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Liveblog: Apple’s toughest earnings call in a decade

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Earnings_Call_2
How bad is peak iPhone?
Photo: Ste Smith

Apple earnings calls are usually a time for celebration and gloating, but for the first time in over a decade the company is poised to post declining profits.

Tim Cook warned Wall Street that this would likely happen due to declining iPhone sales. Have we really reached “peak iPhone”?

Analysts and reporters will be grilling Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri during today’s Q2 2016 earnings call. Investors will be looking for signs that Apple still has room to grow. And Cult of Mac will be right here, liveblogging the entire Apple earnings call — and translating the financial gibberish — when the big event starts at 2 p.m. Pacific.

Get in on the action below:

iPhone sales slump breaks Apple’s 13-year growth streak

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Will Apple reach its own targets for Q2?
Investors just got some bad news.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s phenomenal run of growing profits has come to an end. For the first time in 13 years, Apple announced that its profits declined year-over-year during the last fiscal quarter.

The company just posted its earnings report for Q2 2016 and, as predicted, iPhone sales took a serious hit. Apple only shipped 51.6 million devices last quarter, resulting in $50.6 billion in total revenue and a quarterly net income of $10.5 billion.

Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted the company had a challenging quarter but is still incredibly optimistic, despite what many analysts are calling “peak iPhone.”

Tweak this OS X setting to make games run better

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Boost your gaming performance with this simple trick.
Boost your gaming performance with this simple trick.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac (original photo: Alejandro Escamilla/Unsplash CC)

When you’re running a video game on your Retina Mac, the highest resolution can bog things down onscreen, making it tough to play smoothly.

Typically, we suggest trying to use your game’s options panel to reduce the fancy graphics to get smoother performance, like increased frame rate and better draw rates.

If that doesn’t appeal, or your game doesn’t include the option, there’s another way to constrain the resolution and make games run more smoothly on a Retina Mac.

Brace yourself for ‘bumper ads’ before every YouTube video

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YouTube wants to takeover your TV.
YouTube wants to takeover your TV.
Photo: YouTube
Look out for bumper ads! Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Android.
Look out for bumper ads! Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Android.

When you’re excited to watch the latest videos from your favorite YouTube channels, the last thing you want to see before them is ads you can’t skip. Normally, they don’t appear on every video you watch, but Google is planning to change that.

The company today announced that is introducing 6-second “bumper ads” that will play before all videos watched on mobile devices, and you have no choice but to sit through them.

iOS 9.3.2 beta 3 is out now for developers

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A fresh new iOS beta is here.
Photo: Apple

Apple has dropped a new beta for iOS 9.3.2 on developers today, just one week after the company released another big batch of beta updates. 

The new software for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch mostly focuses on under the hood improvements and bug fixes, however it also adds the ability to use Night Shift and Low Power mode at the same time. 

Apple IIc gets a second life in this neat restoration video

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Making an Apple IIc look this good isn't easy.
Photo: The 8-bit Guy

Long before Jony Ive was making ridiculously thin aluminum MacBooks, the Apple IIc reigned supreme as Apple’s first portable computer.

Finding a working model of the 7.5-pound notebook is a tough task, considering it was introduced more than 30 years ago, but restoration expert The 8-Bit Guy came across one and put together a video on how to make the 1984 machine look brand new.

A robot rolls into an Apple Store …

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Lucy Kelly's purchase of an iPhone 6s at the Sydney Apple Store was a global news story.
Lucy Kelly's purchase of an iPhone 6s at the Sydney Apple Store was a global news story.
Photo: Atomic 212

Cult of Mac 2.0 bugThe lines outside Apple Stores across the globe will be long later this year when the much-anticipated iPhone 7 goes on sale, a guaranteed media spectacle ripe with companies seeking inexpensive advertising of their products.

No guerrilla marketing stunt set the bar higher than one in Sydney last fall, when a telepresence robot with the cheerful face of a woman named Lucy framed in an iPad took her place in line to buy an iPhone 6s.

Pay what you want for this spring 2016 Mac apps bundle [Deals]

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PWYW Spring Mac Bundle
Name your own price for these 13 super-helpful Mac apps.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Seize the productive spring energy with this bundle of 13 super-productive Mac apps. From photo editing to 3-D modeling, website building and beyond, there’s something in here for anybody looking to make the most out of the fairer months.

