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

Last week, Apple announced that it would be debuting a new volume purchasing program to allow businesses to purchase iOS in volume and distribute them within their organizations. As noted by The Loop and in a brief announcement on Apple's site, the program has now gone live.Businesses in the United States can now enroll in the Volume Purchase Program and purchase your apps in volume for...

AT&T today announced financial results for the second quarter of 2011, revealing that its iPhone activations remained flat compared to the previous quarter by coming in at 3.6 million. Activations were up from 3.2 million in the year-ago quarter. According to the report, 24% of iPhone activations during the quarter were by customers new to AT&T, a figure just slightly higher than last quarter ...

A few weeks ago, Apple lost a small jury trial related to a single patent related to downloadable playlists. The lawsuit was originally filed in June 2009 and accused Apple of infringement related to the "iPod classic, iPod mini, iPod shuffle, iPod nano and iPod Touch". The verdict awarded $8 million to patent holder Personal Audio LLC -- a very small chunk of Apple's $76 billion in cash. Now...

Apple and Google are weighing bids for InterDigital, a mobile-technology R&D firm that holds an extensive patent portfolio related to digital wireless radiotelephony technology, including 3G and 4G, according to Bloomberg. InterDigital's wireless patents, according to its CEO, are "deeper and stronger" than Nortel's. A consortium led by Apple purchased Nortel's thousands of patents for $4.5...

Reuters reports that Canadian authorities have declined to review the $4.5 billion purchase of Nortel's patent assets by an Apple-led consortium, determining that the transaction is not subject to certain regulations regarding foreign investments.Under the Investment Canada Act, the government must review foreign investments with a book value of more than C$312 million ($328 million) to determine ...

When Apple called the iPod Touch the "Funnest iPod Ever", it was clear Apple was talking about gaming. But using the touch sensitive screen on the iPod -- and iPad and iPhone for that matter -- isn't necessarily the best way to input commands. Especially for action games like NBA JAM or Madden. Some companies make "joysticks" that try to bridge the gap, but it's still a far cry from having...

As noted by MacStories, the new Google+ app offering users a number of features related to the company's new social networking service has just gone live in the App Store.Google+ for mobile makes sharing the right things with the right people a lot simpler. Huddle lets you send super-fast messages to the people you care about most. And no matter where you are, the stream lets you stay in the...

Earlier this year, AT&T lowered the subsidized price of the iPhone 3GS to $49. Now, AT&T is offering refurbished 3GS' for just $9 with a two-year contract. Earlier today, it was rumored that Apple would continue selling the 3GS this fall, after the next version of the iPhone is released, as a low-cost, unlocked device for $350 without a contract. Over the past several iPhone cycles,...

CNN is the first 24-hour news network to offer live streaming of both the flagship CNN channel and CNN Headline News to iPad and iPhone owners, and at CNN.com/video, via the TV Everywhere initiative. It only works for users who already subscribe to CNN via AT&T, Comcast, Cox, DISH Network, Suddenlink and Verizon. Time Warner Cable is the notable, ironic exception, mostly because CNN is owned ...

ChangeWave Research today announced the results of a survey of over 4,000 professional and early-adopter smartphone users, primarily focused on the North American market. According to the survey, consumers looking to purchase a smartphone over the next 90 days are increasingly preferring the iPhone over Android by a count of 46%-32%, even with Apple holding off on introducing a iPhone in June as ...

Taiwanese site Apple.pro republishes some photographs originally posted to Weibo, a Chinese microblogging service similar to Twitter. The images claim to be of an "iPhone 4GS" test model running iOS 4.0. The unit appears to be identical to the iPhone 4 with a reported 5 megapixel camera based on the diagnostic software. The iTunes artwork looks different but as some readers have pointed...

PCMag reports that Verizon and AT&T's upcoming LTE ("4G") networks will be incompatible with each other:Thinking of unlocking a Verizon Wireless LTE phone for use on AT&T's network, or vice versa? Think again. Verizon Wireless confirmed today that its LTE phones will not "be compatible on other LTE networks in the U.S." because "the phones will be on different frequencies," according to Verizon ...

An unsourced report from Sohu.com, a Chinese website, claims the iPhone 5 is delayed because Apple's A5 processor (currently in the iPad 2) is overheating in the iPhone 5 (via Google Translate): Due to the emergence of Apple's current A5 processor overheating problem, so Apple will not soon be launching a new generation of the iPhone 5 smartphones, but Apple will launch this fall is still an...

Apple's quarterly earnings report for Q3 FY11 comes out next Tuesday, July 19. As always, analysts are offering their final predictions for what Apple will report -- particularly around the iPhone, which has grown to be Apple's biggest single source of revenue. Philip Elmer-DeWitt, writer of Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog, polled 42 analysts for their iPhone sales predictions. The group, which...

According to Fusible, Apple has finally taken possession of the domain names iPhone4.com and WhiteiPhone.com, forwarding those addresses to the company's iPhone pages. Whois listings for the new domains now point to Apple as the owner, with brand protection firm MarkMonitor appearing as the registrar as is customary for Apple's domains. Apple last month took control of iCloud.com just ahead ...

As noted by TiPb, the third beta of iOS 5 released earlier this week has activated new AirPlay streaming support for FaceTime video calling. The feature allows users to display FaceTime video calls directly on a large-screen TV for easy viewing by larger groups of people.If this makes it into the final release — and not everything does — it’ll be fantastic for families and businesses...

Earlier this week, DigiTimes reported that Apple was looking at diversifying its production for the iPad by bringing on a second manufacturer in Pegatron or Quanta to join Apple's longtime iOS device partner Foxconn. According to the report, Apple has been interested in moving to a multiple-partner arrangement in order to minimize risk of disruptions such as those caused by an explosion at a...

Reuters reports that China Telecom is close to a deal with Apple for distribution of the iPhone in China. The iPhone is presently available in China on China Unicom, so the addition of a second carrier would help Apple expand their reach in that country. Reuters' sources indicate that the negotiations are ongoing but that it is expected to happen this year. "It's expected to happen this...