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

The Oregon Trail is a classic educational travel game following a family heading west from Independence, Missouri to Oregon, during the gold rush in 1848. The official iPhone port of Oregon Trail is being offered free for a limited time by developer Gameloft as a promotion for the release of its sequel, The Oregon Trail: American Settler. Assume the role of a wagon leader in a side-view...

Glider is a classic Mac game that John Calhoun originally released in 1988. Several versions of the game were released, culminating with Glider Pro, distributed by Casady & Greene, the now-defunct Mac software firm. In the game, users "fly" a paper airplane through houses filled with obstacles. Planes avoid obstacles, while using sporadically placed air vents and other items to gain lift and ...

Taking multitouch to the next level, Disney has released Appmates, small Hot Wheels-sized toys from the Pixar movie Cars, that physically interact with the multitouch screen on the iPad. The cars from Cars "drive" across the screen, with racing and other games reacting to the cars' movements. Disney calls the technology a "virtual play mat" where kids can experience the world of Radiator Springs. ...

Reports of a low-cost, low-capacity iPhone relying primarily on iCloud for storage have been circulating for quite some time, with some dubbing the rumored device the "iCloud iPhone". MacRumors has discovered that Apple has now gained control of the iCloudiPhone.com domain name, potentially fueling speculation of such a device. The pairing is generic enough, however, that Apple may simply...

Here are some likely mocked up screenshots we received about possible Facebook integration into iOS 5. Apple has provided Twitter integration in iOS 5 and included a framework to allow the company to extend it to account integrations. So, Facebook integration as a system-level feature would not be a stretch. These screens closely resemble those of Twitter's integration and are likely just...

The San Francisco Police Department's internal investigation into Apple's lost iPhone 5 prototype continues -- but not to get the phone back. Instead, the SFPD's internal affairs division is still looking into what role officers played in helping Apple employees search for the phone after it went missing at Cava 22, a restaurant and bar in San Francisco's Mission District. The owner of Cava...

Digitimes reports that Apple and other handheld device vendors are making plans to begin releasing devices featuring curved glass in the first half of next year.Suppliers of the non-Apple camp are working on products with curved cover glass in attempts to gain a competitive edge in the handheld device market dominated by Apple, sources in the glass industry said. But Apple reportedly also has...

Engadget points out this interesting Rover App-Controlled Spy Tank from Brookstone. This remote control tank drives around will sending back live audio and video from the device. It has both a built in mic, video camera, and even night vision. Wireless connectivity is over Wi-Fi which gives you a range of 200 ft unobstructed, or 100 ft around walls and into other rooms. No word...

JP Morgan analysts claim that Apple is cutting orders from iPad component suppliers by 25% for the upcoming quarter.Several supply-chain vendors indicated in the past two weeks that Apple, the world's biggest company by market value, lowered fourth-quarter iPad orders 25 percent, the first such cut that analysts at JPMorgan’s electronic manufacturing services team in Hong Kong said they have...

OKITE is a Japanese alarm clock app. It's designed to help users wake up, but with a twist: it sends embarrassing messages to the user's Twitter account every time they hit snooze. Tofugu, a blog covering Japanese culture, points out that this type of public shaming is uniquely punishing in Japan: The interesting cultural thing about this app is the whole public shaming thing. In America when ...

Several MacRumors readers have pointed out that case company Otterbox, which gained some publicity yesterday for the discovery of boxes for a new "iPhone 4S" case, is currently featuring a promotional banner on its website that some have suggested could be a hint at Apple releasing both iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 models next month. But TUAW answered the question by reaching out to Otterbox for...

EA frequently runs sales on its iOS games, slashing the prices on its games down to $0.99. Today, the price drops a little further on two games, the iPhone and iPad versions of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2012, in a promotion with @FreeAppADay. The games normally sell for $4.99 and $6.99 for the iPhone and iPad versions respectively, but are discounted today in concert with the PGA TOUR Championship, ...

Ars Technica reports that support for Marvell's quad-core Armada XP processor has recently been added to the version of Apple's "Clang" compiler used in its Xcode developer tools. It is unclear, however, why support for the ARM-based processor has been included.A developer who works on low-level ARM assembly coding for security products was the first to alert Ars that support had been added...

Digitimes reports that iPhone touch panel supplier Wintek has apparently experienced some production issues that have caused minor defects in some of the panels being produced for the next-generation "iPhone 5".The defect, "delayed bubble", is difficult to avoid during panel production, particularly when the defect is not detected during the process of laminating touch panels, and only later...

The Financial Times reports its web app, launched this past June, has more readers than the version sold on the App Store, which has since been removed. The web app has more than 700,000 readers according to Reuters. The FT chose to develop an HTML5 app rather than a native iOS app because Apple takes a 30% cut of subscription revenue made through the App Store, and refuses to hand over all...

NASA has released a collection of free sound files from its historical archives for use by space buffs as ringtones. The set includes sound clips from historic Apollo and Mercury missions, Sputnik's "beep beep beep", shuttle launch audio and more: - Apollo 13's John "Jack" Swigert commenting "Houston, we have a problem" - Crackle of the historic last launch of the space shuttle, STS-135 -...

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam spoke out strongly in favor of AT&T's proposed merger with T-Mobile on Wednesday. The merger has been challenged in two separate lawsuits by the Department of Justice and Sprint. McAdam, at an investor conference, said the AT&T/T-Mobile "match had to occur" because spectrum is such a valuable commodity. AT&T has proclaimed the need for increased spectrum as the...

CNET reports that Apple is piloting a new program at its San Francisco flagship retail store, allowing store employees to check out loaner iPads for up to a week. The program is an additional perk to satisfy its employees and provides them with more hands-on time with the device to help them better assist customers.The program, which one source described as a "pilot," lets employees borrow from...