MacRumors

Snapchat for iOS was today updated with a new "Snap Map" feature that's designed to let Snapchat users share their current location with their friends, facilitating real-life meet ups.

With the new Snap Map, all of your friends with location sharing enabled will show up on an in-app map with either photos or "Actionmoji" avatars marking each friend location. For those who do not want to share their location, Snapchat is including a "Ghost Mode." Location is only updated when Snapchat is open, so it's not tracking in the background.

We've built a whole new way to explore the world! See what's happening, find your friends, and get inspired to go on an adventure!

It's easy to get started -- just pinch to zoom out and view the Map! You decide if you want to share your location with friends, or simply keep it to yourself with Ghost Mode.

If your friends are sharing their location with you, their Actionmoji will appear on the Map. Actionmojis only update when you open Snapchat.

Snap Map in Snapchat is available on iOS and Android devices starting today. Snapchat for iOS can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Virgin Mobile USA is moving to an iPhone-only business model beginning June 27, and to entice customers to switch it's offering an entire year's worth of unlimited talk, text, and data for $1.

Called the "Inner Circle," the unlimited plan is available until July 31, and only to customers who purchase a new iPhone and transfer their phone number to an Inner Circle plan. After their first year on the plan, users will switch over to the normal $50/month price tag.

There’s iPhone. And then there’s everything else. At Virgin Mobile, we’re teaming with Apple to offer you nothing but the world’s most popular phone. Because life in the Inner Circle is about living big, expanding your horizons and pursuing your passions. And it starts with an iPhone you’ll adore. Pre-order your iPhone now, or head to an Apple Retail Store on June 27th to be one of the first members of the Virgin Mobile Inner Circle!

Currently, Virgin Mobile offers a variety of iPhones in all storage capacities, including the iPhone SE (32GB for $279.00), iPhone 7 (64GB for $749.99), iPhone 7 Plus (256GB for $969.99), and others. The iPhones are up for pre-order on the Inner Circle plan today, and will ship on June 27, with the plan going into effect upon the iPhone's activation.

The unlimited Inner Circle plan does have restrictions related to data throttling, becoming "deprioritized" in some areas after exceeding a certain data cap, and even risking service termination after specific amounts of off-network roaming are reached. Per the fine print on Virgin Mobile's website:

- Plans are domestic only and include unlimited data, talk, text, 800 domestic voice roaming minutes and 100MB domestic data roaming.

- Customers who use more than 23GB of data during billing cycle will be deprioritized during times and places where the network is constrained.

- To improve data experience for the majority of users, throughput may be limited, varied or reduced on the network. Virgin Mobile may terminate service if off-network roaming use in a month exceeds: (1) 800 mins or a majority of mins.; or (2) 100MB or a majority of KB.

For an additional $5/month users can gain unlimited calls to Mexico and Canada, and unlimited worldwide texting. A $10/month bundle includes everything in the $5/month tier with unlimited calls to landlines in 70+ countries, 200 minutes to "select mobiles" in 200+ countries, and reduced per-minute rates to over 200 locations. A full list of countries and details on the international plans can be found here.

Check out Virgin Mobile's website for information about iPhone protection plans, member benefits, and more.

Sega today announced a new mobile gaming initiative that will see a vast collection of the company's classic games launch monthly on iOS and Android devices for free, although in-app purchases will be available so users can get rid of ads. Called "Sega Forever," the program will let iOS gamers play "nearly every Sega game ever," from all of Sega's previous console generations, including Master System, Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Gear, Dreamcast, and Saturn (via GamesIndustry.biz).

The games will be available as individual apps, with the first five appearing at launch including Sonic The Hedgehog [Direct Link], Comix Zone [Direct Link], Phantasy Star II [Direct Link], Kid Chameleon [Direct Link], and Altered Beast [Direct Link]. At the time of writing, none of the apps had yet to appear on the iOS App Store, but their launch should be imminent. After that, Sega plans to debut between two and three games from its classic library every month under the Sega Forever initiative.

All of the games will be supported by advertisements with an optional $1.99 in-app purchase to remove them. But Sega Network chief marketing officer Mike Evans promised that the integration of ads has been executed so as to not interrupt gameplay.

With the back catalogue Sega has available, the publisher is confident it will be able to continue bringing more classics to mobile for years to come. There are 15 classic Sega titles already available through the App Store that will also be brought into the Forever fold.

"It's a very easy conversion to take those games to free," Sega Network's chief marketing officer Mike Evans tells GamesIndustry.biz. "We're just bolting in the advertising support model and a single in-app purchase that can disable those ads."

"The games were never designed for ads or in-app purchases, which is why we've maintained this faithful emulation experience," he says. "We've spent a lot of time looking at the analytics from the soft launch in the Philippines to understand how we can get this model to be the best for the game experience itself whilst balancing the commercial needs we have."

Enhancements to Sega's old games include Messages sticker packs, leaderboards, achievements, cloud saves, touch screen controls, Bluetooth controller support, and an offline play option. Looking toward the future, Evans said that the company will hold user polls to gauge which classic games that its fans want to see most come to mobile.

