This week’s tops stories: AAPL earnings, a MacBook Pro keyboard petition, iOS 11.4 beta 3, and more

In this week’s top stories: Apple may drop the 3.5mm adapter, a petition aims to force Apple to recall MacBook Pro keyboards, AAPL earnings, and much more. Read on for all of this week’s top stories…

This week, an analyst suggested that Apple will stop bundling the Lightning to 3.5mm headphone adapter with future iPhones, starting this year. Apple has included the adapter since the launch of the iPhone 7, which dropped the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Meanwhile, a petition on Change.org is trying to draw attention to the seemingly high-failure butterfly keyboard mechanism in the latest MacBook Pros. The petition calls on Apple to recall failing keyboards and replace them with a “different, working keyboard.” The petition has amassed nearly 10,000 signatures.

AAPL reported earnings this week for the second quarter of fiscal 2018.  The company $61.1 billion in revenue and $13.8 billion in profit earned from selling 52.2 million iPhones, 9.1 million iPads, and 4.07 million Macs.

During the earnings call, Tim Cook defended sales of the iPhone X, while he also touted that Apple’s wearables business is the size of a Fortune 300 company and teased new Apple Pay countries.

Lastly, a supply chain report this week indicated that Apple’s new 13-inch Retina ‘MacBook Air’ won’t be launching at WWDC like some hoped. The report explained that Apple has pushed back assembly of the new laptop into the third quarter.

These and the rest of this week’s top stories below…

iOS | macOS | tvOS | watchOS |

• iOS 11.4 beta 3 for iPhone and iPad now available (public beta too)
• Apple stops signing iOS 11.3 following the release of iOS 11.3.1
• watchOS 4.3.1 beta 3 for Apple Watch now available
• Apple releases third tvOS 11.4 beta for developers
• macOS 10.13.5 beta 3 now available for developers

Mac + Apple Watch |

• Petition calls on Apple to recall & replace failing butterfly MacBook Pro keyboards
• Tim Cook: Wearables business hits Fortune 300 size, Apple Pay coming to 3 new countries soon
• Apple Watch again credited with saving a life as it leads New York man to discover erupted ulcer
• Teen says Apple Watch saved her life after heart rate alert led to uncovering kidney failure
• Apple’s new 13-inch Retina ‘MacBook Air’ unlikely to launch at WWDC, as production reportedly pushed back to Q3
• Microsoft updates Office 365 w/ new AI features in Word, Draft Sync in Outlook for iOS, more

iPhone | 

• 2018 iPhones may kill 3.5mm adapter two years after headphone jack, iPhone X estimates drop
• Tim Cook downplays reports of slowing iPhone X demand, calls it a ‘beloved’ product
• iPhone 7 mic failing after iOS 11.3 update? Apple may replace affected phones for free
• Rumor: New iPhones may be first to bundle USB-C fast charging
• Kantar: iPhone X outsold by iPhone 8 + 8 Plus combined, Apple growing quickly in China

Accessories |

• Linksys expands Velop mesh Wi-Fi system with cheaper dual-band nodes from $129
• Sonos holding media event in San Francisco on June 6, sound bar with Alexa possible
• August Smart Locks upgraded with new Auto-Connect location-aware feature

Commentary |

• 20 years of iMac: A story of relentless design iteration
• Comment: The iPad precedent may predict the future of Apple’s MacBook line-up
• 20 years of iMac: Behind the scenes of Apple’s ‘Simplicity Shootout’ video
• Five features that make Overcast better than Apple Podcasts

AAPL Company |

• Apple announces Q2 2018 revenue of $61.1b: 52.2m iPhones, 9.1m iPads, 4.07m Macs
• Growth in Google’s payments to Apple to be default search engine may ‘slow’
• T-Mobile and Sprint announce $26B merger, plan powerful nationwide 5G network
• Apple announces new $100 billion share buy-back program, increases dividend by 16%

Subscribe to 9to5Mac’s YouTube channel for more videos.

This week’s top video |

• Hands-on: Controlling AirPlay 2 playback on Apple TV from Siri on iPhone with iOS 11.4 beta [Video]
• Unofficial Nvidia eGPU support on macOS arrives w/ impressive results for gamers [Video]
• Video: 25 iPad multitasking tips – do you know them all?
• Hands-on: Gigabyte’s portable RX 580 ‘Gaming Box’ eGPU packs a punch despite its small size [Video]

Happy Hour Podcast #171 |

This week Benjamin and Zac discuss what Ming-Chi Kuo’s retirement from KGI Securities could mean for future Apple rumors, Apple’s latest earnings report and why iPhone revenue was up despite flat unit sales, the current state of AirPlay 2 and some impressive new features coming to iOS 11.4, and our wish list for tvOS 12 and Apple TV.

9to5Mac Happy Hour is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play Music, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Making The Grade |

Making The Grade is a weekly series from Bradley Chambers covering Apple in education. Bradley has been managing Apple devices in an education environment since 2009. Through his experience deploying and managing 100s of Macs and 100s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple’s products work at scale, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for students.

• Making The Grade: Where the iPad still excels over Chromebooks regardless of price
• Making The Grade: Does repairability of Mac laptops matter?
• Making The Grade: AppleCare+ is a terrible investment for iPad deployments
• Making The Grade: Is Apple TV a worthy add-on in the classroom?
• Making The Grade: Which case do I recommend for iPad deployments?

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Featured in top image: Dell 38-inch UltraSharp Curved Monitors, Grovemade’s Desk Shelf System, Nixie Tube Clock, Apogee Quartet, KRK VXT6 Studio Monitor speakers, Classicbot Classic Vintage Mac Toy. Read about the setup over on 9to5Toys as part of the ‘Behind the Screens’ series.