Apple today confirmed that the launch of Sky: Light Awaits for Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad has been delayed until March 2018 in the United States.
The game was originally slated to launch in winter 2017, but that timeframe seemed increasingly unlikely as the end of the year drew near, and fine print at the bottom of Apple's iPhone X and Apple TV pages now reflects the delay.
Sky soft launched in the Philippines earlier this week, and Apple hasn't updated its fine print outside of the United States, so it's unclear if the March 2018 launch date will apply to all countries or just major markets.
Sky was unveiled by game studio thatgamecompany during Apple's iPhone X event back in September. Described as a social adventure, players are tasked with flying through a kingdom and bringing light to dark places. The game supports up to eight players and can be played with just one finger on both iOS and Apple TV.
Like thatgamecompany's critically acclaimed console games Journey, Flower, and Flow, Sky has beautiful graphics and soundtracks that create a cinematic experience. It is the company's first game since Journey was released in 2012.
Sky will be exclusive to Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad when it launches on the App Store for iOS and tvOS in March. Pricing has not been disclosed.
Sales on App Store and iTunes gift cards are becoming increasingly frequent as Christmas nears, with the latest 15 percent off discount coming from PayPal's Digital Gifts eBay storefront. Like previous sales -- the last one from Amazon happened yesterday -- PayPal is offering the $100 iTunes card for $85, delivered to you via email and valid only on United States App Store purchases.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
PayPal will email you the code for your iTunes card within a few hours of purchase, and you can also enter a friend or family member's email address to send as a holiday present this season. If you prefer shopping at Amazon, the retailer's digital iTunes card sale from yesterday is still running, offering the same $100 card for $85 if you enter the promo code ITUNES15 during checkout.
For other sales and discounts happening in the last few days before Christmas, make sure to head to our Deals Roundup.
An update to the official Wikipedia app for iOS is currently rolling out with an all-new "Black" reading theme for iPhone X. The new display feature, which accompanies the existing dark mode, has been developed specifically with OLED devices in mind, according to the developers.
Not only does the true black theme look good on the new iPhone's 5.8-inch display, it also potentially offers energy-saving benefits, since black pixels in an OLED panel basically switch off and consume far less power, giving avid Wikipedia readers another reason to use the official app over the website.
In addition to the new theme, the Wikipedia app update promises faster article loading and less data use. The speed improvements are mostly down to the fact that images are no longer pre-loaded and now only download when they're about to be displayed or saved.
Wikipedia is just the latest app to add a true black theme to its display options, with other popular apps like Twitterrific and Bear Notes also having included similar features in the last few weeks.
A native Dark or "Night" mode for iOS is one of the most popular long-running user requests, but Apple has yet to officially add support for such a feature, despite the added technological rationale for one on iPhone X.
The closest option for iOS 11 users is the "Smart Invert" accessibility feature, which is basically a tweaked version of the classic "Invert Colors" that aims to avoid inverting colors in images, although it's pretty inconsistent in this regard. The option can be found in the Settings app in General -> Accessibility -> Display Accommodations -> Invert Colors.
The official Wikipedia app is a free download for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link]
Apple quietly updated several of its European online stores for refurbished products over the last couple of days, and has added its latest 27-inch 5K iMac models to the discounted listings for the first time.
The iMacs were first released in June of 2017 and feature Kaby Lake processors, faster SSDs, and AMD discrete graphics. Online stores in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Spain have all been updated with the new stock, although the largest range of configurations currently appears in the United Kingdom.
In the U.K., for example, an entry-level model with 8GB RAM, a 1TB Fusion Drive, a 3.4GHz i5 processor, and a Radeon Pro 570 is priced at £1,489, which is a £260 discount off the standard price.
This is the first time the machines have been available in refurbished stores around Europe since their introduction at the 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple first began selling the refurb models in the U.S. and Canada back in August.
