MacRumors

Whole Foods has partnered with Square to deploy its iPad checkout system inside the grocery store chain at counters selling ready-to-consume products like pizza, coffee and sandwiches, supplementing the chain's traditional checkout lanes at the front of the store.

Reports TIME:

The company has signed a deal to put its iPad-based payment systems inside Whole Food Market grocers in the U.S., where they’ll be used at counters that sell ready-to-consume products — from pizza and sandwiches to coffee, beer and wine — as a supplement to the conventional checkouts at the front of the store. Customers will be able to pay with credit and debit cards, cash and, in some locations, by using the Square Wallet smartphone app. The idea is to expedite things both for people making a quick purchase from one of these venues and for those who are at the checkouts with a cartful of groceries.

It's unclear if Whole Foods will use the Square Stand cash register or some other iPad solution, but TIME says some locations will support the Square Wallet app.

The deal makes Whole Foods the second major retailer to roll out Square's technology. In 2012, Square and Starbucks formed a partnership that saw Square take over credit card processing at Starbucks stores in the U.S.

Following the removal of Flappy Bird from the App Store, some entrepreneurial iPhone owners have listed their phones -- with Flappy Bird installed -- on eBay.

The listings have attracted attention from major media outlets, but eBay is actively canceling the listings because all smartphones and tablets sold on the auction site are required to be restored to factory settings. One user gave MacRumors the email that eBay sent him when it removed his listing.

After reviewing your eBay account, it appears that you have not followed eBay's guidelines to list a device that can hold media or software. As a result, we've taken the following action:

- Listings have been removed.
- We have credited all associated fees except for the final value fee for your listing(s).

Smartphones and tablets must be restored to factory settings before they are allowed to be sold on eBay. Please remove all content from your device, including the game Flappy Bird, before you attempt to list your item again. Please be sure your current and future listings follow these guidelines, keeping in mind that additional listing violations could result in the suspension of your account.

We understand that you may have been unaware of these guidelines, and we encourage you to learn how to keep your experiences on eBay successful.

We appreciate your cooperation.
Thanks,

eBay

Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen said in an interview earlier today that his game became "an addictive product" and he removed the app to protect users from the game. iPhone owners who have already downloaded Flappy Bird can continue to play it as Nguyen cannot delete the app from phones where it is already installed.

Thanks Blake!

Apple has reversed a change it made to how users quit location-aware apps in iOS 7. In the new OS, Apple changed how location-aware applications work when they are force-quit by users. In iOS 7.0, users who force quit an app -- by double-tapping the home button and swiping up -- also disable all location-aware functions which previously would continue to run in the background.

One app in particular, Life360, uses background location abilities to allow family and friends to locate each other. In iOS 7, when a user force quits the app, all location-aware background services were disabled. This caused the company to have a sudden influx of negative reviews and disappointed customers. Some apps even saw 30-50 percent drops in users following the change, according to Life360 CEO Chris Hulls who spoke to MacRumors yesterday.

Now, in iOS 7.1 beta 5, released a week ago, the change has been reversed and Hulls attributes that to a letter that Life360 and a number of other developers sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook on February 1. In the beta, background location services remain running when an app is force quit, same as in iOS 6.

VentureBeat has the first several paragraphs of the letter:

Dear Apple iOS Development Team,

We are a group of Apple developers who rely on iOS geolocation services for core parts of our businesses. iOS 7 was hugely exciting to us, as new features such as Location Beacons, Background Networking, and Multi-Peer Connectivity give us the ability to do things we never thought were possible.

In previous versions of iOS, if a user killed an application in the app switcher, developers were still able to get geolocation in the background. With iOS 7, once a user kills an application, all processes are terminated until the user manually restarts the app. We appreciate the intent behind this change, which we realize was done to give users more control over what is running on their phones, but it has caused major unintended consequences. … Many developers who rely on background geolocation have seen their app ratings fall by over 3 stars.

Life360 is a free download on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Sprint today announced that it sold 5.6 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2013 and 20.5 million smartphones for the year. It is unclear how many of those smartphones were iPhones as the carrier is following Verizon Wireless and AT&T in not breaking down its smartphone sales or activations by platform.

