iTunes - page 9

Apple scoops up talent, tech from bankrupt music pioneer Omnifone

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apple music app
Omnifone's tech is already inside Apple Music.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

To beef up its streaming music service, Apple has hired some key employees from Omnifone, a company that was a pioneer of in music streaming industry.

Rumors floated this summer that Apple was looking to acquire Omnifone after the company filed for bankruptcy. Instead of buying the whole thing though, a new report claims that Apple instead bought some of parts of Omnifone’s tech and workforce.

8 takeaways from Apple’s Q4 2016 earnings call

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Apple's Q2 earnings weren't that impressive.
iPhone sales were down in Q4 2016.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple can’t make enough iPhone 7 devices to satisfy demand from customers (and from Wall Street to make more money).

During Apple’s Q4 2016 earnings call today, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri hinted that big things are in the pipeline that should put the company back on track to growth — and it all starts Thursday with the MacBook Pro.

Here’s what we learned from the Q4 earnings call:

Liveblog: Apple reveals its (relatively) meager Q4 2016 earnings

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Will Apple reach its own targets for Q2?
Revenues are expected to be down year-over-year.
Photo: Ste Smith

Apple is set to report its Q4 2016 earnings today, only instead of it being a time for celebration, the company is expected to announce its first annual revenue decline in 15 years.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri warned Wall Street that this quarter wouldn’t smash any records, but with the iPhone 7 doing better than expected, could relief be on the way?

Investors and analysts will grill Apple about how well the company expects to perform next quarter during today’s earnings call. And Cult of Mac will be right here, liveblogging the whole shebang when it starts at 2 p.m. Pacific.

Come join the fun — it’s livestreaming on Apple’s investor site.

What to expect from Apple earnings call Q4 2016

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Apple will reveal Q4 2016 earnings on October 25.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

During tomorrow’s Apple earnings call, Tim Cook is likely to unload some bad news. Wall Street expects Apple to report its first annual revenue decline since 2001, snapping one of the most impressive streaks ever witnessed.

Slumping iPhone sales mean Apple’s annual revenue could drop to $215.67 billion for 2016. That would be a significant decline from the $233.72 billion in revenue Apple posted in 2015 — but there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

Eddy Cue says TV ‘needs to be reinvented’

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Eddy Cue
Apple VP Eddy Cue runs Apple's media business.
Photo: CNBC

Watching television is still a dreadful experience, according to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior VP of internet software and services.

The Apple exec sat down for a joint interview with HBO CEO Richard Plepler at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit in San Francisco today. The two media titans discussed the rapidly changing landscape of television, but Cue told the audience that more changes are needed to make the experience better.

Apple Prime? Here’s why it might be a great idea

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Would an Amazon Prime-style service work for Apple?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple should take a note out of Jeff Bezos’ playbook and launch an Amazon Prime-style subscription service, claims an analyst for Goldman Sachs.

“We think Apple should launch a subscription bundle as a way to reinforce iPhone loyalty and leverage it into content,” Simona Jankowski writes in a new note to clients. In the brief, Jankowski and colleagues ponder the potential of a $50 monthly subscription that would get customers the latest iPhone plus other services like Apple TV, Apple Music and freemium access to the iTunes library.

$100 off a MacBook Air, Canon DSLR with two lenses for $500 and more [Deals]

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Take advantage of great deals on MacBook Air, iPad 2, and much more.
Take advantage of great deals on iPad Air 2, MacBook Air, a Canon camera and much more.
Photos: Apple, Canon

Halloween is right around the corner, which means your local CVS probably already put out Christmas decorations. They do that for a reason, you know: It’s never too early to start thinking about the holiday season!

Following that logic, we’ve put together some of this week’s best deals from around the internet to start the gift-giving wheels turning. Even if you’re just giving the gift to yourself.

Apple Music drives first serious music industry growth since 1999

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Apple Music
Apple Music is doing good in the eyes of record labels.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Music is having a big impact on the profitability of the music industry, according to a new report from the Recording Industry Association of America.

How big? Apple Music is one of the key players driving what looks to be the recording industry’s first back-to-back yearly growth since 1998-1999.

Today in Apple history: Coldplay gives Apple one of its first music exclusives

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Coldplay performing on stage.
Photo: Yahoo/Flickr CC

Sept14September 14, 2005: Apple embraces exclusive music releases by debuting a digital EP from Coldplay on iTunes, featuring four previously-unheard tracks from the enormously popular band.

100 percent of profits from the charity EP go to support victims of Hurricane Katrina. However, Apple’s ability to broker exclusive music deals with major record labels and popular artists shows that the company’s current exclusives-driven Apple Music strategy stretches back more than a decade.

