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

Announced today at the AT&T Consumer Industry Analyst Conference, customers of AT&T will soon have another payment option for their wireless phone bills called AT&T Next 24. The plan focuses on lower monthly payments on select phones in the AT&T lineup and a longer grace period to pay them off. AT&T Next 24 is the newest addition to the company's Next program that allows customers to purchase...

Users of Disney's Movies Anywhere service will now be able to access their movies between iOS and Android as a part of an agreement between Apple and Google, reports The Wall Street Journal. The company launched its Movies Anywhere app on iOS in February, which allowed users purchase movies or link their iTunes account to sync eligible films to watch on all of their iOS devices. Now, the...

Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) are still competing for the rights to produce Apple's next-generation A9 chip as a primary supplier is expected to be named by the end of this year, reports Digitimes. According to the report, Samsung has offered Apple lower pricing quotes in an attempt to secure the rights to produce the A9. The company is also willing to...

AT&T and Verizon today announced voice over LTE (VoLTE) interoperability plans that will allow Verizon Wireless and AT&T customers to make VoLTE to VoLTE calls between networks. VoLTE is a feature that is designed to enable high-definition voice calls that significantly improve call quality.Engineers from both companies are working through a full set of requirements, beginning with extensive...

Warehouse club chain Sam's Club will be selling the 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB iPhone 6 at $99, $199, and $299 with a two-year contract beginning November 15th, according to a leaked flyer posted by GottaDeal.com (via BestBlackFriday.com). The flyer notes that each Sam's Club location will have between 40 and 50 units per club, as the promotion will run through December 31. Sam's Club is also...

In recent weeks, multiple carriers including AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, have been competing to offer customers additional data, and today, both Verizon and AT&T have announced more revised data plans that will see customers gaining extra data at no added cost. AT&T is now offering additional data for its $40 and $70 Mobile Share Value Plan subscribers, offering 3GB of data for $40 per month...

Closely following its optimization for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus earlier this month, Skype has updated its Skype app for iOS with faster loading times for chat, new options for saving photos, and general UI tweaks that allow users to easily browse their People lists. In the Skype 5.7 for iPhone update, we addressed some of the most common user suggestions. We can’t wait for you to download the ...

Flipboard today updated its iOS app to version 3.0, bringing a refreshed design along with a number of new features for gathering and consuming content. The app now allows users to choose from over 30,000 topics to follow, with each topic containing stories from publishers, websites, and magazines curated on Flipboard. The service is also launching an in-app section called The Daily Edition,...

Apple's Beats by Dre headphones brand is teaming up with Sanrio to offer two special edition Hello Kitty-themed products to commemorate Hello Kitty's 40th anniversary (via CNET). Beats has designed new Solo2 over-the-ear headphones that feature an all-over Hello Kitty print in a signature red, white, and blue color scheme, plus new urBeats in-ear earphones that feature the same colors along...

In celebration of Halloween, which takes place on Friday, retailers are offering some significant discounts on their products. Mophie, for example, is offering 20 percent off all of its products with the promo code LIVINGDEAD, with the discount valid until 11/2. Speck is offering a similar deal, providing customers with 20 percent off all products aside from iPhone 6 and 6 Plus cases with...

Apple's AirDrop file-sharing feature debuted with the release of OS X Lion and allowed users to transfer files from one Mac to another without using email or an external storage device. The feature made its way to iOS devices with the release of iOS 7, and offered a simple way for users to share files like photos between iOS devices. Now, with the release OS X Yosemite, users can use AirDrop to...

Apple bought Beats Music to improve its standing in the streaming music marketplace, but the Cupertino company has its work cut out if it wants to compete with high-profile rivals Spotify and Pandora. According to App Annie metrics cited by CNET, Beats Music continues to trail its rivals in two important App Store metrics -- downloads and revenue. In the App Annie download rankings, Beats...

Apple is in talks with Iranian distributors that could see the iPhone being sold in the country should Western sanctions lift sufficiently, reports The Wall Street Journal. Senior Apple executives have reportedly met with Iranian distributors at its London headquarters to speak about potentially having Iranian retailers distribute Apple products as premium resellers.In the conversations, the...

Taco Bell today launched a newly updated Live Mas Taco Bell mobile app that's designed to allow Taco Bell diners to place and customize their orders ahead of their arrival at the restaurant. After downloading the app, those seeking a Cheesy Gordita Crunch, Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme, or other food item from Taco Bell can tap log in or start a session as a guest. From there, tapping on the...

In yet another addition to the growing stable of channels available on the Apple TV, A&E's Fyi network and Hallmark's streaming family movie channel Feeln have been added to the set-top box today. As with many other channels, Fyi offers some free content, but complete access to streaming on-demand episodes requires authentication with a participating cable provider. The television, which...

Longtime Apple-exclusive developer Algoriddim has made a name for itself with its popular djay app that first found success on the Mac before moving to iPad and eventually iPhone. The app has been featured prominently by Apple over the years, winning an Apple Design Award in 2011 for the original iPad version, and just this month it was featured as a key music app in promotional materials for the ...

During the Q&A portion of his interview at the WSJ.D conference tonight, Tim Cook was asked about the iPod classic, which was finally discontinued last month five years after its last update. Cook said Apple primarily stopped making the device because it was no longer possible to source the necessary parts from anywhere in the world. Apple does not have plans to reintroduce the iPod classic...

Apple's upcoming wearable, the Apple Watch, takes advantage of a unique interface that arranges apps with circular icons in a cluster-based design for quick and easy access with the device's included Digital Crown, or scroll wheel. YouTuber Lucas Menge has created a mockup of what the Apple Watch interface might look like when translated to a larger device, like the iPhone. As with the Apple...