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

Google has revealed that its Amazon Echo rival, Google Home, will arrive in the United Kingdom on April 6. The announcement was made on Tuesday at an event in London, where it was also revealed that the British version of the connected smart speaker will deliver news briefings from several U.K. media outlets including The Guardian and the BBC. Rollout of Google Home beyond American shores...

Swedish home furniture store IKEA announced its own affordable smart lighting system today called Trådfri, which means "wireless" in Swedish. The Smart Lighting range of products includes Trådfri LED bulbs, a remote dimmer switch puck, a gateway kit, a motion sensor kit, and dimming lights. IKEA is also introducing a selection of LED light panels and doors that can be built into cabinets...

First introduced in watchOS 3.2, Theater Mode is a simple but useful feature that's designed to prevent the Apple Watch's screen from activating when you raise your wrist. It's useful in situations where the bright screen can be a distraction, such as a movie or a play, and it's also useful for those who like to sleep with their Apple Watches. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for ...

Apple has a "Find my iPhone" feature for lost iPhones, iPads, Macs, and more, but there's also a "Find my AirPods" feature that can be useful if you happen to misplace your AirPods. Find My AirPods has its limitations because it's not able to work when the AirPods aren't connected to an iOS device via Bluetooth, but the feature can help you locate AirPods lost nearby and it gives clues as to...

Apple today updated its Apple TV Remote app to introduce iPad support, allowing the Remote app to be used on the iPad for the first time. Prior to today's update, the Apple TV Remote interface was only designed for the iPhone. For those unfamiliar with the Apple TV Remote app, it's designed to be used with the fourth-generation Apple TV and functions similarly to the hardware-based Siri...

Apple today updated its iWork apps for iOS devices, Numbers, Pages, and Keynote, to version 3.1, introducing a range of new features and improvements in each app. Pages, Apple's word processing app, has gained new text formatting options, bookmarks to link sections of a document, support for equations, Touch ID support for password protected documents, and more. A full list of changes for...

Apple today released tvOS 10.2, marking the second major update to the tvOS operating system that was released in September of 2016. tvOS 10.2 has been in testing since January 24, with Apple having seeded six betas to developers before releasing the software to the public. The tvOS 10.2 update can be downloaded on the fourth-generation Apple TV using the Settings app. Go to System -->...

Apple today released a new software update for the Apple Watch, upgrading watchOS 3.1.3 to watchOS 3.2. watchOS 3.2 is the second major update to the watchOS 3 operating system that was released in September of 2016. watchOS 3.2 has been in testing since January 30 and Apple seeded seven betas ahead of release. watchOS 3.2 can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone...

Following in the footsteps of Google Maps and Find My Friends, Facebook today announced that users will be able to track their friends and family within Facebook Messenger using a new feature it calls "Live Location." The hour-long location sharing feature is beginning to roll out globally today, and Facebook said it should help friends coordinate with one another when making plans, as well...

Wells Fargo today has deployed card-free access to all 13,000 of its ATMs in the United States, while also announcing that transactions through NFC-enabled mobile wallets -- including Apple Pay -- will launch later this year. Customers will be able to make NFC withdrawals with Apple Pay, Wells Fargo Wallet, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay through a simple NFC-enabled tap and PIN authentication when...

T-Mobile customers who purchase a smartphone or tablet on an Equipment Installment Plan, which divides the device's cost into monthly payments, can enroll in JUMP! for $12 per month and upgrade to a new smartphone or tablet once half the cost of their current device is paid off. T-Mobile covers the remaining payments following trade in. Now, the carrier has added a perk for iPhone and iPad...

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company will begin volume production on Apple's A11 chip in April, with a production capacity of 50 million units of the chip aimed to be completed before July. The A11 chip is slated to power the new iPhone lineup launching later in 2017, including what is believed to be iterative "iPhone 7s" and "iPhone 7s Plus" updates, along with the specced-out "iPhone 8." ...

Amber Rudd, the United Kingdom's home secretary, recently mentioned that it is "completely unacceptable" that the government could not gain access to messages stored on mobile applications protected by end-to-end encryption, such as WhatsApp. Rudd is calling for the UK police and other intelligence agencies to be given access to such apps to thwart any future terrorist plots, coming in the wake...

A Beijing court has overturned a 2016 ruling that Apple's iPhone 6 violated a Chinese manufacturer's patent, which saw intellectual property regulators attempt to bar sale of the phone in the country (via South China Morning Post). Last June we reported that ailing company Shenzhen Baili filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming that the iPhone 6 violated the patent of its 100c smartphone....

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Quell & Company to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a Colony Organizer and a Leather Sleeve for their iOS and Mac devices. The Colony Organizer, priced at $60, is essentially a charging dock for your iPhone and iPad, designed to securely and stylishly hold your devices while they charge. Made from Maple or Walnut wood, the Colony Organizer...

As Nintendo keeps launching new properties onto smartphones, the company has taken different strategies in regards to each app's payment model, including free-to-play (Miitomo, Fire Emblem Heroes) and pay-once-and-play (Super Mario Run). According to a senior official at the company, Nintendo actually "prefers" the Super Mario Run model over Fire Emblem Heroes, despite the more lucrative future...

Casetify, a site that specializes in custom designed iPhone and iPad cases, today debuted a collection of shine-through design cases especially curated for Apple's special edition (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, which also debuts on Friday. In total, 60 different designs make up the collection, which includes repeating pattern designs, favorite quotes, and vector graphics, among other ...

Facebook's Messenger app for iOS devices was today updated with a new Message Reactions feature, which is similar to the Tapback features introduced in Apple's Messages app in iOS 10. Message Reactions are designed to allow Facebook users to react to a message with an emoji symbol to express an emotion without needing to type out a response. Users can choose from emoji like thumbs up, thumbs...