Apple

6,141 'Apple News' stories November 2008 - April 2013

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Apple News and Brief History

Before you can properly understand Apple News, it’s important to know its history. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. In 1977, Apple’s sales were growing with the success of its early computers. Within a few years, Jobs and Wozniak hired designers and a production line crew. Apple went public in 1980 and was an instant success. Over the next few years, Apple shipped new computers featuring new graphical user interfaces, such as the original Macintosh in 1984. As the market for personal computers expanded through the 1990s, Apple lost market share to the cheaper Microsoft Windows on PC clones. Eventually, Wozniak and Jobs both left Apple. Jobs would go on to found NeXT and would return to Apple when NeXT was acquired in the late 90s. Apple then began a journey to the great second act in the history of the business world.

Since the release of the iPod in 2001, Apple has become a major player once again in the technology industry. After releasing the iPhone in 2007, the iPad in 2010, and the Apple Watch in 2015, Apple is now one of the largest companies in the world. Apple’s worldwide annual revenue totaled $274.5 billion for its 2020 fiscal year.

Today, Apple operates retail stores all across the world, has a growing services division, and an ever-expanding hardware lineup. The technology industry follows Apple news to see where the company is headed in the future.

Keep reading for the latest Apple news

WWDC 2013 announced for June 10-14: Apple to talk future of iOS, OS X; tickets on sale tomorrow 1PM ET

Mark Gurman Apr 24 2013 - 5:32 am PT

This morning, Apple officially announced that its 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place at Moscone West in San Francisco from Monday, June 10 until Friday, June 14th.

Tickets for the conference will go on sale at 10 AM Pacific / 1PM Eastern time tomorrow, April 25th.

The conference typically includes several sessions for iOS and OS X developers to work on their code and new projects alongside Apple engineers. Additionally, Apple engineers will make presentations about new developer-focused features in iOS and OS X.

Indeed, in Apple’s announcement of the WWDC 2013 dates, Apple says that the conference will include details about the next iOS and OS X releases:

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Apple’s evolution leaves it between two camps for investors, explains low share price (AAPL)

Ben Lovejoy Apr 24 2013 - 5:07 am PT

An insightful Reuters blog by financial journalist Felix Salmon suggests that Apple’s surprisingly low share price may be due to the evolving nature of the company leaving it between two sets of investors.

Conservative investors, who like slow-growing stocks with high dividends, are constitutionally uncomfortable with the volatility inherent in the tech world. And technology investors, who are happy taking that kind of risk, want to see substantial growth. Apple, notwithstanding the fact that it’s one of the most valuable companies in the world, is falling through the capital-markets cracks.

Apple always used to be the company which surprised and delighted investors and customers alike. Its guidance to investors was deliberately pessimistic, blowing through those figures when it reported actual revenue and earnings. It was notoriously secretive about new products, launching new ones in a playful manner with Steve Jobs’ famous ‘One more thing‘ moments…
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Apple says iCloud now has 300 million users, up 20% since January

Jordan Kahn Apr 23 2013 - 2:54 pm PT

During its live Q2 2013 earnings call today, Apple execs confirmed that iCloud now boasts 300 million users. That’s up about 20 percent from the 250 million it had in January despite the service continuing to experience relatively regular outages over the last few months.

Tim Cook talks product pipeline, 5-inch iPhone, growth in China, supply chain, and more

Jordan Kahn Apr 23 2013 - 2:44 pm PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook is currently answering questions from the press following the company’s live Q2 2013 earnings call. Here are some of the highlights:

Cook on growth in China:

We had our best quarter ever in greater China. Revenue came in at 8.8B. That’s up 11 percent y-o-y. It’s the same as Apple’s growing… iPads grew 138% y-o-y… set new records for sell through for iPhone…

Added about 8000 iPhone point of sales, plan to add more and further grow our distribution. Innovating with our online store there and adding different functionality to the store. China has an usually large number of potential first time smartphone buyers… We’ve seen a significant interest in iPhone 4 there and recently made it even more affordable to make it even more attractive to first time buyers.

Cook on competition:

“In the beginning RIM was the strongest player. Of course today our top competitor from a hardware point of view would be Samsung, and married to Google on the software side. They’re obviously tough competitors but we feel we have the best products by far… continue to feel very confident about our product pipeline. We have the best ecosystem by far. We’re going to keep augmenting it and making it better and better. I feel very good about our competitive position.”