A new report by The Wall Street Journal this week has taken a look into entrepreneurial teenagers and the lucrative business of summertime iPhone repairs. One 16-year-old in Nantucket, Massachusetts interviewed for the article, Grayson Shaw, cited a nearly $24,000 income for iPhone repairs made in the summer of 2016, when he fixed as many as nine iPhones every day.

Shaw has been repairing iPhones since he was 12, and this summer plans to set up his small business at a table outside of a local ice cream parlor. His repairs include fixing broken screens, microphones, and various other parts of both iPhones and iPads. Shaw's rates include a $189.99 repair cost to fix a broken screen on an iPhone 7 Plus.

On Nantucket, Mr. Shaw is the “go-to guy,” says Peter Bordes, executive chairman of a software company, oneQube, who got his phone fixed by Mr. Shaw last summer after a tip from a friend’s teenage daughter.

“She said go to this place, and you’ll find him in this store,” Mr. Bordes says. “It’s like a mafia; they know who to go to.” The repair, he says, was “flawless.”

In Lafayette, Louisiana 18-year-old Joseph Kokenge quit his job at a local bowling alley, which his father manages, after discovering how much money he could make fixing broken iPhones. He began learning how to repair Apple's smartphones watching his father repair a cracked iPhone 3GS, and then browsed YouTube how-to videos for more information.

On average, Kokenge has charged $50 to fix the screens of iPhone 5 devices, and $200 for an iPhone 7 Plus, and he works on his repairs at a local coffee shop.

When a friend asked if his father could fix an iPhone 5, the teen watched YouTube how-to videos and repaired it himself. He soon earned a reputation at school, he says: “If a phone was broken, they knew to go to me.”

Word spread and parents, too, approached him. By senior year, he had quit his job at the bowling alley his father manages. “I told him that my time was worth more than $7.50 an hour,” he says. “He was proud that I was making more money on my own.”

Although AppleCare+ significantly reduces the cost of repairs, out-of-warranty repairs for screen damage made directly from Apple currently cost between $129 (iPhone 5 family) and $149 (iPhone 7 Plus). If any other damage is made to the device, the price jumps to between $269 and $349 for the same devices.

Apple's ramping up of "iPhone 8" component production is causing some electronics manufacturers to scramble for parts, particularly DRAM chips and NAND memory chips, ahead of the expected September launch of the three 2017 iPhones. The companies are said to be "paying a premium" to sign longer-term contracts as well as placing component orders ahead of time to prevent low inventories from disappearing completely amid Apple's supply chain dominance.

One of the manufacturers looking to make sure it doesn't run out of parts is LG Electronics, which said it has decided on an earlier procurement strategy for gathering components "to ensure a stable supply." NAND chip maker SK Hynix also told Reuters that its supply conditions were "tight" and that its inventory levels "were at an all-time low," with no clear indication in sight when they would rise to normal again.

Some analysts say device makers could be forced to cut down on the amount of DRAM chips, which help devices perform multiple tasks at once, or NAND chips that are used for long-term data storage, on new products if the cannot get enough chips.

"The problem will be more acute for the NAND market, where the iPhone remains a critical source of demand given the huge sales volumes and recent moves to increase storage capacity on the device," said the source, who declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

"Heavyweight" NAND suppliers, like Samsung, are said to be in the clear in regards to the predicted component shortage, but in the worst case scenario it has already hit smartphone maker Huawei in China. Customers in the country have raised criticisms at the company after it used a collection of "less advanced and powerful chips" in its flagship smartphone, the P10, resulting in drastic performance variations among users.

In total, Apple is said to purchase 18 percent of the world's supply of NAND memory chips and that number will only increase if Apple decides to ship more iPhones than usual, or further bump up the storage tiers on the 2017 iPhone models. A rumored premium price tag on the iPhone 8 suggests that Apple might be planning to introduce a storage capacity above the iPhone 7's top-tier option of 256GB, but reports still vary, with TrendForce believing the device will come in 64GB and 256GB only.

In separate supply chain reports this week made by DigiTimes, smaller Apple component suppliers have begun ramping up manufacturing for parts believed to be coming to iPhone 8, iPhone 7s, and iPhone 7s Plus. Metal-alloy chassis maker Catcher Technology is gearing up production for the 2017 iPhone 7s' aluminum metal casing -- stainless steel is reportedly coming only to iPhone 8 -- as well as its glass back covers.

Similarly, Lite-On Semiconductor is said to have entered the supply chain for the three new 2017 iPhones by becoming a provider of glass passivated package bridge rectifiers "for the support of fast wireless charging."

Analysts believe Apple could ship as many as 100 million iPhone 8 devices this year, and that "meaningful new supply" for NAND and DRAM chips won't arrive in the supply chain until 2018.

Swift creator Chris Lattner, who left Apple to become vice president of Tesla's autopilot program, has parted ways with the electric car maker after just six months in the job.

"Chris just wasn't the right fit for Tesla, and we've decided to make a change," Tesla said Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal. Lattner followed Tesla's statement with a post on his Twitter account announcing his interest in available roles for a "seasoned engineering leader".

