'Super Mario Run' heads the Top Grossing category in the App Store already

Mere hours after its unveiling, Nintendo's Super Mario Run blockbuster climbed up the ladder to reach the top spot in the Top Grossing category of the App Store. 

Needless to say, it also tops the Free section chart, as it is free to play until 20 seconds into the fourth level. After that, the game is $9.99, which is on the steep side for a mobile game, but with 20 years of fame behind its back, this Italian plumber has earned his mettle. 

Apple will also stands to benefit from Nintendo's push into mobile, as it collects 30% of the App Store revenue in exchange for exposure to a billion iOS devices worldwide. The other title with Nintendo in the mix, Pokemon Go, is still high in the Top Grossing ranks, too, and the company has plenty of titles left to bring to mobile still.

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Gene Munster says goodbye with a final call for Apple to sell 170 million iPhones in fiscal 2018

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has been quoted in many of our stories over the years. He is taking his analytical skills to a different part of the financial industry as he starts a Venture Capital firm. In his final note to Piper's institutional traders, Munster gave his expectations about what he believes will be in store for Apple over the next five-years. 

Munster's 874th note about Apple said that services are the next frontier for the tech titan. If the company cannot make that change, investors will once again be forced to focus on unit growth and innovation. Speaking of unit growth, Munster says that the March and June quarters next year will see Apple topping the Street's expectations for sales of Apple iPhone 7 and Apple iPhone 7 Plus. 

The analyst predicts that the tenth anniversary iPhone, with a rumored edge-to-edge OLED panel, will produce high single-digit to low double-digit growth next year. Calling the premium anniversary model the iPhone 10, Munster expects sales of 170 million units of the iPhone during Apple's fiscal year 2018 which starts October 1st, 2017.

To be considered a services company by investors, Munster said that Apple would have to produce 50% of its revenue or more from back end businesses. In addition, Apple would have to sell cheaper devices and accept lower profit margins. 

"The experience was rough, but using the iPod gave me a sense of joy I never had from any other product. They did it with the iPod and recreated that joy with the iPhone. That magic is a big reason why we've been unwavering bulls on Apple for almost the entire time we've covered it...the company can recreate that magical feeling with some future product and will enjoy watching the stock rise when they do."-Gene Munster, departing analyst, Piper Jaffray

Some time in the next five years, Munster sees Apple replacing the iPhone with a wearable device using Augmented and Mixed Reality. He also expects automobiles to be the next major platform that Apple will dominate.

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Google updates Snapseed with many improvements on Android and iOS

Snapseed, the application developed by Google that should provide users with a complete and professional photo editor features, has just received the last update before the holidays.

According to Google, the new update includes many improvements for both the Android and iOS platforms. However, some of the change are only available on Android, while other may only be used on iOS devices.

But let's start with a new feature that's been implemented on both platforms. Snapseed users on either Android or iOS will now be able to center the text in the Text tool vertically and orizontally.

In addition, Google confirmed that it has updated the presets of the Face filter with more options for quick and easy enhancements.

Two new features have been included in Snapseed for Android, so they aren't available in the iOS version. The first one is called Perspective and it's a tool that brings back the old horizontal and vertical adjustment modes.

The Perspective tool was one of the most requested features that users have asked for, so Google has decided to bring it back in this update. It allows users to apply any kind of transformation and perspective adjustment.

Lastly, Snapseed for Android users will now be able to to choose the target for exporting a photo, so they can store it on an SD card or anywhere else. In order to enable this option simply head to the settings menu for exports.

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Forget Super Mario Run, here are 10 great alternatives for Android and iOS that are more fun

Forget about Super Mario Run, there are other platformer games for either iOS and Android that are not only cheaper but also way more fun!

In case you've missed the news, Nintendo's long-anticipated Super Mario Run arrived on iOS yesterday, with the first three levels of the game being free to try and the rest of the game available for $9.99. 

We guess that fans of all things Nintendo are reveling in the auto-runner platformer game set in the beloved Mario universe, but let's face it - while fun for a while, this one is nowhere as good as some other platformer games for iOS and Android that are much more fun. 

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Bear is a great new notes app with support for formatting, sync and more

Bear is a new note-taking app for iOS devices and Mac computers that features a simple, intuitive design with some neat formatting options and a beautiful, clean design.

It is completely free to download, but if you want to use its pro features like cross-device sharing and more, you'd need to sign up for a paid subscription running for $1.5 per month, or $15 for a year.

