MacRumors

IPSWFollowing the release of iOS 11.2.5 on January 23, Apple stopped signing older versions of iOS 11, including iOS 11.2, iOS 11.2.1, and iOS 11.2.2.

iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch owners who have upgraded to iOS 11.2.5 will no longer be able to downgrade to earlier versions of iOS.

Apple routinely stops signing older versions of software updates after new releases come out in order to encourage customers to keep their operating systems up to date.

iOS 11.2.5 is now the only version of iOS 11 that can be installed on iOS devices by the general public, but developers and public beta testers can download iOS 11.3, an update that is being beta tested ahead of a spring release.

Over the course of the last few months, several companies have decided to end development on apps for the Apple Watch, focusing instead on Apple's iOS platform. The latest company to nix its Apple Watch app is Slack. If you're unfamiliar with Slack, it's a team communication and collaboration platform for businesses.

In an update to its iOS app today, Slack eliminated its standalone Apple Watch app. Slack customers will, however, still be able to respond to incoming messages on their Apple Watch thanks to rich notifications.

slackapplewatch

Apple Watch users, there's now one iOS app for all of your needs. We've removed the standalone Watch App, but rest assured, receiving and replying to messages from your wrist works the same as before. It's like two for the price of one, but with apps.

Slack's Apple Watch app, like many of the Apple Watch apps that have been abandoned, was never particularly useful, so it's no surprise Slack has decided not to dedicate additional resources to it. The Slack Apple Watch app let users view unread mentions and view and respond to direct messages, but these features were not easy to use on a wrist-worn device. It also let users receive and interact with notifications, features that are still available through an iPhone.

When the Apple Watch was released, most companies developed an Apple Watch app for the device even if the app didn't do anything useful, because it wasn't yet clear how and when people would use apps on the wrist. As the Apple Watch has matured, though, it's become clear that most dedicated apps offering anything beyond a quick interaction aren't used often enough to be a worthwhile use of company resources.

For example, Twitter in September ended support for the Apple Watch, eliminating the standalone Twitter app on the device. At the time, Twitter said that it felt notifications were the most helpful part of the Apple Watch Twitter experience, which is also what Slack is now relying on.

Other companies that have stopped offering Apple Watch apps include Target, eBay, Whole Foods, Amazon, and Google (for Google Maps). eBay and Google have both said Apple Watch support might return in the future, but have not yet released new apps.

Tag: Slack

Spotify is doubling down on free music and has begun testing a standalone app that offers a station-based streaming music experience similar to Pandora's original music service, reports Variety.

"Stations," available on Android devices in Australia, is designed to let users stream free music from curated radio-like stations. The app's description says that Stations "is an experiment by Spotify that makes it easy for anyone to listen to great music."

spotifystations

Stations is the easiest way to listen to the music you love. Totally free.

When you have access to all the music in the world, finding the right thing to play can feel like a challenge. With Stations, you can listen immediately, and switching stations is simple and seamless--no searching or typing needed. As you listen, it learns what you like and creates personalised stations that you'll love.

Based on the app's description, Stations is designed to make it quick and easy to find new music, with the app offering up personalized stations after it "learns what you like." Spotify says there's no searching or typing required to use the app.

It's not clear what Spotify plans to do with Stations in the future, and it's not known if the company plans to eventually release an iOS app, but Stations does fill a much-needed function - it provides more free listening options for customers on mobile devices.

Spotify's main app also has a free ad-supported listening tier, but the on-demand service is limited to customers who use Spotify on the desktop. On mobile devices, listening options are far more limited.

Spotify's main app boasts 140 million total active subscribers and 70 million paying subscribers, so the unpaid market is still huge for Spotify and one consumer group that Apple does not reach. Apple Music has no free listening tier, and Apple has no plans to implement one.

For now, Spotify's new Stations app is limited to a select number of Android devices in Australia and it is supported via ads.

Tag: Spotify

Logitech today announced the launch of new features for its HomeKit-compatible Circle 2 security cameras via an update to the Logi Circle app.

