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The 7 biggest takeaways from Apple’s Q4 earnings call

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The iPhone 6s is selling like hotcakes.
The iPhone 6s is selling like hotcakes.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The iPhone 6s is a huge hit, China is still doing great, and Android users absolutely love switching to iPhone.

Those are just some of the details Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri revealed during this afternoon’s earnings call with investors that revealed Apple managed to top Wall Street’s expectations thanks to the iPhone 6s.

Here are the top takeaways from Apple’s latest record-setting quarter:

Apple tops estimates with $51.5 billion in revenue in Q4

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Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple’s earnings barely beat Wall Street’s expectations for fourth-quarter revenue thanks to strong sales of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, which helped the company bring in $51.5 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.1 billion

The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus set a new launch weekend record of 13 million units sold, helping Apple finish the quarter with 48.5 million units sold. 2015 was Apple’s most successful financial year ever, leading Tim Cook to call it a “testament to the tremendous execution by our teams.”

Liveblog: Apple’s monstrous Q4 earnings call

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Tim would rather you not ask about taxes.
Tim would rather you not ask about taxes.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is ready to report its financial results for Q4 2015 to this afternoon and, as usual, investors are expecting it to be another record-breaker.

Cult of Mac will be here to liveblog all the action, from the numbers down to the analysts’ questions. iPhone 6s sales will loom large on the minds of investors who have been leery that demand might be waning. Revenues are expected to top $51 billion, but with China’s economy slumping, we wouldn’t be shocked if Wall Street isn’t thrilled with the numbers.

Tim Cook or CFO Luca Maestri will kick off at 2 p.m. Pacific, but we’ll be jumping on the liveblogging party early with a breakdown of all the numbers. Bookmark this page and join us for Apple’s monstrous earnings call.

Watch iPhones die slowly in Droid Turbo 2 torture-porn ad

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watch-iphones-die-slowly-in-droid-turbo-2-torture-porn-ad-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201510Droid-Turbo-2-shatterproof-ad-jpg
An unknown number of smartphones died in the making of this ad.
Photo: Motorola
An unknown number of smartphones died in the making of this ad. Photo: Motorola
An unknown number of smartphones died in the making of this ad. Photo: Motorola

Maybe you know this sickening feeling: Your smartphone slips from your hand and starts its descent toward the ground. If you’re standing in an asphalt parking lot or walking down a city sidewalk — and you don’t have your phone protected in a life-preserving case — you know what happens next.

Time seems to stand still as the phone falls toward earth. Then … Impact. Shattering glass. And a horrifying glimpse at the damage done.

What to expect from Apple’s Q4 2015 earnings call

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LOVELOUD
Apple CEO Tim Cook will introduce the band Imagine Dragons Satuday at the LOVELOUD Festival in Utah.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is scheduled to reveal its earnings for the final fiscal quarter of 2015 on Tuesday, October 27, and investors are expecting monstrous results.

Sales of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus should boost revenues to new heights after Apple announced that it sold a record 13 million units of the new devices during launch weekend alone. Exactly how many iPhones Apple sold won’t be revealed until the bell closes, but Tim Cook seemed pretty optimistic in a recent interview.

Cook told The Wall Street Journal that Apple Watch shipped even more watches last quarter than in the first quarter. It’s unlikely Apple will give us the actual Apple Watch sales figures during the earnings call, but there should be a lot of juicy Apple bits.

Here’s everything to expect from Apple’s Q4 2015 earnings:

Gen X loves Apple Pay more than Millenials do

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Apple Pay Apple Watch
Apple Pay is coming to China.
Photo: Apple

The year of Apple Pay might be starting to plateau after adoption of the mobile payments service exploded through out 2015, according to data from Phoenix Marketing.

Apple Pay is still picking up users one year after launch, but the firm’s data shows that growth has slowed over the last few months. It appears that Millennials aren’t as crazy yet about wallet-free payments as expected. Gen X users have grown the most though with nearly 23% having already signed up for the service in the first year.

Apple encouraged by growing revenues in China

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China
Customers in China aren't lining up for the iPhone like they once were.
Photo: Apple

China’s rising middle class has been good for Apple and the iPhone. CEO Tim Cook said iPhone sales in the world’s largest smartphone market has risen 112 percent over the last year.

