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

VirnetX, currently embroiled in a patent dispute with Apple over FaceTime and iMessage, today asked the judge presiding over the case for additional damages and an injunction to block Apple's popular messaging services. According to Law360, VirnetX argues that an injunction is appropriate because Apple's infringement on VirnetX's patents, which relate to virtual private networking (VPN)...

PayPal recently announced that it plans to pull support for its apps on the Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Amazon Kindle Fire mobile platforms, as the company doubles down on its new and updated apps for iOS and Android (via CNET). Users on the three operating systems in question have until June 30 to access the PayPal app. In the blog post announcing the impending sunset of PayPal's app on...

After a few weeks of news surrounding Nintendo's continued push into smartphone gaming, the company's first app -- Miitomo -- slowly started to disappear from the conversation as users began to abandon the app. Nintendo celebrated an impressive 10 million user downloads a few weeks after Miitomo's release, but since then little news or talk has been circling from Nintendo itself or the game's...

An Apple patent was published today detailing a headset and communications platform that uses point-to-point network technology instead of cellular (via AppleInsider). The application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, called "Point-to-Point ad hoc voice communication", describes a headset invention capable of connecting with similar devices over local wireless ad hoc networks, ...

Holiday booking service Skyscanner has announced a chat bot that enables users to book their vacation and search for holiday inspiration from within Facebook Messenger. The conversation bot's main function is to search for flights on request and redirect users to the Skyscanner website to confirm their booking and complete payment. Users can also ask the bot to search for holiday...

Ride hailing company Uber has agreed a deal with Foursquare to use its location information in Uber's app to enhance its address finding capabilities (via Mashable). Uber's deal with the local search and discovery service will see its app incorporate Foursquare's Places data, so that riders can find the addresses for exact locations simply by typing in the restaurant or venue name....

Beta testing of the upcoming Pokémon GO game for iOS kicked off in the United States today, with Niantic Labs sending out beta invites to customers who signed up to be field testers earlier this month. Beta testing is already underway in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Pokémon GO, first announced last year, is being developed by Niantic Labs in collaboration with The Pokémon Company. It...

A new wearable Bluetooth earpiece has been gaining traction on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo, recently surpassing $1 million in funding and easily breaking its original goal of $75,000 from its backers. Called the "Pilot," the insertable earpiece translates languages in real time between users speaking with one another, all through a connected smartphone app. The Pilot comes with two...

Hugely popular toys-to-life business Skylanders announced its first mobile card game on iOS yesterday, as its seeks to further penetrate the $1.2 billion digital card market. Officially launched by parent company Activision Blizzard, Skylanders Battlecast takes the traditional formula established by the former's wildly successful Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and injects a grab bag of...

Microsoft has laid off hundreds of employees tied to its smartphone business, as the company finally exits the consumer phone market and attempts to streamline its worldwide mobile division (via The Verge). The move will impact up to 1,850 jobs worldwide, said Microsoft's head of Windows and devices Terry Myerson, while up to 1,350 of the positions will be in Finland. The cuts are expected to...

Swiss startup Wrio has launched a new keyboard app for iOS which claims to speed up typing by between 20 and 70 percent compared to standard Qwerty layouts. The developers of Wrio say they achieved this typing feat by throwing out the rulebook that says keys should be square, and instead adopting a honeycomb-like layout of hexagonal keys. This allows individual keys to be a little larger than...

In February, Seattle-based law firm Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala (PCVA) brought a class action lawsuit against Apple over the "Error 53" bug, which bricked iPhone 6 models with select third-party components. Apple quickly responded, confirming the error and issuing an updated version of iOS 9.2.1 to fix the error. Earlier this month, Apple moved to dismiss an amended version of the class action...

Apple Pay launched in Singapore in April through a partnership with American Express, and at the time, the Apple Pay website in Singapore said Apple Pay would be available to Visa card holders and major banks in the near future. Starting today, Apple Pay support is expanding beyond American Express. Apple Pay can now be used with major Visa, MasterCard, and American Express credit and debit...

Apple is looking to fill a "Privacy Counsel" position with an attorney who has expertise in the health field and HIPAA compliance, according to a new listing on the company's job site discovered by Business Insider. The job description calls for someone who has "health privacy expertise" and 5 to 9 years of experience as an associate at a top-tier law firm or business, among other qualifications. ...

Adonit, known for its line of styluses, today announced the launch of the Pixel, a stylus it's calling its "most advanced stylus to date." The Pixel features a 1.9mm Pixelpoint tip that's been improved with predictive touch technology for better accuracy and responsiveness, and "paper-like drag" to mimic the feeling of writing on paper. Combining features from the Jot Script and the Jot Touch, ...

Apple this month has expanded Spotlight Suggestions to seven additional regions for compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch models running iOS 9 or later. The localized feature is now supported in Hong Kong, India, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. Spotlight Suggestions, such as popular contacts, frequently opened apps, nearby amenities, and local...

The universal search functionality on the latest Apple TV recently saw NBC added to the list of content providers included in results in the United States. The addition is part of an ongoing expansion that most recently saw CBS added last month. Universal search on the Apple TV allows users to search for content using Siri or text entry and see a list of providers offering a given movie or...

Twitter announced today that it will be making a number of expected changes to simplify tweets over the coming months. First and foremost, when replying to a tweet, Twitter handles such as @MacRumors will no longer count toward the 140-character limit. Media attachments, like photos, GIFs, videos, polls, and Quote Tweets, will also no longer be counted. The changes should provide Twitter...