's entire lineup of quality-crafted desk products. A Laptop Stand ($139) and a Monitor Stand ($119) are the centerpieces of Grovemade's desktop setup, with the former able to hold any Mac notebook and the latter able to hold an iMac,...

Microsoft today updated Cortana for iPhone with a significant redesign that has been available to Android users since December. As noted by Paul Thurrott, version 2.0 of the app is more responsive with redesigned calling, texting, and reminders and more immersive full-page answers with quicker page transitions. Cortana's mobile redesign launched on Android in December Cortana is Microsoft's...

Globally popular messaging platform Viber will add a new self-destructing chat feature to its iOS app later this week (via The Verge). The new feature, called "Secret Chats", gives users the option of starting entire conversations that self-destruct after a certain time limit. Users can prevent messages within the secret chat threads from being forwarded to other conversations. The...

Samsung will add a facial recognition capability to its upcoming Galaxy S8 because of doubts about the speed and reliability of iris scanning alone, according to a report yesterday in the Korea Economic Daily. The news comes amid rumors last month that Apple's "iPhone 8" will feature a "revolutionary" front-facing camera system with the potential to combine the advantages of both facial and...

The rapidly increasing take-up of Apple's Swift programming language was confirmed again yesterday with the publication of a survey that ranks the popularity of programming languages. In the latest TIOBE Index, Swift was ranked 10th, up four places from March 2016. As CultofMac notes, the nine programming languages ranked above it are at least two decades old, so breaking into the top 10 is a...

Sci-Fi puzzle adventure game Love You to Bits has been named Apple's App of the Week, and as a result, it will be free to download for the next seven days. Released in February of 2016, Love You to Bits is normally priced at $4.99. In this game, players take on the role of Kosmo, a space explorer who is searching for the parts of Nova, his robot girlfriend that was destroyed in an accident. ...

Apple today updated its App Store with a major "Celebrating Indie Games" promotion that highlights a huge range of games created by independent developers and small app development companies. Mushroom 11, a newly released puzzle platformer, is the main feature in the App Store right now, with Monument Valley, Device 6, Super Hexagon, Transistor, and Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery also...

Apple's new TV app for iPhone and iPad is currently available in the United States only, but that may change in the near future. TV app on iOS 10.3 beta 5 in Canada The fifth beta of iOS 10.3 seeded to developers and public testers on Wednesday appears to include the TV app in place of the Videos app for some Canadian users, including myself. For context, my iPhone 7 Plus's region is set to...

Plex today announced that its new Plex Cloud service has officially launched, making it available to all Plex Pass users. Plex Cloud has been in beta testing since September of 2016, but is now ready for a wider release. Plex Cloud is designed to allow Plex users to store their media in the cloud so that it's accessible from anywhere without the need to set up a local server. Using a...

One of Facebook's Snapchat clones is launching worldwide today within Facebook Messenger, after a previous soft launch in countries including Poland and Australia. Called "Messenger Day," the new feature will allow Messenger users to post updates that disappear after 24 hours. The twist with Messenger Day, according to Facebook, is that the app's filters and features encourage users to create...

Photography app VSCO has announced a handful of new features for its users, centering around the addition of its separate GIF creating DSCO app [Direct Link] directly into the main VSCO app. Thanks to the inclusion, users can now create looping images and post them to their VSCO feeds. Similar to the camera wheel options on Instagram and in the iOS Camera, users can tap DSCO at the bottom of...

Uncertainties over Foxconn's manufacturing expansion into the United States have been raised once again, this time following comments made by company chairman Terry Gou, who spoke to reporters at an event celebrating the start of construction on a $8.87 billion display plant in Guangzhou, China (via Nikkei). At the ceremony, Gou told reporters he had just returned from a trip to Washington...

Didi Chuxing, the Chinese-hailing company that Apple invested $1 billion in, is opening an artificial intelligence lab in Mountain View, California, reports Recode. The lab will focus on intelligent driving systems and AI-based security for transportation, confirming Didi Chuxing's interest in self-driving vehicles. The facility, located less than 10 miles from Apple's two Cupertino campuses,...

In honor of International Women's Day, Apple today updated its iTunes stores to highlight movies and TV shows created by, starring, and featuring women. The iTunes store for movies, for example, has a main section highlighting 10 actresses and filmmakers, including Amma Asante, Laia Costa, Tae Ri Kim, Meera Menon, Ruth Negga, and more. There's a separate section focusing on women directors,...

The Twitter app for iOS devices was today updated to version 6.73.1, adding a small but important feature that allows users to have more control over the amount of storage space Twitter uses on an iPhone or iPad. A new storage setting lets users see how much storage space Twitter is using for cached images and web content, and it offers an option for clearing stored data. Users can choose to...

Qardio, known for its line of connected health products, today announced that it is expanding its partnership with Apple, a move that will see Apple Stores around the world offering the QardioArm smart blood pressure monitor. The QardioArm, which is priced at $99, is an FDA approved blood pressure monitor that's able to interface with an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch to help users keep an eye...

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming tvOS 10.2 update to developers for testing purposes, just over one week after seeding the fourth tvOS 10.2 update and more than a month after releasing tvOS 10.1.1, the current release version of tvOS. Designed for the fourth-generation Apple TV, the fifth tvOS 10.2 beta can be obtained by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C to...

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming watchOS 3.2 update to developers for testing purposes, just over one week after seeding the fourth watchOS 3.2 beta and more than a month after the release of watchOS 3.1.3, the current public version of the operating system. The watchOS 3.2 beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General -->...