Apple Watch

No, it’s not as dumb a question as it seems. While keeping the full iPhone display on full-time would quickly drain the battery, there are ways of keeping a partial display on all the time to display time and notification alerts – and LG has today confirmed that its upcoming G5 flagship handset will do just that.

LG hasn’t explained the technology, but the graphic it teased on Facebook shows a mono display, which raises a couple of possibilities that perhaps the iPhone could consider …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple today has released the third watchOS 2.2 beta for Apple Watch developers. In terms of new features, the watchOS 2.2 so far has added a totally revamps Apple Maps app and glance and is required to use iOS 9.3 beta’s new multi-watch feature. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Welcome to the latest edition of Jeremy’s 5, my latest roundup of 5 interesting little things that aren’t big enough for full articles, but are still worth sharing with you.

This week, I’m sharing some thoughts on Just Mobile’s latest iPhone and Apple Watch docks, iOS’s mysterious Error 53, experiences integrating Apple products into a small business, and Apple Pay…

Expand
Expanding
Close

In the days following Apple’s record Q1 earnings announcements, Apple CEO Tim Cook and other top Apple executives held a Town Hall meeting at the Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino to reveal new announcements and take attendee questions.

Multiple sources in attendance at the event said that Cook as well as newly appointed Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams each spoke and made announcements and teases related to new employee benefits, future iPad growth, Apple Watch sales, future retail stores in China, Apple Campus 2, and the future product pipeline.

Cook also fielded questions from the audience, attempting to reduce concerns related to the company’s iPhone dependence, discussing porting more Apple services to Android, growth in India, and releasing cheaper iPhones to appease growing markets.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Last month Tesla released its latest ‘Autopilot’ update (v7.1), which we covered intensively on Electrek, but if you are not up-to-date with Tesla’s latest software, the Model S’ Autopilot now includes a new feature called ‘Summon’, which allows Tesla owners to remotely move their vehicle without anyone in it.

At the moment, it is primarily used to get the Model S in and out of a garage easily, but in the future, Tesla CEO Elon Musk says you will be able to summon your car from across the country and it will come meet you while charging at Tesla Superchargers along the way.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple’s upcoming March event has been uncovered and we’ve got all of the details you need to know. Big thanks to Harry’s for sponsoring the episode. Visit harrys.com/happyhour to get your free shaving kit. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/245308945″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]

Expand
Expanding
Close

Israel is not the only country getting an official Apple Watch rollout next week. Notices on Apple websites around the world indicate that the Apple Watch will launch in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar on February 11th, while the device will also launch in Greece on February 12th. Given that Apple does not have official stores in those regions, much like in Israel, these launches will take place through official Apple distributors.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Even before Apple shakes up the lineup with new bands and software next month, the Apple Watch is continuing its initial launch around the world. Israel, which doesn’t have an Apple Retail Store presence and instead relies on authorized resellers, is will be selling the Apple Watch locally for the first time next week.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple is currently aiming to unveil the new 4-inch the iPhone 5se, the iPad Air 3, and new Apple Watch band options at an event on Tuesday, March 15th, according to sources. We previously reported that Apple was on track to launch the new products during the week of March 14th. As the scheduled event is still a month-and-a-half away, the date could conceivably still shift or turn into an online announcement. The media event would be Apple’s first since September, and much like the fall event, is planned to touch on three major product categories for the company.

Expand
Expanding
Close

If early indications are anything to go by, 2016 looks to be a relatively big year for Apple. After an ‘s’ year of iPhone upgrades, no new iPad Air model, and the original Apple Watch hardware going on two years of age, there is huge potential for the company to impress users and investors alike. We’ve already seen a handful of leaks and rumors pointing to possible releases for Apple this year, which makes us wonder: What rumored 2016 Apple product excites you the most?

Expand
Expanding
Close

When news came out that Apple was working on a dedicated Health dashboard app, which would offer a way to take healthcare monitoring mobile, I was extremely excited. I had been recently diagnosed with traumatic arthritis in my knees and I needed a better all-in-one system to track my steps, weight, and BMI. None of the other apps on the market at the time seemed to do any one of those three especially well. Apple’s Health app has since become my go-to app for everything I wanted to log and more. It’s not perfect, but it’s a built-in dashboard with tie-ins to plenty of iOS apps.

