Apple iPhone sales and revenue finally decline

The inevitable has finally happened. After years of continually growing iPhone sales (and corresponding revenue growth), Apple has hit a bump. The company just announced its fiscal Q2 2016 results, and the company sold 51.2 million iPhones, a 16 percent decline from the 61 million it sold one year ago. It’s the first time iPhone sales have ever declined year-over-year. Similarly, revenues of $50.6 billion were down 13 percent from the $58 billion it made in Q2 2015. The company warned on its last earnings call that this was likely to happen, but it’s still quite notable. Apple has describing its quarterly revenue as “record-breaking” for so long that it’s hard to remember the last time it had a down quarter. (The Wall Street Journal says it’s been an incredible 13 years.)

As for Apple’s other main product lineups, iPad sales continued to slump: the company sold 10.3 million iPads in the quarter, down 19 percent from the 12.6 million it sold a year ago. Mac sales were also down, with 4.03 computers sold — that’s a 12 percent decline from the 4.6 million Macs sold in Q2 of 2015. This led to an overall drop in profits, which came in at $10.5 billion on the quarter, a 23 percent drop compared to a year ago. Of course, it’s worth noting that the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro and iPhone SE both launched at the very end of this quarter, so we’ll have to wait three more months to see what effect they have on Apple’s business.

Just as Tim Cook predicted last quarter, however, Apple’s services business continues to thrive. The services category made $6 billion in revenue, up from $5 billion a year ago. In fact, that makes the services unit bigger in terms of revenue than both the Mac and iPad. As a reminder, services encompasses things like the App Store, iTunes Store, Apple Pay, iCloud and so forth.

Similarly, the “other products” category that includes the Apple Watch, Apple TV, Beats headphones and a number of other hardware products is also growing. Revenues for the quarter hit $2.2 billion, up 29 percent year-over-year. We still don’t know how many Apple Watches the company has sold, but it seems like the category is doing well enough to continue growing.

Apple will be holding its quarterly investor call at 5PM ET, and we’ll be listening in to see how CEO Tim Cook parses out Apple’s first down quarter in more than a decade. Stay tuned to this post for more details!

Source: Apple

Twitter’s 5 million new users aren’t enough

First the good news, Twitter added an additional five million monthly active users during the first quarter of 2016. The company can now boast 310 subscribers. That’s a year-over-year and quarterly increase. The bad news is that the company is still not profitable with a loss of $79 million.

The actual financials are a mixed bad. It made less revenue ($594.5 million) this quarter than expected. In fact,it made more last quarter pulling in $710 million. Twitter noted that its revenue was on the low-end of expectations. But the company is closing in on profitability. During last year’s first quarter it only made $436 million in revenue and lost $162 million.

While the money number are bad, the monthly active users increase should make Twitter at least a bit happy. Last quarter, the company’s user base declined by 2 million.

Developing

Source: Twitter

Researchers use light and genes to fight cancer

Scientists have already shown that you can use optogenetics (that is, light-sensitive genes and cells) to treat all kinds of medical conditions. However, it now looks like that technique could conquer one of humanity’s biggest nemeses: cancer. Tufts University researchers have successfully used optogenetics to prevent and even reverse tumor growth in experiments. They injected frog embryos with genes that produced light-sensitive ion channels in tumor cells; when you expose those tumors to blue light for long enough (roughly a day) and adjust their electrical signals, they go away.

Any surefire cure for cancer is still a long way off. The Tufts team doesn’t yet know how it would use this light-based treatment to fight cancer in humans, and its existing approach only worked 30 percent of the time. Co-author Michael Levin thinks it might take a decade to solve the “bioelectrical code” and make this practical. However, the very fact that optogenetics worked at all is promising. There could be a day when you can fight cancer just by bathing in a blue aura.

Via: Reuters

Source: Oncotarget

FBI Plans to Keep iPhone Hacking Method Secret

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation will keep the method that it used to hack into the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook a secret, reports The Wall Street Journal. Citing sources with knowledge of the FBI’s plans, the report suggests the FBI will tell the White House that an internal government review does not make sense because it “knows so little” about the hacking tool that was employed.

A government review under the U.S. Vulnerabilities Equities Process, which allows federal agencies to determine whether or not critical security flaws should be shared with companies, would potentially lead to an order to disclose the security vulnerability to Apple. Without a review, Apple may not find out how the iPhone was breached.

