Rovio Launches RPG-Based ‘Angry Birds Epic’ for iOS Devices [iOS Blog]

Rovio today launched Angry Birds Epic for iOS devices worldwide, featuring a fantasy-adventure story with RPG gameplay. The player controls Angry Birds characters Red, Chuck, and Bomb as they explore Piggy Island to battle the series’ classic pig villains.

Battles in game feature turned-based elements, as players can upgrade their characters’ abilities, armor, and weapons throughout the story. The game also features an extensive crafting system, which allows players to obtain and combine multiple parts to create a variety of weapons for use in battle.

The new title is Rovio’s first Angry Birds release of 2014, with the company also gearing up to launch Angry Birds Stella in September after teasing it earlier this year. The latter is expected to encompass multiple elements, as Rovio will tie-in animations, books, toys, and more alongside the game.

Angry Birds Epic is a free app for iOS devices and can be downloaded through the App Store. [Direct Link]

Amazon Launches ‘Prime Music’ Streaming Service with Access to Over One Million Songs

Amazon today officially launched its Prime Music streaming music service, offering Amazon Prime users unlimited, ad-free streaming on over a million songs. The service allows users to play specific curated playlists as well as the ability to add individual songs to a playlist, and offers unlimited offline playback for all songs available on the service.

Amazon has also rebranded its Amazon Cloud Player iOS app as Amazon Music [Direct Link], offering a refined interface and allowing users to access songs on the service, with tools for managing library and playlists. Like the web interface, Amazon also allows users to download music from Prime Music to a mobile device for offline listening.

As previously reported, Amazon’s music catalog appears to only include songs older than six months, likely to save the company on royalty costs. By comparison, other streaming music services such as Spotify, Rdio, and Beats Music all offer new releases to their subscribers. Apple’s iTunes Radio also offers new releases to listeners, however the service is centered more around users discovering new music through stations as opposed to searching for individual songs.

Amazon’s Prime Music service also joins the company’s Prime Instant Video offering, which allows access to a library of movie and TV shows. Currently, Amazon has 20 million paying Prime members that also receive free 2-day shipping on most items in addition to movie, music, and TV show access.

Amazon Prime Music is available now as a free service to current Amazon Prime members, with Amazon charging $99 per year for new Prime members. A free 30-day trial to the service is also available on Amazon’s website. The company is also expected to announce a smartphone with 3D capabilities next week Wednesday, June 18.

Apple Releases Video Showing Preparation for Newest Japan Store [Mac Blog]

Apple has released a new video on its YouTube channel depicting employees preparing for the grand opening of the new Omotesando, Tokyo Apple Store. Employees can be seen stocking, setting up displays and putting up advertisements around the new store, offering a look at how Apple prepares its retail stores.

The new store features a “green curtain” of vines and plants on the side to help with climate control, continuing Apple’s goal of lowering its carbon footprint. If successful, the new store design could be adopted for future stores.

The Omotesando store is set to open June 13.

Video Showing How Apple’s Split Screen iPad Multitasking Works

A new video from developer Steven Troughton-Smith has emerged on YouTube simulating split screen multitasking. The feature is shown off in the iOS simulator on Mac, hence the mouse cursor, awkward two-finger gestures and its rough overall look.

The feature was first rumored in March for introduction in iOS 8, but was pulled because it was not ready in time for WWDC. However, it was discovered just a couple of days ago that iOS 8′s internal SpringBoard includes code that allows apps to run side-by-side.

In the video, the three sizes are shown (1/3, 1/2 and 3/4) when using two fingers to scroll to the side. However, it’s not evident how to open a second app next to the already opened app, likely because the feature is still being developed.

Split-screen multitasking may initially be limited to the iPad Air, with support for smaller devices, like the iPad Mini and rumored 5.5-inch iPhone 6, at a later date. The feature could also make it to Apple’s rumored 12.9-inch “iPad Pro” that may or may not be in development.

Apple Targeted by EU Probe into Irish Tax Policies as U.S. Considers Tax Holiday for Cash Repatriation

The European Commission today launched a formal investigation into Apple’s tax arrangements in Ireland, seeking to determine whether the company’s tax deals in the country are considered illegal state aid. The Commission is also investigating Starbucks and Fiat Finance & Trade SA.

“Special secret deals should be outlawed across the EU,” Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, said in an e-mailed statement. “All tax breaks and reliefs should be openly available for qualifying businesses.”

Apple’s tax policies have been under scrutiny in recent years, as it utilizes multiple subsidiary companies headquartered in the Irish city of Cork to move money around the world without significant tax penalties because companies managed and controlled abroad but located in Ireland are not subject to taxes. Last year, Apple’s arrangements earned it a tax rate of 3.7 percent on non-U.S. income.

Apple has maintained that its tax policies are entirely legal, a position it echoed today in a statement to Bloomberg. An SEC investigation also found Apple’s tax policies to be legal.

“Apple pays every euro of every tax that we owe,” the company said in an e-mailed statement. “We have received no selective treatment from Irish officials. Apple is subject to the same tax laws as scores of other international companies doing business in Ireland.”

