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

According to a new report from Flurry, China is now the world's largest smart device market, passing the United States just after the Chinese New Year. The country has the most active Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. China began catching up to the U.S. late last year and as of January 2013, the two countries had approximately the same smart device user base, with 222 million in the...

Haze, a new weather app from Robocat, offers up a clean, colorful design and animated backgrounds that accompany weather forecasts. It is similar in appearance to weather app Solar, but Haze incorporates touch gestures allowing users to navigate through information like temperature, sunrise and sunset times, rain predictions, and wind factor. Despite its surprisingly minimal appearance,...

Microsoft is adding Video Messages to Skype for iOS, Android, and Mac this week, which will allow Skype users to send up to three minutes of video to one another. It will essentially function as video voicemail. The messages, which are designed to be sent to both online and offline users, are a part of Skype Premium. Each Skype account will receive 20 free messages and when those are used,...

Screenshots alleged to be of a forthcoming Samsung smartwatch have been posted on the Korean message board Ruliweb (via SlashGear), suggesting possible competition for the rumored Apple "iWatch". It is unclear whether the watch will be a self-contained product, or rely on a Bluetooth connection to a smartphone. The claimed code name of the project, Altius, is causing some confusion, as SamMo...

Dropbox has launched a new version of its iOS app, providing push notifications of shared folders for the first time. Previously, when waiting for someone to share a folder with you, you had to repeatedly open and close the app to check for its availability. The feature is likely to be most appreciated by business users, as Dropbox file-sharing has become a very popular way to work around...

Autodesk recently released a new iPad app for novice 3D modelers, 123D Creature, which allows creators to use gesture controls to mold monsters out of virtual clay. Creatures are designed from the ground up, with sculpted features and painted-on fur, feathers, and skin. Completed projects can be exported as an image, a 3D model, or printed using a 3D printer.-Technology previously only...

Crowd funding website Kickstarter launched an official app for the iPhone this morning, giving project creators, backers, and potential customers a new way to interact with the site. The app allows users to find new products and keep tabs on backed projects, while also offering up tools for creators.Take it for a spin... -Discover new projects -Watch project videos -Get updates from...

As previewed back in November, Scosche has released its lineup of third-party Lightning car and home chargers, including the first official retractable Lightning cable on the market. The lineup includes both 12W ($34.99) and 5W ($29.99) wall chargers, as well as 12W ($29.99) and 5W ($24.99) coiled car chargers. The 5W models are designed to charge the iPhone and iPod touch only, but are $5...

With the Pebble smart watch now making its the way into the hands of Kickstarter backers who funded the project with over $10 million, users are looking for ways to increase the functionality of the device. As noted by iDownloadBlog, developer Conrad Kramer has created a new app for jailbroken iPhones that can push notifications from any Notification Center-enabled iOS app to Pebble. The...

Epic Games' hit title Infinity Blade was named Apple's Free App of the Week and the app can now be downloaded at no cost for the first time since its release. Love is in the air, and so are swords, axes, hammers and scythes! Celebrate Valentine’s by enjoying the Must-Have iOS Blockbuster for FREE!Infinity Blade is an action RPG powered by the Unreal 3 Engine. It offers a console-quality...

Business Insider reports that LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner has gifted every LinkedIn employee with an iPad mini. Here's what a spokesperson had to say about the gesture, which was first tweeted by Darain Faraz, a LinkedIn communications manager:We wanted to acknowledge the hard work and accomplishments of all of our employees in 2012. During today's biweekly All Hands meeting, we surprised our...

Tempo AI is a startup that originated from the SRI International research center, which also spawned Siri. Today the company released its first iPhone app, Tempo Smart Calendar, which shares many features with personal assistant Siri. The app utilizes artificial intelligence that analyzes iPhone data, including calendars, email, location, and contacts, to provide context-aware enhancements to...

Apple TV's latest update -- version 5.2 -- was originally released back in January with Bluetooth Keyboard support and a number of other features.Today, FireCore released updated versions of aTV Flash (black) and its Seas0nPass jailbreaking app.The app jailbreaks any second-generation Apple TV unit with the 5.2 software installed, but the jailbreak for the third generation Apple TV released...

EA and Firemonkeys' Real Racing 3 is set to be released later this month, though it is currently available for download in some international App Stores as part of a soft launch to test the system. The game, which is the highly anticipated followup to Real Racing 2, features real cars, photorealistic tracks, online time-shifted multiplayer, and impressively accurate physics. Unlike previous...

Apple today updated its consumer moviemaking app iMovie for iOS, adding reliability enhancements when sending photos from iPhoto to iMovie and fixing a bug that affected project photos when restoring from a backup. Here's the full list of changes: -Improves reliability when sending photos from iPhoto to iMovie -Resolves an issue that could affect photos in projects and trailers after restoring...

A customer satisfaction survey of mobile shoppers by analytics firm ForeSee (via BGR) puts Apple in joint-second place with QVC, scoring 83%, just behind the top scorer Amazon at 85%. Overall consumer satisfaction with the mobile shopping experience increased slightly from 76% in 2011 to 78% in 2012.The mobile platform is maturing much faster than the PC platform. We see it in the rate of...

BBC News reports that Apple has officially lost a trademark ruling in Brazil over the "iPhone" name, with officials declaring that a company now selling Android phones under the name is the rightful owner of the term based on its trademark application from 2000. The impact on Apple appears to be limited for the time being, however, as Apple is reportedly pursuing an appeal and can continue...

Mobile video viewing experienced significant gains last year, growing from just 2% of online videos watched in 2011 to 12% in 2012 - and the majority of it is on iOS devices. 60% of all mobile video viewing is done on iOS devices, according to a study by video monetization company Freewheel (via TechCrunch). Android devices accounted for most of the rest, at 32%. The iPhone alone...