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

Yesterday on Facebook, the company's dedicated messaging app, Facebook Messenger, posted news regarding its recent milestone of surpassing 1 billion monthly active users. As The Next Web pointed out, that's a growth of 200 million users since January, and roughly suggests that 1 out of every 7 members of the population are logging onto Facebook Messenger each month to text with friends and...

Plex and Sonos today announced a new partnership that will see Sonos' speakers supporting Plex music playback through the Sonos Controller app. Starting this afternoon, Sonos users can access their full Plex music libraries and discover new music via Plex using the Sonos app. For Plex customers who have a Plex Pass for premium Plex features, music collections are automatically organized by...

Microsoft-owned keyboard app maker SwiftKey today launched a brand-new iOS app, this time focused on predictive emoji suggestions. Called Swiftmoji, the app runs a crowdsourced usage data algorithm to begin suggesting its users specific emoji characters when they send text messages, with the app set to eventually learn each user's preferences and recommend frequently-used emoji above those hardly ...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to finally approve a three-year extension on local-sourcing rules within the country, granted to Apple due to its single-brand retail company status selling "cutting-edge technology." Those familiar with the matter, speaking with Bloomberg, claimed that the Indian government as a whole is gearing up to make it easier for all companies like Apple to...

Niantic has decided to postpone the launch of Pokémon Go in Japan today, due to an unexpected email leak that revealed details about the company's rumored sponsor partnership with food chain McDonald's. A source close to the company confirmed the delay to TechCrunch, referring to a specific email chain between Pokémon Go's creators and McDonald's as the reason behind the move. The two...

WhatsApp was forced offline in Brazil yesterday after Facebook failed to provide a court with chat logs related to a criminal investigation – only for the block to be lifted hours later. The blocking order by Brazilian judge Daniela Barbosa came after Facebook argued that it could not provide the court with the requested data since all messages relayed through the service are end-to-end...

French music streaming service Deezer officially opened its doors to the U.S. market on Tuesday, meaning for the first time, anyone in the States can sign up for a $10-a-month subscription. Previously the service was only available to U.S. customers if they owned a Sonos system and paid $20 a month for Deezer Elite, or if they signed up to promotion deals through Bose and Cricket Wireless. ...

Popular writing environment Scrivener made its long-awaited debut on iOS this morning. For those unfamiliar with the Mac application, Scrivener is a scalable long-form writing platform and author project management system featuring multiple editing and organization tools. Note cards, character sketches, place descriptions, and research notes are just some of the options available to...

Earlier this year, Netflix reminded its oldest users that the terms of its grandfathered pricing -- which kept these subscribers at the $7.99 level for two years -- would be coming to a close sometime in the second or third quarter of 2016. In a recent letter to the company's investors, CEO Reed Hastings remarked on the unfortunate churn of its subscriber base who reacted "unexpectedly" to...

Announced earlier this year at CES, Withings today officially launched its latest connected health device, Thermo, a contactless thermometer approved by the FDA that "yields the most precise temperature possible" for parents looking to diagnose not only their children, but themselves. With a connected app, which syncs to Thermo firstly through Wi-Fi but defaults to Bluetooth if Wi-Fi is...

Microsoft announced an overhaul of its Groove music app for iOS yesterday, featuring a redesigned interface and a handful of new features for the subscription-based service, home to over 40 million tracks. The 3.5.6 update promises a much faster sign-in for mobile users of the $9.99-per-month service and introduces a new Explore view to the UI where users can discover popular songs and new...

Apple has been warned by the Iranian government that it faces having its products banned in the country unless it officially registers with Iran's anti-smuggling office. "If Apple will not register an official representative in Iran within the next few days, all iPhones will be collected from the market," said the director of Iran's anti-smuggling project on Sunday. The ultimatum was...

The BBC released a new app today called BBC+ which aims to let users customize the content offered by the British broadcaster for a more relevant, personalized experience. The idea behind the app is to work as a customized one-stop portal for all things BBC that corrals content from across the service, from TV and radio to exclusively online bitesize and longform content. Users are...

The U.S. Army Special Operations Command is looking to switch from Android smartphones for its Tactical Assault Kits to iPhones, according to Military.com's DoDBuzz. The switch away from Android, and specifically Samsung devices, is largely because the devices aren't reliable enough. The iPhone is “faster; smoother. Android freezes up” and has to be restarted too often, the source said....

Apple today released a new update for tvOS, the operating system designed to run on the fourth-generation Apple TV. tvOS 9.2.2 comes two months after the release of tvOS 9.2.1, a small bug fix update, and almost four months after the launch of tvOS 9.2, a significant update that introduced features like Bluetooth keyboard support and dictation. The new tvOS 9.2.1 update can be downloaded over...

Apple today released a new software update for the Apple Watch, upgrading watchOS 2.2.1 to version 2.2.2. The watchOS 2.2.2 update comes two months after the release of watchOS 2.2.1, a minor update that also focused mainly on bug fixes. The 2.2.2 update can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software Update. To install the update, the...

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming watchOS 3 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the second beta and more than a month after first unveiling watchOS 3 at its 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference. The third watchOS 3 beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on an iPhone by going to General --> Software update. To install the...

Apple today provided developers with the third beta of tvOS 10, the next-generation operating system designed to run on the fourth-generation Apple TV. tvOS 10 beta 3 comes two weeks after the release of tvOS beta 2 and more than a month 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...