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

Apple has ranked fourth in Fast Company's annual list of The Most Innovative Companies of 2017 published today, moving up three spots from its seventh-place finish in 2016. Apple trailed behind Amazon, Google, and Uber, and directly ahead of Snapchat, Facebook, and Netflix in the list of 50 companies. The publication credited Apple for designing four of its own chips last year, which allows...

Apple Maps has been updated with comprehensive transit data for the Detroit, Michigan metropolitan area, and for the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario directly across the Detroit River, enabling users in both cities and certain suburbs to navigate using public transportation such as buses and trains. In the Metro Detroit area, Apple Maps routing supports DDOT and SMART buses, the Detroit...

Target currently has "no plans" to support Apple Pay in its stores, a company spokesperson confirmed to MacRumors today. Regarding a since-deleted AskTarget tweet that said Apple Pay was "awesome" and suggested support was forthcoming, the U.S. retail giant said "the information shared with this guest was incorrect."We have no plans or work underway currently to make Apple Pay available in...

Google Maps today updated its iOS and Android apps with a listing feature that lets users save and add their favorite locations to customized lists, which they can subsequently share to friends and family. Once a list is created, users can also follow other people's lists for inspiration when visiting new cities. To add a location into a list, navigate to it in the Google Maps app and tap...

Apple has placed an order to Samsung Display for 60 million OLED panels for this year's iPhone 8, in addition to the 100 million units reportedly ordered by Apple last April. If the numbers are accurate, today's news confirms the display maker as Apple's main source of OLED screens for the next-generation iPhone (via The Korea Herald). iPhone 8 concept images According to those familiar with...

Apple has added a small but useful tweak to CarPlay in iOS 10.3, giving drivers a quicker and safer way to switch between apps without having to take their eyes off the road for long periods of time. Before the update, users had to tap twice to get to another app in CarPlay: one tap to go home, and another tap on the designated app icon. Image via The Verge Now, Apple has streamlined that...

U.S. retail giant Target may be planning to accept Apple Pay in the future, according to a recent tweet spotted by 9to5Mac. AskTarget, the retailer's verified customer service account on Twitter, said Apple pay is "awesome" and that Target is "working on getting this technology into our stores." It even quipped "we'll catch up with the 21st century soon!" @_MAlN - Apple pay is awesome! We're ...

To coincide with the 59th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony on Sunday, Warner Bros. Records today announced that Prince's well-known hits are now available on streaming music services such as Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play Music, Pandora, and iHeartRadio Plus and All Access, after a nearly two year exclusivity period with Tidal. Prince, who passed away in April 2016, had pulled his music from ...

Tesla has updated its iPhone app with a completely redesigned user interface and Touch ID support for quick access to keyless driving. The app now has a much cleaner aesthetic, a trio of shortcuts on the main screen for quick access to frequently used controls, and a more detailed render of the vehicle in the "Climate" menu. A new Today widget in Notification Center allows users to monitor...

Sprint today introduced a limited time promotion that offers new customers—existing customers do not qualify—unlimited talk, text, and data for $50 per month for the first line, $40 per month for the second line, and no additional cost for up to three additional lines. A family of five, for example, would pay $90 per month as a base cost—but there's lots of fine print and caveats to...

Popular bookmarking service Instapaper faced an extended outage this week, beginning at 12:30PM PT on February 8th and remaining offline for 31 hours. Although the service is now back online, users only have access to the last six weeks of saved articles, running back through December 20, 2016. The company said it chose to restore just the last six weeks of articles right now "in the interest...

WhatsApp is in the process of rolling out a two-step verification feature for the messaging platform from today. The security option has been in testing for several months, but is finally going live for all users of the app. With the optional feature, WhatsApp users will be able to securely verify their number with a custom-generated six-digit passcode whenever they install the app on a new...

One day away from their official launch, new information is beginning to come out about the BeatsX Earphones thanks to a couple of hands-on videos and reviews that have been posted online. In Jonathan Morrison's newest video, titled BeatsX Wireless vs Apple AirPods, the YouTuber has discovered that all purchases of BeatsX come with a code for three free months of Apple Music, akin to users...

Facebook has come up with another way to convince users to stay within the social networking app, recently introducing a complete weather forecast section that uses GPS location to present a detailed 24-hour and 5-day forecast, powered by Weather.com (via TechCrunch). The feature is an expansion of the previous "weather greetings" that appeared on the Facebook mobile app beginning about a year...

Apple is exploring ways to make information sharing between wearables and mobile devices as simple as a wave of the hand, if a new patent application is anything to go by (via AppleInsider). Published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an Apple filing for "Gesture-based information exchange between devices in proximity" describes a secure data transfer system between two portable devices ...

Bang & Olufsen brand subsidiary B&O Play has announced a new pair of wireless headphones called the Beoplay H4, which "focus on pure essentials". At $299, the over-ear Bluetooth headphones offer a less costly alternative to the company's pricier wireless models, like the the H8 and H9, and instead of a touch interface they feature traditional physical buttons to control volume and playback. ...

Pinterest today announced the launch of a new "Lens" visual search tool, which allows users to take a picture of a real-world object and find related products and images on the Pinterest website. With Lens, for example, pointing the camera at an item of clothing, a piece of furniture, or a food product will cause the app to search for similar items in the Pinterest database. Just point Lens ...

Brilliant today introduced the Brilliant Control, designed to replace an existing light switch and provide homeowners with a range of smart home controls. Brilliant Control has a 5-inch touchscreen with swipe-based lighting, music, and climate controls, and homeowners can interact directly with other smart home devices, such as the Nest thermostat, Sonos speakers, Philips Hue lights, Ring...