MacRumors

Ustwo Games' popular iOS and Android puzzle series "Monument Valley" is being turned into a movie, as reported this week by Deadline. Paramount Pictures and Weed Road Pictures have won the rights to the games, and Patrick Osborne has already been selected to develop and direct the first film.

monument valley 2
Osborne won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short for his short film "Feast" in 2014, which was shown before "Big Hero 6" in theaters. He has also worked as an animator on Disney films including "Wreck-It Ralph" and "Bolt." With Monument Valley, Paramount and Weed Road are hoping to launch a family-friendly franchise if the first film does well enough.

“Monument Valley is a one of a kind experience, at once small in its meditative, simple gameplay, as well as enormous in its sense of history,” Osborne said. “I’m privileged to be handed the reins to Ida’s mysterious kingdom, to play in her world of impossible architecture where seeing things differently is everything. I am thrilled to bring this unique world to theaters with the talented storytellers of Paramount and Weed Road.”

In the games, players guide Ida (in the original) and Ro and her child (in the sequel) through a series of mazes that present optical illusion challenges that the player must manipulate to solve. In the film, "contemporary live-action characters" will be sent into Monument Valley's surreal world and have to figure out a way to get back home.

The original Monument Valley launched on iOS in 2014, and eventually won numerous awards including one of Apple's Design Awards for that year. The game also went on to be a financial success thanks in part to its avoidance of a free-to-play structure, and four years later the sequel nearly doubled the first-year revenue of the original game.

Deadline's report doesn't provide a release window for the Monument Valley film. Currently, Osborne is working as director on an adaptation of the fantasy webcomic Nimona for 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios, which is set for a February 2020 release date. If Osborne moves onto Monument Valley after Nimono, the adaptation of Ustwo's puzzle game should be released sometime after 2020.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is poised to receive 560,000 shares of Apple stock on Friday, worth approximately $120.4 million based on Tuesday's closing price of $215.04. The two-part award is tied to Cook's continued service as CEO, and Apple's relative performance on the stock market under his leadership.

tim cook celebrates
The total includes the vesting of 280,000 restricted stock units for Cook remaining CEO over the past year, and the vesting of another 280,000 restricted stock units for Apple achieving a higher shareholder return than at least two-thirds of other companies in the S&P 500 over the past three years.

Apple's total shareholder return was 119 percent from August 25, 2015 through Tuesday's closing bell, outperforming more than 80 percent of firms in the S&P 500, according to Bloomberg. So, unless Apple suffers a major collapse on the stock market in the next 48 hours, Cook will receive all 560,000 shares.

Cook receives these annual awards as part of a grant he received upon succeeding the late Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple in 2011.

Cook will receive an additional 560,000 shares in each of the next three years if he remains CEO, and Apple's total shareholder return continues to rank among the top-third of companies in the S&P 500. He is also set to receive a lump sum of 700,000 tenure-based shares on August 24, 2021, as part of his grant.

Cook also receives a $3 million salary and earned a $9.33 million cash bonus in 2017, according to Bloomberg.

Cook now has a net worth of around $700 million, according to Bloomberg, but has previously said he plans to give away most of his wealth. Just this week, an SEC filing revealed that Cook recently donated 23,215 shares of Apple stock to charity, worth nearly $5 million based on Tuesday's closing price.

Apple became the world's only trillion dollar publicly traded company, in terms of market capitalization, earlier this month.

Tags: AAPL, Tim Cook

The New York Public Library today launched a new initiative it's calling "Insta Novels," in which it will post classic novels and short stories as Instagram Stories. You won't need a NYPL card or have to live nearby to gain access to Insta Novels as the feature will be available to anyone who has an Instagram account (via The Wall Street Journal).

NYPL Insta Novels
To start off, the library is offering Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," and plans to next highlight Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis." The platform was built to "promote reading in general," as well as expand the brand recognition of the NYPL and its ability to "adapt to the digital era."

“We want people to understand that libraries aren’t just those brick-and-mortar places full of dusty books,” said Christopher Platt, the NYPL’s chief branch library officer.

Specifically, these novels and stories will be housed on the NYPL's Instagram page as Story Highlights. The library is dividing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland up in multiple parts, and Part 1 is available to read today. Once you open up the "Alice Part 1" story, the library has created an area on the page to rest your thumb on the screen.

