Dong Nguyen, creator of the popular iOS game Flappy Bird, today launched an all-new game on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store called Ninja Spinki Challenges!! [Direct Link] (via TouchArcade). The game is a collection of six mini-games that task users with completing a set of trials centered around training to become a ninja.
TouchArcade went hands-on with the game earlier this week, and noted that while it's a "kinder" entry in comparison to the difficulty of Flappy Bird, it can "quickly become tough as nails."
I had the chance to try the game a little bit ahead of its release, and while it's certainly a little more polished than Nguyen's previous titles, Spinki's got its creator's fingerprints all over it. The main character is drawn from the cast of Swing Copters, and the gameplay focuses on performing relatively simple actions in increasingly challenging circumstances. At the same time, this is a kinder, gentler game than Nguyen's previous releases, at least initially.
After a boom of social media attention surrounding Flappy Bird back in 2014, Nguyen quickly removed the game from the App Store because he believed it became an "addictive product" for all of the players devoted to beating their high scores. The game's popularity reached such heights that Apple began rejecting apps on the App Store with "Flappy" in the title, because they were attempting to "leverage a popular app" to gain success.
Google Translate recently updated its iOS and Android applications, bringing Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese translation support to its augmented reality "Word Lens" feature. Thanks to the added support, English-speaking users can point their smartphone camera at Japanese text and instantly get an English translation on screen. The same can be done for Japanese tourists visiting predominantly English-speaking countries.
Before the update, Google mentioned that users could snap a picture of Japanese text and get an English translation, but thanks to the AR in Word Lens, "it's a whole lot more convenient" to figure out where you are in a foreign city with the live translation feature. Notably, users don't have to worry about having an Internet or data connection when using Word Lens during travel, as the translation software works offline.
The Google Translate app already lets you snap a photo of Japanese text and get a translation for it in English. But it’s a whole lot more convenient if you can just point your camera and instantly translate text on the go. With Word Lens, you just need to fire up the Translate app, point your camera at the Japanese text, and the English translations will appear overlaid on your screen—even if you don't have an Internet or data connection. It’s every savvy traveller’s dream!
Back in November Google announced an update to Google Translate that made longer articles and paragraphs "a lot smoother and easier to read." Using new AI learning software called Neural Machine Translation, Google Translate can now learn over time "to create better, more natural translations."
The app mirrors Apple's support website, providing users with a list of their Apple devices, options to receive support by phone, chat, or email, and the ability to schedule a Genius Bar appointment or repair with an Apple Authorized Service Provider. The app also features how-to articles and other helpful information.
The app is now available in 22 countries around the world as planned:
Facebook has hired Xiaomi executive Hugo Barra to lead its virtual reality business, following the vice president's announcement earlier this week that he would be leaving the Chinese smartphone maker.
On Monday, the former Android executive at Google said he would be returning to Silicon Valley next month to reunite with friends and family, and to take some time off before "embarking on a new adventure".
His appointment at Facebook was announced on Wednesday by company founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who said Barra would lead all of Facebook's virtual reality efforts including the Oculus team.
"I've known Hugo for a long time, starting when he helped develop the Android operating system, to the last few years he's worked at Xiaomi in Beijing bringing innovative devices to millions of people.
"Hugo shares my belief that virtual and augmented reality will be the next major computing platform. Hugo is going to help build that future, and I'm looking forward to having him on our team."
Sometimes referred to as "the Apple of China", Xiaomi announced a VR headset last year under Barra's watch. The device was certified to work with Google Cardboard apps and some of its mobile phones. In reply to Zuckerberg's welcome, Barra said he aimed to make VR a mainstream technology.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun always says that the highest calling of an engineer is to make technology breakthroughs quickly and readily available to the widest possible spectrum of humanity. That will be my mission at Facebook and I look forward to building the future of immersive technology with Mark Zuckerberg, Brendan Trexler Iribe, Mike Schroepfer, and the visionaries in the Oculus team.
