Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming tvOS 10.2.1 update to developers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the second 10.2.1 beta and three weeks after releasing tvOS 10.2, an update that included improve scrolling and iPad support for the Apple TV Remote app.
The tvOS 10.2.1 beta is designed for the fourth-generation Apple TV. It can be downloaded by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C cable and installing the beta software from a registered developer account using iTunes.
Because of the installation requirements, tvOS betas are limited to developers. tvOS 10.2.1 will not be available to the public until the final version of the software launches.
Apple does not typically provide detailed beta release notes, so we don't yet know what's included in tvOS 10.2.1. It's likely to focus primarily on bug fixes, security enhancements, and performance improvements, so we may not know what's new until the software sees an official release.
No notable changes were found in the first two tvOS 10.2.1 betas, but should anything new popup in the third beta, we'll update this post.
Hargreaves isn't the first analyst to think Apple could do away with Touch ID, but the move seems unlikely even as a last-ditch scenario. Touch ID is at the core of Apple Pay, and it appears much more likely that 3D facial or iris recognition would complement rather than replace fingerprint sensing.
A more likely option fielded by Hargreaves is that Apple could delay "iPhone 8" production until its under-display fingerprint sensor solution is ready.
An excerpt from his research note obtained by MacRumors:
Likely options for Apple include a delay of production or elimination of fingerprint sensing on the OLED iPhone. We believe Apple continues to work on solving its optical fingerprint issues. If it's able to solve the problems in the next month or so, it would likely place volume orders at that point. This would likely lead to a delay of the OLED iPhone launch, but we would not expect it to meaningfully affect volume for the cycle. If it's not able to fix the problems in that time frame, Apple may be forced to eliminate fingerprint sensing from the OLED iPhone altogether.
At this point, Hargreaves does not believe Apple's optical fingerprint module provider has received firm orders for production, which to him suggests that Apple does not have functionality of the optical fingerprint sensor ready. Additionally, he said Apple has evaluated and passed on Synaptics' optical fingerprint solution.
Last week, Cowen and Company analyst Timothy Arcuri said Apple is facing yield issues with its AuthenTec-based under-display fingerprint sensor solution. He too speculated that Apple could remove Touch ID, but he believes it's more likely that Apple will put Touch ID on the back of the iPhone or delay production.
If Touch ID were to be removed, Hargreaves said that would place significant pressure on unproven 3D sensing to replace the verification functionality that fingerprints currently provide. However, he said Apple's 3D sensing production appears on track, and could be a viable alternative to fingerprints.
Suppliers suggest that the solution is both fast and highly reliable, even in low-light scenarios or from odd angles. If this proves accurate, reliance solely on 3D sensing for biometric login and verification could be a viable and innovative replacement for the highly popular fingerprint sensor.
In February, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the "iPhone 8" will feature a "revolutionary" front-facing camera system with infrared for fully-featured 3D sensing capabilities. The advancements will enable the camera to determine the location and depth of objects placed in front of it.
Pacific Crest Securities maintains a $150 price target for AAPL with an overweight rating.
Four months after giving its users the ability to save posts to view them later, Instagram today announced a new update that will allow for more organization within saved posts. Called "Collections," users on iOS and Android can now place any Instagram post they've saved into specific categories, so it's even easier to revisit them later.
Now when users save a post using the bookmark icon, they can choose to add it to one of their own previously made collections, or create a new one. To get to saved posts and collections, visit your own profile tab and then tap the bookmark icon. Saved posts and collections are private, and can only be viewed by the person who has saved them.
According to Instagram, 46 percent of its users have saved at least one post since December. The company said that the best ideas for creating saved posts and collections include: planning a vacation, keeping a visual memory of your favorite Instagrammer's artwork, or having a funny animal video always at the ready.
Apple has posted a Mother's Day gift guide on its website with many of its usual suggestions, ranging from the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil to the Apple Watch Series 2 and BeatsX wireless earphones.
The gift guide also groups accessories into four categories: What's New, Creativity, Health & Fitness, and Headphones & Speakers.
Mother's Day is May 14 in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Turkey, and many other countries around the world.
Apple has announced that former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Apple's environmental chief Lisa Jackson will be hosting a "climate optimism" discussion at its Union Square retail store in San Francisco on Wednesday.
