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Apple says new iPhones likely won’t land until October this year

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iPhone 12 might mix iPhone 11 and iPad Pro designs
We're going to be waiting a little bit longer than usual for this year's iPhones.
Photo: Ben Geskin

The 2020 iPhones likely won’t arrive until October at the earliest, Apple said during Thursday’s earnings call.

“Last year we started selling new iPhones in late September,” said Apple CFO Luca Maestri. “This year, we project supply to be available a few weeks later.”

Apple stock will split 4-to-1

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AAPL
Get ready for another stock split, Apple investors!
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

Apple’s board of directors has approved a four-to-one stock split, the company said Thursday. AAPL stock, which closed Thursday at $384.76, should go for around $100 a share when the split occurs in late August.

The news, revealed in Apple’s blowout Q3 2020 earnings report, means investors with one share at close of business on Aug. 24 will be given three additional shares trading at one-fourth the price. It’s basically a psychological move that makes Apple stock seem more affordable.

Even COVID-19 can’t slow Apple’s moneymaking machine

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Apple made it through its financial Apple Q3 2020 with flying colors.
Apple brought in far more money than expected recent during the April-to-June quarter.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Apple took in $59.7 billion in revenue last quarter, an annual increase of 11%. That solidly beats the estimates of analysts, who predicted a drop in revenue as the iPhone-maker, and the rest of the world, grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Very strong increases in revenue from Mac and iPad significantly pushed up the total.

The Morning Show curse? Apple TV+ show’s second season gets a rewrite.

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The Morning Show
Season one also had to be rewritten at the last moment.
Photo: Apple

For the second time, a season of The Morning Show is having to be completely rewritten to reflect sweeping global changes.

The Apple TV+ show had to be virtually rebooted prior to the filming of Season 1 due to the #MeToo movement and the firing of TV host Matt Lauer as the result of sexual impropriety accusations. Now Deadline reveals that Season 2 is also being rewritten — this time to reflect the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eddy Cue emails confirm Apple’s deal to cut Amazon’s App Store fees

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Eddy Cue
Eddy Cue met with Jeff Bezos to talk about the deal.
Photo: CNBC

Apple agreed to halve its App Store fee for Amazon so the company would bring its Prime Video app to iOS and Apple TV, emails reveal (.pdf).

Apple exec Eddy Cue and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos personally negotiated the deal in 2016, it was revealed during Wednesday’s antitrust hearing looking into tech giants’ business practices. They agreed that Apple would get a 15% revenue cut from day one for customers who signed up through the app. Apple normally gets a 30% cut for the first year of an app’s subscription. It then claims a 15% commission for subsequent years.

Secure messaging app Telegram files antitrust complaint against Apple in EU

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Telegram logo
Telegram adds its voice to the chorus of developers complaining about Apple.
Photo: Telegram

Popular secure messaging app Telegram filed a formal antitrust complaint with the European Union over App Store practices, the Financial Times reports.

In a complaint addressed to EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager, Telegram’s creators argue that Apple must “allow users to have the opportunity of downloading software outside of the App Store.”

Apple once considered increasing App Store commissions to 40%

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app-store
Back in 2011, Eddy Cue suggested charging some developers significantly more than current 30% fee.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s 30% commission on certain apps is one of the main areas Apple CEO Tim Cook was grilled on during Wednesday’s U.S. House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing.

However, according to internal emails revealed as part of the inquiry, Apple previously considered increasing its cut from 30% to 40% in some cases.

Tim Cook mostly avoids grilling during historic congressional antitrust hearing

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Tim Cook answers questions about App Store business practices.
Things didn't get too hot during Tim Cook's virtual visit to Capitol Hill.
Photo: C-SPAN

Apple CEO Tim Cook mostly avoided questioning during Wednesday’s historic congressional antitrust hearing on the business practices of Big Tech.

Cook took only a handful of questions from the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee. Lawmakers directed most of their questioning — which capped a year-long investigation into antitrust issues — at Cook’s fellow CEOs from Facebook, Google and Amazon.

What to expect from Apple’s pandemic-afflicted earnings report

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Apple Q3 2020 earning results come out July 30.
Apple Q3 2020 earnings were almost certainly pushed up by the iPhone SE and weighed down by COVID-19.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

When Apple reports its fiscal third-quarter earnings Thursday, the world will learn how the company is doing in the middle of a global pandemic.

Analysts predict a drop in revenue. But Apple itself previously said it’s seeing an increase in Mac and iPad sales. And investors have pushed the stock up almost 30% this year.

States push on with probe into Apple’s iPhone throttling

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iPhone battery
The news of “Batterygate” broke in 2017, but some states are supposedly still investigating.
Photo: iFixit

The Attorney General of Arizona is reportedly looking into Apple’s practice of slowing down the performance of older iPhones to preserve battery life.

Apple admitted it was doing this back in 2017, and gave users control of if and when it happens. But the investigation by the Arizona AG goes on.

Google One offers free online backups to iPhone users

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iPhone and Google One together again for the very first time.
Automatic backups to Google One are coming soon for iPhone users.
Photo: Google

Google on Wednesday committed to a free iOS app that lets iPhone users automatically back up photos, videos, contacts and calendar events. This goes into the 15GB of free storage offered by this company.

This will compete with a service offered by Apple to do the same.

Tim Cook says Apple treats devs fairly in ‘street fight for market share’

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Tim Cook answers questions about App Store business practices during the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing.
Tim Cook answers questions about App Store business practices.
Photo: C-SPAN

Apple CEO Tim Cook defended App Store business practices and said his company treats all software developers equally as he faced questioning Wednesday in front of the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee.

Cook said it’s in Apple’s best interest to treat devs fairly. The company wants the best and brightest to write iOS apps, he said, because killer software proves essential for a company engaged in a “street fight for market share in the smartphone business.”

Play classic 1990s games with a fully functional Mac OS 8 emulator

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Mac OS 8 emulator
Return to the thrilling days of yesteryear with a Mac OS 8 emulator loaded with games from the 1990s.
Photo: Felix Rieseberg

Anyone wanting a serious dose of nostalgia should install a just-released emulator of a classic Apple desktop computer running Mac OS 8, first released in 1997. There’s even a bunch of games and productivity applications from the same era.

Spotify hits 138 million paying subscribers

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Spotify iPhone
Spotify continues to go from strength to strength.
Photo: Cezar Sampaio/Unsplash CC

Spotify’s Q2 earnings showed largely positive growth, although the streaming music giant suffered a 21% decline in ad revenue and a 48% rise in operating costs due to deals like its $100 million licensing deal for The Joe Rogan Experience.

Total monthly active users on the platform grew to 299 million, while paid subscribers increased to 138 million. Apple Music, which does not operate a free listening tier (outside of Beats 1 radio), last reported 60 million paid subscribers in June 2019 when it had passed 60 million.

Universal will sell digital movies just weeks after their theatrical debut

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Some analysts think Apple should snap up a movie studio. Bad idea!
Or you could watch them from the comfort of your own home.
Photo: Naoya Fujii/Flickr CC

A new deal means that movie fans won’t be waiting as long to see Universal Pictures movies pop up for sale on iTunes and other digital platforms after their theatrical debut.

According to a Wall Street Journal article, an agreement between theater chain AMC Entertainment and Universal means that the theatrical exclusivity window will be cut from 75 days to just 17 days. This means certain titles will be available after just 2.5 weeks after they first arrived in theaters.

The good, the bad, and the Wario: Mario Kart Tour goes to the Wild West

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Mario Kart Tour
Mario Kart Tour is going west.
Photo: Nintendo

Get ready for some high plains drifting because Mario Kart Tour is headed west. To the Wild West, more precisely!

Having travelled all over the world in previous updates, the mobile-focused version of Mario Kart is now going back in time to frontier country with its latest update. And it’s brought some appropriately themed characters along for the ride over yonder.

Read Tim Cook’s opening remarks for his antitrust testimony Wednesday

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Tim Cook
Far from gatekeepers, Tim Cook will argue that Apple is opening doors.
Photo: Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook will argue that his company does not dominate any market in which it does business when he appears before the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee Wednesday, according to his opening statement released ahead of time (.pdf).

While Cook will say that “scrutiny is reasonable and appropriate,” he will assert that Apple refuses to make “concession on the facts” by agreeing that it is a monopoly. If anything, Cook will argue that Apple is no gatekeeper, but, through the App Store, has actually opened the gate to developers.

Congress, keep your mitts off the App Store. It’s fine. [Opinion]

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Apple exec Phil Schiller calls the App Store a good deal for devs. That's just one of the reasons Apple deserves a fair commission for powering the App Store.
Apple exec Phil Schiller calls the App Store a good deal for devs. That's just one of the reasons Apple deserves a fair commission for powering the App Store.
Photo: Globovisión/Flickr CC

When Apple CEO Tim Cook takes questions from Congress on Wednesday, he’ll surely get an earful of software developers’ complaints about how the App Store operates. Chief among the criticisms will likely be the fact that Apple charges a percentage of revenue earned from in-app sales.

There’s not a bit of justification for any of these highly publicized complaints. They come from companies that want to have their cake and eat it, too.

The Morning Show leads Apple TV+ to 19 Emmy nominations

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New video take viewers behind-the-scenes of The Morning Show
Both Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell received Emmy nominations for their work on Apple TV+’s The Morning Show.
Photo: Apple

Apple TV+ earned 19 Emmy Awards nominations, including several for The Morning Show, a star-studded drama that was a highlight of the streaming service’s launch last autumn.

That’s not bad for the first year of eligibility for Apple TV+. However, Netflix totally dominated the 72nd annual Emmy Awards nominations, which were revealed Tuesday by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The world’s biggest streamer took home an astonishing 160 Emmy noms. HBO limited series Watchmen scored the most nominations of any single series with 26.

7 stellar Apple Watch charging stands for under $30

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AW-charging-stands
Give your Apple Watch a great place to rest.
Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Your beloved Apple Watch deserves more than to be slapped on top of its included charging cable every night. Treat yours to an actual charging stand without breaking the bank and give it a better place to rest.

Here are seven stellar options, handpicked by Cult of Mac, for $30 or less.

Plugable’s USB-C Multiport Adapter rivals Apple’s, but costs way less

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Plugable USB-C Multiport Adapter offers HDMI, USB-A and USB-C ports.
The Plugable USB-C Multiport Adapter provides access to frequently used laptop and tablet add-ons.
Photo: Plugable

The just-released Plugable USB-C Multiport Adapter offers the same video and USB ports as an Apple adapter, but at a much lower price.

Both products include HDMI, USB-C, and USB-A ports, and can be used with a MacBook or iPad Pro. But the Plugable version is better suited for those on a tight budget.

Airbnb and ClassPass join chorus of complaints about Apple’s 30% sales fee

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Money on Unsplash
Apple is demanding its usual fee for in-app sales.
Photo: Pepi Stojanovski/Unsplash

Airbnb and ClassPass are the two latest companies to clash with Apple over the tech giant’s demands for a percentage of in-app sales.

According to the The New York Times, the two companies — reeling from the effects of COVID-19 on their businesses — are upset that Apple demands a 30% cut of sales for their sale of online experiences.

Congress may scrutinize Apple’s ‘copy-acquire-kill’ strategy

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Tim Cook goes to Washington
This is one of the questions Tim Cook could field tomorrow.
Screenshot: Apple

Lawmakers reportedly will quiz Apple on its “copy-acquire-kill” strategy during Wednesday’s congressional antitrust hearing.

According to the Washington Post, this will be one of the areas that Apple will be scrutinized on to see if it has engaged in anti-competitive behavior. “Copy-acquire-kill” refers to buying companies to acquire their innovative features, before killing them to stop other platforms from having access to them.

From Apple TV+ to Apple Arcade, Cupertino’s new services fail to bring in big money

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Share Apple TV+
Apple services may not be bringing in the cash, Bloomberg says.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

As Apple’s services division grows in importance, the company’s newest services — Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and Apple Card — are failing to bring in significant revenue, according to a new report.

Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman writes that, while services likely will increase yet again when Apple announces its Q3 earnings this week, most of these gains will come from older services like the App Store.