iOS 10 Carrier Updates Causing Issues for T-Mobile Users in U.S., Telstra Users in Australia
The combination of upgrading to iOS 10 and installing the latest carrier updates appears to be causing issues for some T-Mobile and Telstra customers in the United States and Australia respectively, crowdsourced information suggests.
A number of T-Mobile and MetroPCS customers claim that once their iPhone loses service temporarily, the device is unable to reestablish a cellular connection unless it is fully restarted or network settings are reset. The issue appears to have started after the latest 25.1 carrier update on iPhones running iOS 10.
MacRumors reader GCHASE1995:
Anyone on T-Mobile that has done the carrier update to 25.1, have you been getting no service? I can’t get service at all. I can get it, if I reset network settings. Then if I lose service I can’t get it back.
Reddit user Hitokill:
I am in the same boat as many others. If I can stay connected to the LTE network the 25.1 update is fine. However, I work in a building with certain areas that have no coverage. Once I walk in those areas and lose signal, then walk to an area where I normally have full bars I can’t get it back on no matter what I do (hard reset, Airplane Mode, etc…) The only fix I found was going into settings and Reset Network Settings. Totally sucks but that is basically what I have to do. T-Mobile rep said he did something on his end too, but didn’t fix the issue when it came back.
Meanwhile, several Telstra customers in Australia report that Visual Voicemail no longer works after updating to iOS 10 and installing the latest carrier update. “I have no indication that a voicemail has been left and nothing shows up in the voicemail section,” wrote one user. “Voicemails are definitely being left though.”
It is unclear if Apple is aware of these issues, but they will likely be resolved in a future software or carrier update.
Tags: T-Mobile, Telstra
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iPhone 7 Keynote Game ‘Oz: Broken Kingdom’ Launches in App Store
Showcased during the September 7 Apple event as an example of the iPhone 7’s upgraded A10 Fusion processor, the mobile RPG Oz: Broken Kingdom today launched in the iOS App Store for free. The game features a turn-based combat system with characters based on L. Frank Baum’s novel, including Tin Man, Scarecrow, Lion and a new heroine named Ophelia Shen.
Developed and released by Nexon M and This Game Studio, Oz: Broken Kingdom has players collecting and upgrading over 100 unique abilities during a story mode that spans seven regions of the land of Oz, “including the now dangerous Munchkin countryside, perilous halls of Glinda’s Castle, and the many shadowy lands beyond.” Players will battle both small minions and epic bosses as they progress through the single-player mode, focusing on leveling up abilities in the three areas of strength, nature, and magic.
There’s also an Arena mode, where players can create and join guilds with friends, collect companions to fight in battles, and ultimately challenge other players in real-time Arena battles in a player-vs-player mode. Throughout these PvP sessions, each player will climb or fall down a rankings leaderboard, and earn rewards to make taking out opponents easier.
“In Oz: Broken Kingdom, we’ve not only reinterpreted the land of Oz but expanded its lore,” said Scott Blackwood, Founder and Head of Product at This Game Studio. “Players will explore a new take on Oz, one brought to life with stunning detail and brimming with fierce enemies at every turn.”
“The experienced team at This Game Studio realized a tremendous opportunity when they took this globally relevant brand and reimagined it in a way that would resonate with today’s mobile gamer audience,” said Lawrence Koh, General Manager at Nexon M. “We knew when we first saw the game in early development that it was going to exceed player expectations on everything from graphics, fresh content, and most importantly, fun gameplay.”
During the iPhone 7 event last week, This Game Studio co-founder Heather Price noted that the studio was “able to do things visually on the iPhone 7 that were simply not possible before.” Price listed features like real-time reflections, weather effects, and environmental destruction abilities that all benefited from the boosted processing power of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Other bonuses from Apple’s new smartphone include responsive haptic feedback taps during gameplay, a wider color gamut, and a more immersive audio experience thanks to the iPhone 7’s stereo speakers.
