Tim Cook Says ‘Strong Demand’ For 2016 MacBook Pro Helped Set New Mac Sales Record Last Quarter

Apple reported its second quarter earnings results earlier this week, and during its subsequent conference call, CEO Tim Cook said Mac revenue hit a new March quarter record due to “strong demand” for the latest MacBook Pro with Touch Bar models, released in October 2016.

We had great Mac results during the quarter. Revenue grew 14 percent to a new March quarter record, and we gained market share thanks to strong demand for our new MacBook Pros. Our Mac business has generated over $25 billion in revenue over the past four quarters.

Apple sold 4.2 million Macs in the quarter, up four percent from the 4 million it sold in the year-ago quarter, but it does not break out sales on a model-by-model basis. Mac-related revenue totaled 5.8 billion, up 14 percent from 5.1 million in the year-ago quarter, a new all-time record in the second quarter.

Apple’s record March quarter was achieved despite a lack of hardware updates to the MacBook, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac Pro, and Mac mini in over one to three years depending on the model. The MacBook Pro was the only Mac that Apple updated in 2016, beyond making 8GB RAM standard on the 13-inch MacBook Air.

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Even the 2016 MacBook Pro faced its fair share of criticism when it launched. Some professional users were disappointed about the removal of all but two or four Thunderbolt 3 ports, while others faced battery life concerns and graphics issues that were eventually addressed with software updates.

Fortunately, updates are on the horizon. Last month, Apple made the rare move of pre-announcing that it’s working on new pro-focused iMac models that will launch later this year. It’s also working on a new Mac Pro that will feature a “modular” design, after admitting the 2013 model has thermal constraints.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities said new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models with faster Kaby Lake processors would enter mass production in the June quarter. He also said new 12-inch MacBook models would enter production in the spring, and some high-end models could supposedly have 16GB of RAM.

Kuo also mentioned a “15-inch MacBook” that would include 32GB of RAM and enter mass production in the early fourth quarter, which starts in September. He said the model would be “the most significantly redesigned product this year,” and he believes it will adopt desktop-class RAM to satisfy high-end users.

Hardware references to possible next-generation MacBook Pro models were discovered in macOS 10.12.4 in February. It’s less certain if the MacBook Air will continue to receive updates, or be supplanted by the 12-inch MacBook entirely, while Apple said the Mac mini remains an “important product” in its lineup.

“We’re investing aggressively in [the Mac’s] future, and we are very excited about the innovation we can bring to the platform,” said Cook.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Tag: Tim Cook
Buyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Neutral)
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MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Bionic Bird From BiteMyApple.Co

For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with BiteMyApple.Co to give MacRumors readers a chance to win an iPhone-connected Bionic Bird, which was originally an Indiegogo project.

BiteMyApple.Co didn’t develop the Bionic Bird, which actually comes from French company XTIM, but it is a site that is a one-stop shop for all manner of successfully funded Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns that resulted in products that are now available for purchase. The site carries a wide range of unique Apple-related accessories.

As for the Bionic Bird, it’s billed as the first biomimetic drone in the world, designed, as the name suggests, to resemble a bird in flight.

The Bionic Bird, which costs $99 from BiteMyApple.co, is controlled through an iPhone app with Bluetooth 4.0 and has a range of more than 100 meters. It features a foam body, which the company says is indestructible, along with a replaceable carbon fiber tail and wing structure.

It’s charged through an included pocked-sized Turbo-Charge egg. A 12 minute charge gives the Bionic Bird enough juice to fly for eight minutes, and an egg holds enough power for around 12 flights. At nine grams, the bird is super light, and it can fly both indoors and outdoors. When outside, it reaches speeds of up to 12 miles per hour.

We have three Bionic Birds to give to MacRumors readers. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (May 5) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on May 12. The winners will be chosen randomly on May 12 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

BiteMyApple.Co is also offering all MacRumors readers a 15 percent discount off of all products on its site with the code “MacRumors.” Just enter the code to get the discount when checking out.

Tag: giveaway
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Windows ‘Snake’ Malware Ported to Mac, Imitates Adobe Flash Player Installer

Well-known Windows backdoor malware “Snake” has been ported to the Mac for the first time, according to MalwareBytes. Described as “highly-sophisticated,” Snake (also called Turla and Uroburos) has been infecting Windows systems since 2008 and was ported to Linux systems in 2014 before making its way to the Mac.