In addition, Apple has boosted its European stock of refurbished 21.5-inch 4K iMacs, also released in June of this year. Apple has added a range of configurations, from low-end to top-of-the-line. As with all refurbished products, stock will fluctuate regularly based on the machines Apple is getting in for repair.
All of Apple's refurbished products go through a rigorous refurbishment process before being offered for sale, which includes inspection, repairs, cleaning, and repackaging. Refurbished Macs come with a one-year warranty that can be extended with an AppleCare+ purchase. For more tips on purchasing a refurbished product, make sure to check out our guide.
Apple in June tweaked its App Store Review guidelines to add a new rule banning apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service, a move that ended up impacting small businesses without the resources to independently develop an app.
Many niche template-created apps for small restaurants, retailers, and other businesses were not allowed under the new rule, which also affected the companies that build those sorts of apps. Following media attention and feedback from small business owners, Apple today amended the rule to make it less restrictive, reports TechCrunch.
An example of a restaurant app created using a ChowNow template
The original rule, in section 4.2.6 of the App Store guidelines, read "Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected." The new wording of the rule, located below, is more expansive and clarifies exactly what's allowed and what's not.
Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app's content. These services should not submit apps on behalf of their clients and should offer tools that let their clients create customized, innovative apps that provide unique customer experiences. Another acceptable option for template providers is to create a single binary to host all client content in an aggregated or "picker" model, for example as a restaurant finder app with separate customized entries or pages for each client restaurant, or as an event app with separate entries for each client event.
Under the revised guidelines, small businesses that use template-style apps can continue to use them, but those apps must be submitted by the business itself rather than the template provider. Apple also suggests template providers can create something like a restaurant finder app, with the ability to search for all client restaurants rather than creating individual cookie cutter apps for each restaurant.
All apps published on the App Store going forward will need to be handled by the business or organization behind the app, and to make the transition simple, Apple is going to waive its $99 developer fee for government and nonprofit apps in the U.S. in early 2018.
In addition to changing its template app guidelines, Apple today tweaked a few other rules. Apps that offer in-app purchase "loot boxes" or other mechanisms that include randomized virtual items are now required to disclose the odds of receiving each type of item.
Apple has also clarified that virtual currency apps offering Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), cryptocurrency futures trading, and other crypto-securities or quasi-securities trading must come from established banks, securities firms, futures commission merchants, or other approved financial institutions.
One last rule applies to VPN apps. Apps that offer VPN services are required to use the NEVPNManager API and must make it clear what user data is collected and how it is used. VPN apps must also follow local laws, and VPN apps in a territory where a VPN license is required must provide license information in the App Review Notes field when submitting an app.
Over the course of the last week, there's been speculation that Apple is throttling the performance of older iPhones with degraded batteries, leading to resurgence of accusations that Apple is deliberately slowing down older iPhones that aren't operating at peak battery performance.
In a statement to TechCrunch on the results people are seeing when testing iPhones with older batteries, Apple says it is aiming to smooth out the high power draw peaks that can result in shutdowns and other problems in older devices to "deliver the best experience for customers."
Lithium-ion batteries degrade over time by nature, and there's nothing Apple can do to halt the process, so it uses power management techniques to attempt to prolong the life of the iPhone and its battery. Apple isn't denying that iPhones with older batteries can sometimes see slower performance, but power management is not a feature that's been implemented to force users to upgrade by deliberately slowing devices.
"Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.
Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We've now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future."
The throttling accusations first surfaced last week, after a Redditor shared Geekbench results taken before and after the battery in his iPhone 6s was replaced. He claimed that performance on his iPhone 6s sped up drastically after replacing a battery with a wear level "around 20%."
Then, earlier this week, Primate Labs founder John Poole showed some aggregate Geekbench data that visualized a link between lower processor performance and degraded battery health. He compared iPhone 6s scores between iOS 10.2 and iOS 10.2.1, which showed variations in benchmarking scores following the update.