Facebook has made VR and augmented reality two focal points of its long-term innovation roadmap, with artificial intelligence and connectivity being the additional lynchpins for future research.
Google updated its Maps app for iOS today to include the live crowd-tracking feature that's been popular with users of its Maps web service for some time.
While the maps app has had day-by-day, hour-by-hour charts that display when a business or retail location tends to be at its busiest, version 4.27 of the app augments that information with live data to tell users how busy the location is in real time.
Called Popular Times, the feature works by crowd-sourcing anonymized location data from other Google users and also feeds in Google searches to analyze how busy a location is at any given moment. Alongside the live results, the feature also lets users know the average time people spend at a location.
The iOS update also adds support for quick access to addresses copied to a user's clipboard. So when searching in the app, users are now given the option to fill in the search bar with an address copied from an email or other app.
Apple will take a significant step toward disclosing more of its artificial intelligence research this week by becoming a member of a non-profit AI research consortium founded by five of the tech industry's biggest players.
Last September, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and IBM publicly announced The Partnership on AI, an organization established "to study and formulate best practices, to advance the public's understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society".
As one of the biggest researchers in AI, Apple's name was conspicuously absent, but that looks set to change in the coming days, following a Bloomberg report on Thursday that Cupertino is ready to add its name to The Partnership's list of corporate heavyweights.
According to its website, the Partnership on AI intends to conduct research, organize discussions, share insights, provide thought leadership, consult with relevant third parties, respond to questions from the public and media, and create educational material that advance the understanding of AI technologies including machine perception, learning, and automated reasoning.
Apple's imminent membership is just the latest indication that the company is prepared to reveal more of its work in areas of artificial intelligence. At an invitation-only AI conference held in Barcelona last month, where Apple employees discussed their work in various related fields, the company announced it would begin allowing its AI and machine learning researchers to publish and share their work in papers.
Two weeks later, the first paper was published, covering Apple's work on intelligent image recognition. Cupertino is also known to be working on a range of other AI projects, including health and vital signs, LiDAR, neural networks, intelligent assistant and language modeling, and activity recognition.
While the Partnership's founding members are committed to publishing a wide range of research under an open license, just how much of this work will be shared remains unclear, but we should know more soon. Apple is expected to announce its membership in the Partnership later this week.
Facebook today announced that it has begun testing ads in the Messenger app. The test will be limited to users in Australia and Thailand and will allow businesses to place ads on the Messenger home screen below favorite users and most recent conversations.
The company says that "no one will see an ad in a conversation without clicking on an ad experience on the Messenger home screen or starting a conversation with a brand." Facebook assures that ads will not "originate" in conversations.
Facebook says businesses have told the company that they're excited to use the Messenger platform to connect to its billion users, driving sales and building brand awareness. Currently, Facebook runs ads on its News Feed that, when clicked, take users into Messenger conversations with brands. This has helped person-to-business messaging grow popular, with Facebook saying over a billion messages are sent a month between people and businesses.
Messenger users will have "complete control" over their experience, and will be able to either hide or report specific ads using a dropdown menu, similar to how users can report ads on their News Feed. Additionally, advertisers are not allowed to directly message users unless the user initiates the conversation.
The test will only work for a "very small group" of people in Australia and Thailand, and Facebook says the company will take its time before it considers further expansion.
iOS 10.3 introduces a new "Find My AirPods" feature, giving AirPods owners a way to keep track of the tiny wire-free earphones Apple started selling back in December.
Because iOS 10.3 is limited to developers, we thought we'd take a hands-on look at the new Find My AirPods feature to give iOS users an idea of what to expect when iOS 10.3 officially launches. In the video below, you can see just how the feature helps you find a lost AirPod, and its limitations.