Although optimized for the iPhone 7, Oz: Broken Kingdom is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch models running iOS 7 or later, and is also available on the Google Play Store on Android devices. The game is free-to-download [Direct Link], but includes a handful of in-app purchases.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: App Store
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PlayFusion Lightseekers for iOS and Android: Toys to life is not dead, it’s only just beginning
With Disney’s withdrawal from the toys-to-life game genre questions were asked on whether the bubble had burst for videogames that interact with physical toys. However, not only are Lego Dimensions and Skylanders still going strong, with both having significant updates in time for Christmas, there’s a new kid on the block.
Lightseekers is a smart action figure-driven game from Tomy and PlayFusion for iOS and Android. And while the toys may look like plus-sized Skylanders, there is more going on in the tech and the game here.
Perhaps the biggest difference to other toys-to-life rivals is with the technology. Rather than portal powered near-field-communication of Amiibo, Skylanders and Lego Dimensions, Lightseekers characters connect directly to a dedicated game via Bluetooth Low Energy. Not only does that eliminate the need for a portal peripheral but the toys themselves are freed from their static base.
Standing around seven inches tall they are impressive to see. Each limb is fully articulated and invites hands of any age to pose and play with the painted finish heroes. They also light up in numerous places as you progress through the game.
As your on-screen energy depletes the lights change from green to orange to red. Get too low and your toy character starts speaking to you too, warning that you need to retreat. There’s also vibration interactions, although these are yet to be shown in detail.
The videogame side of Lightseekers runs on iOS and Android tablets (PlayFusion hasn’t released exact requirements yet). The app is free, but will need a Start Pack to play. These are planned for release in spring next year in the US with a target price of $69.99.
The on-screen action is also quite different from the brawling and puzzle solving of Skylanders or endless fetch quests of Lego Dimensions. Drawing on talent involved with Runescape, Tomb Raider and Street Fighter, there is a triple-A feel to proceedings.
This offers more of a strategic experience than being able to memorise and mash buttons. You must upgrade your character and their weapons to enhance progress and dispatch enemies. Those weapons come in physical form as well. Place one in the hands of your toy and it’s instantly available in the game. Like the figurines the weapons also light up to depict action in the game.
One thing currently missing in the game is simultaneous multiplayer. At launch, Lightseekers will offer a range of asynchronous multiplayer options but two players can’t play together at the same time — something Disney Infinity was heavily criticised for initially too. Perhaps this style of multiplayer will suit the tablet players who may not want to be online or together at the same time to play, but that remains to be seen.
The final piece of the puzzle is a card game. Unlike Battlecast, the Lightseekers card game works as a physical game without the need for the tablet. While you’re playing though, the cards can be scanned into the app with some impressive AR visualisation to give your character enhancements, or even add in a helper to fight alongside you.
Gameplay is a combination of action-adventure and role play with a smattering of puzzles and minigames. So far there have been three races revealed: Tyrax, a reptilian race of experts when it comes to magical technology. Mari, who are water creatures and wield powerful storm magic. Then there are the Umbron who are the first enemy you meet in the game. They also have magical powers.
Nick Cooper, producer on Lightseekers, showed us the different stages of developing the toys and the challenge of making them look really good. “In a game we would normally handle things with textures, in toys you have to cut in and define the model to pick out the individual bits of the model,” he said.
There’s obviously quite a journey here to get the Lightseekers action figures looking as good as they can. Working through the different iterations there has been a lot of effort and creativity on these characters. This results in figures that not only tick the tech boxes but also feel great to hold and look fantastic.
But did Lightseekers have to make big compromises on the toy elements to include all the technology at a price point that was affordable?
“There’s always a compromise either from manufacturer and paint or the model point of view. But we’ve been pushing from day one on all the things we want to get in,” said Cooper.
“We’ve over spec’d the toys to build in extendability so we have features that will have gameplay generated for them in the future. This is a game as a service and will be updated weekly.”
Interestingly, Cooper identifies that these updates are not just on the side of the app but also “how players use the digital action figures and the variety of accessories”.
Hearing Cooper talk, there’s an interesting tension here. These are videogame guys making a fresh foray into the world of toys. “The gameplay is the bit I get truly excited about,” he revealed during our chat. It’s therefore an important piece of the story that PlayFusion has a heavyweight toy partner in the form of Tomy.
