MacRumors

Lockitron today announced a new product in its lineup of smart keyless home locking system devices, the $99 Bolt. Lockitron previously entered the market a few years back with the somewhat rocky launch of an earlier smartphone-enabled deadbolt lock, and the company is now shifting gears to focus on Bolt.

The basics of the device allow users with the free-to-download app to unlock and lock their home deadbolts via Bluetooth Low Energy, meaning a user must be near the lock to interact with it, but the lock will keep working in event of a power outage.

As reported by TechCrunch, Lockitron co-founder Cameron Robertson assures customers the company has learned a lot from the problems faced with its last product. The team simplified component costs by sourcing high quality parts elsewhere, and subsequently got both the lock's price and size reduced.

Bolt is smaller, more elegant and more robust than the crowdfunded Lockitron. It has a better battery life, more fault tolerant embedded architecture and includes Lockitron’s most popular features like sharing access, activity logging and Sense. Most importantly, however, Lockitron Bolt has been designed with mass manufacturing in mind from day one.

The Bolt also features sharing access to other smartphone users, activity logging to track when someone interacted with the lock, and "Sense," which either automatically unlocks the Bolt when you walk up to the door, or prompts the user with an easy-to-confirm notification. Lockitron will also sell the Bolt Bridge, which connects the Bolt to the internet and acts as a middle man to send a Bluetooth signal via a user's phone to the Bolt itself, meaning customers could unlock the deadbolt for someone else while away from home.

The new device replaces a deadbolt on a user's door altogether, versus the original's attempt at universality in fitting over an existing deadbolt. While the company's aims were admirable, many users found difficulty in setting up and properly using the slotted-on device. Lockitron decided to look to learning thermostat Nest as an example of a product that requires a signifcant amount of setup but leaves its users with a far more agreeable experience upon completion.

“Basically, as long as we could break the setup down into 20 tiny, doable steps, it didn’t really matter that it required removing the old deadbolt,” Robertson told TechCrunch last week.

The Lockitron Bolt can be pre-ordered from the company's official website. A Preview Edition, with a limit of 1,000 units, will begin shipping in March. A final consumer-ready edition is slated for "late Spring" and will arrive in a variety of finishes to match a user's door.

Apple has updated the Apple TV today with a new channel for Sports Illustrated's 120 SPORTS network. 120 SPORTS was launched last year on iPhone, iPad and other platforms as a streaming platform for major sports leagues, including the MLB, NHL, NBA, PGA TOUR, Nascar and leading college divisions. The digital-only network offers 76 hours of live content and more than 1,200 on-demand video clips each week.

The 120 SPORTS channel provides sports fans with a collection of recent in-game highlights and other video content through the built-in Catch-Up and Timeline modes. Catch-Up provides a curated stream of the latest videos pertaining to trending sports topics, while Timeline allows users to watch the live 120 SPORTS stream and videos in reverse chronological order.

“With this latest launch, we are happy to provide our fans with a new platform to experience 120 Sports,” said 120 Sports president Jason Coyle. “We will continue to explore even more ways to deliver up-to-the-minute sports news to our current fans and new audiences, when and where they want it.”

MacRumors can confirm that 120 SPORTS was added to the third-generation Apple TV, although the channel has yet to appear on the second-generation set-top box.

The new channel arrives just a few weeks after the Apple TV was refreshed with Tennis Channel Everywhere, providing access to live court streaming and other on-demand coverage. Australian viewers were also treated to a new channel for Cricket.com.au earlier this month. Apple TV's existing sports channels include WatchESPN, MLB.TV Premium, NFL Now, NHL GameCenter, MLS Live, WWE Network, Red Bull TV, Willow and UFC.TV.

Following a soft update that added a recap feature for top tweets last week, Twitter today announced a substantial feature update to its iOS and Android mobile apps that includes two new additions to the service: group messaging and "a new mobile video experience."

Similar to the Direct Message feature, Group Messages will allow multiple users to converse privately amongst one another in a group chat room. Most notably, however, users won't need to already follow one another to be able to begin and engage in a Group Message conversation.

Private conversations on Twitter are a great complement to the largely public experience on the platform. You might prefer to read (or watch) Tweets but converse about them privately. You might want to continue a public conversation privately with a smaller group, or start one based on a Tweet you saw. Many of you use Direct Messages to reach the people and brands you’re only connected to on Twitter. Whatever the case may be, the ability to converse privately with groups gives you more options for how and with whom you communicate on Twitter.

The new video camera allows Twitter users to capture up to thirty seconds of footage and edit it in-app, with the ability to post videos as both tweets and into Group or Direct Messages. iOS owners will be able to upload a video from their camera roll, a feature which will roll out soon to Android users.

