We’ve all been there, right? You download a game, can’t be bothered to play it so you build a robot to do it for you …

Engadget spotted this one.

Puzzle & Dragons is a ridiculously popular mobile game in Japan that tasks players with matching coloured orbs in order to take down enemy monsters. If you’ve played Pokemon Shuffle before, it’s just like that. To help with the trickier stages, YouTube user Junya Sakamoto has developed a robot that can play the game for him.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Game-playing robot, iPhone game, iPhone game robot, Japan, Mobile game, Puzzle & Dragons, Robot

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There’s no doubt that Apple has a definite interest in virtual reality. Tim Cook said on the most recent earnings call that “it’s really cool and has some interesting applications,” and he didn’t see it as a niche product. That’s as big a clue as Apple ever gives about its degree of interest in a product area.

We’ve also seen some interesting hires being made in the VR field, as well as reports of Apple testing various VR-related kit. But all of this is a long way short of predicting when, if ever, Apple will make its VR move.

One Apple analyst thinks he has the answer. “In the next two years Apple will add VR to the MFi Program” is the claim made in a note to clients by an Apple analyst seen by Fortune. There’s just one problem: the prediction is made by Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster – the analyst who kept insisting Apple would be launching a full TV set “next year.”

As a starting point, we expect in the next two years Apple will add VR to the MFi Program (Made for iPhone), which should make it easier for third parties to build virtual reality headsets powered by the iPhone, much like Samsung’s Gear VR today. In the next 5-10 years, we expect Apple to release a mixed reality headset with the long term goal (15+ years) of replacing the iPhone.

We started tracking Munster’s TV predictions in early 2011, with repeats later that year, early 2012, late 2012, early 2013, a bit later in 2013 and – slightly more cautiously – late 2014. In 2015, he finally admitted he’d got it wrong. Having given up on that, it appears that virtual reality might be Munster’s next white whale. We’ll be tracking his VR predictions with amusement interest …

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: AAPL, Gene Munster, Tim Cook, Virtual reality, vr

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In what Bloomberg describes as ‘a 90-minute interview peppered with expletives,’ Russia’s new Internet advisor has said that he wants to force Apple and Google to pay more taxes.

German Klimenko is pushing to raise taxes on U.S. companies to help level the playing field for Russian competitors such as Yandex and Mail.ru […]

Bloomberg says that he has an interesting ally in this aim …

The Putin adviser already has an ally in parliament: Andrey Lugovoi, one of two former KGB officers accused by a U.K. judge of assassinating former agent Alexander Litvinenko, a vocal Putin critic, in London in 2006.

Lugovoi wants to apply 18% VAT (sales tax) to App Store and iTunes purchases, though this tax would be paid by customers rather than by the companies themselves. EC countries already apply VAT in this way.

Klimenko has described Google as a “potential threat to our national security” as the company has the ability to track “everything” and won’t respond to requests for information from Russian law enforcement agencies. He has also said that he wants the Russian government to switch from Windows to a Linux-based open-source OS.

As Patently Apple notes, Klimenko (above) appears to have no objection to using Apple products.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Alexander Litvinenko, App Store, Apple tax, German Klimenko, Google tax, iTunes, Russia, VAT

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Apple employees in Ireland have been offered €20,000 ($23,000) for access to the login details, reports Business Insider, citing a current and former employee.

“You’d be surprised how many people get on to us, just random Apple employees,” the source said. “You get emails offering you thousands to get a password to get access to Apple. I could sell my Apple ID login information online for €20,000 (£15,000 / $23,000) tomorrow. That’s how much people are trying.”

A former employee says that hackers target those who have recently joined Apple, rather than those who have been at the company a long time. They said that this is one reason Apple attempts to promote from within, launching a management scheme called ‘Grow Your Own.’

With Apple famously operating in tightly-secured silos, with employees not necessarily even knowing what product their work is for, it seems unlikely that random logins would reveal too much – especially in Ireland, which is geared to sales and support rather than R&D.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple hackers, Apple Inc, Apple Ireland, Apple security, Ireland

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Adobe announced back in December that it would be renaming Flash Professional as Animate CC in recognition of the fact that HTML 5 has now taken over from Flash as the main form of web animation. It has now done so, adding in a “seriously long list” of new features at the same time.