This not only gives the company a ready-made route to market but means it can draw on Tomy’s experience in getting the most out of toy manufacturing.
“One of the main things is if we’re going to be going into the digital action figure business, these are toys as well as props for a videogame. It was very important that they stand and can be posed in heroic ways. When someone puts the game down, these are fully articulated figures that can be played with.”
As the conversation took a turn towards the playability of the action figures it underlined how this space is still strongest with a younger audience – those who are still happy to play with action figures on the living room floor.
Here though we find another tension. PlayFusion has ambitions to broaden the toys-to-life genre for older players. However, the decisions around the cartoon-like nature of the toys and the initial focus on tablet devices will skew it younger.
Mark Gerhard, co-founder PlayFusion, described the approach to platforms. “It’s tablet or phone at the start and then we’ll move to other platforms after that. We think there’s a big opportunity to do a really compelling action adventure on mobile and tablet.”
The rhetoric of ageing-up kids technology may make sense in the boardroom but is in danger of diluting the focus and delivery for the core younger audience. The Wii U suffered in this way, with Nintendo suggesting the console had something for older hardcore gamers as well as families.
It will be intriguing to see how the demographic for Lightseekers shakes down but until the console version is available it feels like this will be most successful for those tablet-native youngsters who haven’t really graduated onto a console – there are certainly plenty of them.
To spend too long fussing over these negatives is to miss the point though. Lightseekers looks like it will be the most integrated approach to action-figures and videogames to date. Add to that Tomy’s impressive smart toys and the card game and it all comes together in a videogame experience that is in-depth and long lasting.
It’s a very strong start, and with more innovations promised Lightseekers will certainly shake up the toys-to-life genre when it releases.
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Mobileye bailed on Tesla over Autopilot safety concerns
The head of driver-assistance system maker MobilEye has said that the company ended its relationship with Tesla because the firm is “pushing the envelope in terms of safety.” That’s the controversial quote that CEO Amnon Shashua gave to Reuters explaining why its years-long partnership was axed just when it began to bear fruit. Unfortunately, a fatal collision between a Model S and a box truck on a Florida highway this June made MobilEye reconsider its position.
Given how instrumental MobilEye was in developing Autopilot, it’s a surprise to see Sashua effectively talk down his company’s product. He added that the technology is “not designed to cover all possible crash situations in a safe manner,” and that Autopilot is a “driver assistance system and not a driverless system.” Tesla, naturally, shot back and said that it had never described the Tesla Model S as a self-driving car, with its website describing Autopilot as a “convenience feature.”
At the time of the split, there was some back-and-forth between Tesla and MobilEye, with the former saying that the latter couldn’t keep pace with its rate of innovation. The company has also received opprobrium from other corners of the self-driving world, such as George Hotz, who is running his own autonomous vehicle startup. At a presentation at TechCrunch Disrupt this week, the Comma.ai founder said that MobilEye felt that “Tesla was too innovative and it scared them.”
MobilEye will hope to move beyond Tesla in the near future, since it has partnerships with a wide variety of other car manufacturers. While its technology won’t be appearing in Elon Musk’s next generation of vehicles, it will pop up in cars from BMW and will work with Intel and Delphi on other projects.
Source: Reuters
Google’s latest virtual tour takes you inside 10 Downing Street
A few years ago, Google was allowed access to London’s famed Downing Street to look upon the iconic black door of Number 10. And now, the search giant has been welcomed inside so we may all roam the gaff of post-Brexit hot potato winner and current Prime Minister Theresa May. As Wired notes, this isn’t the first time rooms in the residence have been papped in 360 degrees, with Eye Revolution holding that honour. More than a simple addition to Street View, though, Google’s Arts and Culture division has given Number 10 the virtual tour treatment.