The way Instagram Stories work is that when you place a finger on the story, it pauses as long as you continue to interact with it. So, in order to ensure you can read a full page without the story progressing at a fast speed, you can rest your thumb on the screen, and then lift it to turn the page. Alice Part 1 extends to page 83 and the sixth chapter of Lewis Carroll's novel, and Part 2 will be added as a Story Highlight tomorrow.

Unlike stories posted to the central area of Instagram, which disappear after 24 hours, stories that you add to your "Highlights" on your account page are permanent. This means that those reading Insta Novels don't have to worry about finishing the books in under a day, although there doesn't appear to be any way to save your progress if you don't finish the story in one sitting.

The library worked with advertising agency Mother in New York to create Insta Novels, with Mother chief creative officer Corinna Falusi stating that the experience is "unmistakably like reading a paperback novel."

Idle Android devices typically send data ten times more often to Google than iOS devices do to Apple's servers, according to new research shared by trade association Digital Content Next.

In a paper titled "Google Data Collection," Douglas C. Schmidt, a computer science professor at Vanderbilt University, arrives at some stark conclusions regarding how much Google is collecting about consumers who use the company's products, even when they aren't interacting with their smartphones and tablets.

Among several findings, Schmidt's experiments found that an idle Android phone with Chrome web browser active in the background communicated location information to Google 340 times during a 24-hour period. An equivalent experiment found that on an iOS device with Safari open but not Chrome, Google could not collect any appreciable data unless a user was interacting with the device.

apple android
In addition, he found that an idle Android phone running Chrome sends back to Google nearly fifty times as many data requests per hour as an idle iPhone running Safari. Overall, an idle Android device was found to communicate with Google nearly 10 times more often than an Apple device communicates with Apple servers.

As well as data transmission frequencies, Schmidt's research also turned up some of the ways that Google can potentially tie together anonymous data collected through passive means with the personal information of its users.

For example, on an Android device, so-called "anonymous" advertising identifiers that collect activity data on apps and third-party web page visits can get associated with a user's real Google identity by the passing of device-level identification information to Google servers.

The same goes for the supposedly user-anonymous DoubleClick cookie ID, which tracks a user's activity on third-party web pages. According to Schmidt's research, Google can associate the cookie to a user's Google account when a user accesses a Google app in the same browser that a third-party web page was accessed.

The research follows a recent investigation conducted by the Associated Press which revealed that Google continues to track location data even after a consumer has turned off the setting in many of its apps, including Google Maps.

google data collection
In response to a query about location history tracking, Google said that it is clear about its location policies, yet the company continues to collect data through app features that come under "My Activity" even when its "Location History" setting is turned off. The practice has since led to a class action lawsuit against the company by a user arguing breach of privacy.

Location information stored in "My Activity" is used for ad targeting purposes, which is still Google's primary business model. In contrast, Apple uses differential privacy to gather anonymous usage insights from devices like iPhones, iPads, and Macs, allowing it to crowdsource data from a large number of users without compromising the privacy of any individual.

Apple says the data it collects off-device is used to improve services like Siri suggestions, and to help identify problematic websites that use excessive power or too much memory in Safari, but the data is randomized before being sent from devices, so that its servers never see or receive raw data from users.

When users set up their device, Apple explicitly asks users if they wish to provide usage information on an opt-in basis. If a user declines, no data is collected by Apple unless they choose to opt in at a later time.

Apple executives have said several times that Apple customers are not the company's product, and Apple CEO Tim Cook has maintained that privacy is a fundamental human right. The company also has a dedicated privacy website that explains its approach to privacy, outlines tools available to customers to protect their privacy, and details government data requests.

Popular journaling app Day One reached version 3 today and introduced a number of new features for both free and premium users.

Headlining version 3 of the app is an all-new editor interface that the developers say has been built from the ground up. The action of editing an entry has been simplified so that now it's just a matter of tapping wherever in the entry text that you want to place the cursor.

Day One 3
Tapping the "Aa" icon now brings up a new Editor menu with entry formatting options including Headers, Bold, Italic, Lists, Quote Block, Code Block, Rule Line, and indents. Meanwhile, Markdown support continues to include auto-conversion of Headers, Lists, Bold, and Italic into rich text.