The new features range from new vector art brushes to a rotating stage whose contents scale proportionally to the size – and the company is providing live demos on its Twitch.tv channel …

Topics include Learn Adobe Animate CC, Live Game Creation and Live Music and Animation. The live broadcasts kick off today, with the schedule available at Adobe’s Twitch.tv site.

Adobe has also updated its website-creation tool Muse CC with completely custom responsive designs. Finally, Bridge has been brought back and given updates that include importing from both iOS and Android mobile devices, as well as digital cameras in OS X 10.11.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Adobe, Adobe Animate CC, Adobe Bridge, Adobe Bridge CC, Adobe CC, Adobe Flash, Adobe Muse CC, Adobe Systems, Animate CC, Bridge CC, Muse CC

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A Seattle-based law firm is preparing to file a class action lawsuit against Apple over iOS updates bricking iPhones whose home buttons have been repaired or replaced by third-party companies. The Guardian reports that lawyers PCVA are inviting those who have experienced the ‘Error 53’ problem to contact them.

A London-based lawyer also believes that the issue may place Apple in breach of consumer law in the UK …

Apple says that the issue is a security feature designed to ensure that Touch ID cannot be compromised.

Error 53 is the result of security checks designed to protect our customers. iOS checks that the Touch ID sensor in your iPhone or iPad correctly matches your device’s other components.

If iOS finds a mismatch, the check fails and Touch ID, including for Apple Pay use, is disabled. This security measure is necessary to protect your device and prevent a fraudulent Touch ID sensor from being used. 

But law firm PCVA believes that Apple’s policy may violate consumer protection laws in the USA.

We believe Apple may be intentionally forcing users to use their repair services, which cost much more than most third-party repair shops. There is incentive for Apple to keep end users from finding alternative methods to fix their products.

UK barrister Richard Colbey says it is likely the same is true in the UK, and that Apple may even be guilty of causing criminal damage.

It is hard to see how something which ceases to work in this way could be said to be of reasonable quality, one of the determinants of which is durability. The law states: ‘A person who without lawful excuse destroys or damages any property belonging to another intending to destroy or damage any such property or being reckless as to whether any such property would be destroyed or damaged shall be guilty of an offence.’

Apple says that those who experience Error 53 should contact Apple Support, but has not yet responded to a question I asked yesterday about whether it is able to resolve the issue for those owners other than by providing a chargeable out-of-warranty replacement.

Those interested in joining the class action lawsuit can register at PCVA’s website.

It’s not unusual for class action suits to be filed against Apple, recent examples including iOS 9 performance on older devices and two different ones relating to mobile data charges.

Photo: Michaela Rehle/Reuters

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS Devices Tagged: Class action, class action lawsuit, Error 53, iPhone, iPhone repair, repair, Touch ID

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Earlier this year it was revealed that Apple is slowly making its way towards opening its own branded retail stores in India. Apple Stores in India have been a long time coming, but now it looks like they are finally getting close. Bloomberg reports that, after filing the initial paperwork last month, Apple is on track to have its request to be permitted to operate retail stores in India approved.

The report claims that, while a portion of the paperwork is being resubmitted due to a formatting error, the Indian government has every intention to approve the request. Although, there’s still no specific time-frame for the approval and subsequent opening of retail stores.

It appears that Apple will be able to circumvent a law in India that requires foreign companies to manufacture 30 percent of their goods in India in order to be allowed to operate retail locations. Current Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been working to open up the economy to foreign companies like Apple since he took power in 2014.

CEO Tim Cook met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi back in September to discuss the possibility of Apple increasing its presence in the country. In the meantime, Apple has been working with local retailers like Croma to build dedicated spaces within existing retail stores.

Despite the lack of a substantial retail presence in the country, Apple saw revenue in India break $1 billion last year, with CEO Tim Cook still optimistic that the country represents a huge opportunity for growth for Apple. Cook spoke of the potential India represents for Apple during a recent company-wide town hall, hinting at the company’s plans for retail stores in the country.

During the company’s Q1 2016 earnings call last month, Cook noted that iPhone sales grew 76 percent and revenue grew 38 percent in India during the quarter, explaining that India is the third-largest smartphone market in the world behind China and the United States.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple, India, retail stores

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Apple today announced in a post on its Swift blog that it is open sourcing the Swift benchmark suite. This announcement comes two months after the company made the Swift programming language open source, allowing the developer community to have direct access to the platform. Much like the rest of Swift, the benchmarking suite is available now on GitHub with an open source Apache license.

