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May

Apple’s hardware sales were mostly flat, but its services are doing great

The expected holiday “super cycle” of iPhone sales didn’t exactly work for Apple a few months ago, but that doesn’t mean interest in the company’s smartphones has died off completely. Apple just dropped its Q2 2018 earnings release, which, as usual, revealed a few juicy details. For one, the company raked in $61.1 billion in revenue, a huge 16 percent jump over its performance this time last year. That good news comes with a disappointing chaser, however: Apple sold 52.2 million iPhones this past quarter. For those who haven’t been keeping count, that’s a tepid 3 percent lift over this time in 2017 and just short of most of Wall Street predictions. Even so, this is still the most iPhones Apple has moved in Q2 in three years.

Those hoping for a strong iPhone sales rally are sure to be disappointed, but it wasn’t hard to predict this kind of slackening demand. Over the past few weeks, iPhone production partners like SK Hynix and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing — which churns out Apple’s A-series processors — pointed to a dip in smartphone demand to explain their recent, somewhat disappointing earnings reports.

The other mainstays of the company’s product portfolio didn’t shift much from last year, either. iPad sales jumped slightly to 9.1 million, though there’s plenty of room for movement there — after all, this quarter doesn’t take into account the recent launch of the 2018 iPad, a sequel to a device Apple spokespeople have called its most popular model. Meanwhile, Apple moved 4.08 million Macs, a very slight dip from its position this time last year. Frankly, we’re a little shocked that number hasn’t dipped further considering the company’s general lack of visible work on its computers.

Not all of Apple’s hardware sales were static, though. Apple CEO Tim Cook called AirPods “a runaway hit” and pointed out that the company was working to keep up with the impressive demand during the company’s customary earnings call. That plus the continued popularity of the Apple Watch likely played a big role in the 38 percent spike in Apple’s “Other” revenue — you know, the bucket where Apple lumps all its other products into an opaque, lucrative mass.

The most notable surge we’ve seen in Apple’s report is in its services division: it was responsible for $9.2 billion of Apple’s total revenue influx, up more than 30 percent since last year. Not only is that some $2 billion more than what Apple’s services generated last year, it’s an all-time record for the company according to CFO Luca Maestri. With demand for Apple’s hardware seemingly going soft, expect to see the cash the company pulls in from services like iCloud, Apple Music and more to really drive movement in the company’s bottom line.

May

Netflix’s re-edit of ‘Arrested Development’ season 4 arrives May 4th

Not everyone loved the fourth season of Arrested Development. Each episode focused on one character and full storylines didn’t really come together until the very end of the season. Because the storytelling was so different from that of earlier seasons, some fans of the show found the latest installment to be a little off-putting. And that’s why way back in 2014, the show’s creator, Mitch Hurwitz, said he would be re-editing the show’s fourth season, rearranging the scenes so that they flow chronologically rather than having each episode focus on a single character. Now, well over three years later, Hurwitz has announced that the shuffled fourth season will debut on Netflix this Friday.

On the next… Arrested Development pic.twitter.com/NjP26k9KE7

— Arrested Development (@arresteddev) May 1, 2018

“I’m really excited by the final result,” Hurwitz said in a statement today. “It’s funny in a whole new way, and I believe it creates a really entertaining and hilarious new experience for the ‘viewer.’” The reimagined season will consist of 22 shorter episodes, as opposed to the original 15 longer ones.

In addition to announcing the premiere date of Arrested Development Season 4 Remix: Fateful Consequences, as it’s being called, Hurwitz also said that season five is on the way. “Like real soon,” he said. “Like, if you knew when, you would not be wrong to be thinking, ‘Why are we all just hearing this now?’”

You can watch all four seasons of Arrested Development on Netflix now.

Via: The Verge

Source: Arrested Development

May

Facebook F8 attendees will reportedly receive the Oculus Go

Facebook’s F8 developer conference starts Tuesday, May 1, and it’s a safe bet we’ll get pertinent details about the release of Oculus Go, the midrange virtual reality headset that was originally supposed to launch earlier in 2018. Although a release date hasn’t been announced, the stand-alone VR headset could be on shelves very soon and in the hands of F8 attendees even sooner.

