MacRumors

Fitbit today has launched its newest wearable activity tracking device, the Fitbit Force, reports AllThingsD. The Bluetooth 4.0 wristband includes all the features of the popular Fitbit Flex activity wristband that was launched in May of last year, and adds new features such as a built-in altimeter that measures workout data such as stairs climbed, a bigger OLED screen, watch capabilities, and an "Active Minutes" feature that tracks the varying levels of exercise.

A powerful Force for everyday fitness, this sleek wristband is with you all the time. Stay motivated to keep moving with real-time stats right on your wrist. Track steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, stairs climbed and active minutes throughout the day. At night, track your sleep and wake up silently with a vibrating alarm.

The device will gain additional features particular to iPhone users running iOS 7, including the ability to receive call notifications on the wristband. Reports AllThingsD:

Soon after launch, Fitbit will release a software update that will allow iPhone users running iOS 7 to receive notifications about incoming calls (name and phone number) on the Force’s display. The wristband can also vibrate to alert you to a call.

Including this feature is sort of an experiment for Fitbit to gauge people’s interest in getting these types of alerts on a fitness-tracking device. Based on the reaction, the company will then decide whether adding other notifications for things like new text messages and email makes sense.

The release of the Fitbit Force comes as Nike is expected to release a follow-up to its Fuelband activity tracker, along with speculation that Apple will release an iWatch wearable device in the relatively near future, a device which may also contain fitness tracking features.

The Fitbit Force wristband can be ordered from the Fitbit web store for $129.95, with shipments beginning in 3-4 weeks.

iOS strategy-action game XCOM: Enemy Unknown has received an update today that brings various new features, including asynchronous multiplayer and multiplayer leaderboards with full Game Center support. The update also includes optimizations for iOS 7, as well as general bug fixes. 2K Games has also put the title on sale for 50% off, with pricing currently set at $9.99.

The game, which was released for gaming consoles in October 2012, was originally announced for iOS devices this past March and released in June with touch-optimized controls and interface tweaks. Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of XCOM developer Take-Two Interactive, also stated in July that the success of the game on iOS was ultimately showing of consumer willingness to pay premium prices on mobile devices.

Our sister site TouchArcade also gave the game a positive review upon its release, stating that its controls were inuitive and well-suited to an ultimately deep and entertaining game. XCOM: Enemy Unknown can be downloaded from the App Store for the now reduced price of $9.99. [Direct Link]

Takashi Tokita, longtime director at producer at video game company Square-Enix, announced today that the company will be releasing a mobile-optimized version of Final Fantasy VI for iOS this Fall, reports Kotaku. The game was originally released in 1994 as Final Fantasy III in North America, and follows the release of various Final Fantasy games on iOS, with Final Fantasy V [Direct Link] being the most recent release by the company this past March.

"The battle systems have been altered for the other [mobile remakes] for Final Fantasy and VI will be the same. For instance grinding was an issue and people had to spend a lot of time leveling up. Now on the mobile devices the battle systems have been adjusted so you don't have to fight as much and can enjoy the game for what it is."

Tokita also teased a potential release of the mega-popular Final Fantasy VII for mobile devices sometime in the future:

The Legacy series won't necessarily end with VI, Tokita said, when we asked him if it could include VII, VIII, IX, X and beyond. "We are aware that we have tons of VII fans," he noted. "We have VII fans in our own company. If this Legacy project works out well, we would like to one day be able to work with VII."

Apple has been granted authorization by the Brazillian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) needed to sell the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in the country, reports ZDNet. The new devices have received approval to operate with 4G technology avaliable in Brazil on the 2600 MHz band, while previous models had been limited to the 700 MHz band level. The devices will be produced domestically at the Foxconn factories in São Paulo.

However, it is not known at this time when Apple's new iPhones will launch in the country, as it is not included in the two new rounds of international iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c launches that Apple announced yesterday. Last year, the iPhone 5 was approved for Brazil in October only to be launched in the country on two months later on Friday, December 14, almost three months after the phone's launch in the first wave of countries.

The news also comes as Apple won the right to legally use the "iPhone" name in Brazil last month, after a judge ruled in favor of the Cupertino company in an ongoing lawsuit with Brazillian company IGB Electronica, after a long legal battle that stretched for almost a year. A report in August also indicated that Apple's first Brazillian retail store will open in December in Rio de Janeiro after recruiting prospective employees in November 2012.

Following a brief promotion earlier this week in which Best Buy reduced pricing on the iPhone 5c by $50 just two weeks after launch, an internal document obtained by TechnoBuffalo reveals that the retailer will offer a minimum $100 gift card toward the purchase of the iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c for any working smartphone. The promotion will begin this Friday, October 11 and run through October 19.

The offer requires that the device being traded in is able to be powered on. Water damaged devices and devices with cracked screens are also not eligible for the program, and customers who bring in packaging or original accessories may see the value of their trade-in increase. The offer also extends to customers who have current reservations for either phone.

The 16 GB models of the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s start at $99.99 and $199.99 respectively, with iPhone 5c supplies remaining plentiful throughout Apple's distribution channels, giving retailers some incentive to reduce pricing to help drive sales. That availability contrasts with significant shortages seen for Apple's flagship iPhone 5s since launch nearly three weeks ago.

U.S. carrier T-Mobile today is announcing a new addition to its "UnCarrier" smartphone plans, adding unlimited texting and 2G data roaming in 100 countries, as well as voice calls from those countries at 20 cents per minute, reports AllThingsD.