Specifically, the suite contains source code for benchmarks, libraries, and utilities. Apple engineer Luke Larson made the announcement, explaining that the benchmark suite is designed to track Swift performance and catch performance issues before they are committed.

Here’s what is available on GitHub for developers:

• 75 benchmarks covering a number of important Swift workloads
• Libraries providing commonly needed benchmarking functions
• A driver for running benchmarks and displaying performance metrics
• A utility for comparing benchmark metrics across Swift versions

Furthermore, Larson encourages developers to make suggestions relating to Swift’s benchmark suite, noting that all requests for new benchmarks covering performance critical workloads, additions to benchmark helper libraries, and other improvements are encouraged.

The open souring of the Swift benchmark suite continues Apple’s trend of making Swift as accessible as possible, both for developers and those who wish to teach Swift to younger crowds. Apple senior vice president of software Craig Federighi noted last year in an interview that making Swift open source will greatly increase interaction with developers.

The Swift benchmarking software is available open source now on GitHub.

Filed under: Developers Tagged: Apple, benchmarking, developer, Swift

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Since 2013, Microsoft has consistently offered something it called its “Accredited Support Professional Program” for iOS and Mac users. Essentially, this program allowed the company to train and accredit Apple techs and consultants on Microsoft Office for Mac and iOS. In the past, the courses have been conducted alongside the MacTech events across various cities and states. This year, however, there’s no sign of Microsoft offering its Accredited Support program, despite the release of Office 2016 for Mac.

First pointed out by users on Microsoft’s Community forums, Microsoft has not yet announced any intentions of offering courses for accreditation in Office for Mac 2016. The folks behind the MacTech conference have likewise not heard anything, posting a blurb on their website noting that they have no information from Microsoft.

MacTech has already announced its dates for 2016, with the conference kicking off on March 16th in San Francisco. There are events scheduled for San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Denver, New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Here is how Microsoft advertised its Accreditation Program last year:

Microsoft’s program is specifically designed to train and accredit Apple techs and consultants on Microsoft Office for Mac, iOS and Office 365. The half day long accreditation program takes place the day prior to each MacTech Pro in 2015. This newly updated Microsoft accreditation program is training and evaluation focused on the issues every consultant and tech should know when advising on or supporting Microsoft Office for Mac and iOS as well as Office 365, with a focus on Apple users.

This is an odd year for Microsoft to not offer an accreditation program for Mac users. Last summer, the company released Office 2016 for Mac, marking the first major update since 2011, so one would assume that the company would want to support that update.

While it’s not officially over yet, the company wouldn’t confirm it would continue the program either. In a statement to 9to5Mac, Microsoft had the following to say regarding the Accreditation Program:

Microsoft remains committed to IT Pros on the Mac platform and we recognize that the Accreditation Program has historically proved an important venue. We’re in the process of evaluating options for 2016, but don’t have anything to share at this time. We will keep you posted as we learn more.

Filed under: Apps, iOS, Mac Tagged: Mac, Microsoft, Office 2016

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Instagram today has officially announced support for mutliple accounts. After a slow roll out to multiple users, users are now able to add up to 5 different Instagram accounts and quickly switch between them all. Multiple account support has been added as of Instagram’s 7.15 version for iOS.

If a user would like to add multiple Instagram accounts, they can do so by going to the options page, and selecting ‘Add Account’ at the bottom. Once added, a user can switch between the various accounts by selecting the username at the top of the screen and selecting the other account they wish to use.

The way Instagram handles notifications for multiple accounts is a little different here as well. They indicate that the notifications “depends on when you last logged in and the number of devices that are logged in to an account”. From our understanding, this could indicate that users won’t receive all push notifications for all accounts, which may help converse battery life on a user’s device.

With the addition of multiple accounts, third-party Instagram applications may have a harder time competing on attractive features and the risk of user data harvesting may decrease. More information on multiple account usage may be found in Instagram’s official Help Center.

Instagram is available for free from the App Store and is compatible with iPhones running iOS 7.0 or higher.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Instagram, iOS, iPhone

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