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

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,...

Credit card processing company Square has updated its Register app with a number of new features to make it easier to use in restaurants, as well as speeding up checkout in other types of retail businesses. For the iPad edition, restaurants can attach a customer's name to their order, as well as customize orders with modifiers like "no pickles" -- and the app also has gained the ability to...

As a part of The Huffington Post's "iTheft" series of articles detailing the black market for stolen iPhones, the website has posted a new feature that takes an inside look at how the San Francisco Police Department handles its stolen iPhone sting operations.The man in the hoodie is indeed a policeman: Officer Tom Lee is playing the role of decoy in a sting operation targeting buyers of stolen...

The latest release in the popular LEGO video game series from Warner Bros. Entertainment and TT Games, LEGO Batman: DC Super Heroes, has arrived in the iOS App Store. The Mac version of the game, "LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes", was released last year. Like other iOS versions of LEGO games, the game has many of the same features of the Mac version but includes two iOS control styles in...

Following the introduction of the new 'Decade of iTunes' milestone feature that debuted yesterday to celebrate iTunes' 10th anniversary, Apple has sent out a hard copy of the timeline to journalists, reports CNET. The paper version of the timeline comes with a gift card that features 100 free handpicked iTunes songs, along with a personal thank you note from senior VP of Internet Software...

Developer Marco Arment announced in a blog post today that he has sold a majority stake of his read-later app Instapaper to Betaworks.That company owns Bitly, Digg, Socialflow and a number of other products. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.I’m happy to announce that I’ve sold a majority stake in Instapaper to Betaworks. We’ve structured the deal with Instapaper’s health and...

LinkedIn has launched a new app called LinkedIn Contacts, which is designed to be a contact management system that incorporates connections on LinkedIn with contacts from your iPhone and from third party services like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook.LinkedIn Contacts brings together all your address books, emails, and calendars, and keeps them up to date in one place. From these sources, we’ll...

German appeals court Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court yesterday announced [Google translation] its decision to stay an appeal in Apple v. Google's Motorola Mobility case over a push notification patent. Back in February 2012, Apple suspended iCloud/MobileMe push functionality in Germany due to successful patent litigation from Motorola Mobility for a push notification patent. FOSS Patents report...

Drafts, the note-taking app from Agile Tortoise, was updated to version 3.0 today. Drafts is a simple app with a clean interface that allows users to quickly jot down text, thoughts, ideas, and notes. Once written, snippets of text can be sent as a text message or an email, posted to social networks, added to the calendar or reminders, copied to the clipboard, and saved to third party apps...

The reviews for the Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung's next flagship Android smartphone, are out. The company announced the device at an event in mid-March and boasts a 5" screen, a 1080p display that Samsung calls "Full HD Super AMOLED" and more. The overall consensus is that the Galaxy S4 is a solid upgrade over the previous S3 but that its plastic casing and minimal upgrades keep it from being...

During today's Q2 earnings call, Apple announced that it had hit a milestone of 45 billion total app downloads, up five billion from the 40 billion downloads that it reported in January. There are now 850,000 iOS apps in total, with 350,000 of those being iPad-only apps. 800 apps were downloaded per second during the quarter, representing almost 70 million downloads a day. Apple has now...

Uclick has released GoComics, an app that allows users to download classic comic strips to their iPad or iPhone for free. Like the accompanying website, the app includes 20 years of back issues of comics from notable strips like Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, and Dilbert.Want funny? Love comics? We’ve got your fix. The GoComics app, from Universal Uclick, is the mobile comics portal for many of...

Apple has updated its Apple Store for iOS app, adding push notifications for order shipment and delivery as well as new notifications for when an iPhone is eligible for upgrade pricing.What's New in Version 2.6- Choose to receive notifications that let you know exactly when you’re eligible for upgrade pricing on a new iPhone. And since all you need to complete the order is your Apple ID and...

FocusTwist, from developer Arqball, is an app that allows iPhone users to take pictures with variable focus points. Photographs captured with the app use multi-image functionality to refocus specific areas in the snapshot, producing an end result that is similar to the refocusable images that can be created with the Lytro Light Field Camera. To create a refocusable photograph, FocusTwist takes ...

Two new Apple retail stores will open on Saturday, April 27 in Melbourne, Australia and Quebec, Canada. Apple's new Melbourne store will be located in the Highpoint Shopping Centre, a large indoor mall with more than 500 stores. This will mark the fifth Apple retail location in the Melbourne area. The Quebec Apple Store, a large 7,000 square foot retail location, will be located at...

Tweetbot has been updated to version 2.8, notably adding a new media view to the iPhone and iPad apps. The media view, which can be accessed by scrolling to the top of a timeline and then tapping the square next to the search button, offers up an in-line view of photos and videos that have been tweeted. Tweets themselves serve as captions, offering context to images. Tweetbot's image...