The best part, though, is that you can pay what you want for the whole thing, with a portion of each dollar going to support the important work of Save the Children.

Take a look at what’s included:

Apple Watch made $1.5 billion more than Rolex last year

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Apple Watch
I wish I could have a flop like the Apple Watch!
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Going back at least as far the iPhone 5c, some Apple products pick up unfair reputations as “flops” — despite the fact that they are selling in quantities that would make other companies (and my Samsung-loving Cult of Android colleague Killian Bell) turn green with envy.

The Apple Watch, which celebrated its first birthday this week, is just such a product. How much of an impact did the Apple Watch make in its debut year? Enough to bring in $1.5 billion more than Rolex did in 2015.

And more than one-quarter of all Swiss watch exports combined for the past year, just to hammer the point home!

India will force Apple to put a ‘panic button’ in the iPhone

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IpHONE se
India decrees that all smartphones must have panic buttons from next year.
Photo: Sam Mills/Cult of Mac

All iPhones sold in India must feature a “panic button” from 2017, according to a new order signed into law by the country’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The law states that every phone must include a panic button and in-built global positioning system, designed to protect women.

After a year with Apple Watch, it’s time for a frank appraisal

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Apple Watches
Time flies when you're having fun.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

I’ve decided to take a step back and take a good, hard look at what I’ve been wearing on my wrist for an entire year. It feels like it was just yesterday the Apple Watch was revealed to the public, and everyone wanted one.

Has it become an essential bit of kit on my wrist, or is it another gadget for the junk drawer, left to gather dust?

Here’s my take on the year I’ve spent with Apple’s magical wrist computer.

Apple will answer objections to proposed Ireland data center

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New data center will be one of Apple's biggest projects in Europe to date.
Photo: John Hoey/Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple is set to face a hearing over its proposed 850 million euro ($960 million) data centre in Athenry, Ireland — one of Apple’s biggest projects in Europe to date, which is scheduled to open in 2017.

The hearing over the proposed data center, which will help power Apple Music, the App Store, iMessages, Maps and Siri, will be with An Bord Pleanála, an independent, statutory body that decides on appeals from planning decisions made by local authorities in Ireland.

Apple set to report first quarterly revenue decline in 13 years

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money
All good things come to an end.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s 13 years of astonishing growth is likely to come to a close today, with the company predicted to report its first quarterly revenue decline since 2003 — well before the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch were even faint glimmers in Apple execs’ eyes.

The company is expected to reveal that March quarter sales fell 10 percent year-over-year to around $52 billion. Apple first warned that sales would fall in its forecast back in January, although today we’ll find out the extent of that slide.

Apple will bring iPhone back to life to help find missing teens

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The parents of the missing teens hope this iPhone will give them some answers.
Photo: Blu Stephanos

Apple is reportedly helping in the hunt for two 14-year-old boys who disappeared at sea last year, after one of their iPhones was discovered in non-working condition.

Both Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen were last seen on July 24. After their disappearance, the Coast Guard carried out an extensive eight-day search in the Atlantic, spanning 50,000 nautical miles, but the boys were never found. However, last month their boat was discovered 100 miles off the coast of Bermuda — with Austin’s iPhone on board.

Apple says ‘you’re fired’ to a number of its recruitment staff

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SF pride
Apple employees marching in San Francisco's Gay Pride parade.
Photo: Tim Cook/Twitter

Apple may have recently hired former Box employee Karen Appleton to focus on the company’s enterprise business, and former Tesla VP Chris Porritt as a product design administrator for its Apple Car project, but it seems that it is slowing down on its wider recruitment drive.

According to a new report, Apple has cut all of its contract recruiters over the past several weeks, and is also starting to get rid of some of its full-time recruitment staff. In total, the move could affect upwards of 100 people.

Want lunch with Tim Cook? Consider selling your house

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Tim Cook's next WWDC keynote is right around the corner!
We like to think that this is how Tim orders dessert.
Photo: Forbes

You still have time to raise some scratch if you want to put in a bid on Charitybuzz’s annual auctioning-off of lunch with Tim Cook. The bidding is just barely into sextuple digits with a little under 10 days to go.

