iOS 17.5 Adds New 'Quartiles' Word Game for Apple News+ Subscribers

[User 6502]

Ok and the team/people responsible for developing this are not responsible for the whole ecosystem. Do you know how companies work?

Companies allocate resources and money for specific goals. Considering Apple just fired hundred of engineers and has been proposed the same iPhones for four years in a row if not more, whilst other employees were busy developing a subpar scrabble that looks like a third rate free app, maybe it is fair to assume they got their priorities wrong.

 

[bice]

It’s weird that New Zealand as the fifth Five Eyes member is left out.

Yeah, so sad. It would have been fun to see quartiles 'te reo'.

Most of the alphabet would have been on every screen, as it is a syllabic alphabet with only 5 vowels and 10 consonants.

 

[Rockin Robin]

No, wait, another slice of Apple fun not available in the UK. Mind you, we still have tobacco, potatoes, colour and shedyule (sic).

 

[svish]

Good to know. But would like to see News+ expand to other regions first.

 

[Camerondonal]

Yah, this is the first I've heard of games in the News+ app. Never seen any in the Canadian version. Can't be a licensing thing. It's gotta be a pro-America favouritism thing?

EDIT: I just opened up the News app and it prompted me with the trial, offering up "Daily puzzles". Honestly, I thought I was already a subscriber with access to News+, but I guess not.

That's surprising, because Apple themselves say Puzzles are only for the United States https://www.apple.com/uk/ios/feature-availability/#apple-news-plus-puzzle

 

[Camerondonal]

I wondered if a VPN would unlock these puzzles for those of us outside the US and Canada. Answer: no. It is, apparently, technically possible to change the country associated with a News+ subscription, but it's a complicated, multi-stage process that quickly moves into more-trouble-than-it's-worth territory

 

[cicalinarrot]

I'm honestly baffled.
There are many boring and age-old bugs throughout the ecosystem and the development team spend their time playing "games" which among other things are already available for free with third party apps that are even better.

I don't get it.

New exclusive features people like convince people to get another iPhone an not a cheap Android.
No amount of bugs on iPhone could ever convince me that picking a random Android distro would be less painful.

 

[StanleyOmar]

It came with the Apple One tier that gives 2TB icloud space.

It's actually been great for getting around the paywalls of the news sites it includes.

 

[rrm74001]

Sounds like 7 Little Words. I don't know if 7 Little Words is an original idea, but it's certainly not original to Apple.

7 Little Words

www.7littlewords.com

 

[sdf]

I know nothing about the game, it could be a complete rip off. Maybe not. No opinion yet. Until I play it, I just want to say: that’s a great name. Great name.

 

[Edd70]

It is a great game, much harder than Wordle. A nitpick I have is that, in landscape mode, you cannot scroll through all of your found words, but you can in portrait mode. I love that Apple finally put the iPad front facing camera in a landscape position (obvious progress!) but it’s like someone at Apple really really really can’t let go of an iPad being a portrait mode device.