Marco Antonio Liu, the co-founder of HappinssVR, snapped a picture in the lead-up to F8 that suggests attendees will receive an Oculus Go for free on Wednesday, May 2, the final day of F8, Road to VR reports.

Marco Antonio Liu

While you have to be an invited developer to attend F8, if this is true, the Oculus Go’s retail release could be imminent. It’s highly unlikely that Facebook would hand out headsets if the Go wasn’t already ready to ship to retailers for sale.

In fact, it sure looks like retailers may already have the Go in stock and are just waiting for the release date to be unveiled. Reddit user Heaney555 posted a picture of a locked cabinet filled with Go headsets at his local Best Buy. The picture shows both 32GB and 64GB headsets. Although Facebook hasn’t officially confirmed a 64GB model, a Federal Communications Commission filing showed as much.

As we reported earlier, the headset was finally made available for pre-order on Amazon overnight. Unfortunately, pre-orders sold out within a few hours. Amazon has a placeholder date of December 31 for now, but it seems likely the retail giant also has Go headsets in stock that are just waiting to be shipped to customers.

While it’s unclear how many pre-orders Amazon sold through, it seems the Go will be a popular commodity. The Go is entirely cordless and sits somewhere between the Gear VR and Oculus Rift in terms of power, but without the need for a phone or PC. Don’t expect to play Rift, HTC Vive, or PlayStation VR-quality experiences on the Go, but if you’re interested in checking out the VR space, the Oculus Go might very well be the most accessible avenue. At $200, it’s ready to go out of the box.

If you’re intrigued by Oculus Go, stay tuned throughout F8.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Facebook’s F8 starts Tuesday. What do you want to hear about?
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May

Apple Pay to Launch in Norway, Poland, and Ukraine Soon

Apple is planning to expand Apple Pay to Norway, Poland, and Norway in the near future, Apple CEO Tim Cook said this afternoon during Apple’s earnings call covering the second fiscal quarter of 2018.

Cook did not provide specific information on a potential launch date, beyond the announcement that it would be coming “in the next several months.”

Cook said that Apple Pay continues to see strong growth, with the service setting a new all-time quarterly revenue record.

Apple Pay activations have doubled year over year, and total Apple Pay transactions have tripled. With launches for transportation services in countries like Japan, Apple Pay has seen significant growth. Cook said that Apple Pay is no the most successful mobile transit payment system in Toyko.

Over the course of the last few years, Apple has been working rapidly to expand Apple Pay to additional countries, and it is now available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, Hong Kong, France, Russia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, UAE, and Brazil.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
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May

The 5 best features of the Windows 10 April 2018 Update

That was a close one! Microsoft’s long-planned Windows 10 April 2018 Update, dubbed by many as the Spring Creators Update, only just slipped in under the wire as the month came to a close. There was some concern it would be pushed back until mid-May, throwing off the whole numbering scheme of Microsoft’s OS builds. But it made it the cut and brought with it some neat new features.

For now though, here’s why you should update: The five best features of the Windows 10 April update.

Timeline

While Timeline might make you think of the currently much maligned Facebook, Windows 10’s interpretation is a little different. It gives you the chance to look back at previous documents you were working on, old web searches, or old articles you were reading. The collection is listed chronologically and searchable for keywords to help you find whatever it was you were doing recently, up to a 30-day limit.

Think of it as a much more capable “recent documents” feature, but covering the whole of your Windows experience. It’s even compatible with multiple devices, so you can keep track of what you were doing across different hardware too.

Focus Assist

For those who regularly find themselves inundated with Windows notifications, Focus Assist is designed to give you a distraction-free environment to help you get some work or study done. You can turn it on manually through the action center, or have it start and stop automatically based on certain parameters, like the time of day. To make sure you don’t miss anything super important though, you can whitelist some notifications so they will still come through, even when you have your head down.

Edge kills the noise

Even if Microsoft’s Edge browser continues to fall behind the competition, that doesn’t mean it’s not always improving. New features added in the Windows 10 April update include the ability to disable audio on tabs you’re not watching with the click of a button. Great for those annoying auto-playing adverts or when you’re jumping around tabs. There are also some handy tools for students now built in, including the Grammar Tools, which can help identify different components of sentences and paragraphs — and a clutter-free print function to get rid of digital detritus.