Find My AirPods relies on the AirPods connection to an iPhone or another iOS device because the AirPods themselves don't have any cellular connectivity built in. The feature keeps track of the last known location where the AirPods were connected to an iOS device over Bluetooth, so if one is misplaced, there's a general location of where it might have last been seen.
That location is displayed on a map in the "Find My iPhone" app, much like any other Mac or iOS device. There's also an option to cause the AirPods to play a sound, which is super handy for finding an AirPod that's fallen between the couch cushions or has been buried in a backpack.
Find My AirPods requires the AirPods to be connected to an iPhone, so the feature does not work while the AirPods are in the AirPods case, making it somewhat less useful. If you lose the AirPods while they're in the case, it appears you're out of luck.
Apple charges $69 to replace a lost or broken AirPod or to replace an AirPods charging case, so though limited, the Find My AirPods option is a welcome feature that does make it a bit easier to keep track of where your AirPods are at all times.
We expect to see several iOS 10.3 betas before the software is released to the public, so general users may need to wait awhile to get their hands on the Find My AirPods feature, but a public beta test is likely to be made available in the next few weeks.
Since 2011, the worldwide smartphone market has been dominated by Apple and Samsung. The elusive third-best spot, meanwhile, has failed to be held down by one vendor for an extended period of time, changing hands between Nokia, BlackBerry, Xiaomi, and Huawei over the past six years.
In 2014, it looked like low-priced Chinese vendor Xiaomi had firmly cemented its position as the world's third-largest smartphone maker, but less than three years later, it has fallen out of the top five or even six vendors, according to the latest quarterly data from research firms IDC and TrendForce.
Xiaomi's recent decline can be attributed to a limited physical retail presence and increased competition from Huawei's lower-end Honor brand. Xiaomi continues to avoid selling premium smartphones—its most expensive model costs around $400—and some of its Mi smartphones have received mediocre reviews.
Huawei has since dethroned Xiaomi as not only China's largest smartphone maker, but the world's third largest. And now, the company has its eyes set on challenging Apple and Samsung for the crown, reports Fortune.
"We want to grow into top two market share, and, in the future, top one by 2021," Huawei's consumer head Richard Yu told the publication.
In the first quarter of 2016, Huawei sold ten times as many smartphones as Apple in Finland, according to research firm IDC. In Europe, it is now the top-selling smartphone maker in Portugal and the Netherlands and the second biggest in Italy, Poland, Hungary, and Spain, according to the report.
But if Huawei ever wants to truly challenge Apple and Samsung, it will have to conquer a key market where it has failed to make a dent: the United States. Huawei does not even crack the list of top ten smartphone makers in the country, trailing behind smaller rivals such as BLU and OnePlus.
It doesn't help that Huawei lacks agreements with the U.S.'s "big four" carriers, namely Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. U.S. customers have to resort to retailers such as Best Buy or Walmart, or Huawei's direct sales website, to purchase one of their devices, reducing the brand's visibility in the country.
For its sake, Huawei appears to recognize it needs to take a new approach to the American market:
“The past five years we were not taking the right strategy,” Yu says. “We didn’t have the right people.” Huawei recently hired Michelle Xiong, a former Verizon wireless executive with experience negotiating with device makers, to help sell Huawei’s smartphones. But a Huawei staffer cautions that any carrier agreement is at least a year away, pushing meaningful success in the U.S. at least three years down the road.
Apple reported sales of 45.5 million iPhones in the third quarter, while IDC estimates Huawei shipped 33.6 million smartphones on the quarter, so the Chinese company is within striking range. But whether it can continue its momentum, or fall back into obscurity like Xiaomi, is something only time will tell.
Greg Duffy, the founder and former CEO of security camera company Dropcam, has accepted a role at Apple and will be leaving Google, reports The Information.
An Apple spokesperson confirmed that Duffy has been hired by Apple, but didn't share details on his role at the company. The Information speculates that he could be leading a special project at Apple, given his background.