What makes Bear different than most other note taking applications is the ability to easily link notes to create a whole body of work, and you can also easily use hashtags to organize your thoughts. Everything is neatly stored in plain text, so it's easily transferable between different mediums.

Bear is also a flexible app: as much as it is about basic notes and to-do lists, it's also well fit for coders or more serious prose writers looking to craft their next thing. The app is compatible with external keyboards, so you can do some more serious typing without having to carry your Macbook and right below you'd see a demo of how this works.

Additionally, Bear also comes with a full-screen mode that allows you to concentrate fully on your writing, without any distractions.

The list of features also includes the following:

• Rich previews while writing so you see prose, not code
• In-line support for images and photos
• Advanced Markup Editor that supports and highlights over 20 programming languages
• Use Cross-Note Links to build a body of work, quickly reference other notes, and more
• Quickly add todos to individual notes to keep yourself on task
• Multiple export options including HTML, PDF, DOCX, MD, JPG, and more
• Smart Data Recognition of elements like links, emails, addresses, colors, and more to come
• Hashtags to quickly find and organize notes however you like
• One-tap formatting on iPhone and iPad with a custom shortcut bar
• Focus Mode hides notes and other options when it matters
• Effortless, secure, and private multi-device sync via iCloud

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watchOS 3.1.1 update gets pulled after bricking reports, users must contact Apple for replacements

Apple released watchOS 3.1.1 a few days ago and many Apple Watch owners now report that their smartwatches have been bricked in the attempt of updating to the latest version of the OS.

Following these bricking complaints, Apple has decided to pull the update from its servers, so if you haven't updated until now chances are that you won't be able to do it anymore. In fact, it's not even recommended to try and update to watchOS 3.1.1 until Apple fixes the bricking issues.

Many Apple Watch owners have taken to Reddit to complain that their smartwatches have been bricked after updating to watchOS 3.1.1 and that they have been forced to visit the nearest Apple service.

While some managed to save their devices by performing a force restart holding down the side button the the Digital Crown, the solution hasn't really worked for many. 

Those who plan on heading to an Apple retail location will probably have to wait a bit for their smartwatches to be replaced, but one thing is sure: these bricked Apple Watch units can't be repaired in stores.

It's also worth noting that many customers have had their Apple Watch units bricked, this doesn't seem to be a widely spread issue yet. It's unclear why some smartwatches bricked after the update while others didn't.

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BMJ: Pokemon GO won't keep you fit; game only produces shortlived improvement in exercising

Remember those steamy summer nights when you'd be walking for hours, smartphone in hand, trying to catch Pokemon while playing Pokemon GO? And when your spouse or parents or friends looked at you like you were Mr. Mime, complaining that you were spending too much time on that dang game, you responded that all of that walking was making you fit and healthy.

As it turns out, any health effects from playing Pokemon GO were shortlived according to a report in the British Medical Journal. For this survey, the medical publication recruited U.S. Pokemon GO players aged 18 to 35. All of them had to use an Apple iPhone 6 because of its ability to automatically record the number of steps taken while being held. Participants were paid $2 (and your mom told you that you couldn't make any money playing Pokemon all day!).

The bottom line is that Pokemon GO players started fast when they downloaded the game. During the first week of game play, they showed an average increase of 955 steps a day over the non-players, who kept walking at their baseline pace. By the sixth week though, the additional steps tallied by players over non-players was only 130, and the players were back to their baseline. Considering that interventions designed to get people up and walking add 2500 steps a day over a longer term period, we'd say that Pokemon GO really doesn't appear to provide any long lasting fitness benefit. The BMJ said so, too.

The Journal did point out the limitations in its survey. Not every player uses an iPhone 6 to play, and steps were counted only when a player had the iPhone 6 in his/her hand. In addition, the survey covered U.S. players only. On the other hand, there are sure to be some Pokemon GO players who lost a lot of weight. Video game players are usually not active; for many, playing Pokemon GO brought about a major change in lifestyle.

"Results: 560 (47.4%) of the survey participants reported playing Pokémon GO and walked on average 4256 steps (SD 2697) each day in the four weeks before installation of the game. The difference in difference analysis showed that the daily average steps for Pokémon GO players during the first week of installation increased by 955 additional steps (95% confidence interval 697 to 1213), and then this increase gradually attenuated over the subsequent five weeks. By the sixth week after installation, the number of daily steps had gone back to pre-installation levels. No significant effect modification of Pokémon GO was found by sex, age, race group, bodyweight status, urbanity, or walkability of the area of residence.

