Apple turned what could have been a deathly boring financial ritual into an occasion for celebration Wednesday, posting record numbers and making headlines with some unexpected moves.
Here’s our take on everything you need to know from the latest quarterly earnings call.
Tim Cook will put his iPhone on speaker this afternoon to tell the world how much money Apple has made selling us insanely great gadgets, and we’ll be liveblogging the call.
During the quarterly earnings report, which starts at 2 p.m. Pacific, Cook and company will share details about Apple’s Q2 financial performance with investors and the rest of the faithful.
Some analysts predict a yawn-inducing “business as usual” earnings report, but you never know – Cook might have to sing some fancy arpeggios if the numbers don’t jibe with predictions made last year, when he crowed about exciting products in the Apple pipeline.
Whether Tim’s talk leads to boos or a standing ovation, Cult of Mac will brave the recital of all the mind-numbing money-speak to help you tune in to the true meaning behind it all. Keep this page open as we post all the interesting bits.
As rumors start to coalesce into likely fact that the iPhone 6 will come in two larger sizes — a 4.7-inch model and a 5.5-inch ‘iPhone Air’ — one big question that arises is what will happened to the iPhone 5c. Will Apple shelf their ‘budget’ iPhone, based upon poor sales? Or will they reinvent it when the iPhone 6s finally comes around?
Our favorite armchair iDevice designer Martin Hajek thinks the latter. He thinks that the iPhone c-series will live on, and in a stunning series of renders, he shows just how beautiful the iPhone 6c could be while still leaving room for the iPhone 6s to be the ‘luxury’ device with smaller bezels, TouchID and other perks.
More images after the jump. What do you think? Would you buy an iPhone 6c that looks like this?
Another piece of the “when will Apple release the iWatch” puzzle may have fallen in to place, with the news that Apple is actively pursuing the iWatch trademark in dozens of countries around the globe.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Apple if it was that straightforward.
Rather than trademarking the term itself, Apple appears to be using a shell company called Brightflash USA LLC to do the work on its behalf.
The firm is registered in Delaware, and has previously been tied to trademarking efforts by Apple. One indicator of the connection between Apple and Brightflash is that it is using the same IP attorney in several locations.
Apple’s latest iPhone 5s ad debuted during last night’s Agents of SHIELD on ABC, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
Built around the idea that “You’re more powerful than you think,” the ad shows the iPhone being used to as a tool by people in various lines of work. In this way, it’s very reminiscent of Apple’s recent “Your Verse” campaign for the iPad.
But while it’s good aspirational fare — with absolutely nothing offensive about it — it also comes across as, well, kind of boring really.
Apple has released security patches to fix the Heartbleed bug on AirPort base stations, and SSL-based security updates for Apple TVs and Macs.
You should probably go and update all of them as soon as possible.
Under the watchful eye of Tim Cook Apple’s gone from the most powerful tech company in the world to the most green. Yesterday’s new ad shone the spotlight on Apple’s environmental practices but the true celebrations of going green kicked off today for Earth Day.
Select Apple Stores around the world sprouted green leafed logos to go with new Earth Day shirts and lanyards for Specialists and Geniuses, but rather than driving all the way to your local store we’ve gathered shots of Apple Stores near and far celebrating Apple’s pledge to leave the world better than they found it.
Take a look:
If pangs of jealousy hit you every time developers start waxing poetic about new OS X goodies found in a new beta update, your time has finally come to join in on the fun.
Starting this afternoon Apple has opened up its OS X Mavericks beta testing program to let everyone – not just those slick coding developers – download the latest OS X beta seeds.
It’s been over a month since Apple released its beefy iOS 7.1 update but iPhone and iPad users can now update to iOS 7.1.1 which was just made available this morning.
The update comes with a number of bug fixes as well improvements for Touch ID fingerprint recognition. Other fixes added a included the extermination of a bug that was impacting keyboard responsiveness, and an issue when using Bluetooth keyboards with VoiceOver enabled.
