Apple will reportedly slash its 30 percent App Store fee in half for video services that support its upcoming TV app, according to a new report. The incentive should persuade more providers to support the app, which is set to be released next month.
To beef up its streaming music service, Apple has hired some key employees from Omnifone, a company that was a pioneer of in music streaming industry.
Rumors floated this summer that Apple was looking to acquire Omnifone after the company filed for bankruptcy. Instead of buying the whole thing though, a new report claims that Apple instead bought some of parts of Omnifone’s tech and workforce.
Apple has seriously stepped up its security game with iOS 10.2, according to a new report that found encrypted iTunes backups are now much more difficult to hack.
Apple can’t make enough iPhone 7 devices to satisfy demand from customers (and from Wall Street to make more money).
During Apple’s Q4 2016 earnings call today, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri hinted that big things are in the pipeline that should put the company back on track to growth — and it all starts Thursday with the MacBook Pro.
Here’s what we learned from the Q4 earnings call:
Apple is set to report its Q4 2016 earnings today, only instead of it being a time for celebration, the company is expected to announce its first annual revenue decline in 15 years.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri warned Wall Street that this quarter wouldn’t smash any records, but with the iPhone 7 doing better than expected, could relief be on the way?
Investors and analysts will grill Apple about how well the company expects to perform next quarter during today’s earnings call. And Cult of Mac will be right here, liveblogging the whole shebang when it starts at 2 p.m. Pacific.
Come join the fun — it’s livestreaming on Apple’s investor site.
During tomorrow’s Apple earnings call, Tim Cook is likely to unload some bad news. Wall Street expects Apple to report its first annual revenue decline since 2001, snapping one of the most impressive streaks ever witnessed.
Slumping iPhone sales mean Apple’s annual revenue could drop to $215.67 billion for 2016. That would be a significant decline from the $233.72 billion in revenue Apple posted in 2015 — but there may be light at the end of the tunnel.
Watching television is still a dreadful experience, according to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior VP of internet software and services.
The Apple exec sat down for a joint interview with HBO CEO Richard Plepler at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit in San Francisco today. The two media titans discussed the rapidly changing landscape of television, but Cue told the audience that more changes are needed to make the experience better.
Apple should take a note out of Jeff Bezos’ playbook and launch an Amazon Prime-style subscription service, claims an analyst for Goldman Sachs.
“We think Apple should launch a subscription bundle as a way to reinforce iPhone loyalty and leverage it into content,” Simona Jankowski writes in a new note to clients. In the brief, Jankowski and colleagues ponder the potential of a $50 monthly subscription that would get customers the latest iPhone plus other services like Apple TV, Apple Music and freemium access to the iTunes library.
Apple has begun accepting donations to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Matthew relief. You can donate between $5 and $200 using the iTunes app for Mac and PC, or via the App Store and iTunes Store apps on your iOS device.
Halloween is right around the corner, which means your local CVS probably already put out Christmas decorations. They do that for a reason, you know: It’s never too early to start thinking about the holiday season!
Following that logic, we’ve put together some of this week’s best deals from around the internet to start the gift-giving wheels turning. Even if you’re just giving the gift to yourself.
Apple Music is having a big impact on the profitability of the music industry, according to a new report from the Recording Industry Association of America.
How big? Apple Music is one of the key players driving what looks to be the recording industry’s first back-to-back yearly growth since 1998-1999.
September 14, 2005: Apple embraces exclusive music releases by debuting a digital EP from Coldplay on iTunes, featuring four previously unheard tracks from the enormously popular band.
100% of profits from the charity EP go to support victims of Hurricane Katrina. However, Apple’s ability to broker exclusive music deals with major record labels and popular artists shows that the company’s current exclusives-driven Apple Music strategy stretches back more than a decade.
Apple is lending its assistance to those affected by the devastating floods in Louisiana this week by adding American Red Cross donation buttons in iTunes, the App Store and on Apple’s website.
August 10, 2004: The iTunes Music Store catalog grows to 1 million songs in the United States, a first for an online music service.
Stocking music from all five major record labels and another 600 indies, and with more than 100 million songs downloaded, the iTunes Music Store is officially established as the world’s No. 1 online music service.
“The iTunes Music Store offers the world’s most extensive collection of downloadable music with over one million tracks available,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of applications, in a press release. “With more than one million songs, over 600 independent labels and dozens of innovative features, iTunes is the ultimate destination for discovering and downloading music.”
One week after releasing macOS Sierra beta 4, Apple is already back with a new beta build of its future operating system for Mac that is set for public release later this fall.
Apple mentions in the release notes that it has made bug fixes for Apple Pay, iTunes, Keychain Access and even Microsoft OneDrive in the new build. The upcoming update brings a ton of new features, including Siri for Mac, auto-unlock with Apple Watch, Apple Pay, better iCloud integration and more.
Apple Music has had a nice clean refresh in macOS Sierra — making it far easier to search for and discover the best Apple’s streaming music service has to offer.
Here’s what tune-lovers need to know when running the new operating system, which is currently in public beta and will be released this fall.
Apple has rolled out a new iTunes update to fix a bug that could prevent playlist changes from syncing between Macs and iOS devices. The version 12.4.3 release is available to download now from the Mac App Store.
Apple shocked investors with better than expected earnings for Q3 2016 today, despite some ominous signs that some analysts claimed signaled we’ve reached peak Tim Cook.
Thanks to the booming App Store business and other Services, Apple raked in an impressive $42.2 billion in revenue, which Tim Cook says, “was way better than we expected from so many different points of view.”
Here are the most important takeaways from today’s earnings call:
Apple is set to reveal its quarterly earnings this afternoon for the third fiscal quarter of 2016 and if the analysts are right, it could be even worse than Apple’s last disastrous quarter.
Investors were advised by Apple during the last earnings call that revenue will likely be down from what it was in the same quarter last year. Apple is hoping it can get a boost from the iPhone SE and the App Store to stay within expectations, however troubles in China and low iPhone demand could hurt the company more than expected.
Here’s what to watch for when Tim Cook and Luca Maestri talk to investors later this afternoon:
The next time you make a purchase at your local Apple Store, expect to be asked if you want to buy your items with Apple Pay.
Apple is launching a new promotion for its contactless payment system this week that will emphasize paying with your iPhone or Apple Watch rather than busting out a credit card. And those that haven’t signed up for Apple Pay yet will get some free money.
Apple Music’s matching software has a terrible history of replacing artists’ live songs with a studio version, but that will finally be a thing of the past, thanks the addition of audio fingerprints from iTunes Match.
A quiet rollout of the iTunes Match audio fingerprint to all Apple Music subscriber is currently underway, fixing the less accurate metadata version of iTunes Match that was currently used on Apple Music.
Katy Perry’s new single, her first since 2014, is out today — and you’ll find it only on Apple Music and iTunes. “Rise,” which will be used as the anthem for NBC’s coverage of the Rio Olympics this summer, is exclusive to Apple’s services at launch.
Pokémon Go is still available in just a small number of countries right now, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to miss out on all the hype. You can download the hit game today, wherever you live, by creating a U.S. iTunes account. Here’s how!
Apple is facing yet another legal headache in China thanks to what may be the craziest lawsuit yet in a year that has been full of wacky legal battles.
China’s media watchdog, The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), has filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming the company has violated its intellectual property by broadcasting an obscure patriotic film from 1994.
Apple is today celebrating one year of Apple Music and Beats 1 radio. The company has put out a new video that showcases some of the station’s highlights, like big interviews with stars like Drake, Adele, Taylor Swift, Will Smith, and Alecia Keys.