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Nintendo’s first iOS game Miitomo will launch in US & other countries on March 31

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Update: The Miitomo app is now available on the U.S. App Store.

The game is already available in Japan— that’s how Jeff managed to go hands-on in our first look video earlier this month— but today Nintendo confirmed that its first iOS game, Miitomo, will officially arrive in the US on March 31st.

The game isn’t exactly bringing over any of Nintendo’s very popular first party franchises to iPhones and iPads, but it does feature known Mii characters and, as we noted in our review, the release feels very much like a Nintendo title:

When you first start Miitomo, it’s immediately recognizable as a Nintendo title. It feels like someone took my Nintendo Wii and shrunk it down to fit inside of my iPhone 6s. The music and sound effects, most notably, are of the characteristic Nintendo style. The Miis themselves look just like the Miis on the game-maker’s handheld and home consoles. The writing — witty, with just a hint of corniness thrown in for good measure — is classic Nintendo.

Nintendo noted in its press release today that Miitomo was downloaded over a million times in the first three days after launch in Japan and it also managed to become the #1 most downloaded free app in both the App Store and Google Play.

While Nintendo didn’t mention other countries by name today, it did say that “several other countries” will receive the title on the 31st alongside users in the US.

Check out our review of the game from earlier this month to get a first look before it officially arrives in the US and other countries on the 31st.

Why is Siri limited to 8 countries on Apple TV? Apple teaches movie & TV show pronunciations for each country

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While Siri voice search is a core feature of the new Apple TV, right now it’s limited to only eight countries: UK, US, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Spain and Japan. In other regions, the Siri Remote is simply called the Apple TV Remote (not to be confused with the old Apple TV Remote) and pressing the mic button just opens the Search app.

This is despite the fact Siri on iPhone is actually available in 30 countries, so it wasn’t clear why Apple had pinpointed only a subset of those. It turns out, according to a chat with Apple by MacPrime, that there are some clever optimizations Apple makes with Apple TV Siri to improve speech recognition.


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Facebook Messenger’s free video calling now available worldwide

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After adding support for a new cross-platform video chat service through its Facebook Messenger mobile apps, Facebook has now announced that the feature is rolling out to all worldwide.

The feature first launched back in April for users on iOS and Android in Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Laos, Lithuania, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, the UK, the US and Uruguay. Today, Facebook said the feature is now rolled out globally “with the exception of a few countries” that it’s still working on:

Quick update on video calling in Messenger: we’re happy to share we’ve now rolled out the capability globally, with the exception of a few countries we’re still working on improving quality for.

You can check out the new Facebook Messenger video calling feature through the latest versions of the iOS and Android apps.

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Sprint expands free international data roaming to more countries, now 22 total

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Sprint today announced that it’s expanding its free data roaming offer to a number of new countries, bringing its new total up to 22 locations around the globe.

New countries added today include: Colombia, Denmark, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Paraguay and Sweden.

Those add to the full list of 22 supported countries where Sprint customers can take advantage of the International Value Roaming feature, which allows customers to use data for free when traveling to supported countries abroad.

The full list includes: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Russia, Sweden, South Korea, Spain and United Kingdom.

Debunk: Don’t hold your breath for second-wave Apple Watch countries on May 8

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<a href="http://9to5mac.com/2015/04/17/apple-phil-schiller-marc-newson-apple-watch-showcase-milan/" target="_blank">Apple Watch on display for one day only in Milan, Italy last week</a>

A new report out today claims Apple will soon be taking orders for the Apple Watch in more countries around the world — even as stock in the initial launch countries remains tight. According to Italian site iSpazio, citing anonymous sources, Apple plans to roll out the Apple Watch preview and try-on experience at its retail locations and begin taking pre-orders beginning May 8th. However, sources close to the situation say Apple is not currently targeting May 8th for its second-wave Apple Watch launch…


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Apple Maps Connect expands to Italy, Switzerland & Mexico

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Apple this week has begun rolling out its Apple Maps Connect feature to a trio of new countries: Italy, Switzerland, and Mexico. Apple Maps Connect allows business owners to alter their business listing on Apple Maps for OS X and iOS as well as add their businesses to the platform. The additions are noted on the portal, while Apple has also begun emailing users. Business listing updates can take about a week. Apple first launched the service in the U.S. last October, expanded it to the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Singapore in January, and brought it to Canada, France & Germany in February. The same online portal allows businesses with over 1 million annual visitors to apply for Apple’s indoor mapping technology.


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Apple’s two-step verification rolling out to additional countries: Canada, Argentina, Netherlands, Russia, Mexico, Poland, Brazil, more

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Update 2: It looks like Apple prematurely rolled out the feature to many countries and quickly removed it. The only officially supported countries listed on Apple’s website include “U.S., UK, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand.”

Update:  Mexico, Germany Netherlands, Russia, Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Portugal, Italy & Poland too. Let us know in the comments if the feature is now available in your country.

Apple appears to have recently started rolling out its new two-step verification feature for Apple IDs to users in additional countries. When Apple first launched the service in late March, it was initially only available to users in  U.S., UK, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand. Today we’ve confirmed that Canadian users now have access to the feature, while we’ve also received tips from users in Argentina & Pakistan signalling that the feature is beginning to roll out in other countries as well. 
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