You can grab it via an OTA update on your device, or through iTunes, or you can grab the version you need in the download links below:
When the developers at AgileBits showed me 1Password’s highly anticipated iOS 7 redesign at Macworld last month, I naturally asked when it would come out. They were cagey, but I was told to expect some “interesting things soon.” The day has finally arrived, and 1Password’s biggest update since version 4.0 is out in the App Store.
Redesigned to match the cleaner aesthetics of iOS 7, 1Password 4.5 finally brings support for switching between multiple vaults. The feature was previously limited to the Mac, but now the iOS app can switch between vaults from within its settings.
1Password 4.5 also includes notable improvements to its built-in browser, better integration with its desktop counterpart (which has also been updated), and some other welcomed features.
So far, the consensus is that while we will see a 4.7-inch iPhone 6 in September, we will have to wait until the holidays, or even later, to see the rumored 5.5-inch model. The culprit, claim reports, are those ever pesky “yields,” but what does that mean? Why is a 5.5-inch iPhone 6 so much harder to make than a 4.7-inch one?
A new report out of Taiwan sheds some light on the matter. The issue apparently is that the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 is meant to be super thin… even thinner than the 4.7-inch. And that requires perfecting a very special kind of battery.
Back in the early 80s Apple greeted the arrival of IBM PCs with a snarky full page newspaper ad reading, “Welcome, IBM. Seriously.”
In the past few years, however, Apple’s claws haven’t come out all that often when it comes to taking rivals down a peg or two.
In fact, most of the recent sideways swipes involving Apple tend to be other companies (normally Samsung) taking shots at Apple, rather than the other way around.
Well, the tables have turned in a new print ad which appeared in the UK’s Guardian and free commuter paper Metro today.
Like any good Apple product, there isn’t too much publicly confirmed about Jobs — the forthcoming movie about Apple’s late CEO, penned by Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.
However, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter did take a moment on Monday to shed a bit more light on the project, while answering questions at New York City’s School of Visual Arts for the Tribeca Film Festival.
Describing the script as “one of the very few times I ended up writing what I set out to write,” Sorkin noted that it will reveal both the positive and negative aspects of Jobs’ persona, as detailed in the 2011 Walter Isaacson biography, of which this is a (loose) adaptation.
To celebrate the fact that April 22 is Earth Day, Apple has updated its logo to include a green leaf, as seen in the above picture of Apple’s giant Nanjing East retail store in Shanghai.
2014 is the first time in eight years that Apple has celebrated Earth Day. In addition to the revised logo, Apple will also give employes at selected stores special Earth Day shirts to wear. A special event is additionally planned to take place in Cupertino.
Is Nike going to be teaming with Apple for the iWatch?
Ever since Nike announced the surprising news that it was scrapping its rival fitness-tracking FuelBand line of wearables — including a new, slimmer device planned for this fall — the rumor mill has been buzzing with suggestions that Nike is now positioned perfectly to partner Apple for its long-awaited iWatch.
Here’s why it makes sense:
We’ve known that Apple has been interested in mobile payments for some time. Now the company is interviewing potential candidates to lead the initiative, according to a new report from Re/code.
Apple’s head of e-commerce, Jennifer Bailey, has reportedly been meeting with executives in the payments industry “to fill head of product and head of business development positions.”
While Apple’s “ambitions” are described as “very, very serious,” it’s likely that any sort of mobile payment system from Apple won’t come out anytime soon.
Google Glass wearers who also use an iPhone will get a convenient update later this week.
As per a new post on the Google+ page for the device, the update will let iPhone users see text messages directly on Glass — without having to take the phone out of their pocket first. In Google’s words:
iOS fans, by popular demand you can now get texts from your friends on Glass. Get started by going to your iPhone’s Bluetooth settings and turning on “Show Notifications” for your paired Glass. When you receive a new text message, it will appear as a notification on Glass. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to reply from Glass due to some limitations with iOS. (Android fans, don’t feel left out – you’ve got SMS on Glass already.)