Apple in iOS 10.2.1 introduced an update designed to fix a bug that was causing iPhone 6s models to shut down unexpectedly, a problem attributed to uneven power delivery from older batteries. Apple says this feature has been implemented for iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, SE, and, as of iOS 11.2, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. It will be implemented in future iPhones going forward, too.
It's this power management feature causing the benchmark variations John Poole found in Geekbench scores between iOS 10 updates last year. As explained by TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino:
Basically, iPhones were hitting peaks of processor power that the battery was unable to power and the phones were shutting off. Apple then added power management to all iPhones at the time that would 'smooth out' those peaks by either capping the power available from the battery or by spreading power requests over several cycles.
When an iPhone's battery ages, there may come a point when it can't provide the processor with enough power to reach a peak of power, and thus it spreads the requests out "over a few cycles," resulting in the peaks and perceived lower scores on benchmarking tests. As Panzarino points out, benchmarking tests are not reflective of real world usage and will artificially trigger the power management features in the iPhone.
"In other words, you're always going to be triggering this when you run a benchmark, but you definitely will not always trigger this effect when you're using your iPhone like normal," writes Panzarino.
Apple has clear battery replacement guidelines in place. The iPhone battery is designed to retain 80% of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles. A defective battery that does not meet those parameters can be replaced for free for customers who have AppleCare+ or who have devices still under warranty.
For out of warranty customers, Apple offers a battery replacement service, with the company charging $79 for a battery replacement plus $6.95 in shipping.
Apple's iPhones do send out a notification when a battery has degraded enough that it's going to impact performance, but it is "pretty conservative" according to Panzarino, and he recommends Apple make this notice more aggressive, in addition to providing customers with clearer information on the link between battery life and performance.
Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced more than a year ago 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 46 includes bug fixes and feature improvements for Security UI, Privacy, CSS, Rendering, Storage Access API, Web Inspector, Web Assembly, Web Driver, JavaScript, Media, and WebRTC. Today's update also enables Service Workers by default and makes several Service Workers tweaks and improvements.
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.
Apple today released the second public beta of iOS 11.2.5 to its public beta testing group, one week after seeding the first public beta and one week after releasing iOS 11.2.1, an update that addressed a HomeKit vulnerability. Today's beta is identical to the beta that was provided to developers yesterday.
Beta testers who are members of Apple's beta testing program will receive the iOS 11.2.5 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on an iOS device.
Those who want to join the beta testing program can sign up on Apple's beta testing website, which gives users access to iOS, macOS, and tvOS betas. iOS betas are not always stable and should not be installed on a primary device.
No new features were discovered in the first two developer betas of iOS 11.2.5, so it's not entirely clear what new features this beta introduces.
It's possible it focuses primarily on security improvements and bug fixes, and if that's the case, we may not know the extent of what's in the update until it sees a public release complete with detailed release notes.
Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.2.5 update to its public beta testing group, one week seeding the first public beta and one day after providing the beta to developers. The second tvOS 11.2.5 public beta comes just a week after the release of tvOS 11.2.1, an update that fixed a HomeKit vulnerability.
The tvOS 11.2.5 public beta can be obtained by going to the Settings app on the Apple TV and navigating to the Software Updates section under "System." "Get Public Beta Updates" will need to be toggled on, and once it is, the Apple TV will download the beta software.
It's not yet clear what features and changes might be included in the tvOS 11.2.5 update as no outward-facing changes were discovered in the first two developer betas.
It's likely the update features security improvements and fixes for bugs that have been discovered since the release of tvOS 11.2 and tvOS 11.2.1.
Tidal today unveiled apps for both Apple TV and Android TV devices, which will let subscribers listen to their music and view videos on their television. The Apple TV app will be rolling out throughout the day, according to The Verge, so users might not see it immediately within the tvOS App Store.
