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

PopCap has shared few details about the sequel to its popular lane defense game Plants vs. Zombies after announcing the follow up in late March, but today the company offered up a more solid July release date along with a teaser trailer. Though the trailer does not give any hints about the gameplay, it does poke fun at the lengthy amount of time between releases. The original Plants vs....

Jony Ive has been in the spotlight since late last year when he took over Apple's Human Design interface team after senior vice president of iOS software Scott Forstall was ousted from Apple. Ive is said to be heavily involved with iOS 7's rumored redesign, which will feature a flat design that removes many of the skeuomorphic elements featured in iOS 6. Much of the talk of iOS 7 has focused...

Fitbit today launched its newest wearable activity tracking device, the Fitbit Flex. The wristband, which originally debuted at CES 2013, counts calories burned, distance walked, and steps taken, along with offering tools to record food intake and sleep quality. At $100, the Fitbit Flex is more affordable than competing products like the Jawbone UP and the Nike FuelBand, priced at $130 and...

Alongside new Creative Cloud software, Adobe today announced two new cloud-enabled hardware offerings: the "Project Mighty" stylus and the "Napoleon" guide and ruler. The Mighty is a pressure sensitive stylus that connects to the iPad via Bluetooth to allow digital artists to create line drawings with variable widths based on pressure. According to TechCrunch, the pen is able to store a number ...

Google has updated its Gmail for iOS app with a pair of new features aimed at Google power-users.Users clicking links in emails can now have those links open directly in Google's YouTube, Chrome or Google Maps apps, rather than going to the mobile web versions in Safari.Also, users who use multiple Gmail accounts in the app can sign out of one of them without signing out of all of them, a...

Samsung's latest ad has made its way online (via CNET), once again poking fun at Apple's iPhone in order to promote its new flagship phone, the Galaxy S4.The 93-second ad takes place at a summer pool party and has Galaxy S4 users showing off select features of their phone, like the ability to control a TV, air gestures, the camera and S Beam, which allows users to transfer content between...

Google Glass will soon gain stronger interoperability with iPhones, allowing iPhone-owning Glass wearers to access text messages and navigation on the device. Currently, only Android phone users can access navigation and texts on Glass via a special companion app.Google Glass pulls data from the iPhone's cellular connection via Bluetooth tethering, but until now a number of Glass functions were ...

The developers behind popular to-do list app Clear have created a new charades-type app for The Ellen Show called Heads Up!. It's a party game that is getting excellent reviews, including from our sister-site TouchArcade:In a nutshell, you get a group of people together, load up the app, select a category, and then hold your iPhone (or iPad) up to your forehead. From there, you've got 60 seconds ...

Instagram today updated its iOS app to version 3.5, adding a feature called “Photos of You.” The new functionality allows Instagram users to tag people in photos and introduces an additional Photos of You profile section where tagged photos are aggregated. The tagging works similarly to Facebook tagging, but it is limited to the original photo taker, disallowing for third party tag...

First announced last month, Rovio’s social Facebook game Angry Birds Friends was released for the iPad and the iPhone this morning. The game merges classic Angry Birds gameplay with Facebook-integrated social features such as weekly tournaments and score sharing. - Tournaments with new levels every week! - Challenge your Facebook friends for bronze, silver, and gold trophies! - Brag, send...

Despite a bankruptcy filing in 2010 and an acquisition by Dish Network in 2011, Blockbuster has maintained an online movie rental presence. Earlier this year, the company (now a subsidiary of Dish) relaunched its Blockbuster On Demand streaming movie service, available on computers, Android devices, and Samsung Smart TVs. The relaunch did not include an iOS app, leaving mobile users without a...

Amazon has updated its Kindle app for iOS to provide a number of new features for users who are visually impaired. Most notably, the app now incorporates Apple's VoiceOver technology to implement read aloud capabilities for more than 1.8 million Kindle Store offerings. The update also provides improved navigation and search tools and features like X-Ray, End Actions, sharing, highlighting, and ...

Leap Wireless today reported its first quarter financial results, noting improved iPhone sales amidst significant customer and revenue losses. Leap, which began offering the iPhone in June of 2012 through its subsidiary Cricket Wireless, announced in February that weak iPhone sales would prevent it from purchasing its full allotment of iPhones from Apple.We are also seeing improved sales of our...

AT&T has announced an upgrade to its in-store smartphone trade-in program. The plan will give an instant credit of at least $100 for any smartphone that is less than three years old, with more recent and valuable phones receiving larger credits.The credits are good for the purchase any AT&T smartphone or accessories, meaning someone could trade in an older Android smartphone for a new iPhone...

Jawbone today launched a new API for developers, called the Up Platform. The API can deliver all of the data that the Jawbone UP collects, including steps taken, distance traveled, calories consumed, and sleep quality for use in third party apps. It is also able to incorporate data from those apps into the accompanying Jawbone UP app. While the API is currently closed, it is available to a...

Twitter's popular six-second video sharing app Vine has received its first major update, adding support for the iPhone's front-facing camera and Twitter mentions in posts and comments.You can now shoot with the front-facing camera. When creating a post, tap the button in the bottom left corner to try the front-facing camera. You can switch back and forth between the regular and front-facing...

In mid–2012 rumors surfaced that Boost Mobile might begin offering the iPhone late in the year. Those rumors didn't come to fruition, but a new tweet from @evleaks (via 9to5Mac) suggests that the Sprint subsidiary might gain the iPhone during the third quarter of 2013. If the rumor is true, Boost Mobile would become the fourth major prepaid carrier to offer the iPhone after Cricket Wireless, Vi...

Microsoft has introduced a new commercial (via The Verge) that plays on the ongoing conflict between Samsung and Apple. In the spot, iPhone and Samsung enthusiasts interrupt a wedding with a heated argument over which phone is better. "Would you mind moving your enormous phone?" an iPhone owner asks a Galaxy user, who goes on to call it "enormously awesome." This kicks off an all out brawl,...