The Snake malware was found earlier this week in an installer masquerading as Adobe Flash Player, buried inside a file named “Install Adobe Flash Player.app.zip.” It is designed to look like a legitimate Adobe Flash installer, but is signed by an illegitimate certificate.

It does, actually, install Adobe Flash Player, but it is accompanied by additional software that is malicious and designed to provide a backdoor into the Mac. The malicious files are well hidden in the /Library/Scripts/ folder and disguised as an Adobe launch process.

In all, this is one of the sneakier bits of Mac malware lately. Although it’s still “just a Trojan,” it’s a quite convincing one if distributed properly. Although Mac users tend to scoff at Trojans, believing them to be easy to avoid, this is not always the case.

Apple already revoked the certificate that the Snake malware was using to infect Mac machines, but another iteration could pop up, so Mac users should be aware of the possibility.

Those infected by Snake are vulnerable to having data stolen, including login information, passwords, and unencrypted files.

To avoid malicious software, Apple recommends downloading content only from the Mac App Store or from trusted developers.

Tag: malware
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Mobikin Doctor: Android recovery software (Sponsored Review)

In a world of digital information, there is nothing more important that some sort of backup. For desktops, there is the ever recommended external backup or off-site solution (typically in the form of a cloud option such as Google Drive or Dropbox). This is equally important for our mobile devices. External backups are much more difficult with mobile devices the cloud option is ever present and becoming more affordable by the day.

While backup options are easily available, we are all still human and accidents happen. Things can get deleted and, unlike desktop devices, a recycle bin isn’t going to save you. In cases like these, we will need an external tool to recover some of that misplaced data.

Enter Mobikin Doctor, a desktop application (available for both Windows and Mac) which allows you to recover images, documents, contacts, call logs, and more. Let’s take a look and see what this allows us to do.

Prerequisites

There is one major requirement to get Mobikin to work properly, root permission. That’s right android lovers, root is required for this to work. Now, if you think about it logically, this makes sense. Being able to access call logs and text messages would likely require access to some base code in the android operating system.

Disclaimer

If you have read my posts before, you know that I, and all of the AndroidGuys staff pride ourselves on being as transparent in our reviews as possible. We consider it part of our mission to bring our readers unbiased and honest reviews.

Believe it or not, at the time of the writing of this review, none of our staff have rooted devices. Thus I was not able to complete the restoration process in its entirety. I did install the application and walk through all steps to get to the restoration, however, Call Logs, messages and contacts were not able to be accessed.

Setup

There are two setups that need to be done to begin your recovery process. First, you need to download and install the desktop app. Once installed you can launch the application.

The second setup is where it gets a little more in depth. Once you launch Mobikin Doctor, it takes you through the steps to enable USB Debugging. In case you don’t know, this requires you to unlock the developer options. Also, depending on the phone model, you need to set the USB connection mode (which is also set in the Developer Options menu).

Restoring Data

Once you get your device set up and plugged into the desktop application, you can watch Mobikin Doctor connect to your device and begin scanning. Feel at ease that if something goes wrong it will give you direction as to which step needs fixing.

After getting completely connected your device will be scanned for both current and deleted files. As shown in the video below, you can easily save files, images or any of the system information talked about above. Saving is done by simply checking which files you want to save and clicking on the save button. This brings in the money before you can restore any files you must purchase the Pro license for $49.95.

My main objection here is that it seems to save all system based information as an HTML file. While it is nice to get that information back, it would be nice to have if in a format that one might be able to import that information back into the phone.

Conclusion

Requiring root for the application to completely work is a pretty tall order for most users but, from a technology standpoint, it makes sense. With a price tag of just under $50, this puts it in line with some of the software retrieval tools for desktop computers. Is your data worth $50 to get back? Is it worth rooting your phone to get one more look at those text messages? Only you can decide that but, as far as I could tell this seems to work as advertised.

T-Mobile’s new premium protection plan includes AppleCare and McAfee security

Why it matters to you

If you need an affordable way to protect your device against accidental damage, viruses, and more, T-Mobile is here to help.

If you bust your smartphone, you usually only have two options: repair it under warranty, or pay for the fixes out of pocket. But if you’re a T-Mobile subscriber, there’s a third way. On Friday, the magenta carrier announced Premium Device Protection Plus, a monthly plan add-on that includes identity theft protection tools, data protection, and technical assistance.

Premium Device Protection, which launches today for new and existing customers, packs a wealth of benefits that will keep your smartphone humming. You get 24/7 access to identity theft protection agents with lost wallet and ID restoration tools, and $1 million insurance for recovery expenses. And data protection’s in tow, too — the plan covers accidental damage and hardware service for any mechanical breakdown, as well as lost and stolen devices.