The duo will also share their insight on Earth Day initiatives, Apple's ongoing commitment to the environment, and ways that people can have an impact on climate and the environment through positive actions.
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.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has given his thoughts on what Apple might look like some 60 years in the future, stating in an interview that he believes his former employer, as well as Google and Facebook, will be even bigger in 2075. The comment comes from an interview Wozniak gave in preparation for the Silicon Valley Comic Con, which this year is themed as "The Future of Humanity: Where Will We Be in 2075?" (via USA Today).
Wozniak said Apple's ability to "invest in anything" is one of the reasons the company will still be around in 2075. The former Apple executive also pointed towards Apple's iPhone -- which he equates to granting users "more power than Superman" -- to explain why the company won't be going away any time soon.
Paul Allen and Steve Wozniak
"She has more power in her hand than Superman," Wozniak, broadly smiling, says, pointing at a colleague's iPhone. "To make such strides in computing... It shows you how exciting the future can be."
"Apple will be around a long time, like IBM (which was founded in 1911)," Wozniak said in an interview. "Look at Apple's cash ($246.1 billion, as of the end of its last fiscal quarter). It can invest in anything. It would be ridiculous to not expect them to be around (in 2075). The same goes for Google and Facebook."
Even though Wozniak stuck to SVCC's 2075 theme, he admitted that when Apple Computers began in 1976, its founders -- including Steve Jobs -- assumed that the company would last forever.
Wozniak recently celebrated those early days of Apple by visiting the just-opened "Apple Computer Exhibit" at Living Computers: Museum + Lab in Seattle, Washington. At an event marking the opening last week, Wozniak met one of the museum's founders, Paul Allen -- who is also a Microsoft co-founder -- for the first time. Wozniak said that he's felt Allen's influence since the early days of Apple, tweeting out, "that's what doing things first is about."
The first two decades of Apple are on display at the exhibit in Seattle, and it includes a working Apple 1 computer that visitors can interact with. Lath Carlson, the museum’s executive director, expects the Apple-specific exhibit to run for the next decade, giving those interested plenty of time to visit the museum.
Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers now have the option of replacing a customer's broken fourth-generation iPad with an iPad Air 2, according to an internal memo distributed by Apple last week.
An excerpt of the memo obtained by MacRumors:
Starting March 30, iPad 4th generation whole unit repairs may be substituted to iPad Air 2 models. Apple's repair and order management tool will indicate for each repair if a substitution will take place. Please note the substitute part’s color and capacity to ensure the customer understands what their replacement iPad whole unit will be.
The fourth-generation iPad was released in November 2012, so when a customer needs a replacement model, it's likely easier now for Apple to just give them a newer and more widely available iPad Air 2 in most cases.
Not every broken fourth-generation iPad will be replaced with an iPad Air 2. The decision will ultimately be decided on a case-by-case basis, likely depending upon availability of each tablet in the affected customer's region.
Days after a claimed 3D design drawing of the upcoming "iPhone 8" appeared, frequent Weibo leaker KK has shared a different dimensional drawing and renderings showing a device that is somewhat smaller in size than the previous leak. The veracity of the new drawing can not be confirmed, but KK has on several occasions shared accurate details about previous devices.
This new iPhone 8 leak shows a device that measures 137.54 mm tall by 67.54 mm wide, nearly identical to the iPhone 7's 138.3 mm x 67.1 mm body. The thickness of the iPhone 8 is not shown on the drawing.
According to the diagram, the iPhone 8's display measures 5.768 inches on the diagonal and will indeed cover nearly the entire front of the device. There appears to be only a 4 mm bezel around all four sides of the display, with over half of that being the 2.5D curved glass at the edges and the remainder appearing to be the device's frame around the sides.
The drawing shows a narrow earpiece at the top of the device's front, with various cameras, sensors, and other components on either side of the earpiece. Those components would likely include a front-facing camera, small microphone hole, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, and the rumored 3D sensor.
All of these components appear to be embedded within the display area itself, and while the accompanying rendered mockups based on the drawing show the earpiece appearing as a physical slit within the display area, the camera and other sensors are not depicted and it is unclear how they would appear in reality.
