MacRumors

Third-party Twitter app Twitterrific reached version 5.18 on Thursday, bringing several improvements including an additional dark visual theme and tweet poll detection.

In what should come as good news to heavy users on iPhone X, Twitterrific has added a new energy-saving "true black" theme, which now appears as an option alongside the existing dark theme.

The Theme panel has also been expanded in other ways, including support for avatar shapes – rounded rectangle, squircle, circle and square – improved font size selections, and bonus app icons that can be unlocked by using Twitterrific for Mac or the Tip Jar.

Building on a recently introduced feature in the latest version of the Mac app, Twitterrific for iOS now recognizes polls in feeds, indicated by a button at the bottom of a tweet.

Clicking the button opens the poll in an integrated mini-browser that users can then use to submit their vote. Users can also now tag their own tweets with #poll or use a graph or ballot box Emoji at the beginning or end, and the app will recognize them as such.

Elsewhere, a number of improvements to the app have been made across the board. Highlights include: Muffle rules that can now be deactivated without having to delete them, automatically deactivating themselves after 60 days of inactivity; unread tweet indicator dots; support for Dynamic Type; and timestamps for quoted tweets that now also respect the hidden thumbnail mode.

Twitterrific for iOS v5.18 is a free download on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. [Direct Link] while Twitterrific 5.2 for Mac is $19.99 on the Mac App Store [Direct Link].

Starting in iOS 11, Apple introduced support for indoor maps for select malls and airports around the world. Indoor maps have been slow to roll out, but Apple has been steadily adding additional mall and airport maps since September.

Apple today began listing indoor maps for malls and airports on its iOS 11 feature availability page, giving us a clear picture of exactly where the indoor mapping feature is available for the first time.

Apple offers indoor maps at 34 airports around the world, in countries that include the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Hong Kong, the UK, and Canada.

Indoor maps for malls are more limited, but are available in several locations around the United States including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Jose, and Washington, DC.

Apple's indoor mapping feature provides full layouts of each mall or airport location with icons for restaurants, elevators, bathrooms, shops, and other notable landmarks. Different floors are clearly marked, making it easy to navigate through unknown areas.

For airports, Maps users can see the location of gates, terminals security checkpoints, check-in desks, and baggage claim areas, which can be helpful when in a new location. As for malls, stores can be filtered by categories like clothes, beauty, food, and shoes, so it's quicker to find just what you're looking for.

All of the malls and airports where the Apple Maps indoor mapping feature can be used are listed on the iOS 11 feature availability page.

Life is Strange, a popular episodic narrative-style game that was first released in 2015, is finally coming to iOS devices on December 14.

Life is Strange follows the story of Max Caulfield, a photography student who discovers she can rewind time. Players help Caulfield investigate the disappearance of fellow student Rachel Amber, using Max's time-rewinding abilities to look for clues and make choices to progress through the storyline. Based on the choices made in game, there are multiple endings to discover.

There are a total of five Life is Strange episodes, with the first priced at $2.99. Episodes 2 and 3 are available as in-app purchases, with Square Enix planning to release episodes 4 and 5 in 2018. Customers can save 10 percent on episodes 2 to 5 by purchasing the Season Pass bundle.

Life is Strange works on the iPhone 6 and later, the iPad Air 2 and later, and the iPad mini 4 and later.

While Life is Strange will not be released until tomorrow, it is currently available for pre-order from the App Store using the newly released pre-order feature. [Direct Link]

Redbox, the company that offers physical movie rentals via kiosks around the United States, today launched a new digital Redbox On Demand service designed better compete with other digital TV and movie services.

Redbox On Demand, available as a public beta, allows customers to rent or purchase movies and TV shows for streaming. The service offers many of the same new-release movies that are available from physical Redbox locations, along with additional content.

Redbox previously had a digital streaming service called Redbox Instant in partnership with Verizon, but it shut down in 2014 after being unable to compete with offerings like Netflix. Redbox has been testing its new On Demand service, which focuses on rentals and outright purchases, since July of 2016.