Duffy who co-founded Dropcam in 2009, led the company until it was acquired by Google-owned Nest for $555 million in mid-2014. Duffy spent several months working for Nest before departing the company in January of 2015 amid rumors of a culture clash between Nest and Dropcam.
Duffy was reportedly unhappy with the way Nest founder Tony Fadell ran the Alphabet-owned subsidiary, going as far as referring to him as a "tyrant bureaucrat."
At any given time, Apple has multiple "special projects" going on behind the scenes, so it's difficult to speculate on what Duffy could be working on at the company. Apple is rumored to have a range of exploratory products in the works, including the Apple Car, an Amazon Echo-style home hub, an AR product, and more.
Last week, a reddit post accusing Apple of removing negative reviews for the LG UltraFine 5K Display started making the rounds, suggesting Apple was hiding negative feedback about the new display in its web store.
MacRumors has learned that reviews were never made available for the LG 5K Display in Apple's online store, though the reason for that is not clear. It could be that reviews were not activated due to the long delay between when the display was announced and when it became available for purchase.
Whatever the reason behind the lack of reviews, the issue has been fixed. As of this morning, the LG 5K Display listing on Apple's website does indeed feature a "Ratings & Reviews" section.
Looking back at archived web information from 2016 and early 2017 confirms that the LG 5K Display listing never displayed rating or review details, and if Apple were censoring reviews, the company also likely would have put an end to lukewarm reviews for the 4K LG UltraFine Display. The 4K display store listing has offered reviews since it became available for purchase.
Because Apple didn't delete the reviews, the premise behind the original reddit post is flawed. While it's true there's been some negative feedback about the LG 5K Display on Apple's Support Communities, there was no secret censoring of information on the store page.
It is not clear if Apple is looking into any of the issues that prompted the reddit post. On Apple's Support Communities, customers complain of issues with the display suddenly shutting off, flickering, or not connecting to a Mac, ports not working, sound problems, and more.
The LG UltraFine 5K Display has been available for purchase since the middle of December. Apple is currently offering a limited time discount on the display, dropping the price from $1,299 to $974. The special pricing will be available through the end of March.
Apple and Nevada energy company NV Energy today announced a new agreement that will see the two partnering to build 200 megawatts of additional solar energy in Nevada by 2019, which will support Apple's data center in Reno, Nevada.
NV Energy will soon enter into a power purchase agreement for the solar power plant, and in the future, Apple will dedicate up to five megawatts of power to NV's upcoming subscription solar program.
"Investing in innovative clean energy sources is vital to Apple's commitment to reaching, and maintaining, 100 percent renewable energy across all our operations," said Apple's vice president for environment, policy and social initiatives Lisa Jackson. "Our partnership with NV Energy helps assure our customers their iMessages, FaceTime video chats and Siri inquiries are powered by clean energy, and supports efforts to offer the choice of green energy to Nevada residents and businesses."
Apple has expanded its Reno data center multiple times over the course of the last few years, and is working on a second data center at the same location. Apple's data centers, including the Reno center, are powered by renewable energy, much of which is derived from solar panel farms located nearby the centers.
Apple started building a Reno solar farm back in 2013, and will now expand on it.
Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.
Safari Technology Preview release 22 includes bug fixes and updates for JavaScript, CSS, Form Validation, Web Inspector, Web API, Media, Rendering, and more.
Apple's aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.
After copying Snapchat inside of Instagram with last year's "Instagram Stories" update, Business Insider today learned that Facebook is gearing up to launch the exact same feature in its mainline Facebook mobile app. Now called "Facebook Stories," the social media company is bringing over the same circular user interface to its main app for users in a small test in Ireland, letting them post images and videos that automatically disappear after 24 hours.
Facebook Stories appear at the top of the Facebook app, similar to where Instagram Stories have received top billing in the photo-sharing app. The new feature is said to work "identically" to Instagram's update, so users can snap a picture or video, edit it with a few filter and sticker options, and friends can tap through each post within the day it gets posted.