In addition, Advanced Markdown like tables and HTML are also now supported by means of a Code Block option that auto-detects existing content wrapped in a code block and remembers your viewing preference (code/HTML rendered).

Elsewhere in the new UI, there's a new entry content menu for for adding Photos, Camera, Audio, and Tags, a dynamic photo group collection grid, and entry checklists.

For Premium subscribers, Day One 3 brings a new Dark Mode that can be set to change with the local sunset/sunrise times. There's also a new Audio Recording feature that supports transcription using Apple's Speech dictation service and allows users to record 30 minutes of audio.

Day One 3 is a free download for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link] The Day One Premium subscription costs $34.99/year and is available via in-app purchase, while paid-app users of 2.0 get a lifetime discount for $24.99/year, also available via in-app purchase.

Tag: Day One

tim cook headshot glassesApple CEO Tim Cook recently donated 23,215 shares of Apple stock to charity, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission released today. At the stock's current closing price of $215.04, Cook's donation is worth close to $5 million.

The SEC filing does not disclose the charity that Cook donated the shares to, as executives are not required to divulge that information.

In the past, Cook has said that he plans to give away all his wealth. In a 2015 Fortune interview, for example, Cook said that he had already begun donating money quietly, but that he had plans to develop a "systematic approach to philanthropy."

Following the charitable donation, Cook continues to own 878,425 shares of Apple stock, worth almost $189 million.

Verizon recently throttled the data used by a Santa Clara, California fire department that was in the midst of fighting wildfires, reports Ars Technica. Verizon's actions were outlined this week in an addendum to a brief filed by 22 state attorneys challenging the recent repeal of net neutrality rules.

According to Santa Clara County Fire Department Fire Chief Anthony Bowden, the fire department paid Verizon for "unlimited" data, but its data speeds were heavily throttled while it was combating the still-ongoing Mendocino Complex Fire until the department shelled out more money for an upgraded unlimited plan.

verizonlogo
Verizon's data throttling policies affected "OES 5262," a fire vehicle with a Verizon SIM card that is responsible for acting as a "command and control resource" for "the rapid deployment and organization of thousands of personnel and hundreds of fire engines, aircraft, and bulldozers." Data speeds were reduced to 1/200, interfering with the vehicle's ability to "function effectively."

Santa Clara Fire communicated with Verizon via email about the throttling and requested that it be "immediately lifted for public safety purposes," but Verizon staff demanded the fire department update to a new plan before service could be restored.

Verizon representatives confirmed the throttling, but, rather than restoring us to an essential data transfer speed, they indicated that County Fire would have to switch to a new data plan at more than twice the cost, and they would only remove throttling after we contacted the Department that handles billing and switched to the new data plan.

As Ars Technica points out, even when net neutrality rules were in effect, major carriers imposed throttling during times of network congestion. The fire department claims, however, that it was throttled at all times (not just at peak congestion) once the vehicle's 25GB data limit was exceeded.

Net neutrality rules also allowed for Internet users to file complaints for unjust or unreasonable prices and practices, but the complaint option has been eliminated, giving Santa Clara no options for contacting the FCC over Verizon's practices.

Bowden said that Verizon's throttling had a "significant impact" on the fire department's ability to provide emergency services. The Mendocino fire was also not the only time Verizon's throttling limited fire services, with other incidents occurring in December and June.

According to Bowden, the Santa Clara Fire Department believes that Verizon is going to continue to use catastrophic events to force public agencies into higher-cost data plans.

In light of our experience, County Fire believes it is likely that Verizon will continue to use the exigent nature of public safety emergencies and catastrophic events to coerce public agencies into higher cost plans ultimately paying significantly more for mission critical service-even if that means risking harm to public safety during negotiations.

After a long series of emails (PDF) with Verizon, the Santa Clara Fire Department was ultimately required to purchase a data plan that costs $99.99 per month for the first 20GB of data usage and $8 per gigabyte afterwards to avoid throttling during emergencies.

