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

Fitbit today announced a new featured called "Sleep Schedule" as an update to its existing iOS and Android apps, aimed at guiding users into an overall more healthy lifestyle through the introduction of consistent sleep patterns. Users who wear their Fitbit devices to bed will gain increased insight into their sleeping schedules, as well as personalized sleep goals and reminders that are all...

Bank of America has begun rolling out support for withdrawing cash from its ATMs using Apple Pay. Approximately 650 card-less ATMs were deployed in the San Francisco area in May, and the technology expanded to 2,400 ATMs, including eleven in the Raleigh-Durham region, in early June. The new ability was also spotted by a Reddit user located in Redondo Beach, California, who took a picture of ...

Apple Maps has been updated with comprehensive Transit information for the city of Denver, Colorado, enabling iPhone users in the area to navigate using public transportation, including buses, subways, and commuter rails. Transit routing was introduced in iOS 9 with support for a limited number of cities, but Apple has since expanded its public transportation coverage for over 20 cities...

Last month, B&O PLAY announced the Beoplay A1, the latest portable Bluetooth speaker in its family of luxury home audio products. B&O PLAY is a brand subsidiary of Danish high-end audio and video manufacturer Bang & Olufsen, known for its principled attention to design (which some say inspired Apple). We decided to take a look at the A1 ultraportable speaker to see if the device justifies its ...

Microsoft has announced it is acquiring natural language and AI messaging startup Wand Labs as part of a larger strategy to build out "conversation as a platform" (via TechCrunch). Founded in 2013 by former Google staffer Vishal Sharma, Wand Labs' stated aim is "to tear down app walls, integrate your services in chat, and make them work together so you can do more with less taps"....

During Apple's opening keynote address at this week's Worldwide Developer's Conference in San Francisco, CEO Tim Cook gave a shout-out to Anvitha Vijay, the youngest ever developer to attend WWDC. Aged just nine, Vijay applied for and won one of 350 coveted Apple scholarships to attend the conference's coding and programming sessions, which are typically dominated by high school and college...

Apple Wallet was designed to allow users to easily place payment options like credit cards, debit cards, and gift cards alongside tickets and passes from companies like Fandango and EventBrite. However, Politico Europe has decided to try to use the app to deliver news to its readers, reports NiemanLab (via AppleInsider). As a part of its coverage of the EU Referendum [next week's nationwide...

Apple today announced the debut of a selection of new features and resources available to developers to help them test, optimize, and analyze their iOS, watchOS, and tvOS apps. Apple’s TestFlight beta testing platform has been updated with support for iOS 10, watchOS 3 and tvOS 10, so developers can begin testing apps incorporating new features like SiriKit immediately and providing betas to...

Apple previewed iOS 10 earlier this week with new rich notifications that enable iPhone users to view photos and videos, listen to audio, or respond to messages directly within notification bubbles. If you receive an iMessage, for example, you will be able to reply to the conversation without leaving the Lock screen. Apple has also provided developers with the ability to update existing...

Despite announcing a handful of new additions to iOS 10 earlier in the week at WWDC, Apple kept silent on whether or not a much-requested "Dark Mode" would be coming to its mobile operating system this year, although it did announce a similar feature would be hitting Apple TV. Yesterday, developer Andrew Wiik shared a few screenshots of what appears to be an early form of Dark Mode running...

Case designs, drawings, and renders for the "iPhone 7" and "iPhone 7 Plus" have been propagating online for several months now, with most agreeing that the 2016 smartphone will adopt the same design language of the iPhone 6s. Apple is still expected to introduce a few new exclusive features on this year's iPhone, possibly including a Smart Connector, dual-lens camera, redesigned antennae bands,...

Facebook has included a secret soccer game in the latest update to its Messenger app to celebrate Euro 2016 and Copa America. To play the game, called "Keepy Up", update the iOS Messenger app and send a friend a soccer ball emoji, then tap the emoji in the chat thread to launch the game, the aim of which is to keep the ball in the air. The game can be started again using the same emoji in ...

An interesting leak has emerged online this morning that suggests Samsung is about to bring a new type of light notification technology to the rear case of its smartphones. Android phones often come with a separate notification LED on the front of the handset that alerts users to missed messages and calls. Otherwise, notifications are usually assumed to relate to the display of a mobile...

During a live streaming event at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Nintendo today hinted at an official launch timeframe for Pokémon GO, a highly anticipated augmented reality game that will allow users to catch Pokémon in the world around them. In a call between Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and Niantic Labs, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto showed off the Pokémon GO Plus device,...

Apple on Tuesday hosted a WWDC 2016 session called What's New in Accessibility that provided an overview of new assisitive technologies and features added to iOS 10, macOS Sierra, tvOS 10, and watchOS 3. Physical and Motor Skills Switch Control can now be used to interact with the tvOS interface using a single physical button, such as a switch on a wheelchair. There is both a cursor...

Apple implemented privacy safeguards on iOS long ago so that when an app requests access to your contacts, calendars, photos, or location, a dialog box pops up asking for express user permission. On iOS 9 and previous software versions, however, that safeguard did not extend to a device's media library. Apple developer Ben Dodson addressed the privacy concern in a blog post in January:I...

In a lengthy new interview with Adweek (via CNET), Samsung's top marketing executive Younghee Lee addressed a few topics centered around how the company "embraced innovation to become a global master of brand marketing." Its accomplishments in the media space have earned it the 2016 Marketer of the Year award at the Cannes Ad Festival. One of Lee's soundbites of the interview is particularly...

Photos have emerged online purporting to show the front of an iPhone 7 with a touch-sensitive home button flush with the front of the handset. Ever since the launch of the original iPhone, Apple's handsets have featured a physical button that users press to return to the home screen, and press and hold for other functions. But photos passed to mobile tech site mobipicker.com appear to...