MacRumors

After getting ported to the iOS App Store in 2013, the original Sonic The Hedgehog is making its way back to the living room today with a launch on the Apple TV App Store (via TouchArcade). The game is essentially the remastered iOS version optimized for Apple TV, and will let fans play classic Sonic with the all-new Apple TV remote.

Race at lightning speeds across seven classic zones as Sonic the Hedgehog. Run and spin through loop-de-loops as you collect rings and defeat enemies on your mission to save the world from the evil Dr. Eggman.

This re-mastered mobile version of the SEGA Genesis classic features the full “Sonic The Hedgehog” game.

In addition to the release of the first game on Apple TV, a few more Sonic games will be following suit in the coming weeks. On March 24, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 will launch on tvOS, while fans will be able to download Sonic CD a week later on March 31.

Sonic The Hedgehog is available now from the tvOS App Store for $2.99. It's likely that the two upcoming games will be priced similarly.

T-Mobile has announced that Binge On, its free video streaming feature, now supports YouTube, Google Play Movies, Discovery GO, Fox Business, Red Bull TV, and many other newly added video providers. The complete list of partners is available through T-Mobile's website.

Binge On is a free program that allows T-Mobile customers on a qualifying Simple Choice plan to stream unlimited 480p video from over 50 partners, including Netflix, HBO NOW, and Hulu since launch, without any of the data used counting towards their plan. The incentive has been criticized by some as a violation of net neutrality -- accusations that T-Mobile has repeatedly denied.

In December, YouTube accused T-Mobile of throttling all video, and not just the video of its Binge On partners. T-Mobile responded by saying that "mobile optimized" or "downgraded" are better phrases to describe how Binge On works, and stressed that all customers can disable the feature through their account settings. Earlier in the month, the FCC said it was looking into how the program works.

Yesterday, T-Mobile announced that it has renewed its partnership with Major League Baseball. Ahead of the upcoming season, the carrier said it will be gifting all T-Mobile customers with a free one-year subscription to MLB.TV Premium, a cross-platform service for streaming live baseball on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Android, PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Chromecast, Roku, smart TVs, and more.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be featured on the cover of the March 28th edition of TIME Magazine in relation to the ongoing Apple-FBI debate over unlocking an iPhone belonging to deceased San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook.

The print edition includes a lengthy interview with Cook, who talked mostly about widely known background details pertaining to the case, just days before Apple and the FBI are set to appear in a U.S. court on Tuesday, March 22.

Cook insists that Apple's refusal to create a modified, less-secure version of iOS, enabling the FBI to unlock Farook's passcode-protected iPhone using brute force, was a "labored decision" based on lengthy internal discussions.

“We had long discussions about that internally, when they asked us,” Cook says. “Lots of people were involved. It wasn’t just me sitting in a room somewhere deciding that way, it was a labored decision. We thought about all the things you would think we would think about.”

Cook said that he found out about the FBI-backed court order demanding Apple help federal investigators access data on the shooter's iPhone through the press, and he admitted to being "deeply offended" by the government agency "talking about or lying about [Apple's] intentions."

“Do I like their tactics?” Cook says. “No, I don’t. I’m seeing the government apparatus in a way I’ve never seen it before. Do I like finding out from the press about it? No, I don’t think it’s professional. Do I like them talking about or lying about our intentions? No. I’m offended by it. Deeply offended by it.”

Cook likened Apple's stance to "freedom of speech" in the U.S., which is protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

“When I think of civil liberties, I think of the founding principles of this country,” Cook says. “The freedoms that are in the First Amendment, but also the fundamental right to privacy. And the way that we simply see this is, if this All Writs Act can be used to force us to do something that would make millions of people vulnerable, then you can begin to ask yourself, If that can happen, what else can happen? In the next Senate you might say, Well, maybe it should be a surveillance OS. Maybe law enforcement would like the ability to turn on the camera on your Mac.” […]

Except that it protects terrorists as well as good guys. “We get that,” Cook says. “But you don’t take away the good for that sliver of bad. We’ve never been about that as a country. We make that decision every day, right? There are some times that freedom of speech, we might cringe a little when we hear that person saying this and wish they wouldn’t. This, to us, is like that. It’s at the core of who we are as a country.”

