Apple deserves the benefit of the doubt — for now

Even though Apple warned us the decline was coming, yesterday’s news that iPhone sales dropped for the first time ever was still noteworthy. Correspondingly, Apple’s revenues dropped for the first time in 13 years, and investors responded as you’d expect. The company’s stock dropped from just over $104 at the market close to $96 when the markets opened this morning. And it’s not just a blip either: Apple is forecasting another decline next quarter.

It’s the end of a historic steak for what’s still the most valuable company in the world. And despite how Wall Street is reacting to the news, it’s important to remember that Apple’s dominance remains unchallenged. The company made more revenue in the last quarter than Google and Microsoft combined. Put simply, every company in the world would kill for the “problems” Apple is having right now.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth asking what’s next for Apple. Despite the company’s historic success, it’s not immune to the challenges plaguing the rest of the industry. IDC today said that worldwide smartphone growth has flattened, and Apple has indeed felt that pain over the last two quarters. Earlier this month, IDC also reported that worldwide PC shipments declined 11 percent, though Apple’s Mac and iPad sales saw an even sharper decline this past quarter. Short of finally slapping a touchscreen on a MacBook, there’s not a ton the company can do that’ll grow sales. Meanwhile, iPad sales have slid for nine consecutive quarters now.

Apple isn’t doomed, but given an increasingly saturated smartphone market and continued weakness in the PC industry, how the company will return to growth isn’t exactly clear. The Apple Watch is making money, but it’ll be tied to the success of the iPhone for the foreseeable future and it’s ultimately still a luxury accessory. The billion-plus Apple users that are growing the company’s services business is a success story, but it’s a product category nonetheless dependent on hardware.

As is often the case with Apple, it’s helpful to think about emerging technology as a guide to what the company might tackle next. After all, its biggest hits are usually refinements of existing product categories. Virtual reality is perhaps the most obvious place for the company to turn. CEO Tim Cook said on Apple’s earnings call in January that he didn’t think of VR as a niche and felt it was “really cool and had some interesting applications.” A few days later, the Financial Times revealed that the company has a huge, secret team working on augmented and virtual reality projects.

“In terms of VR, I don’t think it’s a niche. It’s really cool and has some interesting applications.”

It remains to be seen if VR will be the next significant hardware category that Apple breaks into. The Oculus Rift has just finally gone on sale, and it’ll be a while before we get a sense of whether mainstream users will be willing to shell out several hundred dollars for VR devices and compatible content. But all of the company’s rivals, including Facebook, Google and Microsoft, already have a stake in VR. It’s possible that Apple believes it’s a fad that won’t lead to sustainable financial success, but Cook’s public comments would suggest otherwise.

Other categories that Apple could enter in a bigger way include autos and the smart home. While I don’t see Apple releasing its own car any time too soon, there’s a lot more it could do beyond CarPlay in terms of its software partnership with automakers. A system that didn’t require you to jump back and forth between CarPlay and the car’s default interface would be a good start. And with the smart home landscape cluttered, overly complex and relatively unproven, an Apple home security setup could make a lot of sense. Cameras, locks and lights that work well with your iOS device and Apple Watch could give Apple its first foothold in home automation.

Whether it’s VR or some other product category we haven’t thought of yet, it’s clear that the pressure for Apple to find another unqualified hit is going to start mounting soon. A few years ago, there was similar chatter that Apple was stagnating, an opinion that I felt was rather foolish. Apple launched the iPod, iPhone and iPad in the span of 10 years, all while refining the Mac to make it far more competitive than it was at the beginning of the century.

That’s a pretty impressive run, and the idea that the company will drop iPhone-level hits every couple of years is not realistic. The surprising success of Apple’s services business, now its biggest product category behind the iPhone, will help buoy the company in the interim. But Apple is first and foremost a hardware category, and it’s now been years since the company has had a new hit on its hands; the iPad business hasn’t proven to be a sustainable driver of growth, and it’s probably fair to call the Apple Watch a “hobby” at this point. It’s too early to say that Apple is in trouble, but if we check in again two years from now and Apple hasn’t found a new hardware success story, the company’s outlook could look a lot different.

