Nintendo Finally Considers Smartphone Move After Third Straight Annual Loss

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated in a press conference that the company is now considering a “new business structure” that involves smart devices, reports Bloomberg. Wii U GamePad controller
The news comes as Nintendo reported a third consecutive annual loss, slashing the global sales forecast for its flagship Wii U game console from 9 million units to 2.8 million consoles. The company also scaled back its expectations for its 3DS portable game console from 18 million units to 13.5 million, with Iwata also claiming that there are no short term plans to reshuffle management.

“We are thinking about a new business structure,” Iwata said at a press conference yesterday in Osaka, Japan. “Given the expansion of smart devices, we are naturally studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business. It’s not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.”

Nintendo has faced fierce competition from mobile platforms in recent years, with App Annie recently finding that consumer spending on games for iOS and Android rose to 4x that of dedicated gaming handhelds. In 2010, Iwata reportedly told his senior executives to regard Apple and its devices as “the enemy of the future”, and also stated to CVG last August that he would “never think about providing [Nintendo’s] precious resources for other platforms at all.”

Investors have also called for Nintendo to develop titles for iOS and other platforms in August 2011 after lower-than-expected demand for the 3DS. Alternatively, some also suggested that Nintendo should “buy its way into” the smartphone platforms by acquiring companies and technology or developing their own. Iwata’s newest comments reveal that Nintendo is now seriously considering supporting smartphones in some manner in the near future.

New Hires Point to Apple’s Continued Research on Next-Generation Health Sensors

With Apple CEO Tim Cook suggesting that Apple will use its skills building software, hardware, and services to create “great products” in product categories that Apple does not currently participate in, the company is making a number of potentially significant hires related to the development of next-generation medical sensors.

According to a report from 9to5Mac, Apple has hired a pair of personal health sensor hardware experts in recent months.

Apple recently hired Nancy Dougherty as a hardware engineer, according to her LinkedIn page. Dougherty was previously a hardware developer at Sano Intelligence, a biosensor startup that was profiled by The New York Times back in 2012.

According to a Google cache of her LinkedIn page — the current page reads slightly differently, with less detail about the projects she worked on — Dougherty worked on a hardware product to monitor blood chemistry via a wearable device.

Hardware Lead
Sano Intelligence
November 2012 – December 2013 (1 year 2 months) San Francisco Bay Area

– Hardware Lead in a very early stage company designing a novel system to continuously monitor blood chemistry via microneedles in the interstitial fluid. Brought system from conception through development and board spins to a functioning wearable pilot device.
– Solely responsible for electrical design, testing, and bring-up as well as system integration; managing contractors for layout, assembly, and mechanical systems
– Building laboratory data collection systems and other required electrical and mechanical systems to support chemical development

Before working at Sano, Dougherty worked at Proteus Digital Health on a “Bluetooth-enabled electronic “Band-Aid” that monitors heart rate, respiration, motion, and temperature”.

Separately, Apple hired Ravi Narasimhan away from Vital Connect, a biosensor technology firm where he was “responsible for biosensor technology and algorithms for remote physiological monitoring with wearable medical devices”. His devices could process a number of functions including heart monitoring, respiration, fall detection, posture and activity. He has been prolific writer, with a number of papers published in technical journals and he is listed as an inventor in dozens of patents.

Both Dougherty and Narasimhan have electrical engineering degrees from Stanford. Last year, Apple made a number of other hires related to the health sensor field and 9to5Mac says both have joined the iWatch team.

Aside from the hires, 9to5Mac reports that Apple is actively investigating iris scanning technology and is looking at using other sensors already built into the iPhone, like the accelerometer and compass, to improve facial recognition. Apple increased the iPhone’s security significantly with the addition of the Touch ID sensor in the iPhone 5s.

Adobe Lightroom for iPad Likely Coming Soon With Cloud Syncing and $99 Subscription Fee

Adobe’s professional editing software Lightroom may soon make its way to the iPad, according to a product listing on Adobe’s website that appeared briefly before being pulled. The mobile software was listed with a $99 cloud subscription, to be renewed on a yearly basis.

Originally discovered by 9to5Mac, Adobe’s tagline for Lightroom for mobile is “Take Lightroom anywhere,” and according to an Adobe support employee, the software has been designed for the iPad and includes many of the same features found in the desktop version of Lightroom.

Like Apple’s own Aperture software, Lightroom is designed for post production work, allowing its users to edit and manage high volumes of digital images.

Lightroom for mobile devices has been in the works for several months now, and back in May of 2013, Adobe demonstrated a concept for a Lightroom-style photo editing app for the iPad.

The app was cloud-based, and while it was designed to serve as a companion app to the full Lightroom software, it did offer features for on-the-go photo editing. In the demo, the app was able to edit raw photos imported from a camera, implementing changes to exposure, clarity, shadows, highlights, and white balance.

