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

As noted by ABC News, Best Buy yesterday began a brief promotion offering $50 off of the price of the iPhone 5c. With the 16 GB model normally priced at $99.99 on a two-year contract in the U.S., the discount cuts pricing on the device to just $49.99. The offer brings the cost of the higher-capacity 32 GB model down to $149.99 with a contract. The discount, which comes in the form of a gift...

Disney is teaming up with NimbleBit, the developer behind free-to-play hits like Tiny Tower, Pocket Planes, and Pocket Trains to release a new title called Star Wars: Tiny Death Star. As noted by our sister site TouchArcade, the game appears to combine Tiny Tower-style gameplay with the Star Wars universe. In Tiny Tower, the goal was to build up a tower filled with various businesses,...

Apple India executives Maneesh Dhir and Sanjay Kaul have stated in a meeting with retailers that the company will be focusing on consumers in small cities and towns in the country in order to grow sales, reports The Economic Times (via The Next Web). The executives state that Apple desires to build 100 exclusive standalone stores under the franchise model in smaller markets, and will aim to...

Berlin-based Security Research Labs has detailed various exploits within the iPhone 5s' Touch ID security feature and iOS 7 that allow would-be criminals to bypass the device's security features, reports Reuters. The method for bypassing the Touch ID security feature found on the iPhone 5s is very similar to the one used by the Chaos Computer Club, which also claimed to hack Touch ID earlier...

Citigroup has been fined $30 million by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in a settlement after a Citi analyst sent confidential research information to major clients without sharing it with the public, reports Reuters.The research, which included negative order forecasts for the iPhone, was shared with major Citi clients including SAC, T. Rowe Price, Citadel, and GLG partners -- but not with...

Chrome's latest update, which added support for iOS 7, also included a significant flaw that was discovered by design firm Parallax (via TechCrunch). When using the search or address bar in an Incognito window within the app, browsing history will be saved and shared with the standard Google.com browser. Google’s Incognito mode is designed to keep searches for sensitive information...

Otterbox has introduced iPhone case/wallet combination, the Commuter Series Wallet. The $45 case includes space for 3 credit cards and a single dollar bill, while coming in black, white/grey and pink/grey color combinations.The new case competes against other wallet cases like TwelveSouth's BookBook, as well as dozens of other wallet cases on the market.- Multi-layer case guards against...

Various schools across the United States are reporting that Apple’s new iOS 7 mobile operating system has removed the supervision profiles they had installed on educational iPads, reports AllThingsD. Specifically, the installation of the new software on educational iPads is leaving them free of filters and without remote administrator privileges, an issue that allows students to access any...

Photo sharing app Snapchat has released a significant update to its iOS app today, which brings integration of its new “Snapchat Stories” feature to mobile devices. The new feature acts as a news feed on the app for the user and the user’s contacts, and adds pictures as they are taken to a user’s Snapchat Stories. The pictures from a user’s feed expire after 24 hours in order to make room...

Software maker Adobe has begun a trial program for “Ginger”, a new iPad app that lets users create video presentations with a variety of creation and sharing options, reports CNET. Specifically, the app includes features such as touch recording for voice narration, a wide variety of fonts, colors, and motion effects to choose from, and streamlined animation and sharing to social networks. The...

Double Fine Productions, the company founded by video game designer Tim Schafer, has launched The Cave for iOS devices, a mobile-optimized version of its popular puzzle adventure game that was released for the Mac and gaming consoles in January. The game sees players assembling a team of adventurers to solve various puzzles across a number of different worlds. Each character has unique...

After its plans for free music streaming were detailed ahead of the launch of iTunes Radio last month, Rdio is set to launch a free version of its service today on iOS, reports The Verge. The service is a free version of its “Station” feature, and is available for users of the service’s mobile apps in the United States, Canada, and Australia, and features unlimited listening to a wide...

Netflix has updated its iOS app to version 5.0, bringing various new features including HD video quality and support for AirPlay streaming for devices on iOS 7, with the latter requiring the user to disable the AirPlay mirroring feature. The update also contains playback optimizations and general stability improvements. Netflix released the last major update for its iOS app in April, which...

Hapilabs' HAPIfork first debuted at CES in January and after a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $100,000, the product is ready to be shipped to consumers. The fork, which is designed to monitor eating habits, tracks movement through a capacitive sensor and a vibration motor, beaming information to a smartphone via Bluetooth. HAPIfork measures each movement from fork to...

EA has finally updated the original Plants Vs. Zombies iPhone game with support for the iPhone 5's 4-inch screen, which originally came out last year. The game, which has received only a couple of bug fix updates in the past year, was updated today with iOS 7 support and some "gameplay bug fixes". The sequel, Plants vs. Zombies 2, was released in August.What's new• Optimization for the...

Apple's System Status page is reporting that some users may be unable to make purchases on the iTunes Store, an outage that started this morning around 10:30 AM Pacific time. This is in addition to issues with Game Center and FaceTime earlier this morning. MacRumors has heard from several readers who say they cannot purchase, download or update apps, or make purchases of new iTunes media...

2K Sports this week released 'NBA 2K14' for iOS, the latest version in its popular basketball video game franchise. The app contains updates to player rosters and stadiums for the 2013-2014 NBA season, along with Game Center support with multiplayer and Bluetooth integration. The game also contains a multi-season mode and updated commentary for the new season, and features refined intuitive...

New video chat service Spin has launched its app for iOS, bringing features that have previously been uncommon to mobile video chat applications. Specifically, the app uses what it calls “Human Fidelity” technology, which combines wideband 44kHz audio and full HD scaling video at 60 frames per second. The app also supports up to ten users for video chat with support for sharing from networks...