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

Google has updated its eponymous voice-recognition search app with speed improvements the company claims will save users "a combined 6.5 million hours" this year. "Each time you open the app or do a search, everything will load just a bit quicker," said Google VP Tamar Yehoshua in a blog post. Not only should the app feel faster overall, says Yehoshua, news articles that show up in searches ...

Facebook is planning to introduce an optional end-to-end encryption mode for its Facebook Messenger chat platform, currently used by more than 900 million people, reports The Guardian. Citing sources "close to the project," The Guardian says the encryption will be an opt-in feature because turning it on will impact some of the new machine learning features being built into the Messenger app...

The Photos app for iOS allows users to zoom into images using pinch gestures, but the zooming capabilities are limited and don't let users to zoom all the way in to a photo. There is, however, a bug in iOS that allows zooming beyond the current limit, shared this morning by iDownloadBlog. In the iOS Photos app, opening a photo and then using the "Edit" feature and the "Crop" tool to rotate the ...

In an effort to further improve app discoverability, Apple recently implemented a change to the way Top Charts work on the Apple TV. When viewing the Top Paid, Free, and Grossing Charts in the tvOS App Store, Apple TV users no longer see entries for apps they've already downloaded and installed on their set-top box. Individualized, custom Top Chart rankings are now available for all Apple TV...

Mophie today introduced a new line of iPhone battery cases that support wireless charging through a bundled-in charging pad. Called the "Charge Force," Mophie's new wireless charging ecosystem begins fueling up a device the moment it's set down on a compatible charge pad, and prioritizes an iPhone's charge before moving over to the battery case. The new Charge Force-compatible cases aren't...

T-Mobile has announced a new $30 prepaid Tourist Plan for international visitors to the U.S. that offers 1,000 minutes of domestic calling, unlimited domestic and international texting to over 140 countries and regions, and unlimited 2G data with the first 2GB at 4G LTE speeds. Tourists visiting the U.S. can visit a T-Mobile store with an unlocked GSM smartphone, sign up and pay for the plan,...

Popular automation app Workflow has been updated with a number of new features and now provides added support for over 20 new actions. For anyone not familiar with the app, Workflow is an automation tool that lets users create a variety of workflows to accomplish tasks like creating GIFs from a series of photos, pulling images from a web page, translating an article, calculating a tip, and...

While interest in the possible new features of the iPhone 7 remains as high as ever, perhaps the most controversial potential change to Apple's upcoming device is the removal of one long-standing feature – the headphone jack. Rumors suggest that Apple will drop the 3.5mm audio jack to make its next-gen iPhone even thinner, and rely on an upgraded Lightning port, currently used only for...

In March, Apple submitted a formal request to the Indian government in relation to selling refurbished iPhones in the country. Today, however, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that she is "not in favor" of accepting that proposal (via The Economic Times).On Apple's proposal to import refurbished phones and sell in India, Sitharaman said, "We would not be in favour of...

The official Twitter app for iOS was today updated to version 6.54, quietly adding expanded 3D Touch support. As noticed by MacStories, the update enables Peek and Pop gestures within the Twitter app itself, allowing Twitter users with an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus to preview content through a "Peek" and then quickly open it up with a "Pop." Peek and Pop gestures are available for previewing...

It appears speaker and fitness tracker company Jawbone is struggling and could be on the verge of going out of business, with news today suggesting production has ceased on all of its current products. According to a report from Tech Insider, Jawbone has fully ended production on its line of fitness trackers and has sold the remaining inventory to a third-party reseller, and a report from Fortu...

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Elgato to give away the full line of Elgato Eve HomeKit-connected products, including the Eve Room, Eve Weather, Eve Energy, and Eve Door & Window, which perform a range of functions from monitoring a room to motion sensing to turning "dumb" products smart. Eve Room, designed for use inside a home, can tell you the temperature and humidity in...

Samsung is planning to launch its mobile payments service Samsung Pay as a downloadable iOS app, according to a new report from South Korea's ETNews. Called Samsung Pay Mini, the app will allow iPhone users to enter their credit card information to make payments within online stores. Not many details were given about the initial launch, but the app seems to be limited to South Korea and...

VirnetX, currently embroiled in a patent dispute with Apple over FaceTime and iMessage, today asked the judge presiding over the case for additional damages and an injunction to block Apple's popular messaging services. According to Law360, VirnetX argues that an injunction is appropriate because Apple's infringement on VirnetX's patents, which relate to virtual private networking (VPN)...

PayPal recently announced that it plans to pull support for its apps on the Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Amazon Kindle Fire mobile platforms, as the company doubles down on its new and updated apps for iOS and Android (via CNET). Users on the three operating systems in question have until June 30 to access the PayPal app. In the blog post announcing the impending sunset of PayPal's app on...

After a few weeks of news surrounding Nintendo's continued push into smartphone gaming, the company's first app -- Miitomo -- slowly started to disappear from the conversation as users began to abandon the app. Nintendo celebrated an impressive 10 million user downloads a few weeks after Miitomo's release, but since then little news or talk has been circling from Nintendo itself or the game's...

An Apple patent was published today detailing a headset and communications platform that uses point-to-point network technology instead of cellular (via AppleInsider). The application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, called "Point-to-Point ad hoc voice communication", describes a headset invention capable of connecting with similar devices over local wireless ad hoc networks, ...

Holiday booking service Skyscanner has announced a chat bot that enables users to book their vacation and search for holiday inspiration from within Facebook Messenger. The conversation bot's main function is to search for flights on request and redirect users to the Skyscanner website to confirm their booking and complete payment. Users can also ask the bot to search for holiday...