iPhone

BlackBerry phones were once the default choice for enterprise, the combination of physical keyboard and secure messaging facility the two key selling-points. Those days are long gone.

The company dismissed the iPhone when it was launched in 2007, claiming that touchscreen phones could never compete with physical keyboards – before doing a U-turn by launching its own touchscreen phone less than a year later. A series of major service outages and a failure to deliver the promised BlackBerry 10 in 2011 sealed the company’s fate as a major player, and it today appears set to completely cede the secure messaging space to Apple.

BlackBerry CEO John Chen effectively admitted in December that the company had a ‘backdoor’ into its supposedly secure messaging system, and the company has now stated that it will this year make only Android phones – a platform not noted for its security credentials. This shortly after Microsoft’s Windows Phone looked even more irrelevant, the company reporting that revenues had halved year-on-year …

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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.

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According to a new report out of Bloomberg, Apple is working to develop wireless charging technology that could make its way into an iPhone by 2017. The report claims that Apple is working in conjunction with partners in the United States and Asia to develop the technology. The technology is said to allow iPhones and iPads to be powered from further away than current charging mat and inductive solutions allow.

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My cheap headphone jack-less iPhone mockup

While it’s widely rumored that the iPhone 7 will drop the headphone jack when it launches later this year, known Apple audio supplier Cirrus Logic may have hinted about how Apple plans to handle this transition. Speaking to analysts and investors during the company’s latest earnings call (via BI), CEO Jason Rhode made a few interesting comments about what might be planned for later this year.

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We learned this week that Apple shipped 74.8 million iPhones globally during the recent holiday quarter, which is just slightly up from the 74.4 million shipped during the same quarter the year prior and just under the 75 million that analysts expected.

Today Strategy Analytics has released new data showing how Apple’s last two years of shipments compare to competitors like Samsung and Huawei. The data also breaks down how Apple’s global smartphone marketshare stacks up to those same competitors.

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Anyone who has ever accidentally left behind their iPhone or iPad in a public place like a coffee shop will know the sinking feeling in your stomach the moment you realize you’ve done it. Even if you rush back just one or two minutes later, you know there’s a high chance that the device will be gone.

If the worst happens, and you have another device with you, Find My iPhone lets you track the stolen device – except thieves tend to know this, and all they have to do to prevent it is to power-down their ill-gotten gains. This can be done while the device is locked, with no Touch ID or passcode access needed …

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Early last year, Microsoft unveiled the Cloud Storage Partner Program enabling various cloud storage providers to integerate their tools into Office Online and Office for iOS. Microsoft’s latest announcement takes that a step further for partners in the CSPP by giving them access to real-time collaboration, and Office for iOS integration for all partners.

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In this episode we discuss the upcoming iPhone 5se and what this may mean for Apple, as well as our thoughts and opinions on the smaller iPhone. 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.

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After literally years of analysts claiming that we’ve reached ‘peak iPhone’ – that Apple’s year-on-year growth had gone as far as it could go – that day has finally arrived. iPhone sales last quarter were essentially flat (up just 0.4% year-on-year), and the company yesterday forecast that this quarter will see its first ever year-on-year decline in revenue since 2003.

If Apple hits the midpoint of its projected revenue for the current quarter, it will suffer a year-on-year fall in income of 11%. For the first time in 13 years, the ‘Apple is doomed’ merchants can cite real-life numbers as support for their position.

The reality, of course, is far more nuanced. There are some very specific reasons why the current quarter will be such a tough one, and why ‘peak iPhone’ is likely to be temporary, and I’ll get to those in a moment. But there’s also a bigger picture that suggests that Apple may have to be willing to think the unthinkable when it comes to the huge margins it has been able to enjoy to date …

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Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo at KGI securities is today reporting that they believe the iPhone 7 Plus will come with a dual-camera system option with Linx camera technology Apple acquired last year. By using two distinct lenses, Apple can use the additional image data to create substantially better quality photos. Dual camera iPhones have been rumored for a long time. KGI also floats the possibility that the Plus will feature an optical zoom, with 2-3x magnification.

The KGI report makes it plain that not all iPhone 7 models will feature the radically new camera. It appears the 4.7 inch iPhone 7 will not feature the technology. It will be reserved for specific versions of the 5.5 inch iPhone 7 Plus …

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Update: The Safari crash bug has now been fixed, according to Apple.

A strange bug is affecting many Safari users today, causing crashes on iPhone, iPad and Mac. For many users, simply tapping in the URL bar will cause the browser app to crash completely.  The exact issue causing the crashing has not been locked down, but it appears to be related to Apple’s Safari Suggestions service. It’s a very annoying bug that is affecting a lot of people all of sudden today.

When you type a URL, Apple sends what you type to its servers, returning a response with autocomplete search queries, Top Sites and other info. There appears to be a bug in this server request that is causing Safari to randomly crash. Users are discovering some potential workarounds until Apple fixes the problem properly …

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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:

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Periscope streams are about to get a whole lot more interesting with the latest app update for iPhone. Periscope version 1.3.3 adds GoPro integration that actually lets you live broadcast from the view of your action camera.

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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.

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Apple has released the second iOS 9.3 preview beta for testers ahead of the big feature update’s general release. The release follows the first preview release of iOS 9.3 for developers, public beta testers, and a 1.1 update for developers that included an installation fix. iOS 9.3 includes plenty of changes including a new feature called Night Shift, Touch ID and secure passwords for Notes, new 3D Touch Quick Actions and peek and pop gestures for iPhone 6s users, and much more. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.

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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 …

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