MacRumors

A new MacRumors exclusive Sound Forge Pro Mac 3 offer is launching today, allowing our readers to get Magix's advanced audio waveform editing software for $229, a $328 discount on the traditional price of $557. The exclusive sale lasts from today, January 31 through February 28, 2018.

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.

Sound Forge Pro Mac 3 is an advanced audio waveform editing suite that has been optimized and designed for macOS, offering users multi-channel recording and editing, mastering for music and dialogue clips, and support for high-resolution audio recording at 24 bits with sampling rates as high as 192kHz. The suite's full features are extensive -- also including customizable window layouts, file conversion automation, and the iZotope's RX Elements and Ozone Elements tools -- so make sure to head over to Magix's website for more details if you're interested.

Another exclusive deal for MacRumors readers is debuting tomorrow, February 1, for a collection of RAVPower portable and desktop chargers. Today, most of the accessories are available at a discount of up to 30 percent off in Amazon's Gold Box Deal of the Day, but MacRumors readers will be able to gain access to these sale prices for an extended period of time thanks to a series of promo codes.

This means that beginning Thursday, February 1 and running through Saturday, February 3 you'll be able to enter the below promo codes on Amazon and nab the same RAVPower accessories at today's discount prices. So if you are interested in purchasing one of the sale items today, remember that you won't need a promo code. Also note that a few of the accessories have an on-page coupon you can click to get an extra 10 percent off your purchase.

Check out all of the chargers on sale below (the first two are not discounted as part of the Gold Box deal today):

• RAVPower 20000 mAh Portable Charger (Black) - $25.89 with promo code 4CA29JTI, down from $36.99

• RAVPower 20000 mAh Portable Charger (White) - $27.29 with promo code 39NWGPJW, down from $38.99

• RAVPower 40W 4-Port Desktop Charger (Black) - $15.39 with promo code QCHAR40W, down from $21.99

• RAVPower 40W 4-Port Desktop Charger (White) - $15.39 with promo code QCHAR40W, down from $21.99

• RAVPower 15000 mAh solar power bank - $21.99 with promo code 796DPW9M, down from $29.99

There are a few other notable sales happening today only, including B&H Photo's $1,200 discount on the late 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (2.9 GHz, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) in Silver for $2,299.00, down from $3,499.00. At Best Buy, you can purchase the 64GB Apple TV (fourth generation) for $169.99, down from $199.99 (also at Walmart). JBL is offering a notable limited-time sale as well on its Charge 2+ speakers in recertified/factory refurbished condition for $59.95, down from $149.95.

Head over to our full Deals Roundup for even more of the latest discounts and sales going on this week.

In a new episode of IGN's "Unfiltered" interview series, thatgamecompany co-founder Jenova Chen discussed a variety of topics, including the developer's upcoming iOS- and tvOS-only game "Sky," the "malicious" intent of some mobile games, and how Sky's payment model is its "biggest innovation."

Specifically, Chen talked about how the iOS App Store and other mobile gaming platforms have affected the gaming industry as a whole, and his hopes that Sky can potentially become counter programming to those titles. Instead of using a payment model that is "downright malicious," Chen teased that Sky's structure will include a method where players "pay money for other people" and not for themselves.

Since we still have a few weeks to go before the game's March release date, Chen didn't divulge any more details.

"I think many people will be surprised by how this game makes money. I think my biggest breakthrough or innovation on this game is about how it actually charges people... this is something you probably have never seen before, once you play the game you will be interested. It’s a game where you pay money for other people and not yourself."

Chen called this app payment structure his "biggest breakthrough" in the development of Sky's iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV apps. He also reiterated on topics previously known about the game, like how it will be "ongoing" and constantly evolving, and include a multiplayer aspect that makes it easier for players to directly connect to their friends and family, unlike Journey's random encounter system.