On new product pipeline:

“I’m just saying we’ve got really great stuff coming in the fall, and across all of 2014.”

Cook on confidence level in supply chain and moving to new vendors:

“I have incredible confidence. We exited the March quarter with no shortages. The December quarter you’re referring to is the largest for Apple.. The reality is the work we do to create truly innovate products is hard… I would assure you we are working very closely with our manufacturing partners for what we feel is a very exciting roadmap.”

On a larger screen iPhone:

My view continues to be that iPhone 5 has the absolute best display in the industry. We always strive to create the very best display for our customers. Some customers value large screen sizes. Others value other factors such as resolution, white balance, color, portability, clarity, compatibility with apps… Our competitors have made some significant trade offs in many areas in order to ship a larger display. We will not ship a larger display iPhone while these trade offs exist.

On Mac market:

The reason we were down last quarter, we were down 2%, is because the market is incredibly weak. It’s the largest decline I remember from being in this industry for a long time. It’s certainly true that some iPads cannabalized some Macs. I don’t think it was a huge number but i do think it was some… That said, i don’t think this market is a dead market or a bad market by any means… We’re going to continue to innovate in it… if anything the huge growth in tablets might end up benefiting the Mac… People may be more willing to buy a Mac… We’re going to continue making the best personal computers. Our strategy is no changing. we delivered some incredible innovation last year with the Retina Display MacBook Pro.

Live blog: Apple’s Q2 2013 earnings call

Mark Gurman Apr 23 2013 - 2:02 pm PT

Following Apple’s announcement of its Q2 2013 earnings and new cash program, the company is hosting an earnings call to discuss the results. The company’s CEO and CFO, Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer, also typically stick around for a question and answer session. We’ll be live blogging the proceedings after the break (Image via AP):

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AAPL shoots up after hours following Q2 2013 earnings announcement

Mark Gurman Apr 23 2013 - 1:54 pm PT

Wall Street seems pleased with Apple’s announcements: beats on Q2 2013 earnings and a massive expansion of its cash return program for shareholders.

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Apple seeds OS X 10.8.4 beta build 12E36 to developers

Mark Gurman Apr 23 2013 - 1:40 pm PT

Just under a week after the last build, Apple has seeded developers with build 12E36 of the upcoming OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.4 release. Apple, again, asks developers to focus on WiFi performance, Graphics, and Safari. Thanks, D!

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Apple reports $43.6b revenue for Q2 2013: 37.4m iPhones, 19.5m iPads, 5.6m iPods, just under 4m Macs

Mark Gurman Apr 23 2013 - 1:32 pm PT

As planned, Apple has announced its Q2 2013 earnings results.

Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2013 second quarter ended March 30, 2013. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $43.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $39.2 billion and net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 37.5 percent compared to 47.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 66 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The Company sold 37.4 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 35.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 19.5 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 11.8 million in the year-ago quarter. The Company sold just under 4 million Macs, compared to 4 million in the year-ago quarter.

Apple reported revenues for Q2 of $43.6 billion, which beats Apple’s estimates for the quarter of between $41 and $43 billion. This revenue compares to a revenue of $39.2 billion in the year-ago Q2. Apple also reported net profit of $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share

Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones, 19.5 million iPads, just under 4 million Macs, and 5.6 million iPods. This compares to 35.1 million iPhones, 11.8 million iPads, and 4 million Macs, sold in the year-ago Q2 2012 quarter.

Apple CEO Tim Cook on the results:

“We are pleased to report record March quarter revenue thanks to continued strong performance of iPhone and iPad,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software and services, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline.”

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer as well:

“Our cash generation remains very strong, with $12.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter and an ending cash balance of $145 billion,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO.

Apple’s guidance for next quarter (Q3 2013) is revenue between $33.5 billion and $35.5 billion

Apple will hold a conference call regarding today’s announcement. We will have live coverage at 5 PM EST/ 2 PM PST.

Here’s Apple’s press release announcement:

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Apple more than doubles capital returns, $100B to be returned to shareholders by end of 2015

Seth Weintraub Apr 23 2013 - 1:31 pm PT

Just off the wires, Apple is more than doubling its capital returns citing its inability to stop making more money than it can spend to “operate the business, invest in our future, and maintain flexibility to take advantage of strategic opportunities.”