Notification Snapshots, a new in-app feature, are designed to provide a visual "snapshot" notification of an event whenever motion is detected by the Circle 2 camera.

With this option, you'll get a visual representation of exactly what triggered the motion detection feature rather than a simple text-based notification that lets you know motion was detected. Snapshots will be sent via push notification and should let you react more quickly to incoming motion detection alerts.

logicircleupdate
For customers who also subscribe to Logitech's Circle Safe premium service, Notification Snapshots offer up a zoomed-in view of the object or person that triggered the motion detection based on the Circle's Person Detection feature.

Enabling Notification Snapshots on existing Circle 2 cameras will require you to download the updated Logi Circle app from the App Store and install a new firmware update from within the app.

Along with new notification features, Logitech is also introducing new Circle Safe Home subscription plans designed for customers with multiple cameras.

Circle Safe pricing starts at $3.99 per month for the basic subscription for a single camera and goes up to $9.99 per month (or $99.99 per year) for the premium subscription, but customers with multiple cameras can now get discounted prices.

For up to five cameras, Circle Safe Basic starts at $6.99 per month or $69 per year, while Circle Safe Premium starts at $17.99 per month or $179 per year.

Circle Safe Basic and Circle Safe Premium allow you to store video in the cloud for a longer period of time and access premium features. Logitech's cameras, available from Logitech and Amazon for $180, can be used sans subscription, but only 24 hours of video footage is stored in the cloud.

Over on our YouTube channel, we've started a new monthly video series highlighting new, interesting, and useful iOS apps that we think are well worth checking out.

With so many apps available in the iOS App Store, it can sometimes be hard to find new content, and it's easy to overlook some older apps that are also great. Our app lists will include both older and newer apps that we personally recommend and have used over the course of the month.


This month's video includes apps that run the gamut from productivity to exercise, and we've also included our favorite game of the month. All of the apps we mention are listed below with download links:

Bear (Free) - Bear is a writing, coding, and note taking app that has a clean, simple interface and a rich feature set. It's available on iOS and Mac devices, and it offers Apple Pencil support, todos, multiple export options, an Advanced Markup Editor with support for more than 20 programming languages, SmartData Recognition, in-line images and photos, hashtags for organization, and more.

Bear is free to download, but if you want to sync your notes between your devices, unlock themes, and use advanced exporting options, you'll need to pay $1.49 per month or $14.99 per year for a subscription.

Workout (Free) - There are an endless number of workout apps available from the App Store, but we're highlighting Workout for its easy-to-create workout plans, tutorial videos, progress tracking, and exercise database. Workout is free to download, but to unlock all of the features, you'll need a subscription. It's $15 for one month, $30 for a year, or $40 for lifetime access.

Adobe Spark Video (Free) - Adobe's Spark Video app is designed to allow anyone - even someone who is new to video editing - to create high-quality videos from video clips and photos in a matter of minutes. It's a great way to spruce up your Instagram and Facebook videos.

A Color Story (Free) - A Color Story is a photo editing app that has tons of preset filters and effects you can apply to your photos, similar to popular app VSCO. You can choose a filter and then add effects like bokeh, confetti, color overlays, or light flares. The best feature is batch edit, which lets you get the same effect on multiple photos at once.

A Color Story is free with some filters unlocked, but adding additional filters will require in-app purchases.

The Room: Old Sins ($4.99) - The Room: Old Sins is the fourth game in the popular The Room series, and this one has the same escape room-style puzzles you've come to know and love from past games. Old Sins takes place in a super creepy dollhouse and it's well worth checking out if you loved the other games in the series. Check out our sister site TouchArcade's review for more details.

If you're looking for great Mac apps that are worth downloading, make sure to check out our list of five essential apps for the Mac. And if you have favorite iOS apps, share them with us - we'll be highlighting interesting, useful iOS apps on a monthly basis.

The iOS 11.3 update, seeded to developers and public beta testers last week, introduces ARKit 1.5, an upgraded version of the set of tools developers can use to create augmented reality apps for the iPhone and the iPad.