Update: Verizon provided the following statement to The Verge:

This situation has nothing to do with net neutrality or the current proceeding in court. We made a mistake in how we communicated with our customer about the terms of its plan. Like all customers, fire departments choose service plans that are best for them. The customer purchased a government contract plan for a high-speed wireless data allotment at a set monthly cost. Under this plan, users get an unlimited amount of data, but speeds are reduced when they exceed their allotment until the next billing cycle.

Regardless of the plan emergency responders choose, we have a practice to remove data speed restrictions when contacted in emergency situations. We have done that many times, including for emergency personnel responding to these tragic fires. In this situation, we should have lifted the speed restriction when our customer reached out to us. This was a customer support mistake. We are reviewing the situation and will fix any issues going forward.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

iOS 12 introduces Notification Grouping, a long-awaited feature that groups all of the notifications from a single app together in one neat bundle that prevents the Lock screen from becoming overly cluttered.

By default, all apps have an "Automatic" grouped notification setting, which groups up notifications by app, but does so intelligently. For example, if you have multiple iMessage conversations going on with people, the notifications might be grouped by app (Messages) but separated by person.

notificationgrouping
You can adjust your Notification Grouping settings to turn off grouped notifications entirely or to force your iOS device to sort all incoming notifications by app, regardless of whether or not certain notifications are coming from different people.

  1. Open up the Settings app.
  2. Choose "Notifications" from the main list of options.
  3. Find the app with the notifications you want to modify from the list, such as Messages, and tap it.
  4. Scroll down to Notification Grouping and tap it.
  5. Automatic is enabled by default. Select "By App" or "Off" to change it.

As mentioned above, selecting "By App" instead of "Automatic" will make sure that all incoming notifications from a specific app are grouped together rather than sometimes being intelligently separated out.

Selecting the "Off" option will disable Notification Grouping for the selected app entirely, which means your incoming notifications for that app will all come in individually, like they did in iOS 11.

There is no option to turn off Notification Grouping for all apps at once, so it's something that needs to be enabled on an app-by-app basis.

For more on all of the new notification features Apple is introducing in iOS 12, make sure to check out our iOS 12 Notifications guide.

Related Forum: iOS 12

Costco, the world's second largest retailer behind Walmart, recently confirmed that it now accepts Apple Pay and other contactless payment methods at all of its 527 warehouse locations in the United States.

walmart apple pay
Walmart appears to be unfazed by the move, however, as it remains committed to its own Walmart Pay platform in the United States.

"Walmart Pay is the exclusive form of mobile payment accepted at Walmart and we have no plans for that to change," said Walmart spokesperson Erin Hulliberger, in a statement provided to MacRumors today.

Walmart Pay, built into the Walmart app for iOS and Android, works at any checkout lane with any major credit, debit, pre-paid, or Walmart gift card. To use it, a customer must tap on Walmart Pay and scan the QR code displayed at the checkout. An electronic receipt is automatically sent to the app.


Walmart was originally committed to the Merchant Customer Exchange consortium and its payments solution CurrentC, which was later postponed indefinitely, before launching Walmart Pay in 2015. As of July 2016, Walmart has rolled out Walmart Pay to some 4,600 of its locations in all 50 states.

In late 2015, Walmart's senior vice president of services Daniel Eckert said Walmart Pay allows "for integration of other mobile wallets in the future," which provided hope that the big-box chain may eventually accept Apple Pay and other contactless payments, but nearly three years later, that has yet to happen.

Walmart's resistance to Apple Pay continues despite many other large retailers, including Best Buy, Rite Aid, and now Costco, reversing course and accepting the payments solution in stores. Apple recently confirmed that pharmacy chain CVS and 7-Eleven convenience stores will also accept Apple Pay starting later this year.

Last year, rival big-box chain Target likewise said it had "no plans" to make Apple Pay available in its stores, despite accepting it as a payment method in its app. Instead, Target launched a barcode-based solution.

Apple Pay launched in the United States in October 2014, providing tap-to-pay functionality with a compatible iPhone or Apple Watch after setting up a supported credit or debit card in the Wallet app. Apple Pay is now available in more than 20 countries, and is set to launch in Germany later this year.

Correction: Costco has 527 warehouses in the United States, and 758 worldwide, as of August 2018.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

Apple today began sending out notifications to customers letting them know that support for Back to My Mac is ending in macOS Mojave.