With the display filling the entire front of the device, there is no dedicated Home button and thus no visible Touch ID sensor. Apple has been rumored to be trying to build Touch ID into the iPhone's display, but the company has reportedly been struggling with perfecting the technology and thus could resort to putting the sensor on the rear of the device. One of the renderings shows the rear of the device with no obvious dedicated Touch ID sensor, although there is no corresponding dimensional drawing of the rear.
Notably, the rendering of the rear of the alleged iPhone 8 again shows a vertical dual camera, this time with the LED flash placed between the two cameras. As Ben Bajarin points out, the increased separation of the two lenses would help with augmented reality and 3D features, allowing for a greater difference in perspective.
iDrop News and Benjamin Geskin posted their own mockups showing a very similar design a few days ago, but it is unclear whether the two batches of renderings are based on the same original source information or if one set's creator was working from the other.
It is still early in the rumor cycle for detailed design leaks, so readers should continue to take information like this with a grain of salt until the information begin to solidify around a single specific design, but given KK's history of leaks this one is worth considering as a possibility.
Update: The drawing and renderings shared by KK appear to have originated on ifanr, and Geskin has confirmed his renderings are based on the same drawing.
Apple has been granted a permit that enables it to test autonomous vehicles on public roads in the state of California, according to the California DMV website (via Business Insider).
Apple was added to the list of permit holders that are allowed to participate in the Autonomous Vehicle Tester Program in California on Friday, joining companies like Google, Tesla, BMW, Honda, Ford, Nissan, and more.
Obtaining a permit for autonomous vehicle testing requires multiple steps, including outlining details for each specific vehicle being tested, suggesting Apple may have some sort of software test vehicle that's road ready. Whether Apple will actually begin testing a vehicle remains to be seen, as some companies sign up and then don't go on to use it, but should Apple begin vehicle testing, public reports will need to be filed.
In California, all companies that participate in the Autonomous Vehicle Testing Program must file Disengagement Reports that outline how many miles were covered with self-driving vehicles, so if Apple does test a vehicle, the information will be shared on the DMV's website.
Apple's acceptance into the Autonomous Vehicle Tester Program confirms the company's work on a car-related project. Early rumors suggested Apple was developing its own autonomous electric vehicle, but Apple is said to have since transitioned to building an autonomous driving system rather than a full blown car.
Developed under the leadership of Bob Mansfield, Apple's autonomous driving system could allow it to partner with existing car makers or return to its own car development project in the future. Apple executives have reportedly given the car team until 2017 to prove the feasibility of an Apple-designed autonomous driving system, and its approval to road-test vehicles could be a signal that the project is advancing.
Update: According to Bloomberg, Apple filed for a permit because it plans to start testing its self-driving car software platform on public streets. The software will be put in existing cars, with the permit covering three 2015 Lexus RX450h SUVs and six drivers, according to a DMV spokesperson.
It's been over three years since voice actress Susan Bennett came forward and revealed that she was the original female voice of Siri on iOS, which first debuted on the iPhone 4s in 2011. In a recent interview with Typeform, Bennett delved even deeper into her history with Apple and the early days of its virtual assistant.
In the interview, which is dotted with audio playback of Bennett's voice so readers can compare her normal voice to that of Siri, the voice actress remembers recording a new project in July of 2005 for a text-to-speech company called ScanSoft. The project was said to be for a phone-messaging system, but it turns out it was the basis for what would become Siri, two years before the original iPhone even came out.
“Malitia oi hallucinate, buckry ockra ooze, Cathexis fefatelly sexual ease stump, Say the shrodding again, say the shroding again, say the shreeding again, say the shriding again, say the shrading again, say the shrudding again.”
“We were recording for a text-to-speech company. And this was brand new to us. We had no real idea of what we were doing. We thought we were doing new scripts for phone systems.”
Bennett said she was paid an hourly wage, and refused a five-year contract that was eventually offered to her when the job was done, mentioning that constantly using a monotone voice day-in and day-out was "the complete opposite of creative." Only later did she realize that every odd phrase provided Apple with "all of the sounds of the English language," allowing the company to go in and "reform them into new phrases and sentences," and eventually craft what would become known today as Siri.