Google already expanded its archives with thousands of natural history exhibits earlier this week, and like those, the Number 10 tour is an educational experience. Two special exhibits are featured: One offering a brief history of two 20th century PMs, Winston Churchill and Harold Wilson, while another elaborates on some of the more important rooms within the residence. Google recommends you load up the Arts and Culture app and stick your smartphone in a Cardboard viewer for the best experience, which includes audio descriptions.
Alternatively, you can simply nose around various luxuriously furnished rooms or relax in the garden by way of Street View. Unfortunately, you can only ogle a fraction of the Prime Minister’s labyrinthine abode, which boasts around 100 rooms — we’re not getting a Cribs level of access here, in other words. Still, considering Theresa May wants to rifle though all our browsing histories, it’s nice to be invited in for a cup of tea and a jammy scone.
Via: Wired, The Telegraph
Source: Google (1), (2)
Sleep Number starts shipping its cheaper sleep-tracking mattress
You’ve probably seen the television ads about the couples that sleep on the same bed but require different levels of mattress firmness. Sleep Number is company behind those TV spots and the dual zone mattress. Today it announced it’ll start shipping its smart It Bed that was announced at CES on September 19.
The new offering ships rolled up in a box like Casper mattresses. But after throwing it on your box spring and waiting 15mins, it’ll start quantifying your evenings. Like the rest of the Sleep Number lineup, it has two zones that can be adjusted to a person’s comfort level using air-filled chambers, can track your sleep habits and connects to Fit Bit, MapMyRun, Withings and the Nest Learning Thermostat.
The It Bed is cheaper than the rest of the Sleep Number beds with a twin mattress costing $800. The queen size will set you back $1,100 and a king hitting $1,500. Shipping is free and Sleep Number offers a 30-night return policy.
Source: Sleep Number
Microsoft is still bragging about Edge’s battery superiority
Microsoft says it has made the Edge browser on the Windows 10 Anniversary Update even more efficient than the previous version, and is again boasting about its performance compared to rivals. When streaming Netflix, the new tweaks will help your Windows 10 PC last 45 percent longer than with Chrome, and 69 percent longer if you’re using Firefox. For general purpose browsing, PCs running Edge last 24 to 43 percent longer than with other browsers, according to Redmond.
Microsoft said it achieved a 12 percent efficiency improvement over the last version thanks to tweaks in both the browser and Windows 10 itself. Other tests are closer, though — Chrome sucks just 11 percent more power on a Vimeo test, for example. In real-world tests, however, Edge trounces both browers, consuming around 450 milliwatts of power compared to 550 milliwatts for Firefox and about 770 milliwatts with Chrome.
While Microsoft called the tests “realistic and transparent,” it’s still running them on its own Surface Books, not third party hardware. And power consumption isn’t everything — Google app users may prefer to stay within the Chrome ecosystem, for one thing. In any case, Edge’s share of the desktop browser market hasn’t budged from around 4.2 percent recently, so Microsoft’s efficiency message doesn’t seem to be getting across.
Its also as much an indictment of Chrome and Firefox as a pat on the back for its own browser. Chrome users have already noticed a significant degradation in performance, and even Google admits that it’s time to fix that. Still, if you need to eke the maximum endurance from a Windows 10 laptop, the latest tests give you a solid reason to consider Edge.
Augmented reality studio castAR picks up ‘Disney Infinity’ devs
CastAR, the augmented reality company founded by two former Valve engineers, has set up a new studio in Salt Lake City with the goal of creating fresh mixed-reality experiences. To help fill the new digs, castAR scooped up a handful of developers who worked on the Disney Infinity series at Avalanche Software until that studio was unceremoniously shut down in May.
“With their experience in bringing massive franchises to life through breakthrough interactive design, the addition of this team is our next bold step in launching a dynamic platform that will bring awe-inspiring mixed reality to households,” castAR President and COO Steve Parkis says. Parkis was previously an executive with Disney Online and Zynga, and he’ll now be in charge of castAR’s expanded teams.
With the new hires, the size of castAR’s game development team has more than doubled. The company now has roughly 70 employees across its Salt Lake City and Palo Alto offices.
