Guide to Mac, iPod, iPad and iPhone news and reviews
Apple will launch the iPhone 6 at an event scheduled for Tuesday, September 9, according to the consistently reliable and well sourced Re/Code (formerly WSJ’s All Things Digital), Bloomberg, and The Wall Street Journal. Specifically, Recode says the event will focus on “Apple’s next-generation iPhones, which are expected to feature larger displays of 4.7 and … Read More
Apple is reportedly planning a September 9 unveiling for the iPhone 6. As we said back in January, this date holds with a pattern that Apple has established over the last couple of years, ever since the September 2012 reveal of the iPhone 5. From Re/code:
A few weeks from now we’ll get our first look at what he was talking about. Apple has scheduled a big media event for Tuesday, Sept. 9 — a date to which Apple numerologists will strain to attribute significance. As with September events past, the focal point of this one is to be Apple’s next-generation iPhones, which are expected to feature larger displays of 4.7 and 5.5 inches and run speedy new A8 processors. Apple declined comment.
What are you hoping to see in the iPhone 6? Let us know below in the comments.
Source: Re/code
Apple will launch its next-generation iPhone 6 at an event on Tuesday, September 9, reports Re/code. The company has reportedly scheduled a big media event for that date and in the past, September has been a month reserved for the introduction of new iPhones.
Following the September 9 introduction, the iPhone 6 will likely be available to customers on a corresponding Friday roughly a week and a half later, possibly September 19.
4.7 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 models compared to iPhone 5s
Apple has scheduled a big media event for Tuesday, Sept. 9 — a date to which Apple numerologists will strain to attribute significance. As with September events past, the focal point of this one is to be Apple’s next-generation iPhones, which are expected to feature larger displays of 4.7 and 5.5 inches and run speedy new A8 processors. Apple declined comment.
Apple’s iPhone 6 launch event will see the debut of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, which is expected to include a thinner, lighter chassis with an iPod-touch style design along with an A8 processor and an improved camera. The event may also see the introduction of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6, which is said to be experiencing production issues and may ship to customers somewhat later than the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, in late 2014 or early 2015.
Re/code, composed of the former AllThingsD team, has a perfect track record when it comes to launch date reports. The site has also suggested Apple is aiming to introduce the iWatch at an October event.
Update 11:35 AM PT: The Wall Street Journal has confirmed Re/code‘s report, with a source pointing towards a September 9 debut date for the iPhone 6. Bloomberg has confirmed the September 9 event date as well.
July was apparently a banner month for Apple’s App Store. Purchases of apps and in-app items were made in record numbers. From CNBC: The Cupertino-based company also said that its app store saw a record number of customers making transactions that m…
July was a record-setting month for App Store revenue, according to Apple, seeing both record revenue numbers and a record number of customers making transactions. The company revealed the news to CNBC.
Apple’s app store saw record-setting revenue numbers in July, the company told CNBC.
The Cupertino-based company also said that its app store saw a record number of customers making transactions.
During the company’s recent financial results call covering the third fiscal quarter of 2014, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that iTunes software and services were the fastest growing part of Apple’s business during the quarter that ended in June. iTunes billings grew 25 percent year over year to an all time quarterly high, and Apple saw iTunes revenue of $4.5 billion, largely due to the continued success of the App Store.
As of June, Apple has had 75 billion cumulative App Store downloads, paying out a total of $20 billion to developers, with $5 billion paid in 2014 alone. According to app-tracking site AppShopper, there are 1,211,461 apps available in the App Store, including over 1 million iPhone apps and 610,000 iPad apps. Apple also has more than 21,000 Mac apps available in the Mac App Store.
Today Pebble announced some funky new limited-edition smartwatches, available in Fresh Green, Hot Pink, and Fly Blue. They’re just like the Pebble you know and love, only way cooler and much bolder. The new colors arrive on top of the original Jet Black, Cherry Red, Arctic White, Grey and Orange — now giving you plenty of options to find just the right Pebble. You can grab them all right now from getpebble.com for $150 — or if you’re feeling lucky — you can head over to Connectedly and enter for your chance to win one.
