This week on The CultCast: Astounding facts and figures from Apple’s newest earnings report; Nintendo promises a bunch of new iOS games; how to get the best deal in cloud storage; affordable options for your first drone; the perfect minimalist strap for your mirrorless camera; and we pitch you our favorite gadgets in an all-new Fave N Raves!
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CultCast #269 – Our favorite gadgets! Subscribe on iTunes
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This week’s topics
‘I’m a Mac’ star Justin Long becomes new face of Huawei phones
- Ever heard of Huawei? They’re in China.
- Justin Long, the face of Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign for three years, is now starring in ads for Huawei phones.
- Huawei is now the third-biggest smartphone maker in the world, behind only Apple and Samsung. It shipped 44.9 million handsets last quarter to grab a 10.2 percent of the global market.
- The company is now trying to break into Western markets, with a big focus on the U.S.
- What better way to do that than with the face of Apple’s famous “Get a Mac” campaign?
Nintendo promises at least 2 new mobile games every year
- Its new Switch console is right around the corner, but Nintendo won’t be losing its focus on Android and iOS. The Japanese firm today confirmed that it plans to release two to three mobile games every year.
- Super Mario Run attracted a staggering 40 million downloads in just four days when it landed on iOS. According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, it has already made Nintendo more than $50 million.
- Nintendo’s announcement comes a day after it disappointed investors by slashing a third off its operating profit forecast for 2017 — despite the upcoming release of the Switch, which already has support from more than 70 game makers developing over 100 titles.
Apple shatters records with blockbuster Q1 2017 earnings
- Surprise! Apple sold more iPhone units than ever before last quarter.
- With total revenues of $78.4 billion bringing in a profit of $17.9 billion, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he is “thrilled” with the results.
- Apple only expected to sell between 76 million and 78 million iPhones in the quarter, but it managed to move 78.3 million.
- Cook told investors that he still views the smartphone market as being in the “early innings.”
- MacBook Pro with Touch Bar was the most pre-ordered MacBook ever.
- The iPad lineup sold 13.1 million units, down 19 percent from the year-ago quarter.
- Apple raked in $7.2 billion in revenue from services last quarter, including $3 billion in App Store purchases in December alone — the biggest month ever. Apple Pay users tripled in the past year, with transaction value increasing 500 percent.
- Selling apps, music, movies, iCloud storage and AppleCare has now become Apple’s second-largest moneymaker. In fact, Apple expects revenue from services to swell to the size of a Fortune 100 company by the end of the year.
iPhone 7 snaps Apple’s losing streak
- Apple launched the latest generation of its flagship product in September. Some critics saw the iPhone 7 series as not enough of an upgrade from the 6s line. Some, especially music lovers, initially hated the absence of a headphone jack.
Fave N Rave Picks
- Stealth Sling Strap from Cub and Company
- Parrot Bebop Drone
- Monowear Ceramic watch band
- 3DR Solo Drone
- JETTech Milanese Loop
