Tim Cook’s political comments during today’s MSNBC interview touched on a number of areas, ranging from the government’s immigration policies and handling of DACA, to U.S. job creation, and his views on Apple’s handling of controversial content in apps and services usable on the company’s products.
AppleInsider – Frontpage News
If you’ve been looking for a pair of wireless in-ear Bluetooth headphones to use at the gym, while jogging, or during your commute, here’s another great deal for your consideration. Jaybird is a recognized brand in this space, and while the company’s Freedom 2 earbuds aren’t the most groundbreaking pair out there today, they warrant attention at an all-time low of $ 72.93 on Amazon.
The Freedom 2’s look just about the same as any other pair of Bluetooth earbuds that are linked by a slim cable, which is meant to wrap around your nape.
[Deal Alert] Jaybird Freedom 2 wireless Bluetooth earbuds are $ 73 ($ 77 off) on Amazon was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Police – Android news, reviews, apps, games, phones, tablets
Look, I checked the Amazon rating on these Jaybird Freedom 2 earphones and I know they don’t seem to be the best in their category. But many of the reviews and opinions are based on their original $ 150 MSRP and the expectations that come from that. By comparison, the $ 82.95 price right now puts them in a different category and they might be worth a look, all things considered.
The Freedom 2 follow Jaybird’s signature form factor: two earbuds linked by one wire that sits around your neck.
[Deal Alert] Jaybird Freedom 2 down to $ 82.95 on Amazon was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Police – Android news, reviews, apps, games, phones, tablets
I know January is supposed to be the month where everyone is understandably broke because of Christmas and the New Year, but we’re now deep within February and my bank account does not look any friendlier. To be fair, a lot of it is self-afflicted, as there have just been so many fantastic gaming releases on every platform in the few weeks of 2018 we’ve had so far. If you’re similarly spent, but also are keen to fill up that backlog with even more essential iOS titles, you’re in luck – some seminal App Store classics have been heavily reduced in price over the past few days. If you’re missing any of these games from your collection, you truly have no excuse now.
You Must Build A Boat, $ 0.99 Kicking off our sales round-up is the phenomenal puzzler You Must Build A Boat from Luca Redwood of EightyEight Games fame. There’s very little I need to say about this excellent title, as it has received numerous accolades at TouchArcade since its release in 2015, including an emphatic five star review and our coveted Game of the Week award. In my opinion, this is one of the best match-3/puzzle games on the platform, and in many ways You Must Build A Boat feels like the sequel to Dungeon Raid that we never got – which is even more pertinent considering the latter game’s demise at the hands of iOS 11. This puzzle RPG title is full of content and irreverent charm, and at a bargain price of $ 0.99 (down from $ 2.99 for only the second time in three years), it really is essential for any iOS gaming fan.
10000000, $ 0.99 Read the above paragraph and replace You Must Build A Boat with 10000000, and you know my thoughts on this landmark iOS release. Seriously though, while the former title may be a spiritual sequel to this game, 10000000 is an incredible game in its own right, and is truly iconic in the illustrious history of the App Store. Dropping quite literally out of nowhere in 2012, 10000000 was our Game of the Year runner-up at the time, and its hopelessly compulsive gameplay loop of hitting the dungeons, solving puzzles, upgrading your skills and repeating it all for hours was perfection. 10000000 hasn’t been on sale since 2014, so even though it’s more than worth its normal $ 2.99 cost of entry, this is another must-have for anyone with a passing interest in puzzle games.
MONSTER HUNTER FREEDOM UNITE for iOS, $ 3.99 While finding the iTunes link for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, I stumbled upon an App Store review that stated “At only $ 15?! Such a freaking great deal”. This sums up why Capcom’s latest promotion for its flagship beast-slaying series on iOS is an absolute bargain, as Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is on sale for only $ 3.99. It may be a bit old in the tooth now, despite its notoriety for not actually working on iOS for the longest time, but Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is still one of the best console-size experiences on the App Store to date. With the console version of Monster Hunter World dominating gaming headlines over the past few months, Freedom Unite is an excellent place to dive into the series in its classic portable guise.
Life Is Strange, $ 0.99 Life is Strange has been somewhat of a revelation amongst console gamers since its 2015 debut, as the story of Max and her devastating attempts to change the future through a gift of being able to rewind time. While we noted minor performance and control niggles in our review, this is the game episodic console classic in arguably its most intuitive form yet, and $ 0.99 for the first episode is a great price to try the series out for anyone on the fence. Life is Strange does require relatively recent iOS devices to run – and I really would only recommend it for those with powerhouses such as the iPad Pro – but this is really a title that needs to be experienced at least once by every gamer.
While these four titles are the highlights of the past week’s App Store promotions, I’ve undoubtedly missed a few classics from the list, and many essential releases are being discounted every day. Let us know which games you’ve picked up recently, or any sales you’ve managed to sniff out, on our Price Drops forum and Discord server.