Chen also briefly touched upon the moment when Sky was unveiled during Apple's iPhone X event last September. He said that the presentation at the Apple event reached a wider audience of non-gamers, but some of the people he knows who play games are less aware of Sky, because they "just fast forwarded the whole Apple TV part to just watch the end and look at the iPhone X."

Ultimately, Chen said that he hopes players connect with Sky in a way that "could still generate good revenue" despite its lack of notorious mobile gaming trends like loot boxes. "So then you can create a path for other publishers or investors to, you know, consider doing it the honest way."

The full 90-minute interview with Jenova Chen can be viewed on IGN's website and on the company's YouTube channel.

Two former Apple executives have today launched a new game broadcasting service called Caffeine, which allows users to watch and broadcast games and other entertainment on Mac, PC, and iPhone. In a press release, the company likened Caffeine to Amazon's Twitch platform, "only easier, safer, and more social."

Caffeine was founded by Ben Keighran and Sam Roberts, a former product design lead for Apple TV and lead user experience designer for Apple, respectively. Other than games, Caffeine will be a "social broadcasting platform" with tools for entertainment as well as other artistic content, and is backed by $46 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners

“We're incredibly excited to be sharing more details on the pre-release version of Caffeine,” said Ben Keighran, CEO of Caffeine. “I left Apple to create a company that would fundamentally change the way we create, consume, share, and monetize live content. Our goal was to re-imagine every aspect of live broadcasting -- ignoring the good things we could do and focusing on the really great things instead.

We are committed to building the best experience for creators, giving them everything they need, from the broadcasting software all the way through to how the audience discovers and enjoys their content. We have put together a world-class engineering and content team that will transform the way the world thinks about live broadcasting.”

The company described Caffeine's interface as simple and straightforward to use, with "1-click easy" controls and no additional software required to stream content. Users can broadcast games in three ways: using PC game broadcast software, a webcam from a Mac or PC, and through the iOS application.

Once you start using Caffeine, the app will showcase content and broadcasts from the people you follow in a "social circle," and you can join and watch content with them together. "There are no endless feeds of meaningless comments," the company said, because the app highlights personal conversations between friends and creators, helping to dispel toxicity in a real-time chat environment.

On the creator side of things, Caffeine is also touted as a way to "build more personal, meaningful relationships" with viewers, leading to more opportunities to monetize content as well. The company said that a monetization system that backs Caffeine's "easy to use" mantra will be coming in early 2018.

Right now, all versions of the service are technically in a pre-release build. If you're interested you can find the desktop site at caffeine.tv and the iPhone app on the iOS App Store [Direct Link]. As a few readers have pointed out, Caffeine does not currently support Safari on Mac, but instead encourages users to try Firefox or Chrome.

Nintendo recently reported earnings for its fiscal third quarter of 2017, including data related to the company's two-year-old smartphone game business. In the report, Nintendo confirmed that its smart device and intellectual property related earnings increased from 10.6 billion yen (about $98 million) in the nine months ended December 31, 2016 to 29.1 billion yen (about $267 million) in the same period in 2017.

While this includes income from Nintendo's smartphone games as well as royalty income, Bloomberg reported that Nintendo's smartphone game profits specifically grew from 8.8 billion yen in the year-ago quarter to 11.2 billion yen this fiscal quarter. The only smartphone game that launched this fiscal quarter for Nintendo was Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which is said to have generated $17 million globally and reached a download number of 22 million since its launch in November. The other major smartphone game to debut from Nintendo in 2017 was Fire Emblem Heroes.

Nintendo said it plans to get its players to continue returning to and enjoying previously released iOS and Android games through ongoing updates, not including the recently confirmed imminent shut down of its first iOS app Miitomo.

In our smart-device business, consumers not only continued to enjoy Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes, which became available for download during the previous fiscal year, but also had fun with Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, released globally during October and November. Smart devices and IP related income were up to 29.1 billion yen (172% increase on a year-on-year basis).