Data speeds will be slow, but likely adequate for basic email and perhaps even for mapping and navigation apps. Users will be able to purchase increased data speeds, with speeds reverting to the slower, free option once they have run out. Passes are available for one day and 100MB for $15, one week at 200MB for $25, or two weeks and 500MB for $50.

The new program does require customers to return to the U.S. at least once every six weeks, and six weeks out of every three months must be spent stateside. The program rolls out to postpaid customers on October 31st.

The company also introduced a new plan for customers who call internationally, offering $0.20 per minute calls to many countries, including when dialing a mobile phone. Landline calls are free to 70 countries, while free texting to 200 countries is also included, for $10 per month.

The fear of high charges often prompts customers to leave their phones at home, keep them in airplane mode or turn off cellular data when traveling overseas.

“There’s just so many pieces of data that suggest to us this is a huge issue and pain point but also a huge opportunity,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in an interview, noting that Americans take 55 million international trips per year. However, he said 40 percent of customers turn off their phones to avoid high charges, while many others get stuck with high bills when they return.

In July, T-Mobile introduced 'Jump', a phone upgrade program that allows customers to upgrade phones as frequently as once every 6 months.

Apple began offering free apps, books, and music via its Apple Store app back in August, and today the company has made hit endless running game Temple Run: Oz available at no cost.

Normally priced at $0.99, Temple Run: Oz was created through a partnership between developer Imangi and Disney to promote the "Oz the Great and Powerful" movie. Like other Temple Run games, Oz is an endless runner that takes advantage of power ups. It is set in the land of Oz and includes special features like hot-air balloon flying.

Temple Run: Oz is the exhilarating sequel to the classic game, based on the film Oz the Great and Powerful. In this game you’ll run, fly, an slide across the yellow brick road.

Previous free content offered through the Apple Store app has included Color Zen, Away in My Airplane, and six free iTunes Festival song downloads.

The Apple Store app can be downloaded from the App Store for free [Direct Link] and Temple Run: Oz, which is universal, can be downloaded by tapping on the icon in the "Featured" section of the Apple Store app. According to the Apple Store description, Oz will be available until November 15.

Foursquare’s new automatic recommendation service, initially introduced on Android in August, is rolling out to iPhone users. The company has released a new version of its iOS app today, which introduces a redesign and will give a “few thousand” users access to the feature.

With the new recommendation system, Foursquare runs continually in the background, monitoring location to provide recommendations on nearby restaurants and other venues. It will also offer information on popular food and beverage choices following a check in, pulling data from comments that users have left about each venue.

Today we’re excited to start rolling out this smarter Foursquare. Here’s how it will work: when you sit down to dinner, we might ping you with the can’t-miss dish on the menu (like the screenshot from a sushi bar below). Or when you arrive in a new neighborhood or city, we’ll suggest a few places that your friends love (like below, after you’ve wandered into a new neighborhood). It’s like having a ton of local friends stuffed in your pocket wherever you go.

Because it’s powered by billions of check-ins, it’s also smart: we’re going to ping you when you sit down at a new place where your friend left a tip, not when you’re on your daily walk to work. And using this feature doesn’t check you in; this isn’t for sharing, just for making sure you don’t miss great things.

While only a few thousand iPhone users will get access to the feature today, the company plans to continue rolling out the service to additional users as it did on the Android platform.

Along with the rollout of the recommendation system, Foursquare’s newest update introduces a simplified design that shows only the most recent check-in for each friend. Additional check-ins are now accessed via profile pages, and a newly introduced "nearby" button displays friends that are located in the vicinity.

Foursquare is an iPhone-only app that can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Yahoo's image and video hosting website Flickr has released an update to its iOS app, which contains a new "Auto Upload" feature that saves images in their original resolution and uploads them directly to the service. Auto Upload can also be toggled to save images only when connected to a Wi-Fi network or enabled on both Wi-Fi and cellular connections, and all saved images are marked as private by default. The update also contains a new auto-straighten tool and fixes for users signing in with Google.

Flickr received attention earlier this year when it began offering 1 TB of free photo storage space and underwent a major design overhaul. As previously speculated, Flickr is also now integrated within iOS 7, as users can choose to share photos directly to Flickr from the Photos app or various third-party apps with the functionality.

The last major update to Flickr for iOS came in August, when live filters and professional editing capabilities were added to the app. Flickr is a free download on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Facebook is preparing significant updates for its primary iOS app and its Facebook Messenger app in the near future, reports 9to5Mac. The main Facebook for iOS app will reportedly feature the social network's "Graph Search" feature, which was introduced last year and allows for users to enter specific search queries for better results. Meanwhile, an updated Facebook Messenger app is set to feature iOS contacts integration and sport a look with heavy white space similar to the design aesthetic of iOS 7, with another version similar in looks to the Messages app on iOS also being tested.

The report also states that Greg Novick, who was part of a group of Apple engineers hired by Facebook last year during a recruiting drive to work on its iOS app, has been rehired by Apple for an unstated role. Novick had previously been the Engineering Manager of iPhone Applications and Frameworks at Apple, and was a designer of the software that appeared on the original iPhone.

Both Facebook and Facebook Messenger are free universal apps for iOS devices and can be downloaded through the following links:

- Facebook [Direct Link]
- Facebook Messenger [Direct Link]