As it turns out, ARKit 1.5 can do a lot of neat things. It can map irregularly shaped surfaces for better detection of your surroundings, and it can also recognize and map vertical surfaces like walls and doors, so you can use AR to place and detect items on walls.

Over the course of the last week, developers have been testing out ARKit 1.5 and sharing short demo videos on Twitter, providing a look at just what will be possible with augmented reality apps when iOS 11.3 is available.

Apple AR Experience 01232018
Vertical surface detection, for example, is shown off in the video below. A realistic-looking tunnel is projected on a wall, and while this doesn't have any immediate usage implications, it's a useful demo of how ARKit sees walls in iOS 11.3.


An example of how vertical plane detection can be used in augmented reality games is demonstrated in the video below, where creatures projected into open space take advantage of the area around them.


Another demo adds virtual artwork to a blank wall, a concept that could potentially be used in an art gallery or museum where art is invisible without a smartphone.


Vertical plane detection is used in the video below to show a realistic-looking virtual cockatoo coming through a window and landing on a windowsill.


In addition to mapping oddly shaped spaces and recognizing vertical surfaces, ARKit 1.5 also includes image detection features that work on everything from movie posters to barcodes, as demoed below. In the future, you might be able to scan a barcode with ARKit to get a virtual popup of nutritional information, calories, and more.


Image detection could be useful in settings like art galleries and museums, where visitors could use it to scan paintings and exhibits to receive more information, as shown off in the video below.


Though not visible in the demo videos shared by developers, ARKit 1.5 also introduces a higher camera resolution, so passthrough video is 1080p rather than 720p, and there's also support for autofocus capabilities, another feature that will improve the augmented reality experience on iOS devices.

Recent data has suggested that the ARKit framework has seen only modest adoption from developers and stagnating growth since its debut in iOS 11, but improvements like ARKit 1.5 may change that in the future. Augmented reality on iOS devices is still in its infancy and it will take time for developers and users to discover the best real-world use cases for the technology.

Apps using ARKit 1.5 will be available starting this spring when iOS 11.3 is released to the public.

Tag: ARKit
Related Forum: iOS 11

AppleCare+ for Mac, previously limited to the United States and Japan, is available to purchase in Australia and New Zealand starting today.

applecare mac 2018
AppleCare+ extends a Mac's in-warranty hardware coverage to up to three years from its original purchase date, and adds up to two incidents of accidental damage coverage, each subject to a service fee of AU$149 or NZ$169 for screen or external enclosure damage, or AU$429 or NZ$499 for any other damage.

AppleCare+ for Mac also includes 24/7 priority access to software support by chat or phone. It replaces the AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac, which was essentially the same as AppleCare+, but didn't include accidental damage coverage like Apple has long offered for devices such as the iPhone and iPad.

The plan itself also has an upfront cost, which varies based on the type of Mac:

Australia

  • Mac mini: $119

  • iMac and iMac Pro: $199

  • 12-inch MacBook: $299

  • MacBook Air: $299

  • Mac Pro: $299

  • 13-inch MacBook Pro: $329

  • 15-inch MacBook Pro: $449
New Zealand

  • Mac mini: $149

  • iMac and iMac Pro: $249

  • 12-inch MacBook: $349

  • MacBook Air: $349

  • Mac Pro: $349

  • 13-inch MacBook Pro: $379

  • 15-inch MacBook Pro: $539

AppleCare+ for Mac benefits are in addition to any legal rights provided by consumer law in Australia and New Zealand.

Apple offers warranty coverage on most Mac parts for up to 24 months after its limited one-year warranty period, under consumer law in each country, according to an internal document distributed to Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers and obtained by MacRumors last month.

AppleCare+ can be purchased alongside a new Mac on Apple's website in Australia and New Zealand, at Apple retail stores in Australia, and at select Apple Authorized Resellers or Service Providers. It can also be added within 60 days of a Mac's purchase date, pending an inspection or diagnostic test.