CastAR, founded by Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson, has been buliding a pair of augmented reality glasses that can be used in everyday and professional life. However, the company hasn’t forgotten its gaming roots: One of its main goals is to create tabletop games that come to life with the castAR glasses. That’s fairly close to what the folks at Avalanche were doing with Disney Infinity — but instead of bringing reality to life, they fused it with the television screen.
In August, castAR hired Darell Rodriguez, former LucasArts president and COO of Electronic Arts, as its chief executive. CastAR has been relatively silent for about a year, but it seems that the mixed-reality business is gearing up to deliver on some of its promises.
Facebook brings Live broadcasts to the desktop
If you like Facebook’s Live feature but feel more at home in front of a computer than a smartphone when you broadcast, it might not be too long before you can do so. The social giant has confirmed that it’s bringing the feature to the browser, allowing Facebook.com users to select a “Live Video” button in the status update box and immediately begin streaming.
Search Engine Journal shared a video of Facebook user Delilah Taylor, who appears to be one of the first to gain access the new Live tool. AdWeek sources say the company brought the feature to the browser in response to “demand from journalists, vloggers and do-it-yourselfers.”
Transitioning from mobile-only is a big step for the Facebook Live. While it was previously competing with Twitter’s Periscope for the live video audience, it’s now also aiming at YouTube and Twitch streamers as well. Social networks are spending big money to lure in online personalities: Facebook, in particular, is reported to be working on a new way to monetize videos uploaded by popular users in order to break the hold YouTube’s ad dollars have on them.
“We’re starting to roll out the ability for people to broadcast live on Facebook from their desktop or laptop,” said Facebook in a statement. AdWeek reports that the feature will take a while to expand its reach, with more people set to gain access “in the coming months.”
Via: AdWeek
Source: Search Engine Journal
iPhone 7 Unboxing Video Reveals New ‘Choose Your Click’ Home Button Option
YouTuber MKBHD recently unboxed the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus on his channel, showing the contents of each smartphone’s packaging, the boot-up of iOS, and even a quick overview of official Geekbench benchmark results. In the video, the unboxed iPhones encompass the new Jet Black and Black color options, for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, respectively.
Interestingly, once MKBHD begins cycling through the iOS set-up process, he discovered a new step on iPhone 7 that focuses on the haptic feedback of the new Home Button. After confirming your language, region, and setting up Touch ID, Apple ID, and Siri, the iPhone 7 will allow you to “meet the new Home Button.” The added process in iOS 10’s start-up on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus makes “your iPhone experience even more personal by choosing the click that’s right for you.”
Here, the iPhone will present you with three options of varying haptic feedback clicks. MKBHD described option one as “really light,” almost to the point where he wasn’t sure if he was pressing the button or not, three as “a really firm click response,” and two as “a default, somewhere in the middle.” He said with the middle option the “whole phone seems to be vibrating still,” but he decided to go with the highly responsive third option to be sure when the button’s been pressed.
Otherwise it seems like the contents of each iPhone 7 box, and the set-up process, are largely what’s expected at this point from Apple. Each iPhone comes with the usual paperwork, Lightning cable, AC adapter, and now the new Lightning EarPods and Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter, which are the biggest changes this year. MKBHD’s video showcases the colors of Jet Black and Black as well, and he recommends the matte Black finish over Jet Black, which he calls a “special edition” iPhone that’s worth checking out in a store, but might be frustrating to keep clean sans case.
He also runs a quick Geekbench test, confirming 3GB of RAM in the iPhone 7 Plus and single-core and multi-core results that fall largely in line with previously reported benchmark results. As expected, the iPhone 7 has 2GB of RAM, but MKBHD didn’t put it through the paces of a Geekbench run.
Excitement for the iPhone 7 is growing ahead of the wide release tomorrow, September 16. Last night, Apple confirmed that all models of the iPhone 7 Plus as well as the Jet Black iPhone 7 have completely sold out ahead of Friday’s launch and will not be available at Apple’s retail stores for walk-in customers. Those prepared to buy other models are already lining up at some Apple stores, including the 5th Avenue Apple Store in New York and Apple Union Square in San Francisco.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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