Google takes you on a 360-degree tour of the Sydney Opera House

It’s never been easier to visit historic places around the world, at least virtually. And now, thanks to a partnership with Google’s Cultural Institute, the Sydney Opera House is letting people take a 360-degree video tour of its iconic arts center. The experience, which is roughly nine minutes long, features a performance from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and views of different areas around the location. It’s perfect for those of you who haven’t been to the Sydney Opera House, especially if you’re hoping to go one day.

Via: Mashable

Source: Sydney Opera House (YouTube)

There’s still no stopping Facebook

Amid a surprisingly rocky week for technology companies (in particular, Apple’s revelation that iPhone sales are finally slowing down), it’s all sunshine and growing metrics for Facebook. Its revenues for the first quarter reached $5.4 billion, up 57 percent from last year when it was just $3.3 billion. That’s about 10 percent higher than most Wall Street estimates.

And after reaching the billion count for most of its users metrics, Facebook is getting even closer to breaking that figure for monthly daily users, which clocked in at 989 million (a 24 percent bump from last year). Indeed, mobile continues to be Facebook’s biggest area of growth — it also saw a 21 percent jump in people using the service monthly, reaching 1.51 billion.

When it comes to users across all platforms, there was a 16 percent increase of people coming in daily (now 1.09 billion) and a 15 percent jump in monthly users (1.65 billion). The big takeaway? It’s basically what we said during the company’s last quarter: Facebook’s growth appears to be unstoppable.

All of the additional revenue and users made for a whopping 87 percent jump in profit, going from $1.2 billion last year to $2.2 billion.

Developing…

Source: Facebook

iPhone 7 Plus Design Drawings Depict Dimensions Identical to iPhone 6s Plus

Schematics featuring the dual-camera 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus or “Pro” that’s set to launch in the fall of 2016 have been published in the June issue of Japanese magazine MacFan, reiterating many of the design details that have been previously rumored for the device.

Japanese site Mac Otakara has shared images taken from MacFan, which seemingly confirm rumors that the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will use largely the same design as the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

The schematic focuses solely on the 5.5-inch model, which MacFan says will measure in at 158.22mm x 77.94mm x 7.3mm, identical to the dimensions of the iPhone 6s Plus.

While this agrees with a previous Mac Otakara rumor suggesting the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will not be significantly thinner, it does disagree with other rumors (including one from Ming-Chi Kuo) that have pointed towards a thinner chassis that approaches the thinness of the 6.1mm iPod touch. While it is not yet clear which design rumor will prevail, the most recent rumors are converging around a thicker body.

Also depicted in the schematic is the dual camera setup that’s rumored for the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus, a Smart Connector, and the absence of a headphone jack. Apple is planning to remove the headphone jack in its 2016 devices, with headphones instead connecting via Lightning or Bluetooth. Though some rumors have suggested the iPhone 7 will include stereo speakers, the design drawing features a single speaker. No other significant details are included in the MacFan drawing.

In the past, MacFan has offered up accurate information about Apple’s devices, sharing design details of the iPhone 6/6 Plus and 12.9-inch iPad Pro ahead of launch. While largely accurate because its schematics often focus on previously available rumors, MacFan does not always provide a reliable picture of exact dimensions, predicting a 12.2-inch size for the iPad Pro and a 6.7mm thickness for the iPhone 6 Plus, so some of the detail on thickness could be inaccurate.

Apple is expected to debut the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in the fall of 2016.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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Police Investigating Death at Apple’s Cupertino Campus

On Wednesday morning at approximately 8:35 a.m., the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department was called to Apple’s 1 Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino after a body was found in a conference room, according to several news reports.

There is no official word on what happened and Apple has not commented on the situation, but a sheriff’s spokesperson has confirmed the deceased individual was an Apple employee and that no one else was involved. The employee’s death has been described as an “isolated incident” with “nobody else on campus or in the public at risk.”

We will update this post when official news on what happened is available.
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Apple Pay Expands Beyond American Express in Australia with ANZ Support

Apple today updated its Apple Pay website in Australia to note that Apple Pay now supports credit and debit cards from the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (aka ANZ).