As the European Commission begins its investigation, the U.S. Senate is considering a one-time tax break to repatriate cash held overseas. Back in 2013, Apple CEO Tim Cook defended Apple’s tax practices and responded to accusations of “extensive tax-avoidance strategies” with a call for tax reform, asking for simplified corporate tax policies and lower rates for repatriation.

Apple holds more than $100 billion in cash overseas and at current tax rates, it would have to pay a 35 percent corporate income tax to bring the money back to the United States, “a very high number,” as Cook has said.

If a tax holiday is granted, the rate could be much lower. A repatriation holiday in 2004 allowed companies to bring cash to the U.S. at a rate of 5.25 percent, which could cut Apple’s tax bill down significantly if it brought money back from overseas.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Apple Seeds OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 Build 13E16 to Developers [Mac Blog]

Apple today seeded build of OS X 10.9.4 to developers, approximately two weeks after releasing the first OS X 10.9.4 beta and almost a month after the public release of OS X 10.9.3, which included enhanced support for 4K displays and syncing improvements.

The beta is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store as well as through the Mac Dev Center.

It remains unclear what improvements the 10.9.4 update will bring to Mavericks, but it is likely to include bug fixes and stability enhancements. Apple is asking developers to focus on Graphics Drivers, Bluetooth, Audio Drivers, Finder, App Store, and Safari.

Apple has also seeded Safari 6.1.5 and OS X Server 3.2 to developers.

Pebble Steel Launches at Best Buy on June 15 for $229 [iOS Blog]

Pebble today announced that its second-generation smart watch, the Pebble Steel, will be available in Best Buy stores beginning on June 15.

First announced in January, the Pebble Steel features a stainless steel body with a leather or steel band, an upgrade from the plastic design of the first-generation Pebble. The Pebble Steel also features smaller side and top bezels than the original, for a slimmer, lighter profile.

Pebble Steel has been incredibly popular since we launched it at CES in January, with demand far exceeding our expectations. Our premium smartwatch takes everything our users love about the original Pebble–simplicity, ease of use, weeklong battery life, water resistant design, rich notifications, the Pebble appstore, and regular updates–and wraps it up in a sleek new stainless steel and Corning Gorilla Glass body.

When purchased from the Pebble website, the Steel retails for $249, a price that includes both a steel and leather band. The version sold through Best Buy will include just a leather band for a price of $229.

In addition to being available at Best Buy retail stores and the Best Buy website this Sunday, the Pebble Steel will continue to be available through the Pebble website.

Next iPad Air May Include Upgraded A8 Processor, 8 Megapixel Camera

Displays for Apple’s next-generation iPad Air are set to begin production this month, reports Korean site ETNews [Google Translation] (via AmongTech), with other major parts such as the camera module also set to enter production soon.

Apple’s second iPad Air is expected to continue to feature the same featherweight design introduced with the first iPad Air, using the same 9.7-inch Retina LCD with a resolution of 2048 x 1536. LG Display will begin production on the displays in June, with Samsung and Sharp ramping up production next month.

Though the next-generation iPad Air will not see any design changes, it may see some hardware improvements in the form of an upgraded 8-megapixel rear camera, an improvement over the current 5-megapixel camera. It may incorporate the same 8-megapixel camera used in the iPhone 5s, which also includes a larger sensor for improved low-light performance. iOS 8 will also bring photography updates to both Apple’s existing and next-generation iPad Airs, in the form of new panoramic and time-lapse modes.

Along with a better camera, the iPad Air is unsurprisingly expected to include an upgraded A8 processor to improve both performance and battery life and the Touch ID fingerprint sensor first introduced with the iPhone 5s.

It is unclear when Apple plans to release its second-generation iPad Air, but rumors have pointed towards a release in September or October, which would be in line with previous iPad releases. Apple’s Retina iPad mini is expected to be updated at the same time, featuring many of the same improvements.

TouchPal Demos Gesture Keyboard with Sliding Input for iOS 8

One of the major iOS 8 announcements at last week’s Worldwide Developers Conference was support for systemwide third-party keyboards, and a number of prominent keyboard developers have announced their intention to support iOS. Fleksy was the first to share a photo of its keyboard running on iOS 8, and today TouchPal has posted a video of its keyboard in action.

TouchPal’s video shows its keyboard supporting gesture/sliding input similar to Swype, as demoed in the stock Messages app on iOS 8. TouchPal also supports autocorrect and predictive word suggestions, although these are not shown in the demo.

While iOS 8′s public release is still several months away, it’s clear that keyboard developers, many of whom including Swype, Adaptxt and SwiftKey have honed their offerings on Android, are moving quickly to support iOS.

Several major keyboard developers have already been working with iOS, as seen with the SwiftKey Note app with Evernote integration and Fleksy’s developer tools that allow developers to add support for the firm’s predictive keyboard on an app-by-app basis. As a result, we expect quite a few third-party options ready for the iOS 8 launch.