Pricing for new-release on-demand rentals from Redbox starts at $3.99 for 48 hours of access, but most new titles are priced at $5.99, with Redbox charging $1 more for high-definition content. Movie purchases are also available at prices starting at $9.99, and can be downloaded for offline viewing.

Redbox's rental prices are similar to rental prices from iTunes, Amazon, and other digital movie rental services.

Redbox On Demand is available from the Redbox website, through the Redbox app for Android and iOS, and it is accessible on the Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, and smart TVs from LG and Samsung.

While Redbox On Demand content can be watched on iOS devices and the Apple TV, content needs to be purchased through the Redbox website.

Alongside the iOS 11.2.5 beta that was seeded to developers this afternoon, Apple released new firmware for the HomePod.

The new firmware is not available through the Developer portal like a standard beta software update, but it will be downloadable by testers who have a HomePod. The update is also listed on third-party software sites, making it available for download by the public.

HomePod devices are currently in the hands of Apple employees who are testing the smart speaker to iron out bugs before it becomes available for purchase in early 2018.

Apple previously released publicly available HomePod firmware in July, unwittingly leaking many secrets about the iPhone X. The HomePod firmware referenced the unreleased iPhone and confirmed its design and several features like Face ID facial recognition.

Additional HomePod firmware was released in October, but that update, like this one, is not as notable because there are no unreleased iOS devices coming in the immediate future and thus there's nothing to spoil. It's possible additional HomePod features could be discovered via the firmware update, however.

HomePod is Apple's Siri-based smart speaker that focuses heavily on high-quality sound. It incorporates a 7 tweeter array, an Apple-designed 4-inch upward-facing woofer, and an A8 chip to power features like spatial awareness.

Apple originally planned to release the HomePod in December, but in November, the HomePod launch was delayed until early 2018.

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming watchOS 4.2.2 update to developers, a little over one week after releasing the watchOS 4.2 update, which introduced Apple Pay Cash on the Apple Watch.

Once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Apple Developer Center, the new watchOS beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software update.

To install the update, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it has to be in range of the iPhone.

It's not yet clear what new features or improvements the watchOS 4.2.2 update might introduce, but we'll update this post once we've installed the update and have had time to dig into the new features.

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.2.5 update to developers for testing purposes, a little over one week after releasing the tvOS 11.2 update.

Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the tvOS 11.2.5 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that's installed using Xcode.

We don't yet know what features or changes might be included in the 11.2.5 update, but it likely focuses primarily on bug fixes and performance improvements rather than major outward-facing changes.

The prior update, tvOS 11.2, allows the 4K Apple TV to automatically switch video display modes to match the native frame rate and dynamic range of video content. It also introduced a new Sports section for the dedicated TV app, offering up access to live sports games.

Apple today released a new update for tvOS 11, the operating system designed to run on the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TVs. tvOS 11.2.1 comes a little over one week after the release of the tvOS 11.2 update.

tvOS 11.2.1 can be downloaded over the air through the Settings app on the Apple TV by going to System --> Software Update. Apple TV owners who have automatic software updates turned on will be upgraded to the tvOS 11.2.1 automatically.

As a minor 11.x.x update tvOS 11.2.1 focuses on performance improvements and bug fixes to address issues that were discovered following the release of tvOS 11.2. The update, released alongside iOS 11.2.1, likely re-enables remote access for shared users of the Home app.

Apple disabled remote access for shared users when implementing a server-side fix for a major HomeKit vulnerability last week. Apple at the time said remote access would be re-enabled this week through software updates.

Following today’s tvOS 11.2.1 update, the HomeKit vulnerability is fully patched and remote access for shared users has been reinstated.

Streaming music service Tidal is facing money problems and could run out of working capital within the next six months, according to a report this week by Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (via The Verge). The report stated that the money issues likely stem from Tidal's user growth, which is said to have "stalled" recently.

Sprint bought a 33 percent stake in Tidal this past January, and at the time Jay Z’s business partner and Roc Nation Sports president Juan Perez mentioned that the carrier's investment gave Tidal "sufficient working capital for the next 12-18 months." The Jay Z owned service is said to have lost around NOK$368 million (around $44 million) before taxes in 2016, and Tidal reportedly claims that it will break even and achieve profitability in mid-2018.

