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

A link that exploits a bug in iOS and Mac devices was shared on Twitter this afternoon, and if you receive this link through the Messages app, your iPhone or iPad can freeze up or respring, and the Messages app can become unusable. The link, which goes to a Github page, breaks the Messages app and causes problems on both iOS devices and Macs. Simply receiving the link results in issues, likely ...

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently took the time out of his busy schedule to do an interview with high school student Rebecca Kahn, and her account of the interview was shared today by the National Center for Women & Information Technology as part of a new "Innovator to Innovator" series to celebrate the upcoming 2018 Aspirations in Computing Awards. Kahn says that she first emailed Cook when tasked...

Facebook vice president of messaging products, David Marcus, posted an update on Messenger today, outlining the app's successes in 2017 and hinting at what the team has planned for 2018. In the post, Marcus mentioned that the Messenger team knows the app has become "too cluttered." Because of this, they have planned a big update for 2018, which will introduce a simplified and streamlined...

Vacation and apartment rental service Airbnb this week launched a new way for its customers to cut down the initial cost of expensive bookings for an Airbnb location. Called "Pay Less Up Front" and available on iOS, Android, and the web, the feature allows guests to choose to pay for part of their trip at the time of booking in the form of a 50 percent deposit "in most cases." When their...

Apple increased its share of smartphone activations in the fourth quarter of 2017, following the release of the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X, according to data shared with MacRumors by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. iPhones accounted for 39 percent of activations in the United States between October and December, up from 34 percent in the year-ago quarter, based on CIRP's...

Twitter has rebuffed claims by a conservative media outlet that its staff monitor users' private data, including direct messages sent over the social network (via TechCrunch). Earlier this week, Project Veritas, which hosts sting operation-style videos produced by self-proclaimed "guerrilla journalist" James O'Keefe, posted footage that appears to show Twitter engineers admitting that teams of ...

Amazon began taking pre-orders from U.K. customers for its Alexa-powered Echo Spot speaker on Tuesday. Announced along with all-new Echo models in September 2017, the compact display-and-speaker unit has only been available in the U.S. before now. The Spot is capable of standard Amazon Echo functions like controlling smart home devices and streaming music, but can also show users additional...

YouTube appears to be in the testing phase of adding a new dark theme for its official iOS app, according to reports. Reddit user Dean Cobb revealed on Monday night that a new dark mode was already live as an option in the Settings section of the app after updating to version 13.01.4. Dark mode via Redditor amievengabereal However, as of this morning, rollout of the feature still seems...

Apple's iPhone slowdown controversy extended to China on Tuesday after a Chinese consumer group asked the tech giant for information about iOS updates that reduce the performance of older iPhones (via Reuters). The Shanghai Consumer Council has written to Apple and requested an explanation for the slowdowns and information about what Apple planned to do to rectify the problem. The consumer...

Toyota and Lexus today confirmed that CarPlay will be available in select 2019-and-later vehicles, making Mazda one of the only recognizable automakers without support for Apple's in-car software platform in the United States. Many of our readers commented or tweeted to ask if and when Mazda will ever support CarPlay, so we reached out to the company for an update. MacRumors received the...

Apple and Tencent, the company that owns the popular WeChat messaging app, have reached a deal that will let WeChat users resume sending in-app tips to content creators, reports The Wall Street Journal. Apple first asked Chinese social networking apps to disable tipping functionality back in May 2017 as it violated App Store rules. Tipping, Apple said, was a form of in-app purchase that should ...

Office Depot and OfficeMax today informed us they have lowered their iPhone battery replacement fee to $27.99 at select stores across the United States through February 4, 2018, undercutting Apple's $29 price by one dollar. The lower price, down from $49.99 regularly, is applicable to the iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and...

Adorama has marked down a collection of MacBooks this week, with instant rebates that start at $150 off Apple's mid 2017 refresh of the 13-inch MacBook Pro and increase to $200 off the 15-inch model. Adorama's markdowns on the latest MacBook Pros provide some of the best sale prices for these custom configurations found online, and other retailers like B&H Photo and MacMall are matching discounts ...

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.2.5 update to developers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the fourth beta and almost a month after the release of tvOS 11.2.1, an update that introduced a fix for a HomeKit vulnerability. Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the new tvOS 11.2.5 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a...

Apple has opened a new section of the iOS App Store that promotes subscription-based apps offering free trials (via 9to5Mac). Called "Try it for Free", the subcategory appears in the Apps tab and is currently home to just four apps, including USA Today, 1Password, Panna: Video Recipes & Classes, and Lake: Coloring Books. Tapping "Free Trial" next to one of the apps takes the user to a screen...

More OLED panel makers are gearing up to compete with Samsung and LG for orders from Apple as soon as this year, according to industry sources (via DigiTimes). Thanks to its existing production capability, Samsung was the sole supplier of OLED display panels for Apple's iPhone X in 2017, which left LG Display under pressure from Apple and scrambling to invest billions in its OLED manufacturing ...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this afternoon announced some major changes that are coming to the Facebook News Feed, which will cut down on the content displayed from publishers to instead highlight more content from family and friends. According to Zuckerberg, feedback from Facebook users has suggested content from businesses, brands, and media is crowding out personal content from friends,...

Apple has quickly corrected a mistake that allowed iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users to downgrade to older software versions on early Thursday. The situation began on late Wednesday when Apple suddenly stopped signing all iOS versions for select devices, including the iPhone 4s and some very old iPad and iPod touch models, according to the website IPSW.me. Next, it appears that when...