As part of this program, Apple’s board has increased its share repurchase authorization to $60 billion from the $10 billion level announced last year. This is the largest single share repurchase authorization in history and is expected to be executed by the end of calendar 2015. Apple also expects to utilize about $1 billion annually to net-share-settle vesting restricted stock units.

More details in the press release that follows:
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Apple Store app for iPhone updated with notifications for when you are eligible for iPhone upgrade pricing

Mark Gurman Apr 23 2013 - 1:23 pm PT

Apple’s official Apple Store application for iPhone and iPod touch has been updated with some neat notifications-related enhancements:

– Choose to receive notifications that let you know exactly when you’re eligible for upgrade pricing on a new iPhone. And since all you need to complete the order is your Apple ID and password, buying your new iPhone is fast and easy (US only).

– Stay on top of your delivery with notifications. We’ll let you know when your order ships, keep you informed of any updates, and notify you when it’s delivered.

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Atom for jailbroken iPhones is a welcome lockscreen overhaul

Mike Beasley Apr 23 2013 - 11:00 am PT

The iPhone lockscreen hasn’t changed much in the past six versions of iOS, with the exception of the addition of a camera slider. Atom is a new jailbreak tweak that seeks to completely redesign the lockscreen and add new functionality, and it does not disappoint.

Keep reading to find out how Atom can make your lockscreen even more useful.

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AT&T retail rolls out ‘Genius Bar-like’ online appointment scheduling for in-store assistance

Zac Hall Apr 23 2013 - 10:54 am PT

Similar to the Apple Store’s Genius Bar, AT&T now allows customers to schedule in-store appointments online for hands-on help in its retail locations.

Here’s how it works:

Visit www.att.com/storeappointment and choose the store nearest to you, or click “Make appointment” when you’re looking up store location information. One of our store or call center representatives can also help you schedule an appointment.

Choose from the available dates and times listed.

Enter your name, contact information and reason for your visit.

Once scheduled, simply head into the local AT&T store at the scheduled time.

The usual system is based around a walk-in queue, which means you could be waiting for any amount of time depending on the crowd, so this should be very useful to AT&T customers.

Apple now selling refurbished 7th gen iPod nano, drops prices on refurbed iPads

Jordan Kahn Apr 23 2013 - 9:23 am PT

From 9to5Toys.com:

After it started offering a selection of refurbished 5th generation iPod touch through the Apple online store earlier this month, Apple today began selling the refurbished 16GB, 7th generation iPod nano in various colors for $129. That’s $20 or 13% off retail, but we’ve seen these refurbished units go for as low as $119 on 9to5Toys.

Apple today also began selling the refurbished iPad 2 and iPad 3 at even lower prices than before with the 16GB iPad 2 with WiFi + 3G now starting at $349 (roughly $180 off retail). Apple has also further discounted its refurbished iPad 3 with WiFi and cellular to a starting price of $409 ($170 off retail). That provides consumers with an additional $50 off its old refurbished prices and matches the best price we’ve seen on 9to5Toys.

Tweetbot 2.8 gets media timeline, redesigned image viewer, more

Seth Weintraub Apr 23 2013 - 9:20 am PT

Tweetbot fans, a new update awaits you at the App Store. Today’s 2.8 update has some interesting new features and important bug fixes.

Topping the list is the “media timeline” – find it located next to the search box – which will show you all of the images and video in your timeline. Speaking of images, Tapbots totally redesigned the image viewer in this round. Rounding out this update is “Tweet/status detail view now displays the number of Favs and Retweets” which will be enjoyed by narcissists everywhere. Oh and what update wouldn’t be complete without “Various other bug fixes including Fixed Instagram Previews”?

Get it on iTunes ($2.99)
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AAPL earnings preview: what the analysts expect

Ben Lovejoy Apr 23 2013 - 7:56 am PT

Update: AAPL blew away expectations.

At 4.30pm Eastern, Apple will report its Q2 results (and we’ll be covering it live). It’s the day when the last three months of analyst predictions and forecasts come home to roost.

Apple’s newly-realistic guidance revenue is $41b to $43b, with margins of 37.5 – 38.5 percent. These numbers would suggest earnings per share of just over $10 …
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Apple’s iCloud servers once again experiencing major outages for a growing number of users

Jordan Kahn Apr 23 2013 - 5:34 am PT

Update, 9:34 AM: Apple has now updated its System Status page to confirm the outages we reported earlier this morning. Apple reports some users experienced issues with account & sign in for iCloud, purchases for iTunes, Game Center, and creating new Apple IDs:

Over the last couple of months Apple’s iCloud servers have been experiencing major outages approximately every couple of weeks and today a growing number of users are once again complaining of issues accessing various iCloud services.