Back to My Mac was not present in the first developer beta of macOS Mojave and it has not been available in any subsequent beta, but many customers may have missed the news of its imminent sunsetting, which has now been confirmed by Apple.

backtomymacending
Back to My Mac is a feature that is designed to allow Mac owners to connect to one Mac from another Mac for file transfers and screen sharing purposes. It lets users set up a network of Mac computers with two or more Macs, but it can be complicated to set up and use, which may be why Apple has decided to discontinue it in favor of simpler measures.

Apple is directing customers to a support document that outlines the changes coming to Back to My Mac, instructing them on how to transition to iCloud Drive, screen sharing, and Apple Remote Desktop.

Back to My Mac will not be available on macOS Mojave. You can get ready now by learning about alternatives for file access, screen sharing, and remote desktop access.

Apple's support document suggests customers can access all of their files across devices with iCloud Drive, operate other Macs with screen sharing, and manage Macs remotely with Apple Remote Desktop, software available from the Mac App Store for $80.

Many Back to My Mac users are likely to be unhappy with Apple's suggestion to transition to Apple Remote Desktop for remote management given its high price and the fact that it sees few updates, but there are other options like TeamViewer and LogMeIn.

Related Forum: macOS Mojave

Apple has purchased the rights to develop a project based on popular New York Times Magazine story "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change," reports The New York Times.

"Losing Earth," written by Nathaniel Rich, is also set to be the subject of an upcoming book. The magazine article covers the 10-year period from 1979 to 1989, a decade when "humanity settled the science of climate change and came surprisingly close to finding a solution" but ultimately failed to act due to various political forces.

californiawildfires

An image in "Losing Earth" taken after California wildfires last year

The "Losing Earth" article recounted how, from 1979 to 1989, a small group of American scientists, activists and politicians tried to save the world from the ravages of climate change before it was too late. The article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center and was based on more than 18 months of reporting and over 100 interviews.

"'Losing Earth' is an extremely important piece of journalism and we are thrilled it will get a wider audience," Jordan Cohen, a spokesman for The Times, said.

The New York Times said that at least a half-dozen bidders were aiming to acquire rights to the nonfiction project, which Apple plans to turn into a TV show.

The TV show will be produced by Anonymous Content, a company known for films that include "Spotlight," "The Revenant," "Collateral Beauty," and TV shows like "True Detective," "Mr. Robot," and "13 Reasons Why."

Rich will serve as an executive producer on the series alongside Steve Golin, founder of Anonymous Content.

"Losing Earth" is one of more than a dozen television shows Apple is working on, most of which are fiction-based. Apple plans to introduce the first of its television shows next year, perhaps as early as March, and several of them are in the casting stages. From The New York Times:

Apple has said it will start streaming its television offerings next year, when it will begin competing against Netflix, Amazon and Hulu in earnest.

The 30,000 word "Losing Earth" article can be read online on The New York Times website.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

We're just under one month from Apple's annual September iPhone event, which should also see the debut of the Apple Watch Series 4. Alongside each new edition of the Apple Watch, Apple typically updates its array of band accessories with new colors and styles. Echoing shortages from previous years, it appears that numerous Apple Watch bands have either been removed or are currently unavailable to purchase on Apple.com ahead of next month's event, as spotted by Reddit user ScaniaCB80.

Apple has long been upfront about its plan to offer seasonal availability of many new Apple Watch bands, with various styles and colors available only for a few weeks before disappearing from its official website. Still, massive removals and shortages like this week's have been a consistent indicator for new band refreshes, as the same events in June 2016, February 2017, and May 2018 have preceded fresh band colors and styles in September 2016, March 2017, and June 2018, respectively.

apple watch shortages band 2018
As of this morning, 14 bands across the Sport Loop and Sport Band families have been removed from Apple.com in the United States:

Sport Loop
- Marine Green
- Hot Pink
- Flashlight
- Tahoe Blue
- Midnight Fog (Nike)
- Cargo Khaki (Nike)
Sport Band
- Marine Green
- Sky Blue
- Denim Blue
- Red Raspberry
- Lemonade
- Cargo Khaki/Black (Nike)
- Barely Rose/Pearl Pink (Nike)
- Black/White (Nike)

