Apple sold 61 million iPhones last quarter, China now second-biggest market
Back in January this year, Apple recorded a blockbuster of a quarter thanks to holiday sales of its new, larger-screened handsets. It sold a whopping 74.5 million iPhones in the last three months of 2014, chalking up $74.6 billion in revenue in the process. While today’s second quarter results don’t quite match that number, Cook & co. still managed to rake in a respectable amount of cash: According to the report, Apple made around $58 billion and sold close to 61 million iPhones in the first three months of 2015 alone. That makes this one of the most successful March quarters ever in the company’s history. This is in large part due to Apple’s rising popularity in China. Indeed, the country is now Apple’s second biggest market, with Europe falling to third place.
Apple also continues to defy the global decline in PC shipments with 4.56 million in Mac sales, which is about 10 percent increase from this time last year. iPad sales, however, are on the decline; Apple sold 12.6 million of the tablets, a drop of about 23 percent from this time last year. Of course, as the Apple Watch only just went on sale in the past month, there aren’t any numbers for those just yet.
Developing…
[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Apple
Source: Apple
Apple Watch Display Quality Judged ‘Excellent’, Calibrated to Match iPhone 6
DisplayMate Technologies has extensively tested the Apple Watch’s flexible OLED display and shared the results today based on several categories, including screen reflection, brightness and contrast with ambient light, color gamut with ambient light, and viewing angle variations. Overall, the company found the Apple Watch to have an “excellent smart watch display” with accurate colors and picture quality.
In a side-by-side comparison with the iPhone 6 display, the display calibration company found that Apple has taken measures to ensure that the Apple Watch display has the same colors, color calibration and color accuracy as the larger smartphone screen. The stainless steel and gold Apple Watches with sapphire crystal displays, however, have much higher reflectance in ambient light and mandatory automatic brightness control to preserve battery life.
“Since the Apple Watch is often used right next to the iPhone 6, Apple has gone to considerable lengths to give them the same colors, color calibration, and color accuracy. The two most significant differences (other than size) are the much higher Reflectance of the Apple Watch with a sapphire crystal (8.2 percent compared to 4.6 percent), and the aggressive Brightness control using a mandatory Automatic Brightness Ambient Light Sensor in order to increase the running time on battery for the tiny watch.”
The full-length report offers a comprehensive look at the Apple Watch’s ion-strengthened and sapphire crystal displays, and reiterates that enhanced sapphire, which lowers the screen reflectance of sapphire to be much lower than glass, will soon be available for use in smartphones, smartwatches and other mobile devices. Additionally, DisplayMate’s previous tests of the Samsung Gear 2 and Sony SmartWatch 2 displays provide good comparisons to the Apple Watch.
Apple Seeds Second OS X 10.10.4 Yosemite Beta to Developers, First Public Beta Version
Apple today seeded the second beta of OS X 10.10.4 to developers, approximately a week and a half since releasing the first 10.10.4 beta and nearly three weeks after releasing OS X 10.10.3 with the Photos for OS X app to the public. Alongside the new developer beta, Apple also released the first public beta version of OS X 10.10.4.
Developers can download the new beta, build 14E11f, through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store or through the Mac Developer Center.
OS X 10.10.3 introduced several consumer-facing changes including the new Photos for OS X app, a redesigned emoji picker, new diversified emoji, and more, but OS X 10.10.4 appears to be an under-the-hood update that brings performance enhancements and bug fixes.
The first two updates to OS X Yosemite, OS X 10.10.1 and OS X 10.10.2 were also minor behind-the-scenes updates that improved performance through bug fixes and enhancements.
Instagram for iOS Gains Three New Filters, Emoji Hashtags [iOS Blog]
Instagram for iOS received a major update today, adding three new filters to the app: Lark, Reyes, and Juno. Lark brightens up images and adds purple tones, while Reyes adds a vintage-looking fade with yellow tones. Juno is the boldest of the three new filters, brightening images and bumping up the contrast for a more stylized look.
Today’s three new filters come four months after Instagram added Slumber, Crema, Ludwig, Aden, and Perpetua, the first new filter additions to the app in two years. With those five filters, Instagram began focusing more on subtle improvements, a trend continued with the three new filters added today.
Lark filter on left, Reyes filter on right
Instagram has also gained emoji hashtags with the latest update, so it’s possible to use emojis to create hashtags to enable new ways of tagging and finding photos on the image sharing service.
Introducing 3 new photo filters! Lark, Reyes and Juno have been added automatically so you can start using them right away.
Emoji hashtags. Use your favorite emojis to create, share and search for hashtags.
Get the best of Instagram from the Apple Watch. Browse your feed and like your favorite photos, or even leave emoji comments. Plus stay up to date with interactive notifications right on your wrist.
Instagram can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Enables Access to HealthKit for More Than 80,000 Patients [iOS Blog]
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, one of the largest hospitals in Los Angeles, has updated its online medical records to enable access to HealthKit for more than 80,000 patients, reports Bloomberg. Cedars-Sinai joins The Mayo Clinic and Duke University Hospital as medical centers connected to the health platform, alongside more than 900 health, medical and fitness apps integrated with the service.
“This is just another set of data that we’re confident our physicians will take into account as they make clinical and medical judgments,” said Cedars-Sinai chief information officer Cedars-Sinai. “We don’t really, fully know and understand how patients will want to use this and we’re going to basically stand ready to learn by what will happen.”