The origin of Siri's name is also explained, with Bennett stating that Dag Kittlaus -- a co-creator of Siri who has now left Apple to found Viv -- had originally planned to name his daughter Siri. His wife eventually ended up having a boy, so Kittlaus used the girl's name for Apple's smartphone assistant instead.
“In Norwegian the word Siri means “beautiful woman who guides you to victory.” Of course we know better, she’s the feisty chick who tells you where to go, right. But, Dag and his wife were expecting a child, they thought it was going to be a girl, and they planned to name her Siri. But when the baby arrived it was a boy. So they gave the name to the app instead. And that’s where Siri got her name.”
Eventually, Bennett discovered that she was the voice of the ever-present voice assistant in the iPhone beginning in October 2011, and admitted that "it was a little creepy." She decided to stay quiet about her role for two years, finally revealing herself in a CNN interview in 2013. That same year, Apple ended up removing all of Bennett's voice work from Siri and replacing her with someone else within the completely redesigned iOS 7 update.
The original Siri in iOS 5
Bennett said that everything has worked out for the best, because her work as the original Siri has opened up aspects of her career that she never imagined, including introducing Steve Wozniak at the 2013 Dallas Digital Summit and even giving a TED Talk in 2016. Because of this, she harbors no ill will towards Apple and the secretive methods the company used when creating Siri.
“I kind of got the best of both worlds because I was the original, and I do get to promote myself, and when Siri starts leading us all into the sea it won’t be my voice.”
The full interview on Typeform is well worth a read, as it goes back to detail Bennett's career beginnings as the voice of an ATM named Tillie in the 1970s, and delves into how Apple's programmers created Siri's personality from Bennett's original voice work. The article also looks to the future of virtual assistants and what the AI helpers might look like in next-generation smartphones.
Nest recently announced a new discount has launched for customers looking to purchase the company's Nest Learning Thermostat, allowing them to buy the IoT temperature-controlling device for $219 on its website, totaling $30 in savings. Nest founder and chief product officer Matt Rogers announced the temporary deal in a blog post this week, which he said is tied into upcoming celebrations surrounding Earth Day.
As such, Nest Learning Thermostat's $219 price tag will only remain available to customers until Earth Day, on Saturday, April 22. In the post, Rogers mentioned that since the Nest Learning Thermostat's launch in 2011, the device has "saved over 12 billion kWh of energy," which equates to "enough to power New York City for 81 days."
For us, home isn’t just an address where we raise our families. It’s the world we inhabit, and it’s our only one. As the late Carl Sagan noted in his book Pale Blue Dot, “On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." So it’s up to us to take care of Earth, for all the generations to come.
In honor of Earth Day, we want to help more people save energy with a Nest Thermostat. Reversing decades of global warming is a huge challenge. But we believe that together, we can change climate change.
Customers also interested in Google Home have a chance to save a little more as well, as Nest also announced a combo deal where purchasing both the Nest Learning Thermostat and Google Home at the same time will earn users $50 in savings. Instead of paying $378 for both devices, customers taking advantage of the Earth Day deal will pay $328. On their own, Google Home costs $129 while Nest Learning Thermostat costs $249.
For those unaware, Google Home is Google's smart home hub, which includes voice controls for numerous home automation tasks like controlling temperature by connecting to Nest.
Last month it was rumored that Nest is working on a cheaper version of its Learning Thermostat that would cost somewhere under $200 in a bid to gain "a bigger share of the connected home market." Cost-cutting measures might include a Nest Learning Thermostat made with less expensive components and potentially one that would lack the current version's metal edges. Also reported to be in the works by Nest are sensors that would let users control temperature room-by-room, an alarm system, digital doorbell, and updated indoor camera.
Google appears to be testing a Dark Mode feature for YouTube in the latest version of its Chrome 57 desktop browser.
The built-in mode was discovered on Thursday and shared in a Reddit post, and while the setting doesn't appear by default, a quick command in the developer console is all that's required to enable it.
YouTube Dark Mode in Chrome with black theme enabled
Follow these steps to enable the YouTube dark mode in Chrome on Mac. Make sure you're signed in to YouTube before performing the steps.
Press the keyboard combination shortcut Option + Command + I to open the developer tools sidebar.
