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

At the same time the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is easing restrictions on the in-flight use of electronics for passengers, it is tightening its rules on electronics usage by pilots. A new FAA rule (PDF) published on Tuesday prohibits the personal use of electronic devices by flight crew members while an aircraft is being operated. It is an addendum to the FAA's 1981 "Sterile Cockpit"...

Fuse Chicken, the company behind the multi-function Une Bobine iPhone stand, today launched a new product on crowd-funding site Indiegogo. Called the TogoDock, Fuse Chicken’s newest iPhone accessory combines a magnet-laden mount with an integrated charging cable, allowing users to turn any surface into a dedicated charging station. The TogoDock can be mounted on any surface, from a wall to a ...

At CES last month, LaCie announced its "Fuel" wireless hard drive for iOS and Mac devices, allowing users to easily expand storage for their devices. With the Fuel now available for purchase, LaCie has given MacRumors some hands-on time with the Fuel, showing that the device does indeed live up to its billing for those willing to carry around an extra device as needed. Similar to the Wireless...

Whole Foods has partnered with Square to deploy its iPad checkout system inside the grocery store chain at counters selling ready-to-consume products like pizza, coffee and sandwiches, supplementing the chain's traditional checkout lanes at the front of the store.Reports TIME:The company has signed a deal to put its iPad-based payment systems inside Whole Food Market grocers in the U.S.,...

Following the removal of Flappy Bird from the App Store, some entrepreneurial iPhone owners have listed their phones -- with Flappy Bird installed -- on eBay. The listings have attracted attention from major media outlets, but eBay is actively canceling the listings because all smartphones and tablets sold on the auction site are required to be restored to factory settings. One user gave MacRum...

Apple has reversed a change it made to how users quit location-aware apps in iOS 7. In the new OS, Apple changed how location-aware applications work when they are force-quit by users. In iOS 7.0, users who force quit an app -- by double-tapping the home button and swiping up -- also disable all location-aware functions which previously would continue to run in the background.One app in...

Sprint today announced that it sold 5.6 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2013 and 20.5 million smartphones for the year. It is unclear how many of those smartphones were iPhones as the carrier is following Verizon Wireless and AT&T in not breaking down its smartphone sales or activations by platform. Sprint added 682,000 customers in the last three months of the calendar year,...

Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen has publicly spoken for the first time since pulling the popular game from the App Store in a new interview with Forbes. In the interview, Nguyen states that Flappy Bird was removed because it was becoming an "addictive product," going on to say that guilt and discomfort ultimately influenced his final decision to take the game down. Flappy Bird was designed to...

Famed documentarian Ken Burns, who's directed detailed films about the history of subjects like baseball and the Civil War, has released a new app under his name that houses scenes, extras, and behind-the-scenes footage from all 25 of his films. In his announcement (via The Hollywood Reporter), Burns noted it was exciting for him to be using an Apple platform for his app as the company has...

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York today ruled that Michael Bromwich, the lawyer assigned to monitor Apple's antitrust compliance policies, may continue with his duties while Apple continues to pursue another appeal to remove its monitorship all together. Back in early January, Apple requested that U.S. District Judge Denise Cote disqualify Bromwich from his monitorship because he...

MOGA has dropped the price of its Ace Power iOS 7 gaming controller to $80, down from $100. The controller was released back in November, the first of a number of iPhone-compatible game controllers that hit the market following the launch of iOS 7.The MOGA controller includes a battery component that charges the iPhone to extend gameplay. There are a number of other similar controller devices...

Google has pulled Themer, a popular Android home screen customization app, from its Google Play Store following a complaint from Apple over one of the themes included in the app. "Seven", one of more than 200 themes within the app, was designed to make an Android phone look like an iPhone running iOS 7. It incorporated multiple Apple design elements and several icons, including Phone, Mail,...

Music recognition app Shazam was today updated to version 7.4.0, adding a few minor enhancements and laying the groundwork for a larger content rollout happening later this month. With the update, Shazam is aiming to refocus its app on content, offering quicker, more integrated access to song lyrics, TV results, and music videos. Shazam, which is designed to "listen" to a song and identify its ...

Flappy Bird fans upset the game has been pulled from the App Store by its developer should not blame Nintendo for the removal, despite similarities to Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. game. Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that the game maker had not complained about the title.In an email to The Wall Street Journal, Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa on...

A new report from Bloomberg takes a look at how Mesa, Arizona was able to secure its deal with Apple to bring the company's new sapphire manufacturing plant to the city. That facility is set to begin operation this month with production at a scale massive enough to support a shift to sapphire display covers for the next-generation iPhone. Former First Solar manufacturing facility purchased by ...

Samsung has been reprimanded by the U.S. Justice Department for using its standards-essential or FRAND patents to seek an import ban against some older Apple products into the United States. The DoJ investigated the case after concerns were raised about companies unfairly wielding their standards-essential patents to hamper competition.As part of their extensive legal back-and-forth over...

Coaches for the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Olympic teams are using a slow-motion video iPad app to record, analyze, and improve athlete performance ahead of competitive events that will begin next Wednesday. Ubersense Coach, the app being used, specializes in slow motion video analysis, allowing coaches to record up to 120 FPS video using the iPhone or iPad camera. Captured video is then played ...

A new rendering of the iPhone 6 presented in multiple sizes has been released by Italian designer Federico Ciccarese. The concept images give an accurate size comparison of the existing iPhone 5s next to a 4.7-inch iPhone and a 5.5-inch iPhone, two sizes that have been rumored for Apple's next-generation smartphone. iPhone 6 4.7" 750×1338 px Aspect ratio 16:9 iPhone 6 5.5" 878×1568 px...