Facebook has been focusing on its photo and video features in its iOS app for a while now, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg last year saying that the company plans to launch a camera-first experience that changes status updates from simple written posts to dynamic photos and videos. Through selfie filter tests, holiday updates, and live-streaming add-ons, the company has already begun to make progress towards launching a fully-featured, photo-centric update to the main Facebook app.
After directly becoming a competitor to Snapchat with Instagram Stories, Instagram reported the gain of 100 million users in the second half of 2016. For now, Facebook Stories remains a test of its own in Ireland, but the "new format" will be arriving in more countries in the coming months, according to a Facebook spokesperson.
Verizon customers running the new iOS 10.3 beta have discovered that the carrier has added an option for Integrated Calling (Calls on Other Devices).
The feature enables iPhone users to make and receive Wi-Fi calls on other iCloud-connected devices, including the iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch, and most 2012 or later Macs, even if the iPhone is turned off or not on the same Wi-Fi network. The devices must be signed into the same Apple ID used on the iPhone.
AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile already support Wi-Fi calling on supported iCloud-connected devices, so Verizon was the last holdout among the four major carriers in the United States. The feature is also supported by smaller U.S. carriers MetroPCS and Simple Mobile and by a few other carriers internationally.
Wi-Fi calling on other devices may not be live yet for all Verizon customers on iOS 10.3 beta, but it should be ready in time for the final version.
Apple has updated the App Store in Australia to mark the beginning of celebrations for the country's national holiday Australia Day, which takes place annually on January 26. The landing page for the iOS App Store now sports a collection of apps and categories that highlight Australia's green and gold national colors.
The update includes an emphasis on in-game additions with Australia Day-themed add-ons, as well as general promotions taking place in certain apps. Gaming apps involved in the celebrations include Clash of Clans, Torque Burnout, Marvel Contest of Champions, Asphalt Xtreme, and more.
Non-gaming apps have also been rounded up for Australia Day, including DocPlay, which notes that a collection of Australian-centric documentaries are free for a limited time within the app.
Apple has given the App Store a celebratory overhaul in the past, last year encouraging users to get involved in its Apps for Earth and World AIDS Day campaigns by promoting apps that forwarded proceeds to relevant causes. When looking back on 2016 at the beginning of the new year, Apple announced that App Store developers made $20 billion in 2016, which the company said was up 40 percent from 2015.
Following the reports, we received a tip from a disgruntled Apple Authorized Service Provider owner who said the underlying issues prompting Simply Mac's downsizing are "far deeper" than it would seem. He noted his own AASP is closing because Apple has "slowly strangled" him on margins and with "free labor" demands.
Another longtime Apple Authorized Dealer and Service Provider told us that AASPs have been "under siege" for years. The person, who wishes to remain anonymous, said profit margins are "appallingly low" and that Apple views its authorized service partners as "nothing more than glorified TV repairmen."
"I am sad to say that I do not see this changing," the person said. "Apple is highly aware of our concerns and do not seem to care. As an Apple reseller for over 20 years, I thought that when Apple became successful we would participate in that success, but we did not," the person added.
Given the polarizing comments from a few, we decided to reach out to a number of Apple's authorized sales and service partners in the United States and Canada to see if there is any validity to the claims.
A number of the Apple Authorized Resellers and Service Providers we spoke to refuted the allegations, noting they are stable if not growing, but we did learn that Apple has made one adjustment in particular that might explain the pressure felt by some sales and service partners—especially smaller ones with fewer sales.
Since August 2015, Apple has lowered its profit margins for resellers, requiring them to pay more upfront for products. Apple then rebates the difference as part of the monthly Business Development Funds checks it sends to resellers, but this method requires resellers to wait longer to be fully paid.