In addition to an epic meal time with the Apple CEO for a winner and their plus-one, the prize package also includes VIP passes to an Apple keynote. And of course, your donation will go to Cook’s favorite charity.

Why you can’t trust ‘lifetime guarantees’ on the Internet of Things

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why-you-cant-trust-lifetime-guarantees-on-the-internet-of-things-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads2016042981086612_84b3902cc2_o-jpg
The looming shutdown of Revolv has some home-automation fans questioning the Internet of Things.
Photo: Andrew Stawarz/Flickr CC

Revolv smart hubs will no longer be supported as of May 15. Even though subscribers have known this was coming since February, there wasn’t a lot of attention until an author’s highly critical piece was published on Medium.

That story has spurred conversations questioning investment in the Internet of Things, or IoT, and prompted Nest to consider compensating users who were early investors in the Revolv hub.

Apple adds Box veteran to boost enterprise efforts

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Kate Appleton will be in charge of getting more businesses to use iPhones and Macs.
Photo: BlackBerry

Apple’s push to become a great company for large companies as well as consumers is getting a big boost this week with the hiring of former Box employee Karen Appleton who has joined the company in an enterprise-focused role.

Appleton revealed last week that she was leaving Box after working with the company since 2007 as employee number 8, but she hasn’t said what exactly she will be doing for Apple.

Apple could get shut out of China

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China iPhone sales
Apple CEO Tim Cook meets with Apple Store employees in China.
Photo: Apple

The closing of the iBook Store and iTunes movies in China might be the country’s first steps toward shutting Apple out, according to a leading expert on global political risks for corporations. 

China has already become the second largest market for Apple in terms of sales, but the iPhone-maker could find itself banned from the country just like Facebook due to its privacy strategy that has already come under fire from government regulators.

8 killer Instagram tips and tricks

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InstagramCloseiPhone
Become an Insta-master with these killer Instagram tips and tricks.
Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Make the most of your Instagram feed with these eight killer Instagram tips and tricks that will make you an Insta-master.

Learn how to put together video in the Instagram app itself, keep stalkers off your Instagram feed, find amazing photos near your current location, and much more.

Apple taps Touch ID, 4K video in new iPhone 6s ads

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iPhone 6s ads onions
Yeah, we have no idea.
Photo: Apple

Two new iPhone 6s ads are zooming in on super high-def video and the power of your fingerprint.

While one is fairly straightforward and informative, the other is kind of … out there. We’re not entirely sure what to do with it, really. The entire Cult of Mac staff just watched it and had no words. But we really can’t stay mad at Neil Patrick Harris, who shows up at the end.

Check out the videos below.

Microsoft’s one-handed iOS keyboard is here

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Word Flow iPhone
Word Flow for iPhone is no more.
Photo: Microsoft

Typing with one hand on the gigantic iPhone 6s Plus just got a whole lot easier thanks to one of Apple’s biggest rivals.

Microsoft revealed today that its new one-handed keyboard app “Word Flow” for iOS is finally ready for primetime after a week in public beta, and it does a lot more than just one-handed typing.

iPhone 7 may make bigger splash than expected

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The iPhone could get a new home button.
The iPhone could get a new home button.
Photo: Sam Mills/Cult of Mac

Full details of the iPhone 7 aren’t expected to be revealed until early this Fall, but thanks to the Apple rumor mill we may already know two of the device’s biggest features, and they could be more major than expected.

Apple will supposedly make its next iPhone both waterproof and dustproof, according to  supply chain sources in China that also indicate the home button could get its biggest upgrade since the addition of Touch ID.

Neato’s new vacuum robot will turn you into a neat freak [Review]

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Botvac Connected is the world's most thorough cleaning bot.
Botvac Connected is the world's most thorough cleaning bot.
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

My dog has a new archenemy, and its name is Botvac. 

Neato’s tiny automated robotic vacuum stirs my dog into a fit of worried anger every afternoon I send it out for a round of sweeping and vacuuming. It’s so magical my dog doesn’t trust it. 

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords. Mostly because I’m too lazy to be bothered with tasks like vacuuming.