9to5Mac readers in several countries have reached out to Apple support who confirmed the outages, although Apple is yet to update its System Status page to reflect the downtime. Apple is typically at least a few hours behind in reporting outages.

As highlighted by hundreds of users on Twitter, the outages appear to be affecting multiple iCloud services including Mail, third-party apps attempting to access iCloud credentials, and Find my iPhone. Others are simply receiving an error message when attempting to access any iCloud service. Some users are also reporting that iCloud is requesting they reset their passwords as if their account is experiencing a security issue.

We’ll update this post when/if Apple finally reports the outages.

So, is iCloud coming down, or are we hallucinating? http://t.co/fKAepnEhzO

— Ulysses Team (@the_soulmen) April 23, 2013

#iCloud seems to be down. Or account hacked? Hopefully not…

— Juhana Venäläinen (@juhana_) April 23, 2013

iCloud – AppStore – iTunes : Hors Service pic.twitter.com/6llTx5pu8o

— Vincent Chapeau (@iChaps_) April 23, 2013

https://twitter.com/himanzoo/status/326669089533722624

https://twitter.com/KhaledYousry/status/326666876124033024

Anyone else having #server issues with #Apple #icloud this morning?

— Kevvy (@kevvyrowley) April 23, 2013

the strangest thing is happening to my #icloud email account on my phone. hope messages will return… :-((

— bernardo (@bjchan) April 23, 2013

https://twitter.com/ridewithgarrett/status/326664553310081024

@flexibits Fantastical keeps asking for my password for my iCloud cal. Ideas?

— Meron Bareket (@MeronBareket) April 23, 2013

Apple opening two new Australian stores, in Melbourne and Adelaide

Ben Lovejoy Apr 23 2013 - 4:46 am PT

Apple has announced that it’s opening a new store in Melbourne on Saturday, based in the Highpoint Shopping Centre in the western suburbs. While the company already has five stores in the State of Victoria, this is the first in Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city …
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iPhone 4 owners begin receiving their $15 ‘Antennagate’ settlement checks from Apple

Apr 22 2013 - 7:40 pm PT

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Payday has come for some of the first responders to the iPhone 4 class action lawsuit. Last February a settlement was reached that granted iPhone 4 owners who had not previously received a free bumper for their “defective” iPhones a $15 payout. Several of our readers are now reporting that they received their settlement checks today. The first checks were issued on April 17 2013 and are void after July 16th. Unfortunately the deadline for submitting a claim has passed so if you missed out the first time around it seems you are out of luck.

In case you forgot, the settlement found:

Apple was “misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4–particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software.”

Apple paid out a total of $53 million in the settlement, which was lawyers took a hefty $16M chunk.

My iPhone 4 settlement check is here! Buying a boat and sailing the world. Thanks, lawyers! #retired pic.twitter.com/4vrjxfLcgq

— Brad Kelly (@bradkellyfilms) April 22, 2013

Twitterrific 5.2.1 adds notification badges and more

Mike Beasley Apr 22 2013 - 12:57 pm PT

Twitterrific 5 has recieved another big update today, which introduces several new features, improvements, and fixes. The most prominent new feature is the fact that you can now enable app badges for push notifications, but other new additions include support for Twitter’s trending topics and the Favstar service. There are also a bunch of little improvements and bug fixes throughout the app, further polishing the recently-redesigned app.

The update is available now in the App Store. The change log is below, and you can find our full review of Twitterrific 5 here.