Adobe’s May 2013 demo of Lightroom on an iPad
Changes made within the app synced with the desktop version of Lightroom, allowing the same photos to be edited on desktop computers, laptops, and on the iPad. Based on the reoccurring subscription fees for Lightroom mobile listed above, it is likely that the finished product works in much the same way, storing photos and edits in the cloud.

In May of 2013, Adobe abandoned its standard Creative Suite of apps, electing instead to offer cloud-based versions of all its apps. Lightroom 5 was later released in June of 2013 and offered both standalone and as a part of the Creative Cloud service.

It is likely that the upcoming Lightroom for iPad will be able to sync with both versions of the software and it is possible that it will be included for free to Creative Cloud subscribers that pay for Adobe’s full suite of software.

Though it is unknown when Lightroom for iPad might launch, its brief appearance on the Adobe website suggests that a release is imminent.

Some 2011 MacBook Pros Experiencing GPU Glitches, System Crashes

Many early and late–2011 MacBook Pro owners with discrete graphics cards seem to be experiencing GPU failures and system crashes on their machines. In addition to several tips received by MacRumors, there’s lengthy thread on the issue on the Apple Support Communities, a Facebook group, and many reports of trouble on our own forums.

It appears that the MacBooks, first released on February 28, 2011, are displaying screen glitches primarily during graphics-intensive work or games. MacBook owners have noted visible striations and image distortion or an entirely blank screen, which can often be temporarily fixed with a reboot.

An example of the screen glitches 2011 MacBook Pro owners are seeing
Along with graphical issues, MacBook Pro owners are also seeing frequent reboots to a gray screen. Apple has several suggestions for customers seeing a gray screen, including booting into safe mode and reinstalling OS X, which has not managed to solve the problem for MacBook Pro owners experiencing issues.

Apple has done logic board replacements in some cases for affected users, but reports indicate that the issue has reoccured after a logic board replacement as well. It is unclear why the MacBook Pros are experiencing problems, but Apple forum users have speculated that it could be heat related.

The issue appears to affect 15 and 17-inch MacBook Pros that have discrete graphics cards. All of the 2011 MacBooks use AMD cards, including the AMD Radeon HD 6490M, the AMD Radeon HD 6750M (both 512MB/1GB variants) and the AMD Radeon HD 6770M.

Mid–2011 iMacs with AMD Radeon HD 6970 graphics cards experienced similar failures and in August of 2013, Apple initiated a Graphics Card Replacement Program for the computers, replacing the graphics cards of affected iMacs at no cost.

Apple opens the doors at its MacArthur Chambers store in Brisbane, Australia

Apple’s long-awaited store in Brisbane, Australia finally opened its doors to customers today. The flagship store was announced in 2011, but problems with contractors and the historical nature of the site delayed completion.

Customers started waiting in line almost 15 hours before the store was schedule to open its doors at 10 AM local time, with many hoping to score one of the limited edition Brisbane store T-shirts that were handed out. The dedicated fans were allowed in by exuberant store employees who greeted them with high-fives and cheers. Store leader Jonny Walker told PerthNow that he is proud of what Apple has done with the historic site.

“We are so proud of this store at Apple, it’s got a stunning space now and we’re really extremely proud to call it our home. When we took over the store a lot of the original historic elements were missing or in disrepair. What we’ve done is we’ve painstakingly restored it to its original glory.”

The store is located within the impressive MacArthur Chambers building, which was General Douglas MacArthur’s South West Pacific headquarters for the Allies during World War II. The new retail space occupies the entire bottom floor of the building. It includes 200 display units and is staffed by over 100 employees, says a report by Brisbane Times, which toured the location before it opened.

(Thanks, David!)

Apple Reportedly Targeting Late Q3 2014 for 12.9-Inch ‘iPad Pro’ Launch

As outlined in our feature highlighting Apple’s possible product plans for 2014, a number of rumors have suggested Apple may be working on a 12.9-inch iPad model that could launch later this year. The company is allegedly accelerating development on this device in response to Samsung’s introduction of two competing 12.2-inch tablet models, with market sources cited by Digitimes claiming that Apple is now prepping the so-called “iPad Pro” for a late Q3 2014 launch at the earliest.

Mockup of 12.9-inch iPad next to iPad Air and iPad mini
The claim that Apple’s timeline is motivated by a perceived need to match Samsung’s recent introductions seems doubtful given that Apple has routinely taken its time coming to market even in the face of competitors rushing to beat Apple to its own rumored products, but at a minimum the claimed launch target offers one more data point for those trying to predict a release. Some sources have predicted a launch as soon as early this year but such a timeline seems very unlikely given the absence of part leaks and other substantiating evidence.

Earlier reports suggested the 12.9-inch iPad Pro could be a hybrid device that would appeal to enterprise customers looking for a machine that bridges the gap between tablet and notebook. Based on display panels currently under development in the supply chain, research firm DisplaySearch believes that the iPad Pro could ship with a 12.9-inch Retina display with a resolution of 2732 x 2048 and 265 ppi.

