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

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with AyeGear to give two lucky winners a chance to win an item of clothing capable of holding tons of gear. AyeGear makes jackets, travel vests, hoodies, and t-shirts with an abundance of pockets that can hold the iPhone, iPad, accessories, and more. AyeGear's J25 Jacket, for example, is so named because it has 25 separate pockets inside that can hold...

Apple has quietly removed the eBay app from the list of featured Apple Watch apps on its website in the United States, exactly two weeks after the launch of the Apple Watch. While eBay was the only app listed on Apple's page that has yet to be updated with Apple Watch support, it's unclear whether the removal is simply to avoid confusion by limiting mentions to apps that are available or if...

LifeMap Solutions, co-creators of the ResearchKit Asthma Health app [Direct Link], yesterday published a blog post detailing the success of the first few weeks of the app's lifespan and how it has engaged its users in return visits as much as some social media and gaming apps on iOS. In the official ResearchKit blog post, LifeMap Solutions details the preliminary findings of the Asthma Health...

One of the main focal points of the Apple Watch is communication, and as such, it offers a Messages app much like the one on the iPhone. It's not quite as robust as the Messages apps available on other iOS and Mac devices, but Messages on Apple Watch lets you send pre-made replies, animated and non-animated emoji, and full voice-to-text messages. For those of you who want to learn the ins and ...

Kantar Worldpanel has released new smartphone operating system market share data for the first quarter of 2015, providing a regional breakdown of Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and other mobile platform adoption in the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, China, Japan, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico during the three-month period ending March....

Consumer Reports has crowned the Apple Watch as its top-rated smartwatch in its test of 11 smartwatch models from eight manufacturers, including the Asus ZenWatch, LG G Watch R, Moto 360, Pebble Steel, Samsung Gear S and Sony SmartWatch 3. The not-for-profit organization tested the Apple Watch and competing devices for step count accuracy, screen readability, ease of use, scratch resistance,...

Popular iPhone accessory maker Mophie is known for its line of battery cases and external backup batteries, which provide extra power at a decent price. The company introduced battery cases for the iPhone 6 early this year, but as of today, Mophie's got an all new iPhone 6 battery case with a brand new feature -- water protection. The Juice Pack H2Pro is Mophie's first waterproof product,...

One of the Apple Watch's most important features is the ability to keep you connected to your notifications without needing to have your iPhone in your hand or even in your pocket all of the time. I often miss important text messages because my iPhone is too far away from me to hear my alerts. But with Apple Watch, all of your notifications are at your fingertips, as if someone is next to you, ...

Connected file management service Dropbox today announced an update to its iPhone and iPad apps that will debut a trio of new features to iOS devices, bringing easier navigation, introducing communication features, and allowing the creation of Microsoft Word documents from within the app itself. Right from the home screen the Dropbox team has decided to make big changes, doing away with a...

Apple updated its Apple Pay participating issuers list today with 24 additional banks, credit unions and financial institutions supporting the contactless payment service in the United States. Apple Pay now has nearly 250 participating issuers nationwide, and several hundred more plan to support the NFC-based mobile payment service in the future. The full list of new Apple Pay participating...

Following in the line of automobile companies offering connected Apple Watch apps to control aspects of their vehicle, like Porsche Car Connect, German car manufacturer Volkswagen today announced a similar Apple Watch app that will bring most of the features of the company's Car-Net mobile app to a user's wrist. The app will allow customers to lock and unlock a car's doors (on 2016-and-later ...

OtterBox today announced the availability of its new Symmetry Series folio cases for iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 in black with faux leather or white with a tan fabric cover. The cases feature a one-piece protective shell and slim folio that wraps around to cover the screen, alongside a micro suede interior cover to keep the tablet's display free of scratches. The Symmetry Series cases for...

While not an official partner for Apple Pay, the presence of NFC terminals at many Home Depot locations across the country has enabled the contactless payment service to work as normal at select stores in the home improvement chain. Today, however, a user on Reddit received a response from Home Depot customer care that suggests the company may soon begin quietly phasing out support for Apple Pay...

Belkin today announced that it's partnering with lighting company Cree to add the Connected Cree lightbulb to the Belkin WeMo connected-home ecosystem. In the summer of 2015, Connected Cree bulbs will be compatible with the ZigBee-to-WiFi WeMo Link bridge and will be able to be controlled with the WeMo app that's used to control all of Belkin's WeMo devices. The Connected Cree bulb's...

Google today announced an acquisition of iOS-based time management app Timeful, which first launched last year. When it was released, Timeful was described as "the first intelligent time manager" for mobile devices, aiming to help users manage their lives by combining a time management app with a calendar, a to-do list, and reminders designed to reinforce positive habits. In its current...

There are few third-party band options available for the Apple Watch at the current point in time given that it just launched a week and a half ago, but those of you who purchased a stainless steel Apple Watch with a Classic Buckle or Modern Buckle band can use the components from those bands to connect standard watch bands to your Apple Watch devices. In a newly published video, Lewis...

Microsoft has included several redesigned emoji in Windows 10 that resemble Apple's emoji found on iPhone, iPad and Mac, including a wide range of faces and even the "sassy" information desk person (via Emojipedia). The update also includes skin tone modifiers, the middle finger, a new haircut emoji and more, although country flags are still not supported on the upcoming operating system....

Originally announced by third-party developers Lane Musgrave and John Arrow back in early March, one of the biggest concerns of the battery-boosting accessory "Reserve Strap" was its use of the Apple Watch's heart rate sensor as a way to provide power to the wearable. Although it was unconfirmed, there was always a possibility of the Reserve Strap obstructing normal functions of the heart rate...