We’re all about spreading the smartwatch love, so here’s your chance to win a brand new Fresh, Hot, or Fly limited-edition Pebble smartwatch. Just swing over to Connectedly and drop a comment on the contest post. You’ll be entered to win so you can show off your love of tech to the world with a new Fresh Green, Hot Pink, or Fly Blue Pebble. The contest runs until Sunday August 10th at midnight PT. Good luck!
Following the launch of a 64-bit beta version of Chrome for Windows 7 and 8 users last week, Google has quietly added 64-bit support to Chrome Canary for OS X, the experimental build of its Chrome web browser designed for Mac users, and to its Mac Dev …
Being the world’s largest technology company has its perks, including a stream of almost limitless cash. But the law of large numbers also starts to kick in, and a company of Apple‘s size doesn’t seem capable of doing super productive things with all this money.
Tim Cook seems to be implementing an intelligent two-pronged strategy to use the cash. Part one is to return some of the cash to shareholders. Apple now pays a healthy dividend of about 2{813a954d5e225a1509f22204ece89c855080ce25555f20805f61bed63cbfde3b}, or $1.88 per year. They’ve also bought back a bunch of stock. Buying back your own stock is effectively the same as returning money to shareholders because the buyback decreases the number of shares outstanding. The reduced share count means that earnings per share (EPS) goes up. When EPS goes up the share price usually follows.
But Apple’s stock price is up 77{813a954d5e225a1509f22204ece89c855080ce25555f20805f61bed63cbfde3b} in the last 15 months, as explained by Bloomberg. Apple seems to have great timing. The stock climbed more than 25{813a954d5e225a1509f22204ece89c855080ce25555f20805f61bed63cbfde3b} after the early 2012 share buyback, and another 32{813a954d5e225a1509f22204ece89c855080ce25555f20805f61bed63cbfde3b} following the 2013 buyback.
We should have expected at least a small percentage gain driven by the mechanics of the buyback (and the resulting EPS increase), but Apple actually seems to have a really good handle on when its stock is worth buying. Investors often look at stock buybacks as a signal of confidence from management. But sometimes management holds onto unrealistic, unsupported confidence. Not all C-level management teams know how to time their own stock. Cook and team certainly don’t seem to have this problem.
The second strategy seems to be vertical integration. As Fortune explain , Apple is continuing to act in keeping with Steve Jobs’ desire to control the primary technology behind everything they do. Over the past few years Apple got a lot of attention for its successful use of ARM-based chips in iOS devices. And now this week … Apple has flipped the switch on its own gigantic content delivery network (CDN).
What does it mean, long term, for Apple to have its own delivery mechanism for content? Could it be meaningful for Apple to escape its past reliance upon Akamai and Level 3? I’m honestly not sure. But I think if Apple feels it needs to spend $100 million (so far) building this network, there must be a bigger picture reason beyond the distribution of iOS and MacOS updates. Otherwise they could equally well argue that they need to own Tesla Motors so their employees can safely get to and from work. There has to be something more to this … something that is expected to scale to such a degree that Apple really wants to control the technology all by itself. Let the speculation begin.
Apple is a giant, and it’s nice to see that the company is making good strategic use of its capital.
Google has quietly released a version of its Chrome web browser for OS X that finally supports the 64-bit version of the OS, just a few days after it released a version for Windows 7 and 8 PCs. Google has yet to officially announce the launch of its …
In a commentary piece arguing for users to open up free guest networks on their Wi-Fi access points to the public, Re/code‘s Walt Mossberg shares the story of how Steve Jobs saw such networks as the future of Internet access, supplementing cellular networks to allow for faster and broader access for users.
Mossberg notes that Jobs envisioned the open Wi-Fi networks during development of the original iPhone, which was hampered by a “lousy, sluggish cellular-data network.” An open Wi-Fi network built on the cooperation of both business and private citizens who were wiling to share their Wi-Fi connections with strangers would have addressed this problem by offering another connectivity option for iPhone users.