In other words, while the margins did not change overall, resellers are now forced to pay more upfront for Apple products to sell, which restricts cash flow that could otherwise be used for day-to-day operations, employee wages, and other expenses. For smaller resellers, the change can be particularly burdensome.
Meanwhile, one reseller believes Apple's arguably lackluster 2016 was a contributing factor to its own year-over-year sales decline.
On the service side, one person told us they "don't know that there is any truth" to the statement about Apple demanding "free labor," which a separate source said is likely an exaggeration for certain items that Apple used to compensate resellers for but now considers "non-revenue repair."
"I would not say that Apple has been demanding any kind of free labor," a service manager told MacRumors. "However, they are increasingly sending customers to us for iPhone repairs, which do not pay very well. We get paid more for a ten minute Mac repair than we do for an hour-long iPhone one."
"I am pleased to say that Apple really values their service partners and has increased our compensation for warranty work," another reseller said. "If you can achieve Premium Service Provider status, you get some nice perks along with higher compensation. While not perfect, Apple service really seems to care about us and is constantly trying to make things better for us."
MacMedics, an Apple Authorized Premium Service Provider with two locations in Maryland in Severna Park and Lanham, and another in Philadelphia, agreed to comment on the record to shine positive light on Apple.
"We're doing very well, we've expanded, and we opened a new pure retail location in 2015. Apple give us great support and guidance," said Dana Stibolt, President of MacMedics. "We're very encouraged by the upward trends over the last year, and in fact we're hiring more staff for all locations for both in-lab and on-site."
The other sources asked not to be identified. Apple and GameStop did not respond to requests for comment.
iPhone supplier Japan Display has come up with a plan to battle the increasing popularity of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel manufacturing, without needing to delve into the costly practice of creating OLED panels itself. According to a new report by The Wall Street Journal, the supplier has figured out a way to manufacture flexible liquid crystal display (LCD) panels using technology and processes it already has at its disposal.
Set to begin mass production in 2018, Japan Display's flexible LCD panels are said to be built with a layer of plastic instead of glass. "While not as flexible as OLED," the company's chief operating officer, Shuji Aruga, mentioned that the panels are bendable enough to manufacture smartphones with the same screen design as Samsung's Galaxy Edge series.
According to people familiar with the matter, Apple has already begun looking at the flexible LCD panels for iPhone models launching in 2018 and beyond.
Japan Display officials said some smartphone makers, which they declined to name, have agreed to adopt the bendable LCD in the next few years. The company also hopes to sell the displays for other uses such as laptop computers and car dashboards.
“Mass production is planned from 2018, and we wouldn’t do that without demand from our clients,” said Mr. Aruga. Japan Display’s major clients, according to its financial statements, include Apple and Huawei Technologies Co.
Bendable displays could help revive growth in a smartphone market that is beginning to get saturated. People familiar with the matter have said Apple is looking at the displays for possible future iPhone models.
In addition to its plan to adapt LCD screens into flexible panels, Japan Display has previously acknowledged interest in OLED production, stating in late 2015 a goal to begin mass production of OLED panels by the spring of 2018. Last November, the supplier was said to be in "advanced talks" with the government-backed fund Innovation Network Corp. of Japan to receive around ¥75 billion ($662 million) in financing.
The bailout was said to be both for improving Japan Display's LCD technology, and potentially mass-producing its own OLED panels. Still, analysts looking at the move think that Japan Display "may not have the funds to pursue both technologies," so it's unclear at this point which panel technology the supplier will ultimately decide to stick with in the future.
For Apple, it's been long-rumored that at least one model of the 2017 iPhone 8 will come with an OLED screen -- supplied by Samsung -- which typically have sharper color contrast and brighter colors compared to LCD screens. Japan Display's domestic rival Sharp is currently expected to provide Apple with OLED panels as well, but not until mid-2018.
Greg Duffy, the founder and former CEO of security camera company Dropcam, has accepted a role at Apple and will be leaving Google, reports 
Apple today 