In our smart-device business, we will focus on operations that encourage more consumers to continue to enjoy playing the applications that they have downloaded

Although Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp are free-to-download apps, they're believed to net Nintendo more of a profit in the long run thanks to players who become enticed to spend money on in-app purchases. Alternatively, Super Mario Run is a free-to-start app where users can play a few levels and then must spend $9.99 to gain access to the full game.

At one point, Nintendo described the freemium model of Fire Emblem Heroes as an "outlier" in its overall smartphone game plan and that it prefers Super Mario Run's pay-once structure, but so far that's been the only app to go that route. Additionally, the company's previous earnings report mentioned Super Mario Run had yet to reach an "acceptable profit point" around 10 months after launch.

Otherwise, Nintendo's earnings report detailed a huge success for the company's Switch console, selling 12.13 million units from April to December 2017 and now totaling 14.86 million units sold to date. Upon this report, Nintendo increased its operating profit outlook from 120 billion yen to 160 billion yen for the year ending March 2018, and bumped up the Switch sales forecast from the already-surpassed 14 million units to 15 million units for the same period.

Apple's main iPhone manufacturer in India is closing in on a land deal in the tech hub of Bengaluru that will see the firm invest around $157 million to assemble iPhone SE and potentially iPhone 6s models on the site, according to Reuters.

Unnamed Indian government officials on Wednesday reportedly confirmed the Taiwanese contractor's intentions, which could result in its iPhone SE assembly unit taking over about 100 acres in and around the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

Wistron executives reportedly toured the area in November and met with the industries minister of Karnataka earlier this month, and a deal on the land lease could be struck in a few weeks, according to one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to publicly comment on the plans.

Another source who spoke to Reuters said Apple will likely begin assembling iPhone 6s models in India soon, using Wistron's expanding manufacturing capacity in the country, as it looks to cut costs and diversify its production base beyond greater China. Launched over two years ago, the iPhone 6s is still popular in emerging markets because of its affordability relative to Apple's iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and iPhone X.

Apple sees opportunities to save on import taxes, price phones cheaper and potentially widen its customer base in India if it assembles phones locally. However last month India raised import taxes on electronic goods, which caused Apple to raise the price of most iPhone models there except for iPhone SE.

Apple has sought tax breaks and incentives from the Indian government for months as it looks to expand operations in the country, but despite some positive comments from state officials, no exceptions have yet been made for Apple.

Earlier this afternoon, a bug with the Apple News app caused notifications for a single CNN news story to be sent out to iPhone and iPad users over and over again.

The issue, which lasted for approximately 15 minutes, appears to have impacted all Apple News subscribers who had alerts turned on for CNN based on a slew of complaints that popped up on reddit, Twitter, and the MacRumors forums.

It wasn't clear if the problem was with CNN or the Apple News app, but on Twitter, CNN claims it was the latter. According to the news organization, CNN only sent a single notification, and the company is working with Apple to identify the problem.

Microsoft today announced a major update for its Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps, which will see the introduction of real-time co-authoring, drag and drop support on the iPad, universal link support for shared files, and more.

With support for real-time co-authoring, multiple people can contribute to and edit documents in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on iOS devices. Changes made by each user will sync within seconds, plus you'll be able to see everyone that's working on a document and what they're working on.

Real-time co-authoring support on iOS devices follows the introduction of the feature in Microsoft's Mac apps earlier this month.

Microsoft is also adding drag and drop support for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on the iPad, which means you'll be able to drag files between Microsoft apps and quickly add links, text, photos, graphs, and more.

The three apps will also support universal links, which means anytime you're sent a shared Word, PowerPoint, or Excel file, it'll open right in the app rather than requiring you to authenticate in a browser, and there are new Accessibility features like improved VoiceOver support for better navigation.

Microsoft today also announced major changes for the OneDrive app, which includes an overhauled interface, support for the Files app, drag and drop support, and several other new features.

Microsoft says the new functionality in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will be available "in the coming days" through updates available in the iOS App Store.

Microsoft Word [Direct Link], Microsoft Excel [Direct Link], and Microsoft PowerPoint [Direct Link] can all be downloaded from the App Store for free.

