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

Wirecard launched its mobile payment solution, boon, in France today, allowing iPhone owners to use prepaid virtual credit cards in their Apple Pay wallet. Launched in the U.K. in May of last year, boon is independent of any bank and offers a pre-paid account with a digital MasterCard that users can top up via wire transfer, debit or credit card. The moble payment app works at any NFC-enabled...

Samsung's investigation into what caused some Galaxy Note7 smartphones to catch fire has concluded that the battery was the main reason, according to sources who spoke to Reuters on Monday. Rumors had suggested Samsung pushed suppliers to meet tighter deadlines for an earlier launch in order to beat the iPhone 7, leading to critical oversights that led to some batteries catching fire. A person ...

Amazon launched Anime Strike this week, the company's first self-branded content to appear under its Channels subscriptions program for Prime members. Anime Strike offers U.S. Prime members access to over 1,000 anime TV shows and movies for an extra $4.99 per month on top of the $99 Prime subscription. Amazon says the adult-themed channel will serve up seinen classics as well as weekly anime...

In the wake of major reveals surrounding the Nintendo Switch and its launch titles, Nintendo has announced a new app coming to smartphone devices that will allow parents to set granular control settings on their family's Switch console (via IGN). The free "Nintendo Switch Parental Controls" app will offer various settings like time limits and remote sleep mode activation, all without a parent...

Foxconn and Sharp are looking closer than ever to building a manufacturing plant within the United States, according to one Sharp executive who said that the plan is still "on the table" (via Nikkei). The plant would mainly be focused on the manufacturing of LCD panels for TV sets and home appliances, but Foxconn is said to be considering moving iPhone production stateside as well. The news...

Feral Interactive has announced it is bringing ROME: Total War – Barbarian Invasion to iPad this March. The title is a standalone expansion pack to the critically acclaimed ROME: Total War, which was faithfully ported to iOS late last year. As with the previous Creative Assembly conversion, the iPad release of Barbarian Invasion promises a full port of the original desktop game, supplemented...

Smart wireless thermostat maker Ecobee is rolling out a firmware update to Ecobee3 devices that brings individual HomeKit support to the device's remote sensors for the first time. The Ecobee3 enables owners to use additional remote sensors to keep track of ambient temperature as well as detect motion in different locations within the home. With firmware version 3.7.0.969, currently rolling...

Google is rolling out an update to Google Maps for iOS that lets users request a ride from Uber without ever having to leave the app. Previously, users of Maps could get a ride cost estimate and start the process of hailing a ride, but would eventually be kicked into the Uber app proper for confirmation and payment. Now however, users can book and pay for an Uber directly within Google...

Snapchat has been updated with an improved universal search feature that makes it easier for users to find friends, groups, stories, and other content on the social network, reports TechCrunch. The new universal search bar is located at the top of the Snapchat app, making it accessible when browsing, sharing a photo, and more, an improvement over the previous search features that were split up ...

Apple today announced that the size limit of a tvOS app bundle has increased from 200MB to 4GB, allowing developers to include more media in their app submissions for a "complete, rich user experience upon installation." Previously, tvOS apps were limited in size to 200MB, but were allowed to download additional resources after being installed. This led to short initial installation times, but ...

Best Buy is holding a flash sale that offers U.S. customers a $100 iTunes gift card for $85, which is 15% off, until 12 p.m. Pacific Time. The gift card is a physical version delivered with free two-day shipping to most U.S. addresses. iTunes gift cards can be used to purchase apps, games, music, movies, TV shows, books, and more on the App Store, iTunes Store, the iBooks Store, and the Mac...

In a "Confirm or Deny" feature by The New York Times this week, PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel "confirmed" that "the age of Apple is over" based on his belief that smartphones will lack further innovation.The age of Apple is over. Confirm. We know what a smartphone looks like and does. It’s not the fault of Tim Cook, but it’s not an area where there will be any more...

Health startup One Drop recently launched its iOS-compatible One Drop Chrome Blood Glucose Monitoring Kit on Apple.com for $99.95. Approved by the FDA and CE in Europe, the kit includes a Bluetooth-enabled blood glucose meter, a chrome lancing device, test strips, and a vegan leather carry case. The blood glucose meter can read results "in just five seconds," transmitting the data to the One ...

Popular roguelike shooter The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is finally available on iOS devices. The highly-anticipated game was originally supposed to come out in early 2016, but its dark themes caused it to be rejected by Apple. Based on a Flash game first released in 2012, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has been available on Macs, PCs, and consoles since 2014. The game was inspired by a biblical ...

Second-screen iPad app Astropad has today launched a new premium version of its drawing suite called "Astropad Studio" that's been built exclusively for the iPad Pro (via TechCrunch). The new service offers users a number of advantages over the basic app -- including 40 MB/s max speed for lower latency, deep Apple Pencil integration, and more -- for a subscription plan of $7.99/month or...

Instagram today announced that more than 150 million people now use its Snapchat-like Stories feature on a daily basis, and now the company is looking to monetize that user base with the introduction of full-screen ads. Just like Snapchat, Instagram will sometimes add a 5-second photo or 15-second video ad in between stories when a user watches more than one in a row. The video ads in...

Apple has partnered with security firm Tresorit so that developers using Apple's CareKit platform will have access to increased privacy options (via Mashable). Tresorit's security technology, ZeroKit, will bring user authentication to patients and healthcare workers, while its end-to-end encryption smarts promise "zero knowledge" sharing of health data. The ZeroKit team announced the...

U.S. airlines will no longer have to make a pre-boarding notification to passengers that the Samsung Galaxy Note7 is prohibited on aircraft, it was announced yesterday. In a statement on its website, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was dropping the requirement because public awareness that the banned Note7 was a fire risk was deemed to have reached a sufficient level, thanks in...