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

A trio of news organizations -- consisting of the Associated Press, Vice Media, and Gannett -- have petitioned a judge in the United States to force the FBI to reveal the exact amount of money it paid for the technology used to crack open an iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook (via BBC). The same group of news organizations sued the FBI last September to gain more information...

Apple today has been granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office regarding an "avatar editing environment," which is the company's patent terminology for a Mii-like app that users can visit to craft a digitized likeness of themselves to use throughout the Apple ecosystem. The patent was originally filed back in October 2011 but was just published by the USPTO today (via Paten...

Popular podcast player Overcast has reached its long-awaited third iteration on the iOS App Store, with improvements to episode management and a slew of other UI enhancements. Designed by Instapaper developer Marco Arment, Overcast 3's most obvious change is that it adopts the design language of iOS 10, such as the use of stacked views which Apple introduced in Apple Music, so screens...

Amazon's latest Fire TV stick, with Alexa built in, is coming to the U.K., after launching in the U.S. back in October. The streaming TV dongle will make its debut in the country on April 6 and have a price tag of £40, with Amazon already taking pre-orders. The device comes with a quad-core processor that Amazon says makes it 30 percent faster than its predecessor. The dongle also...

Both ING Direct and Macquarie have implemented support for Apple Pay in Australia, according to Apple's updated Apple Pay website in the country. Starting today, both ING Direct and Macquarie customers can use Apple Pay for purchases in participating stores and locations with an eligible device. Apple Pay support at the two banks comes more than a year after Apple Pay first became available in ...

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming tvOS 10.2 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the second tvOS 10.2 update and nearly a month after releasing tvOS 10.1.1, the current release version of tvOS. Designed for the fourth-generation Apple TV, the third tvOS 10.2 beta can be obtained by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C to USB-A cable,...

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming watchOS 3.2 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the second watchOS 3.2 beta and nearly 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 --> Software Update...

Following in the footsteps of Snapchat and Instagram, Facebook-owned WhatsApp today announced the launch of "Status," a new feature that's designed to let users share videos, photos, and GIFs that expire each day. The Status addition to WhatsApp is essentially identical to the "Stories" feature in Instagram and Snapchat, both of which allow users to share daily life updates with friends and...

After debuting exclusively inside special pop-up vending machines last year, Snapchat has today begun selling its video-recording Spectacles online for $129.99. Like in the vending machines, the Spectacles come in Coral, Black and Teal, and include a charging case and cable. At the time of writing, shipping estimates sit at a delivery time within the next 2-4 weeks. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel ...

Disney Research has constructed a prototype living room with "ubiquitous wireless power delivery," allowing users to move around while their technology charges without any cables, wires, or charging pads (via Ars Technica). Disney's technology mirrors some early rumors for the 2017 iPhone 8, which suggested Apple was building a long-range wireless charging solution instead of the Apple...

Shares in Taiwanese iPhone assembler Foxconn have reached decade-year highs over growing optimism about Apple's upcoming iPhone 8, due to launch in 2017. According to a new Bloomberg report, Hon Hai Precision Industry – better known as Foxconn – has gained 29 percent in the last year on high expectations for Apple's 10th anniversary iPhone, which has helped the Apple supplier defy a flat...

Developers at U.S. digital consultancy Rain have created a little-known app called Reverb that allows users to access Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant from their Mac desktop or iOS device. Launching the free Mac app prompts users to sign in to their Amazon account, after which a window opens showing the familiar blue Alexa ring on the desktop. Click and hold on the ring with the mouse cursor, ...

Apple is currently promoting interactive children's storybook Green Riding Hood as its Free App of the Week on the iOS App Store. Notable for its hand-drawn artwork, the app by Bobaka introduces kids of ages 5 and under to a healthy lifestyle in a cheery spin-off of the original folk tale. The "organic fairytale" revolves around the bucolic daily life and escapades of a little girl, her...

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Cozy Industries to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a PencilCozy-S stylus cap for the Apple Pencil. The PencilCozy-S, designed to attach to the end of an Apple Pencil, serves multiple purposes. It makes sure the Apple Pencil's end cap is never lost when charging, and it also serves as a dedicated stylus that can be used right alongside the...

YouTube will stop supporting unskippable 30-second ads on the popular streaming video platform beginning sometime in 2018, according to an official statement from Google given to Campaign. The move is said to be a way to provide a better experience and format that works well for YouTube users, as well as the company's advertisers. The advertising focus for YouTube will switch over to a...

Microsoft updated its OneDrive iOS app this week with a couple of features requested by premium users, with the added bonus that the improvements can be used by free 5GB account holders as well. First up, Microsoft has added support for animated GIF files in OneDrive, which should come as good news for users working with marketing and promotional content. The GIFs can now be viewed from within ...

Apple is to set to begin ramping up assembly of the iPhone SE at its Bangalore manufacturing plant in India in the coming months, sources said on Friday (via Reuters). Last month, Apple agreed a deal with the Indian government to commence manufacturing operations in the Karnataka-based facility, with Taiwanese manufacturing partner Wistron reportedly winning the contract to set up the plant...

Verizon has the fastest LTE network in western regions of the United States, while its up-and-coming rival T-Mobile has the top speeds throughout the east coast, according to a recent study by OpenSignal, which crowdsourced signal data from nearly 170,000 smartphone users who downloaded the OpenSignal app. OpenSignal divided the United States into five regions—the Midwest, Northeast,...