MacRumors

Now that the HomePod is available in Australia, where it is Friday, February 9, Apple has shared its official HomePod User Guide, providing an overview of all the features for new HomePod owners.

The guide offers a detailed walkthrough on getting the HomePod ready to use out of the box, with information on HomePod controls, HomePod settings, and using AirPlay.

There are also dedicated sections for Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and News, which outline all of the Siri commands you can use with the HomePod, such as "Hey Siri, play some party music," or "Hey Siri, add this song to my library."

A "Control your home" section of the guide walks users through using Siri commands to control HomeKit devices and it includes details on using HomePod as a home hub, an automatic function, while an "Assistant" section includes even more Siri options.

On HomePod, Siri can send messages, read messages, and create notes and reminders for the person who owns the HomePod, and there are tools included to turn off these kinds of personal requests if someone else also uses the HomePod.

Siri can also offer up general knowledge, provide traffic information, set alarms and timers, share the weather, provide details on sports games, do unit and math conversions, and translate English into French, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish.

Many of the Siri commands outlined in the HomePod User Guide will be familiar to you if you already use Siri on iOS devices, but the guide is still worth looking through while you await your HomePod delivery just to get familiar with the setup and the controls.

HomePod is already available in Australia and is set to launch in the UK and the United States soon.

Hulu on Reddit this week announced that it will begin rolling out support for 60 frames per second live streams on its "Hulu With Live TV" cord-cutting service, launching in time for viewers to stream the Olympics and March Madness. Hulu said it was aware that 60fps streaming was "one of the most-requested features" by its viewers, leading to this week's announcement (via Cord Cutters News).

The company explained that the update will see a launch in phases, and began yesterday with Phase 1, including the following channels now supporting 60fps on Hulu With Live TV: CNN, CNN International, HLN, TNT, TBS, TCM, TruTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, all SHOWTIME channels, "about half" of available FOX affiliates, all NBC affiliates, and New England Channel News.

Due to the dependencies required to enable 60fps, we’ll be rolling it out in phases to get you these higher-quality streams as quickly as possible. By offering our live streams at this frame rate, our goal is to provide a significantly more immersive viewing experience for Live TV. You’ll notice the difference most when watching sports or news, so we’re excited to have this in time for the 2018 Winter Olympics and March Madness (NBC and Turner channels, respectively).

Hulu noted that individual affiliates "may temporarily revert back" to 30fps streams when adjusting for internet speeds, giving viewers a more stable experience. Phase 1 will include Hulu apps on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Xbox One, Fire TV, Samsung Tizen TV, and Nintendo Switch.

The company hasn't yet indicated when Phase 2 will begin, or what channels/devices will be part of that rollout. Later this year, Hulu will also be launching a redesigned user interface across its on-demand and live services, including a new Live TV guide. For the Live TV section of Hulu, the latest numbers put the service at 450,000 paid subscribers, beating out YouTube TV (300,000), but still trailing DirecTV Now (1 million) and Sling TV (nearly 2 million).

Yesterday Snapchat announced its first-ever live television event coverage, aimed at key highlights coming out of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Today, the company is revealing an enhanced version of its custom Geofilters with a new paid "Create Your Own Lens" studio that lets users build and edit their own personalized selfie Lenses for major events and parties.

Available today in the iOS app and on the web, the new section of Snapchat will allow users to create their own custom selfie Lenses and Filters, which friends and family members within a designated location will then be able to use in their own Snapchat apps. The studio includes over 150 templates at launch, amassed from Snapchat's well-known selfie Lenses and Filters that have previously appeared in the camera section of the app.

Users will be able to navigate to "Settings" in the iOS app, select "Filters and Lenses," choose their desired Filter or Lens, customize it with text, enter the time of the event with the location, and checkout at least three hours before the event begins. The company said that prices for each creation start at $9.99, and vary due to factors like location size and duration. As of now, Snapchat is keeping the Create Your Own Lens studio aimed at consumers only, and noted that brands trying to use it for advertising purposes will not get their submissions approved.

