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

As a part of its push into mobile gaming, Nintendo is considering creating physical controllers and other kinds of hardware for different types of mobile games and experiences, reports Polygon. Shinya Takahashi, Nintendo's general manager of entertainment planning and development, discussed the possibility at the company's annual shareholders meeting. "Physical controllers for smart device...

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming watchOS 3 update to developers for testing purposes, roughly three weeks after first unveiling watchOS 3 at its 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference. The second watchOS 3 beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on an iPhone by going to General --> Software update. To install the update, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent...

Apple today provided developers with the second beta of tvOS 10, the next-generation operating system designed to run on the fourth-generation Apple TV. tvOS 10 beta 2 comes three weeks after the operating system was first shown off at Apple's 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference tvOS betas are more difficult to install than beta updates for iOS and OS X. Installing the tvOS beta requires the...

BlackBerry has announced that it will no longer manufacture the BlackBerry Classic, meaning that the touchscreen smartphone will no longer be available once remaining stock is depleted through official sales channels.For many years, Classic (and its BBOS predecessors) has been in our portfolio. It has been an incredible workhorse device for customers, exceeding all expectations. But, the Classic...

Apple is demanding price cuts on components for the new iPhone from its overseas suppliers to maintain its high profit margins, despite a global slowdown in smartphone sales, according to Taiwanese website DigiTimes. The report claims several large Taiwan-based component suppliers such as Foxconn, Largan Precision, and Pegatron have already been affected, while strong competition in Greater...

Walmart has announced that its mobile payments solution Walmart Pay is now available in 19 more U.S. states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Last month, Walmart Pay widely expanded to Alabama, Georgia,...

Canadian music and TV personality George Stroumboulopoulos will kick off a Canadian "takeover" of Beats 1 with an hourlong segment on July 2 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, Apple has confirmed to the Financial Post. George Stroumboulopoulos, left, and Beats 1 host Zane Lowe (Financial Post) Part entertainment, part education, these hour-long sessions are a chance for local talent to shine a light...

Audio technology company Bose this week announced a new wireless Bluetooth speaker aimed at creating a do-it-yourself workflow for kids interested in electronics. Called the BOSEbuild Speaker Cube, the $150 kit connects with a companion Bose app, giving users a step-by-step set of instructions to build a fully functioning Bluetooth speaker, along with other experiments and activities (via TechCrun...

Facebook has announced a raft of new features for its Messenger Platform to help developers increase chatbot capabilities and enhance user engagement and interaction. The update includes dynamic buttons for quick user replies, customer account linking for businesses, wider support for content types like video and audio, and user ratings and feedback. Facebook has also announced an updated ...

Facebook is shutting down news creation and curation app Paper, reports The Verge. Paper, which debuted in 2014, was the first product to come out of Facebook Creative Labs, which has since been dismantled. Paper, a Flipboard competitor, consisted of a news reader that pulled content from a user's Facebook News Feed and a variety of well-known online publications, organizing it all into a...

T-Mobile today announced that the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be available in "select MetroPCS stores in Florida" beginning tomorrow, July 1, with a nationwide rollout expected to launch soon. T-Mobile acquired MetroPCS -- which is a prepaid alternative to traditional subsidized carriers -- back in 2013, but this will mark the first time Apple's iPhone will appear as an option on MetroPCS'...

Following last summer's inaugural, one-day sale event called "Prime Day," Amazon this morning confirmed that it will be bringing back the Black Friday-like discounts this summer on July 12 (via Fortune). The company is referring to the second entry of Prime Day as the "biggest Amazon event ever," exceeding over 100,000 deals when it launches at midnight PT on the 12th. As last year, Prime Day...

Google has announced a smart new organizational feature for its note-taking and to-do list app, Google Keep. The app can now intelligently categorize users' notes by topic, such as food, books, and travel, and entries can be searched by keyword using topic shortcuts which appear in the search bar. Google Keep, which also offers a web interface, includes other features like list support, ...

Popular drawing and sketching app Procreate Pocket for the iPhone can be downloaded for free this week through Apple's Apple Store app. Procreate Pocket has a wide range of painting, sketching, and drawing tools for making art on the iPhone. On the iPhone 6s, it features 3D Touch pressure sensitivity, and it can be used with an Apple Watch for quick color selection. There's a full layering...

Apple today provided developers with the fourth beta of an upcoming 9.2.2 update to tvOS, the operating system that runs on the fourth-generation Apple TV. The fourth tvOS 9.2.2 beta comes one week after the release of the third beta and more than a month after the minor tvOS 9.2.1 update. tvOS 9.2.2 has been in testing since May 23. tvOS betas are more difficult to install than beta updates...

A new image found on microblogging service Weibo shows off what Lightning adaptor EarPods might look like if Apple launches the iPhone 7 without a 3.5mm headphone jack, which has been gaining traction since it was first rumored last November. The images, discovered by iPhone7.nl (Google Translate), are almost certainly a knockoff due to a disproportionate Lightning plug that appears far wider...

Porsche has announced that its new 2017 Panamera luxury sedan will be equipped with a 12.3-inch touchscreen that supports CarPlay. The next-generation Porsche Communication Management system also features online navigation, Porsche Connect, and a new voice control system that responds to natural language input. The all-new 2017 Porsche Panamera will arrive at U.S. dealerships in January...

New live streaming app Live.ly has shot to the top of the App Store, beating regular jostlers Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and Instagram to the coveted #1 ranking in the Top Free iPhone Apps chart (via TechCrunch). Live.ly lets users broadcast video of what they are doing in real time, and has received over half a million downloads since its full rollout last Thursday. The app's...