Conclusions: Pokémon GO was associated with an increase in the daily number of steps after installation of the game. The association was, however, moderate and no longer observed after six weeks.-BMJ"

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Yet another report indicates that sales of the iPhone might not be as strong as years past

With 2017 marking the ten-year anniversary of when Steve Jobs first took the wraps off of the iPhone, we're expecting big things from Apple come next year. Since so much hype is being placed on the next-generation iPhone, it makes sense as to why Apple played it a bit safe this year with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. The introduction of true water-resistance, a brighter screen, and a refined design were all certainly nice additions, and while there's no doubt that the iPhone 7 line is the best one yet, it's also no surprise that this year's iPhone is a bit boring when compared to previous iterations.

Since the iPhone 7 hit the market, we've seen reports that sales for Apple's latest smartphone were a bit lukewarm and not as great as the company was anticipating. New information by way of Barron's reiterates this fact, as it states that multiple manufacturing plants in Taiwan that create various components for the iPhone have faced losses as a result of the phone's lackluster sales reception. It's reported that a total of 19 different companies in Taiwan have been faced with losses, with their total cumulative profits down about 0.4-percent when compared to this time last year. Some of these 19 companies include the likes of Foxcon and Largan Precision, and while this is just one outside report and nothing official from Apple, it's still quite interesting.

As mentioned above, the lower sales for the iPhone could be a result of so much anticipation being placed on next year's model. We've heard reports that the 2018 iPhone could feature a revolutionary wireless charging standard and long-awaited OLED panels, so it makes sense as to why some customers would be inclined to hold off on this year's offering. In addition to this, the iPhone 7 marks the third-year in a row that Apple has stuck with the same general design for their smartphone, so customers could also be getting fatigued by more of the same.

Ming-Chi Kuo is one of the best analysts in the industry, and a few weeks ago Kuo reported that lower iPhone sales could also be a result of no planned refresh for the iPhone SE and overall lower demand over in China. These reported weaker sales for the iPhone certainly don't mean that Apple is falling to its demise, but it'll be interesting to see how the company responds to these claims and reports with their product line in 2018.

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Apple's iOS 10.2 update: here are all the new emoji

After a long period of beta testing it, Apple has now released iOS 10.2, the latest version of its mobile operating system.

We already have the big story about all the changes that come with iOS 10.2, but in this article we wanted to focus on what's probably the most fun of them all: emojis.

SOME ARE FUN, SOME ARE CREEPY

Apple brings a slew of new emojis in iOS 10.2 with support for Unicode, and apart from the peach emoji retaining its filled with sexual innuendo form, there are a few interesting and a few creepy new ones that you might want to know about.

Things like the extremely creepy long-nose lying face emoji are now official, and you also now have harambe, all sorts of emojis for sports and a very weird drooling emoji. Check them all out right below.

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Use these apps to stream movies from your PC to your iPhone, iPad, or Android device

Being able to stream movies and TV shows directly to your phone or tablet is an amazing luxury in our 21st-century lives. Washing the dishes and doing the laundry are much less boring chores when you have this small screen that you can take with you in any room of the house and play an entertaining piece of media on.

And sure, there are a lot of services that allow you to stream shows directly from the Internet — Netflix being probably the most popular. But what about that library of movies and shows that you have on your PC's hard drive? You sure would love to be able to watch these on your mobile device without having to actually copy them over, since it both takes time and eats up precious storage, right?

Well, thankfully, streaming media from your PC to your phone is rather easy, so long as you use the right apps. Check out our top 5 apps for streaming movies to your iOS or Android device below!

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You can now preserve the camera settings of your iPhone, thanks iOS 10.2!

In case you've missed today's big Apple-related news, iOS 10.2 is already rolling out to all compatible iPhones. If you haven't downloaded it yet, make sure to head to Settings > Software update and request it manually.

Some of the more important new features that arrived alongside Apple's latest software update are a bunch of new Unicode 9.0 emoji, new Emergency SOS feature, one-time login, as well as the new TV app. However, there's now a minor new feature that we simply couldn't overlook since we've previously had gripes with its absence from iOS.

See, imagine that you flick out your iPhone and take a selfie. Okay? Now, if you lock the phone and then re-open the camera, it will launch in its default mode and not the last mode you used it in, i.e. selfie. The same applies to filters you apply, and so on - camera settings are not preserved after you close the app and lock your phone.

Enter iOS 10.2, which has a neatly hidden menu that lets you choose whether to preserve the camera's settings between or have them reset every time you open the camera app. 