Cook reported the China earnings during Apple’s third-quarter conference call as the company gets to set to release an earnings report Tuesday afternoon for the last quarter that many analysts are predicting will be underwhelming.

Apple lets German customers add iTunes purchases to phone bills

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Apple brings carrier billing for app purchases to Germany.
Apple brings carrier billing for app purchases to Germany.
Photo: Cult of Mac

You may soon be able to make purchases in the iTunes store without a credit or debit card.

Apple has been working with a phone carrier in Germany on an agreement that would let people pay for items as part of their phone bills. Users’ phone numbers, rather than credit cards or bank account numbers, will be used to make purchases that will show up on the next bill.

Apple’s first Dubai store is a desert oasis of tech

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Apple's 50,000-square-foot retail space will be the first in U.A.E.
Photo: Gulf Business

In advance of the opening of Apple’s massive 50,000-square-foot retail space at the Mall of the Emirates this Thursday, Gulf Business has gotten a sneak preview of the company’s debut United Arab Emirates store — showing a leafy open-plan oasis carrying the new Jony Ive-designed Apple Store interior.

Check out more pictures below.

NBA star Stephen Curry shows off Live Photos in iPhone 6s ad

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Screen Shot 2015-10-27 at 11.23.30
Live Photos will let you relive great moments.
Photo: Apple

After debuting three new iPhone 6s ads over the weekend, showing off the handset’s new wireless “Hey Siri” feature and various camera improvements, Apple has dropped one more ad — depicting the iPhone 6s’ Live Photos tool.

Called “Half Court,” the 15-second spot shows Golden State Warriors NBA player Stephen Curry making an impressive half-court shot, which can then be re-lived thanks to Live Photos.

Check it out below.

Apple not predicting the iPad Pro to be a big holiday seller

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Animators are raving about the iPad Pro.
The iPad Pro may be hard to find early on.
Photo: Apple

Apple hopes the iPad Pro will reinvigorate slumping tablet sales, but the company’s not showing much faith in the device, if initial orders are to be believed.

According to supply chain sources, Apple is taking a “rather conservative attitude” toward iPad Pro, ordering just 2.5 million for the rest of 2015 — and possibly even less for the first quarter of 2016 if holiday sales prove weaker than expected.

Apple’s semi-creepy patent lets you keep a closer eye on your friends

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Screen Shot 2015-10-27 at 09.53.46
"Mr. Bond, I've been expecting you."
Photo: USPTO/Apple

With its pro-privacy stance, Apple’s pretty good at treading the line between usefulness and creepiness, which other tech companies can struggle with.

A newly-published patent, however, may challenge that assertion — describing a method for monitoring another person’s location, via their iPhone, with constant user notifications sent to alert you of any changes in their progress along a route.

Presumably so you can hop in a chair, grab a white cat for your lap, and sit facing the door to greet their arrival with the line, “Mr. Bond, I’ve been expecting you.”

It’s official: Apple Watch will grow on you

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Apple Watch Citymapper
Apple Watch: To know it is to love it.
Photo:

A recent study that measured the brain activity of people using the Apple Watch suggests that even the most skeptical of users came to like the wearable after some hands-on time with it.

The findings come from “neuromarketing” group eMerite, which connected electroencephalograms to 20 people and studied their reactions as they tried out different functions of Apple’s smartwatch.

Inside Microsoft’s Fifth Ave store that looks just like an Apple Store

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Microsoft's Fifth Ave store is open for business.
Microsoft's Fifth Ave store is open for business.
Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft officially opened its flagship store on NYC’s historic Fifth Avenue today just blocks away from Apple’s iconic glass cube, and it’s taken a few pages from the iPhone-maker’s playbook in the process.

The doors to Microsoft’s new store opened just in time for the release of the new Surface Book and Surface Pro 4, but Microsoft says it’s totally cool if Apple fans bring in their devices too.

“If you bring your iPhone in here, I’d love to show you how to use Office on it,” said Kelly Soligon, senior director of retail stores marketing at Microsoft. There are signs of Apple’s influence throughout the store through, from the giant glass facade to the glass staircase.