It appears that no other band types have seen removals, but many are sold out:

Sport Loop
- Dark Olive
- Spicy Orange
- Pearl Pink (Nike)
- Bright Crimson/Black (Nike, 38mm)

Sport Band
- Peach
- Dark Teal
- Spicy Orange
- Pure Platinum/White (Nike)

Classic Buckle
- Spring Yellow (42mm)
- Electric Blue
- Soft Pink (42mm)

Woven Nylon
- Pride (42mm)
- Pink Stripe
- Blue Stripe (38mm)
- Gray Stripe (42mm)
- Black Stripe (38mm)
- Spicy Orange Check
- Berry Check (38mm)
- Dark Olive Check
- Midnight Blue Check

A large portion of the sold-separately Hermès bands are also unavailable to purchase at this time. As in previous years, the wording for each unavailable model isn't Apple's usual "Currently Unavailable" that typically appears when an item is temporarily out of stock for an undetermined period of time, but a more definitive "Sold Out."

The Sport Loop now has one of the lowest available stock on Apple.com, with just four colors up for purchase in both 38mm and 42mm sizes. There are still eight colors of the Sport Band available to buy with the usual 2-day shipping estimate, although the Midnight Blue 38mm model is currently seeing a delivery estimate as far back as September 14 - 21 for free shipping.

In contrast, it appears that all of the Apple Watch Series 3 collections are still available to purchase on Apple.com in the U.S., in both GPS or GPS + Cellular, with the exception of many Hermès collections. This is a bit less common, as the collections (which bundle an Apple Watch case with a pre-determined band) have routinely seen shortages alongside the individual band shortages over the past few years.

Bands still available to purchase include every version of the Milanese Loop and Link Bracelets, which now date back to the launch of the original Apple Watch in 2015. Apple's more recent band refreshes have shied away from the expensive fashion side of the Apple Watch (which was a selling point of the original), now focusing on fitness and low-cost bands that can survive workouts and other external conditions.

As usual, stock shortages on Apple.com are far from a definitive confirmation of incoming hardware, but the timing does line up if Apple refreshes the bands next month alongside the Apple Watch Series 4. The new Apple Watch is expected to have a slightly new design with a 15 percent larger display, likely due to minimized bezels.

Just yesterday, six new Apple Watch model numbers were filed with the Eurasian Economic Commission, further confirming an incoming launch of the Apple Watch Series 4. Although specific hardware details will have to wait for Apple's keynote, as of now it's expected for Apple to continue supporting legacy Apple Watch bands on the Apple Watch Series 4.

Related Roundup: Apple Watch 10
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)

Fortnite could launch on Apple TV at one point in the future, according to a new discovery by the @StormLeaks Twitter account late yesterday. As reported by esports and gaming website Dexerto, @StormLeaks found a single line within Fortnite's code that references "tvOS," suggesting that Epic Games may be planning to launch the popular game on Apple's fourth- and fifth-generation set-top boxes down the line.

Still, this is just a single mention of tvOS in Fortnite's code and shouldn't be taken as a guarantee that the game will be available to play on Apple TV soon. If it does, the game would likely require a compatible wireless gaming controller, two of which Apple sells for $49.95 on its website.

fortnite apple tv

As it stands, Fortnite is currently available on iOS, macOS, Android, PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. Fortnite initially launched as a beta on iOS in March and then expanded wide in April. The smartphone apps are focused entirely on Fortnite's PvP Battle Royale mode, but the console and desktop versions of the game also include a PvE mode called Save the World.

Fortnite Battle Royale on iOS is free-to-play (like it is on all platforms), but due to in-game content purchases the app in June reached $100 million in revenue 90 days after launch. Fortnite initially launched wide in summer 2017 on consoles, macOS, and PC, focusing only on the Save the World mode, with Battle Royale releasing a few months later in September 2017.

Update: According to Epic Games, there are no plans to bring Fortnite to the Apple TV. From Epic's Senior PR Manager: "Epic isn’t planning to bring Fortnite to Apple TV. References to tvOS in the Fortnite files are the result of general Unreal Engine support for the Apple TV platform."

