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

Sprint today announced it is increasing data plan allowances for higher-tier customers in an attempt to compete with AT&T, which recently launched a new promotion that doubles the data available to some subscribers. Sprint also is waiving its existing monthly device access fee until 2015 for new customers. Sprint's double data promotion is available to new and existing customers who sign up by...

Smartphone sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech (via Business Insider) indicates consumer interest in the iPhone 5c remained strong in the UK ahead of the iPhone 6 announcement, with the lower-cost phone actually becoming the top-selling smartphone in the country for the month of August. Kantar Worldpanel ComTech According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Apple's share of smartphone sales...

The Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) Online has officially launched for the iPad following its debut at the Pokemon World Championships in August. The title is the first licensed Pokemon game to be released for iOS, and allows players to build a deck of Pokemon cards and battle against other players while obtaining booster packs. Users can also enter tournaments for prizes, and customize the ...

Apple's iPhone 5 Battery Replacement Program now covers iPhone 5 models that had their displays replaced with third-party components, according to a new posting on Apple's GSX site for service providers that was brought to MacRumors' attention. Previously, iPhone 5 models that had their displays replaced were barred from receiving a brand new battery replacement from Apple. The company...

Foxconn has begun another large-scale hiring effort for its factories in Shenzhen and Zhengzhou in order to help out with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus production, reports Digitimes. Because working on assembly lines is no longer as attractive as before for workers in China, Foxconn is having issues recruiting sufficient numbers of workers. The company has been hosting hiring events recently to ...

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has given Apple the second and final regulatory license it needs to begin selling the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in China, reports Reuters. Apple received the first regulatory license from the Chinese government earlier this month, and it is now likely that both new handsets will launch in the country soon. A supposed internal...

Jawbone has launched its new Up app for the iPhone, which utilizes Apple's Health app and HealthKit to track and deliver advice based on a user's diet and physical activity. Not to be confused with Jawbone's other Up app, this newest app does not require the company's fitness tracker and works with over a hundred apps and devices, including MyFitnessPal, Strava Running and Cycling, IFTTT, and...

With the release of iOS 8, Safari has gained the ability to display Animated PNGs (APNGs). Originally proposed in 2004 as a replacement to animated GIF images, APNGs offers more color and transparency support over GIFs. The Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG) file format is a non-standard extension to the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) specification. It allows for animated PNG files that ...

AT&T today announced that it is launching a new limited-time promotion for its Mobile Share Value Plans, offering double the amount of data for new and existing customers with monthly data plans of 15GB or more. Under the promotion, customers with monthly shared data plans of 15GB will now be receiving 30GB of data, while those on 20GB, 30GB, 40GB, and 50GB plans will see an increase to...

Apple may be looking to launch the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in China on October 10, according to an internal Apple retail employee memo shared by Techweb (Google Translate). The memo also states that "prototype" iPhone 6 units will be put on store shelves starting October 7, allowing customers to experience both models before their launch three days later. It was reported earlier this...

As of today, Apple has stopped signing the iOS 7.1.2 firmware, which will prevent users from downgrading from iOS 8 back to iOS 7 (via iClarified). This means that users who are unhappy with the changes that iOS 8 have brought or unsatisfied with bugs introduced with the update will be unable to downgrade back to iOS 7.1.2. Apple's decision to stop signing iOS 7.1.2 is not unusual, as the...

Apple's new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets are dominating the Japanese market in their first week of sales, reports Forbes, which cited weekly sales rankings provided by Japan's BCN. iPhone sales were boosted by carrier Softbank, which edged out KDDI and NTT DoCoMo as the top wireless provider and accounted for 42.9 percent of weekly iPhone sales. According to the tracking, individual iPhone models ...

Apple has done little to improve security in the Touch ID technology used in its current iPhone 6 handset, claims security researcher Marc Rogers of Lookout Security (via CNET). As shown by Rogers, the latest iPhone models are vulnerable to hacking using the same fake fingerprint technique first demonstrated with the iPhone 5s. The technique requires a hacker to lift a suitable fingerprint...

Earlier today, we shared several photos and videos from iPhone 6 Plus users who accidentally bent their iPhones when carrying the device in their pockets, mere days after the phone's initial launch. Following this morning's news, YouTube video maker Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy created a video exploring just how much an iPhone 6 Plus will bend when subjected to force. Using his hands,...

Tony Fadell, who formerly worked at Apple and is widely known as the "father" of the iPod, today commented on the recent discontinuation of the iPod Classic in an interview with Fast Company, saying that he's "sad to see it go.""The iPod's been a huge part of my life for the last decade. The team that worked on the iPod poured literally everything into making it what it was." Eighteen months...

Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus ship with higher capacity batteries that deliver exceptional battery life, but as pointed out by iLounge and MacRumors forum members, the two new iPhone models can also charge significantly faster when used with an iPad charging adapter rather than the smaller adapter included with the iPhones. According to preliminary tests using a Kill-A-Watt device and OS X...

Apple's iPhone 6 Plus may be the most talked about iPhone model due to its larger screen and bigger battery, but early adoption rate metrics (via Mashable), suggest more customers are choosing the smaller iPhone 6 over its bigger counterpart. How much of the difference is due to customer preference versus constrained supplies of the larger model is unknown, however. According to ad impression...

Popular read-it-later app Instapaper today received a significant update for iOS 8, bringing a redesigned user interface, enhanced saving capabilities, and deeper integration with notifications. The app is also now available for free, as users also have the option to pay for premium features. Users can now save content to Instapaper from any application that supports iOS' built-in share...