The new plan protects your device in other ways as well. With Premium Device Protection, you get security software from McAfee that scans up to ten of your devices — including phones, tablets, and even PCs and Macs — for viruses and malware, and that manages your passwords. Anti-theft features like a capture camera snap pictures of whoever’s trying to unlock your phone (after three failed attempts), and email you the location of lost devices.

That’s not the only added benefit of Premium Device Protection. If you own an iPhone, you get AppleCare Services, which include 24/7 priority access to AppleCare technicians (via chat or phone), discounts on service fees, Apple-certified repairs and replacements at Apple Stores and authorized service providers, software support, and more. And you get Tech PHD (Personal Help Desk) — “VIP-level” technical and diagnostic support via online chat, phone, and self-service resource for T-Mobile device accessories like printers, routers, TVs, and game consoles.

Premium Device Protection starts at $15, and T-Mobile subscribers who add Premium Device Protection within 60 days of purchasing a device are eligible to upgrade to T-Mobile Jump! Plus, T-Mobile’s early upgrade program that lets you upgrade to a new device when you pay off 50 percent of its cost.

T-Mobile’s new protection plan comes on the heels of a rumored discount phone service. According to Android Authority, the self-coined “Un-carrier” is working on a subscription plan that will reduce the price of top-tier phones like the Galaxy S8 and iPhone 7, which often retail for more than $650. It reportedly won’t require a contract, and it will come with a lifetime warranty and insurance included.

Android Authority expects it to launch in the third quarter of this year.

Scientists say ‘mini-nukes’ could explain why some satellites mysteriously fail

Why it matters to you

Unexplained satellite failures may be the result of micrometeorites, which could put other spacecraft at risk.

Last month, experts met at a conference in Germany to discuss the pressing issue of space debris orbiting our planet, warning of an exponentially worsening threat. Dangerous pieces have more than doubled over the past 25 years, according to the experts, who estimated some 150 million pieces larger than 0.04 inches currently orbit Earth.

This week, a team of researchers from Stanford, MIT, and the University of Boston have raised another concern about smaller particles that could also threaten orbiting spacecraft. These dust-sized micrometeorites might not fracture spacecraft like some space debris but simulations showed that, upon impact, they produce a pulse of radiation strong enough to disable a satellite.

The hypothesis was hatched by senior author of the study, Stanford’s Sigrid Close, who looked into the idea that hypervelocity impacts could be to blame for some satellite failures, roughly half of which remain unexplained. Close and her colleagues used computer simulations to model plasma and electromagnetic fields at the same time, calculating the amount of radiation generated by the plasma during impact.

“For the last few decades researchers have studied these hypervelocity impacts and we’ve noticed that there’s radiation from the impacts when the particles are going sufficiently fast,” Alex Fletcher, lead author and  postdoctoral researcher at Boston University, said in a press release. “No one has really been able to explain why it’s there, where it comes from or the physical mechanism behind it.”

Put briefly, the radio-frequency radiation occurs when a projectile hits an object and converts into a plasma. As the plasma expands, its electrons move exponentially faster than the positive ions creating a current. The more the plasma cloud expands, the more the electrons and ions pulls against each other, oscillating that current. This interplay creates the pulse of radiation, which Close told IEEE Spectrum is like a “mini-nuke.”

According to the researchers calculations, a dangerous pulse could from a femtogram-scale (that’s smaller than nano-scale) particle traveling at just under 11.2 miles per second. Keep in mind that many micrometeorites are many magnitudes larger and travel much faster. The good news is, for one of these “mini-nukes” to really deal some damage, it has to hit in precisely the right (or wrong) spot.

“It sounds scary, but the plasmas are tiny and disappear in microseconds,” Close said. “So you have to be unlucky. You have to have sensitive components close to the impact.”

Nonetheless, for a “failure is not an option” agency like NASA, the study is one which they’ll want to consider.

A paper detailing the study was published this week in the journal Physics of Plasmas.

Windows 10 reaches milestone of 300 million daily users

Why it matters to you

Windows 10 usage is still steadily increasing, as Microsoft attempts to gain ground among education and enterprise users.

In January 2016, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 was running on 200 million devices worldwide. Now, the company has offered another update on the operating system’s user base, revealing that it now serves more than 300 million daily users.