The decision, and the technical and bureaucratic justification behind it, would likely keep Apple in the dark about whatever security gap exists on certain models of the company’s phones, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The Wall Street Journal’s report comes following a statement made by FBI Director James Comey at a cybersecurity event in Washington D.C., which was shared by Reuters. According to Comey, the FBI is still in the process of determining whether or not a government review should move forward.

“We are in the midst of trying to sort that out,” Comey said. “The threshold (for disclosure) is, are we aware of the vulnerability, or did we just buy a tool and don’t have sufficient knowledge of the vulnerability to implicate the process?”

“We are close to a resolution,” he added at a cybersecurity event at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Sources that spoke to Reuters say the Vulnerabilities Equities Process is not set up to handle flaws that are discovered and owned by private companies, with Comey’s statement suggesting the FBI does not own the method used to hack the iPhone.

To break into Farook’s iPhone 5c, the FBI employed the help of “professional hackers,” paying upwards of $1.3 million for a tool exploiting a security vulnerability. While Apple would like details on the flaw so a fix can be implemented, the FBI can keep using the vulnerability so long as it remains unpatched.

The FBI has said the method used to break into the iPhone 5c does not work on the iPhone 5s and later, but it can be used to access iPhone 5c devices running iOS 9.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Apple-FBI
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Apple Reports First Year-Over-Year Revenue Decline Since 2003: $10.5B Profit on $50.6B in Revenue

Apple today announced financial results for the second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) of 2016. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $50.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $10.5 billion, or $1.90 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $58 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.6 billion, or $2.33 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. As expected, the year-over-year decline in quarterly revenue was the first for Apple since 2003.

Gross margin for the quarter was 39.4 percent compared to 40.8 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 67 percent of revenue. Apple also declared an increased quarterly dividend payment of $0.57 per share, up from $0.52. The dividend is payable on May 12 to shareholders of record as of May 9. The company currently holds $233 billion in cash and marketable securities, partially offset by $77 billion in long-term debt.

In addition to the increase in the dividend payment, Apple says it will once again expand its share repurchase authorization by an additional $35 billion to $175 billion and the company says it expects to spend over $250 billion in cash under its capital return program by the end of March 2018.

Apple sold 51.1 million iPhones during the quarter, down from 61.2 million a year earlier, while Mac sales were 4.03 million units, down from from 4.56 million units in the year-ago quarter. iPad sales were also down once again, falling to 10.25 million from 12.6 million.

“Our team executed extremely well in the face of strong macroeconomic headwinds,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are very happy with the continued strong growth in revenue from Services, thanks to the incredible strength of the Apple ecosystem and our growing base of over one billion active devices.”

Apple’s guidance for the third quarter of fiscal 2016 includes expected revenue of $41–43 billion and gross margin between 37.5 and 38 percent.

Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q2 2016 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Conference call starts at 2:00 PM Pacific – No need to refresh

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Tag: earnings
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Cosmic Watch – A Beautiful and feature-laden clock app

Overview

Cosmic Watch is a visually impressive, feature-rich world clock app.

Developer: Celestial Dynamics Ltd

Cost: $4.95

Highlights

• Impressive visuals
• Many useful features
• Fun to play around in

Impressions

Cosmic Watch is one of those apps that you can lose a ton of time in. You pop it open to play with, and wind up losing an hour to it just seeing all that it can do. The app touts itself as “the world’s first interactive astronomical clock,” which offers a bevy of features beyond just a timekeeping instrument.

Cosmic Watch is visually stunning. The 3D globe is highly detailed and there are a bunch of customization options for the appearance of the main screen. However, I do wish you were able to zoom in a bit more on the globe, or that the texture of the surface of the land was a bit higher resolution so that when you zoom the image stays sharp. Otherwise, the visuals can be mesmerizing. The developers even included options to hide the menus and a screenshot shortcut so you can easily share your favorite views.This app would make an excellent face for using your phone as a desk clock.

Besides just being a beautiful world clock, Cosmic Watch offers a host of features for you to play with. A time travel clock, solar system model, astrological sign chart, and constellation map are all packed into the app as overlays on the globe. Some are more useful than others, however, unless you know how to use them. These features make this app a fine educational tool for teachers.

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One of the more visually interesting clock faces

Settings for the globe overlay

The view of the globe at night is one of the more impressive sights.

The astrological signs chart

The time travel clock, which allows you to move time forward and backwards on the globe.