Customers with a Mac purchased between December 1, 2017 and January 30, 2018 must contact Apple Support to purchase AppleCare+ for Mac, according to an internal memo distributed by Apple today and obtained by MacRumors.

A new MacRumors exclusive Sound Forge Pro Mac 3 offer is launching today, allowing our readers to get Magix's advanced audio waveform editing software for $229, a $328 discount on the traditional price of $557. The exclusive sale lasts from today, January 31 through February 28, 2018.

02Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Sound Forge Pro Mac 3 is an advanced audio waveform editing suite that has been optimized and designed for macOS, offering users multi-channel recording and editing, mastering for music and dialogue clips, and support for high-resolution audio recording at 24 bits with sampling rates as high as 192kHz. The suite's full features are extensive -- also including customizable window layouts, file conversion automation, and the iZotope's RX Elements and Ozone Elements tools -- so make sure to head over to Magix's website for more details if you're interested.

Another exclusive deal for MacRumors readers is debuting tomorrow, February 1, for a collection of RAVPower portable and desktop chargers. Today, most of the accessories are available at a discount of up to 30 percent off in Amazon's Gold Box Deal of the Day, but MacRumors readers will be able to gain access to these sale prices for an extended period of time thanks to a series of promo codes.

ravpower amazon sale
This means that beginning Thursday, February 1 and running through Saturday, February 3 you'll be able to enter the below promo codes on Amazon and nab the same RAVPower accessories at today's discount prices. So if you are interested in purchasing one of the sale items today, remember that you won't need a promo code. Also note that a few of the accessories have an on-page coupon you can click to get an extra 10 percent off your purchase.

Check out all of the chargers on sale below (the first two are not discounted as part of the Gold Box deal today):

There are a few other notable sales happening today only, including B&H Photo's $1,200 discount on the late 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (2.9 GHz, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) in Silver for $2,299.00, down from $3,499.00. At Best Buy, you can purchase the 64GB Apple TV (fourth generation) for $169.99, down from $199.99 (also at Walmart). JBL is offering a notable limited-time sale as well on its Charge 2+ speakers in recertified/factory refurbished condition for $59.95, down from $149.95.

deals article 13118
Head over to our full Deals Roundup for even more of the latest discounts and sales going on this week.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals

Apple's Beats By Dre brand has teamed up with UNDEFEATED for a new series of products featuring a tiger camouflage design in shades of green, white, and black.

The collaboration includes a new set of UNDEFEATED BeatsX Earphones and a new Beats Pill+ speaker, both of which come in a unique colorway and are available to purchase from Apple's online store.

beatsundefeated
The BeatsX Earphones, available for $179.95, are black and green with a matching tiger camo carrying case.

beatsxundefeated
The Beats Pill+ Speaker, available for $199, uses the same camo pattern for the speaker mesh, with a black middle section for the control buttons that features prominent UNDEFEATED branding. It ships with an olive green carrying case, an accessory not normally included with a Beats Pill+ speaker.

beatsundefeatedpill
Apple's Beats by Dre website says the collaboration between the two companies is designed for "the ones dedicated to staying ahead of the game."

Back the underdog. Push boundaries. Take a stand. That's what Beats and UNDEFEATED both believe in, which is why we joined forces for a third time with this must-have collection. Designed for the ones dedicated to staying ahead of the game, this latest collaboration is inspired by UNDEFEATED's unmistakable tiger camouflage and fearless attitude.

Beats by Dre and UNDEFEATED previously teamed up in 2013 to offer limited edition Beats By Dre headphones in the olive green shade UNDEFEATED is known for.

Apple's Beats brand regularly teams up with designers, celebrities, and other companies to create special edition products. Back in July, for example, Apple collaborated with French fashion label Balmain to create special edition Powerbeats and Beats Studio Wireless Headphones in a safari color with metallic gold accents.

In a new episode of IGN's "Unfiltered" interview series, thatgamecompany co-founder Jenova Chen discussed a variety of topics, including the developer's upcoming iOS- and tvOS-only game "Sky," the "malicious" intent of some mobile games, and how Sky's payment model is its "biggest innovation."