Murky water and alligators may not exactly be something you see everyday. While some may live the swamp-life, others can get an entertaining feel of it in the new app Swamp Attack. Protect your home with your trusty weapons, tapping all incoming waves of enemies to progress from level to level. Do you think you can fight off all alligators, raccoons, turtles and more to keep your land safe?
Take a look at the video and see what you think.
A video detailing the creation of Apple Campus 2 was released this morning featuring glimpses of the Spaceship’s architectural achievements in natural ventilation, renewable energy, trees regrowth, and other revolutionary tech that’s will make it one of the best office buildings in the world.
The video also features interviews of the people behind the campus, like architect Norman Foster, who tells the story of how Steve Jobs recruited him for the job of building Apple Campus 2 and how the project didn’t start as a circular building but grew into that as the intensive project progressed.
Check out the video below, before Apple takes it down:
Apple has released its latest commercial, and it’s a doozy.
Called “Better,” the ad (which is narrated by Tim Cook) refers to Apple’s work in terms of its environmental efforts — describing the company’s push to reduce its carbon footprint, conserve resources, and inspire others to follow suit.
Apple has turned even the most modest weekend strummer into a guitar hero.
This week in Cult of Mac Magazine, our games editor and disco band frontman (!) Rob LeFebvre takes you on a magical mystery tour of Garageband’s latest and greatest features. He’ll walk you through a shiny new piece of kit called Drummer, plus get you ringtone making and learning from the pros in the Lessons store.
Rob has also kept his ear to the ground for all the other great gear you need to make your homegrown music making hit the right notes and, well, sound better. And definitely louder. Whether you’re rocking at home or taking your iPad with you on stage.
So. The beat goes on with Charlie Sorrel sifting through MacBook stands to single out the best, plus his picks for the best Apple-related gear and Buster Hein’s top choices from iTunes for music, books and movies you’ll be grooving to all week.
First unveiled in iOS 6, Apple Maps has been known to distort reality before, but can it conjure a mythical prehistoric beast from the waters of Loch Ness?
Cryptozoologists are saying yes. They are claiming that Apple Maps has finally located the elusive Loch Ness Monster!
Wall Street consensus is that when Apple announces its Q2 2014 quarterly earnings on Wednesday, Apple’s year-over-year iPad numbers won’t look good. On the low end, at least one Wall Street analyst says that Apple will have sold 23% fewer iPads this year than last year in the same quarter; on average, Wall Street expects Apple’s iPad sales to have declined 0.7% year-over-year.
How can this be? This is the year that Apple unveiled the Retina iPad mini and the beautifully redesigned iPad Air, after all. How is it possible that these iPads can be selling worse than the inferior iPads a year ago?
Ex-Apple exec Jean-Louie Gassée has a theory, and it’s not one that Apple fans are going to be happy to hear: the iPad is a big tease, and fundamentally less useful than both a smartphone or a laptop.
One more way that Apple is challenging Google is by pushing for exclusive games on iOS, claims a new report.
The Wall Street Journal reports that as Android’s influence has grown, Apple has been offering games developers promotional perks — such as premium placement on their app store home pages — in exchange for first rights to particular titles.
Last August, Apple struck a deal with EA to receive a two-month exclusivity window for Plants vs. Zombies 2, which did not arrive on Android until November.
A similar deal saw the popular sequel to ZeptoLab’s puzzle game Cut the Rope arrive on iOS in December — but not make it to Android until late March this year.
To be or not to be? That’s the question posed by Sometimes You Die, a game powered by existential angst that’s tearing up the charts.
The game — which is based on the question of how much of the gaming experience you can strip away and still have the end result be fun — has become the surprise hit of 2014, despite (or perhaps because of) its unusual take on life, death and the meaning of video games.
Now Philipp Stollenmayer, a 22-year-old developer who lives in the Netherlands, has opened his sketchbooks to show Cult of Mac how Sometimes You Die came to life.