Apple said earlier this year that over 600 developers are integrating HealthKit into their health and fitness apps, and more than fourteen major hospitals are now using the health framework in the United States. Apple introduced HealthKit and a new Health app in iOS 8 as a part of a new initiative into health and fitness tracking. HealthKit taps into data from the iPhone’s various sensors along with compatible accessories to provide a more comprehensive picture of a user’s health.
Apple Seeds Second iOS 8.4 Beta With Revamped Music App to Developers and Public Beta Testers
Apple today seeded the second beta of iOS 8.4 to registered developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the first iOS 8.4 beta and nearly three weeks after releasing iOS 8.3 to the public. Today’s beta is also the first iOS 8.4 beta to be made available to public beta testers.
The beta, build 12H4086d, is available as an over-the-air download and through the iOS Developer Center.
iOS 8.4 introduces an all-new Music app, which has a revamped design that shows pictures of artists in the Artists view and offers personalized playlists. It includes a new MiniPlayer, a redesigned look for “Now Playing,” global search capabilities that make it easier to search within the Music app, and a streamlined design for iTunes Radio to bolster music discovery.
The first iOS 8.4 beta had a long list of bugs associated with the new Music app, and it’s likely that today’s update fixes several of those issues to make the app more stable.
iOS 8.4’s redesigned music app comes ahead of the rumored debut of a revamped streaming music service that could make an appearance at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The upcoming streaming music service is said to be similar to Apple’s existing Beats music service, but with a rebranding, a redesign, deeper integration into iTunes, and a focus on exclusive content.
Apple Adds New NBC Sports Channel to Apple TV
Apple today added the NBC Sports Live Extra channel to the Apple TV, adding to its growing collection of available sports apps the device. The NBC Sports channel on the Apple TV delivers videos and clips of sporting events that air on NBC, much like the iPad app.
NBC Sports on the Apple TV offers video on demand that includes access to video clips, previews of upcoming events, and highlights from past events, plus it offers live NBC Sports events and full event replays. While video clips and other content will be available to all users, watching live content will require a cable subscription and authentication to log in.
In addition to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Triple Crown, Live Extra streams all live sports content televised by NBC, NBCSN and Golf Channel, including: the Summer and Winter Olympics; Sunday Night Football and NBC’s NFL pre-season and post-season coverage; NHL regular-season games; the PGA TOUR, including the FedExCup Playoffs, and the LPGA; the Premier League; studio content surrounding many of the aforementioned properties; original programming such as The Dan Patrick Show and Men In Blazers; and much more.
NBC Sports joins a slew of other sports-oriented apps on the Apple TV, including WatchESPN, MLB.tv, NBA, NHL GameCenter, Major League Soccer, WWE Network, 120 Sports, Tennis Channel Everywhere, and more.
Want the best Apple Watch display? Get a Sport model
Splurging on a gold or steel Apple Watch might get you a fancier timepiece, but there’s one thing you won’t get: the best possible display. DisplayMate has taken a close look at the OLED screen in the smartwatch, and it notes that sapphire carries its share of drawbacks over the toughened glass in the Watch Sport. While you’re still getting colorful, sharp visuals, the higher-end Watch’s sapphire reflects almost twice as much light and washes out the picture in very bright conditions. And no, Apple can’t use an anti-glare coating to fix this — that would scratch easily, which misses the whole point of sapphire. There will eventually be improved sapphire screens that are both scratch- and glare-resistant, but you’re currently best off with the Sport (and any other smartwatch with glass, really) if you’re an outdoorsy type.
Filed under: Displays, Wearables, Mobile, Apple
Source: DisplayMate
Yes, the Apple Watch Blends [iOS Blog]
Blendtec and Tom Dickson have returned with the latest edition of their “Will It Blend” experiment, this time putting the Apple Watch in a blender to see how well it survives. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t. Just like with every iPhone put through the blender treatment, the Apple Watch is quickly smashed and destroyed into tiny bits and pieces of metal.
Last week, the Apple Watch Sport was put through a lengthier torture test that involved attempting to scratch it with a cheese grater, pouring ketchup and maple syrup on it, boiling it in hot water, stepping on it, smashing it with a seven-pound cast iron skillet and more. The wrist-worn device also underwent a waterproof test on the same day.
Don’t try this at home.
Christy Turlington Burns Breaks Personal Record at London Marathon [iOS Blog]
Over the past few weeks since Apple’s “Spring Forward” event, model and founder of non-profit organization Every Mother Counts Christy Turlington Burns has kept a blog on Apple’s official website describing her use of the Apple Watch in helping her prepare for the Virgin Money 2015 London Marathon.
After finishing the marathon yesterday, Burns posted a time of 3 hours and 46 minutes, flying just under her goal time of 3 hours and 55 minutes (via The Telegraph).
Angled as a seven week build-up to the 2015 London Marathon, Burns’ final blog entry was posted last week, also timing itself with the official launch of the Apple Watch last Friday. As Burns mentioned in her latest post for Apple, “as a 46‑year‑old mom, I’m proud of my under‑4‑hour goal”, even though most “extreme” athletes can get a finish time under the 3 hour mark.
Burns used a variety of Apple Watch features over the nearly-two-months she trained for the marathon, from praising the dexterity of the Watch in learning personal stride and workout preferences to the subtle encouragement of filling every activity ring each day.
Although her role in the launch of the Apple Watch can be seen as purely promotional, she did shed some light on unknown features concerning lesser-discussed portions of the Watch’s abilities, including the fact that after a few runs paired with an iPhone, the Watch can work independently of the iPhone over time.
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