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Nintendo’s next big franchise coming to iPhone will be The Legend of Zelda

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 15, 2017

Nintendo's next big franchise coming to iPhone and other smartphones will be The Legend of Zelda, a high-fantasy action-adventure RPG video game series created by the legendary Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka.

The iOS port of The Legend of Zelda should hit App Store either in in the latter half of 2017 or in 2018, following the release of Animal Crossing for iOS, according to sources speaking with The Wall Street Journal.

The mobile game will be developed by DeNA, the studio behind Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes.

As mentioned, Animal Crossing for iPhone will be coming out some time in the second half of 2017, followed by the official Legend of Zelda game for smartphones. Separately, the report mentions that the Pokemon Company is working on a new digital card game app, too.

If you've never played The Legend of Zelda, you should give it a try as it's one of Nintendo's most successful franchises, selling over 75 million copies as of 2016.

The game's chief protagonist is named Link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rweamiexWHU

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The series' installments typically task the player with rescuing Princess Zelda and the kingdom of Hyrule from Ganon, who is the game's key antagonist. The games' plots commonly involve a relic known as the Triforce, which is basically a set of three omnipotent golden triangles.

Following its 1986 debut, The Legend of Zelda has expanded to include 19 entries on all of Nintendo's major game consoles, as well as a number of spin-offs. The series even gave birth to an American animated TV series and individual manga adaptations in Japan.

Following a multi-year hiatus from mobile, Nintendo eventually committed to bringing some of its most-prized intellectual property to smartphones, starting with the Miitomo app and on to Super Mario Run for iPhone and the iOS version of Fire Emblem Heroes.

Image: Breath of the Wild, the latest title in the Zelda series, is currently available for Nintendo's Switch and Wii U consoles.

Video recap: Apple Park construction progress made over past 12 months

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 15, 2017

Videographer Matthew Roberts has been documenting Apple's work on its massive new headquarters since March of last year. Today, he posted a video recap of the construction progress that the Cupertino company has made on the new 175-acre campus over the past year, up to May 2017.

“See Apple's new headquarters take shape as we recap the past year's construction at Apple Park in 4K,” reads the video's description. Matthew's compilation of aerial footage of Apple Park recorded in the past twelve months can be seen below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR4xntz-DGw

Drone pilot Duncan Sinfield recently posted a new video revealing the Cupertino company is continuing to put the final touches on the main ring-shaped building.

How to navigate Safari tabs with your Mac keyboard

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated January 29, 2025

Master your Safari experience on Mac by learning how to switch between your multiple open tabs using keyboard shortcuts.

Apple snaps up machine learning startup focused on dark data

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 20, 2017

Apple has snapped up an artificial intelligence and machine learning startup, called Lattice Data, for a reported $200 million. They've built an inference engine which turns so-called dark data into structured data sets that can be analyzed easily. Dark data is data stored in computer networks that cannot be analyzed directly because it's not in a proper format.

The acquisition is valued in the ballpark of $200 million.

The deal could bolster Apple's AI efforts and help its software turn things like text and images into structured items that can then be analyzed in traditional manners to derive insights. Apple has confirmed the acquisition with its standard boilerplate message issued to TechCrunch, saying it buys smaller technology companies from time to time.

Apple and Lattice did not immediately return a request for comment.

About 20 engineers from Lattice have now joined Apple. A source said that Lattice had been “talking to other tech companies about enhancing their AI assistants,” including Amazon’s Alexa and Samsung’s Bixby.

As per the story, which cited an anonymous source, the deal closed a few weeks ago.

The Menlo Park, California headquartered startup was co-founded in 2015 by Christopher Ré, Michael Cafarella, Raphael Hoffmann and Feng Niu as the commercialization of DeepDive, a system created at Stanford to extract value from dark data.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_E0CPu-SeU

Company CEO is Andy Jacques, a seasoned enterprise executive who joined last year.

“Lattice turns dark data into structured data with human-caliber quality at machine-caliber scale,” according to the official Lattice website. “We model the known as features and the unknown as random variables connected in a factor graph.”

Lattice's DeepDive framework has been used successfully in a diverse set of projects, ranging from a DARPA-funded human trafficking program to geology and paleontology to medical genetics, pharmacogenomics and more.

According to the website:

Data quality is in the DNA of Lattice. Our goal is not just to match human-level quality, but also to do so at unprecedented speed and scale. We build systems that win competitions and outperform expert readers.