Take a look inside:

This piece of plastic could be your go-to GoPro accessory

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The SLOPES can give you 20 different positions for your GoPro camera.
The SLOPES can give you 20 different positions for your GoPro camera.
Photo: SLOPES

You’ve got an idea for a shot with your GoPro camera. But you don’t have the right mount, or the tripod you carry won’t go low enough or fit in a space with that great angle.

Photographer Ruogo Zhou has designed a hunk of plastic that cradles the GoPro and provides it 20 different angles for shooting. It’s a small polyhedron support that can fit in tiny spaces and it goes by the name SLOPES.

ThinkTank skips the bling for understated elegance in camera bag for women

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The Lily Deanne bags for female photographers by ThinkTank.
The Lily Deanne bags for female photographers by ThinkTank.
Photo: ThinkTank

My female friends who are photographers bristle when you bring up the idea of a camera bag being designed for women. The few women’s camera bags they’ve seen have tended to be cutesy – and cutesy doesn’t cut it.

They want the same things in a bag as the men – roomy, stealthy and sturdy. Why should gender matter in the design?

ThinkTank, an industry leader in camera bags for every kind of photography, may have found the right combination of aesthetic and function in a new line of bags created for women.

You could own 4,096 bits of space history when computer chip goes up for auction

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This computer chip is from the first computer ever used in a spacecraft.
This computer chip is from the first computer ever used in a spacecraft.
Photo: Heritage Auctions

A memory chip that originated from the first digital computer on a manned space flight will be up for auction next month in Dallas. For those calling in a bid, the smartphone in their hand has more than 250 million times the capacity of this chip.

The onboard computer for Gemini 3 aided astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young with several phases of their March 1965 mission, including prelaunch and re-entry. The 4.25-inch chip, a Random Access Non-Destruction Readout Memory Plane contains 4,096 bits of information, equal to about half of a K.

Here’s how not to drown your massive iPhone collection

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iphone-dunk-test
Yep, this wasn't how he'd planned it.
Photo: Zach Straley

Although Apple hasn’t confirmed it, there have been rumblings that the new iPhone 6s is more water-resistant than its predecessors. So what better way to make a viral stress test video than to strap every iPhone ever made on a board, lower them into a tray of water, and observe the order in which they stop working?

Done properly, such a concept should let its creator sit back and watch the retirement fund ad revenue roll in. Well, done properly it might. Done incredibly haphazardly, on what looks like the world’s most buoyant piece of wood, it’s not quite such a winner.

Check it out below.

The new Apple-infused Beats Pill+ goes on sale

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beats-pill-plus-apple
Go get your prescription: the Beats Pill+ is out.
Photo: Beats

The latest entry to the Beats line of speakers and the first one under Apple’s supervision, the Beats Pill+ is now available. At $229, it’s $30 more expensive than its predecessor, the Beats Pill 2.0, but it has much more to offer. This Bluetooth speaker apparently has improved sound quality, a tweaked design, and unsurprisingly charges via Lightning cable.

Apple named coolest wearables brand over Samsung, Rolex, Ralph Lauren

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As smartwatches grow in popularity, the Apple Watch will continue to be the hands-on - or wrist-on - favorite.
As smartwatches grow in popularity, the Apple Watch will continue to be the hands-on - or wrist-on - favorite.
Photo: Apple
Apple Watch is the coolest wearable yet, apparently. Photo: Apple
Apple Watch is the coolest wearable yet, apparently. Photo: Apple

Apple Watch is by far the most successful smartwatch to date in terms of sales, so perhaps it’s no surprise that Apple has been voted the “coolest wearables brand” by smartphone users.

The Cupertino company not only beat technology rivals like Samsung and LG to the top of the list, but also high-end watchmakers and fashion brands like TAG Heuer, Rolex, and Ralph Lauren.

First Apple Store in Singapore set to open in 2016

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Knightsbridge-670x640
The swanky new site for Apple's first Singapore Apple Store?
Photo: Techinasia

Apple is set to open its debut brick-and-mortar retail store in Singapore, according to a message sent out by health and exercise chain Pure Fitness.

In a message directed at patrons, Pure Fitness revealed that it is one of several tenants closing their premises in Singapore’s upscale retail building Knightsbridge, “to make way for the opening of Singapore’s first Apple store [sic] later in 2016.”