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

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reinstated Apple's $119.6 million award in a longstanding patent lawsuit with Samsung, after eight of twelve judges ruled it was wrong to throw out the verdict in February.The bulk of the award, $98.7 million, was for the detection patent that the earlier panel said wasn’t infringed. The February decision also said the other two patents were ...

In the face of waning popularity, developer Niantic recently announced a few updates to Pokémon Go that aim to make the game easier for players, with a focus on training at friendly Gyms and capturing wild Pokémon (via Engadget). The updates are for "trainers of all levels," but they appear to mostly benefit newcomers who might have given up on the game prior to the changes. The first update ...

Sprint today became the first network to allow all of its Galaxy Note 7 customers to exchange their handset for any other type of smartphone. The change in policy comes a day after a supposedly safe replacement Galaxy Note 7 apparently set alight on a U.S. passenger plane before takeoff, causing an evacuation of the aircraft. "If a Sprint customer with a replacement Note 7 has any...

Samsung announced strong third-quarter earnings guidance to investors on Friday despite its exploding smartphone woes, thanks in part to the company's component and display panel business. The Korean technology firm said it expects to earn $7 billion in operating profit for the three months ended September 30 – a 5.5 percent improvement from a year earlier – in a quarter that includes...

The artistic effects available in popular photo manipulation app Prisma can now be applied to up to 15 seconds of video (via Mashable). The company behind Prisma announced the new "beta" feature for iOS devices on Thursday, and said a total of nine styles are currently available for video, but that number is set to "soar weekly". The styles include Candy, Cold Fish, Paper Art, Illegal...

Staples, a leading office supplies chain, has announced that its mobile website now accepts Apple Pay for convenient and secure payments using Safari on iPhone or iPad. The feature eliminates the requirement to manually fill out account, shipping, and billing information repeatedly for a more seamless checkout experience. Likewise, British low-cost airline easyJet, the second-largest airline ...

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has announced the MTA eTix app for iPhone now supports Apple Pay, enabling commuters to conveniently and securely purchase tickets for New York City's Long Island Railroad and Metro-North Railroad trains. As of this week, commuters can use Apple Pay to purchase one way, round trip, ten trip, weekly, and CityTickets tickets — as well as monthly passes —...

Apple supplier Foxconn Electronics is reportedly gearing up to launch its own line of smartphone devices in Japan, using its recent acquisition of Sharp to help manufacture and distribute the handsets (via DigiTimes). Over the past few years, Foxconn has been a major supplier for Apple device manufacturing, including for the iPhone SE and iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. The company is said to be ...

As expected, Apple has begun showing developer ads in the iOS App Store today for U.S. users, reports The Verge. Now, searching for popular terms like "taxi", "calendar", or "to do list" returns a banner ad for promoted apps above the search results. Apple announced plans for the ads back in June and developers have participated in a beta testing program since that time. The App Store...

Feral Interactive has announced that the "full experience" of hugely popular war strategy game Rome: Total War will be coming to iPad this fall for the price of $9.99. The third title in the Total War series, Rome has been hailed as "not only one of the best strategy games ever, but one of the best PC games, period", according to MacRumors sister site TouchArcade, and Feral is promising a port ...

Popular music-detecting app Shazam today rolled out an update that adds support for the service within Messages, so users can send new artist and song discoveries directly to friends and family members. To use Shazam in Messages, make sure the app is updated to version 10.1.0, then open Messages, navigate to the contact you want to send a song to, and tap the App icon to the left of the...

Following their addition to Apple's online store in the United States in late September, Sonos speakers are now available at 468 physical Apple retail stores in both the U.S. and around the world. Sonos speakers have yet to appear on Apple's website in other countries, but they should be added in the coming weeks. Sonos' wireless Wi-Fi-connected PLAY:1 and PLAY:5 speakers can be purchased...

In addition to launching in Russia and at The Co-operative Bank and Metro Bank in the United Kingdom this week, Apple Pay is now available at Canadian credit union Desjardins, serving some 5.8 million members, and to residents of three tiny British Crown dependencies: Guernsey, Isle of Man, and Jersey. Desjardins members can use Apple Pay with Visa credit or prepaid cards or Interac debit...

One of the instrumental executives who oversaw the rise of Beats By Dre as a brand, chief marketing officer Omar Johnson, has announced that he is leaving the company on November 1 (via Fast Company). Johnson didn't give a specific reason as to why he is leaving the company, but his departure date will mark six years since he came onboard in 2010. Back then he was vice president of...

Facebook has announced that the rollout of cryptographic features for its massively popular Messenger chat service has completed, bringing end-to-end encryption to the largest messaging network in existence. Back in July, the social network company said it was testing the privacy feature on a limited basis which would eventually be rolled out to all 900 million users of the app. On Tuesday,...

Apple today seeded the second beta of watchOS 3.1, Build 14S464, to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the first beta and three weeks after releasing watchOS 3 to the public. watchOS 3.1 can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General -> Software Update. To install the update, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent battery, it must...

Apple today seeded the second beta of tvOS 10.0.1, Build 14U66, to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after releasing the first tvOS 10.0.1 beta and three weeks after releasing the tvOS 10 update. Designed for the fourth-generation Apple TV, tvOS 10.0.1 can be installed by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C to USB-A cable, downloading and installing the software via...

Apple has added The CW to the universal search function on the fourth-generation Apple TV, less than a week after the app launched in the United States. The CW app allows Apple TV owners to watch new episodes of shows on the network for free, with ads, with no cable authentication or login required. Only five episodes from the most recent season of each show are available to watch, with no...