We continuously push the envelope on machine learning speed and scale with our bleeding-edge systems research. For years, we have been building systems and applications that involve billions of webpages, thousands of machines and terabytes of data.

We can only speculate as to how Apple plans to apply Lattice's technology to its products.

It's probably safe to assume that Apple could improve object and scene recognition across its Photos service and the accompanying apps. More important than that, Lattice technology could be used to realize iPhone 8's rumored camera augmented reality features while giving Siri the ability to analyze text and images in Messages.

A recent patent application suggested potential Siri integrations with the iMessage platform. Aside from Messenger-like chatbot functionality for Siri in Messages, Apple's invention could let users, say, ask Siri to send an image of a Volkswagen Beetle to a contact.

Lattice's framework could also help enhance Apple's neural networks and machine learning.

That's because unlike traditional machine learning, Lattice does not require laborious manual annotations. In taking advantage of domain knowledge and existing structured data to bootstrap learning via distant supervision, Lattice solves data problems with data.

Apple's HealthKit, ResearchKit and CareKit frameworks may benefit from Lattice tech, too.

KGI: Siri home speaker to sport physical controls via dedicated touch panel

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 14, 2017

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted that Apple's rumored Siri home speaker will support physical control via a dedicated touch panel. He expects the device to debut at WWDC next month alongside the “announcement of software development details for home AI”.

In his report to clients Saturday, seen by MacRumors, Kuo did not specify if the AI-driven speaker might feature a built-in touchscreen display or use a set of capacitive physical buttons for things like volume and playback control.

Here's an excerpt from Kuo's note:

In our April 28 Insight report (“Apple’s first home AI product to see cyclical shipments of over ten million units; main competitor is Amazon Echo”), we offered estimates for the new home AI/Siri speaker line. We also believe this new product will come with a touch panel.

For what it's worth, Australian leakster Sonny Dickson claimed in April to have learned from insiders that the smart home accessory will be fat, featuring a Mac Pro-like concave top with built-in controls and a speaker mesh portion covering it all.

Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, recently speculated that voice-activated home accessories could benefit from the inclusion of a screen.

“There are many moments where a voice assistant is really beneficial, but that doesn't mean you'd never want a screen,” Schiller said.

“So the idea of not having a screen, I don't think it suits many situations.”

Last year, Bloomberg listed some of the device's potential features:

Control home appliances, locks, lights, curtains and other HomeKit devices More advanced always-on mic and speaker than Amazon Echo or Google Home Facial recognition to see folks in the room and determine their emotional state Built-in speaker for wireless music playback Built-in Siri would process many of the commands available on iPhone

If you ask CNET, it may include built-in cameras as well:

For example, users may be able to ask the device to read e-mails, send text messages and tweets, and stream content from Apple Music. Apple has also considered integrating mapping information into the speaker, potentially allowing the device to notify a user when it’s time to leave the house for an appointment.

Apple reportedly started work on the project in 2014, right after debuting HomeKit.

Previously, Kuo predicted that the accessory would provide “excellent acoustics performance” with a subwoofer, seven tweeters, always-on microphone and computing power similar to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s application processors. Australian leakster Sonny Dickson claimed the Siri speaker should use Beats audio technology and run a variant of iOS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io8NU6iTto0

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The rumored device should be built by AirPods manufacturer Inventec.

Given his prediction that the market for smart home devices might outsell the iPad market next year, Kuo forecast Siri device shipments of around twelve million units in its first year of availability. Apple’s W1 chip, which debuted in AirPods, could play a key role in the product.

Apple is likely to launch additional models of the Siri speaker in the future, he added.

Kuo has given Apple's rumored Amazon Echo competitor 50-50 odds and the rumored 10.5-inch iPad Pro model more than 70-30 odds of being announced at the Cupertino company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference next month.

WWDC 2017 kicks off with a keynote address at 10:00am Pacific Time on Monday, June 5.

Mockup via iFunnyVlogger on Twitter

KGI: 70% likelihood that Apple will unveil 10.5″ iPad Pro at WWDC next month

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 23, 2018

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says there's over 70 percent likelihood that Apple's rumored 10.5-inch iPad Pro with a redesigned chassis is formally announced at the June 5 WWDC keynote as suppliers are gearing up for volume production in early June.

In his Saturday research note to clients, titled “2017 WWDC highlights” and seen by MacRumors, the analyst wrote that Apple's engineers were able to squeeze a 10.5-inch display into a similar form factor to the existing 9.7-inch iPads due to the narrower side bezels on the upcoming 10.5-inch iPad Pro model.