Twitter noted the features will be rolling out to all users in the coming days, but until available to a wide audience, users will be able to interact in Group Messages started by someone else and watch videos posted by others, as well.

Twitter can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

American payment services company Western Union announced on Tuesday that it now accepts Apple Pay as a way for customers to make money transfers and bill payments in the United States. iPhone users will be able to make NFC-based payments using their smartphones at Western Union's flagship locations and at kiosks in over 7,600 Walgreens and Duane Reade locations nationwide.

Apple Pay support was launched at Western Union's iconic 1440 Broadway store in New York City and will be rolled out to other agent locations in the near future. The company operates over 65,000 agent locations across the United States, Canada and Mexico, processing over 242 million consumer-to-consumer transactions and moving over $82 billion in principal between customers in 2013.

“Our customers have an expectation of using mobile technology to make money transfer service and product accessibility easier. Western Union is rising to the occasion as we harness our system with modifications to link cash and digital transfers between retail locations, mobile phones, prepaid cards, online and traditional bank accounts and ATMs,” said David Thompson, Executive Vice President, Global Operations and Technology and Chief Information Officer.

USA Technologies, a provider of mobile payment technologies for small-ticket, self-serve retailing industries, also announced today that it is rolling out Apple Pay support in the United States. The move makes Apple Pay available at over 200,000 acceptance points that rely on the company's payment solutions, such as coffee shops, vending machines, kiosks, laundry equipment, parking pay stations and other self-serve appliances.

Foxconn Technology Group, Apple's main assembly partner for iPhones, today announced (via Reuters) major plans to reduce its workforce due to "declining revenue growth and rising wages in China." The announcement comes mere hours before Apple's financial earnings announcement for the first fiscal quarter of 2015, in which the company is expected to announce record iPhone sales.

The company doubled its labor costs in recent years following a few public scandals involving worker suicides and poor working conditions, while revenue growth has slowed. After a decade of steady increases following the explosion of popularity for smartphones and tablet devices, mostly thanks to the manufacturing of Apple products, Foxconn hasn't faced the issue of diminishing returns until now.

"We've basically stabilized (our workforce) in the last three years," Woo said. When asked if the company plans to reduce overall headcount, he responded "yes".

Revenue growth at the conglomerate tumbled to 1.3 percent in 2013 and only partially recovered to 6.5 percent last year after a long string of double-digit increases from 2003 to 2012.

Today's news comes on the heels of reports indicating Apple likely sold more iPhones in China than the U.S. in the last quarter, and expectations the iPhone will have record sales coming off the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Foxconn's job cuts have not been specifically tied to its Apple business, but Apple is a major customer and hiring patterns do generally follow the iPhone product cycle, which should begin to slow a bit follow the rush of customers upgrading to the new models in the early months of availability. Foxconn is also reported to be increasing investments in Apple-related areas, including building a $2.6 billion display plant and perhaps working on sapphire displays for Apple products.

Update 7:48 AM: Foxconn has issued a statement calling the claims of workforce reductions "completely inaccurate", but noting it will slow its hiring in the coming years as it increases automation.

Foxconn wishes to clarify that a media report that alleges that our company is reducing its workforce is completely inaccurate and totally without foundation. We continue to recruit employees to support our business and operations globally and we continue to maintain a workforce of over one million employees worldwide. As we have long said, Foxconn is investing in the automation of many of the manufacturing tasks associated with our operations, applying robotic engineering and other innovative manufacturing technologies to enable our employees to focus on high value-added elements in the manufacturing process. As we continue to increase the application of automation in our operations, the magnitude of our employee recruitment is expected to decrease in the years ahead, but we have no plans to reduce our workforce numbers now or anytime in the future. In addition, our company is confident that we will continue to achieve sustained business growth in the years to come.

Back in 2013, Rolocule debuted Motion Tennis, an iPhone game that brought Wii-style gaming to the Apple TV via AirPlay. Using AirPlay Mirroring, users could display the game on an Apple TV while using an iPhone as a tennis racket. The setup drew natural comparisons to Nintendo's Wii Sports, with the iPhone playing the role of the Wii Remote.

Motion Tennis wasn't perfect, as it did suffer from minor lag and there were naturally concerns about users accidentally throwing their iPhones across the room or into their televisions, but it did serve as an interesting glimpse of both the potential of AirPlay and the possibilities for Apple TV gaming.

Rolocule is now back with an addition to its sports-themed Apple TV games, earlier this month debuting Bowling Central. The game itself is fairly simple, allowing users to bowl a classic game of 3, 6, or 10 frames, or take on a challenge mode that currently offers 30 stages with various stationary and/or moving blockers in the way of the pins.

