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

Parrot, the company behind the iPhone-controlled AR Drone quadricoptor, has debuted its new Flower Power project at CES 2013. The system consists of a two-pronged Bluetooth monitoring device that sticks in the soil, and an iPad app. The Verge has a rundown on how it works: Simply place the Flower Power device — which looks like a colorful leek — in the soil near any of your plants, pair...

Withings today announced its new Smart Activity Tracker, which is designed to measure heart rate, monitor sleep quality and food intake, and track movement. Health monitoring devices have seen a surge in popularity of late, with offerings like the Jawbone Up, the Nike Fuelband, and the Fitbit One. The Smart Activity Tracker, which is designed to clip to clothing or fit into a pocket much...

We expect many Lightning-enabled accessories to be coming from companies at CES 2013. Griffin today announced an update to their StudioConnect Audio/MIDI dock which adds a Lightning connector. They claim it to be the first music creation accessory that supports the Lightning connector.StudioConnect gives your iPad: audio in and out, MIDI in and out, and a stereo headphone jack with its own...

Mobee, best known for its chargers for Apple’s peripherals, has three new products that will debut at CES 2013, including a compact battery, a speaker, and a universal charging cable. Magic Juice ($79.99), Mobee’s compact battery solution, is designed to provide a full charge for an iPad or two charges for an iPhone. The battery is the first charging solution that can be recharged...

A bug in Google's text-to-speech engine is causing Google Now and Google Translate to interject the phrase "he now praises the iPad" into sentences that end using phrases such as "end with," "enraged with," and "filled with." The mysterious phrasing, which first came about in October 2012 on the Android support page, was publicized by Hacker News last night, resulting in some hilarious...

More than $600,000 worth of counterfeit Lighting cables were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at a routine customs search in Anchorage, Alaska (via 9to5Mac). The cables had arrived from China via plane and were designed to look like Apple's $19 Lightning to USB cables, complete with fake Apple logos and UL icons.But the knock-off logos weren't enough of a disguise. The items stood...

Hundreds, from the makers of Canabalt and Solipskier, is a minimalistic puzzle title that’s making waves with its simplistic design and clever gameplay. Previously a Flash game, Hundreds has been ported to iOS with great success, incorporating intuitive multi-touch controls. The idea is to tap a series of circles on the screen. With each tap, the number on the circle increases, until it...

Over the past several months, we've been following the progress of iPhone5mod, one of several companies that have developed unauthorized versions of Apple's new Lightning connector, allowing them to launch a number of accessories, adapters, and cables for customers frustrated by the slow pace of development on official solutions. iPhone5mod is now launching an interesting new product today...

ThinkGeek has discounted the iCade Jr. Mini Arcade Cabinet for iPhone to only $9.99. That represents 80% off its normal price of $49.99. The iCade Jr. was originally launched in January 2012 at CES. It represents a smaller iPhone/iPod Touch sized version of the original iPad-sized iCade. Like its big brother, the iCade Jr. connects to your iPhone or iPod Touch using Bluetooth. This...

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority just released a new app, MTA Subway Time, which provides accurate real-time information on subway arrivals for six of the numbered lines, including No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, plus the 42nd Street shuttle, covering 156 different stations in the city. Subway Time will allow commuters to plan trips down to the minute. The app works with the...

The Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese courts have ordered Apple to pay a group of Chinese writers $165,000 for unlawfully distributing copyrighted works in certain Chinese apps.A Beijing court ordered Apple Inc. to pay 1.03 million yuan, or about $165,000, to a group of local writers who said the U.S. gadget maker sold unlicensed copies of their books online, according to state media. ...

Cycloramic is a clever panoramic video app that was released earlier this week. Unlike most panorama apps available for the iPhone, Cycloramic doesn't require users to hold the phone steady while rotating in a circle. Instead, the app takes advantage of the strong vibrating feature of the iPhone. When balanced on a flat surface such as a granite countertop, the phone will spin on its own,...

Jordan Mechner, creator of the classic Prince of Persia game, recently remade his Apple II game Karateka for iOS. To celebrate, he released a video (found by TUAW) comparing the delivery methods for the Apple II version of Karateka and the iOS version.The video highlights how software prices are dropped, how delivery methods have improved and how the actual software has gotten more advanced in...

A day after a Kickstarter project was killed because of restrictions on Apple's MFi program that prevented Lightning and 30-Pin connectors from appearing on the same device, Apple has changed its guidelines to allow third-party devices to have 30-pin and Lightning chargers on the same accessory, reports CNET."Our technical specifications provide clear guidelines for developing accessories and...

Nielsen yesterday released its digital "Tops of 2012" statistics, which included the top 10 iOS apps of 2012, based on average unique users. The study took place from Q1 2012 to Q3 2012 and also happened to find that this was the first year where smartphone owners became the majority of mobile phone users with 56% by the end of Q3. Four of the top 10 iPhone apps are stock iOS apps, as YouTube...

When Snapchat launched a video update last week, AllThingsD reported that Facebook was planning on releasing its own photo and video sharing app to compete with Snapchat. Facebook’s new standalone app, Facebook Poke, was released today, expanding on Facebook's original "poke" concept. After connecting to Facebook Poke with a Facebook account, users can take a video or photo, write a message,...

The Wall Street Journal is now offering in-app subscriptions on the App Store, and has added its newspaper to Apple's Newsstand automatic subscription delivery service, reports All Things D.The move is worth noting because up until now the Journal was one of the highest-profile print publishers that wasn’t selling app access via Apple. Earlier this year, Time Inc., which had been the most...

The IMDb app is one of the most popular apps on iOS, with the Internet Movie Database yesterday noting in a press release that its iOS app has been downloaded 25 million times. Along with the milestone comes a redesigned Version 3.0 of the IMDb iPad app, with the goal being to focus on discovery features and allow users to see more content. The iPhone version has also received a few more features ...