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Netflix is already one of the highest grossing apps on the App Store, as many iPhone and iPad users pay for their subscriptions via iTunes/Apple ID billing, but the streaming video platform wants an even bigger piece of the pie.

netflix ios previews
TechCrunch today reported that, until September 30, new or lapsed subscribers in some 33 countries will be unable to pay using iTunes.

The countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, and the UK.

A customer service representative for Netflix confirmed the test with TechCrunch:

During this time, customers in these countries may experience any of the following when launching the Netflix app on an iOS (mobile or tablet) device:

1. Ability to sign up in app with only iTunes Mode Of Payment.
2. Ability to log into Netflix but not sign up (sign up only via mobile browser).

We are constantly innovating and testing new signup approaches on different platforms to better understand what our members like. Based on what we learn, we work to improve the Netflix experience for members everywhere.

This means that some iPhone and iPad users who open the Netflix app will only be able to sign into an existing, active account, with no option to create a new account. By the sound of it, Netflix is hoping that these users will close the app, and sign up through its mobile website or elsewhere with a credit card.

Apple collects a 30 percent commission—15 percent after the first year—from users who subscribe via its in-app purchase mechanism, so it's pretty clear that Netflix is trying to avoid padding the pockets of one of its biggest competitors, which just so happens to be working on a Netflix-like service itself.

Of note, Apple's App Store Review Guidelines state that developers are not permitted to "directly or indirectly target iOS users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase," but it appears that Netflix has worked around this rule by simply not offering new users the option to sign up in-app whatsoever.

We've reached out to Apple for comment.

Tag: Netflix

Google today updated its Wear OS iPhone app [Direct Link] and Google Fit Android app with a new redesign that emphasizes closing a set of rings, similar to Apple's Activity app. Every day, Google Fit will task users to close one ring based on "move minutes" and another ring based on "heart points" (via The Verge).

"Move minutes" is a metric that is intended to be better than measuring daily steps because it can capture multiple activities, and walking "might not be a great option" for some users, Google Fit senior product manager Margaret Hollendoner explains. "Heart points" differs from "move minutes" by requiring users to engage in activities that will get their heart rate up but not require heavy physical activity (although it will reward more points for intense workouts).

google fit
Hollendoner says that it can be "as simple as picking up the pace when you're walking." Both of these metrics are measured when wearing one of Google's Wear OS watches, but there are other options available as well. You can import health data from other devices compatible with Google Fit, although the company points out that the metrics might not be as accurate.

Similar to the Apple Watch, once personal data is input in Wear OS and Google Fit, the apps can offer up goals that it believes are appropriate for each individual user. The apps can also suggest that you might need another 20 minutes of exercise to hit a weekly goal, even if you slacked off earlier in the week.

Google collaborated with the American Heart Association and the World Health Organization to build the new rings and activity tracking. In the apps, users will be able to read more details about heart points, which AHA senior vice president Patrick Wayte sees as an "opportunity to get people oriented around the science," and eventually "align them to the guidelines" the AHA recommends for daily physical activity.

As a comparison, Apple Watch's Activity rings measure Move, Exercise, and Stand metrics, related to calories burned, high-intensity workout time, and time spent standing throughout a single day. For Google Fit, the company notes that it will still measure all of the basic stats as well, including daily steps and miles completed, and calories burned.

Tag: Google

Tim Cook IndiaIn an ongoing effort to boost sales in India, Apple is reportedly planning to upgrade its authorized reseller locations in five to six
"extremely prominent locations" in India's metropolitan cities. The stores are being referred to as "Flagship Apple Premium Reseller" outlets.

While not official Apple stores, the locations will each be "at least three times larger" than the current reseller stores, which average about 1,000-1,500 square feet (via The Economic Times).

According to three senior industry executives, Apple may go up to as much as 5,000 square feet for the improved reseller locations in an effort to build them as "anchor shops" in malls and high-traffic outdoor shopping areas.

Apple will reportedly start construction on the flagship outlets first in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai. Sometime after those locations, the company will then open outlets in Hyderabad and Pune. A specific grand opening window for these outlets was not given.

“With company-owned Apple Stores yet to take shape in the country, Apple wants some of the franchisee run outlets to up the experience game through this new format. This is part of Apple’s new India strategy to focus on selling on experience rather than discount,” he said.