The ANZ website has also been updated with a new Apple Pay webpage and a report from Reuters confirms the partnership. ANZ card holders in Australia are able to add their cards to Apple Pay, which has been confirmed by a MacRumors reader.

According to the ANZ website, many Visa and American Express cards are supported, including the ANZ Rewards Platinum Card, the ANZ Access Advantage with Visa Debit, and the ANZ Business Advantage wth Visa Debit, but MasterCard, ANZ Access, and ANZ Corporate cards are not supported.

Prior to today, Apple Pay was only available in Australia through a partnership with American Express, limiting it to American Express cardholders. Apple Pay has been slow to roll out in the country as rumors have suggested Apple has had trouble negotiating fees with banks. Apple Pay also has to compete with the New Payments Platform being pushed by the Reserve Bank of Australia, the country’s central banking authority.

ANZ is one of the four major banks in Australia alongside Commonwealth Bank (CBA), Westpac (WBC), and National Australia Bank (NAB). According to Apple Pay vice president Jennifer Bailey, Apple is still in talks with the remaining three banks about further expansion of Apple Pay in the country.

Apple Pay is available in the United States, the UK, China, Australia, Canada, and Singapore, with Apple Pay support being limited to American Express users in the latter two countries. Apple Pay will soon be expanding to Hong Kong and Spain under the American Express partnership, and in the near future, Apple will be introducing Apple Pay support for additional banks and credit cards in Singapore.

During yesterday’s Q2 2016 earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple Pay is growing at a “tremendous rate” with transaction volume up 5X compared to a year ago. Apple Pay is gaining one million new users per week and is available at more than 10 million locations worldwide.

(Thanks, David!)

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
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Don’t Touch the Cakes – A tasty snack of a platformer

Overview

Don’t Touch the Cakes is an infinite runner-style puzzle platformer that has you guide a fruit through an obstacle course filled with pastries.

Developer: Finger Apps

Cost: Free (with ads)

Highlights

• Google Play Games support
• Simple gameplay and cute artstyle
• Great for kids

Setup

Don’t Touch the Cakes is easy to set up. Once you download and launch it for the first time, it will give you the Google Play Games prompt and one that’s done you’re ready to play.

Impressions

Don’t Touch the Cakes reminds me of some of the older mobile games that I would play in class when I thought nobody was looking. It’s a simple game with one goal and you can complete multiple rounds in rapid succession. No long commitment or complicated rules to slow you down.

Basically, the objective of the game is to guide an adorable fruit through a randomly generated series of platforms while avoiding obstacles such as walls, small cakes or other pastries. You have one life to collect as many points as possible, in the form of hearts and small gems. The game mostly involves timing and patience, but you can also mash the screen to jump rapidly, you can sort of fly upwards ignoring gravity until you die or stop again. I’m not sure if it’s an intended feature or a bug, but it makes for some fun seeing how far you can get either way.

The gameplay is simple, and the stage is different almost every time, so it adds to the
challenge and makes for good replay value. However, I can see kids as the target audience for this game, something for parents to keep on their devices to placate a child. Adults can find fun here as well, but if you’re looking for depth and substance you may want to look elsewhere.

Art style for the game is cute and vibrant. There are multiple characters to unlock using 100
in-game points each, but most of them are too similar to each other to really be impactful. On the plus side, they’re
colorful and easy to unlock. The stage art can get repetitive, yet doesn’t get too boring to look at on a long session. However, the background has a noticeable line where the image ends and loops again, but besides that one issue the visuals pass
muster

If I had to pick the one major drawback to the game, it’s got to be the soundtrack. There’s
only one song, and it’s a 15 second loop. The tune is harmless enough, but after hearing it 20 times in a row it begins to get old.

Conclusion

Overall, I liked Don’t Touch the Cakes. It’s fun and has a classic look and feel that harken back to the early days of smartphone gaming. If you are looking for a game for your kids to play, or just looking for a decent game to kill time while waiting in line somewhere or while in class, you can’t go wrong with Don’t Touch the Cakes.