His idea was to get as many wireless router makers as possible to build in a “guest network” option — essentially a second Wi-Fi network, securely walled off from the rest of the home network, and with its own name. Then, he hoped that the industry would encourage people to share their bandwidth with strangers via these guest networks. That way, a smartphone user could walk around, moving from one Wi-Fi hotspot to another, without logging in — much like people using cellular data move from one cell tower to another.
While there are certainly potential issues with security and bandwidth hogging by guest users, Mossberg argues that these issues are not insurmountable, and in fact some companies have made strides in this area. On a micro level, Apple’s AirPort base stations have supported guest networks since 2009, and on a broader scale, some Internet service providers such as Comcast have been working to turn customers’ home routers into Wi-Fi access points available to other customers as a public network.
Use of Wi-Fi to supplement cellular coverage is also growing, with one example being T-Mobile’s effort in the U.S. to route phone calls over a more reliable Wi-Fi network instead of the cellular connection. Apple is adding iPhone support for the feature as part of iOS 8 later this year.
Apple has been expanding its supply chain, bringing in companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to produce components for its iPhone and iPad devices. This supply chain diversification may benefit Apple, but it is having a negative effect on rival Samsung’s chip manufacturing business, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Since 2007, Samsung has enjoyed the coveted position of being the only manufacturer of Apple’s Ax series of processors and their predecessors. But after several years of negotiations and technical work as the popularity of Apple’s iOS devices has soared, Apple has brought TSMC on board to produce A-series chips for the next generation of devices. This transition away from Samsung as the sole supplier of the main chip for iOS devices is cutting into the Korean company’s logic chip business.
“Sales and profitability from System LSI (logic chip business) worsened as demand from main customers continued to decline,” Robert Yi, Samsung’s head of investor relations said last week.
Samsung’s logic chip division struggled in the just-ended quarter, and the outlook for the business is equally bleak with Samsung acknowledging the continued low demand from customers will remain an issue going forward.
The sharp turnaround has led to analysts such as IBK Securities’ Lee Seung-woo predicting losses of approximately 877 billion won ($848.5 million) for the division in 2014, compared to operating profits of 203 billion won ($196.3 million) in 2013 and 1 trillion won ($967.8 million) in 2012.
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From keeping your files safe to making sure that your servers are doing their jobs, this week’s roundup of new Mac apps brings you a veritable cornucopia of goodies for your Mac.
Bits & Coffee’s $30 BatchPhoto allows you to quickly process and convert a group of photos with a simple and intuitive user interface.
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I was watching the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games recently and the geek in me was interested to see what technology the athletes were brining into Celtic Park to record the momentous event. There were the standard tablets, phones, head mounted GoPros, DSLRs, some weird blue ring things which I’m still not sure what […]
Bjango today released iStat Menus 5, the newest version of its popular Mac system monitor. The program brings a refreshed design, compatibility with OS X Yosemite, and enhanced per-app metrics and stats. Additionally, time and world clocks are now available for more than 120,000 cities along with support for additional languages.
New menubar icons and revamped-drop down menus are emphasized in the new look of iStat Menus 5, which has been designed to fit more in line with the overall look of OS X Yosemite. The app also contains a variety of Yosemite-only and Mavericks-only features, which include overviews for apps using significant energy and Dark Mode compatibility among others.
In addition to these changes, stats on read and write disk activity for individual apps are now available, along with data on specific upload and download activity. Finally, access to additional network information and improved GPU monitoring are also provided through iStat Menus 5.
All of the new additions to iStat Menus 5 join the program’s core monitoring abilities, which allow users to track metrics such as realtime CPU and GPU usage, sensors, memory, battery and power, disk usage, and more.
iStat Menus 5 can be downloaded now and comes with a free 14-day trial, as a single license and Family Pack license sell for $16 and $24, respectively. Users upgrading from iStat Menus 3 or 4 are eligible for reduced pricing, with the single license on sale for $9.99 and the Family Pack license available for $14.99.
Though many Mac users don’t use iCloud for their primary document storage, those users who do know that the iCloud document browser found within an Open or Save dialog box window can become cluttered with files rather quickly. A simple solution is to make folders for the iCloud documents, which is easy to do but … Read More
