Apple

Tim Cook: virtual reality is really cool and has some interesting applications

Cody Lee ∙ January 26, 2016

During Apple's Q1 2016 earnings call on Tuesday, Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri discussed the company's performance over the past 3 months. We've put together a nice little roundup of all the interesting stuff, but we thought this particular exchange was worth a separate post.

In the Q&A portion of the call, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster—who made a name for himself through his tireless predictions that Apple was building a TV set—asked Tim Cook what he thought about virtual reality. And in his first public comments on the topic, Cook answered.

15 interesting points from Apple’s Q1 2016 earnings call

Cody Lee ∙ January 26, 2016

Apple announced the financial results for its fiscal first quarter of 2016 this afternoon, and the numbers are pretty solid. The company broke its own records on handset sales, moving 74.8 million iPhones, and revenue, garnering nearly $76 billion during the three-month holiday period.

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.

Tim Cook: Apple has surpassed 1 billion active devices worldwide

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

"Our installed base recently crossed a major milestone of one billion active devices," Tim Cook said in a statement for the company's Q1 2016 earnings press release. The news comes on the back of a record-breaking quarter, where Apple sold 74.8M iPhones and garnered nearly $76 billion in revenue during the 3-month holiday period.

Apple’s Q1 2016 earnings: 74.8M iPhones, 16.1M iPads, $75.9B revenue

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple on Tuesday released its earnings report for the first [fiscal] quarter of 2016. As most of you know, this was the iPhone-maker's holiday quarter, where most consumer electronic companies—particularly Apple—tend to put up monster numbers. And of course Tim Cook and his team did not disappoint.

Once again, Apple has delivered a record-breaking first quarter. The company sold 74.8 million iPhones, up slightly from last year's 74.5 million, and increased its revenue by more than $1 billion. Not all of the numbers are impressive though, as Mac sales are slightly down and iPad sales continue to tumble.

Apple planning to offer subscription content in News app, report says

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple is looking to add support for subscription content in its News app, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the outlet says the move will give publishers with paywalls a new way to control who sees their articles and track who is reading them.

Such a change would help differentiate the struggling Apple News with Facebook's Instant Articles, which does not currently offer subscriber-only content. It's unclear right now how Apple plans to authenticate subscribers, or if it's going to take a cut of in-app subscription fees.

Aura for Mac brings Quick Replies to your Gmail conversations

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 28, 2018

Unlike most desktop notifiers that merely send you to Gmail's mobile interface on the web, the most recent update to a cool Mac app called Aura actually implements Quick Reply functionality so you can reply to messages, or add a new message to any thread—right from its notification banner.

This nifty little app can save you time when you need to fire off a one-line response. It supports Gmail and Google Apps accounts, it's fully native and optimized for OS X Yosemite and El Capitan.

Apple granted a patent which could help get rid of iPhone’s embarrassing camera bulge

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 26, 2016

Apple has just been granted a very cool patent that promises to solve the protruding camera lens on the back of the iPhone 6/6s series. The invention basically calls for packing a spherical photosensor and lens array in a tiny package.

The patent No. 9,244,253 for a “Small form factor high-resolution camera,” which was published Tuesday by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), reduces the distance between the CMOS sensor and the lens by making the sensor curved, a technique used in astronomical telescopes and instrumentation.

VirnetX seeking to extract $532 million from Apple in patent infringement retrial

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 26, 2016

Patent holding firm VirnetX yesterday told a federal jury that Apple should be slapped with a $532 million fine over an alleged patent infringement pertaining to FaceTime, iMessage and VPN technologies used in its products, which is nearly 45 percent higher than an initial damages award vacated last year.

According to Bloomberg, the notorious patent troll “keeps moving the boundary, asking for more and more and more,” said Apple’s lawyer.

Barclays confirms Apple Pay rollout in late March

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 26, 2016

Barclays, a large British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London, has confirmed that it will be rolling out support for Apple Pay sometime in late March.

In an email dated January 12 and sent to customer Oli Foster-Burnell, a copy of which was shared on Twitter and obtained by Engadget, Barclays CEO of Personal and Corporate Banking Ashok Vaswani said they will launch Apple Pay “within the next 60 to 75 days”.

Apple Watch 2 said to enter mass production in second quarter

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 26, 2016

Following a TechCrunch report which alleged that we might not see a second-generation Apple Watch released in March, as previously rumored, Taiwan-based DigiTimes reported Tuesday that the device is scheduled to enter mass production in the second quarter of 2016.

In addition, sources told the publication that Apple Watch 2 volumes will not be high as Apple's reduced the original device's shipment forecast for 2016 down further from its estimate in the fourth quarter of 2015 amid weaker than expected shipments.

Apple seeds OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan beta 2

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 25, 2016

Following the public release of tvOS 9.1.1 for the new Apple TV with the Podcasts app earlier this morning, Apple today seeded a second beta of OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan to members of its Apple Developer Program alongside iOS 9.3 beta 2, watchOS 2.2 beta 2 and tvOS 9.2 beta 2.

A standalone 10.11.4 beta 2 download should be available shortly via the Apple Developer Center and can be grabbed now through the Purchased tab in the Mac App Store on Macs with a prior beta.

Apple releases tvOS 9.1.1 software update for Apple TV 4 with new Podcasts app

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 25, 2016

Today, Apple released tvOS 9.1.1, a brand new software update for the fourth-generation Apple TV which brings the Podcasts app to the set-top box along with a fix for unexpected password prompts when downloading apps when restrictions are set and unspecified security improvements.

If it's not showing up on your Apple TV 4 yet, wait a few minutes and try again because software updates take some time to propagate.