News

Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock slipped a bit last week, despite Thursday's introduction of the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 and 5K Retina iMac. After closing the previous week at $100.73, share prices steadily declined, hitting a low close of $96.26 on Thursday. They rallied a bit and finished the week at $97.67.

The uptick should continue this week, following Apple's Q4 FY 2014 earnings report, which will be released later today, 5:00 PM EDT, 2 PM PDT.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster summed up Wall St.'s expectations in a note to investors. He believes Apple will announce earnings of around $40 billion, which would be at the high end of the company's Q4 guidance. Looking to the holiday quarter, he expects Apple to generate revenue in the $65 - $68 billion range, with margins of 38 to 38.5 percent.

As promised Apple (NYSE: AAPL) has launched its first major update to iOS 8.0. iOS 8.1 is now available as an over the air update on the iPhone 4s and later and iPad 2 and later. Users can download the new software by navigating to Settings > General > Software Update. The update requires 1.6GB of free storage to install.

iOS 8.1 includes Apple's new mobile payment system called Apple Pay. The new feature is only supported by the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 and the Apple Watch. Only the iPhone 6 models with NFC and Apple Watch when paired with an iPhone are capable of making in-store payments at Apple Pay terminals. iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 users can use Apple Pay and Touch ID to make online or in-app purchases on their tablets.

It's 1984 all over again in the App Store, Rovio Entertainment has released its Angry Birds Transformers crossover and Halfbrick Studios has updated Fruit Ninja with a Ghostbusters theme in celebration of the film's 30th anniversary. Both Tiny Tower Vegas and the MMORPG Order & Chaos Online have also been update with bonus Halloween content for those who are getting into the Halloween mood. Also don't forget to check out our best Halloween apps, including Skullduggery, one of our favorite games of the year.

Here are this week's games, apps and jailbreak tweaks released to the App Store and Cydia for 10/12/14 to 10/18/14. Apple's Free App of the Week is Tower Madness 2. The tower defense game will be free on the Apple App Store until 10/23/14. The game will be free on the Apple App Store until 10/16/14.

You can't escape the IRS even in death and those who do try should be expecting a visit from the "semi-organic autonomous skull" agents of Skullduggery. In the game you play as an upstart collection agent for the Infernal Revenue Service who must seize assets from "deadbeats" who tried to beat the system by taking their riches with them to the afterlife. You do this by stretching your brain to snap your skull around various levels in the underworld.

The premise may be zany, but Skullduggery's gameplay is a lot like Angry Birds, or any other physics-based games available on the App Store. Unlike Angry Birds or Crush the Castle, the goal of the game is not to just knock stuff over, but it's more of a platform title where you pull back on your skull to slingshot yourself forward and through obstacles. Skullduggery offers a very easy one-touch playing experience, and its "Bullet Time" feature gives it a more fluid Matrix-like control where you can slow things down midair and change your trajectory. The controls are simple to master, and once you do, you will feel like you are playing any other platform game.

Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) highly anticipated wearable may face an uphill battle in Europe where, according to a survey, the populace doesn't appear to be interested in the Apple Watch, at least not nearly as much as Chinese and American consumers. The indifference likely stems from the fact that some of the most highly touted features of the device are old news in the Old World.

German market research group, GfK, conducted the survey, asking 1,000 smartphone owners from each market (Germany, UK, China, US, South Korea) about their interest in various smartwatch functions, assuming the device was completely secure.