With Tidal for Apple TV, you get the same High Fidelity experience you've come to expect from Tidal directly on your television. See the latest music videos, concerts, and your favorite video playlists in HD. Listen to the latest albums and tracks from your favorite artists. All from the comfort of your living room.
The launch of a Tidal app for Apple TV follows a report from last week that said the company was facing money problems amid "stalled" user growth. Specifically, Tidal was said to have enough capital only to last another six months, after which the future of the company could be in jeopardy if its subscriber count doesn't increase. The addition of more ways for users to interact with Tidal content, particularly on larger screens, could be the next step in the company's plan to gain new users.
Similar to Apple Music and Spotify, Tidal is a subscription-based music service that allows users to stream music and watch videos on-demand at a price point of $9.99/month for standard sound quality. A premium tier of $19.99/month is available and brings lossless High Fidelity sound quality to its subscribers. Both tiers, as well as numerous other family, student, and military options, support high definition music videos, which users can now also watch on Apple TV.
Two years after Amazon first removed the fourth-generation Apple TV from its online store, the retailer today has begun selling both the fourth- and fifth-generation Apple TV boxes for customers, although all versions are currently out of stock. Over the last week the devices had received placeholder pages that stated they were "Currently unavailable," but now Amazon customers can add the 32GB Apple TV, 32GB Apple TV 4K, and 64GB Apple TV 4K to their shopping cart.
Unfortunately, each device is temporarily out of stock as of writing. Amazon notes that the Apple TV can still be added to your cart and purchased, and the company will deliver it "when available" and update you via email "as soon as we have more information." If you checkout right now, you won't be charged until the Apple TV ships from Amazon. Prices haven't changed, so the 32GB Apple TV is $149.00, the 32GB Apple TV 4K is $179.00, and the 64GB 4K model is $199.00.
Amazon's original reason behind removing the Apple TV from its website was the product's incompatibility with the Amazon Prime Video streaming service. With Amazon launching its Prime Video app for Apple TV earlier in December, the company is now placing Apple's set-top box back onto its storefront.
The fourth-generation Apple TV launched in 2015 and introduced tvOS, the first App Store on an Apple TV device, the Siri Remote, and eventually supported Apple's TV app for accumulating most of a viewer's video content into one space. The fifth-generation Apple TV 4K launched this past September and includes all of the same features as the previous model with added support for 4K HDR video playback.
Google's Chromecast and Chromecast Ultra devices are also making a return to Amazon alongside Apple TV, but as of writing these devices still have a "Currently unavailable" marker on their Amazon pages. Amazon and Google have been battling over the lack of support that each company has for the other company's products, most recently involving Google's removal of YouTube from Amazon Show and Fire TV devices. Now the companies appear to have made some form of agreement with the return of Chromecast, but Google Home still hasn't appeared on Amazon.
Apple aims to allow developers to release universal apps that work across iPhone, iPad, and Mac as early as next year, according to Bloomberg News.
Starting as early as next year, software developers will be able to design a single application that works with a touchscreen or mouse and trackpad depending on whether it's running on the iPhone and iPad operating system or on Mac hardware, according to people familiar with the matter.
Apple tentatively plans to begin rolling out the change in iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 next year, and it could announce the news as soon as WWDC 2018 in June, according to the report. The exact timeline is subject to change.
Apple typically previews the next major versions of its iOS and macOS operating systems at WWDC in June, with beta versions of each platform available to developers and public testers until September, so it's possible APIs for universal apps will begin rolling out in the pre-release software.
Apple currently requires developers to design separate apps for iOS and macOS, but iPhone and iPad apps often receive more attention than their Mac counterparts in a mobile-first world. The report said it's unclear if Apple will eventually merge the less-popular Mac App Store with the App Store for iOS.
The project is reportedly codenamed "Marzipan" and is considered to be one of the biggest changes on Apple's roadmap next year. The report speculates that universal apps would make it easier for Apple to one day create a single operating system for all of its devices, should it ever go down that avenue.