Force Touch is one of those Apple Watch features that's so discreet and unassuming it's easy for users to forget it even exists. That's a shame, because just like 3D Touch on iPhone, Apple has implemented the haptic feedback technology across the entire watchOS interface, putting additional hidden functionality right at your fingertips.

In this article, we've collected 10 of our favorite Force Touch features that work on Apple's digital timepiece. Some are more well known than others, but hopefully you'll learn at least one thing new about what a firm press on your Apple Watch screen can do.

1. Clear All Notifications

The Apple Watch's notifications dropdown can get busy pretty quickly, especially if you often forget to dismiss an incoming alert after reading it. Rather than deleting notifications one by one, you can clear all of them with a Force Touch gesture. Simply press firmly on the Notifications panel and tap the Clear All option.

2. Create and Remove Watch Faces

To create a custom watch face with a background picture, open the Apple Watch Photos app and select a photo. Next, press firmly on the display, tap the Create Watch Face option that pops up, and then select the Photos Face. Alternatively, you can select Kaleidoscope Face to make the picture the basis of a new animating Kaleidoscope.

When you're done, return to the current active watch face and swipe left or right to find your new creation. If you later decide you don't like your new watch face, press down on it to enter Customize Mode, and swipe up on the offending item to delete.

3. Compose a New Message

Opening the Mail and Messages apps, you'd be forgiven for thinking the Apple Watch only supports replies. That's because the option to compose a new message is revealed with a Force Touch gesture: Press firmly on the display and tap the New Message button that appears.

You'll now be able to choose a recipient from your Contacts, input a subject if it's an email you're sending, and write your message using dictation, a scribble, or a short pre-defined phrase. Tap send when you're done.

4. Change Move Goal and Get a Weekly Activity Summary

Press down on the Activity screen to reveal a Weekly Summary option that shows how many times you've beaten your daily move goal so far this week.

If you're beating your move goal far too easily – or if you need a little help closing that long red ring on a daily basis – press down on the Activity screen again and tap the Change Move Goal button to adjust the amount of calories you're aiming to burn.

5. Stream Music to an AirPlay Device

If you store music on your Apple Watch, you probably listen to it over connected Bluetooth headphones. But did you know it's also possible to stream it to any audio device that supports AirPlay?

Next time you're on the Music app's Now Playing screen, press firmly on the display and tap the AirPlay button that appears. Choose a nearby AirPlay-supporting device from the list, and you're good to go.

6. Share Your Location With a Contact

To quickly send your location to someone in an iMessage, open the Messages app on your Apple Watch, select an existing conversation, and activate Force Touch by pressing firmly on the screen. Then simply select the Share Location option from the menu options that appear.

If you haven't enabled it already, you'll be asked to let Messages access your location while using the app (allow it to, otherwise this feature won't work).

7. Switch Map View and Search Local Amenities

Whenever you're looking at a map in the stock Maps app, don't forget that you can change to the Transit/Public Transport view at any time with a simple Force Touch. The same action will also bring up the Search Here option, which lets you dictate or scribble a search term or look up local amenities by selecting from the Food, Shopping, Fun, and Travel submenus.

8. Switch App Screen to List View

To re-arrange Apple Watch apps in the standard Grid layout, long press the app in question and drag it to where you want it. If you still can't get on with the default Grid view, press down firmly on the screen and try the List view instead.

9. Hourly Temperature Forecast and Chance of Rain

The standard forecast display on the Apple Watch's stock Weather app shows the general weather conditions for the day ahead. But there are two more forecasts available to you. A firm press on the same screen will let you check either the likelihood of rain or any changes in temperature over the next 12 hours.

10. Control Camera Settings Remotely

It's not just the shutter of your iPhone's camera that you can remotely control from your wrist. With the Apple Watch Camera app open, press firmly on the screen to reveal a hidden submenu offering access to your iPhone's HDR, Flash, Live Photo, and Flip controls.