Regarding the new claim of Tidal's money and subscriber problems, a company spokesperson told The Verge the following: "We have experienced negative stories about Tidal since its inception and we have done nothing but grow the business each year."

It isn't clear exactly how many people are subscribed to Tidal since the service has refrained from releasing such a count following the Sprint deal. At that time, Dagens Næringsliv again reported on Tidal, this time focusing on a claim that it was inflating subscriber numbers as far back as when Jay Z acquired it in 2015. The newspaper said it obtained internal reports from Tidal that showed it had 350,000 subscribers in September 2015, at which time Jay Z said it had gained 1 million subscribers.

Subsequent inflation numbers surfaced in March 2016, and afterwards the company hasn't provided any data regarding the amount of its subscriber base. As a point of comparison, Spotify remains in the lead for music streaming services with over 60 million paid subscribers as of July, while Apple Music follows with over 30 million as of September.

Gamevice, a company that makes a Made for iPhone/iPad gaming controller for iOS devices, today announced that its partnership with Sphero has expanded, allowing the Gamevice gaming controller to be used with Sphero droids.

Starting today, the Gamevice, which already works with the Sphero app, can be used to pilot the BB-9E, BB-8, and R2D2 from Sphero, giving droid owners a better control method than the iPhone's display. Gamevice previously announced integration with the DJI app, allowing the DJI Spark to be controlled via a Gamevice controller, and it already works with the Sphero SPRK+.

"We chose to lower the price to $79.95 as demand for Gamevice has increased due to the fact that it can now be used for more than just gaming," said Phillip Hyun, CEO, Gamevice. "Gamevice not only makes gaming on smartphones better, but it adds precision control to app controlled gadgets such as Sphero's app-enabled droids and DJI's Spark Drone, with more on the way."

The Gamevice works with more than 1,000 iOS games, including several games optimized for iPhone X like Lineage 2, The Talos Principle, and Grid Autosport.

The GV 157, which works with the iPhone 6 Plus and all subsequent iPhones released by Apple (with the exception of the iPhone SE), can be purchased from the Gamevice website for $79.95. There are also Gamevice controllers available for the various iPads, which are priced at $99.95.

Nintendo is looking to hire more software developers to help it create mobile video games in the vein of Super Mario Run and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. According to people familiar with the matter speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Nintendo has decided to expand its roster of smartphone game developers after its partnership with DeNA "fell behind schedule."

Nintendo and DeNA first announced their partnership in March 2015, and then a few months later in May 2015 explained their schedule: the companies would release their first iOS game that year, and then five more before March 2017. By October 2015, the first Nintendo mobile app -- Miitomo -- was pushed back to 2016, marking the first delay of the company's long term smartphone strategy release plan.

Eventually, Miitomo launched in March 2016, Super Mario Run launched in December 2016, Fire Emblem Heroes launched in February 2017, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp just launched in November 2017. Besides Super Mario Run, every mobile game released by Nintendo and made by DeNA was delayed at some point.

Now, Nintendo is looking to introduce new collaborations with other software developers and "raise the pace of new titles" so that these games don't face as heavy delays as they did previously. While Nintendo took a 10 percent ownership stake in DeNA when it partnered with the company, sources knowledgeable of the new plan stated that it "isn't planning" to do that again with any new developer partners.

Nintendo reported less than ¥20 billion ($176 million) in revenue in the year ended in March 2017 from its smartphone games, including one featuring Mario. Some investors say the mobile revenue has fallen short of expectations, but Nintendo executives say that rather than try to squeeze out more mobile revenue—which could lead to a consumer backlash—they are focusing on converting those users to buy more expensive products.

Potential new developers include GungHo Online Entertainment Inc., which created the mobile game Puzzle & Dragons. For DeNA, company CEO Isao Moriyasu has previously said that the developer "has more smartphone games in the pipeline" in partnership with Nintendo, and both companies plan to "continue the relationship."