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

BGR reports that Best Buy Mobile will be reducing the price of the iPhone 3GS tomorrow to "free" for qualifying customers. The deal is reportedly valid for one day only. Best Buy will be offering up Apple's iPhone 3GS for free for one day only, this Friday the 10th. This offer is valid to both new lines, additional lines, and also qualified upgrades. We have been told that all stores have...

Last month, Google announced the launch of Google Instant search feature for mobile devices such as Apple's iOS 4 devices. The "results-as-you-type" feature was initially limited to the United States, with additional countries and languages scheduled to be added in the future. That future has arrived, with Google today announcing that Google Instant for mobile is now available in 28...

Late last week, RadioShack announced temporary discounts on the iPhone, knocking $50 off the price of the all three models: 8 GB iPhone 3GS and 16 GB and 32 GB iPhone 4. The deal, which runs through December 11th, brings the price of the 16 GB iPhone 4 to $149.99 and the 32 GB model to $249.99 for new and upgrade-eligible customers. On top of the discounted prices, RadioShack also offers...

9 to 5 Mac reports that the fine print of new signage in Apple's retail store is reiterating that the company intends to release the white iPhone 4 in the spring of next year. The company announced in late October that it would once again delay availability of the white version of Apple's popular handset over unspecified manufacturing issues. Rumors that Apple intends to eventually cancel...

The New York Observer reports on Fei Lam, a 17-year-old student from Queens, New York, who has turned a connection to parts producers for the white iPhone 4 into a six-figure business in just a few months. According to Lam, who speaks fluent Chinese, about six months ago he was able to make a connection with Apple's infamous overseas supplier. "I knew a guy from a few years back that had...

Twitter yesterday updated its official application for the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad, bringing push notifications to the iPhone version for the first time. The update also delivers several fixes to the iPhone version while offering improvements and fixes for the iPad version. What's new iPhone: - Push notifications for @mentions and messages - Improved display of shortened URLs -...

Earlier this week, Apple released a new television commercial for the iPhone 4 entitled "Longer", highlighting the device's battery life. This is the iPhone 4. Its lithium-polymer battery lets you work longer, play longer, laugh longer, listen longer, shoot, edit, share, update, download, read, write, and even FaceTime longer. All on the world's thinnest smartphone - the iPhone 4.The commercial ...

The Wall Street Journal reports that China Mobile, the country's largest mobile phone carrier, is taking steps to assist customers who wish to use the iPhone on its network, despite official distribution being limited to China Unicom for the time being. The steps include instructions for setting up the iPhone to operate on China Mobile's network and in-store service to trim down China Mobile...

Last week, we reported on the launch of Skyfire Web Browser, a new browser for iOS that enables viewing of Flash video content. The app, priced at $2.99, was quickly yanked from the App Store due to its popularity overwhelming Skyfire's servers used to convert Flash content to HTML5 format, but has since returned in limited "batches" as capacity allows. MobileCrunch notes that Skyfire pulled...

Apple yesterday notified members of its iOS Developer Program that the company will be shutting down the iTunes Connect interface for the App Store over Christmas, preventing developers from accessing their app listings and scheduling releases during the December 23-28 window. iTunes Connect will be temporarily unavailable from Thursday, December 23 through Tuesday, December 28 for the winter...

9 to 5 Mac notes that Google has started rolling out its "results-as-you-type" Instant search feature to users visiting the company's homepage on iOS devices. The feature does not yet appear to be available in all locations within the United States, but it should presumably be coming soon to those who have not yet seen it appear. Notably, the feature is opt-out, meaning that it will be the...

Worldwide Smartphone Sales in 3Q10 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC) Offering a more complete look at the global smartphone sales for the third quarter of 2010 as hinted at by Canalys earlier this week, research firm IDC has now published its data on global smartphone sales, similarly revealing Apple taking second place with 17.4% of the market and ranking behind only Nokia's 32.7% share. Apple...

A new report from research firm Canalys shows Apple taking the lead among U.S. smartphone vendors in the third quarter of 2010, with its 5.5 million units representing 26.2% of the market and enabling it to surpass Research in Motion and its 5.1 million units. Apple was unable, however, to top the consortium of vendors known as the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) that has embraced Google's...

MobileCrunch reports on a new report from Japanese research firm MMRI claiming that Apple held a 60% share of the Japanese smartphone market for the period of April through September, easily outdistancing second-place Sony Ericsson's 20.6% share. According to MMRI, a total of 2.23 million smartphones (Android/Windows Mobile/Blackberry/iOS/Palm) were sold in Japan between April and September this ...

Following on a report from earlier today claiming that Foxconn/Hon Hai will assist in the production of CDMA-based iPhones to the tune of 15 million units in 2011, DigiTimes now reports that Pegatron will be contributing ten million of its own units next year, yielding a total of 25 million CDMA-based iPhones for 2011. Pegatron Technology internally expects its Apple CDMA iPhone shipments to...

CENS reports that Apple's iPhone manufacturing partner Hon Hai (parent company of Foxconn) has won a share of the production contract for the CDMA version of the iPhone 4, rumored for release early next year. The sources noted that Apple's order for the CDMA iPhone 4 has been shared evenly between Hon Hai and its Taiwanese peer Pegatron Corp., with Hon Hai's shipment of the device projected at...

The Kansas City Star reports that GPS firm Garmin has abandoned its initiative with ASUS to offer Garmin-branded mobile phones, although the two companies will continue a partnership to offer Garmin GPS software on ASUS-branded phones. The shift opens the door for Garmin to offer its GPS software on other platforms such as Apple's iOS. "We obviously didn't want to compete against ourselves,"...

148Apps.biz reports that Apple appears set to lock down its iTunes Connect interface for App Store developers over both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, preventing developers from logging in to make changes to their applications during those times. Heard through the grapevine that in addition to the now traditional lock down of the App Store during the week of Christmas, this year we'll...