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

Microsoft today launched the Microsoft Surface Membership, an upgrade plan for Surface devices that allows business customers to "get the latest Surface devices, accessories, support and training." The new plan was first spotted by Thurrott.com (via Engadget). The plan is similar to Apple's iPhone Upgrade Plan. The Surface Membership is available for three Surface devices with payment plans...

Withings today announced the launch of its latest connected health product, debuting the Body Cardio, a scale that incorporates Pulse Wave Velocity measurements to give users an overview of their cardiac health. According to Withings, the Body Cardio represents the first consumer scale that uses Pulse Wave Velocity, a measurement of the velocity at which a person's arterial pulse propagates...

Developer and Tendigi CTO Nick Lee, who previously got an Apple Watch to run Windows 95, today showed off a new project he's been working on, which allows Android to work with an iPhone using a specialized iPhone case. As seen in the video below, Lee created a 3D printed iPhone case and outfitted it with a built-in Lemaker HiKey board, a battery pack, and other hardware so it could support a...

Apple today released an update for the WWDC app for iOS devices and the Apple TV, introducing a number of bug fixes ahead of the kickoff of the conference next Monday. The 5.0.1 update addresses several issues, fixing bugs that could cause news and schedule updates to display in the wrong case and making videos on the Apple TV more stable.Thank you for your bug reports and feedback. This...

Apple Pay will expand to Switzerland on Monday, June 13, marking the seventh country where the mobile payments service is available, according to German-language financial website Finews (via iPhone-Ticker). Swiss private bank Cornèr Bank will purportedly be one of the first participating issuers in Switzerland, but the report did not specify if the country's two "big banks" UBS and Credit...

Microsoft recently announced that it will be holding an afterparty at WWDC this year, taking place next week on Monday, June 13 following Apple's State of the Union keynote (via WinBeta). In partnership with its software-focused company Xamarin, Microsoft's party is centered around "The Future of Apps," and is confirmed to last from 5 PM to 8:30 PM PDT, located in Twitter's headquarters near the...

Apple was granted patents today that include a concept for water-resistant iPhone speakers and a bone conduction technology that could bring advanced noise cancellation to future earbuds (via AppleInsider). The first application granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is titled "Liquid resistant acoustic device" and details a protected acoustic port that uses a special mesh "umbrella"...

Apple has created a new "Apple Music Fashion" channel available to Apple Music subscribers, which features three new Apple Music playlists curated by fashion designer Alexander Wang, among other curated selections from Vogue, Burberry, and more. As shared by Vogue, Wang's playlists, entitled Chill, Hype, and Vibe, feature a mix of R&B slow jams to hardcore rap to "dance-floor ready tracks."...

A minor Instagram update released this morning lists only bug fixes in the description, but has quietly added a long overdue feature - a share sheet extension. With the new version of Instagram, it's possible to use the "share" feature in Photos or another app that supports share extensions to upload content directly to Instagram without needing to open the Instagram app. When viewing images...

Apple today uploaded eight new "Shot on iPhone" videos to its YouTube channel, showcasing the video capturing capabilities of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus through videos taken by actual iPhone users around the world. Each video clip lasts for 16 seconds and is accompanied by music. Video content ranges from a rain storm in Los Angeles to penguins in Antarctica to a hippopotamus in...

Apple today seeded the first version of an upcoming watchOS 2.2.2 update to developers, three weeks after releasing watchOS 2.2.1, a minor update that introduced bug fixes and performance improvements. The watchOS 2.2.2 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 an upcoming 9.2.2 update to tvOS, the operating system designed to run on the fourth-generation Apple TV. The second tvOS 9.2.2 beta comes two weeks after the release of the first beta and three weeks after the public launch of tvOS 9.2.1. tvOS betas are more difficult to install than beta updates for iOS and OS X. Installing the tvOS...

Uber recently introduced a couple of new features into its driver-focused Partner App, intended to address some issues that the company's drivers have with the service, namely destination requests and rider wait fees (via The Verge). The company says that the updates are directed at removing a few of the pains with driving for Uber, and less about addressing ongoing litigation generated by its...

AT&T this morning announced that new 5G data tests are hitting the speeds estimated earlier in the year by the carrier, with results coming in at over 10 gigabits per second in some cases. According to AT&T, the early tests show "positive signs" for customers in the future who would use the multi-gigabit speeds and low latency of 5G, which the carrier even hints as a possible benefit if...

Wireless bluetooth headphones have been gaining traction over the past few years as potentially reliable replacements to the traditional wired headsets offered with most smartphones. Interest has increased only further since rumors began suggesting that Apple's upcoming iPhone 7 may feature a thinner body with no headphone jack, leaving users to rely on the Lightning port and Bluetooth as...

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Parrot to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a Bebop 2 drone with a Skycontroller as part of Parrot's "It's Flying Season" event where the company is discounting its entire line of drones by $30 to $100. During the promotion, all Minidrones are available for $30 off, the Bebop 2, Bepop, and AR Drone 2.0 are available for $50 off, and the...

Twitter recently began rolling out a new live-streaming Periscope button into its iOS app, letting users initiate a real-time broadcast from Twitter's first party app without having to jump into the company's year-old live-streaming video service Periscope. If a user doesn't have Periscope downloaded, the app will nudge them towards its location on the App Store. The new "Go Live" button can...

AgileBits recently announced that its long-in-beta product "1Password for Teams" has officially launched, bringing an enterprise-focused version of the company's popular password management app to iOS, Mac, and Android. 1Password for Teams will let users in a designated team share secure passwords, documents, and other data through AgileBits' heavily encrypted infrastructure. Announced first...