Apple is even open to the idea of a couple of these flagship stores being as large as 5,000 square feet if a suitable location is available. “The key is getting the right location, which is not easy. A team from the company is identifying locations,” an executive said.

The outlets are part of Apple's revamped India strategy, which includes overhauling its relationship with independent retailers, long-lasting retail deals, and opening official Apple retail stores in the country. These official stores are said to open beginning in 2019 and eventually include locations in New Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai.

Apple's new strategy began when Michel Coulomb was hired to oversee the company's India growth at the end of 2017. Apple routinely struggles in the Indian market due to the higher prices of its smartphones in comparison to other manufacturers like Xiaomi, and other factors.

The other major aspect of the revamped strategy is Apple's services, which will be "aimed more closely at Indians" thanks to certain apps that will get major updates in the country, like a new Apple Maps coming by 2020. Earlier this year, Indian iPhone users discussed Apple's poor performance in this area and one user specifically called Apple Maps "a joke" in India.

While some services like Apple Music were favorably received, others like Siri were identified as low points for Indian customers, as the assistant "often struggles" with local accents and does not understand "many words of Indian origination" -- all pain points that Apple is hoping to address.

Tag: India

Apple has added two China-based manufacturers to its list of MacBook chassis suppliers in an effort to push down prices quoted by Taiwan-based makers, according to a new report today by DigiTimes.

macbook air and 12 inch
China-based Shenzhen Everwin Precision Technology and AAC Technologies are said to have obtained Apple certification in 2017, and this year they began small-volume shipments of the metal-alloy chassis for Apple's notebook line-up.

Previous years saw Taiwan-based Catcher Technology, Foxconn Technology and Casetek Holdings dominate the supply of MacBook chassis, and Apple reportedly intends to continue relying on them because of their excellent manufacturing capabilities, but not before it has capitalized on the Chinese makers' lower production costs.

DigiTimes' sources indicate that for Taiwan makers, competition from China rivals will have more impact on their gross margins than on order volumes. To offset the impact, Taiwan companies have increasingly sought orders from Chinese brand vendors of high-end devices like laptops. Responding to the rumored potential of Chinese competition for Apple's business, for example, Catcher said its outlook for 2018 remained unchanged.

Apple is expected to release a new low-cost MacBook Air later this year that will be similar in design to the current MacBook Air, but with slimmer bezels around the display. Based on the latest rumor, the new machine will be a straight MacBook Air upgrade aimed at students and schools, with a lower price tag than MacBooks in the MacBook family.

It remains unclear how a new 13-inch Retina MacBook Air fits in with Apple's existing 12-inch Retina MacBook lineup, so the company's plans for its upcoming notebook range could still throw up a surprise or two.

Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air
Related Forums: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air

Parallels today announced version 14 of its desktop virtualization software for Mac, offering macOS Mojave support out of the box and significantly improved application launch speeds over the previous version.

This update puts a heavy focus on enhanced storage optimization, with Parallels Desktop being around 20-30 percent smaller than earlier releases. The company says virtual machines can also save as much as 20GB of additional disk space depending on how they're configured.

parallels 14 for mac
Elsewhere, the developers have optimized the compression of memory states saved with the Snapshots tool, which takes on average 15 percent less storage space, while a new disk space wizard provides users with suggestions on how to economize storage, with advice on managing multiple virtual machines and VM snapshots.

In addition, Parallels 14 introduces several Windows features for use in macOS. For example, Microsoft Ink is now available for editing Office documents, and stylus support has been added to CorelDRAW, Fresh Paint, PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Parallels Desktop also now includes Touch Bar features on compatible MacBook Pros for OneNote, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Microsoft Visio, and other apps, while a Touch Bar wizard offers users the ability to customize Windows app shortcuts from Apple's OLED function strip.


Lastly, Parallels Toolbox has received some additional Mac features including new options to screenshot entire web pages, resize images and perform memory consolidation functions.

Parallels Desktop 14 for Mac is available from August 23. Existing Parallels 12 and 13 users can upgrade to the new version for $50. New users can sign up for an $80 a year subscription or make a one-time purchase of Parallels 14 for $100. Parallels Desktop 14 Pro Edition and Business Edition both cost $100 per year. Note that a Windows license is not included in the software and must be bought separately.