Bowling Central is by no means the first bowling game for iOS, nor even necessarily the best or most realistic, but once again the selling point is Apple TV compatibility via AirPlay. When in AirPlay mode, the user can wave his or her iPhone side to side to set the release point and then swing the device to bowl the ball, even imparting spin depending on the trajectory of the swing.

In our testing, we found very little lag when playing via Apple TV, an important factor considering the need to accurately time throws in challenge mode. Throws also felt natural with the iPhone after a bit of practice that involved getting used to keeping a thumb on the screen during the throw rather than releasing as on Wii Sports. Rolocule co-founder Anuj Tandon notes the controls were specifically designed to keep the thumb in place during throws in order to maintain better control of the device and minimize the chances of accidentally throwing it.

We did experience some crashing problems when AirPlaying to a second-generation Apple TV, although these appear to be due more to AirPlay issues on the older set-top box than an app problem. No such issues were seen with a third-generation Apple TV.

Overall, Bowling Central is a fairly straightforward bowling game with limited gameplay options so far. For example, there is no live multiplayer option and the 30 challenge levels can be completed rather quickly, although it can take a bit longer to achieve "three-pin" ratings on each.

More challenge levels appear to be in the works, however, and the Apple TV compatibility is what makes Bowling Central an interesting concept as party entertainment. With Apple yet to allow games or any sort of App Store for the Apple TV, Rolocule's AirPlay implementation gives a nice impression of the potential for the set-top box should Apple ultimately decide to open it up to third-party developers.

Bowling Central is available now in the App Store for $2.99. [Direct Link]

Apple today began notifying developers about the upcoming closure of the old TestFlight beta testing service accessible through TestFlightApp.com, reports The Next Web. The impending February 26 shutdown of the standalone website arrives nearly one year after Apple's acquisition of TestFlight through its purchase of Burstly and subsequent integration of the service into iTunes Connect.

TestFlight on iTunes Connect and the legacy website were operated as independent services over the past year, enabling developers to test significant changes to their apps. Apple now encourages TestFlightApp users to export current testers so that they can be imported to the iTunes Connect version, and has posted a help document to help developers transition between the services. The new version of TestFlight is available for iOS 8 and later.

A new report by The Wall Street Journal looks at the early performance of Apple's new electronic payments service, Apple Pay, finding strong signs of momentum behind the service. One of the key signs of interest in mobile payments comes from point-of-sales system suppliers seeing drastic increases in retailer interest following the launch of Apple Pay last October.

Harbortouch has offered free wireless readers to its retailer clients since 2012, and in the month following the Apple Pay launch 68 percent of client orders asked for the readers supporting wireless payments. As of August of 2013, only 22 percent of its clients had installed such readers in their stores.

“It’s like night and day,” said Brendan Lauber, Harbortouch’s chief technology officer. “Now, merchants are actively coming to us and asking how to support this.”

The Wall Street Journal piece also covers the general surge in public acceptance for the service, remarking on recent stories that Apple Pay now supports cards representing about 90 percent of the credit card purchase volume in the United States, and that Apple's upcoming financial reports for the latest quarter may provide more details.

A day before the company is set to announce earnings for its first fiscal quarter of 2015, Financial Times highlights a recent report suggesting Apple may report it sold more iPhones in China than in the U.S. for the first time ever.

According to analysts from financial firm UBS, China accounted for 36 percent of iPhone shipments in the most recent quarter, compared to 24 percent for the U.S. The analysts also compared the numbers to 2013, noting that a year before China accounted for only 22 percent of shipments with the U.S. at 29 percent.

Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin concurs with the UBS report, believing around 2 million more iPhones were sold in China than in the U.S. during the quarter. With the upcoming launch of the Apple Watch, he also believes it's just the beginning of the country's fiscal dominance over Apple sales.

“It’s already been a good year, building up to the climax of this quarter,” said Bajarin, referring to Apple’s momentum in the world’s largest smartphone market. “It leads to a lot more optimism for China . . . Their potential headroom in China is higher than it is here [in the US].

They will likely do more in China than US from here on out,” he said. “It certainly shows how important the China market is to Apple’s upside.”

Apple has been emphasizing the importance of China for the company for some time, most recently meeting with the Chinese government to discuss data privacy and security, partnering with popular mobile payment service Alipay, and planning multiple Apple Store openings like the one in Chongqing opening this week.

On the distribution front, 2014 most notably saw a partnership between Apple and the world's largest carrier, China Mobile. The partnership allowed iPhones to be sold in 3,000 more cities where Apple previously had very little presence, undoubtedly aiding the Cupertino-based company rising Chinese in recent quarters.

