15 interesting points from Apple’s Q4 2015 earnings call

Apple announced its financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter of 2015 this afternoon, and the numbers are pretty solid. The company sold 48M iPhones and earned $51.5B in revenue, handily beating numbers from last year but falling short of Wall Street's expectations.

We've just finished up the conference call, where Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri discussed Apple’s performance over the three-month period, and offered up some insights into its future. And as usual, we’ve rounded up the 15 most interesting points from the call below.

Apple seeds OS X 10.11.2 beta to developers

Along with the release of iOS 9.2 beta 1, Apple has seeded a new OS X beta to developers. The beta, OS X 10.11.2, comes with a build number of 15C27e.

It's only been 6 days since the public edition of the prior version of Apple's desktop OS, OS X 10.11.1, was released. Unlike today's earlier iOS update, Apple is being fairly mum about the contents of its new beta for El Capitan.

Apple’s Q4 2015 earnings: 48.05M iPhones, 9.88M iPads, $51.5B revenue

Apple on Tuesday posted its [fiscal] fourth quarter earnings for 2015, offering a look at its performance over the past 3 months. The company shattered most of its sales figures from the same year-ago quarter, but came in under Wall Street expectations in the most important category: iPhone sales.

Analysts were expecting Apple to sell 48.5 million smartphones during Q4, but it fell a bit short at 48.05 million. And although market watchers anticipated lower-than-last-year iPad numbers, the firm came in under tablet sales projections as well. Keep reading for a full breakdown of the numbers.

Twitter raises follow limit from 2,000 to 5,000 people for all users

Maybe you were totally oblivious to the fact that Twitter imposes a ceiling to how many people you can follow on the service, but that's how they roll.

Be that as it may, you might be delighted to learn that the micro-blogging startup is raising its previous follow limit of 2,000 accounts per user to a total of 5,000 accounts.

Once you’ve followed 5,000 users on Twitter, there are limits to the number of additional users you can follow based on your specific follower-to-following ratio.

This change goes into effect today, said the company.

Viber rolls out Apple Watch app

Mobile messaging platform Viber today rolled out a new version of its iPhone app in the App Store which enables native experience on your Apple Watch. While pretty basic, the app is functional, easy to use and efficient.

With it, you can read and respond to messages straight from your wrist, and even send stickers created exclusively for the Apple Watch, all without having to pull an iPhone out of your pocket. Viber is available at no charge in the App Store.

A look at 5 Apple Watch knockoff bands

One of the best features of Apple Watch is how customizable it is. There are millions of watch faces variations to play with, and of course, you can use a multitude of watch bands to make your device stand out or blend in, depending on your mood.

If customizing your watch faces doesn't cost anything, buying bands from Apple can turn out to be expensive, with each band selling for hefty prices, especially if you don't want to settle for the fluoroelastomer bands.

An alternative Apple Watch users might want to look into is the knockoff bands available online. They appear to be exact replicas of Apple's official bands, and sell for a fraction of the price. I was curious about the price/quality ratio of these bands so I decided to purchase seven of them (two of which are still on back order) and see for myself if they are worth the money.

In this post, I will give a brief overview of each band that I received, as well as personal thoughts regarding the quality and whether or not it's a smart buy.

Review: reclaim iPhone storage lost to Live Photos with this free app

Live Photos, one of the hallmark features of the new iPhone, is prominently featured in Apple's commercials and even jailbreakers can get it on older devices via a recently released jailbreak tweak.

The only problem with Live Photos is that they take up about two times the space of normal images. While iOS's Photos app lets you turn a Live Photo into a still photo with a few taps, the process quickly becomes cumbersome when processing multiple Live Photos.

Besides, the method doesn't really remove anything as you can revert back anytime.

A new iPhone app called Lean from developer Tiny Whale, available for free in the App Store, automates the process of cleaning up one or more unwanted Live Photos, so you end up with their normal representation which helps save storage space on your iPhone.

Apple releases iOS 9.2 beta 1 to developers, bringing more options to Safari View Controller

Apple has released the first beta for iOS 9.2. The beta, which is accessible via Apple's developer center, comes in at build 13C5055d.

Unlike some of Apple's more recent beta releases, iOS 9.2 beta 1 includes iOS SDK Release Notes! This beta release is focused primarily on the new iOS 9 technology, Safari View Controller, making it more like standalone Safari. Check out the rest of this post to see what the new beta includes.

AT&T wants to give you more data in exchange for your time and attention

AT&T today introduced Data Perks, a program that allows qualifying customers to earn extra data for free by taking surveys, completing offers, and making purchases at partner websites.

The concept is simple, and to be honest, not so original. Using the free Data Perks app, you can accumulate data by giving time, attention, and sometimes money to a selection of partners. You can for example watch promo videos, attend online demos for products, sign up for free trials for services such as Gamefly, make purchases at partner websites, and more.

Let’s Talk iOS 106: Apple TV pre-hoarders

Episode 106: We discuss the launch of the Apple TV 4th generation, including a discussion about the Siri Remote, the Remote Loop, and the SteelSeries Nimbus Wireless Controller. We also talk about iOS 9.1 , watchOS 2.0.1 and the new Emoji, the Magic Trackpad 2, and the Magic Mouse 2.

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Astropad Mini goes free, now with pressure-sensitive drawing on iPhone 6s via 3D Touch

Astropad Mini, a cool application by former Apple engineers which turns your iPhone into a graphics tablet for the Mac, has been refreshed on the App Store today with support for 3D Touch.

The new version lets iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners apply varying degrees of pressure when drawing on the handset screen with their finger.

In addition, the app has gone free, lowering barrier to entry to zero bucks. Astropad Mini has been especially popular with artists and photographers.

Since its February 2015 debut, customers have bought more than 200,000 copies of the iPhone app. “We expect this new version with 3D Touch to be even more popular,“ developers told me via email.