Despite all of the great things about this app, the price gives me pause. At five bucks, I can’t see the value unless this is something you’re going to use every day. Also, for that price point I’d like to see a bit more polish on the UI and a bit more accuracy on the location settings.

Conclusion

I would definitely recommend Cosmic Watch to anyone who uses their phone as a desk clock, a teacher looking for an engaging visual aide, or anyone who has an interest in space at all. Even if the price is tough to swallow, the app is substantial and very entertaining so it’s up to you whether or not to take the plunge.

Download Cosmic Watch from the Play Store.

Roundup: Verus’ case lineup for the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Here at AndroidGuys, we love phone accessories. Cases are the most popular type of phone accessory, everyone seems to have one! Today we’re going to be taking a look at the product lineup from one of the biggest brands in the world, Verus! Verus was gracious enough to send over some of its Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge cases, so let’s get to it!

Shine Guard Series

The Shine Guard Series from Verus is one of my favorite cases on the market today. The clear back case has a “crystaline design” that combines some frosted elements and some clear plastic to show off the beautiful Galaxy S7 Edge while still adding their own touch of design. The sides of the case feature a bumper designed to absorb impact while still looking good.

The case does an excellent job of walking the line between protection and keeping a slim design. Coming in at 6.20″ x 3.10″ x 0.50″, the Shine Guard Series adds less than a third of an inch to all sides of the case and weighs less than an ounce.

The lip of the case is there to protect the screen from scratches and does a good job without getting in the way of the function of the phone. It actually helps me get a more reliable swipe from the left since I know where to start swiping at. The case comes in three colors; black (pictured), gray, and clear. You can pick it up at Amazon, eBay, MobileFun, Verus’ website, and WalMart.

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Triple Mixx Series

The Triple Mixx series is focussed a little more on protection than the previously mentioned Shine Guard Series. There are some shared elements like a mostly clear back connected to a TPU bumper, but adds a little more bulk to protect your phone in case of falls.

The Triple Mixx measures in at 6.15″ x 3.00″ x 0.45″, which adds almost the exact same amount of bulk as the Shine Guard series, but is a little bit heavier at 1.1 ounces. The extra little bit of bulk and weight can be attributed to the dual layer case design which features a hard polycarbonate back, impact resistant TPU layer, and “metallic” polycarbonate bumper.

A lip protects the screen so you won’t have to fear it getting scratched, but doesn’t interfere with swiping back and forth. I’m not as in love with the Triple Mixx series as I am with the Shine Guard series due to the little bit of added bulk and the vertical lines on the back of the phone feeling pretty different, but it definitely has some advantages. I do like how much more grip it provides to a slippery phone and how sturdy my phone feels while in the case.

You can pick up the Verus Triple Mixx series at Amazon, eBay, MobileFun, Verus’ website, and WalMart in Shine Gold, Satin Silver, Steel Silver (pictured), or Rose Gold.

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Layered Dandy

The Layered Dandy was one of the hardest cases for me to review during this series. My issues come from the fact that I just don’t really like wallet cases. But, then I opened up the Layered Dandy and put it on my phone and almost instantly fell in love with it.

The biggest reason? How the PU Leather feels in my hand. The soft leather is simply a joy to hold and enhances my experience with my phone, much the way a leather wrapped steering wheel enhances driving. It’s not vital, but it just feels premium.

The phone is cradled in a TPU case attached to the leather and held closed with a magnetic clasp. Inside are three slots for credit cards or IDs and a money sleeve that’s hidden behind the slots.

The Layered Dandy is a folio case through and through. You’re going to have the same issues you normally would like where to put the front cover while taking a picture and the added bulk, but those are expected with a case like this. What stands out from the rest is how high quality this case is. As I mentioned, it feels fantastic in the hand and the stitching looks great. One handed use was still as easy as ever.

You can pick up the Layered Dandy from Amazon, eBay, Verus’ website and Walmart in Black, Red or Coffee Brown.

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Google’s new six-second ‘Bumper’ ads are destined for YouTube

Google is introducing a new video ad format called Bumpers, which allow advertisers to create six-second advertisements for YouTube. The company hopes that advertisers see Bumpers as a cost-effective way to drive incremental reach for their products.

From Google:

Given the succinct nature of the format, we’ve seen Bumper ads work best when combined with a TrueView or Google Preferred campaign. In early tests, Bumpers drove strong lift in upper funnel metrics like recall, awareness and consideration. We also see that Bumpers work well to drive incremental reach and frequency when paired with a TrueView campaign.

