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

Marketing Land has assembled this comparison chart showing what subscription and rental services can be used with the new Google Chromecast, the Apple TV, and the Roku streaming boxes. The new Chromecast, which costs just $35, plugs into an HDMI port on a television, and needs to be charged via a USB connection. The Roku box is perhaps the most direct competitor for the Apple TV, with the...

During an internal town hall event earlier this week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and COO Kevin Turner spoke to employees about the recent $900 million writedown the company took for the Surface RT, reports The Verge. "We built a few more devices than we could sell," said Ballmer, in reference to slow Surface RT sales. Ballmer also went on to say that the company isn’t happy with its Windows ...

The next-generation iPhone will launch on September 6th, according to German Apple website iFun [Google Translate]. The site does not have a significant track record with this sort of prediction, however. Earlier this week, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the low-cost iPhone and the iPad 5 would ship in early September with the iPhone 5S coming later because of production...

T-Mobile, the fourth-most popular carrier in the United States in terms of subscriber numbers, announced today that it is launching a new promotion whereby any new, eligible customers will not have pay a single cent in downpayment for a new phone when signing up to a T-Mobile USA plan. Customers can now receive new devices for free and spread the cost over the terms of their contract, which in...

The Los Angeles Unified School District is planning to give all of its students free iPads by the end of 2014 as a part of a program launched by the district, reports CITEWorld. The program, which will see a total of 640,000 iPads handed out, is part of an initiative to improve education for students and to ready them for the workforce by enhancing their technological skills and comprehension. ...

According to electronics buyback site Gazelle.com, while Google's newly introduced Nexus 7 has proven to be a popular upgrade choice for users who already own the current version of the tablet, it isn't attracting iPad owners. The site told TechCrunch that after the new Nexus 7 was unveiled, there was a 333 percent increase in the number of Nexus 7 trade-ins compared to the same day last week, ...

Yahoo has updated the iOS app for its incredible popular Fantasy Football product for the 2013 NFL season with mobile drafting, a much-requested feature. Before, fantasy team owners were required to use a full-sized computer to conduct a fantasy draft, while now players will be able to draft from wherever they are.Today, the Yahoo! Fantasy Sports mobile team is proud to share some news. We’re...

Mapping application CityMaps has relaunched on iOS with information for every city in the United States, as well as an array of social features such as the ability for users to share maps with one another. The app includes data for over 15 million US locations, as well as contains turn-by-turn, walking, and public transit directions. It also contains notable social features such as the...

The company behind the popular Twine Kickstarter project has launched a new iOS-enabled food thermometer project called 'Range'.Range comes in two flavors, one for meat and the other for high-temperature projects like candy-making. The team have not used a wireless solution like the Bluetooth used in the iGrill -- instead, the designers chose to connect the Range directly to the headphone jack ...

As highlighted by VentureBeat, Electronic Arts yesterday announced in its quarterly earnings call that it is now earning more through Apple's App Store than any other retail outlet, including its own Origin digital store. Strong performance of freemium mobile games like The Simpsons: Tapped Out, The Sims Freeplay, and Real Racing 3 helped EA post a strong $90 million in sales on smartphones...

Social media marketing company ShareThis gave the iPhone the distinction of "Most Social Device" today after finding that users were more likely to share web content on their iPhone than on any other device. The study, which was published today on the company's blog, also examined other factors like the type of web content being shared. ShareThis found that the iPhone is three times more...

Earlier this month Best Buy announced a special two-day iPad trade-in program where 2nd or 3rd generation iPad owners could trade in their devices for fourth-generation iPads. Best Buy is now set to relaunch the program tomorrow, according to 9to5Mac. The program is largely the same, with 2nd and 3rd generation iPad owners getting gift cards starting at $200 toward a fourth generation iPad...

'Canary' is a small tabletop device that, according to its designers, will make your home safer and more secure from a variety of issues. The Canary includes a number of features and sensors that are accessible through the cloud from an iPhone:- HD camera with a wide-angle lens and microphone- Night vision and IR motion sensors- Temperature, air quality and humidity sensorsThe company...

Back in May, Rovio announced a new "Rovio Account" feature that would allow users to sync their progress on games such as Angry Birds across devices. At the time, the feature launched with limited availability, arriving worldwide for The Croods and only in Finland and Poland on the original Angry Birds game. Rovio today announced that the new Accounts feature is now available worldwide on...

Evernote today updated its app with new features to make it easier for users to organize their notes, including Shortcuts, related notes and Skitch integration. Shortcuts allows users to "shortcut" important or favorite notes, notebooks and tags so they're available for easy access. These Shortcuts also sync across devices and versions of Evernote so that users can access them...

Fox Digital Entertainment revealed that a RPG based on the cult TV series Firefly will be coming to iOS next summer, reports Polygon.The game, which will be officially licensed, is in development and will have players recruiting a crew and leading missions, while trading goods with other players. Gamers will be able to customize their games and play with friends across both iOS and Android...

In line with a leaked document from earlier this week, Verizon today announced the upcoming launch of its new "Edge" handset upgrade program. Similar to AT&T's "Next" program introduced earlier this week and T-Mobile's "Jump" offering, Edge is designed to allow users to upgrade their handsets more frequently. Here’s how it works: Choose the phone you want and sign up for a month-to-month...

Verizon today became the first of the major U.S. iPhone carriers to report financial results for the second quarter of 2013, revealing during its conference call that the carrier activated approximately 3.9 million iPhones during the quarter. The number represents a little over half of Verizon's 7.5 million total smartphone activations during the quarter and is up approximately 44% from the year-a...