iPhone 6 Plus - page 4

7 biggest revelations from Apple’s historic earnings call

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Tim Cook has a lot to be happy about. Photo: Apple
Tim Cook has a lot to be happy about. Photo: Apple

Apple closed its earnings call this afternoon after announcing an unprecedented 74.5 million iPhone sales to go along with $74.6 billion in revenue and $18 billion in profits. It broke the record for the most money made by a corporation in history.

While breaking down the Q1 2015 numbers, Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri also gave us some juicy details about what’s in store for 2015 by hinting at new products in the pipeline, as well as subtly dropping the Apple Watch’s release date.

We’ve combed through the numbers and the conference call and found seven huge new revelations every Apple fan needs to know:

You can now get any iPhone 6 or 6 Plus model without delay

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How much is your smartphone spying on you? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple is finally on the "same planet" as iPhone 6 demand. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

During Apple’s earnings call in October, Tim Cook described Apple supply as not being “on the same planet” when it came to matching demand for the iPhone 6. “It’s very difficult to gauge demand without first finding the balance,” he noted.

Well, jump forward a few months and it seems that balance has finally been achieved — since Apple’s online store in the U.S. is now showing all capacities, colors and carriers as in-stock for both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

The recently-released unlocked, SIM-free iPhone 6 models are also showing availability within one business day.

7 things Steve Jobs would have hated about Apple today

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Steve Jobs started Apple in his image. But would he like everything about it in 2015? Photo: Ben Stanfield/Flickr CC
Photo: Ben Stanfield/Flickr CC

A lot has changed at Apple in the years since Steve Jobs died. While much of it is good (record-breaking iPhone sales, work on the new Apple campus, the stock-split leading to new share price highs), it’s unavoidable that one or two (or, indeed, 7) things would slip through the cracks, which Apple’s notoriously perfectionist late CEO would have hated.

The recent publishing of a patent for an iOS stylus — an accessory Jobs was vocal about opposing — got us thinking about other aspects of Apple, circa 2015, that likely would have rubbed the company’s late CEO the wrong way.

Here’s what we came up with.

iPhone 6 continues to raise Apple’s market share around the world

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The iPhone 6 is big. And not just in terms of size, either.
The iPhone 6 is big all over the world. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus has been an enormous success for Apple, and a new report from Kantar Worldpanel demonstrates just how true this is.

In the month of November, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus represented 47.4 percent of all smartphones sold in the United States. For those keeping track at home, that’s a 4.3 percent increase from the same time in 2013, when the iPhone 5s and 5c were the latest iPhone models on the market.

The iPhone 6 was also the best-selling smartphone three months in a row in the U.S., with an overall market share of 19 percent. Verizon and AT&T made up 57 percent of all iOS sales during this time.

And it’s not just the U.S. where the iPhone’s taking over, either.

Unlocked, SIM-free iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models are finally on sale

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iPhone camera
Unlocked, SIM-free iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models are finally on sale! Photo: Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Want to buy an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus without a SIM card, or locked to a specific carrier? You finally have your chance: unlocked iPhones have just gone on sale through Apple’s brick-and-mortar and online stores for the very first time.

The 12 biggest moments for Apple in 2014

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iPhone 6 Plus. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Looking back on the hits from Apple's blockbuster year. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo:

2014 was an absolutely monumental year for Apple. Haters will hate, but one thing can’t be denied: This is a company that refuses to rest on its laurels.

Under Tim Cook’s leadership, Apple debuted a new product category with the Apple Watch, sold a record number of new iPhones, made the biggest acquisition in its history, and successfully sent its suffering stock price back into the stratosphere.

The company wasn’t without its missteps, but all in all, it’s hard to call 2014 anything short of a blow-away year for Apple.

Festive ads shot on iPhone 6 Plus let you enjoy New York in slo-mo

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Iceskating at
Ice-skating at Rockefeller Plaza is lovingly recorded on the iPhone 6 Plus. Photo: Truth NYC

With an estimated 71.5 million iPhones predicted to sell over the holidays, and more buzz surrounding Apple than ever, it’s no surprise that advertisers are keen to muscle in on the action.

In the case of digital marketing company Truth NYC, that means producing a holiday video campaign for luxury skincare brand Erno Laszlo using the iPhone 6 Plus.

Check out the two videos after the jump.

iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Retina iMac ship times shrink away to nothing

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Apple ship times are sliding. Photo: Cult of Mac
Apple ship times are sliding. Photo: Cult of Mac

Still haven’t gotten the most important person in your life a Christmas gift? Great news. Right before the holidays, Apple has dropped the ship times on several popular items — including the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Retina iMac — so that if you order them now, they’ll be on your doorstep in time for Christmas.

Apple forms European Apple Pay team for local rollout

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Apple in talks to bring Apple Pay to Israel
Apple Pay is headed to Europe. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A job ad that made a brief appearance on Apple’s website before being taken down has confirmed that Apple Pay is on its way to Europe. The listing called for a London-based intern who would “drive the roll-out” of Apple’s new mobile payment system across Europe, the Middle East, India, and Africa.