Bumpers have already seen some success with early testers like Atlantic records, who used them to promote an upcoming album. Audi Germany used Bumpers to create serialized ads for the company’s new SUVs.

Here’s an example of an Atlantic Records bumper:

Advertisers will be able to start using Bumpers in May, and Google hints that there are more new video ad formats on the way.

AT&T vs. Verizon: Best family plan

Comparing data, to minutes, to cost, to perks, which carrier is right for your family?

Wireless carriers don’t necessarily make it easy for you to compare between their services. They all offer data, and minutes, and messaging, but the small details between them can mean a big difference on your monthly bill.

Choosing a shared plan for your family is a big decision. When you’re shopping between AT&T and Verizon it’s important to know how much data you need, how many devices will be on your account, and how much data you expect to use.

• What sharing plans are available?
• How many devices are allowed on a shared plan?
• How does data work on a shared plan
• How do talk and text work on a shared plan?
• What perks come with a shared plan?
• Which carrier’s shared plan is right for your family?

What sharing plans are available from AT&T and Verizon?

Sharing plans allow you to purchase one big chunk of data and divvy it up between all the phones and devices on your account.

AT&T offers their Mobile Share Value plans. These plans are different sizes and allow you to choose exactly how much data you and your family need to share each month.

The Verizon Plan lets you choose between plans sized from S-XXL depending on how much data you need. From there you add the number of devices you want to share the data with.

How many devices are allowed on a shared plan?

With both AT&T and Verizon you are charged for each device on your plan. Adding smartphones to your plan costs more than adding tablets or wearables, so knowing how many devices you want to share data with will impact your total bill each month.

AT&T cost per device

AT&T allows up to 10 devices to be on one of their shared plans. The cost of adding a device depends on how many GB of data you are sharing.

• $25/month/smartphone (on plans with 5 GB or less of data)
• $15/month/smartphone (on plans with 15 GB of data or more)
• $10/month/tablet (no data restrictions)
• $10/month/wearable (no data restrictions)
• $20/month/laptop or hotspot device

Verizon cost per device

On Verizon, you pay a flat rate per device, regardless of the size of your plan; however, the rate varies depending on what kind of device you’re using. At least one of the devices on your plan must be a smartphone in order to share data.

• $20/month/smartphone
• $10/tablet/month
• $10/mobile hotspot/month
• $5/device/month

Remember, if you’re not bringing your own phone, your carrier will also charge you a monthly fee to purchase one of their phones. Costs vary, but if you want the most up-to-date phone, you’ll be looking at about $25-$30 per month.

How does data work on a shared plan with AT&T and Verizon?

Both AT&T and Verizon let you choose a set monthly data amount for your family to share. If you go over your monthly allotment, you will be charged an overage fee.

AT&T monthly data rates

• 300 mb, $20
• 2 GB, $30
• 5 GB, $50
• 15 GB, $100
• 20 GB, $140
• 25 GB, $175
• 30 GB, $225
• 40 GB, $300
• 50 GB, $375

Overage Charges: If you go over your allotted data on one of these plans you will be charged an additional $20/300 mb on the 300 mb plan, or $15/1 GB on all other plans.

Rollover Data: Unused data is rolled over into the next month and expires one month after rolling over.

Verizon monthly data rates

• 1 GB, $30
• 3 GB, $45
• 6 GB, $60
• 12 GB, $80
• 18 GB, $100

Overage Charges: If you go over your data limit, Verizon charges $15 per GB (rounded up). This means if you have a 6 GB plan and use 6.1 GB, Verizon rounds up and charges you an additional $15 overage fee for a full extra GB of data for that month.

Rollover Data: Verizon does not let you carry unused data into the next month. If you don’t binge through all your data in one billing cycle, it’s gone.

How do talk and text work on a shared plan on AT&T and Verizon?

Both AT&T and Verizon include unlimited talk and text with their shared plans.

With AT&T if you purchase a 15 GB or higher plan, you also get free talk and text to Mexico and Canada.

Verizon doesn’t include talk with countries outside the U.S. but it can be added to your plan. However, you will be able to send an unlimited number of text and multimedia messages internationally from any device on the shared plan as long as you’re in the US when you send them.

What perks come with share plans from AT&T and Verizon?

Sometimes it’s tough to decide between one carrier or another, so each provider will offer something to sweeten the pot and hopefully make you choose them over someone else.

