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

Apple filed a formal appeal on Tuesday asking the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the ruling of its e-books antitrust case or to be awarded a new trial on the matter, reports the Associated Press. In its filing, Apple stated that U.S. District Judge Denise Cote's original decision to find the company guilty of conspiring to fix e-book prices was a "radical departure" compared to...

The FCC today launched a new ad-free FCC Speed Test app for iOS devices, designed to measure mobile broadband performance. The app is an expansion of the Measuring Broadband America program, which aims to measure both fixed and mobile broadband to “bring greater clarity and competition to the broadband service marketplace.” Like other mobile speed testing apps, the FCC's app analyzes...

Square is testing a new app called Square Pickup that allows users to order and pay for takeout food. The app is currently in beta testing with select San Francisco restaurants, according to Priceonomics.Instead of calling a restaurant to place a pickup order, users can just make the purchase with the Square Pickup App. The app is loaded with the restaurant’s menu. Just choose what you want,...

In what has become a yearly tradition for late February, Major League Baseball today updated its MLB At Bat app for the 2014 baseball season. The app, perennially one of the most popular -- and highest grossing -- on the App Store, received a top-to-bottom redesign to match iOS 7 and to improve the user experience.Photos and video are more prevalent in At Bat, running edge-to-edge and inline...

Proctor and Gamble first introduced its smartphone-connected Oral-B toothbrush earlier this month, but the company is on hand at the Mobile World Congress conference in Spain to give attendees a look at the upcoming device. The Oral-B SmartSeries 7000 connects to the Oral Blue iPhone app using Bluetooth 4.0, allowing the app to provide real-time guidance on brushing habits. It records...

AT&T today announced plans to add unlimited international messaging to all of its Mobile Share and Mobile Share Value plans, allowing customers in the United States to send international messages as part of their existing plans, with no additional cost. Text, picture, and video messages are all included.On Friday, February 28, all AT&T Mobile Share and Mobile Share Value plans will now include...

Apple today added a new TV4 Play channel to the Apple TV in Sweden, giving Swedish customers access to the TV 4 Play service that includes live broadcasting, original programming, and full episodes of TV4 Group shows. While content is available for free, premium subscribers have access to additional shows and movies. With 'TV4 Play 'on Apple TV, full episodes of current TV4 Group shows are...

Portland, Oregon-based Grovemade today launched a pair of new domestically-sourced woods for its line of iPhone cases and docks. New Walnut and Maple options are available, going along with the Bamboo cases that the company has been making for years.Grovemade also introduced a new iPhone dock with a three-pound steel base to hold the dock in place and allow one-handed removal and docking of...

With Apple hiring numerous medical professionals for its rumored iWatch project, and many new fitness and other types of health-related devices coming to market, wearable health-data tracking devices are proving extremely popular.A new device launching today on IndieGogo is SunSprite, a wearable device that measures the amount of visible and UV light that the wearer is exposed to in order to...

Walt Disney Studios launched Disney Movies Anywhere, a new online service and companion iOS app that allows you to buy Disney, Pixar, and Marvel movies and watch them across multiple devices. The service has a catalog of over 420 films, with individual movies costing $19.99 each. Powered by Disney's Keychest video-on-demand service, the Disney Movies Anywhere app lets customers browse or...

Back in January, Imagination Technologies announced its next-generation Series6XT graphic architecture, providing a glimpse at the graphics capabilities likely to make their way into Apple's future A-series chips. Apple, a minority investor in Imagination Technologies, has used the company's integrated graphics since the original iPhone back in 2007, with Apple's latest A7 chip using the G6430...

Apple is suing both a Chinese government agency and a Shanghai technology business over patents involving the company's Siri voice assistant, said Xinhua, the official state press agency of the People's Republic of China (via AFP). Apple launched the case against the State Intellectual Property Office, which is in charge of patent rights protection in China, and Shanghai's Zhizhen Network...

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum has announced at Mobile World Congress 2014 that the company will add voice calling to its popular messaging platform in Q2 2014, reports TechCrunch. The voice service will be added to iOS and Android first, with other platforms receiving the update at an unannounced future date. We use the least amount of bandwidth and we use the hell out of it,” he said. “We will focus ...

A concept video of what a unified Control Center and multitasking interface would look like in iOS 8 has been created by designer Bill Labus and posted by TheTechBlock (via Cult of Mac). The version of iOS 8 in the video shows the app switcher and user settings in one unified view accessed by a single swipe up gesture. Users are free to multitask or toggle preferences such as music volume...

Fitbit today stopped sales of its Fitbit Force and issued a voluntary recall of the product following multiple consumer complaints of skin irritation. First released in October of 2013, the Fitbit Force is the company's latest wearable activity tracker, monitoring sleep, steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, and stairs climbed. Reports of skin irritation from the Fitbit Force...

Popular photography app Camera+ was today updated to version 5.1, adding several refinements to The Lab, which is the photo editing section of the app. It’s now possible to tap and hold on adjustments to reset them and there’s a new boost feature that increases the intensity of filters to 200 percent. The app also includes a new setting to allow users to select which section to use first...

Mobile payments company Square has partnered with AIDS charity Product (RED) to introduce a new special edition "SQUA(RED)" card reader. The reader, which is bright red, is available for a $10 donation with 97.25 percent of that cost going directly to the Global Fund to fight AIDS. Along with donating funds to charity, Square's new reader allows customers who swipe their cards to learn more...

While Apple is reportedly working hard on its own mobile payment service, Boston-based startup Loop has just released its own mobile payments device -- one that works at most traditional U.S. retail outlets. The Loop Fob is a small device that allows users to store credit card information on the iPhone, and then wirelessly pay at any traditional magnetic stripe reader. It uses "Magnetic...