Specifically, Chen talked about how the iOS App Store and other mobile gaming platforms have affected the gaming industry as a whole, and his hopes that Sky can potentially become counter programming to those titles. Instead of using a payment model that is "downright malicious," Chen teased that Sky's structure will include a method where players "pay money for other people" and not for themselves.

iphone x sky game
Since we still have a few weeks to go before the game's March release date, Chen didn't divulge any more details.

"I think many people will be surprised by how this game makes money. I think my biggest breakthrough or innovation on this game is about how it actually charges people... this is something you probably have never seen before, once you play the game you will be interested. It’s a game where you pay money for other people and not yourself."

Chen called this app payment structure his "biggest breakthrough" in the development of Sky's iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV apps. He also reiterated on topics previously known about the game, like how it will be "ongoing" and constantly evolving, and include a multiplayer aspect that makes it easier for players to directly connect to their friends and family, unlike Journey's random encounter system.

Chen also briefly touched upon the moment when Sky was unveiled during Apple's iPhone X event last September. He said that the presentation at the Apple event reached a wider audience of non-gamers, but some of the people he knows who play games are less aware of Sky, because they "just fast forwarded the whole Apple TV part to just watch the end and look at the iPhone X."

Ultimately, Chen said that he hopes players connect with Sky in a way that "could still generate good revenue" despite its lack of notorious mobile gaming trends like loot boxes. "So then you can create a path for other publishers or investors to, you know, consider doing it the honest way."

The full 90-minute interview with Jenova Chen can be viewed on IGN's website and on the company's YouTube channel.

Apple today began shipping the 18-core iMac Pro to customers in the United States, just over six weeks after it began accepting orders. The first orders are estimated for delivery starting Tuesday, February 6.

imac pro after effects
MacRumors readers Anthony Berenato and Steve McKinnon both alerted us of the shipped status of their orders, while a few other Apple customers have echoed the same in the iMac Pro order topic in our discussion forums.

imac pro shipped 18 core
18-core iMac Pro configurations start at $7,399 in the United States, and with fully maxed out tech specs, the powerful workstation costs up to $13,199.

Apple quoted a shipping estimate of 6-8 weeks for the 18-core iMac Pro, pushing most deliveries into early February, so it is ever so slightly ahead of its schedule. We haven't confirmed if 14-core models have shipped yet.

iMac Pro is also available in 8-core and 10-core configurations, priced from $4,999, and those models began shipping in late December. Micro Center is offering an impressive $1,000 off the base model while supplies last.

Last month, some customers were quoted an updated delivery timeframe of early January for 18-core iMac Pro orders, but in a follow-up email, Apple said this was an error. This time, the first orders have actually shipped out.

iMac Pro is a powerful, top-of-the-line workstation designed for professional users with demanding workflows, such as advanced video and graphics editing, virtual reality content creation, and real-time 3D rendering.

The machine can be configured with up to an 18-core Intel Xeon processor, up to 4TB of SSD storage, up to 128GB of ECC RAM, and an AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics processor with 16GB of HBM2 memory.

Related Forum: iMac

Two former Apple executives have today launched a new game broadcasting service called Caffeine, which allows users to watch and broadcast games and other entertainment on Mac, PC, and iPhone. In a press release, the company likened Caffeine to Amazon's Twitch platform, "only easier, safer, and more social."

Caffeine was founded by Ben Keighran and Sam Roberts, a former product design lead for Apple TV and lead user experience designer for Apple, respectively. Other than games, Caffeine will be a "social broadcasting platform" with tools for entertainment as well as other artistic content, and is backed by $46 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners

caffeine ios app

“We're incredibly excited to be sharing more details on the pre-release version of Caffeine,” said Ben Keighran, CEO of Caffeine. “I left Apple to create a company that would fundamentally change the way we create, consume, share, and monetize live content. Our goal was to re-imagine every aspect of live broadcasting -- ignoring the good things we could do and focusing on the really great things instead.

