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

In Mid-May, several app developers, for both iOS and Android, received legal notification from a patent holding company named Lodsys, claiming that certain functions of their apps (such as the In-App Purchasing mechanism that Apple offers to developers) were in infringement of Lodsys patents. After Lodsys filed lawsuits against seven iOS developers, Apple attempted to intervene on behalf of...

AT&T has informed customers that the iPhone (all models) will be eligible for their Mobile Insurance program starting on July 17th. AT&T's mobile insurance program offers protection against loss, theft, accidental physical or liquid damage and mechanical and/or electrical failure. The program costs $4.99/month and a $50 or $125 deductible for each claim depending on the particular model. *...

As noted by ThisIsMyNext, a prototype iPhone 4 appeared on eBay this weekend. This prototype iPhone 4 has many of the signs that it is a pre-release device. The volume buttons don't have the + and - markings as the production models have, and the FCC ID, Size and Model numbers are X'd out on the back casing. The eBay description details the findings:1. iPhone has wear on the frame, some...

Heading into the 4th of July weekend, many developers are using the holiday as an excuse to cut prices on their Apps. Prominent developers such as EA and Gameloft are amongst the participants. A running list of all App Store price drops can be seen here. Meanwhile, sister site AppShopper.com, which tracks all App Store sales and updates, has updated their iOS App with a number of new...

Fiona Bligh never thought she would get a response when she sent an email to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. But, the story of her daughter Holly's unique experience with her iPad inspired Steve so much that not only did he write back to Fiona, but Steve asked if he could share her story as well. Fiona's daughter has albinism. It affects pigment in her skin, hair color and also her vision. The...

With talk of Apple seeking to release a cheaper iPhone being revived in recent days, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky now weighs in to report that he believes that Apple will be keeping the iPhone 3GS around even after the next iPhone hardware update, offering the device for free with a two-year contract and at $399 for unsubsidized purchases. Apple currently sells an 8 GB iPhone 3GS...

Released earlier this month by newPCgadgets, the iPad 2 Display Dock claims to replicate the Apple retail store iPad 2 experience by offering a clear acrylic display block for the latest iPad, holding the device at an angle in a sleek enclosure for ease of interaction. In addition to the iPad 2, the dock also contains an upright docking station for holding an iPhone or iPod touch.Now you can ...

Google today announced the launch of Google Swiffy, a new Google Labs effort to produce a tool capable of converting Flash content to HTML5 for display on non-Flash devices such as the iPhone and iPad.You can upload a SWF file, and Swiffy will produce an HTML5 version which will run in modern browsers with a high level of SVG support such as Chrome and Safari. It’s still an early version, so it ...

Over the weekend, we noted that one of the new features in the second beta of iOS 5 released to developers on Friday was the addition of native-style momentum scrolling for web apps, a key feature that will enable web app developers to easily make their apps feel much more like regular iOS applications. Daring Fireball now points to this demo from @cpojer showing off how the new CSS property ...

Over the weekend some newly leaked AT&T documents generated some interest about references to possible LTE-based iPads. iFans first wrote about the possibilities. The references, however, were rather vague and the dates were also in question. One of their own forum readers dug into the data further and found that the...

All Things Digital takes a look at the shifting landscape of mobile device data packages, where European carriers are leading the way in offering shared data plans allowing customers to sign up for a single data allotment to be used among multiple devices such as an iPhone and an iPad. Led by Austrian offerings from Orange, those shared data plans have begun rolling out to customer bases...

Over the weekend, 9 to 5 Mac reported that Apple retail stores are now able to unlock any AT&T iPhone 4 purchased at the unsubsidized "no commitment" prices of $649/$749, offering Apple retail stores the ability to sell unlocked iPhones even if they have run out of the models specifically set aside for sale as unlocked devices. Apple began selling unlocked iPhone 4s in the United States for the...

As noted by TUAW, HP this week released a series of firmware updates bringing AirPrint compatibility to eight more printers, offering users of iOS devices running iOS 4.2 or later the ability to wirelessly print directly from their devices.By downloading and installing a firmware update from HP, the following printer models will gain full support for AirPrint functions: - HP LaserJet P1102w...

9 to 5 Mac reports that a spokesperson for T-Mobile USA has disclosed the carrier currently has over one million iPhone users on its network, despite the fact that Apple has not offered an unlocked iPhone in the United States until the past several weeks and that differences between T-Mobile's network and other GSM networks that mean that iPhones are unable to run at 3G speeds on T-Mobile.In a...

AndroidCentral provides details of Verizon's plans to eliminate their unlimited data plans as of July 7th. As previously reported, Verizon will be doing away with their unlimited $29.99 plan that is presently available for smartphones and replacing it with a tiered plan. Like AT&T, however, they will be grandfathering in existing customers so they will continue to be able to use the...

For nearly a month now, we've been following Samsung's request for access to Apple's next-generation iPhone and iPad hardware, a move obviously made in retaliation for Apple having demanded (and received) access to unreleased, albeit publicly-shown, Samsung hardware as part of the legal battle between the two companies. As noted by FOSS Patents, a federal judge has now ruled that Apple does...

Civilian and military flight crews are increasing looking to the iPad to replace bulky maps and flight manuals, saving weight and ensuring that crews always have the most up to date materials. In the past month, both American Airlines and Alaska Airlines have begun distributing iPads to their pilots to reduce the number of paper maps flight crews must to carry around and fly with. The switch ...

Verizon will be dropping its unlimited data option, and transitioning to tiered data plans next month, a Verizon spokeswoman told All Things Digital. We will move to a more usage based model in July. We'll share more later.We've known for a while that the unlimited data plan Verizon has offered since it launched the iPhone 4 was likely to disappear this summer. One site, DroidLife, claims to ...