Apple

Tim Cook: we’ve known for some time that ‘iPod is a declining business’

Apple posted some huge sales numbers for the holiday quarter earlier today. During the 3-month period, the company sold 51 million iPhones, 26 million iPads—both records—and a surprisingly high 4.8 million Macs. But not all of its device sales were impressive.

iPod sales decreased by more than 50% since last year's holiday quarter, with Apple selling just 6 million units during the time frame. And during the company's earnings call, Tim Cook admitted that it has known for some time that the iPod is a declining business...

Tim Cook: mobile payments ‘one of the thoughts behind Touch ID’

Apple just finished up its quarterly earnings call a few hours ago where it offered up sales numbers for the holiday quarter, forecasts for next quarter, and everything in between. Tim Cook even fielded some questions from overly-eager analysts.

While most of these questions were fairly dull, there were a handful of them worth noting, including one about Apple's plans for the mobile payment space. Obviously Cook wouldn't answer the query directly, but his response was rather interesting...

Facebook app picks up ability to hide unwanted stories

I've always detested how Facebook's iPhone and iPad app wouldn't let me do something about posts I never wanted surfaced in my News Feed in the first place, even more so after the social networking giant started injecting sponsored stories and ads into my feed.

A new version of Facebook's iOS app, now available in the App Store, solves this problem in one fell swoop. Now whenever you stumble upon a post you'd like to hide, you can do so easily.

This extends to Facebook apps so you could, for example, hide all posts from annoying games like FarmVille, Heart of Vegas, Game of Thrones Ascent that continue to spam people's News Feeds...

Logitech’s PowerShell MFi controller drops to $70 until February 1

Realizing rival accessory maker Stratus has shaved $20 off its 'Made for iPhone' (MFi) wireless iOS 7 controller dubbed SteelSeries, Logitech has decided to play along and bring its overpriced PowerShell down to $70. The Logitech accessory now undercuts Stratus by a cool $10 as the PowerShell is now $30 cheaper versus its original price of $99.

It's a limited time offer so hurry up because the sale ends February 1, 2014 (they should have made it permanent). So is this controller now a good value? Read on...

Apple says iOS 7 is now installed on 80% of compatible devices

Apple has updated its App Store support page for developers this week to reflect new information regarding iOS 7 adoption. According to the company’s usage data, the new OS is running on 80% of iOS devices accessing the App Store.

That’s just a small jump from December of last year, when it was reported that iOS 7 adoption had hit 78%, but Apple said on its earnings call just a few moments ago that it's enough to make iOS 7 the most popular OS in the world...

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 records for iPhone and iPad sales, and revenue.

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 provides update on National Security Orders and account information requests

Apple has posted an update to information pertaining to national security and law enforcement orders, confirming that it's been working closely with the White House, the U.S. Attorney General, congressional leaders, and the Department of Justice to "advocate for greater transparency with regard to the national security orders we receive".

Apple CEO Tim Cook briefly touched on the topic in an interview with ABC’s David Muir, saying the NSA does not have access to Apple's servers as the snooping agency would have to “cart us out in a box” for that kind of access (those are his exact words)...

Apple Q1 2014 earnings: 51M iPhones, 26M iPads, $57.6B revenue

As expected, Apple is out with its financial report for Q1 2014 this afternoon. It’s an important one, as it follows a number of product releases in the late fall of last year, and then of course the holiday season, where the company typically posts huge numbers.

And it continues that tradition today. In a press release issued just a few moments ago, Apple announced that it sold 51 million iPhones, 26 million iPads, and pulled in $57.6 billion in revenue during its fiscal Q1—all record-breaking for the Cupertino firm...

Google posts Chrome iOS update with translation feature, data compression and more

Two weeks ago, Google announced it would be releasing a new Chrome version with a built-in translation feature and data compression engine capable of reducing cellular data usage by up to fifty percent. Today, a free Chrome update has just gone live in the App Store.

It brings the aforementioned Translate and Reduce Data Usage features, along with an improved New Tab Page to make searching faster and easier and the usual assortment of stability fixes and security improvements...

Rumor: Samsung to beat Google to smart glasses punch with September reveal of Galaxy Glass

The Korea Times is reporting that the South Korean conglomerate Samsung is readying its own Google Glass-like eyewear, with an unnamed Samsung official stating that the tentatively named 'Galaxy Glass' device will debut at the annual IFA trade show in Berlin, Germany this September.

Sony is also working on a smart glasses model of its own, by the way.

Samsung already sells the Galaxy Gear smartwatch and we previously reported that a brand new lineup of Galaxy Band health/fitness wearable devices is in the pipeline as well. Google currently sells the Explorer Edition of Glass to testers and developers in the United States for $1,500.

The search giant said that a consumer version would be available some time in 2014 for "significantly less" than the Explorer Edition, but the company wouldn't commit to a specific pricing or release date...

Microsoft’s SkyDrive is now OneDrive

Microsoft's multi-platform cloud storage service SkyDrive has just been rechristened and shall be known henceforth as OneDrive. The rebranding comes following last June's ruling in a trademark case involving Microsoft and British TV broadcaster BSkyB.

As the television broadcaster trademarked the term 'Sky,' the court ordered that Microsoft concede the 'SkyDrive' trademark to BSkyB.

One of the largest pay-TV providers in Europe, BSkyB offers video streaming and has its own online storage service called Sky Store & Share...

Google buys AI startup DeepMind for $500 million

Google is getting closer to becoming SkyNet after laying its hands on artificial intelligence startup DeepMind Technologies for a reported $400 million, with some sources claiming as much as $500 million. According to a scoop by Re/code, a new project by former AllThingsD and WSJ journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, Google has confirmed the deal but wouldn't wouldn't specify a price...