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

Earlier this month, Twelve South announced its latest product for the Apple Watch, a travel tote and portable charging stand called the TimePorter. Starting today, Twelve South is launching the $50 TimePorter and has begun accepting orders for the accessory. Just ahead of the TimePorter's launch, Twelve South shipped a TimePorter to me so I could share an early hands-on look at the product,...

Apple today provided developers with the fourth beta of an upcoming 9.2.1 update to tvOS, the operating system designed for the fourth-generation Apple TV. Today's beta comes one week after the third beta of tvOS 9.2.1 and more than a month after the release of tvOS 9.2. tvOS 9.2.1 has been in testing since April 6. tvOS betas are more difficult to install than beta updates for iOS and OS X. ...

Twitter today announced a new feature for its iOS and Android applications that will connect people to Twitter users around the world who share similar interests. Using the new "Connect tab," users will be able to browse a list of people and accounts that the social network believes you will be interested in, all without having to manually search topics and hashtags yourself. Finding new...

Giphy today launched its own iOS keyboard, called Giphy Keys, that will let users search for and send GIFs without having to navigate to a separate keyboard application. Once users install Giphy Keys as a new keyboard in settings -- and allow it full access -- the app can be selected as a keyboard by tapping the globe icon whenever the keyboard is open on iOS. The advantage of Giphy Keys is...

Last week, Nintendo announced that the next two games launching on iPhone and Android devices will be Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem related applications, but didn't speak much to its reasoning behind that decision. In a subsequent financial results briefing Q&A, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima gave some explanation as to why the company decided to prioritize these franchises as its next...

A Brazilian judge has ordered cellphone carriers to block access to WhatsApp for 72 hours throughout the Latin American country, after the Facebook-owned company refused to hand over information requested in a drug trafficking investigation (via Reuters). As reported last month, the instant messenger service recently enabled full end-to-end encryption, making all forms of communication sent...

In a wider piece on Fitbit and its efforts to escape from the shadow of Apple, The New York Times shared an interesting anecdote about the way the iPhone 4s influenced the features in Fitbit's line of fitness trackers back when it debuted in 2011. The iPhone 4s was the first iPhone to include support for Bluetooth 4.0 to allow accessories to connect to the device, and following the...

Mark One's Pryme Vessyl is an iPhone-connected cup that's designed to track your daily liquid intake, making sure you're at your optimal hydration level. According to Mark One, hitting an ideal hydration level can increase your energy level and improve your mental balance. Paired with an accompanying app, Pryme Vessyl calculates a user's hydration needs based on height, weight, activity level, ...

In time for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Apple Maps now supports transit routing in Rio de Janeiro, the second most populous city in Brazil. Transit directions are available for travel by bus, ferry, metro, and train throughout the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, including connections to and from Belford Roxo, Duque de Caxias, Itaboraí, Japeri, Magé, Mesquita, Nilópolis, Niterói, Nova...

Microsoft has updated its Bing search engine app for iOS with a feature that allows users to search the web using a photo taken on their device. Bing users can now select an existing photo from their gallery or opt to shoot one from within the app, and Bing will use the image to search for similar ones online. User photos can be cropped to get search results specific to an object within...

Apple has agreed to examine a recovered iPhone at the center of a dispute between the families of two Florida teens who went missing during a fishing trip last summer (via ABC News). In July 2015, 14-year-old Austin Stephanos and his friend and neighbor Perry Cohen, also 14, launched a single-engine vessel on a fishing expedition off the coast of Palm Beach County, Florida. The boys never...

After developer Nick Lee realized that the Apple Watch's 520 MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage made it more powerful than many desktops running Windows 95 in the 1990s, he felt confident he could get it to run Microsoft's successful operating system. Photo via Nick Lee To get Windows 95 to run on the Apple Watch, Lee knew he couldn't rely on Apple's WatchKit SDK...

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Leef to give MacRumors readers a chance to win the 32GB Leef iBridge, an iPhone-compatible storage device, the Leef iAccess, a microSD card reader, and a 64GB microSD card to go along with it. Leef's iBridge is designed to expand the available storage on an iPhone or iPad by connecting to the Lightning port on Apple's devices. The iBridge can...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently published a new patent application originally filed by Apple last July, detailing a system in which the receiver of an iMessage could be notified when pieces of the message are scrambled incoherently by the company's autocorrect system (via AppleInsider). The patent isn't a proactive solution to enhance the sometimes spotty nature of...

Drake's latest album made its global streaming debut on Apple Music last night and is now available to buy on iTunes. Priced at $13.99, Views (previously titled Views From The Six) features 20 new tracks, including the slow jam hit "Hotline Bling". The Canadian rapper's album will be exclusive to Apple Music for one week, after which it will become available on other music streaming services...

Twitter yesterday changed how its iOS mobile app is categorized on the App Store in order to enhance its visibility, following the company's poor Q1 earnings report earlier this week (via TechCrunch). Twitter now appears in the "News" category, where it's the #1 ranked app ahead of CNN and Reddit. Previously it could be found in "Social Networking", where it occupied #5 in the category...

Last week, FBI director James Comey hinted at how much the agency paid to unlock San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook's iPhone, saying it cost more than he will make in the next seven years and four months. The number worked out to around $1.3 million, as Comey's annual salary is $183,000. However, sources now tell Reuters that the amount was actually under $1 million. Although the FBI says it ...

Apple today updated its iOS 9 feature availability page to note the expansion of several iOS features to new countries. Apple's Flyover feature for Apple Maps has expanded to encompass Akron, Ohio and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, allowing Maps users to see photorealistic 3D views of the areas, with tools for zooming, panning, and rotating to get a closer look at notable landmarks and points of...