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

Social networking site Facebook is currently working on an app for set-top boxes like the Apple TV, reports The Wall Street Journal. The new app is said to be part of a series of projects aimed at expanding Facebook's video content offerings and expanding revenue sources. Citing sources with knowledge of Facebook's plans, The Wall Street Journal says Facebook is speaking with media companies...

Apple does not break out sales of the Apple Watch like it does for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, but according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the Apple Watch set all time unit and revenue records during the first fiscal quarter of 2017, suggesting significant sales during the holidays. Cook said holiday demand was "so strong" that Apple "couldn't make enough." He went on to say the company is thrilled...

During today's earnings call for the first fiscal quarter of 2017 (fourth calendar quarter), Apple announced that its services revenue is up an impressive 18.4 percent year-over-year. Services brought in $7.17 billion during the quarter, up from $6 billion in the year-ago quarter. Services revenue now nearly matches Mac revenue, which was at $7.24 billion. The "Services" category includes...

Google today announced that the code for Chrome for iOS is being added to its Chromium project and will be available through the company's open-source repository going forward. According to Google, Chrome for iOS was previously kept separate from the rest of the Chromium project because of the "additional complexity" required for the platform, such as the need for the browser to be built using ...

Streaming media application Plex today announced its acquisition of Watchup, a free app that offers viewers a collection of local, national, and world news videos from 160 trusted news sources that they can further personalize by liking and disliking each news story (via TechCrunch). Watchup originally began as an iPad app back in 2012, and since launched apps on iOS, Apple Watch, Apple TV,...

Nintendo today rolled out an update to Super Mario Run that includes a collection of feature additions and bug fixes, along with a new "Easy Mode." The relaxed mode turns off time limits for each course and provides players with unlimited bubbles, so they can take as long as they want to complete a course and die as many times as needed to get past tricky sections. The update comes the same...

Apple was granted a pair of patents on Tuesday that depict a mobile augmented reality system that can detect objects in the surrounding environment and overlay them with virtual information. Picked up by AppleInsider, the first patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is titled "Wearable information system having at least one camera" and describes an AR device with intelligent...

Dropbox yesterday officially launched its collaborative editing software called Paper, following six months of public beta testing. Similar to Google Docs, the service offers Dropbox account holders a minimalist document editor and conversational tools for collaborative projects. Paper lets users review and revise work in a single, shared space which includes an image gallery feature, advanced ...

Lyft yesterday quietly announced a new calendar integration feature for its popular ride-hailing app, allowing users to sync their calendar to search and select upcoming event locations. That's right: When requesting a ride, you no longer have to fumble through multiple apps to find the name or address of wherever it is you need to go. Just sync your calendar once and you're all set.To...

German soccer club FC Bayern Munich announced a sponsorship deal with Apple Music on Monday, offering exclusive playlists and other content to fans of the team that currently tops the Bundesliga, which is regularly broadcast on TV in over 200 countries. According to iPhone-Ticker.de, Apple Music is to be regarded as FC Bayern's official music service, with the first playlist already available...

Nintendo on Tuesday announced it is delaying the release of the currently untitled mobile version of Animal Crossing, which was previously slated for release before the end of March (via The Verge). Nintendo said the much-anticipated mobile game won't appear until the following financial year, which runs from April 2017 to March 2018. Nintendo had originally planned to launch mobile games...

Following the release of iOS 10.2.1 on January 23, Apple has stopped seeding iOS 10.2, the previous version of iOS that was available to consumers. Customers who have upgraded to iOS 10.2.1 will no longer be able to downgrade their devices to iOS 10.2. Apple routinely stops signing older versions of software updates after new releases come out to encourage customers to stay up to date. iOS...

Electronic payments company Square today announced a new partnership with Apple that will allow small businesses to obtain free processing fees with Apple Pay and compatible Square Readers. Starting today, eligible small businesses across the U.S. will have the chance to process over $12,000 worth of Apple Pay payments for free (based on the 2.75 percent contactless transaction fee charged by...

Starbucks today launched a limited iOS beta test for a new artificial intelligence assistant called "My Starbucks barista," which will let customers order their favorite menu items by speaking with a virtual barista within a new messaging interface in the company's mobile app (via TechCrunch). If they choose to, users can also opt to simply type their order to Starbucks, similar to chatbots...

T-Mobile USA today introduced a limited time promotion offering customers a prepaid MasterCard with a new smartphone purchase starting February 1. The card is worth 11.2% of the smartphone's retail price, which T-Mobile advertises as covering more than the sales taxes that a customer would pay. The deal is valid on every new smartphone that T-Mobile sells, including iPhones. Each smartphone...

Fitbit is set to announce cuts of between 5 to 10 percent to its workforce later on Monday amid lower-than-expected fourth quarter results. According to The Information, the job cuts are expected to affect between 80 and 160 people across multiple departments and save the company $200 million in costs. The Q4 results will be the second consecutive quarter in which Fitbit has missed its...

Apple has allegedly begun removing iOS apps originating in Iran from the App Store, according to reports over the weekend. Tech news site Techrasa posted a story claiming that the biggest e-commerce service, Digikala, had its app removed from the store a few days ago (Via TechCrunch). The removal appears to relate to international trade laws. No official App Store exists for Iran, so Iranian...

Apple Maps has been updated with comprehensive transit data for the Houston, Texas metropolitan area, enabling iPhone users in the city and select Harris County suburbs to navigate using public transportation, including METRO buses and METRORail. Amtrak also goes through Houston, as previously supported by Apple Maps. Apple introduced Transit in Maps as part of iOS 9 in select cities around...