We are committed to building the best experience for creators, giving them everything they need, from the broadcasting software all the way through to how the audience discovers and enjoys their content. We have put together a world-class engineering and content team that will transform the way the world thinks about live broadcasting.”

The company described Caffeine's interface as simple and straightforward to use, with "1-click easy" controls and no additional software required to stream content. Users can broadcast games in three ways: using PC game broadcast software, a webcam from a Mac or PC, and through the iOS application.

Once you start using Caffeine, the app will showcase content and broadcasts from the people you follow in a "social circle," and you can join and watch content with them together. "There are no endless feeds of meaningless comments," the company said, because the app highlights personal conversations between friends and creators, helping to dispel toxicity in a real-time chat environment.

caffeine web live
On the creator side of things, Caffeine is also touted as a way to "build more personal, meaningful relationships" with viewers, leading to more opportunities to monetize content as well. The company said that a monetization system that backs Caffeine's "easy to use" mantra will be coming in early 2018.

Right now, all versions of the service are technically in a pre-release build. If you're interested you can find the desktop site at caffeine.tv and the iPhone app on the iOS App Store [Direct Link]. As a few readers have pointed out, Caffeine does not currently support Safari on Mac, but instead encourages users to try Firefox or Chrome.

Following a report that the United States government is investigating Apple's power management function that slows down some older iPhone models, Apple issued a statement on late Tuesday confirming that it has "received questions from some government agencies" and is "responding to them."

iphone 6s battery toggle
In the statement, Apple also confirmed the timing of its promised power management toggle, allowing customers with an iPhone 6 through iPhone 7 Plus to disable the function: it will be rolling out in a future iOS 11.3 beta version in February. The software update will be publicly released later this spring.

Apple's full statement was shared by Axios earlier today:

About a year ago, we delivered a software update that improves power management during peak workloads to avoid unexpected shutdowns on certain iPhones with older batteries. We know that iPhones have become an important part of the daily lives of our customers and our intention was to improve the customer experience.

We sought to further improve the customer experience in December by announcing a significant discount on replacement batteries for certain iPhones. We also announced that we began developing a new iOS feature to show battery health and which would recommend when the user should consider replacing their battery. These actions were taken to further assist our customers and help extend the life of their iPhones. In addition, users will be able to see if the power management feature is being used to prevent unexpected shutdowns, and turn if off if they so choose. These features will be included in a developer release next month and a user release this Spring.

As we told our customers in December, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love. Making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.

We have received questions from some government agencies and we are responding to them.

Apple's power management function can also be sidestepped by replacing an iPhone's battery if necessary. We've previously outlined steps on how to initiate this process at an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.

In related news, Apple recently added a "Reserve a Battery" option to its support website in Canada. This system, not available elsewhere yet, allows customers with an iPhone 6 or newer to reserve a battery online and have Apple contact them when a battery is available at their preferred Apple Store.

reserve a battery
This system can be found by signing into your Apple ID on Apple's Get Support page and selecting Battery, Power, and Charging → Battery Replacement → Reserve a Battery. These steps can also be completed in the Apple Store app on the iPhone itself without needing to enter a serial number.

A tipster named K.C. told us that Canada is a trial country, suggesting Apple may choose to expand this reservation system to other regions.

Apple promises to contact customers within three to five days to let them know when their battery replacement can be completed. Its support website currently quotes an estimated two to four week wait in Canada.

MacRumors previously obtained an internal Apple memo that stated iPhone 6 Plus replacement batteries were in short supply and unavailable until late March or early April around the world. Apple's internal document quoted a shorter wait of "approximately two weeks" for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s Plus batteries.

Apple said batteries for all other eligible iPhones were expected to be available "without extended delays" in most countries.

In addition to probes from the United States government, over 50 class action complaints have been filed against Apple since it fully disclosed the power management changes it made in iOS 10.2.1, nearly a year after the update was released. Apple apologized for its lack of communication in a letter to customers.

Update: While Apple has yet to add a dedicated "Reserve a Battery" button to its U.S. support site, the company is asking customers in the United States who need a battery replacement to contact Apple support via a phone call or online chat session to reserve a battery before visiting an Apple Store. Calling ahead of time should prevent customers from going to an Apple Store only to find that the necessary battery is out of stock.