In the same update, Snapchat users on both iOS and Android will begin seeing new caption styles today and a new user interface to go along with them. Previously, Snapchat had two styles -- a bar of text and resizable text -- but now users will gain access to Brush, Italic, Glow, Gradient, Rainbow, Fancy, Old English, and more. Caption styles will now be located under the text entry field in a horizontal bar that users can swipe through to choose their preferred text option, and two different styles can be placed on the same Snap.

Snapchat's series of updates this week come after the company announced that it increased to 187 million daily active users in the fourth quarter of 2017, up from 178 million during the third quarter. Snapchat has been fighting to gain new users after rival Instagram introduced its own Stories format in 2016, and in September 2017 Instagram reached 500 million daily active users (for both traditional posts and Stories).

iOS users should start seeing the new update rolling out to the Snapchat app [Direct Link] throughout the day.

Nintendo last week announced that its next mobile game will be "Mario Kart Tour," but with a launch date aimed at any time before the company's fiscal year ending March 2019, not much information is known about the game. Today, DeNA CEO Isao Moriyasu was reported as saying that Mario Kart Tour will be free-to-start (via TouchArcade and The Wall Street Journal).

The "free-to-start" terminology is somewhat vague, but when compared to Nintendo's previous use of the phrase it could suggest where Mario Kart Tour is headed. For example, Nintendo currently describes Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp as free-to-start on the game's website, while Super Mario Run's website explains that "you can download and enjoy a portion of Super Mario Run for free."

While far from a definitive answer, this suggests Nintendo might lean towards its recent trend and make Mario Kart Tour a game that's free to play, with in-app purchases that help with certain tasks. Out of Nintendo's four mobile games so far, three have followed this model (Miitomo, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp), while only Super Mario Run has used the pay-once price tier.

Following a discount on bundles for movies in the Cloverfield and Mission: Impossible franchises earlier this week, Apple on iTunes has now launched a collection of "Award Winning" film bundles focused on categories from the Academy Awards. The sale is debuting just under one month before the 90th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 4.

The categories include Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Picture, and vary from time periods like Classic to Contemporary. Each HD bundle is priced at $19.99, allowing those interested to grab four movies for the price of about two.

There are also a few "Under $10" Oscar film categories lined throughout the iTunes Movies store, broken into sections including "Best Original Screenplay" and "Best Adapted Screenplay." In the list below you'll find all of the Award Winning bundles, a few films from the Under $10 categories, and some other recent releases on iTunes that received notable discounts this week.

$19.99 Award Winning Bundles (HD)

• Classic Best Pictures - Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, An American in Paris, Ben-Hur

• Classic Best Actor - Yankee Doodle Dandy, Captains Courageous, Sergeant York, The Philadelphia Story

• Classic Best Actress - Gaslight, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?, Jezebel, Cabaret

• Musicals - Gigi, The Great Ziegfeld, Singin' in the Rain, An American in Paris

• Contemporary Best Pictures - Argo, Unforgiven, The Departed, Chariots of Fire

• Contemporary Best Actress - Driving Miss Daisy, The Blind Side, Million Dollar Baby, The Color Purple

• Contemporary Best Actor - The Aviator, Shine, Mystic River, Training Day

• Dramas - Gravity, A Streetcar Named Desire, LOTR: The Return of the King, Network

2018 Oscar Nominations

• Blade Runner 2049 (4K) - $14.99, down from $19.99

Under $10 Oscar Winners

• La La Land (4K) - $6.99, down from $19.99

• The Pianist - $7.99, down from $12.99

• The Imitation Game - $7.99, down from $12.99

• Django Unchained - $7.99, down from $9.99

• Manchester by the Sea - $7.99, down from $14.99

• The Big Short - $9.99, down from $14.99

Recent 4K Price Drops

• It (2017) (4K)- $14.99, down from $19.99

• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (4K) - $14.99, down from $19.99

• Deadpool (4K) - $9.99, down from $14.99

For more of the Oscars-related discounts on iTunes, you should be able to find the Award Winning bundles and Under $10 films featured heavily in the storefront's rotating carousel and just below the New and Noteworthy section, respectively.