Apple would be following in the footsteps of Microsoft's Universal Windows Platform, aimed at helping developers create universal apps that run across Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile, the latter of which is being phased out.
Niantic and The Pokémon Company today announced that an update coming this week to Pokémon Go on iOS will bring support for Apple's ARKit, enhancing the augmented reality abilities of the popular mobile game. The company is calling this feature "AR+" and will be available to players running iOS 11 on the iPhone 6s and later devices.
Previously announced by Apple at WWDC, ARKit brings a few new advancements to Pokémon Go's augmented reality technology, including the ability for the app to fix Pokémon to a specific point in space. This scaling feature allows players to walk up close to a Pokémon and move around them freely, bringing the app "one step closer to truly realizing Pokémon the way they are supposed to be represented in the real world," according to Niantic.
Another advancement is in the awareness of Pokémon that players are trying to capture, meaning that the creatures might run away if they notice trainers are getting too close. But, if trainers can sneak up on the Pokémon an Expert Handler bonus can be earned upon capture. This mechanic is represented in an "awareness meter" next to each Pokémon and if it fills up the Pokémon will flee, although another opportunity for capture might come if the player taps nearby tall grass.
Both of these new features are combined for the Expert Handler bonus, which rewards players for moving close to a Pokémon in AR+ mode, and capturing it without it fleeing. The bonus will reward players with more XP and Stardust upon capture.
Regarding the ARKit update to Pokémon Go, the company said that "this is our first step toward making AR capabilities in Pokémon GO even more awesome, opening up the framework for greater AR experiences in the future."
During the WWDC reveal of ARKit in June, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi presented the Pokémon Go AR+ enhancements now rolling out and stated, "The Pokémon is so real, he's right there on the ground. As the ball bounces, it actually bounces right there in the real environment. It's AR like you've never seen it before."
Samsung Display will supply Apple with between 180 and 200 million flexible OLED displays for the iPhone in 2018, up from an estimated 50 million this year, according to The Korea Herald's sister publication The Investor.
While the report focuses on the iPhone X, it's likely that a portion of the OLED displays will go towards the "iPhone X Plus" rumored to launch alongside the second-generation iPhone X in the second half of 2018.
Like the Galaxy Note 8, the iPhone X Plus is expected to have a 6.4-inch display, but its overall physical size will likely be closer to an iPhone 8 Plus. Meanwhile, the next iPhone X will likely retain its 5.8-inch display.
With both a full year of iPhone X sales and the addition of the iPhone X Plus to the lineup in 2018, Apple will undoubtedly need many more OLED displays, so today's report about Samsung quadrupling its production next year makes sense. Samsung could reportedly gain an extra $22 billion in revenue from the orders.
The report also claims Samsung has achieved around a 90 percent yield rate, compared to around 60 percent earlier this year, meaning it is getting more efficient at making OLED displays that live up to Apple's strict quality standards. This could lead to improved shipping estimates for next year's launch.
The new iPhone X and iPhone X Plus will likely launch around the usual timeframe of September to October, potentially alongside a new 6.1-inch mid-range model with an LCD display that is predicted to start at around $649 to $749.
There's no word on how much the iPhone X Plus could cost yet, but given the iPhone X starts at $999, the larger version should have a four-digit price tag. Apple charges a $100 premium for other Plus-sized iPhones, so it's possible the iPhone X Plus could start at around $1,099, but it's too early to say.
Apple is likely to remain dependent on Samsung for supply of OLED displays next year, but the company is reportedly investing billions into LG building OLED display production lines dedicated to the iPhone by 2019.
It's just a few days before Christmas and Amazon is back with the latest discount on App Store and iTunes gift cards, this time marking down both physical and digital versions worth over $100 by 15 percent for United States customers. The best deal here is for the $100 card, which you can get for $85 in a physical copy, and early access is available now if you have a Prime membership. This is a lightning deal so it will disappear fast.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
The digital version is also available at a 15 percent discount, and requires you to enter the promo code ITUNES15 at checkout to see the savings. One card is available to purchase per customer, and you should receive the code within minutes after you checkout.