Today is a good day for Capcom news. After updating Ghost Trick for iOS 11 and iPhone X, Capcom has a big spring sale on for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Capcom’s Monster Hunter franchise has been across multiple systems over the years. I got into the franchise on the 3DS but always wanted to play the older games as well. When Monster Hunter Freedom Unite [$ 3.99] released on iOS, it was a no brainer purchase. It is now down to just $ 3.99 from $ 14.99 on the App Store which is 74% off and the historic lowest price for this game. It is also a fully premium release with no hidden costs or in app purchases. Freedom Unite is actually an enhanced and expanded release to Monster Hunter Freedom 2 which was based on the second mainline Monster Hunter game that never released outside Japan. Watch the trailer for the iOS release below:
The iOS version was broken for a bit but Capcom actually went and fixed all the issues. I’ve been playing it quite a bit outside the house because the last few weeks have been a Monster Hunter blur for me with the amount of time I’ve put into Monster Hunter: World. It has been fun revisiting older entries in a franchise I love.
If you’ve been seeing everyone talk about Monster Hunter: World but wanted to check out the franchise on a portable, this is your cheapest option. Read our review for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for iOS here and check out the forum thread here. Hopefully Capcom releases another Monster Hunter game on iOS at some point or even localizes the currently Japan only Monster Hunter Stories.
If you have a Chase Freedom credit card and you like free money, you will want to take advantage of their latest quarterly cash back offer. In addition to some of their usual categories of bonus points purchases — in this case, gas stations and cable/internet service — any purchases via mobile wallets will earn you 5% cash back.
As always, there is some fine print but I think you’ll find it to be mostly positive.
Chase Freedom cardmembers can get 5% cash back on mobile wallet purchases, including Android Pay, in Q1 2018 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
As promised, the U.S. Federal Communcations Commission has released the full text of the "Proposal to Restore Internet Freedom" which completely removes restrictions on throttling or prioritizing content, and explicitly allows paid prioritization of content.
AppleInsider – Frontpage News
As had been rumored this week, Hulu and Sprint today announced that Hulu’s service will now come bundled with Sprint’s unlimited wireless plan. Starting on November 17, both new and existing customers of the Sprint Unlimited Freedom plan will gain access to Hulu’s Limited Commercials service – the on-demand TV streaming service offering access to thousands of TV shows… Read More
Mobile – TechCrunch
The Black Friday deals are already starting to roll in. Best Buy is jumping the gun early with a crazy awesome deal on Jaybird’s Freedom F5 Bluetooth earphones. Right now, you can pick up a pair for just $ 49.99, a total savings of $ 100 off the MSRP.
Jaybird is one of the better-known names in the Bluetooth audio space. The company’s earphones are often an easy recommendation, especially since the trademark fins make finding the right fit for your ears easier than many other products.
[Deal Alert] Pick up a pair of Jaybird’s black Freedom F5 Bluetooth earphones for $ 50 ($ 100 off) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
On the latest Recode Decode, Rhimes also talked about ShondaLand.com and why it’s okay to leave Twitter.
After creating the hit television shows “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder,” it seemed like superstar TV producer Shonda Rhimes could do whatever she wanted. But she couldn’t, because she was still on TV.
On the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, recorded at the 2017 Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit, Rhimes said she left ABC for an exclusive four-year deal at Netflix because the latter represents “an open road.” Although her six TV shows will continue at ABC, she and 30 of her colleagues from ShondaLand will be trying new things online, although she’s not explicitly saying what, yet.
“I love the creative freedom that’s available there,” Rhimes said. “There’s no restrictions. There’s no broadcast standards and practices. There’s no. ‘It has to be this long’ — I can make something that’s an hour and a half long, I can make something that’s 15 minutes long. There’s no, ‘We want to see more of this because that’s what you’ve done before.’”
You can listen to Recode Decode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Overcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.
On the new podcast, Rhimes also talked about ShondaLand’s new partnership with Hearst, producing lifestyle articles and other magazine-style content — but not beauty tips, she stressed — for ShondaLand.com.
“As a business owner, people keep asking me, ‘What’s the goal, what’s the goal, what’s the goal?’” she said. “And when Hearst picked it up, people were saying, ‘That must have been the goal.’ There is no ‘goal,’ in that sense. The goal is to give people a voice. The goal is to have a voice out there that feels relevant and different and available.”
But embracing the web doesn’t mean Rhimes is all in on social media. She wondered if Facebook and Twitter were becoming “more useful or far less useful” in the age of Trump.
“There is a feeling, for a lot of people, that pulling away from a lot of those is much more comforting than it is to be on them,” she said. “I spend a lot less time on social media than I used to, and I know that people think it’s far more important, and yet, I don’t think it is.”
“Everybody reports what’s on social media that’s important,” Rhimes added. “So in a weird way, you don’t have to follow it as closely as you did before, when you had to be there to see what was happening in the instant. Now, I can find out what Donald Trump said on Twitter just by walking around. It’s everywhere! It’s not as urgent to be in the know and on the sites.”
If you like this show, you should also sample our other podcasts:
If you like what we’re doing, please write a review on Apple Podcasts— and if you don’t, just tweet-strafe Kara.