While the FBI has argued that it only wants access to a single iPhone, Cook stressed that "it's not about one phone" and that weakening encryption could set a dangerous legal precedent — which the FBI itself has partially acknowledged.

“It’s very much about the future. You have a guy in Manhattan saying, I’ve got 175 phones that I want to take through this process.” (The guy in question being New York County district attorney Cyrus Vance, who did in fact say that.)

The full-length interview can be read on TIME's website and in the March 28 print issue.

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.

Swiss software developer and civil liberties outfit Proton Technologies saw its encrypted email app ProtonMail hit the App Store today.

The iOS app is a front end for the company's popular free worldwide end-to-end encrypted email service, built on the back of over half a million dollars raised in a 2014 crowdfunding campaign.

ProtonMail invisibly integrates PGP encryption into a modern user interface and operates on the service's "zero access" policy, meaning all messages are stored in encrypted format so that not even ProtonMail has access to their contents.

ProtonMail's encryption service is open source and hosted entirely in Switzerland, under the protection of some of the world's strongest privacy laws.

Last year, the Swiss Parliament passed a new domestic surveillance law that increased the country's state surveillance capabilities and curtailed privacy rights. However, ProtonMail has concluded that the law does not negatively impact the company's secure email service.

Those efforts resulted in 70,000 signatures being delivered to the Swiss parliament in January. This means that at the next election, the Swiss surveillance law will be put to a public vote by the entire country.

ProtonMail was founded in 2013 by MIT engineers and CERN scientists inspired by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations of government mass surveillance programs.

ProtonMail is a free download for iPad and iPhone. [Direct Link]

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.

At the Nike Innovation Summit yesterday in New York, popular athletics company Nike revealed a new addition to its line of Nike+ software, simply called the Nike+ app, which will focus on a personalized shopping experience similar to Apple's own Apple Store app. Nike+ will integrate with the company's previously existing Nike+ Running [Direct Link] and Nike+ Training Club [Direct Link] apps, but is mainly billed as an information-centered hub for Nike's mobile software world.

According to Nike, the "plus" in the title "now equates to 'personal,'" thanks to the customized springboard experience of Nike+. The first tab in the app will showcase an always-updating list of stories -- from training tips to product releases -- that will become more personalized over time the more Nike+ is used. The My Store tab will let users purchase Nike products from within the app, while the Services tab will guide them to the nearest physical Nike store and even let them book a 1:1 product reservation.

Starting in June, the new Nike+ app becomes athletes' all-access pass to Nike's most coveted products and events via one seamless sign-on. The “plus” now equates to “personal,” and the app connects members simply and swiftly to the Nike+ Run Club, Nike+ Training Club and Nike+ SNKRS apps. It also offers members a personal store stocked with performance product recommendations and reserved invitations to their favorite sneakers. Combining these offerings, the app serves every step of an athletic life — from competition to training to sport-style — propelling members towards their potential.

Thanks to an integration with Apple's Wallet app, Nike+ will let its users "skip the line and get personalized service at Nike stores and events," with the use of a QR code saved into Apple's first-party app. The Inbox section of Nike+ rounds out the experience with a basic influx of the latest news directly from the company and details on upcoming events nearby.

A specific launch date was not given, but Nike said its new Nike+ app will debut on iOS in June 2016. Those who are interested in the new app and aren't yet Nike+ members can sign up for the service today.

Nintendo's first official iOS game, Miitomo, made its long-awaited debut in the Japanese App Store yesterday.

As promised, the company's first foray into smartphone apps is a free-to-play social title in which players can create and customise their own avatars, known as Miis, which can communicate with other Miis on the social network.

Apart from the social angle, the main incentive to play is to earn points which can be exchanged for discounts on console and handheld games, console themes and other rewards through the company's new loyalty program, My Nintendo, which also launched in Japan alongside the game.