Repeat after me

Windows 10 is now a better listener than ever, with an improved dictation component. Simply pressing the Windows key + “H” enables quick-dictation, so you can say, rather than type what you want to note down. Although you’ll still need to manually select the window or field you want the input to go into, it’s a neat feature for those who find typing bothersome and is a great improvement for those who need additional accessibility tools.

Per-game performance tweaks

Gamers weren’t forgotten about with the latest Windows update. Users can now customize their system’s graphical power within the settings menu on a per-game basis. While desktop gamers won’t need to use such a feature often, those running laptops with dedicated graphics chip might like to switch to the on-board GPU to save battery life.

Borrowing from Focus Assist, there’s also a new setting to let you turn off notifications when playing a full-screen game. You don’t only need to focus when working after all.

May

Apple’s Services Revenue Up 31% Year-Over-Year in 2Q 2018, App Store Sets New Quarterly Revenue Record

Apple’s services category has continued to see rapid growth and it is becoming an increasingly important revenue driver for Apple.

In the second fiscal quarter of 2018, Apple’s services brought in $9.19 billion in revenue, up 31 percent compared to the $7 billion in revenue services earned in the second quarter of 2017.

For the last several quarters, Apple’s services revenue has grown so quickly that Apple sets a new record with each earnings announcement, and the second quarter of 2018 is no exception. Apple’s services category includes iTunes, the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Pay, and AppleCare.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that in Q2 2018, the App Store, Apple Music, Apple and iCloud set all time revenue records. Apple Music set a new record for both revenue and paid subscribers, which, as was announced recently, has hit 40 million.

Apple’s paid subscriptions surpassed 270 million, up 100 million from a year ago and up 30 million in the last 90 days alone.

Recently, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty predicted that over the course of the next five years, services revenue growth will contribute more than 50 percent of Apple’s total revenue growth.

Huberty estimated that services revenue is at $30 per device, with just 18 percent of Apple’s total device install base subscribing to paid Apple services, leaving a lot of room for growth in the coming years.

Apple in 2016 set itself a goal to double its services revenue by 2020, and the company is well on its way towards hitting that goal. Apple in 2016 earned $24 billion in revenue from services, so the double goal is $48 million.

Tags: App Store, iTunes
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May

Facebook Messenger now lets businesses show off products in augmented reality

Facebook Messenger is getting better. As expected, Facebook announced a few updates to its messaging platform at F8 2018, including improvements to M, its digital assistant, and new ways for businesses to engage with customers through augmented reality.

Here’s what you need to know about the new features in Facebook Messenger.

AR in Messenger

Perhaps the most important new feature is augmented reality in Messenger — and it could seriously bring AR to the masses. The feature is aimed at businesses that might want to incorporate augmented reality into their Messenger experiences. For example, when a customer interacts with a business in Messenger, the business can prompt the customer to open their camera, after which they’ll see different filters and AR effects, depending on what the business wants to show.

This could be important for a number of different situations where visualizing a product is important. For example, you may want to see how furniture looks in your house before you actually buy it. A few brands will support the feature at launch — Asus, Kia, Nike, and Sephora. With Asus, you’ll be able to get a deeper look at a phone’s features, while Kia allows you to better see how the Kia Stinger looks up close, and even customize the car’s features. Sephora, as you might expect, allows you to try out different looks and styles.

M translations

Facebook is also working to improve Facebook M, the digital assistant that lives within Facebook Messenger. Namely, the assistant will now be able to help with translations for businesses who want to reach customers in other regions. Now, buyers and sellers in Marketplace can communicate with people who don’t speak their language. In other words, if users in Marketplace get a message that’s in a language other than their default language, they’ll be asked if they want that language translated.

Facebook says it also plans on expanding the feature to Messenger users in the U.S. in coming weeks — so keep an eye out for it.

The two new features certainly seem to be largely business-focused, but hopefully they’ll make checking out products and interacting with businesses a bit easier.