Diehard Microsoft fans abandon Windows Phone for iPhone

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Leaked promotional shot for the canned McLaren phone, Microsoft's flagship Lumina that was supposed to come out in time for the holidays. Photo: Baidu
Leaked promotional shot for the canned McLaren phone, Microsoft's flagship Lumia that was supposed to come out in time for the holidays. Photo: Baidu

If you needed any more confirmation that Windows Phone is dead in the water, two of its most high profile supporters have abandoned it for the iPhone.

Veteran Microsoft journalists Ed Bott and Tom Warren both published essays this week in which they criticized Windows Phone for its shortcomings and announced that they’ve stopped using Windows Phones personally. Citing a lack of carrier and third-party app support, both agreed that Windows Phone has missed its shot at being a real competitor in the smartphone market.

White House photographer used an iPhone to snap Presidential Christmas decorations

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Christmas decorations at the White House, as captured using an iPhone 6 Plus. Photo: Brooks
Christmas decorations at the White House, as captured using an iPhone 6 Plus. Photo: Brooks Kraft/TIME

President Obama might not be allowed an iPhone for security reasons, but an iPhone 6 Plus did make into the White House recently — to photograph the Presidential Christmas decorations.

“If you are looking to capture something candid, people are so used to seeing mobile devices that their reaction time is slower,” said photographer Brooks Kraft in an interview with TIME magazine. “You have a better chance of getting the shot, and that was the case at the White House.”

Because the pre-Christmas event is less formal than many occasions at the White House (the President isn’t there for one thing), Kraft said he seized the opportunity to “try out new gear that I might use later in more news-oriented environments.”

And what better gear to try out than an iPhone 6 Plus?

iPhone 6 Plus captured 41% of U.S. phablet sales in first month

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The iPhone 6 Plus is already king of the phablets. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
The iPhone 6 Plus is already king of the phablets. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

The iPhone 6 Plus has only been on the market for a few months, but according to a report from Kantar, Apple’s bigger than big device captured 41% of U.S. phablet sales in the quarter ending with October 2014.

What’s even more impressive is that Apple managed to take a huge chunk of the market with only one full month of sales in the quarter. Kantar reports that among smartphones with a 5.5-inch screen or larger, Apple is absolutely dominating the trendy new category that now represents ten percent of all smartphone sales.

iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6 secretly support 4K video

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iPad Air 2
Apple snuck 4K video support onto the iPad Air 2. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple packed the biggest display it’s ever made onto the iPhone 6 Plus, and while its 1920×1080 resolution is great for streaming 1080p videos, it turns out that Apple also secretly added 4K video support without telling anyone.

The iPad Air 2, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus all support 4K video playback out of the box, thanks to the new A8 processor added this year. Apple doesn’t list 4K video playback as one of the A8 chips features, but the discovery was made by the developers behind WALTR, who posted proof of 4K video playback on the iPhone 6 this weekend.

Apple’s expected to sell a whopping 71.5 million iPhones this Christmas

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Buy one, get one free on the Apple iPhone 6s/6s Plus for AT&T.
Apple execs are in for a happy holiday if leading analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is to be believed. Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is one of the most reliable analysts out there as relates to upcoming Apple products. Having called various things correctly in the run-up to the iPhone 6’s release (such as Apple’s sapphire manufacturing issues), he’s now forecasting numbers for the handsets over the holiday season — And they’re big!

In a new report to investors, Kuo predicts that Apple will sell a giant 71.5 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units over the 3-month holiday period. By comparison, one year ago the company sold 51 million iPhones during that same period.

Kuo’s research note also touches on several other topics, including the future of the iPhone 4s and 5c, as well as early speculation about the iPhone 7.

Stylish cases to cradle your iPhone 6, according to you

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Photo: Hex
Photo: Hex

We got a lot of great feedback from last week’s minimal iPhone 6 case roundup. Many of you suggested other cases to check out, and we got so many good recommendations that we decided to share them with everyone.

Not all of these cases are necessarily super slim and minimal, but they’re worth checking out if you’re in the market for something stylish and functional to cradle your precious iPhone 6 or 6 Plus.

Glorious gifts for the gamer in your life

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Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Gamers need gifts! Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Shopping for the gamer in your life can be more difficult than beating your way to the end of Battletoads or collecting all 121 stars in Super Mario Galaxy.

To make the holiday shopping season a little simpler, Cult of Mac searched far and wide for the best gaming gear, trying out all the major platforms and accessories.

What follows is our roundup of the finest gamer gifts, from consoles and handhelds to peripherals. And we’ve even tossed in a few must-play game recommendations.

iPhone 6 outsells its big brother 3-to-1 in U.S.

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You've got the (force) touch! Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac.

