Apple bought visual effects startup Spektral

Cupertino doesn’t publicly announce all of its acquisitions, although the details of each are usually leaked soon after they occur. In the case of Apple’s purchase of Danish visual effects startup Spektral, it took nearly a year before the news trickled out. 

Farming RPG Stardew Valley hitting App Store on October 24 as a $7.99 download, no IAPs

Stardew Valley, a popular indie farming simulation role-playing video game developed by Eric Barone and published by Chucklefish, is coming to an iPhone and iPad near you in a fortnight on Wednesday, October 24. According to yesterday's announcement in a blog post, the premium game is priced at $7.99, sports 50+ hours of content and contain no In-App Purchases whatsoever. As the initial purchase price gets you the full game, you won't be forced to spend cash on virtual stupidities like loot boxes, virtual coins and so forth.

Make critical notifications stand out from the rest with Priority

If you’re like me, then you might consider some of your notifications to be more important than others. But because of how iOS handles them, it’s easy for the most important notifications to get buried underneath all the noise from the rest of your apps.

Although Apple’s notification system isn’t perfect, a new jailbreak tweak called Priority by iOS developers Justin Proulx and Ayden Panhuyzen brings it one step closer. It can help you discern critical notifications at a glance without compromising those from other apps.

Gif2Ani V2 lets you set animated GIF images as your respring screen

Anyone with a jailbroken device should know very well what the respring screen looks like. Depending on the version of iOS you’ve pwned, it might display the Apple logo or merely a black background with a white loading circle.

If you’re looking for a way to customize the respring screen, then a free jailbreak tweak called Gif2Ani V2 by iOS developers MightnightChips and Wizages is a great place to start.

ShortLook is an OLED-friendly notification system for iOS

If you’re looking for a new way to receive notifications from your favorite apps, then you might take an interest in a new jailbreak tweak called ShortLook by iOS developers Ayden Panhuyzen, Jamie Bishop, Justin Proulx, and Jose Hernandez.

ShortLook represents your incoming notifications with a fresh coat of paint. While they’d typically appear as banners on your Lock screen, ShortLook depicts them as customizable glyphs that are then centered on a black or transparent background.

Netflix’s content chief doesn’t know what Apple’s doing with its original TV programs

An image showing a red Netflix Logo set agains an all-black background

Netflix might have the most to lose by Apple's upcoming entry into the world of internet TV. However, it doesn't look like the company is worried about the iPhone maker's move, at least not yet, according to CNET.

Speaking at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in Los Angeles, Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos said he doesn't know what Apple is doing with the $1 billion it has budgeted to produce original content. Further, he doesn’t “think people making shows for them have any idea” either.

Whether he’s worried, Sarandos says Netflix doesn’t “put much focus on any competitor.”

Those words might be accurate, of course. It's just as likely, Netflix isn't worried, because, like everyone else outside of Apple, it has no clue what's going on behind the scenes.

To date, occasional stories have popped up over the past year mentioning which TV projects Apple has approved and which stars are connected to them. We know, for example, that Apple is putting together a growing lineup of comedies, dramas, documentaries, and animated titles. We also know some of the biggest names in Hollywood are on board, including Academy Award winners like Reese Witherspoon and Octavia Spencer, plus Jennifer Aniston, Aaron Paul, and many more.

What no one seems to know is when the shows will begin airing and where. Rumors continue to suggest Apple plans on announcing a video streaming service that will somehow be tied to Apple Music. The specifics, however, have yet to surface, and might not until early next year. Most think Apple will begin airing programs in mid-2019.

For its part, Netflix continues to spend upwards of $8 billion each year on new content. Perhaps that amount of cash is the real reason Netflix doesn't seem worried about Apple. What do you think?