Click the Console tab.
Paste document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=fPQ4jCL6EiE" into the console and press enter.
Close the developer tools sidebar and refresh the YouTube page.
Click your YouTube profile picture, select Dark Mode from the dropdown, and toggle the switch to enable the mode.
Google Chrome is available to download for free on the Chrome website. [Direct Link]
Team chat platform Slack got a long-awaited feature on Thursday with the addition of status updates, finally allowing users to customize their status message beyond the default "away" setting.
The new "set a status" feature includes five Suggested statuses including In a meeting, Commuting, Out sick, Vacationing, and Working remotely, as well as an input field for typing a custom message – allowing users to display a return time if they're away, for example.
Each status can be up to 100 characters and users can display an associated emoji to communicate their circumstances, but if an emoji isn't chosen a speech ballon is shown instead. The emoji appears alongside the username in the chat window, the sidebar, and the chat room members list, while hovering over the emoji or tapping it brings up the full status message.
Some third-party apps can also modify the status message. For example, Zenefits syncs user status with its Time Off Tracking system, while Meekan shows when someone's in a meeting (and when they'll be free). Statuses also automatically update when a user is on a voice or video call in Slack.
Statuses can be set from the browser, desktop and mobile versions of Slack. Mac users can click their name in the upper left corner of the sidebar, then select Set a status. On iOS, users should tap the More items icon (…), or edit their status directly from their profile.
Amazon has fired another salvo in the virtual assistant wars by opening up access to the far-field voice recognition technology found in its Echo smart speakers so that third-party manufacturers can make their own versions (via BBC).
The move comes as Amazon attempts to spread the use of its Alexa virtual assistant across a wide range of connected products and take ownership of a larger portion of the growing smart devices market. Google announced its branded Home smart speaker in November, while Apple is also rumored to be planning a similar Siri-enabled device this year.
The initially invite-only access to the technology via the Alexa Voice Service program will give manufacturers the right to replicate the Echo's seven-microphone array that allows the speakers to hear a voice command from across the room.
The access also means third-party developers can use the proprietary algorithms used for wake-word recognition, which focus the array on the owner's voice and filter out echoes and other noises. Developers will be provided with a reference kit as a starting point for their own designs, and the freedom to source components from a range of parts manufacturers.
"Our vision is for Alexa to be everywhere, and that means making it available to other companies and services to integrate into a wide range of devices," said an Amazon spokesperson.
"We expect Alexa to be in many devices over time, including products that compete with Echo, which is why we're investing in making a wide range of hands-free and far-field reference solutions available to OEMs [original equipment manufacturers]."
Amazon's rollout of Alexa has gained steam ever since CES 2017 in January, when the virtual assistant cropped up in a range of products including third-party smart speakers, cars, TVs, lamps, and even refrigerators.
In February Amazon announced it was extending third-party support for its Alexa Voice Service (AVS) internationally, and last month it added its Siri competitor to the company's iOS app, allowing users to search Amazon, track orders, play music, and start audio books from Audible.
Top music interviewer and CBC Radio 2 host George Stroumboulopoulos debuted his new House of Strombo music series on Apple Music on Thursday (via Billboard).
The 10-episode show is a spin-off of the Canadian host's radio series The Strombo Show, which is filmed at his Toronto home in front of a live audience. The show is set to feature video segments, artist interviews, and exclusive behind-the-scenes access. Stroumboulopoulos was interviewed by Zane Lowe on Apple Music's Beats 1 about the partnership.
Stroumboulopoulos (left) with Zane Lowe
"The bands set-up right in my living room, with a live audience packing the place," Stroumboulopoulos explained in a statement. "Lights, smoke machines and amplifiers stacked high -- it's every gig in a small space that you've ever loved, with the best bands in the world."
The video segment of the first show features a performance and interview with Canadian group A Tribe Called Red, an Ottawa-based First Nations DJ collective. Apple Music subscribers can view it in the Browse section of the app under the Strombo banner, where playlists and other content can also be found. Going forward, videos for the show will be available in the Connect section of the Strombo page.
A longer 30-minute version of each episode can be found on YouTube. Check out the first offering embedded below.
