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

TechCrunch reports that WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum has revealed in an interview with Dutch journalist Alexander Klopping that WhatsApp Messenger for iPhone will be moving to a subscription model by the end of the year. The new subscription model would apply to new users, Koum said, and would likely follow the same pricing structure as its other apps, which are free for the first year and then cost...

Following last week's introduction of the Samsung Galaxy S4, Primate Labs has analyzed Geekbench 2 scores for the phone, comparing it to a number of other smartphones including the iPhone 5. The analysis shows the new Samsung flagship is significantly faster than competing phones including the HTC One, and its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S3. However, the S3 also benchmarked faster than the ...

AT&T today unveiled three new shared data plans aimed at businesses, offering 30GB, 40GB, and 50GB of data, along with unlimited calls and texts. The plans, which begin at $300, also come alongside new Mobile Share - Data only and Business Pooled Nation for Data plans for business customers.The new plans make it even easier and more affordable to work or play on the go, whether that be taking...

The iOS app for this year's March Madness tournament is ">now available, giving access to live game audio and video streams for all 67 games in the tournament. [Direct Link]Unlike last year, when iOS viewers could make a $3.99 in-app purchase to watch all 67 games, for 2013 they are required to authenticate with their pay-tv provider logins before they can watch games that air on TBS, TNT and...

Following Wednesday's news that Google would be shutting down its RSS aggregation platform Google Reader in July, personalized magazine company Zite today announced that it had built a functional replacement that does not utilize Google's infrastructure. Zite has long included support for Google Reader, using the platform to allow readers to import customized feeds into the app. Zite’s...

Popular email management app Mailbox has been acquired by file-sharing and storage service Dropbox.Terms weren't disclosed, but the company plans to keep Mailbox as a standalone app, though the companies plan to extend both their platforms going forward, reports The Wall Street Journal."We felt we could help Mailbox reach a much different audience much faster," said Dropbox CEO Drew Houston,...

YouTube has upgraded its Capture video filming app, making it available on the iPad and iPad mini. Of course, shooting video with the iPad is not always as practical as using the iPhone, but many folks choose to do it anyway.What's newNew for iPad and iPad mini. Film a video and instantly make it YouTube-ready with background music, auto color correction, and auto stabilization. You can...

Rovio and Dreamworks have teamed up to release a new caveman-centric iOS game The Croods, which is based on the upcoming animated Dreamworks movie of the same name. The game, which focuses on taming wild creatures, creating inventions, and decorating a prehistoric village, stars a family of cavemen who are the last of a dying breed. Players are instructed to help The Croods survive by trapping ...

CBS has a new app that allows U.S. viewers to watch full ad-supported HD episodes of television shows from the network, typically one week after they air. The company launched an app earlier this year that shows second-screen content synchronized with whatever the user is watching.Watch full episodes of your favorite CBS shows with the CBS app for iPad and iPhone! Enjoy primetime, daytime and...

PayPal yesterday announced an iPad version of its iPhone point-of-sale solution app "PayPal Here", boasting larger screen real estate and additional features like connecting to a cash register. TechCrunch notes that the app marks yet another milestone in the expansion of the company's PayPal Here service, which debuted in the UK just two weeks ago and is now available in five countries. PayPal ...

CNET is reporting that Twitter has acquired a music discovery service and plans to release a standalone music app. The company reportedly acquired We Are Hunted, "one of the world's leading music discovery services" according to the company's website. The site now says the service is "not available at the moment".The app, to be called Twitter Music, could be released on iOS by the end of this...

Google CEO Larry Page today announced that Andy Rubin is stepping down as head of the company's Android division, turning over the reins to Sundar Pichai, who has led Google's Chrome and Apps efforts.Sergey and I first heard about Android back in 2004, when Andy Rubin came to visit us at Google. He believed that aligning standards around an open-source operating system would drive innovation...

Breathometer is a portable breathalyzer that analyzes the users' breath for blood alcohol content. The device plugs into an iPhone for display and readout, with the intent of informing the user of their BAC so they can make a more informed decision about whether it is safe for them to drive or not.The device is available on Indiegogo, a crowd funding platform, for $20. At that price, the...

A group of Russian car enthusiasts announced on their blog (translated via Red Hot Russia) that they have modified a car to be controlled remotely by an iPad. The group used an iPad 3 and created an app to control the car via a host of added electronic components to control the acceleration, steering, braking and gear shifting in addition to seeing the road from the perspective of the car. W...

iFixit has done a teardown of the Pebble smart watch and declared it unrepairable due to the amount of adhesive used to waterproof the device. iFixit could only manage to disassemble the watch by breaking the e-ink screen. The innards of the Pebble are unsurprisingly very simple, with the multicontroller unit, three-axis accelerometer and Bluetooth radio all contained on a single board...

Apple has updated its iOS Maps application with Flyover support or expanded Flyover coverage in a number of cities around the world, and updated 3D buildings and turn-by-turn navigation for a number more, reports The Loop. Apple recently pushed significant updates for Maps users in Japan.Apple also made a number of updates in China, one of the company’s newest and biggest markets. Maps in...

Australian airline Qantas is handing out iPads with access to its Wi-Fi-streamed in-flight entertainment service Q Streaming, reports AFP (via AppleInsider). The iPad-based service was first tested on a single 767 in 2011, offering streaming access to over 200 hours of movies, TV shows and music, and is now being introduced on its 767 flights operating between Sydney and Honolulu. Later...

iMore Editor-in-Chief Rene Ritchie has written a worthwhile opinion piece arguing that part of Apple's challenge in maintaining its performance in an increasingly competitive smartphone market is the predictability of its "tick-tock" strategy of a major iPhone release every other year and an 'S' refresh on the years in between. Ritchie, whose close sources within Apple led him to report the...