Tim Cook: new product categories coming in 2014

The last two months have been very busy for Apple, as the company has refreshed a number of its devices including the iPhone, iPad, the MacBook Pro and Mac Pro. But missing from the fall's festivities was an all-new product.

The good news, though, is that it appears at least one is on the way. During its quarterly earnings call today, Tim Cook said Apple believes it has the skills to create 'great products' in categories it's not currently participating in...

15 interesting points from today’s earnings call

Apple just announced its earnings for its September quarter, and despite all of the ‘doom’ talk and lowball analyst predictions, the numbers are actually pretty good. In fact, the company set a record for iPhone sales during the 3-month period.

We’re just finishing up the conference call, where Tim Cook and his CFO Peter Oppenheimer talked about Apple's performance, and offered some insight into its future. And as usual, we’ve rounded up the 15 most interesting points for you…

Apple teases next-gen Mac Pro some more with this classy poster

Apple really means business with its next-generation Mac Pro desktop. The hype machine went into overdrive during last week's keynote as Tim Cook & Co. resorted to all sorts of superlatives in pitching the computer's advanced architecture.

We were already shown how the Mac Pro is made and drooled over Jony Ive's one-off Product(RED) Mac Pro variant designed for charity.

And now, Apple's attention turns to the people that keep feeding the beast: journalists. A few select writers have confirmed receiving Apple's cool posters which promote the machine. In Apple's own words, the ultimate desktop is "the computer we were insane to build"...

Apple Q4 2013 earnings: 33.8M iPhones, 14.1M iPads, $37.5B revenue

As expected, Apple is out with its financial report for Q4 this afternoon. It's an important one, as the company began selling two new handsets simultaneously last month, and Wall Street is dying to know how the strategy is working thus far.

Well, so far so good. Apple announced today that during its fourth quarter of 2013, it sold 33.8 million iPhones, beating Wall Street expectations of 31 million. It also sold 14.1 million iPads and garnered $37 billion in revenue. More after the fold...

Apple quietly improved Burst Mode for iPhone 5s with iOS 7.0.2

It's only been a month or so since Apple seeded iOS 7 to the public, and it's already posted 3 updates. Now, these updates haven't been very significant in terms of new features, but they have include several bug fixes and improvements.

In fact, one of those improvements only just came to light. GottaBeMobile reports today that with iOS 7.0.2, Apple quietly added Burst Mode enhancements to the iPhone 5s, making the feature more useful while helping save space...

Belkin launches new iPad Air accessories, too

One of the top accessory makers and among the leading players in the Apple accessories ecosystem, Logitech, today announced four new keyboard cases and covers designed specifically for Apple's upcoming iPad Air.

However, Logitech's arch-enemy Belkin earlier telegraphed an announcement of its own. A whole bunch of new iPad Air-specific accessories are part of Belkin's announcement, including three new Bluetooth keyboard models from Belkin's Qode lineup, one of them apparently made from an "aircraft-grade aluminum alloy".

Jump past the fold for the full reveal...

November 1 iPad Air launch will include in-store Personal Pickup

When Apple's new iPad Air launches in the United States and a few dozen international markets this coming Friday, customers will be able to order their device online for in-store delivery, ready to be collected in person at a nearby store rather than wait for it to be shipped to your doorstep.

That's the word in the blogosphere and subsequently confirmed by iDB with our own plugged-in sources and made public by Apple's online Store.

The not-so-unexpected development indicates Apple's confidence in its ability to meet iPad Air demand on day one, despite launching the device across a whole bunch of markets simultaneously...

Pocket Casts updated with 64-bit support and other goodies

I still have yet to find the perfect podcast app that does everything I want, but most of them are good enough to get by. I will say that I seem to fare best with my podcast app flavor of the month, Pocket Casts.

There's a reason why Pocket Casts is my podcast app of choice, at least for the moment. It's fast, well designed, and its developers are quick on the draw when it comes to pushing out timely updates. Updates just like this one...

Shazam launches artist updates, friends’ tags and newsfeed-style interface

The music discovery and fingerprinting engine Shazam is among a bunch of apps that were updated with iOS 7-inspired interface shortly after Apple released the new iPhone, iPad and iPod software for public consumption on September 18.

It's been quite a wait since Shazam's last feature-packed update and today's release has seen to that.

Not only does Shazam now let you see what your friends are tagging in real-time and check out updates from the artists you follow, it also sports a brand new interface to interact with the Shazam community. More on that in just a second...

Moga’s inbound Ace Power ‘MFi’ gaming controller gets video treatment

The prolific leaker @EVLeaks last week tweeted out a pair of photos that show off Moga's upcoming Made for iPhone (MFi) gaming controller.

The leaker also mentioned that Moga has named its interesting accessory the Ace Power and says it's the standard form-fitting variant which allows the iPhone to be docked itself right intro the gizmo.

And now, eager iOS gamers get to finally see the accessory up close and personal in a nice leaked vid. I've included it below so have a look and meet us in comments...

How to add iOS 7 slide to unlock functionality to older firmwares

One of the biggest differences between the Lock screen in iOS 7 and the Lock screen found on previous firmware, is the way one goes about unlocking the device. Gone are the days where you had to position your finger in just the right location in order to do so.

With iOS 7, users can slide their fingers anywhere on the Lock screen to unlock, as long as the motion is from left to right. Unlock7 is a recently released jailbreak tweak that seeks to mimic this functionality for devices not running iOS 7. How does it work? Have a look at our hands-on session inside.

Logitech launches new iPad Air cases and keyboard covers

Accessory maker Logitech today announced a brand new lineup of Folio cases, Bluetooth keyboard cases and protective covers specifically designed for Apple's newly-launched iPad Air, which goes on sale this coming Friday. The Ultrathin Keyboard Folio and Cover, the FabricSkin Keyboard Folio and the Folio Protective Case are all now available for pre-order today and slated to ship in November. I've included more information and a few images right after the break...