Apple may spend several billion dollars to obtain a "substantial stake" in Toshiba's memory chip business, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. Reuters cited NHK as saying Apple's stake would be greater than 20 percent.
Given concerns from Japanese government officials about Toshiba selling "critical technologies" to overseas buyers, Apple would reportedly have Toshiba keep some shares so that the company retains partial Japanese ownership.
Apple is also considering teaming up with its manufacturing partner Foxconn, which is trying to acquire about 30 percent of the stake, the report said.
Foxconn allegedly offered Toshiba up to 3 trillion Japanese yen ($30 billion) as a standalone bid, but a subsequent report said Toshiba would likely reject the bid due to Foxconn's ties with China, where it operates multiple factories.
Apple's other manufacturing partner TSMC has reportedly already withdrawn its bid, while other potential suitors are said to include technology giants Amazon and Google and rival memory chipmakers SK Hynix and Western Digital. Apple itself was named as a potential bidder by a separate source earlier this month.
Toshiba announced plans to sell its NAND flash memory business in January in order to raise funds to cover write-down costs associated with its U.S. nuclear subsidiary Westinghouse Electric, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. The company expects to face $9 billion in related charges.
Apple dual sources 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB flash storage from Toshiba and SK Hynix for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
Toshiba, facing an uncertain future, is supposedly expected to select the winning bidder of its memory chip business by June.
Apple is purchasing so many trees for its upcoming Apple Park campus that it's becoming challenging for other companies to source trees, according to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle.
"Buying trees is a surprisingly cutthroat business," reads the Chronicle in a piece about a rooftop City Park that's being built above the upcoming Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco. Adam Greenspan and Patrick Trollip, who are sourcing trees for that project, say Apple has made it hard to track down trees across California and Oregon.
And it's been especially challenging to locate desirable specimens because Apple has been buying up 3,000 trees for its new Cupertino headquarters. When Greenspan and Trollip found a tree they fancied they would "tag it" with a locking yellow tag, so that nobody else -- like Apple -- could get it. Eventually all the tagged trees were moved to a nursery in Sunol, where the transbay project team leased 4 acres.
Apple Park, Apple's second campus with the famous spaceship-shaped main building, will be completely covered in greenery. Landscaping at the site started late last year, and Apple has said it will plant more than 9,000 native and drought-resistant trees, including fruit trees.
In a separate report on Apple Park, The Economist highlighted the parking situation at the campus. For the 14,000 workers that Apple plans to have on site, Apple has built nearly 11,000 parking spaces, many of them located in underground lots beneath the main building and in two garages at the south of the campus.
In total, Apple has built 325,000 square meters of parking, compared to 318,000 square meters of offices and research buildings. So much space has been dedicated to parking due to Cupertino city laws, which require a certain number of parking spaces for employees.
Employees will begin moving into Apple Park in April, but Apple has said it will take more than six months to transition thousands of employees to the site. Smaller building construction and landscaping has not been finished and will continue into the summer, even after the campus sees its grand opening.
Indie high-speed space flier Hyperburner has been named Apple's App of the Week, and as a result, it will be available for free for the next seven days. Normally priced at $2.99, this is the first time Hyperburner has been available for free since it was released in June of 2016.
In Hyperburner, players take control of a spaceship in a distant colonial solar system. The idea is to navigate the ship through an increasingly dangerous series of courses, unlocking improved ships and endless gameplay modes as the game progresses.
Hyperburner features fast-paced gameplay, instant respawns, simple and customizable controls, and six zones to complete. Our sister site TouchArcade gave Hyperburner four and a half out of five stars, praising both the level design and the soundtrack.
Each zone has its own signature art style, complete with unique hazards to face. Said objects might be moving or static, but either way it's going to take some skill to navigate around them. The patterns are wonderfully crafted, almost puzzle-like -- so there's no feeling of cheap deaths or haphazard design flaws. Every death is your fault, and betters you in some manner. There's only several worlds but each one looks entirely different, almost like a different game in a way.
They throw a lot of very tight "thread the needle" type of situations at players constantly, forcing people to learn from their mistakes as they hit that replay button over and over. It's addicting and beautiful at the same time.
Hyperburner will be available for free until next Thursday, when a new App of the Week is chosen. It can be downloaded from the App Store. [Direct Link]