Related Forum: iOS 11

Nintendo recently reported earnings for its fiscal third quarter of 2017, including data related to the company's two-year-old smartphone game business. In the report, Nintendo confirmed that its smart device and intellectual property related earnings increased from 10.6 billion yen (about $98 million) in the nine months ended December 31, 2016 to 29.1 billion yen (about $267 million) in the same period in 2017.

While this includes income from Nintendo's smartphone games as well as royalty income, Bloomberg reported that Nintendo's smartphone game profits specifically grew from 8.8 billion yen in the year-ago quarter to 11.2 billion yen this fiscal quarter. The only smartphone game that launched this fiscal quarter for Nintendo was Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which is said to have generated $17 million globally and reached a download number of 22 million since its launch in November. The other major smartphone game to debut from Nintendo in 2017 was Fire Emblem Heroes.

animal crossing pocket camp image
Nintendo said it plans to get its players to continue returning to and enjoying previously released iOS and Android games through ongoing updates, not including the recently confirmed imminent shut down of its first iOS app Miitomo.

In our smart-device business, consumers not only continued to enjoy Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes, which became available for download during the previous fiscal year, but also had fun with Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, released globally during October and November. Smart devices and IP related income were up to 29.1 billion yen (172% increase on a year-on-year basis).

In our smart-device business, we will focus on operations that encourage more consumers to continue to enjoy playing the applications that they have downloaded

Although Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp are free-to-download apps, they're believed to net Nintendo more of a profit in the long run thanks to players who become enticed to spend money on in-app purchases. Alternatively, Super Mario Run is a free-to-start app where users can play a few levels and then must spend $9.99 to gain access to the full game.

At one point, Nintendo described the freemium model of Fire Emblem Heroes as an "outlier" in its overall smartphone game plan and that it prefers Super Mario Run's pay-once structure, but so far that's been the only app to go that route. Additionally, the company's previous earnings report mentioned Super Mario Run had yet to reach an "acceptable profit point" around 10 months after launch.

Otherwise, Nintendo's earnings report detailed a huge success for the company's Switch console, selling 12.13 million units from April to December 2017 and now totaling 14.86 million units sold to date. Upon this report, Nintendo increased its operating profit outlook from 120 billion yen to 160 billion yen for the year ending March 2018, and bumped up the Switch sales forecast from the already-surpassed 14 million units to 15 million units for the same period.

While multiple reports suggest Apple has decided to place a greater focus on improving the performance and security of iOS and macOS, which will delay some new features until next year, it appears the company still aims to introduce the ability for Macs to run iPhone and iPad apps later this year.

ios app store mac app store
Mark Gurman and Ina Fried, reporting for Bloomberg News and Axios respectively, both claim the framework for combined apps remains on Apple's software roadmap for 2018, despite some planned iOS 12 features likely being pushed back to 2019, including a new home screen with a redesigned grid of app icons.

Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi reportedly revealed the plans during a meeting with employees earlier this month.

Last month, Gurman reported that developers will be able to design a single third-party app that works with both a touchscreen, and a mouse or trackpad, depending on whether it's running on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Apple would presumably also streamline its own apps on the desktop and mobile.

The report didn't explain how all of this will work, but Apple could be planning to release a new SDK with new APIs that enable true cross-platform functionality. Right now, Apple's UIKit and AppKit frameworks provide the required infrastructure for iOS and macOS app user interfaces respectively.

It's worth noting that Apple already has a private framework called UXKit, used for the Photos app on Mac. In 2015, Jason Snell said UXKit "sits above the Mac's familiar AppKit frameworks and strongly resembles UIKit on iOS."

Apple tentatively plans to begin rolling out the change in iOS 12 and macOS 10.14, so there will likely be an announcement at WWDC 2018 around June. Following a few months of beta testing, major new versions of iOS and macOS are typically publicly released in September and October respectively.