Louisiana flood relief effort gets a boost from Apple

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Coast Guardsmen rescue stranded residents from high water during severe flooding around Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Coast Guardsmen rescue stranded residents from high water during severe flooding around Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Photo: IIP Photo Archive/Flickr

Apple is lending its assistance to those affected by the devastating floods in Louisiana this week by adding American Red Cross donation buttons in iTunes, the App Store and on Apple’s website.

Today in Apple history: iTunes catalog hits 1 million songs

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Apple might start signing artists to contracts, in order to compete with the likes of Spotify. Photo: iTunes/Apple
iTunes hit a major milestone in 2004.
Photo: Apple

August10 August 10, 2004: The iTunes Music Store catalog grows to 1 million songs in the United States, a first for an online music service.

Stocking music from all five major record labels and another 600 indies, and with more than 100 millions songs downloaded, the iTunes Music Store is officially established as the world’s No. 1 online music service.

macOS Sierra gets its fifth beta build

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macOS Sierra puts Tabs everywhere.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

One week after releasing macOS Sierra beta 4, Apple is already back with a new beta build of its future operating system for Mac that is set for public release later this fall.

Apple mentions in the release notes that it has made bug fixes for Apple Pay, iTunes, Keychain Access and even Microsoft OneDrive in the new build. The upcoming update brings a ton of new features, including Siri for Mac, auto-unlock with Apple Watch, Apple Pay, better iCloud integration and more.

How to use Apple Music inside iTunes with macOS Sierra

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Cult of Mac
Get the most out of your music with macOS Sierra.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple Music has had a nice clean refresh in macOS Sierra — making it far easier to search for and discover the best Apple’s streaming music service has to offer.

Here’s what tune-lovers need to know when running the new operating system, which is currently in public beta and will be released this fall.

7 takeaways from Apple’s surprisingly good Q3 earnings

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money
Apple made $7.8 billion in profit last quarter.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple shocked investors with better than expected earnings for Q3 2016 today, despite some ominous signs that some analysts claimed signaled we’ve reached peak Tim Cook.

Thanks to the booming App Store business and other Services, Apple raked in an impressive $42.2 billion in revenue, which Tim Cook says, “was way better than we expected from so many different points of view.”

Here are the most important takeaways from today’s earnings call:

What to expect from Apple’s Q3 2016 earnings

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Apple's Q2 earnings weren't that impressive.
Have iPhone sales finally bottomed out?
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is set to reveal its quarterly earnings this afternoon for the third fiscal quarter of 2016 and if the analysts are right, it could be even worse than Apple’s last disastrous quarter.

Investors were advised by Apple during the last earnings call that revenue will likely be down from what it was in the same quarter last year. Apple is hoping it can get a boost from the iPhone SE and the App Store to stay within expectations, however troubles in China and low iPhone demand could hurt the company more than expected.

Here’s what to watch for when Tim Cook and Luca Maestri talk to investors later this afternoon:

Apple Stores will now pay you to sign up for Apple Pay

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Now is a good time to sign up for Apple Pay.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

The next time you make a purchase at your local Apple Store, expect to be asked if you want to buy your items with Apple Pay.

Apple is launching a new promotion for its contactless payment system this week that will emphasize paying with your iPhone or Apple Watch rather than busting out a credit card. And those that haven’t signed up for Apple Pay yet will get some free money.

Apple Music finally gets audio fingerprints from iTunes Match

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apple music app
This fix might stop Apple Music from garbling your library.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple Music’s matching software has a terrible history of replacing artists’ live songs with a studio version, but that will finally be a thing of the past, thanks the addition of audio fingerprints from iTunes Match.

A quiet rollout of the iTunes Match audio fingerprint to all Apple Music subscriber is currently underway, fixing the less accurate metadata version of iTunes Match that was currently used on Apple Music.

Katy Perry’s new single is latest Apple exclusive

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Katy Perry Rise
“Rise” is available for streaming now!
Photo: Capitol Records

Katy Perry’s new single, her first since 2014, is out today — and you’ll find it only on Apple Music and iTunes. “Rise,” which will be used as the anthem for NBC’s coverage of the Rio Olympics this summer, is exclusive to Apple’s services at launch.

China’s media watchdog sues Apple over obscure film

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China iPhone sales
Apple has been hit without another lawsuit in China.
Photo: Apple

Apple is facing yet another legal headache in China thanks to what may be the craziest lawsuit yet in a year that has been full of wacky legal battles

China’s media watchdog, The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), has filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming the company has violated its intellectual property by broadcasting an obscure patriotic film from 1994.