Sprint added 682,000 customers in the last three months of the calendar year, bringing its total customer base to 53.9 million subscribers. Total retail postpaid churn was 2.15%, down slightly from the 2.18% measured in the year ago quarter. The company reported a loss of $1 billion, which is less than the $1.3 billion it lost in Q4 2012.

Sprint ended the year with 53.9 million Sprint platform subscribers – its highest level ever – after adding 58,000 postpaid subscribers, 322,000 prepaid subscribers and 302,000 wholesale and affiliate subscribers in the fourth quarter. Sprint sold 5.6 million smartphones in the fourth quarter and 20.5 million smartphones for the year with smartphone sales mix reaching 95 percent for postpaid and 66 percent for prepaid in the quarter.

Earlier this year, Sprint competitor Verizon announced smartphone activations of 8.8 million along with 1.7 million new subscribers in Q4 2013, while AT&T activated 1.2M postpaid smartphones and gained 809,000 new subscribers in the quarter.

Sprint becomes the first US carrier to lose money this quarter as it continues to struggle. Recent rumors suggest Sprint parent company Softbank may be interested in acquiring rival T-Mobile, but regulators have already expressed opposition to the deal.

Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen has publicly spoken for the first time since pulling the popular game from the App Store in a new interview with Forbes. In the interview, Nguyen states that Flappy Bird was removed because it was becoming an "addictive product," going on to say that guilt and discomfort ultimately influenced his final decision to take the game down.

Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed,” says Dong Nguyen, in an exclusive interview, his first since he pulled the plug on the app. “But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird. It’s gone forever.”

Nguyen added in the interview that he developed the game over the course of "two or three days" and said that Nintendo did not send him any legal threats over the game's similarities to the original "Super Mario Bros." title, corroborating a report from yesterday. The developer noted that he feels there was no mistake in removing the title from App Store, also saying that he will continue to develop games due to the confidence he gained after the success of Flappy Bird.

Before being taken down, Flappy Bird was the number one downloaded free app on Apple's App Store for almost a month, generating a reported $50,000/day in revenue from in-app ads. Nguyen had also previously expressed frustration at the attention he received during the game's sudden spike in popularity on his Twitter before announcing that he would remove it.

Famed documentarian Ken Burns, who's directed detailed films about the history of subjects like baseball and the Civil War, has released a new app under his name that houses scenes, extras, and behind-the-scenes footage from all 25 of his films.

In his announcement (via The Hollywood Reporter), Burns noted it was exciting for him to be using an Apple platform for his app as the company has long used the "Ken Burns Effect", where a camera slowly pans over a still image, in its video editing apps.

"Apple has long used an element of my filmmaking in its programs, which they call the Ken Burns Effect. I’m so excited to now be using Apple’s platforms to create a radically new way to present my work and reach new viewers. Our films are made in a small town in New Hampshire over many years, with images and stories woven together in a way that we hope brings experiences of the past into the present."

While the app doesn't include the full Ken Burns' documentaries, it does house hand-selected scenes by Burns in playlists inspired by six themes: Race, War, Art, Hard Times, Innovation, and Politics. One theme, Innovation, is included free with download but the remaining five themes, which include over three hours of content, must be unlocked via a $9.99 in-app purchase.

Alternatively, users can view the content in a Timeline view, which presents a chronological history of America, and a Film view, which arranges the clips by which Burns' film they're from.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York today ruled that Michael Bromwich, the lawyer assigned to monitor Apple's antitrust compliance policies, may continue with his duties while Apple continues to pursue another appeal to remove its monitorship all together.

Back in early January, Apple requested that U.S. District Judge Denise Cote disqualify Bromwich from his monitorship because he had demonstrated personal bias against the company. Apple asked for both a stay on the original order requiring an external monitor and the removal of Bromwich, both requests that Cote denied.

Apple did manage to win a brief emergency stay as the Appeals court examined its request for a longer stay, but with today's decision, Bromwich will be able to continue on as monitor.

The ruling did, however, limit some of Bromwich's power, suggesting that he is not able to demand access to any document or interview Apple executives with respect to any subject.