The project is reportedly codenamed "Marzipan" within Apple. Gurman speculated that universal apps would make it easier for Apple to one day create a single operating system for all of its devices, should it ever go down that avenue. At the very least, it could bring some renewed attention to Mac apps.

Apple would be following in the footsteps of Microsoft's Universal Windows Platform, aimed at helping developers create universal apps that run across Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile, the latter of which is being phased out.

Related Forums: iOS 12, macOS Mojave

Apple's main iPhone manufacturer in India is closing in on a land deal in the tech hub of Bengaluru that will see the firm invest around $157 million to assemble iPhone SE and potentially iPhone 6s models on the site, according to Reuters.

Unnamed Indian government officials on Wednesday reportedly confirmed the Taiwanese contractor's intentions, which could result in its iPhone SE assembly unit taking over about 100 acres in and around the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

iphone 6s india wistron
Wistron executives reportedly toured the area in November and met with the industries minister of Karnataka earlier this month, and a deal on the land lease could be struck in a few weeks, according to one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to publicly comment on the plans.

Another source who spoke to Reuters said Apple will likely begin assembling iPhone 6s models in India soon, using Wistron's expanding manufacturing capacity in the country, as it looks to cut costs and diversify its production base beyond greater China. Launched over two years ago, the iPhone 6s is still popular in emerging markets because of its affordability relative to Apple's iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and iPhone X.

Apple sees opportunities to save on import taxes, price phones cheaper and potentially widen its customer base in India if it assembles phones locally. However last month India raised import taxes on electronic goods, which caused Apple to raise the price of most iPhone models there except for iPhone SE.

Apple has sought tax breaks and incentives from the Indian government for months as it looks to expand operations in the country, but despite some positive comments from state officials, no exceptions have yet been made for Apple.

Tags: India, Wistron
Related Forum: iPhone

vivaldiVivaldi web browser for Mac, the spiritual successor to Opera 12, released version 1.14 on Wednesday, introducing an innovative new vertical reader mode, Markdown support, and other notable improvements.

Vivaldi's Reader View works similar to reading modes in other browsers, allowing users to view content in a clutter-free reading environment where they can change the font, adjust line height, column width and switch to dark or light background.

With the latest update, however, a new vertical reading option can be found in the Reader View settings, allowing Chinese, Japanese and Korean users to read online text in a vertical direction with no distracting page elements.

vrm settings 1 14
Moving on, Vivaldi has improved its notes feature, accessed in the browser's side bar, which lets users annotate websites and attach screenshots while they browse. In 1.14, Markdown support has been introduced, making it possible to easily format note text on the fly while surfing the web.

Elsewhere, the location of individual quick-access Web Panels can now be customized in the browser sidebar, while users are also able to rearrange search engines in the list layout using drag and drop for the most convenient order.

notes markdown
As well as the above updates, newcomers to Vivaldi should check out the app's in-depth browsing habits overview, which is backed by statistics and visual data, along with its tab stacking and tab tiling features, not to mention an exhaustive set of browser customization options. Vivaldi browser is a free download for Mac available directly from the Vivaldi website.

Tag: Vivaldi

Earlier this afternoon, a bug with the Apple News app caused notifications for a single CNN news story to be sent out to iPhone and iPad users over and over again.

The issue, which lasted for approximately 15 minutes, appears to have impacted all Apple News subscribers who had alerts turned on for CNN based on a slew of complaints that popped up on reddit, Twitter, and the MacRumors forums.

applenewscnnalertbug
It wasn't clear if the problem was with CNN or the Apple News app, but on Twitter, CNN claims it was the latter. According to the news organization, CNN only sent a single notification, and the company is working with Apple to identify the problem.


Customers who were affected by the repeated notifications received somewhere around a hundred notifications, and the notifications in question were interrupting normal device operation. It appears that the issue centered around a single CNN news story, but we've also seen reports that some notifications from Fox News also repeated.


The only fix for the issue at the time was to turn off Apple News notifications, but the problem was resolved by Apple quickly and customers who did turn off their notifications due to the CNN alert bug can now safely re-enable them.