Cult of Mac

Investors are eagerly waiting to see all the numbers from Apple’s 2018 holiday quarter during today’s earnings call. Based on early reports, some of the numbers might come in even lower than expected.

Gulp.

Apple already warned investors that iPhones sales during Q1 2019 came in lower than expected, mostly thanks to problems in Greater China. Even after lowering revenue guidance, the company still could pull out a few surprises. However, most analysts remain worried that the iPhone sales slump will continue into 2020.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri are set to get on the phone with investors at 2 p.m. Pacific today. Per usual, Cult of Mac will be here live-blogging all the action with up-to-the-minute analysis on all the important numbers.

Come join the fun:

Project Titan may take the steering wheel out of the driver’s hands, but controlling the car could be as easy as gesturing at the seatbelt.

Apple has filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that details a smart seatbelt with a surface that would sense hand gestures for adjusting the entertainment system and operating various features in self-driving vehicles.

Apple is expanding its slate of Today at Apple sessions with 50 new classes that offer free educational experiences for iPhone, iPad and Mac users.

Today at Apple first started at Apple store in 2017, providing 18,000 free sessions a week that have been attended by millions of people around the world. With the new sessions, Apple is expanding on its most popular sessions, giving participants more opportunities to create and explore with their products.

Malicious Siri Shortcuts are a real possibility warns one developer, so users need to start treating all of them as potential threats. He calls on Apple to fix their problems.

Shortcuts debuted last fall in iOS 12. They are small apps that can be used to automate iOS features. That apparently makes them well suited for creating malware.

One of the biggest health insurance providers in the U.S. is giving customers the option to earn a free Apple Watch Series 3 by engaging in healthy activities like exercise and sleeping better.

Aetna revealed today that it is collaborating with Apple for its new app called Attain. Through the app, Aetna members will get personalized goals, be able to track their activity and get recommendations on healthy action. And if you do a good job, you’ll earn some cool rewards too.

When Apple unveils its earnings report for last year’s crucial holiday quarter, the entire world will be watching for signs of the company’s long-rumored impending doom.

Several factors will make Tuesday’s Q1 2019 earnings call Apple’s most important in years. Depending on how it goes, it could have an enormous impact on the company’s stock’s performance in 2019 and beyond.

The boss of one of the biggest names in the camera industry says his company cannot compete against the cameras in the iPhone and other smartphones.

Canon CEO Fujio Mitarai says the camera market will shrink by almost 50 percent within the next two years.

To survive, Mitarai says Canon, which produced pioneering autofocus gear popular with professional photographers, will shift its focus to corporate customers in fields like surveillance and medical care.

Fortnite for iOS finally supports wireless game controllers. After installing the latest version 7.30 release, you can connect a compatible MFi controller and bid goodbye to fiddly touch controls.

But don’t expect exactly the same experience as on consoles, and don’t assume you’re going to have an advantage over other mobile players.

Here’s what you need to know about playing Fortnite for iOS with a controller.

It feels like spam calls have gotten out of control lately. With more calls resulting in sales pitches and attempts to scam you, people are answering their phones less and less.

A new report from call identification and blocking company Hiya shows just how bad these spam calls have gotten.

Apple stock is down right now — and if you’re a potential investor looking to dive in, that’s good news.

At least, that’s according to Shark Tank star and chairman of O’Shares ETF Investments, Kevin O’Leary. In a new interview, O’Leary notes how, “Apple is getting cheap again.” Despite previously selling off his Apple stock due to the iPhone decline, O’Leary now says he’s tempted to invest again.

UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri is concerned that declining iPhone sales are going to continue not only through 2019, but also into 2020.

“We believe the challenges in China would likely to continue and while a trade settlement could help, the damage in terms of iPhone is likely done,” writes in a note to clients. Arcuri thinks that Apple likely sold around 64 million iPhones over the holiday season. While that’s still a big number, it’s less than the 68 million Wall Street consensus.