Thus, according to appellees, the monitor was empowered to demand only documents relevant to his authorized responsibility as so defined, and to interview Apple directors, officers, and employees only on subjects relevant to that responsibility.

We agree with that interpretation of the district court’s order. In addition, we take counsel’s statement as a formal representation that appellees also accept that interpretation, and that the monitor will conduct his activities within the bounds of that order, absent further action by the district court or by the panel that will in due course hear the merits of the appeal

Apple's antitrust monitor was originally put in place after the company was found guilty in July 2013 of conspiring with five publishers to raise the prices of e-books. Since then, Apple and Bromwich have engaged in several back and forth disputes stemming from Bromwich's fees and his insistence on interviewing key Apple executives.

Bromwich, for his part, has said he has seen a "surprising and disappointing lack of cooperation from Apple and its executives."

Apple's second appeal, which requests the removal of Bromwich entirely and questions Cote's decision to appoint a monitor, is ongoing.

MOGA has dropped the price of its Ace Power iOS 7 gaming controller to $80, down from $100. The controller was released back in November, the first of a number of iPhone-compatible game controllers that hit the market following the launch of iOS 7.

The MOGA controller includes a battery component that charges the iPhone to extend gameplay. There are a number of other similar controller devices on the market as well.

We wanted to let you know that as of this morning, the price of MOGA ACE POWER has been lowered to $79.99 MSRP in Apple Stores and most other retailers. These past few months have seen a huge influx of great controller-enabled iOS games onto the App Store, and to-date, MOGAAnywhere.com has curated a list of more than 120 of these games that now work with the MOGA ACE POWER controller.

The MOGA Ace Power is available from MOGA's online store for $80. The Apple Online Store also has the controller available, but for the old $100 price.

Google has pulled Themer, a popular Android home screen customization app, from its Google Play Store following a complaint from Apple over one of the themes included in the app.

"Seven", one of more than 200 themes within the app, was designed to make an Android phone look like an iPhone running iOS 7. It incorporated multiple Apple design elements and several icons, including Phone, Mail, Messages, Maps, Music, and more.

According to Themer CEO Ashvin Dhingra, who spoke to TechCrunch, the Seven theme was immediately removed from the app following Apple's notice, but Google opted to remove the app from its Play Store entirely and has yet to restore it.

"We've spoken to legal representatives from Apple (who have been very nice, reasonable, and helpful), and they have no remaining concerns. But apparently, Google has a process for these things, and there's nothing we can do to accelerate that process. Unfortunately, we still have not heard from anyone at Google."

While Themer has been able to settle its dispute with Apple by removing the offending iOS 7-style theme, the company is running into some organizational hurdles with Google. Google seems to lack a point of contact overseeing the Google Play Store, which has resulted in Themer contacting multiple people with little result.

It remains unclear when Themer will return to the Google Play Store, but Apple's issue with the app has been successfully resolved.

Update: Google has notified the developers of Themers that the app will be returned to the Play Store within the next few hours.

Music recognition app Shazam was today updated to version 7.4.0, adding a few minor enhancements and laying the groundwork for a larger content rollout happening later this month. With the update, Shazam is aiming to refocus its app on content, offering quicker, more integrated access to song lyrics, TV results, and music videos.

Shazam, which is designed to "listen" to a song and identify its name and the artist from a large database, has given some "test group" users access to its upcoming redesign. That means some users who download the new 7.4.0 update will have immediate access to the app's new features while other users will need to wait for the update to rollout later.

The revised Shazam app includes a new card-style layout that gives more prominence to lyrics, other recommended songs, and tools to listen to songs within other apps such as Rdio or Spotify.

The new experience means Shazaming becomes the beginning of a journey, giving users effortless access to:

- A brand new look and feel for music and television results with easy access to previewing, buying, and sharing a track;
- Quick access to lyrics with a preview as soon as a track is matched;
- Direct access to the music video and additional videos related to a song; and,
- Recommendations unique to Shazam.

Users who were not selected to be members of the test group will see few changes to the app, aside from more information within the news feed and improved handling of pending tags. The update is available for both the free and Encore (ad-free) versions of the Shazam app.

Shazam is a universal app that can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Shazam Encore is a universal app that can be downloaded from the App Store for $6.99. [Direct Link]