If you don't yet have the Apple TV 4K to watch 4K iTunes movies on, don't forget that DirecTV Now's sale on the device remains ongoing in 2018 after initially launching last November. With the offer, when you sign up for four months of the streaming TV service at an upfront cost of around $140, you'll get the 32GB Apple TV 4K at no cost.
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This means that you can get the latest 32GB Apple TV 4K for about $40 cheaper than its traditional price point of $180, and if you're not a fan of DirecTV Now when the four months end, you can cancel the service at any time. Check out our original blog post on the DirecTV Now/4K Apple TV offer for more information, and head over to our full Deals Roundup to discover other sales happening this week.

Apple customers in the United Kingdom who pre-ordered HomePod have started receiving shipping despatch notifications this morning. Those who ordered before initial supplies began dwindling earlier this week can expect deliveries to arrive sometime on Friday, which is Apple's official launch day for HomePod.

As expected, it looks as if Apple is relying on DPD to courier the majority of HomePods to homes across the U.K. Using their tracking information provided by Apple, customers can use the DPD website or download and install the DPD iPhone app and request a time slot for delivery, which are subject to availability.

Earlier today, customers in Australia who ordered a HomePod for February 9 began receiving shipment notifications. It's Thursday evening on February 8 in Australia, so the first HomePod deliveries will begin in the country in just a matter of hours.

Customers expecting launch day delivery in the United States may be able to locate their HomePod's shipping information by going to the UPS website, selecting the track by reference number option, and entering the phone number associated with a HomePod order.

Apple is no longer offering the HomePod for February 9 delivery or in-store pickup, but John Lewis, Argos, EE, and Currys PC World may have stock available for U.K. customers, while Apple will likely have a supply of HomePods available for walk-in purchase in retail stores in the U.S., UK, and Australia on launch day.

(Thanks, Ryan!)

Apple will work with two Chinese suppliers in 2018 to ensure a stable supply of 3D sensing modules for use in this year's iPhone and iPad line-up, according to a report on Thursday by ET News.

Last month The Investor claimed Apple was planning a $820.9 million investment in LG Innotek to secure supply of 3D sensing modules, which are key components of the iPhone X's new TrueDepth camera system, enabling features such as Face ID and Animoji.

However, according to today's report, Apple has selected two Chinese companies to shore up supply. One is said to be an emerging supplier amongst smartphone part markets, and the other is a popular semiconductor packaging company. Nevertheless, LG Innotek is expected remain the biggest main vendor out of the three module suppliers, while the two Chinese companies will provide the rest.

Apple plans to launch a refreshed iPhone X, a larger iPhone X Plus, and a mid-range iPhone each with Face ID later this year, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Apple will also release at least one iPad Pro model with Face ID this year, according to Bloomberg.

It's unusual for Apple to source Chinese suppliers for key parts, but the additional help could mean Apple avoids the temporary supply chain issues it experienced with 3D sensing modules late last year.

In addition, the extra supply could benefit Apple in the long term if it looks to combine the front-facing camera and Face ID on future iPhones, as claimed by ETNews back in January.

According to the report, industry sources claim Apple's plan to combine these features would increase the number of parts used in iPhones, however it's unlikely we'll see such a design this year, given that the 2018 line-up of iOS devices are expected to have the same TrueDepth sensor housing as the iPhone X.

Over a year ago now, we reported on claims that popular mobile chat platform WhatsApp was looking at introducing a peer-to-peer payments system, beginning with a rollout for users in India. Today, the first iPhone screenshots of such a system appeared online via social media, revealing a list of Indian banks that will apparently support the service at launch.

The images indicate that the WhatsApp payment method will utilize the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), an instant real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India that facilitates inter-bank transactions.

UPI is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and works by instantly transferring funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform. The same system is also used by Swedish-based phone number lookup service Trucaller, which introduced user-to-user payments in India via a tie-in with ICICI Bank last April.

WhatsApp's UPI setup process appears to involve just a couple of steps, after which users can presumably instantly transfer cash to other WhatsApp users' bank accounts. The payment system could be ready for launch in India in the first quarter of 2018, although WhatsApp's plans for a similar payments system for users in other countries remain unclear.

Facebook has had a payments system in its Messenger app for some time in the U.S., but WhatsApp remains far more popular in India and is heavily used there as an e-commerce portal, despite not yet offering any features that specifically support the practice.