You can choose whether to preserve the camera mode, the photo filter, or the Live Photo setting. We think these are all great and useful additions that should have made it to the OS earlier, but anyway, better late than never, right? 

Oh, we almost forgot — to tinker with the new settings go to Settings > Photos & Camera > Preserve Settings and flick the corresponding switches. Happy selfie-taking!

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Goat Simulator is now free on iOS

Goat Simulator, the immensely popular, nonsensical sandbox game that puts you into the hooves of a psychotic goat bent on destroying the world, is now free on iOS (it usually goes for $4.99). Following in the footsteps of other (non-)simulation, self-aware games such as Surgeon Simulator, Goat Simulator struck gold with its tongue-in-cheek humor, buggy physics, and intentionally broken gameplay that ofter rewarded the player for breaking the game.

We like to think that Goat Simulator takes place in the fever dreams of a psychotic goat. Because we don't know how else to explain the fact that the game lets you perform a sacrificial ritual — by dragging human bodies to a large pentagram using your tongue no less — and become a demon-possessed goat with telekinetic powers. Do we have your attention now? Good.

Goat Simulator is irreverent, low-brow humor at its best. The game is so utterly broken and bizarre, but it revels in its stupidity in such a nonchalant and self-aware way, it will have you laughing out loud the first few times you play it. We'd say $0.00 is a pretty good deal for Goat Simulator, so go grab it using the link below.

Download Goat Simulator

App Store

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Tinder on Apple TV: “Fun for the whole family”

We promise, this is not an April fools joke five months in advance. Tinder is actually available on Apple TV now. And the press release that announced it is quite surprising if not bizarre.

The new TV spin-off of the dating app comes with very basic functionality – you can view profiles and swipe. But if you'd like to edit your own profile or message a match, you'd still have to reach for your phone.

What strikes us as odd would be the marketing strategy Tinder has chosen for its TV app, though. According to the company, “it's the biggest thing to hit family night since Yahtzee”. It appears that the marketing campaign is completely focused on swiping with your grandma sitting next to you on the couch.

If we have to quote the masterminds behind the dating app themselves, “why swipe alone when you can let Aunt Donna have a say? She's known you since you were two; she's watched you grow. If she says you should Swipe Right on that nice girl in the penguin costume, you Swipe Right on that nice girl in the penguin costume”. We believe that was weird enough without the penguin costume, but who are we to judge?

You can see all of the ads of this new, and truly unexpected, campaign in the gallery below.

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Linia is the free iOS app of the week

The latest free iOS app of the week is Linia. The app will normally run you $3.99, but for this week only you won't have to open your wallet to download and install the puzzle game. With more than 80 levels, the game asks you trace a line that connects shapes in various colors. The colors try to hide from you by changing shapes. Once you stop your Linia session, the game is saved to the cloud.

If you complete all levels, a special surprise is supposed to take place. The developer says that the game takes place in a relaxing atmosphere, so this is not a frantic puzzler for adrenaline junkies. And Linia is also available in the Google Play Store for Android users. However, Android users will have to shell out 99 cents for the game.

If you want to play a fun, relaxing and addictive game, download and install Linia now. Simply click on the appropriate link found on the sourcelink. You can get an idea how to play the puzzle game by clicking on the video found at the top of the story.

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Man embezzles $5 million from work, spends $1 million on an iPhone game

According to a court filing in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, a man named Kevin Lee Co pleaded guilty to multiple counts of wire fraud and money laundering. Working for a heavy equipment company named Holt California from 2008 to 2015, Co stole a total of $5 million from his employer. $1 million of that went to pay for "Game of War," which he played on his iPhone.

This is a game that allows players to battle against millions of other players from around the world. The game works on the freemium model, but in-app purchases allow players to build a war machine by stockpiling weapons. The average player spent $550 on the game in 2015. 

Co also spent money on season tickets for the Sacramento Kings and the San Francisco 49'ers, plastic surgery and expensive luxury cars. He will be sentenced in May and faces a maximum prison term of 20-years. Game of War happens to be one of the most profitable mobile video games. It garners $1 million in revenue daily which allows developer Machine Zone to use models like Kate Upton to star in expensive commercials shown during the Super Bowl.

You can check out the court document detailing the plea by clicking on the sourcelink

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Steve Jobs talked about renting first run movies on iTunes back in 2010

The other day, we told you that Apple is interested in working out a deal with major movie studios that would allow first run movies to be rented from iTunes. A first run film is generally considered one that has been just released and has been in the theaters for a few weeks. Traditionally, these movies are not offered for streaming because that would interfere with the box-office take. Usually, iTunes waits for a movie to have been out for no earlier than three months before offering the title.

