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

Amazon on Wednesday made the AI and voice-recognition software that powers the company's Alexa virtual assistant available to all its cloud-computing customers. Called Amazon Lex, the service will allow developers to make chat bot applications using Alexa's voice recognition technology and leverage the AI's deep learning abilities to enable their apps to understand more text and speech...

MasterCard added its digital wallet Masterpass to Facebook Messenger this week, enabling consumers to place online orders via the chat platform with just a few clicks. The rollout is still in the initial stages but the payment system is already available for some food merchants, including Subway, The Cheesecake Factory, and FreshDirect. The transaction process involves searching for and...

Bose has been hit by a lawsuit that accuses the company of spying on its wireless headphone customers through its Bose Connect mobile app and violating consumer privacy rights (via Reuters). The complaint was filed on Tuesday in a Chicago federal court by Kyle Zak, who is seeking an injunction to stop Bose's "wholesale disregard" for the privacy of customers who download the app to their...

Microsoft today announced the preview launch of a new "intelligent task management app" that's designed to make it easier to plan and manage a day's activities. Called "Microsoft To-Do," the app was designed by the team behind Wunderlist, which Microsoft purchased in June of 2015. To-Do is designed to replace Wunderlist, which Microsoft plans to retire after all Wunderlist features have been...

Hulu's upcoming live streaming television service could launch as soon as early May, reports TechCrunch. Hulu has already confirmed the service will launch in the spring, but has not given a more specific public launch date. Internally, the company is said to be telling employees that the first week of May is being targeted for launch, but TechCrunch says this is a rolling target date that...

Qualcomm today reported earnings for the second fiscal quarter of 2017, and in its report, the company says Apple suppliers are withholding royalty payments amid Apple's ongoing legal dispute with Qualcomm. [PDF] According to Qualcomm, Apple's contract manufacturers underpaid royalties in Q2 2017 in an amount equal to that which Qualcomm has not paid Apple. Qualcomm says this hasn't had a...

Cartoon Network today announced that it has implemented support for several of Apple's recently introduced television features on the Apple TV and iOS devices, including the TV app, Single sign-on, and universal search. Through the TV app installed on Apple iOS devices in the United States, Cartoon Network content is now displayed alongside content from other apps that have added TV app...

Apple is expanding the available features in its Maps app in Europe according to a briefing that was held in London on Wednesday and shared by Bloomberg. Apple Maps for iOS devices and Macs now includes locations of electric vehicle charging stations in the UK, thanks to a partnership with Cirrantic Moovility. More than 3,000 EV charging stations are available in the Maps app in the UK....

A number of MacRumors readers received an email from Apple today stating that their 50GB iCloud storage plan subscription has been "discontinued" and will no longer automatically renew. Several users on Reddit and Twitter have also reported receiving the email, which may have been sent mistakenly. Relatedly, some iCloud storage plans were unavailable for purchase on iOS and macOS Sierra....

AlwaysOnline Wireless, one of the data providers for the Apple SIM built into newer iPads, today announced that it is expanding to 14 additional countries, making it available in a total of 88 places around the world. New countries where AlwaysOnline Wireless is available include Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Georgia, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Jordan,...

Apple is likely to pay out just one third of its current royalty rate to Imagination Technologies as it begins winding down its supply deal with the chipmaker over the next two years, according to analysts at UBS financial services (via Reuters). The prediction includes the expectation that British-based Imagination will become loss-making by 2019 without any Apple royalties to fall back on,...

Chinese mobile maker Xiaomi unveiled the Mi 6, its latest flagship smartphone, at a packed-out event in Beijing on Wednesday. The Mi 5's successor features curved "four-sided 3D glass" and a front that isn't bezel-free like the company's Mi MIX, but the phone does boast a lot of tech for a device that starts at 2499 RMB, or $360 – about half of what a base iPhone 7 goes for in China....

Spotify today expanded its half-price student subscription plan to 31 more countries around the world. The music streaming service has offered the discounted premium subscriptions to students based in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany for some time, but starting today Spotify is adding several more countries to the list of eligible nations. The list now includes Austria, Australia, Belgium, ...

Google today announced that its popular Timeline feature for Google Maps on Android has expanded to Google Maps for iOS, making it available to iPhone and iPad users for the first time. With Timeline, Google Maps keeps track of all of the places that have been visited, so users can have a past account of where they’ve been and what they were doing. What was the name of that antique store I...

Facebook today announced plans to integrate both Spotify and Apple Music into Facebook Messenger, allowing Messenger users to link to Apple Music or Spotify content for sharing songs and playlists directly within the Facebook Messenger app. Apple has not shared details on how its chat extension will work, but Spotify published a blog post detailing the Spotify chat extension, which will...

Snapchat today expanded its set of available Lenses, introducing new ways to use the feature. Starting this morning, Snapchat users can access World Lenses, which are 3D objects that can be rotated and manipulated when taking a photo. Objects like a rainbow, a multi-colored "hello" sign, or flowers can be positioned anywhere within a photo before it's taken, with gestures available for...

Food magazine Bon Appétit has used an iPhone to shoot the cover photography for its latest travel issue. The Condé Nast-owned publication follows in the footsteps of magazines like Billboard and Condé Nast Traveler, both of which have recently run covers shot on iPhones. Bon Appètit has used iPhone-shot photos in the past – including in last year's Culture issue – but this is the first...

The Ecobee4 will come with a built-in microphone for issuing Alexa-based voice commands, according to leaked marketing materials for the upcoming smart wireless thermostat (via The Verge). Ecobee3 owners with supporting Amazon hardware have been able to use Alexa to control their devices since the thermostat maker added support in December, but it looks as if the next iteration of the product...