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

The latest earnings report by Tencent, a Chinese Internet giant, has revealed that the cross-platform instant messaging service WeChat and its counterpart Weixin have hit a combined high of 235.8 million users monthly, an increase of 176.8% year-on-year. WeChat's usage figure is just shy of that of WhatsApp, which exceeded 300 million monthly users last month and is currently the world's most...

Following its announcement a couple of weeks ago, British carrier O2 has now detailed the costs of its 4G tariffs on its website, with airtime plans starting from £22 (around $34) monthly. The plans, which all include unlimited calling minutes and texts to any British network, include either 1 GB, 3 GB or 5 GB of data, with extra available to users who sign up before the end of October.Customers...

iPhone-enabled home monitoring solution Canary has just hit $1.25 million in funding on startup campaign site Indiegogo, raising well over its intended goal of $100,000. The project is on track to become the most successful crowd-funded home product ever, and has received pre-orders from 67 countries in the world. The $1.25 million commitment marks a stretch goal for project that will enable...

Music video app VEVO was today updated to version 2.8 adding full AirPlay support, which will allow users to stream both audio and video to the Apple TV. The addition of complete AirPlay support for the iOS version of VEVO comes just days after news leaked that VEVO would release a 24/7 music video app for the Apple TV. VEVO's iOS app includes a catalog of 75,000 music videos from 21,000...

The English Premier League football season begins this weekend and NBC, the new rights holder for EPL games in the United States, will be streaming every game live and on-demand on both its website, and via its NBC Sports Live Extra app for iPhone and iPad.This year the EPL license for the US was bought by NBC and the US will get to see every single match. Matches will show on NBC, NBC Sports,...

Yelp for iOS was updated to version 7.0.0 today, adding a much desired review feature. After installing the update, users will be able to add reviews to any business or restaurant from their phones. While Yelp on the iPad has allowed reviews for quite some time, iPhone users were previously limited to adding short tips or drafting reviews that could be saved and added later via the website. ...

Amazon has added a new service to its Amazon Web Services division that should make it easier for developers to integrate push notifications into their apps, particularly when developing for multiple platforms.SNS Mobile Push allows developers to send notifications to iOS, Android and Kindle Fire devices for $1 per million notifications sent, without developing a complicated push notification...

In an interview with Australian newspaper AdNews (via The Next Web), Samsung Australia's chief marketing officer Arno Lenior offered retrospect on the Korean company's 2012 "Next Big Thing" ad that mocked Apple loyalists, saying that it signaled Samsung "coming-of-age" as a brand, and "marked a tipping point" for the company's standing in consumer electronics globally. Lenior also stated that...

DIRECTV today launched a newly revamped iPad app designed to offer improved content discovery and quicker access to TV shows and movies. While the app retains its current feature base that allows customers to watch live TV, DVR content, and on demand titles, it includes several newly implemented tools to make browsing and viewing simpler. The app's content and features are now aggregated into...

Apple is expanding its USB Power Adapter Takeback Program to countries beyond the United States and China, reports 9to5Mac. First introduced last month following the electrocution of a Chinese woman using a counterfeit iPhone charger, the recycling initiative is designed to allow iOS users to safely replace and dispose of questionable third-party power adapters. Under the terms of the...

Facebook is adding new integration with OpenTable and greater Hashtag support to its iOS app.The hashtag support was added to Facebook recently as part of a greater push to keep track of trending topics across the social network. The OpenTable integration is part of a broader partnership between the two companies that allows Facebook users to make restaurant reservations right from the Facebook ...

Skype has updated its iPhone and iPad apps, adding support for HD video calling on both devices, as well as other "general fixes and improvements" and better support for the iOS 7 beta.Latest improvements:- Audio and video call quality and stability improvements.- Make HD (720p) quality video calls from your iPhone 5 or iPad 4 (iOS devices with Retina display).- A new, easier to use...

Industry sources have told Taiwanese news outlet Digitimes that production of the upcoming iPhone 5S will be limited to 3-4 million units in Q3 2013 due to a shortage of the fingerprint scanners to be used in the phone. Specifically, the sources cite difficulties in interaction between the fingerprint scanners and Apple’s upcoming iOS 7 mobile platform. Production of Apple's next iPhone,...

According to a report from Chinese news outlet Da Lian Evening News [Google Translate] (via ZDNet), a woman in China suffered eye injuries from her iPhone 5 after it exploded while she was on the phone. The woman reportedly felt the device's screen become warm after talking for 40 minutes, and eventually it combusted after she tried numerous times to end the call by tapping on the screen. The ...

Video game broadcasting platform Twitch has released an update for its iOS app, bringing new features such as a redesigned chat interface and a live toggle between mobile-ready and desktop-optimized streams. Also, the update increases the amount of viewable channels on the app to 750 channels total, up from 200 previously, and adds integration with live in-game offers from gaming platform Steam. ...

Following a strong backlash after the introduction of its AT&T Next smartphone upgrade program, AT&T has cut pricing on a number of devices in the program, including the iPhone. Previously, the iPhone cost $32.50 per month under AT&T Next, making it more expensive than comparable plans from Verizon and T-Mobile. Now, however, the 16GB iPhone can be had for $27 per month -- one dollar per year...

T-Mobile will be discontinuing the "No Money Down" promotion that it launched in late July, reports AllThingsD. The promotion, which ends on Saturday, allowed new T-Mobile subscribers to purchase an iPhone with no downpayment, paying for the full cost of the phone with monthly payments of approximately $25. While the iPhone 4 and other smartphones will still be available with no money down,...

Announced earlier this year, the Automatic Smart Driving Assistant is a Bluetooth 4.0 device that plugs in to your car's OBD-II port. Typically found somewhere under the steering wheel of every vehicle made after 1996 in the USA, the OBD-II port provides all sorts of useful diagnostic information which traditionally is only used by mechanics and for emissions testing. Over the years, a number...