Shipments in the global smartphone market declined by 14% YoY in Q1 2023 to 280.2 million units. Despite the slowdown, Samsung replaced Apple as the world’s largest smartphone maker during the period.

Apple, however, continued its dominance, with iPhones accounting for nearly half the revenue generated by the smartphone market in Q1 2023. The company also took the lion’s share of the market’s profit.

Ahead of Apple’s transition from Lightning ports to USB-C for its devices, the European Commission warned the company not to limit the functionality of charging cables that don’t carry Apple’s MFi certification.

EU Commissioner Thierry Breton reportedly sent a letter to Apple addressing rumors that iPhone charging and data-transfer speeds might be reduced when using non-MFI USB-C cables. Breton reminded Cupertino that such limitations could lead to iPhones being banned from the European market.

Perhaps the best phrase to describe the results of Apple’s most recent financial quarter is, “It could have been worse.” Total revenue dropped 3% as the company battled inflation and other macroeconomic problems not of its making.

Still, Apple’s quarterly numbers beat the overly pessimistic Wall Street estimates. And there is more good news buried in the results Apple reported Thursday (and in the company’s earnings call with investors). Read on for five reasons to be optimistic about Apple’s future.

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During the first three months of 2023, Apple’s total revenue dropped 3% year over year. iPhone was a bright spot, but revenue from virtually all of the company’s other product segments saw annual declines. CEO Tim Cook blamed the drop on a “challenging macroeconomic environment.”

While the financial news isn’t good, Wall Street had been expecting it to be even worse. AAPL is up in after-hours trading on the news.

The amount of money Apple will pay you to trade in a previous-generation iPhone just increased. And that’s the second time this spring. The same holds true for Mac and iPad.

So, if you have an older Apple device sitting around, it might be worth more than you suspect.

Want an Apple desktop computer at a good price? Amazon bargain site Woot! is selling refurbished iMacs at discount prices through May 8. You can pick from 21 machines — right now, that is, while they last — with a selection of specs and colors.

The newest rigs date from 2021, most harken back to 2019 and a few date back to 2017 and even 2013.

If you own an iPhone XS or newer, your device comes with eSIM built in. That means you can skip physical SIM cards and simply set up cellular plans for international travel right on your phone, avoiding roaming charges wherever you go.

Apple Arcade normally grows by one game a week, but Apple added no less than 20 new titles to the service on Thursday.

These include TMNT Splintered Fate, What The Car?, Disney SpellStruck and Cityscapes: Sim Builder — all exclusive to Apple Arcade.

You might’ve dropped your iPhone on the floor and felt massive relief to find it undamaged. Or maybe a bit cracked. But what happens when an iPhone plummets 14,000 feet?

Thanks to TikTok and a skydiver who failed to secure his handset, now we know. At least in this one very lucky case.

Before the work-from-home revolution, cloud storage was a boon. Now, it’s a necessity. For so many of us, the office isn’t in some cubicle or even our home laptop. It’s wherever we are, on whatever device we can access. Files need to be both accessible and secure, and that’s why savvy cloud users are turning to Koofr.

Now that Koofr is offering 1TB of lifetime cloud storage for just $139.99 (regularly $2,700), you can expect even more people to jump on board.

Apple’s Maryland store became the company’s first retail store to unionize earlier this year. This was despite Apple’s best efforts to head off all unionization attempts.

The store employees are now demanding a 10% hike in their pay, overtime policies and more time off. More importantly, they also want Apple to allow consumers to tip retail employees.

The Ford CEO Jim Farley indicated his company will not end support for Apple’s CarPlay in the vehicles it makes. He said the decision was an easy one because a majority of Ford buyers own Apple products.

He was asked the question in an interview because rival GM recently announced it will end CarPlay support in some of its vehicles.

Skip the monthly cost of web hosts and get it all your website management needs covered in one go. With DoRoyal, you get a host that can help you manage, protect and grow your web space, and it’s on sale for a super-low price.

A lifetime subscription is now on sale for only $49.99 (regularly $750), but it’s up to you to get started.

Don’t expect record-breaking profits when Apple reveals its financial results from the first three months of 2023. Quite the opposite. Analysts are predicting that the company’s revenue and profits will be down when compared to the same quarter of 2022.

If true, this will be the second quarter in a row in which global problems cut into Apple’s bottom line.

Apple TV+ musical comedy Schmigadoon! wraps its second season with an action-packed episode this week entitled “Over and Done.” Josh and Melissa are being held captive, and unless some unlikely people decide to change their ways and recover from past wounds, they’ll be killed or married — or both!

It’s a lovely little wrap to the big-hearted show’s second season.

Reddit updated its iOS app to allow rich-link previews for shared content, the social media chat site said Tuesday. That makes it easier to see what someone texted your way before you click through.

Before now, you’d just see the URL and have nothing else to go on in terms of what was shared, short of words in the URL or an explanation in the sender’s text.

The Big Door Prize focuses on the prickly mayor of Deerfield this week. The Apple TV+ show, about a small town interrupted in a big way by a machine that’s supposed to be capable of telling people’s futures, digs deep into the hidden feelings among Deerfield’s citizenry.

The episode, entitled “Izzy,” proves very affecting.

Goldenerre calls its Mesh Link Apple Watch Bands its “latest statement piece,” and the company’s not kidding. The beautiful, hand-assembled band will make your wearable stand out like the belle of the ball.

And it’s new in the Cult of Mac Store for $148.

Ted Lasso finds almost everyone in a rut this week. Keeley is a wreck after leaked footage of her reaches the internet, and it may have even worse consequences than she fears. Ted thinks his wife is going to get engaged to someone else — and he’s not handling it well.

The thornier-than-usual episode, entitled “We’ll Never Have Paris,” still comes with the usual gallon of sentimentality we expect from the most popular show on Apple TV+.

It’s great that Apple put out a high-quality display that costs a lot less than the $5,000 Pro Display XDR. But the Studio Display, at $1,600, is still too pricey for many folks. If you’d rather have a 5K display for way less than a grand, today’s featured M2 Pro Mac mini setup is for you if you’re willing to do some work.

Following an instructional video included below, the user converted a 5K iMac to a 5K standard USB display for about $700.

Epic Games Fortnite was just added to the Amazon Luna cloud gaming service. That means the very popular game is playable on iPhone and iPad, as well as Mac.

Because of a dispute between Apple and Epic, Fortnite has been banned from the App Store since 2020. But it’s now on Luna.

In a move it calls “the beginning of the end of the password,” Google began rolling out passkeys for its accounts Wednesday. The move means that users of Apple devices can sign into these accounts using Face ID or Touch ID rather than a password.

The underlying tech already comes built into iPhone, Mac, etc.

Yeelight launched its highly customizable, Matter-compatible and almost Lego-like Cube ARGB Table Lamp at CES 2023. You can mix and match its Matrix, Panel and Spotlight elements to suit your computer setup in myriad ways.

And the company’s Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign with early-bird deals of up to 36% off the standard kit ends in three days.

It’s easy to underestimate how much we rely on our smartphones — until we can’t use them. One time you definitely don’t want that to happen is when you’re in an unfamiliar country. But that’s precisely what awaits travelers who don’t plan ahead. The aloSIM Mobile Data Traveler plan is a cheap and easy way for vacationers to ensure they don’t get cut off from their data.

For a limited time, you can get aloSIM for only $24.99 (regularly $50). And on top of that, you’ll also get $50 of credits for international data. Staying in touch while abroad — whether that’s through social media, email or any other online communication method — has never been easier.