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

As part of its Black Friday Deals Week, Amazon lowered the price of its Echo family of smart speakers, before returning them to their regular prices. Now Amazon has discounted the devices again for a limited time in the U.S. as part of a "Holiday Deals" promotion. The full-size Echo speaker is $40 cheaper at $139.99, while the smaller Echo dot is available for $39.99 instead of its regular...

Apple Maps has been updated with comprehensive transit data for Salt Lake City, Utah, enabling iPhone users in the city and certain suburbs to navigate using Utah Transit Authority public transportation, including the TRAX light rail system, FrontRunner commuter train, S-Line streetcar, and buses. Apple introduced Transit in Maps as part of iOS 9 in select cities around the world, including...

The Unicode Consortium has announced a proposed update to its emoji documentation that provides support for regional flag emojis. As noted by Emojipedia, the new functionality and guidelines would allow for Apple and other vendors to implement emojis for regions such as U.S. states, Canadian provinces and territories, or countries of the United Kingdom. Flags representing California or...

Apple has announced it is on track to release Swift 3.1 in the spring of 2017, corresponding to some point between March and June. Swift 3.1 is intended to be source compatible with Swift 3.0 and will contain a few enhancements to the core programming language. Improvements will also be made to the Swift Package Manager, Swift on Linux, compiler, and Standard Library. Swift 3.1...

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Pad & Quill to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a huge prize package that includes a range of Pad & Quill products for the iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, and MacBook. All of Pad & Quill's products are made from high-quality leather and are hand assembled. The Pad & Quill holiday giveaway includes a Roll Top Leather Backpack, an Oxford Leather...

Samsung today announced that an update to its now-infamous line of Galaxy Note7 smartphones will render the remaining devices within the United States useless, as a means to further ensure the safety of its customers who still own the malfunctioning smartphone. Even though "more than 93 percent of all recalled Galaxy Note7 devices" have been returned, Samsung's December 19 update will ensure...

Nomad has been a well-known third-party Apple accessory manufacturer for a few years, creating leather cases for iPhones and iPads, Apple Watch bands, and battery packs that integrate directly into charging cables. The company's newest product is the $99.95 Nomad Advanced Trackable PowerPack, a 9,000 mAh mobile battery that is built with Nomad's usual "ultra-rugged construction," with an added...

Best Buy is having a weekend holiday sale which will see it discounting a wide range of Apple products, from iPads and iPhones to various Mac models. All Best Buy iPad models are on sale. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro is available for $125 off, which drops the price on the entry-level 32GB model from $599.99 to $474.99. All 12.9-inch iPad Pro models are available at a $100 discount, dropping the...

Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed that Nintendo's upcoming iPhone game Super Mario Run will require an always-on internet connection to play, which Miyamoto said is "a requirement that's been built into the game to support security." The security element is one of the big reasons why the company decided to launch on iPhone first, Miyamoto said, and it helps the game's three separate modes function...

Microsoft has announced that Cortana for iOS is coming to the U.K. and that the company is readying a significant design overhaul based on user feedback. Cortana is to Windows what Siri is to macOS, but Microsoft's voice-activated virtual assistant has been available on iOS in the United States for precisely a year now, allowing PC users with Apple devices to sync their reminders,...

Microsoft yesterday released an iPad version of popular Office diagramming and graphic app Visio. The iOS incarnation is limited to viewing Visio documents, leaving the editing of files to the desktop application, and instead focuses on bringing a touch-based browsing experience with intuitive pan and zoom features to users on the go. Visio diagrams often comprise details that customers...

Google has issued an update to its recently redesigned Gmail app for iOS that brings a few notable changes to email composition and management on mobile devices. In version 5.0.7, an option in the Settings panel lets users select their favorite browser (Safari or Chrome) for opening links in emails. Users are now also able to select multiple messages in their inbox by tapping on the...

Electric vehicle charging network ChargePoint today announced a new partnership with Apple that sees its electric vehicle charging stations listed within Apple Maps. Drivers can click on new Electric Vehicle Charger badges in Apple Maps to get directions to charging stations, find hours of operation, and get details on pricing. When at a ChargePoint charging station, iPhone users can...

Rumors last month suggested Apple Music rival Spotify was in advanced talks to acquire audio distribution platform SoundCloud, but it appears discussions have ended after Spotify pulled out of the deal. According to TechCrunch, though months of talks took place, Spotify ultimately decided not to purchase SoundCloud because of worries the acquisition would negatively impact its impending IPO. S...

Adobe today announced a new update out now for its Lightroom iOS and Android apps, bringing an all-new photo editing experience to mobile that improves the app's ease of use thanks to a new one-handed interface. To create an improved editing experience Adobe talked to professional and casual photographers, who helped hone Lightroom's new toolset. First, the company has organized similar tools ...

Pokémon Go recently announced that Sprint and Starbucks locations have officially been added into the game as Pokéstops and Gyms. The Sprint collaboration began yesterday with over 10,500 Sprint locations around the United States supporting the GPS-based game, including Sprint, Boost Mobile and Sprint at Radioshack stores. In-store charging stations are also being offered to players so they can...

Rockstar Games has officially released Bully: Anniversary Edition on mobile devices for $6.99, including iOS [Direct Link] and Android. The launch of the mobile app for the game comes ten years after Bully originally launched in the fall of 2006 for the PlayStation 2. Images via TouchArcade The new "Anniversary Edition" includes all of the content from the game's "Scholarship Edition" --...

Pebble CEO and founder Eric Migicovsky took to the company's blog yesterday to personally confirm its imminent closure, following media reports earlier on Wednesday that Fitbit has acquired its technology, software assets, and other intellectual property. Dear Pebblers, Thank you all for being such loyal supporters and champions of the Pebble community and brand. You helped start something...