“It’s the fastest adoption in corporation we’ve ever seen, and we’re seeing great deployment on that,” said Yusuf Medhi, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of devices and services, in an interview with Bloomberg Technology that was reported on by MS Power User. “We couldn’t be more thrilled with the progress on Windows.”

It’s interesting to see Microsoft offer a slightly different kind of statistic in its latest attempt to trumpet the widespread adoption of Windows 10. Rather than reporting the number of devices that the OS is installed on — and the progress toward its former goal of hitting 1 billion devices by 2018 — the focus here is on how many users are engaging with the platform.

According to Medhi, 300 million users work with Windows 10 for more than three and a half hours a day. Microsoft has previously stated that the OS has accumulated 400 million monthly users, so it’s certainly a positive sign that a high proportion of its audience spends several hours using the platform every day.

Earlier this week, Microsoft unveiled the education-oriented Windows 10 S, and the new Surface Laptop, which is aimed at students. It’s clear that the company is eager to court schools and universities in an attempt to wrestle that sector’s market share away from Google and its popular Chrome OS platform.

Microsoft is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to reinforce Windows 10’s position as the most widely used OS on the planet. Between enterprise and education, the company isn’t happy with leading the pack among personal use — it’s looking to make sure that Windows continues to dominate the computing industry in all its forms.

Apple’s latest patent will blast water out of your iPhone with an audio pulse

Why it matters to you

Apple’s technology could make your future iPhone even more resistant to water — if it ever sees the light of day.

Thankfully, we now live in an age where the two most popular flagship smartphones in the world are water resistant. While that may be incredibly comforting to know next time your iPhone 7 or Galaxy S8 takes an unexpected swim, that doesn’t quite mean they’re impervious. If liquid gets in, there’s always a chance something could go wrong. Besides, water damage isn’t covered in either phone’s warranty.

You’re not satisfied with the status quo, and fortunately, neither are smartphone manufacturers. Companies are always experimenting with new ways to make devices stronger and safer, and this patent from Apple, published Thursday, is a perfect example.

Speakers and microphones are naturally easy points of ingress for water into a phone. The acoustic chambers are exposed to the outside world, meaning liquid can always get in. Apple’s patent aims to curb that vulnerability with a twofold approach.

The first is a hydrophobic coating on the speaker grille, that repels water. That is simple enough to understand, but the second part of the equation is where things get a little more interesting. According to the patent, Apple proposes lining the inner side of the grille with a hydrophilic coating to accelerate the removal of water out of the device, and using a sensor within the acoustic chamber to determine the presence of any liquid.

The “sensor” could take the form of a pressure, moisture, optical, or audio-sensitive module, that could signal to the device that water has passed into the phone. According to the patent, Apple might then outfit the array with a specially designed speaker that would blast an audio pulse inaudible to the human ear, sending the water back out the handset the same way it came in.

It’s important to note that while patents are never a guarantee of features that will hit the market in any reasonable time frame, some elements of this particular application are actually commonplace now.

For example, most modern smartphones come equipped with an oleophobic coating over the display, to keep smears and smudges off the surface. And many third-party companies produce hydrophobic solutions you can spray onto your handset, that claim to repel liquid to such a degree that they make your phone almost waterproof.

Meanwhile, the audio pulse to expel moisture has actually been featured most recently in Apple’s Series 2 smartwatches.

The patent has a date of filing of January 18, 2017. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were Apple’s first smartphones certified as water resistant, each with an IP67 rating — meaning they could withstand being submerged in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes. None of the features mentioned in this patent have been rumored to arrive in the upcoming iPhone X, due either later this year or in early 2018, according to recent reports.

Article originally published on 05-05-2017 by Adam Ismail. An earlier version of this article did not account for the Apple Watch Series 2’s use of audio pulses to expel water from the watch’s speaker; it has since been corrected.

Microsoft patent describes ’emotional’ AI that produces personalized responses

Why it matters to you

Voice assistant are anything but sensitive, but Microsoft’s next one might be able to understand and respond to your emotions.

Artificially intelligent voice assistants like Apple’s Siri and Google’s eponymous Google Assistant are powerful time-savers, but you won’t mistake one for a human anytime soon — their responses tend to be a little robotic. However, researchers are hard at work on more personalized, life-like assistants, and Microsoft may be at the forefront.

A patent filed by Microsoft in November 2015 and granted in May, titled “Emotionally Connected Responses from a Digital Assistant,” describes an AI-powered companion that has the ability to respond to reminders, calendar entries, and other tasks in a highly specific, contextually appropriate way.