AT&T offers a popular TV service called DIRECTV, giving you access to local and network shows as well as a DVR. If you subscribe to this TV service, AT&T will give you unlimited data on for your cell phone, which could save you a lot of money each month depending on how much data your family uses. However, AT&T will slow down your connection if you use more than 22 GB of data between your mobile devices.

Verizon will let you bundle services together which could be helpful if you’re also interested in having a home phone, and/or TV hookup. They also offer a loyalty program called Verizon My Rewards + which allows you to earn points when you pay your cell bill or order products from their shop or third-party services. You can use these points to put toward gift cards at restaurants, receive discounts on products, or use them for travel rewards program.

Which carrier’s shared plan is right for your family?

There are a few important factors that will ultimately help you decide which carrier will get your business when it’s time to choose a shared plan for your family.

For comparison we’ll judge AT&T and Verizon on plans that share two smartphones and two tablets.

If you want the absolute cheapest plan, that can be built with AT&T. Beware this plan has an unrealistically low 300 mb of data to share, so you’d likely be paying their $20/month overage fee.

If you want the plan with most high speed data you can get that with AT&T, but you’re going to pay through the nose for it.

If you want the best value for your data there are some really great options through Verizon if you’re not a complete data-fiend and have access to Wi-Fi for most of your day.

If you have many devices consider the Verizon plan as it’s per-device fee is lower than AT&T’s.

If you are concerned about overage fees then there is no clear winner between either provider as they both charge $15/GB (though on the lowest AT&T data plan they charge more for overages).

If you’re primarily concerned with talk and text from your provider, AT&T includes talk AND text with people in Mexico and Canada on all plans with more than $15 GB of data; however, Verizon includes unlimited international messaging (with optional talk-plan add ons), so this is a draw.

If you already pay for TV service in your home you might find more value with AT&T depending on how much data you use in a typical month, but both carriers offer bundling services.

Keep calm and carrier on

Ultimately choosing a shared plan for your family comes down to how many people are in your home, what devices they use, and what they use them for. AT&T and Verizon have slight advantages between each other depending on what category you look at.

Overall Verizon’s plan is straight-forward and simple if you are looking for data on multiple devices for a good price. AT&T offers a few extra services with their base price, which could be advantageous if you like to talk with family and friends in Canada and Mexico rather than text with them.

Early Samsung Gear 360 photos look amazing

It’s starting to look like Samsung’s Gear 360 camera might be one of the best you can buy.

A good photosphere or 360-degree photo is mostly about the stitching. Done right, these photos can take you to another place and time, allowing you to see the whole area as it was captured in that moment, instead of just a planned window into that space. There’s more to see, more to explore, and the act of doing so is just plain fun as long as there aren’t messy lines or jagged edges to pull you back to reality. When dealing with 360-degree cameras that take pictures with multiple sensors, it’s hard to avoid distortion when connecting those two images.

One of the big questions we’ve had about the Gear 360 is how well Samsung handles the stitch between the two cameras. While we’ve not yet been able to wander around and take photos with a Gear 360 of our own, some early shots we’ve found make it look like Samsung may be preparing to release one of the most capable 360-degree cameras under $500.

We’ve seen the early, early prototype video from Casey Neistat at the Oscars. While it was made abundantly clear that his video wasn’t a final version of the software, things didn’t look too bad. There’s a clear stitching line in a lot of the scenes, but overall the quality was decent. Things have improved a bit since then, and while we don’t have new videos from Neistat to compare, we’ve got some decent photos to look at.

T-Mobile’s Des Smith has been rocking a Gear 360 for a little while now, and his Flickr page has a healthy collection of photos from multiple 360-degree cameras to get a general quality compare with. As you can see in the photo above, the stitch line combining the two images is practically nonexistent. The only visual distortion is at the very top and bottom of the image, which is common in all 360-degree photos.

Another issue commonly seen with dual-sensor 360-degree cameras is the massive difference in things like ISO when one side of the camera is facing the sun and another side is not. You wind up with this weird dividing line in the sky when only one sensor has to compensate for all of the extra light or dark. The Gear 360 seems to handle this as well as can be expected, revealing little more than lens flare to let you know these are actually two different pictures.

While there’s still quite a bit to be done in the way of testing with this camera, it’s starting to look more and more like Samsung and Ricoh are going to be fiercely competitive when it comes to camera quality and overall features when the Gear 360 launches later this year. And we might well here more about that at this week’s Samsung DevCon in San Francisco. Stay tuned for more!