Besides the iPad Pro, Digitimes‘ sources unsurprisingly also claim Apple is working on new 7.9-inch and 9.7-inch models to replace the current Retina iPad mini and iPad Air. These models will likely debut in Q3 2014, keeping with Apple’s current late fall release schedule for the iPad. Demand for the iPad is expected to be strong again in 2014 with the company selling between 80 and 90 million units over the course of the year.

Adobe Creative Cloud Adds 3D Printing in Photoshop, Enhancements for Other Apps [Mac Blog]

Adobe today announced several updates to its Creative Cloud suite of apps, including a significant upgrade to Photoshop with the addition of support for 3D printing.

With today’s release of Photoshop CC, designs can be printed to a locally connected 3D printer or via built-in access to popular online 3D print services. Photoshop CC supports the most popular desktop 3D printers, such as the MakerBot Replicator, and also supports the full range of high quality materials available on Shapeways — the 3D printing community and marketplace — including ceramics, metals, and full color sandstone. Additionally, Photoshop users can now directly upload their 3D models to the Sketchfab 3D publishing service, and embed them in their Behance profile using Sketchfab’s interactive 3D viewer.

Other new additions for Photoshop CC include Perspective Warp and Linked Smart Objects.

Adobe’s enhancements to Photoshop CC come as part of a broader Creative Cloud update that sees several other applications receiving upgrades including:

– Illustrator CC: Live Corners, a more intuitive Pencil tool with Path Segment reshaping, and SVG export.

– Indesign CC: EPUB 3.0 support and simplified hyperlink creation and management.

Adobe’s Creative Cloud is a subscription service with a variety of plans offering users access to the applications historically made available through the company’s flagship Creative Suite bundles. Creative Cloud offers enhanced cloud-based services and mobile integration, with the company deploying regular feature updates to subscribers at a more rapid pace than seen with the traditional standalone software purchase system.

Poor Build Quality and High Price of iOS 7 Game Controllers Due to Strict Apple Guidelines

Current MFi game controllers designed to work with devices running iOS 7, including offerings from MOGA, Logitech, and SteelSeries have all been unpopular with reviewers due to their high price tags, their build quality, and lack of game support. While it has been unclear why each manufacturer has chosen a $99 price tag and why all controllers have suffered from the same quality control problems, a new report from 9to5Mac sheds some light on the issue.

As it turns out, the main issue driving up price is Apple’s strict guidelines on the creation of the controllers. Apple is requiring manufacturers to source the pressure sensitive analog switches used in buttons and thumbsticks from a single supplier, Fujikura America.

MOGA Ace Power
According to manufacturers that spoke to 9to5Mac, pressure sensitive switches may have been an area where costs could be cut if they were not forced to use Apple-approved supplies. Apple isn’t setting specific prices for the controllers, but these supply costs, coupled with licensing fees and other component costs are edging the controllers to the $100 range.

Along with cost, other construction limitations may be affecting build quality. In addition to specifying the build of the pressure-sensitive buttons, Apple also has requirements that cover the joystick range of motion, d-pads, color, labeling, layout, and more.

There are other limitations of the program as well. For instance, the d-pads must be one circular button, opposed to just a raised cross shape or separate buttons for up, down, right, and left that you find on PlayStation and Xbox controllers and that many gamers prefer. The requirements also extend to the color, labeling and layout of the face buttons, thumbsticks, triggers, etc. It’s all meant to control quality and make it easy for developers to update apps to support all controllers, but in some areas Apple’s controller specification might not be strict enough.

Quality issues can also be chalked up in part to the rapid development of the first crop of MFi controllers. Apple introduced the API back in June, but developers and manufacturers had little time to get a controller out before the holiday season. One Logitech employee expressed disappointment over the quality of the controller and said that it was “put together in haste.”

SteelSeries Stratus
One final problem with the controllers lies in developer hands, with some developers expressing reluctance to implement support for subpar hardware and others seeing no need to add support to their games.

For other developers, especially those that developed games specifically for the touchscreen, controller support just doesn’t make sense. App developer Massive Damage compared the controllers to Kinect: “An optional piece of equipment with relatively low market penetration that a developer has to program and design for explicitly.” It won’t introduce controller support in any of its games “until iPhones come with controllers out of the box.”

According to accessory maker Signal, the company currently developing an Xbox-style MFi game controller, it is not currently possible to create a reasonably priced controller (matching the cost of low-priced generic Bluetooth controllers) with the quality of those from Microsoft or Sony under the MFi program.

Though MFi game controllers are riddled with issues, there is room for improvement in the future. It is possible that with more development time, second-generation controllers could have a better build quality, and it is also possible that Apple could relax its restrictions in the future to make it easier for companies to source less expensive components. Existing controllers will also see improvements as developers embrace the technology and build specific support into a wide range of suitable games.