The parting of ways will come as a surprise to some observers, given Lattner's previous standing at Apple and his stated enthusiasm for a new challenge. Back in January, Lattner told MacRumors how much he loved writing code at Apple, and that leaving had been a "very difficult decision" but ultimately he was "ready to move onto something else" and the prospect of working on Tesla's Autopilot team was "irresistible".

The program has also faced questions about the safety of the proposed technology, following a fatal crash last year in Florida involving a Tesla equipped with a semiautonomous system, which assists drivers during tasks like steering, braking, and changing lanes.

Lattner’s hiring in January coincided with the departure of Autopilot program director Sterling Anderson. Tesla sued Anderson after he tried to create a competing startup, but the lawsuit was settled in April.

Uber founder Travis Kalanick has resigned his position as CEO, following a series of controversies and scandals that have recently dogged the ride hailing company.

Five major investors demanded Kalanick's immediate resignation on Tuesday in a letter delivered to the chief executive, according to The New York Times. After "long discussions" with some of the investors, Kalanick agreed to step down, but will reportedly stay on Uber's board and continue to hold the majority of voting shares. Kalanick recently took a leave of absence following the death of his mother.

"I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight," Mr. Kalanick said in a statement.

Uber's board said in a statement that Kalanick had "always put Uber first" and that his resignation would give the company "room to fully embrace this new chapter in Uber's history." An Uber spokesperson declined to comment further.

The ride-hailing service clearly hopes that news of Kalanick's resignation will be perceived as a company reboot, as it attempts to revive its tarnished image following multiple controversies over recent months.

Just last month it was revealed that the Department of Justice is investigating Uber over its use of "secret" software that allowed its drivers to operate in areas where the company was banned or restricted. The so-called "greyball" software is said to have allowed the company to identify undercover officials and block them from booking rides, in order to prevent them from proving that Uber was operating illegally.

In April it emerged that Apple CEO Tim Cook threatened to pull Uber's app from the App Store in early 2015 after discovering that it was secretly "fingerprinting" iPhones that used the app. Uber said it used the identification method to prevent fraud, despite knowing the tactic is a clear violation of Apple's app privacy guidelines. The revelation came in a New York Times article detailing the ride-hailing service's history of controversial business tactics.

Spotify today announced a new mobile feature called Group Playlists for Messenger, which enables users of Facebook's chat app to create music mixes collaboratively within a conversation thread.

With Group Playlists for Messenger, users can create new Spotify playlists with friends and immediately begin collaborating to build out their perfect mix. Ideal for parties, road trips, or simply collecting new favorites, Group Playlists provide a seamless way for users to collaborate and share music more easily than ever before.

The new feature means Messenger users can create a Group Playlist, share it with friends, and add songs to it directly from within the Messenger app via the Spotify Chat Extension, which is available by tapping the blue + icon next to the composer.

By tapping the Create button at the bottom of the screen, users can give their playlist a name before sending it to the group chat session, where it will appear as a thumbnail preview accompanied by a button below to add songs.

While the person creating the playlist must be a current Spotify user, others in the conversation thread can add more songs to it, even if they aren't on Spotify. The Group Playlists extension can also be accessed from within Messenger using this link.

Philips today sent out an email announcing that its White Ambiance E12 candle light bulb is now available for pre-order in the United States.

Priced at $29.95, the candle (or candelabra) bulb is designed to fit small decorative lamps with E12 sockets in the United States. Like other Hue bulbs, the new candle bulb can be connected to a Philips Hue bridge and controlled via HomeKit.

At the current time, Philips is only offering the White Ambiance candle bulb for pre-order in the United States, but the company has said that it also plans to offer a color version, so customers who prefer the Hue bulbs that support shades beyond white may want to wait for that version.

Philips originally announced its candle bulbs in March of 2017, launching them first in Europe. E14 candle light bulbs have been available in Europe in both color and white ambiance versions since April. According to Philips, the candle bulb is "one of the most requested products" from Philips Hue customers.

The bulb is a 40W equivalent, offering up to 570 lumens. It features deep dimming from warm white to cool daylight with a 2200k to 6500k color temperature range. The White and Color Ambiance version, when available, will offer the same white options along with support for 16 million colors.

MBNA Canada, a division of TD Bank Group, today launched Apple Pay support for its MasterCard and Visa credit cards.

Multiple iPhone users have successfully activated an MBNA-branded credit card in the Wallet app today, as reported by iPhone in Canada.

Apple has also added MBNA to its list of Apple Pay participating issuers in Canada, accompanying TD Canada Trust, BMO, CIBC, RBC, Scotiabank, Tangerine, Desjardins, HSBC Canada, PC Financial, ATB Financial, Canadian Tire Financial Services, and non-bank-issued American Express cards.

MBNA Canada, which had 1.8 million active accounts when it was acquired by TD in 2011, primarily offers affinity credit cards associated with sports teams, universities, charities, and other groups, ranging from the Toronto Blue Jays and Vancouver Canucks to McGill University and the Canadian Wildlife Federation.