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

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...

News-focused iOS app Flipboard today announced an update that introduces a new UI which creates custom, curated magazines based on various user "passions." The Version 4.0 update is said to be a direct response to the overabundance of news sources -- from magazines to online outlets and social media -- and serve as a way to "effortlessly get you to the things you love." The heart of the new...

Entertainment network Epix today launched an app for the fourth-generation Apple TV, allowing anyone who is subscribed to Epix through a cable provider access to the service's collection of premium film and television content (via Variety). For those who haven't signed up for Epix yet and download the Apple TV app, they can get a four week free trial to test out the service, but afterwards...

Following weeks of reports and speculation on the potential opening of a United States-based factory built by Apple suppliers Foxconn and Sharp, a report from Reuters today states that Sharp is "taking the lead" on a $7 billion plant in the U.S. that was initially outlined by parent company Foxconn. The plant will break ground sometime in the first half of 2017. The timing of the news...

Ahead of the Chicago Auto Show, Dodge today announced that its new 2018 Durango SRT will come equipped with support for Apple CarPlay, making it the first Durango model to offer the feature. Branded as the "fastest, most powerful and most capable three-row SUV," the Durango SRT includes a 475-horsepower engine, a new exterior design, new interior options, and more. It will include an...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today ruled that a lower district court must decide whether a damages retrial is required in the long running legal battle between Apple and Samsung, reports CNET. The case will return to the same San Jose, California court where it was originally heard by Judge Lucy Koh. From today's ruling:Both parties filed statements urging us to...

Apple Pay is now accepted by 36 percent of merchants in the United States, according to research conducted by retail consulting firm Boston Retail Partners and shared by NFC World. That's up from 16 percent last year. Boston Retail Partners derived its information from a survey of more than 500 top North American retailers. 22 percent of retailers who don't currently support Apple Pay...

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming iOS 10.3 update to public beta testers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the first beta and one day after providing the second iOS 10.3 beta to developers. Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the iOS 10.3 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on their iOS device. ...

YouTube today announced that its new mobile live streaming feature is officially launching to all content creators with 10,000 or more subscribers on their channel, while promising that the rest of YouTube viewers "will have it soon." YouTube has supported live streaming on its website since 2011, but it began a very small beta test of mobile live streaming on iOS devices last summer. To begin ...

Lutron at ISE 2017 today announced that its whole-home systems HomeWorks QS and GRAFIK RA 2 will support Apple HomeKit in March. With a HomeKit-enabled Lutron Connect Bridge, part of the systems, homeowners will be able to to control their lights, window shades and blinds, motion sensors, and more using Apple's new Home app or Siri voice commands on iPhone and iPad. For example, users can...

Even though Jawbone has confirmed that it's leaving the consumer wearables market to focus on clinical health products, the company has doubled down on its legal battle with former rival Fitbit, concerning the latter company's alleged theft of trade secrets (via TechCrunch). The U.S. International Trade Commission has already let Fitbit off the hook for the original claims, but Jawbone is now ...