As it turns out, late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs was ahead of us mere mortals on this issue. Six years ahead, as it turns out. A video clip has surfaced of a panel discussion held during the D8 conference held in 2010. During the discussion, Jobs says, "I even think that there’s going to be a way to watch a first-run movie at home before it comes out on DVD if you’re willing to spend a bunch of money." As it turns out, the buzz around the water cooler is that first-run rentals could cost $25 to $50 each on iTunes, which would certainly be "a bunch of money."

If you have some time, we suggest that you try to watch the entire video even though it runs for 95 minutes. Walt Mossberg and Kara Fisher moderate a very entertaining talk with Jobs that covers a number of events that we passed along to you at the time such as Jobs' anger at Adobe over Flash, and the Apple iPhone 4 prototype that was lost in a bar. With Adobe, Jobs explains how it was really the software firm that took things out of proportion. And there is no mistake about Jobs' feelings when Google's name was brought up.by Mossberg.

Check it all out by clicking on the video at the top of this story.

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Best new Android and iPhone games (December 6th - December 12th)

Every week, we go through the new and notable games for iPhone, iPad and Android devices like the Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and we pick the best new releases that are worth a special place in your collection.

AN AVALANCHE OF GREAT NEW GAMES

The new Android and iPhone games that we pick have to be fun, well-ported to mobile, and not overwhelmed by in-app ads. Put simply, they need to be high quality games, but we don't discriminate by genre: you will find everything here, from shooters, RPGs, platformers, racing games, to strategy and more.

With no further ado, here are the best new games in the middle of December 2016.

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Samsung Pay Mini won't launch for iOS, Apple rejects the app

According to rumors, Samsung is going to launch a new mobile payments app in January. The app is named “Samsung Pay Mini” and it should've made its debut on both iOS and Android. It turns out, however, that the new app will not be available for iOS in the foreseeable future.

According to ETNews, Apple rejected registration of the “Samsung Pay Mini” app on its App Store. Reasons for the rejection were not made public, but we can safely assume that Apple wants to keep Apple Pay the main go-to app for mobile payments on its own OS. Despite the fact that “Samsung Pay Mini” will be focused only on online payments, unlike Apple's solution, which can completely replace your physical cards, it's highly likely that Apple wouldn't want a strong competitor in its own ecosystem.

Samsung will not be applying for registration on the App Store again and will only focus on Android devices, as confirmed by a company representative. “After Apple rejected registration of Samsung Pay Mini onto its app store, we have decided to focus only on smartphones with Android OS,” they said.

“Samsung Pay Mini” is still coming to Android, probably next month. It will be the first step by the South Korean company towards extending its mobile payments support to other brands of phones, and not just its own. Tests have already been carried out with local credit card providers, so we know for sure that the app is launching in South Korea at some point, but Samsung has yet to let the world know which other markets it will target.

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Want a Black or Jet Black iPhone 7 case? These ones will have you covered

Apple started somewhat of a trend with its two new IPhone colors - Black and Jet Black - as Samsung now reissued the S7 edge in Black Pearl, in addition to the Onyx Black it had before, and other makers are seen following suit with glossed up versions of their darkest shades.

We already covered the idea behind the two black editions of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, but one thought was always at the back of our minds then - what's the point of all those color versions, if you are going to have your handset covered most of the time by a case, as happens with the majority of our precious and pricey phones these days immediately after purchse.

Well, fret not, as case makers have taken note as well, and are starting to issue wrappers in the body hue of the phones they cover, so as to retain as much of the original desing intention as possible, and still offer protection from the gravity and the elements. Granted, you can always go with a clear case, but those are never refracting light in the same way as the phone's surface, altering the color within, and often yellow with time and outdoor use. 

That is why we have rounded up a few of the cases meant to keep your Black or Jet Black iPhones safe from harm, and at the same time relay to the outside world the dark beauties within them.

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Best new Android and iPhone apps (December 6th - December 12th)

Well, we are back at it at the start of a fresh new week. You know it — it's time to check out some apps, see which ones are interesting, and play with them for a while. And, as you know, since there are hundreds of new apps appearing on the app stores every week, we do a quick comb, so you don't have to.

This week around, we have the cool Quartz news app / chat bot mix make its way to Android, an app that will help you pick out the best photo from a burst shot for iOS, and others. Check them out below, see which ones you like best. If you know of a brand-new app that deserves to be here, but isn't — shout it out in the comments below!

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