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

Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has announced federal government approval of a bill that prevents electronics manufacturers from blocking 4G on compatible devices (via De Standaard). The bill was proposed by Economy Minister Johan Vande Lanotte in response to consumer complaints, and as a result, Apple may be forced to enable 4G connectivity on all 4G-compatible iPhone handsets...

Disney's Where's My Mickey app has been named Apple's App of the Week, and as a result, it is available for free for the first time since its initial June 2013 release. Based on the popular Where's My Water? game Where's My Mickey? is a physics-based game that asks players to help Mickey Mouse collect water to progress through levels. While the gameplay is similar to Where's My Water?, it...

Best Buy is offering $50 off all iPad Air models for Friday and Saturday this weekend, with $30 discounts on first-generation iPad mini models as well (via CNET).The U.S. retailer is also offering additional discounts on iPhones, as well as trade-in bonuses for older electronics:Best Buy customers can score at least a $10 gift card by trading in virtually any electronic device, including...

Earlier this month, SteelSeries started accepting pre-orders for its Stratus gaming controller, one of several new MFi-certified controllers debuting with $99.99 price tags. As announced by SteelSeries today, the Stratus is now available and arrives with a lower price of $79.99. The new pricing will be honored for all pre-order customers, although Apple's online store is still showing the...

The Apple-backed "Rockstar consortium" has filed a joint motion with Huawei in U.S. District Court of Eastern Texas to dismiss with prejudice Rockstar's claims of patent infringement against the Chinese handset manufacturer. Though the motion does not mention a settlement amount, it is reasonable to expect there was some monetary licensing agreement that will allow Huawei to continue using the...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office today published a new patent application (via AppleInsider) from Apple that describes a method of mood-based advertisement. This method infers the mood of the user by monitoring phone activities, and this mood sentiment information would provide advertisers with a powerful consumer intelligence metric they could use to deliver targeted content....

Apple today added two new 30-second video advertisements, "Sound Verse" and "Light Verse," to its YouTube channel. The pair are part of Apple's new ad campaign that focuses on how people are using the iPad for music, mountaineering and more. The uploaded clips, which have been airing on television for several days, are shortened versions of the original 90-second "Your Verse" ad that debuted...

Amazon is considering the launch of a live subscription-based online television service, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The service would include live television channels from major providers, with Amazon approaching at least three media companies to distribute their channels online.Apple was said to be in high-level negotiations with television content providers in August of ...

The ongoing dispute over external compliance monitoring of Apple in the e-books antitrust case has taken another turn today, with a federal appeals court granting Apple a brief reprieve from monitoring as it considers the possibility of a longer stay as Apple appeals the original decision, reports Reuters.The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York granted Apple an "administrative stay" of...

Verizon Wireless announced its earnings today for 4Q 2013, making it the first major U.S. carrier to release its financial statement for the quarter. But while many were hoping to get the first insight into holiday sales of the iPhone, the carrier failed to break out these numbers. This is the first time Verizon has not announced iPhone activations and is following AT&T, which also stopped...

Beats has launched its much-rumored Beats Music streaming service and app, directly competing with other services like Pandora, Spotify, Rdio and Apple's iTunes Radio. We wanted to build a music service that combined the freedom of an on-demand subscription service – unlimited, uninterrupted streaming and downloads of tens of millions of songs – but layer on top features that would give...

A new videography app called Horizon uses the iPhone's gyroscope to automatically "level out" iPhone videos so they are always shot in landscape mode, avoiding the so-called vertical video problem.By automatically rotating video so that it is always horizontal, the app ensures that video is always kept in the default format for televisions and Apple's newer computer screens, but that it is...

A new jailbreak tweak called Controllers for All allows users to play iPhone and iPad games with the PlayStation 3's Dual Shock 3 controller, via Bluetooth. The tweak supports all games that have native iOS 7 controller support and when used with a Lightning Digital AV Adapter, users can play iOS games, with a wireless controller, on a television.From our sister-site TouchArcade:If you're...

As reported last week, Apple is now offering in-store repairs for iPhone 5c displays. Users with a cracked or damaged iPhone 5c display that do not have AppleCare+ can pay a $149 fee to get the screen repaired. Prior to the in-store repairs, that fee was $229 as Apple was forced to send damaged phones to an off-site repair center. Apple first began offering in-store repairs back in June,...

Starbucks has released an update to its iOS app that safeguards customer's personal information stored on the phone. An earlier version of the app saved sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and location data, in a clear text format. Potential criminals who obtained physical access to a customer's iPhone could download these details with minimal effort. As announced by...

Starbucks has admitted that its mobile payment app for iPhone does not encrypt user passwords and location data, instead storing it in a clear text format, according to a report from Computerworld. The credentials were stored in such a way that anyone with access to the phone can see the passwords and usernames by connecting the phone to a PC. No jailbreaking of the phone is necessary. And that...

Apple today updated its WWDC app, fixing an issue that prevented developers from being able to log in and watch videos from the June 2013 event. According to reports on Twitter, some developers had been unable to use the app to view session videos following the security breach on Apple's Developer Center that shut it down for an extended period of time in July 2013.This release addresses an...

Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, the sequel to the original Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition for iOS released in late 2012, can now be downloaded from the App Store. The game, which has been made available thanks to a collaboration between Beamdog, and Atari, is a remake of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and the following expansion packs: Throne of Bhaal, Fist of the Fallen, Unbound, A...