Deals have been scarce in recent weeks following all of the holiday discounts, but it appears things are beginning to pick up again. Best Buy is offering discounts on its stock of iPad Air 2 models, and there are also some deals to be had on iMacs, Retina MacBook Pros, and Macbook Airs.

We've also got a selection of Apple-related accessories that are on sale, including quite a few speakers. Finally, we've rounded up a few games and apps that can be had at a discount this week.

iPad Air 2

Best Buy has temporarily discounted its entire iPad Air 2 stock by $50 to $100, which is the best iPad Air 2 deal we've seen since the holidays. With the sale, the entry-level 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad Air 2 is available for $449.99, down from $499.99. The 64GB model is available for $549, and the higher-capacity 128GB model is available for $599, $100 off. All cellular models are discounted by $50 to $100 depending on capacity too.

Older iPads

Best Buy is also continuing to offer now-discontinued higher-capacity Cellular versions of the original iPad Air at up to $130 off.

- iPad Air Cellular Silver 64GB (AT&T) - $499.99
- iPad Air Cellular Space Gray 64GB (AT&T) - $499.99
- iPad Air Cellular Silver 128GB (AT&T) - $599.99
- iPad Air Cellular Space Gray 128GB (AT&T) - $599.99

Retina iMac

As of last week, Apple is selling the new 27-inch Retina iMac in its online refurbished store, offering discounts of 15 percent off, which beats any Retina iMac price that can be found in store this week.

Selection varies, but there are quite a few configurations available for purchase at a discount, which gives consumers looking for a Retina iMac deal a lot to choose from beyond the standard configuration.

All of Apple's refurbished machines come with a 1 year warranty, but stock fluctuates often, so potential buyers may need to wait for a desired machine to show up in the store.

Non-Retina iMac

- 21.5-inch 2.7GHz/8GB/1TB (Best Buy) (B&H Photo)- $1,179, $120 off
- 21.5-inch 2.9GHz/8GB/1TB (Best Buy) (B&H Photo) - $1,399, $100 off
- 27-inch 3.2GHz/8GB/1TB (Best Buy) (B&H Photo) - $1,659.99, $139 off
- 27-inch 3.4GHz/8GB/1TB (Amazon) (B&H Photo) - $1,899, $100 off

MacBook Air

- 11-inch 1.4GHz/4GB/256GB (B&H Photo) - $999, $100 off
- 13-inch 1.4GHz/4GB/128GB (B&H Photo - $919, $80 off
- 13-inch 1.4GHz/4GB/256GB (B&H Photo) - $1,099, $100 off

Retina MacBook Pro

- 13-inch 2.6GHz/8GB/128GB (B&H Photo) (MacMall)- $1,199, $100 off
- 13-inch 2.6GHz/8GB/256GB (MacMall) (B&H Photo) - $1,399, $100 off
- 13.inch 2.8GHz/8GB/512GB (Amazon) (B&H Photo) - $1,599, $200 off

Apps

Apple's free app of the week is puzzle game Shades, and it can be downloaded for free for the next week. Other games temporarily on sell include Lost Yeti, a puzzle adventure game, and Ghost Blitz, a skill-based game. Cycloramic for the iPhone 5/5s is also available for free this week.

For more app deals, make sure to check out our sister site AppShopper, which has a section dedicated to price drops.

Apple Accessories

The Jawbone Big Jambox Bluetooth speaker is available for $184.99 from Woot, down from its original price of $299. Groupon is selling refurbished Jawbone UP24 fitness trackers for $69.99, $30 off the regular $99 price tag. The regular Jawbone Jambox (refubished) can also be purchased from Groupon for $69.99, down from $150.

Beats by Dre Studio Headphones are available from Groupon for $199, $100 off the regular price. Groupon is also selling Apple EarPods for $14.99, a discount of $14. The Beats Beatbox portable Bluetooth speaker can be purchased from Best Buy for $199, $200 off the regular price.

Best Buy is selling iTunes gift cards for 10% off, dropping the price of a $15 card to $13.50. A refurbished Mophie Powerstation portable USB battery charger can be purchased from Groupon for $29.99, down from $79.99.

MacMall is offering the Otterbox Defender Series Case for the iPad Air 2 for $58.99, down from its normal price of $89.95, and it's also selling the Speck CandyShell Card case for the iPhone 6 Plus for $39.99. The Lenmar ChugPlug External Battery pack for Apple MacBooks is available from Best Buy for $79.99, down from its regular price of $159.99.

MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors.