“Don’t talk to me, I’m wearing AirPods” said just about everyone who’s ever worked in an open office. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Open offices were supposed to get employees to interact with each other more, but a recent study shows it hasn’t worked out that way. Instead, workers have turned to AirPods to give themselves some privacy.
This has helped fuel the rise of wireless hearables, especially Apple’s.
That sound you hear is glasses clinking in Cupertino! Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
Apple has won back its hard-fought $1 trillion market cap, after share prices rose following yesterday’s earnings triumph.
AAPL is currently trading at $213.20, giving it a market cap of just over $1 trillion. Shares rose 6% in early morning trading. This is a particularly triumphant moment for Apple after its stock price temporarily tanked at the end of last year.
The Moment Pro Camera app lets you have command of how your stills and videos look. Photo: Moment
You’re a gifted content creator, shooting great stills and compelling video with your iPhone. But for complete creative control, some rely on separate camera apps for each discipline.
Moment, the maker of premium quality lens attachment for both, now has an all-in-one program app making switching from stills to video quick and seamless.
A beefed up Pro Camera app hits the App Store today, offering full manual control and with features making it difficult to have a bad shoot.
Here's what Apple spends money on when it lobbies Congress. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
When it comes to lobbying Congress, Apple’s biggest focus by far is on tax laws. Out of 236 lobbying reports since 2005, tax is mentioned in a massive 76%.
This is one takeaway from a new report, analyzing lobbying spend from the big five tech giants, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Between them, they have spent $582 million on lobbying since 2005. According to the report, Apple spent $9.6 million on lobbying last year, and $59.9 million since 2005.
Soon you'll be able to pay for your smoke and a pancake using your iPhone. Screenshot: ING
Shortly after going live in Austria, Apple Pay is also set to commence operations in the Netherlands.
The information was shared by Dutch bank ING on its website. While it doesn’t give an exact date, it does note that Apple Pay is coming “soon.” That suggests that all the necessary negotiations have been completed, and it’s just a matter of flicking the switch to send it live.
As we noted earlier this month, one of Apple’s earliest tablets is now officially classified “obsolete” by the company.
Apple’s iPad 2, released in 2011, packed a dual-core A5 processor, thinner form factor, and VGA front-facing and 720p rear-facing cameras. However, what was state-of-the-art almost a decade is ago is now considered so old that Apple Stores will no longer service it.
Apple doesn't want you opening up your devices. Photo: iFixit
An Apple representative reportedly met with California legislators in an effort to kill a law that would make it easier for people to repair their own smartphones.
With initiatives like its battery replacement program, Apple helped extend the life of million of iPhones. But moves like this won’t please “right to repair” advocates.
Miklu Silvanto, who joined Apple in October 2011, is leaving the company to join Airbnb. Photo: Airbnb
Another Apple industrial designer is leaving Jony Ive’s iconic design team. Miklu Silvanto, who joined Apple in October 2011, is joining Airbnb’s new offshoot design studio Samara.
In his new role, Silvanto will help design future house prototypes. Samara has hired a number of experts in disciplines ranging from industrial design to roboticists and urban planners.
A dive into Apple’s most recent financial results shows what’s really happening with the company. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Taking a close look at Apple’s financial results during the first three months of this year in hard numbers shows how the company is changing. Services are getting more important to its bottom line, and so are iPads. While iPhone is still a big part of Apple’s business, it’s not as significant as it used to be.
Check out these charts that demonstrate with a glance how the changes play out.
European Commission could get even tougher on tech in 2020 Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Wall Street received surprisingly better-than-expected news from Apple’s Q2 2019 earnings report today — and the stock is soaring in after-hours trading.
iPhone sales remain down, but pretty much every other facet of the company’s business is firing on all cylinders. Customers are falling in love with the iPad all over again. Services are booming. And Apple’s wearables business is now the size of a Fortune 200 company.
Despite plenty of doom and gloom from analysts over the last 12 months, Apple’s future is looking bright again.
Apple’s business in China is finally turning around, according to execs who say Cupertino’s troubles in the country might be a thing of the past.
“We feel positive about our trajectory,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during Tuesday’s earnings call, noting that the company’s “year-over-year revenue performance in Greater China improved relative to the December quarter.”
Then Cook laid out four reasons why Apple’s “China problem” is going away.
Apple Watch could be better than ever next year. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
To listen to Apple’s Q2 earnings call is to get inundated with numbers. But the stockholder looking for a set of numbers giving them a reason to buy more shares should consider the rise of new Apple customers.
Apple CFO Luca Maestri delivered the usual dry intro into quarterly reports: the ups, downs, gross margins, basis points and other wonky indicators important to analysts listening in.
It was in his next breath where Maestri provided “color” that explained Apple’s optimism in the road ahead. There was double-digit growth in services, subscriptions and a blockbuster quarter for both the iPad and wearables, particularly, the Apple Watch Series 4.
With revenues topping $58 billion Q2 (down 5% YoY), Apple is trying to become less reliant on its iPhone business. Services are expected to pick up most of the slack, but this last quarter Apple got some unexpected help from its iPad business that is experiencing a resurgence just at the right time thanks to the new iPad Pro.
Apple would have sold more of these if it weren’t for Intel. Photo: Apple
Apple saw a small but significant year-over year reduction in Mac sales during the first three months of 2019. This wasn’t because customers didn’t want to buy macOS notebooks and desktops however, but because Apple couldn’t get the Intel processors required to produce the computers.
Apple's Apple Watch business grew 50% last quarter. Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac
Apple’s wearables business continues to grow like gangbusters.
Sales of the Apple Watch grew 50% compared to the same quarter last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook said on Apple’s Q2 2019 quarterly analyst call Tuesday.
If Apple’s wearables business — which includes the Apple Watch and the popular AirPods earbuds — were a stand-alone company, it would be in the Fortune 200, Cook said.
It's "Get a bag Tuesday" and Tim Cook is cashing in. Photo: Cult of Mac
Apple revealed its Q2 2019 earnings report and despite some pessimism from analysts, the company managed to beat Wall Street’s expectations.
Revenue for the quarter came in at $58 billion, slightly above Apple’s own guidance to investors. Most of Wall Street analysts were predicting the company would only bring in between $54 billion to $57 billion for the quarter. Better yet, the company’s guidance for next quarter is stronger than expected, signifying that the doom-and-gloom may have been severely overstated.
Instagram will use fact-checking teams to identify false information. Photo: Instagram
Facebook is retooling Instagram to take some social pressure out of social media.
The photo-sharing app, which along with the iPhone sparked a revolution in instant photography, will reduce the pressure by making “likes” private so followers engage the content, not how popular it is. Instagram is also playing with ways to reduce the prominence of follower counts.
Oprah could go back in the interviewer’s chair, this time on Apple TV+. Photo: Apple
Oprah Winfrey is already creating original programming for the upcoming Apple TV+ service, and now she’s suggesting she might be doing even more. She says she’s interested in creating a series in which she interviews celebrities and politicians.
This MacBook concept has a flexible touchscreen in place of the keyboard and trackpad. Photo: Astro HQ
Astro HQ, makers of Luna Display, dreamed up a macOS laptop concept with a foldable display that covers the entire interior of the MacBook. The design includes a touchscreen and Apple Pencil support.
Artists’ concepts are often impractical dreams for the future but a version of this can be assembled right now. Sort of.
Apple's Q2 earnings are expected to be a bit of a downer. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Wall Street is anxiously awaiting Apple’s earnings report for the second quarter of 2019 that will be delivered on Tuesday, April 30. Apple’s stock value has risen about 30% this year even though iPhone sales are slowing.
Most analysts predict that nearly all of Apple’s numbers will be down compared to the same quarter last year, but there are few bright spots that could cause the company’s stock price to surge. After looking at the analysts’ numbers, we’ve found a couple of key areas to watch for.
Still using Aperture? It might be time to give it up. Photo: Apple
Photographers still clinging to Apple’s discontinued imaging software, Aperture, must now deal with a ticking clock.
Apple announced Aperture will not get support from future MacOS past Mojave and have issued a support document encouraging Mac-based shooters to migrate their photo libraries.
Samsung's latest flagship phones are doing well, though. Photo: Samsung
Samsung has reported its weakest profits in two years as first quarter earnings suffered from weak smartphone and memory chip sales.
While Samsung said that it expects things will be get better in the second half of the year, the immediate outlook isn’t great. Samsung posted operating profits of $5.4 billion for the quarter, its smallest since late 2016. By comparison, this quarter last year raked in $13.4 billion.
Plan for Foxconn's Wisconsin factory seem to have changed along the way. Photo: CBS
Departing Foxconn chairman Terry Gou is reportedly heading to the U.S. where he will have a meeting at the White House. The subject of the meeting will be Foxconn’s plans to open a factory in Wisconsin.
Foxconn maintains that it’s working hard to deliver the factory it received $4 billion in tax breaks for. However, behind-the-scenes dealings suggest that the company may be trying to renegotiate terms.