Visit our Deals Roundup for more information on holiday sales going on this week.
App Store chart topper Coinbase introduced support for Bitcoin Cash on Wednesday, allowing users of the cryptocurrency exchange app to trade in the alternative "forked" digital asset.
Bitcoin Cash appeared in early August when a group of developers created a separate version of the Bitcoin blockchain, so that more transactions could be processed at a faster rate, with lower associated fees involved.
When news of a potential split or "fork" in the blockchain first appeared, Coinbase said it would not support trading in the new currency that would be created as a result, but in August it reversed its decision and said customers would be able to withdraw Bitcoin Cash from the first day of 2018.
Following today's app update, all users will be credited an amount of Bitcoin Cash that is equal to their Bitcoin balance when the fork occurred on August 1. Bitcoin Cash trading will also be available on GDAX, which is Coinbase's institutional-based exchange.
The Coinbase app surged to the top of Apple's free apps chart in the App Store last week, amid a speculative frenzy surrounding the blockchain cryptocurrency. Today's announcement that it would support Bitcoin Cash caused BTC to drop sharply in the early hours as users switched currencies, but the value appears to have stabilized since, at around $17,599 as of writing.
Also this week, a new version of the CoinHub app was released. Version 1.5 of the cryptocurrency quote platform brings a new secure portfolio, Reddit and news separation, fresh UI styling, and a FOREX engine that lets users purchase any currency pair and automatically see the value in their local fiat currency.
Apple Pay could arrive in Poland as soon as the first quarter of 2018, according to financial technology site cashless.pl. Several independent sources are said to have confirmed active negotiations between Apple and five banks operating in the country, including Alior, BZ WBK, and mBank.
According to the Polish tech site, all banks operating in Poland received an offer from Apple earlier this month to make Apple Pay available to their customers. Some of the banks are said to have declined the offer, but the banks listed above are reportedly negotiating financial terms to start supporting the digital wallet in the first half of 2018.
Given that the banks have already implemented MasterCard or Visa tokenization – the same technology used by Apple Pay to securely link a payment card number to a mobile device – rollout could happen very quickly as soon as negotiations have concluded.
The rollout will reportedly take place with active support from payment companies including Mastercard, although there's no word on whether Visa will be involved in the implementation at this stage.
The last time we heard about plans for Apple Pay in Poland was in October, when an anonymous tipster emailed in an alleged screenshot of Apple Pay being tested with a Mastercard from PKO Bank Polski, for a possible debut in the country by the end of this year. PKO was not mentioned in today's source, however, and may have just been used as a placeholder card for Apple's internal testing only.
Apple is planning to open a new flagship retail location in Melbourne, Australia, at Federation Square, a shopping center, public square, and mixed-use space located in the heart of the city.
The Federation Square website says the new location will be an "Apple Global Flagship Store" that will open up in 2020. It will be Apple's most significant store in the Southern Hemisphere, with workshops, classes, and live music events.
Apple's Melbourne store will create 500 square meters of new public space, connecting Federation Square with the Yarra River and Birrarung Marr. Apple will construct a new building to replace an existing Yarra building, and based on renderings shared by Federation Square, the store will have multiple levels with glass walls and a viewing deck that overlooks the Yarra River.
Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts told The Australian that the store will feature a "bespoke design concept" and "extensive landscaping."
"Apple Federation Square respects the original vision for the plaza, with a bespoke design concept and extensive landscaping bringing increased opportunities for the community to enjoy this renowned cultural hub."
"We're thrilled to move forward in the planning process for our new home in Melbourne's Federation Square and would be honoured to call the world-class galleries and museums of Melbourne our neighbours," Ms Ahrendts said.
Construction on the new store, which will "enhance Federation Square's world renowned architecture," will start in mid-2019.
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