You’re reading Cult of Mac, so there’s a good chance you don’t need to be told about the HomePod. But one thing you might not know about Apple’s smart speaker is that it’s cheaper at the Cult of Mac Store.

A new and questionable render promises to provide iPhone fans with their very first look at Apple’s next-generation flagship.

Dubbed “iPhone XI,” the iPhone XS successor has a redesigned camera system and comes in new color options. It is also claimed to offer a bigger battery, USB-C connectivity, and more.

This week’s Apple Pay promotion will save you 20 percent on sports goods at Fanatics.

You’ll need to spend $25 or more and will obviously need to use Apple Pay to qualify for the discount. You will also need to remember to enter a promotional code at checkout.

The retail sector is in trouble — with almost 10,000 stores in the U.S. having closed their doors in the U.S. since 2017. Apple’s solution? Make shopping into an experience for customers, rather than just a place to spend money.

That’s the theory laid out by Apple’s retail VP Angela Ahrendts in a new interview for Vogue Business. In it, Ahrendts lays out her Apple Store philosophies as pertain to both customers and employees. It certainly seems to be working!

Fortnite’s latest update is now available across all platforms, and it’s a big one — particularly for those who play on iOS devices.

The version 7.30 release sends a number of popular weapons to the vault, adds a brand new Chiller Grenade, and finally brings physical controller support to iPhone and iPad.

Apple chip supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) says that a problem involving substandard chemicals resulted in more than 10,000 wafers of defective chips at its factories.

The issue caused a temporary shutdown on the production line. It’s not clear exactly which clients’ chips were affected by the issue, although Apple may not be among them.

Apple is reportedly planning to upgrade its TV app with support for subscription services. This will likely happen around mid-April 2019.

Don’t necessarily expect this to be the debut of Apple’s original TV efforts, however. Instead, this likely refers to making it easier to subscribe to service like HBO Now using the TV app, instead of having to subscribe through HBO’s app.

Apple was made aware of a serious flaw in FaceTime over a week ago and ignored it, one user claims.

The bug, which allows callers to see and hear you before you’ve answered a Group FaceTime call, has forced Apple to disable the feature this week. But why wasn’t it recognized earlier?

Apple has confirmed that it’s possible for a FaceTime caller to listen to the person on the other end of the call — and even see them — before they pick up. Making use of this newly-discovered bug requires actions someone isn’t likely to do accidentally, which is probably why It wasn’t noticed during testing.

UPDATE: Apple said this evening it will quickly fix this serious privacy flaw. In the mean time, it has also disabled its servers needed for Group FaceTime to function.

One of the films making waves at the Sundance FIlm Festival is Hala, about a Muslim teenager’s struggles growing up in America. Apple likes it so much it bought the worldwide rights.

This is one of a growing collection of movies and TV programs that Apple is expected to weave into a streaming TV service.

Apple is pulling out a Matrix-move for its new iPhone XR ad that features some of the wildest videography the company has ever put out.

Using a bullet time video rig mounted with 32 iPhone XRs, Apple showcases the low-light shooting powers of the iPhone XR. And boy is it mesmerizing.

You’ll want to watch this on your iPhone:

Since the iOS App Store launched in 2008, Apple has paid developers $120 billion. And more than a quarter of that came in the past year alone, according to the iPhone maker.

To increase diversity in software developers making all that money, Apple today opened the first of what will be quarterly Entrepreneur Camps for female-founded app development companies.

The lust-introduced version of Bluetooth enables devices to sense the direction a wireless signal is coming from. The goal is to significantly improve the performance of location services.

If nothing else, this should hugely enhance Tile trackers. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is promising accuracy for personal property tags down to the centimeter.

Investors just received a worrying report about iPhone sales in China ahead of Apple’s pivotal 2018 holiday earnings report slated for Tuesday, January 29.

Apple warned investors earlier this year that iPhone sales in Greater China came in lower than expected. We’ll have to wait for the official numbers from Apple tomorrow, but according to data firm Canalys, total smartphone sales dropped 15% year-over-year in Q4 2018 with Apple taking one of the biggest hits.