NEW FEATURES

• App badges for push notifications (enable in iOS Settings > Notification Center)
– Notification count for replies, mentions & DM’s
– Using app badges also clears messages from Notification Center
• Favstar support (enable in Settings > Other Services)
– View a user’s Favstar page from their profile or via long tap on their avatar
– View Favstar info on a tweet via more actions menu (…)
• Twitter trends (open Sidebar > Search > Tweets tab to view)

IMPROVEMENTS

• Faster tweet loading time
• Search interface remembers last selected tab
• Support for Twitter stock symbols ($AAPL, etc)
• New tweet count stays on screen until the timeline is scrolled
• Home timeline auto-refreshes when posting a new tweet or DM
• Automatic theme changing now based on dawn/dusk at your location
• Compose gesture: one-finger swipe left/right to adjust cursor
• VoiceOver now speaks hint text at the bottom of settings panel
• VoiceOver now speaks muffled tweet descriptions
• Holding timeline position improved when using VoiceOver
• Photo viewer can be dismissed using VoiceOver’s two-finger Z gesture

BUG FIXES

• Muffled hash tags are now case insensitive
• Buttons in settings are now easier to tap
• Corrected display bugs during pull-to-refresh
• Fixed a bug that prevented Readability from turning off
• Tweets at the top of the timeline are easier to swipe
• User links in emailed tweets now properly point to the user’s profile
• Fixed various bugs that caused the timeline to jump to top unexpectedly
• Compose displays correctly when using foreign language keyboards on iPad
• Additional fixes & improvements

Cricket lowers iPhone plan rates, rolls out family bundles

Zac Hall Apr 22 2013 - 9:05 am PT

Though T-Mobile probably has more name recognition than no-contract carrier Cricket, the latter carrier is speaking up about its competitive iPhone plans.

Cricket is making its iPhone plans more affordable starting today, lowing its unlimited calling, messaging, and 1 GB data plan to $50, which has been standard for other devices. Customers can opt for 2.5 GB or 5 GB of data at $60 and $70, respectively.

Customers with two smartphones on a family plan can save $10 for each line at $40 per line for the standard plan.

It appears that Cricket isn’t going to sit back and watch T-Mobile and Virgin run away with pre-paid iPhone sales.

Apple updates homepage in China to recognize earthquake, offers donations and support

Mark Gurman Apr 21 2013 - 10:26 pm PT

Apple has updated its official China website homepage to offer its respect and sympathy following the disastrous earthquake that has affected the country over the past few days.

The acknowledgement present on Apple’s site reads as follows:

Our deepest condolences to those who were taken away by the Sichuan Yaan earthquake, and respect to all the rescuers. May those who have passed away rest in peace, and may the survivors stay strong.

The company has also offered a statement that pledges cash donations and new Apple devices to help schools that have been affected:

In this difficult time our hearts are with the Sichuan earthquake victims. In addition to cash donations to help the victims ride out the storm, we will also commit to donating brand new Apple equipment to some of the schools in the affected region, and the local Apple staff will be on standby to provide support.

Apple has reportedly pledged 50 million Yuan in total. (Thanks to Richard Lai from Engadget for the translations.)

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Review + Giveaway: Abstergo jailbreak tweak finally fixes iOS notifications

Mike Beasley Apr 21 2013 - 10:00 am PT

When Apple introduced Notification Center in iOS 5, they changed the way most people manage notification on their iOS devices. For the most part, they were right. Unfortunately, Notification Center introduced its own deficiencies and now people are looking for changes once again.

Today, change has finally come in the form of a jailbreak tweak called Abstergo, and we’ve got five free copies for our readers. Keep reading for a full breakdown of the tweak and more information about how you can win a copy.

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Tips: Use little-known gestures to arrange photos and shapes in iOS Pages

Benjamin Mayo Apr 20 2013 - 4:26 pm PT

Although the touch-centric UI makes getting to grips with Pages for iOS straightforward, the interface does not appear well-suited to precise positioning of objects, which is necessary in more complicated documents. Luckily, Apple’s iWork suite extends the default iOS set of gestures to provide options for finer-grained control. Learning these more-obscure techniques makes doing ‘real work’ with Pages for iOS an enjoyable experience, rather than an annoyance.

Nudging objects

The natural way to position an object with an iPhone or iPad is to drag it, but this method is not really suitable when doing pixel-accurate alignments. With Pages for Mac, you can achieve one-pixel ‘nudges’ with the arrow keys. To do a nudge on a keyboard-less iOS device, you have to use a special two-finger gesture. Start by placing one finger on the photo you want to nudge to select it. Then, swipe in any direction outside of the photo’s bounds with another finger, to move the object in the respective direction. Add on another ‘swiping finger’ to shift by 10 pixels, rather than single pixels, at a time.

Locked movement

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Watch our LIVE 9to5Mac Happy Hour April 19, 2013

9to5 Staff Apr 19 2013 - 2:11 pm PT

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