MacRumors sister site Touch Arcade has posted its first impressions on Miitomo, which is currently limited to the Japanese App Store but expected to roll out to most countries by the end of the month.

If you simply can't wait, Touch Arcade has also posted a helpful guide explaining how to download games from other regions.

Nintendo has promised more games for smartphones, some of which are expected to be pay-to-download. Registrations have also gone live for Nintendo's new multiplatform account system, Nintendo Account, which connects PC, Nintendo hardware and smartphone users, and enables the transfer of game data between mobile and console games.

Update: Nintendo has announced that Miitomo launches in the U.S. and "several other countries" on March 31.

T-Mobile today announced that it is once again partnering with Major League Baseball, this time to give all T-Mobile customers a free one-year subscription to the MLB.TV Premium service. This is the third year in a row T-Mobile has partnered up with Major League Baseball, and this year's giveaway is in celebration of three more years of partnership.

"For the last three years MLB has been with us every step of the way as we have re-written the rules of wireless. This year we're doubling down - and expanding the relationship even further to include the Home Run Derbies and free MLB.TV for customers," said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. "This isn't just some corporate sponsorship. It's the combined effort of two passionate teams bringing even more amazing perks and game-changing moves to baseball fans over the next three years!"

T-Mobile Simple Choice customers on qualifying plans are able to sign up for a full MLB.TV Premium subscription valued at $109.99 starting on April 3. To get the discount, customers will need to subscribe using the T-Mobile network.

The service will allow T-Mobile subscribers to watch 2,430 out-of-market regular season games live on their T-Mobile devices. It will take advantage of T-Mobile's BingeOn feature, so streaming MLB content on a device connected to the T-Mobile network will not count against data caps. MLB.TV Premium is available on Macs, iOS devices, the Apple TV, and a number of other consoles and set-top boxes.

Also included is a free premium subscription to MLB.com At Bat, something T-Mobile has given away in past years.

(Thanks, Asa!)

A German court today ruled Apple has violated several streaming digital video patents belonging to software maker OpenTV, reports Reuters. OpenTV first filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2014 in Dusseldorf, Germany, and followed that up with a U.S. lawsuit in May of 2015.

OpenTV, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Kudelski Group, says Apple services like iTunes and Apple devices like iPhones and iPads infringe on its patents related to the secure delivery of media content to consumer devices.

Apple has been ordered to cease selling products that use software infringing on the OpenTV patents in Germany.

OpenTV sued Apple in 2014, alleging that various products infringe its patents, including the iPhone and iPad. The ruling on Tuesday from the Dusseldorf District Court said Apple products sold in Germany must not use streaming software which infringes OpenTV's patents. [...]

"The claim is predominantly valid and well-founded," the Dusseldorf court said in its ruling on Tuesday.

Founded in 1994, OpenTV was one of the first providers of software, advertising products, and operating systems used on millions of television set-top boxes. Its current flagship product is OpenTV, a broadcast and digital television platform that runs on set-top boxes around the world.

Apple could not be reached for comment and it is not clear if an appeal will be filed. Apple's civil suit in the United States has not yet been resolved.

Uber today announced the limited launch of a new "Family Profiles" feature for its iOS app, which will allow up to 10 riders to share a single payment method. With Family Profiles, Uber passengers can have their rides paid for by friends or family, allowing parents to pay for rides for children, for example.

While we've called this feature Family Profiles, we let you decide who is family. It's a great way to help loved ones, friends or coworkers get where they want to go while you foot the bill. Whether you're a parent with kids away at college or a daughter wanting to help your parents maintain their independence, it's never been easier to share some Uber love around to the people that matter most in your life.

Family Profiles are currently available in Atlanta, Dallas, and Phoenix and can be enabled in the Settings app of the latest version of the Uber app.

A main Family Profile organizer can invite contacts to accept an invitation to join the Family Profile, which will then allow riders to request rides from their own device using the shared payment method. Family Profile organizers will be billed for the ride and will receive ride receipts.

Uber has not specified when Family Profiles might expand to additional areas, but should the feature prove successful, it will likely be available in more cities across the United States in the coming weeks.

The Uber app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]