Here's an excerpt from the note:

The newly designed 10.5-inch iPad Pro will have a similar form factor to the 9.7-inch model, but will feature a larger display thanks to narrow bezels. The new design should improve the user experience and help gain traction in the corporate and commercial sectors.

He added that Foxconn will be assemble the new device, while GIS will be the sole supplier of touch panel modules. KGI forecast 10.5-inch iPad Pro shipments of five to six million units in fiscal 2017, accounting for fifteen percent of total fiscal 2017 iPad shipments.

The analyst did not specify if the upcoming device will have the traditional LCD screen or one based on AMOLED display technology like iPhone 8. For what it's worth, Kuo said in August 2016 that a “revolutionary” iPad model with flexible AMOLED panels and other “radical changes” in form factor design shouldn't be expected before 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knJNtkRyO9E

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For the sake of completeness, we should mentioned that KGI speculated last October that the device would sport the same 2,7320-by-2,048 pixel resolution as the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, with the same pixel density as the iPad mini 4 at 326 pixels per inch.

At that resolution, the width of the 10.5-inch iPad model would be the same height as the current iPad mini models, meaning users could be able to run two full-sized windows side-by-side in iOS’s Split View multitasking mode.

Raymond Soneira, a display expert and president of DisplayMate Technologies, thinks that if the new 10.5-inch iPad shrinks the bezel and keeps the outside dimensions the same, then the display aspect ratio will increase from the current 1.33 to as high as 1.50.

“The screen area would then increase by up to 31 percent. However, with no bezel at all the screen diagonal would then be 11.2 inches for the same outside dimensions as the current 9.7-inch iPad model with the rounded corners,” he added.

WWDC kicks off with a keynote address at 10:00am Pacific Time on Monday, June 5.

Image: 9.7-inch iPad Pro with a 10.5-inch piece of paper overlaid via Dan Provost.

Wallpapers of the week: yellow inspiration

Jim Gresham ∙ Updated October 26, 2018

With the week approaching, another entry in the Wallpapers of the Week section kicks off on Sunday. The current onslaught of iPhone 8 rumors is so exciting because the current three year old form factor is growing stale. But, there is a quick and easy way to change your devices feel in the interim. Step inside for some fresh wallpapers all inspired by the summer sun's yellow glow.

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: CCVertically, MusicMoreColumns, WAStatusVolume, & more…

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 14, 2017

Just when we thought we were going through a small lull in the jailbreak community, Cydia is sparking up again with some jailbreak tweak releases that you can use to make your device do awesome new things it normally can't do out of the box.

Int his roundup, we'll discuss all the jailbreak tweaks that were released throughout the week, starting with our favorites and then outlining the rest of them afterwards.

This week’s top stories on iDB

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated October 19, 2018

Like every Sunday, we get to take a look at some of the most popular posts that were published on iDB during the week that just ended. Whether it is a news item, a new jailbreak tweak, a tutorial, or an app review, we sum it all up in one convenient place for you.

As always, if you like what you're reading, please feel free to spread the love by sharing our posts on your favorite social network.

We're usually hanging out a lot on Twitter and Facebook, more rarely on Google+.

Don't forget to listen to the latest episode of our new podcast, Let's Talk iOS:

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This tweak lets you summon banners with battery information

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 14, 2017

A new free jailbreak tweak called BatteryBanners by iOS developer Cole Cabral lets you summon a banner notification on demand via Activator that displays a numeric battery level percentage.

While the Status Bar already has a battery icon and iOS can be configured to display the numeric battery level percentage right beside it, this tweak lets you disable the feature while still letting you get to battery information when you need it.

NoBlurFrontCamera disables the blurred camera effect in the FaceTime app

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 14, 2017

The FaceTime app on your iPhone exhibits a blurred silhouette of yourself via your device's front-facing camera any time you're in the app. It’s an interesting aesthetic effect, but it’s a waste of battery and a deterrent for camera-shy people.

A new free jailbreak tweak called NoBlurFrontCamera by CydiaGeek officially lets you disable this effect, replacing it with a simple dark background.

Reddit Enhanced is a tweak that lets you customize the official Reddit app

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 13, 2017

If you frequently use Reddit, then chances are you have the Reddit app on your iPhone or iPad for ease of access. While it’s useful for perusing the boards, it does have its shortcomings.

To get around many of the shortcomings, a new free jailbreak tweak called Reddit Enhanced by iOS developer Tom Effects offers a bevy of new options that let you fine-tune the Reddit app to better fit your personal needs.