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

Netflix today released an updated app for Android tablets, namely the just launched Kindle Fire and the new Barnes and Noble Nook, and says the update will be coming to the iPad in the next few weeks. The new design is much more immersive and provides greater focus on the growing number of titles in the Netflix catalog. In fact, the new interface displays twice as many movies and TV shows as...

As noted by MacStories, Apple has sent out an email informing developers that it will be shutting down the iTunes Connect portal for the App Store over the Christmas holiday as it has the past several years. This year's shutdown will extend from December 22nd through 29th, two days longer than in past years.We strongly recommend that you do not schedule pricing changes through the interval...

As noticed by 9to5Mac, both Amazon and Best Buy have dropped their prices on the Apple TV by $10 to $89.99. Interestingly, Amazon has also added a "2010" designation to its Apple TV title, leading to speculation that the retailers may be making room for a potential update to the device. Third-party retailers are, however, usually not particularly accurate sources of information on new...

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and NTT DoCoMo are still in discussions over a potential agreement to bring the iPhone to Japan's largest carrier. The carrier is concerned, however, over Apple's unwillingness to allow DoCoMo to install its own applications such as its popular e-wallet and mail services on the device. NTT DoCoMo is also concerned over Apple's unit volume commitment...

Amazon's first color tablet, the Kindle Fire, began shipping today following its September introduction. The Fire, the top-of-the-line Kindle tablet, has reportedly given some potential iPad purchasers second thoughts as the Fire is some $300 cheaper than the least-expensive iPad. Image via Wired - NYTimes - "It is designed almost exclusively for consuming stuff, particularly material you...

As noted by The Next Web, the iPhone 4S appears set to launch in India on November 25th, marking yet another milestone in Apple's fast-moving rollout of the new device. Both Aircel and Airtel appear to be participating in the November 25th launch, with Aircel having already provided public confirmation of the debut.Aircel first posted a teaser on its official Facebook page announcing that the...

Earlier this week, it was reported that Apple had been ordered to share with Samsung terms of the contracts it held with Australian carriers. As part of its lawsuit attempting to have sales of the iPhone 4S halted in the country, Samsung sought information about subsidies being paid to Apple by carriers and whether the amounts of those subsidies might somehow result in anti-competitive behavior. ...

Several years ago, Jon Briggs took a voiceover job for a company called Scansoft. Scansoft later merged with Nuance, which makes the voices that Apple used for Siri. Briggs tells the UK Telegraph: “I did a set of recordings with Scansoft five or six years ago, for text-to-speech services,” says Briggs. “Five thousand sentences over three weeks, spoken in a very particular way and only ...

As highlighted by AllThingsD, T-Mobile USA acknowledged yesterday in discussion of its third quarter earnings that the lack of an iPhone 4S offering for the carrier may have an impact on customer retention, labeling churn rates as an "area of concern".“Earnings improved as we continued to focus on making smartphones affordable to all Americans through our unlimited Value plans, improvements...

Beyond the Panorama view, it seems Apple left out another small feature in the final version of iOS 5. The bar appears while typing into the field as shown above, giving you a number of autocorrection options. Per 9to5mac, the feature can reportedly be enabled on a non-jailbroken phone with the following...

The Swivl is an iPhone dock that uses motion tracking to swivel the phone -- and thus the front-facing camera -- to follow your every move, both horizontally and vertically. It also comes with a wireless remote to control the camera and start-and-stop recording, useful for video-bloggers. The Swivl can be used for a number of different tasks. Need a video of you skateboarding but have no...

Walmart is updating its iPhone app with a number of new tools to make shopping easier at the world's largest retailer, reports GigaOm. Walmart released its first iPad app at the beginning of this month. From GigaOm: The new iPhone app, which should be available in the next few days, packs in a number of features, including a new smart shopping list tool that allows people to speak their...

Last week, we noted that as part of its case seeking to have sales of the iPhone 4S banned in Australia, Samsung had requested access to both the iPhone 4S source code and Apple's agreements with the country's wireless carriers. Samsung's interest in the carrier contracts related to device subsidies, with the company curious about whether the amount of subsidies paid to Apple by the carriers...

Apple yesterday announced the release of version 2.0 of its iAd Producer software that help developers create ads for use in the company's iAd program for mobile devices. The new release brings a number of enhancements to the software first deployed last December.New tools and animation effects in iAd Producer 2.0 make it even easier to build great iAds. Create sophisticated animations with...

AT&T has launched a new app to allow its customers to make inexpensive international calls over Wi-Fi. With the AT&T Call International app, customers can get the "lowest international calling rates" that AT&T offers. Calls to the UK, for example, cost $0.04/minute for calls to wireline numbers and $0.27/minute for calls to mobile phones. Calls to China are $0.04/minute. The price list for all ...

The Associated Press reports that Apple has donated five iPads to the state of Oregon in support of a pilot program to help disabled voters more easily fill out their election ballots. Combined with a $75,000 investment by the state for software development, the iPads allow voters to adjust font size and screen colors to help them read the ballots, among other accessibility improvements made...

As noted by CapitalVue, China Unicom is planning for an introduction of the iPhone 4S before the end of 2011, hoping that official certification of the device from regulatory authorities comes through in time to meet the timeframe.China Unicom (600050, 0762.HK) will endeavor to introduce the iPhone 4S into the Chinese market by the end of 2011, reports sohu.com, citing company president Lu...

Digitimes reports that Apple is currently evaluating a pair of options for addressing issues with LED backlighting on the iPad 3, noting that the current backlight bar design used in the iPad 2 is insufficient for the higher-resolution display reportedly set to debut in the next-generation tablet.One of the new LED light bar designs has proposed to keep the light bar in a single-bar form factor ...