“Personalized or digital assistants are increasingly becoming popular and are continuously becoming more personalized,” the patent states. “For example, digital assistants have unique voices, names, etc. Additional personality dimensions are constantly sought out in an effort to increase connections with users.”

Microsoft’s two-pronged solution includes “personalized messages” to certain “inputs,” and canned responses during “predetermined events.” If you feed the assistant what Microsoft describes as “exemplary emotional inputs” — “I love you,” for example, or “Will you be my girlfriend” —  it’ll respond with a “personalized message,” potentially in the form of  “unique handwriting.” If, on the other hand, it’s your birthday, a holiday, or an anniversary (a “predetermined event”), the assistant will acknowledge the special day in question.

Microsoft isn’t the only firm experimenting with highly personalized, emotional AI. According to the MIT Technology Review, retail giant Amazon is working on “significant” language processing upgrades to Alexa, its voice assistant, that may allow it to accurately detect the emotion in your voice. It’s also said to be developing an advanced language model that would be able to comprehend “ambiguous requests” — the sort of vague questions that throw the current version of Alexa for a loop.

More recently, Amazon introduced tools that make Alexa sound “more like a human.” The new Speech Synthesis Markup Language lets developers of “skills” — third-party apps that extend Alexa’s capabilities — add pauses, change the pronunciation of words, add audio snippets, spell out words, and insert special words and phrases.

The Google Home is powered by Google Assistant.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Google, meanwhile, enlisted the help of Google Doodle head Ryan Germick and ex-Pixar animator Emma Coats to help give the Google Assistant “character.” They programmed the Assistant with a “relatable childhood,” and added “humorous” responses that would make it sound “conversational.”

“There have been studies that show that it doesn’t necessarily matter if you instantly click with someone,” Coats said in an interview with Fast Company. “One thing we do is to make the character as entertaining as we possibly can so that you want to spend time with it.”

Microsoft patent describes ’emotional’ AI that produces personalized responses

Why it matters to you

Voice assistant are anything but sensitive, but Microsoft’s next one might be able to understand and respond to your emotions.

Artificially intelligent voice assistants like Apple’s Siri and Google’s eponymous Google Assistant are powerful time-savers, but you won’t mistake one for a human anytime soon — their responses tend to be a little robotic. However, researchers are hard at work on more personalized, life-like assistants, and Microsoft may be at the forefront.

A patent filed by Microsoft in November 2015 and granted in May, titled “Emotionally Connected Responses from a Digital Assistant,” describes an AI-powered companion that has the ability to respond to reminders, calendar entries, and other tasks in a highly specific, contextually appropriate way.

“Personalized or digital assistants are increasingly becoming popular and are continuously becoming more personalized,” the patent states. “For example, digital assistants have unique voices, names, etc. Additional personality dimensions are constantly sought out in an effort to increase connections with users.”

Microsoft’s two-pronged solution includes “personalized messages” to certain “inputs,” and canned responses during “predetermined events.” If you feed the assistant what Microsoft describes as “exemplary emotional inputs” — “I love you,” for example, or “Will you be my girlfriend” —  it’ll respond with a “personalized message,” potentially in the form of  “unique handwriting.” If, on the other hand, it’s your birthday, a holiday, or an anniversary (a “predetermined event”), the assistant will acknowledge the special day in question.

Microsoft isn’t the only firm experimenting with highly personalized, emotional AI. According to the MIT Technology Review, retail giant Amazon is working on “significant” language processing upgrades to Alexa, its voice assistant, that may allow it to accurately detect the emotion in your voice. It’s also said to be developing an advanced language model that would be able to comprehend “ambiguous requests” — the sort of vague questions that throw the current version of Alexa for a loop.

More recently, Amazon introduced tools that make Alexa sound “more like a human.” The new Speech Synthesis Markup Language lets developers of “skills” — third-party apps that extend Alexa’s capabilities — add pauses, change the pronunciation of words, add audio snippets, spell out words, and insert special words and phrases.

The Google Home is powered by Google Assistant.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Google, meanwhile, enlisted the help of Google Doodle head Ryan Germick and ex-Pixar animator Emma Coats to help give the Google Assistant “character.” They programmed the Assistant with a “relatable childhood,” and added “humorous” responses that would make it sound “conversational.”

“There have been studies that show that it doesn’t necessarily matter if you instantly click with someone,” Coats said in an interview with Fast Company. “One thing we do is to make the character as entertaining as we possibly can so that you want to spend time with it.”