Within a few weeks of using Health, I soon realized I wanted a better way to automate inputting data into the system. I eventually came to a methodology that worked great for me and decided it was time to share three of the different ways you can automate quickly logging your weight into the Health app.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple is planning to introduce new iPad hardware at an event in mid-March, according to sources, with the most likely device being a new iPad Air. This new iPad with a 9.7-inch screen, presumably to be called the “iPad Air 3,” will be launched alongside the a new 4-inch iPhone known as the “iPhone 5se” and a series of new Apple Watch models. Apple is currently planning to hold its keynote during the week of March 14th, but the final date is still in flux, according to sources.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple just released its Q1 2016 earnings, reporting “record” results of $75.9 billion in revenue and $18.4 billion in profit. In addition to its normal data, however, Apple has shared a new figure relating to the number of active devices it has in the wild. Apple says that it now has an active installed base of 1 billion devices, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod touch, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. Apple says it gathered this data by tracking the devices that have been engaged with its services within the last 90 days.

Expand
Expanding
Close

It’s earnings day for Apple and the company has just reported their official numbers for revenue, profit, and products sold during the holiday quarter. Remember that this quarter includes the bulk of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus sales, all iPad Pro and related accessory sales, Apple TV 4 sales, plus traffic from the busy holiday shopping season.

With that in mind, Apple reported $75.9b in revenue, $18.4b in profit, 74.8m iPhones sold, 16.1m iPads sold, and 5.3m Macs sold. Although the October through December period was probably a stacked quarter for Apple Watches sales, the company doesn’t break out category sales for that product for “competitive” reasons.

That compares to $51.5 billion in revenue, $11.1 billion in profit, 48m iPhones, 9.8m iPads, and 5.7m Macs reported in the previous quarter. During the same holiday quarter a year prior, Apple reported $74.6b in revenue, $18 billion in profit, 74.4m iPhones, 21.4m iPads, and 5.5m Macs for comparison. Analysts were predicting around $76.6b in revenue, 75m iPhones, 17.3m iPads, and 5.8m Macs.

Tim Cook had this to say:

“Our team delivered Apple’s biggest quarter ever, thanks to the world’s most innovative products and all-time record sales of iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple TV,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The growth of our Services business accelerated during the quarter to produce record results, and our installed base recently crossed a major milestone of one billion active devices.”

Full press release after the break, and stick around for our earnings call live blog at the top of the hour:

Expand
Expanding
Close

A sketchy supply-chain report from Digitimes claims that the second-generation Apple Watch will enter mass production in the second quarter of this year. The report also repeats earlier claims that Apple Watch shipments have fallen below Apple’s own forecasts, stating that the company has decided against adding Foxconn as a second manufacturer for this reason.

Apple originally considered shifting some second-generation Apple Watch orders to Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), but decided to keep all the orders with Quanta as volumes will not be high, the sources noted.

Supply-chain rumors always need to be treated with a great deal of caution, and both Quanta and Foxconn unsurprisingly declined to comment. However, the 2nd-gen timing does tie-in with what our own sources tell us (coincidentally!). We expect Apple to update the Apple Watch in March with new band options rather than new hardware, with a full hardware refresh announced in September.

Apple has so far declined to provide sales figures for the Watch. Deep discounts have fueled speculation about lower-than-expected sales, but there has been no consensus on likely numbers. Asymco’s Horace Dediu recently predicted that Apple will hit 21M sales in the first 12 months, amounting to around $8B in revenue.

There is a small possibility that strong holiday quarter sales may prompt Apple to share numbers for the first time later today, but we’re not holding our breath.

Apple has released the second watchOS 2.2 beta for Apple Watch testers today. Pairing multiple Apple Watches to a single iPhone is a feature of the iOS 9.3 beta and requires the watchOS 2.2 beta on each Apple Watch. The latest software update in testing also includes a revamped Maps app with the Nearby feature first introduced in iOS 9.0.  We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.

Expand
Expanding
Close

I remarked on a recent episode of 9to5Mac’s Happy Hour podcast that the rumored 4-inch iPhone would absolutely need to take Live Photos for me to even consider giving it a serious test run. I’ve taken enough really good Live Photos — full resolution still images with brief motion and sound captured as well — on my iPhone 6s Plus that it’s one feature I wouldn’t trade.

Then on Friday we had Mark Gurman’s reporting that Apple was planning Live Photos, an iPhone 6s feature, for the expected 4-inch iPhone 5se (which likely won’t be called 6c). Today that reporting was followed up with the possibility that the iPhone 5se could have the same processor and co-processor as the iPhone 6s, albeit with fewer pixels to push with a smaller display.

Suddenly the iPhone 5se is sounding less like last year’s hardware recycled and more like a serious 4-inch phone to consider. But who is the iPhone 5se for and is it really worth considering if you’re like me and run to the latest and greatest hardware? I’m still thinking through this prospect myself, and I have a few thoughts worth considering before the device is officially unveiled …

Expand
Expanding
Close