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

Starbucks today updated its iOS app to add support for Apple Pay, making it possible for iOS users to reload their Starbucks cards using Apple's payments service. Starbucks was listed as an Apple Pay app partner when Apple Pay launched in October, but it has taken several months for the feature to be available to Apple Pay users. Apple Pay can only be used in the Starbucks app for reloading...

Authorities from two major U.S. cities and London on Tuesday reported (via Reuters) that smartphone theft has dropped drastically since the release of remote-access "kill-switches" that allow users to lock their missing smartphone before any crucial information is stolen. Specifically, the number of stolen iPhones dropped 25 percent in New York, 40 percent in San Francisco, and 50 percent in...

The latest report from network monitoring firm RootMetrics shows that both Sprint and T-Mobile made improvements in overall performance during the second half of 2014. Verizon was ranked as the top carrier in the United States for the third consecutive study, trailed by AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, based on several categories: speed, reliability, call performance, text performance and data...

Apple CEO Tim Cook will speak at a White House cybersecurity summit on Friday at Stanford University, according to The Hill. The summit is another battleground in which tech companies and the government will discuss encryption. The White House is expected to reveal its next executive action on cybersecurity at the summit, which will bring together tech executives, leading academics and...

ChowNow has updated close to 700 custom-built food and restaurant apps with Apple Pay support, nearly two months after becoming the first online ordering platform to integrate the mobile payments service. The updated apps enable iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users to pay for their food and drinks at hundreds of independent restaurants located throughout the United States."By giving independent...

The latest numbers from Canaccord Genuity reveal that Apple accounted for 93% of mobile profits during the fourth quarter, leading the financial services company to raise its price target on Apple shares from $135 to $145. The firm also predicted that iPhone adoption could grow to 650 million users through 2018 as more smartphone owners upgrade to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Barron's...

American Express over the weekend released a new advertisement called "Retrospective" that promotes how its timeless safety and security are now available through Apple Pay. The 30-second spot takes a trip down memory lane as it recounts the brand's historic past, starring a number of famous cardholders such as Jerry Seinfeld and Tina Fey in both the past and present. The advertisement first ...

Bluetooth-enabled appliances and electronics that connect everyday household items to smartphones and tablets are becoming increasingly popular, giving us a whole range of connected things -- thermostats, coffee makers and mixing bowls, cars, and even connected toothbrushes, like the Oral-B SmartSeries toothbrush lineup, which features Bluetooth toothbrushes that are compatible with an iPhone...

Philips released an update to its Philips Hue app for iOS yesterday afternoon and users quickly found that the new version of the app continually crashed, making it impossible for them to control their Hue lights. As of this morning, Philips has removed the app from the App Store to prevent it from being downloaded, but thousands of Hue customers have already updated their iOS devices and have ...

SwiftKey is one of the most popular third-party keyboard options on iOS, and today it received a major update adding a highly requested feature -- emoji. Emoji can be accessed by tapping on the smiley at the bottom of the keyboard, and there's also a new predictive emoji tool that learns the most frequently used emoji and suggests them while typing. We've built emoji right into SwiftKey...

FiftyThree today announced an update to its popular drawing and illustration app Paper that will give users of the app free access to every tool and feature previously locked behind an in-app purchase. The app is free to download, but users who wanted a more in-depth editing and drawing suite had to pay up to $3.99 for the entire "essential tools" package (originally priced at $7.99) to get...

Verizon today announced (via Re/code) that it is planning on dropping the price of most of its More Everything data plans by $10 per month, making its service offerings more appealing in the increasingly competitive cellular market. Verizon's 1GB data plan is now priced at $30 instead of $40, and a 2GB plan is priced at $40 instead of 50. Price drops extend all the way up to 8GB, available for ...

Apple continued to be the leader in mobile ad revenue by a significant margin in 2014, based on the latest insights from Opera Mediaworks (via TechCrunch). According to the report, iOS captured 51.67% of ad revenue and 27.18% of traffic during the fourth quarter to close out the year as the leader in dollars earned. Meanwhile, Android trailed in second in revenue with a 41.20% share despite...

HTC last week published a video to its YouTube channel, HTCAmerica, which satirizes HTC's biggest competitors - namely Apple and Samsung - with a song sung by rapper Greg Carr, known as "Doc G." The video, fully titled "Doc G's HTC Anthem "Hold the Crown" w/ David Bruce," centers around the rapper interacting with various people dressed up as smartphones from the various companies. Carr, known ...

Following the October release of its redesigned "Selfie" 4-in-1 Photo Lens for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Olloclip is today introducing two new lens sets to expand the range of options available to iPhone photographers. The new Macro 3-in-1 Lens offers three new magnification levels at 7x, 14x, and 21x, while the new Telephoto + Circular Polarizing Lens brings 2x magnification alongside a...

The end may be near for RadioShack retail stores after a dire September warning that the company would not be able to finance operations "beyond the very near term" without a sale, investment, or company restructuring. According to Bloomberg, RadioShack may be planning to sell half of its stores to Sprint and close the other half in a move that would potentially see the termination of the...

While much of the wearables focus remains on the upcoming Apple Watch launch, Pebble continues to push forward with its own smartwatch platform that began as a record-setting Kickstarter project and has blossomed into a successful company. Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky recently discussed the company's extensive plans for new hardware in the upcoming year, along with a few details of Pebble's...

Apple has never shown much interest in styluses, even as companies like Samsung and Microsoft have embraced them as major selling points for smartphones and tablets. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs even went as far as saying "If you see a stylus, they blew it," on one occasion, and at Macworld in 2007, he asked "Who wants a stylus? Nobody wants a stylus." Apple's focus on the fingertip as the best ...