Download on the Play Store

Amazon on the hook for unauthorized in-app purchases made by kids

A federal judge has ruled against Amazon in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The judge says Amazon is liable for unauthorized in-app purchases made by kids in its app store.

The FTC’s press release states:

The judge’s order in the case finds that Amazon received many complaints from consumers about surprise in-app charges incurred by children, citing the fact that the company’s disclosures about the possibility of in-app charges within otherwise “free” apps were not sufficient to inform consumers about the charges.

The FTC previously settled similar disputes with Google and Apple for in-app purchases made by kids in their own app stores. However, Amazon did not make the same decision. Now the FTC says it will ask the judge in the case to rule for “full refunds to consumers as a result of Amazon’s actions”

Bring the beauty of nature to your tech this Wallpaper Wednesday

Don’t let your home screen fall into a rut — switch out your wallpaper!

You don’t have to pull out a complex new theme like Deadpool to bring a breath of fresh air to your home screen. A new wallpaper can do wonders, and launchers like Action Launcher can re-theme your entire home screen around a good wallpaper. In our effort to help brighten your device — and maybe your day — we’re compiling some wallpapers for you to try out.

If you’ve got a wallpaper you use everywhere, share it in the comments below! We’re always looking for something new. Now get your wallpaper picker ready and see what’s in store this week.

Bamboo Forest

Regular forests are mysterious all on their own, but bamboo forests like these have mysteriousness on top of that mysteriousness. Everything is so green, so straight, so orderly… but then we have hints of tilted, darker stalks hiding just off the path. What’s their story? And where does this path lead? An ancient ritual at a sacred shrine? A festival with some mischievous island spirits? Spin your own tales off this wallpaper every time you see it on your screen!

Bamboo Forest

Mountain Wildflowers by TyeDueTwins

Summer may be here before we know it, but gosh darn it, it’s still spring and spring means wildflowers! And this patch blooming on a side of a mountain, with yet another mountain looming in the background, just makes me want to jump up and go for a nice long walk… and sprain my ankle walking along those bright rocks on the right side of the shot.

Mountain Wildflowers by TyeDueTwins

Misty Mountains by McKay Savage

While it may not have a fire-breathing dragon hoarding gold inside, you can’t help but wonder what mysteries these mountains are hiding in their mist. It’s a truly breathtaking sight, and you have to wonder just what kind of stones the people who decided to climb this had.

Misty Mountains by McKay Savage

Pig and Pigeon Islands

You’ve probably seen Trey Ratcliff’s work before, especially if you have a Chromecast in your house, as his work is quite often featured on Backdrop. He’s a prolific photographer that organizes photowalks and other photography events around the world, and he posts full-resolution photos on Google+ because they’re one of the few networks that mean it when they say unlimited photo sizes. Take a peek at his posts, you will not be disappointed.

Pig and Pigeon Islands

Ocean Waves

The sun, the sea, the spray… Summer is just around the corner; why are we not at the ocean right now? Well, until we can go feel the salty sea air, the wind blowing in our face, at least we can have a bit of the ocean on our phones (y’know, without shorting it out). Whether you’re dreaming of catch the perfect wave or maybe catching sight of a lovely mermaid on the other side of one, keep your dreams and your sights set on the sea!

Ocean Waves

Tinder gives awkward group dating a shot in Australia

Tinder is looking to turn what was once a solo endeavor into a group exercise with a new feature called Tinder Social. Currently in testing in Australia, Tinder Social lets you form a group with your friends and match up with other groups around you to plan a night out and, possibly, break the ice ahead of time.

From Tinder:

With Tinder Social, your group can match with other groups and find out where they’re going. To use Tinder Social, just start a group with the friends you’re going out with, and then swipe and match with other groups also going out. You can then chat with your group matches or see their status to find out what they’re up to and where everyone’s headed. It’s a way to go places full of people you’ve already matched with, making socializing so much easier once you’re out and about.

So, if you’d like to take the already potentially awkward Tinder experience and share it amongst friends, there’s now an option for that. While limited to Australia for the time being, Tinder says that it plans to expand Tinder Social across international borders soon.