The iPhone 6 is outselling the iPhone 6 Plus by a margin of 3-to-1 in the U.S., but that’s no knock on Apple’s giant-sized handset, according to a new report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

The research firm’s sales breakdown looked at the first 30 days the iPhone 6 family of handsets were available to buy. It concluded that the iPhone 6 represented 68% of iPhone sales, with the iPhone 6 Plus making up 23-24%.

Combined, this means that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus represented a massive 91-92% of iPhones sold in the United States. The remaining iPhones were previous generation iPhone 5s and 5c units. This figure is even more impressive when you consider that last year the then-new iPhones represented a smaller 84% of iPhone sales after the first month.

Sexy, slim cases to complement your iPhone 6

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I tried and tested dozens of different cases for the iPhone 5s, and the one I kept returning to was Apple's official leather case. It had everything I look for in a case, and it looked fantastic. When I pre-ordered my iPhone 6 Plus, I didn't hesitate to pick up the new leather case to go with it. And I'm glad I did.


Just like everything you'll buy from Apple, it's incredibly well-made. It fits the iPhone 6 Plus like a glove, and because it's so thin and lightweight, it adds hardly any bulk, so your shiny new phablet will still fit comfortably in your pocket (just be careful you don't bend it!).


The $49 case protects the back and sides of your device, and there's a slight lip that wraps around the front edge to provide some protection for its display. You still get easy access to your headphone jack, Lightning connector and mute switch, and the protruding iSight camera is no longer an issue.


I picked up the iPhone 6 Plus Leather Case in olive brown and, while it looks great, I've since seen the red model in my local Apple store and it looks even more dazzling, especially when combined with a white device. — Killian Bell


Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
If you're going to use a case, it should look good. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

You’ve got a brand-spanking new iPhone 6, and boy is it beautiful. You love looking at it and holding its tender, curved edges, but you’re terrified that you’ll drop it and scratch it up. Or worse: shatter the screen into a million tiny pieces.

You need a case that’s protective, functional, and most importantly, good looking. Something minimal and preferably made of quality material. OtterBoxes are great if you’re worried about your iPhone getting run over by a tractor, but most of us want something sleeker for everyday use.

The good news is that there’s already a handful of sexy iPhone 6 and 6 Plus cases worth checking out. We’ve collected the very best:

Steve Wozniak calls Apple Watch a ‘luxury fitness band,’ says bigger iPhones are 3 years late

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Photo: HigherEd Web / Flickr
Photo: HigherEd Web/Flickr CC

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has long been an unabashed believer that Cupertino should release a bigger iPhone. Around the time of the iPhone 5, he said Apple should have released two different models, one “regular” and one jumbo-size, to better compete with Android superphones

Now that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are here, Woz is glad. But he’s still being hard on Apple, saying they’re three years too late with the big phones. And he’s not too crazy about the Apple Watch either.

Pegatron willing to invest half a billion to meet iPhone 6 demand

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20130919_iphone6-review_0060
Apple's manufacturers literally can't build iPhones fast enough. iPhone 6 Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple manufacturer Pegatron is having to expand its production capacity to deal with the epic demand being heaped on it due to the success of the iPhone 6, according to a new report.

Earlier today, Pegatron CEO Jason Cheng told investors that his company has spent upwards of $200 million in 2014 in capital expenditure to help ramp up production, and that this figure is going to increase to a massive $300 million next year.

Although a slowdown in notebook demand meant that Pegatron’s overall revenue is down 6.8% versus the same quarter in 2013, revenue from the company’s communications products (which includes the iPhone 6) grew 10% year on year. Net profit meanwhile leaped an astonishing 92% in the July-to-September period.

For those keeping track at home, this is the same time Pegatron began shipping the iPhone 6.

Apple might ditch storage chips alleged to cause iPhone 6 glitch

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Buy one, get one free on the Apple iPhone 6s/6s Plus for AT&T.
Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

According a rumor in BusinessKorea, Apple is set to switch from using the problematic TLC (triple-level cell) NAND flash to MLC (multi-level cell) NAND flash in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. MLC NAND was used in the 16GB version of the new iPhone 6 devices, as well as some of the 64GB models, while the 64GB and 128GB models use TLC NAND.

A few days ago we detailed reports that a small percentage of users were having issues with their new iPhones crashing and becoming stuck in a boot loop, supposedly due to the controller IC of the TLC NAND.

Although the suggestion that Apple was looking at a full-on product recall were largely debunked, the company is supposedly looking to fix the problem going forward.

YouTube can now handle your awesome 60fps iPhone videos

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youtube-iphone-6
First, smooth video came to your iPhone. Now it's arrived on YouTube, too. Photo: Killian Bell

For anyone who shoots a lot of videos, having the option to shoot at 60fps is one of the most satisfying parts of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, making your footage as silky smooth as a Barry White pickup line.

If your aim was to put up those videos online, however, until now there’s an excellent chance you were wasting your time, since YouTube was only equipped to handle 30fps.

Fortunately that’s now changed, courtesy of a YouTube update that brings 1080p 60fps to your monitor — provided that you’re using an appropriate browser, which according to my tests includes Safari and Chrome.