During Apple’s earnings call on Wednesday, CFO Luca Maestri mentioned that Apple’s wearables business is now worth that of a Fortune 120 company.
Apple Shatters December Records with $111.4 Billion in Revenues, $1.68 EPS
Apple on Wednesday turned in an all-time record for December revenues of $111.4 billion, up 21% year-over-year. The company also reported all-time record earnings of $28.76 billion, up 29% year-over-year, while earnings-per-share (EPS) clocked in at $1.68, up 35% year-over-year.
Apple Watch Helps Save Cyclist Who Fell into River
We periodically get stories of how an Apple Watch has saved someone’s life. However often they happen, they never stop being amazing. On Thursday, for instance, BBC News reported that a cyclist in the UK was able to call the police from his wearable after he was swept into a river.
The man was swept off his bike into the swollen River Wye in Rotherwas, Hereford, on Thursday. He was carried a mile downstream but managed to grab hold of a branch and spoke to fire control. Station commander Sean Bailey said he was “lucky” to have kept hold of the branch, adding: “We’re very surprised he didn’t lose his grip.” Speaking to BBC Hereford and Worcester, Mr Bailey said the cyclist was spotted by passers-by who were able to give crews a sense of where he was. “Even with that location it still took us 20 minutes to locate him and rescue him and bring him to safety. “He was speaking to our fire control whilst he was clinging onto a tree, via his Apple Watch, which worked wonderfully well for us to actually get to him as quickly as possible.”
Apple Reclaims Title of World's Most Valuable Brand
According to the Brand Finance Global 500 2021, Apple is the most valuable brand in the world for the first time since 2016.
Password Manager Bitwarden Adds Touch ID to Browser Extension
Password manager Bitwarden announced the addition of a couple of new features. One feature adds support for Touch ID and Windows Hello to its browser extensions.
Browser extensions will now be able to access this authentication inside the Desktop application. This allows a more streamlined integration with hardware that does not require a unique browser-level integration. Biometric authentication requires macOS users to download the Mac App Store version.
Users Get Emails Confirming Apple TV+ Free Trial Extension
Emails have arrived with users, confirming that the Apple TV+ free trial will be extended, and most will not pay through July.
iOS 14.4: Setting a Category for Bluetooth Devices
Apple released iOS 14.4 on Tuesday and one of the features involves Bluetooth device types that people can manually set.
Updates Ahoy! – TMO Daily Observations 2021-01-27
Charlotte Henry and Andrew Orr join host Kelly Guimont to discuss why the latest iOS update is very important to install, and a look ahead at earnings.
Apple Execs Dismissed ‘Leaving Money on The Table’ When Discussion Apple TV Fees
Newly unveiled emails showed executives working out how to ensure they were not “leaving money on the table” in Apple TV subscription fees.
Swap AirPods Max Ear Cushions With New Update
As was rumored previously, Apple is now selling individual AirPods Max Ear Cushions. They attach and re-attach with magnets.
Buffer Overflow Bug Found in SUDO Dubbed ‘Baron Samedit’
Tracked as CVE-2021-3156, a heap overflow bug found in sudo and dubbed “Baron Samedit” has been found recently. It allows an unprivileged user to gain root privileges on a vulnerable machine using a default sudo configuration.
The vulnerability itself has been hiding in plain sight for nearly 10 years. It was introduced in July 2011 (commit 8255ed69) and affects all legacy versions from 1.8.2 to 1.8.31p2 and all stable versions from 1.9.0 to 1.9.5p1 in their default configuration.
Steve Jobs Unveiled the iPad 11 Years Ago Today
January 27 is a significant date in Apple history. On this day in 2010, Steve Jobs took to the stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and unveiled the first iPad. MacRumors has a great write up of the day and a summary of iPad milestones.
“iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” said Jobs, in a press release on January 27, 2010. “iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.” The original iPad featured a 9.7-inch display, a single-core Apple A4 chip, up to 64GB of storage, 256MB of RAM, up to 10 hours of battery life, a 30-pin dock connector, and a headphone jack. Notably, the original iPad did not have any cameras. Pricing started at $499 for the Wi-Fi model and $629 for the cellular model in the United States.
iOS 14.4 Included an Apple Security Update to Patch 3 Bugs
Apple released iOS 14.4 on Tuesday with multiple bug fixes and software improvements. It also contained a security update to fix three flaws.
Research Indicates Apple Has Had Its Best-Ever Quarter in India
Apple’s latest earning call will take place on Wednesday, and you can expect to hear lots about progress in India. TechCrunch reported on new research that indicated that last quarter was the company’s best-ever in the crucial market.
Apple shipped more than 1.5 million iPhone units in India in the quarter that ended in December, up 100% year-on-year, making this its best quarter in the world’s largest smartphone market to date, according to research firms Counterpoint and CyberMedia Research. Thanks to the improved sales of older generation iPhone 11, iPhone XR, iPhone 12 and the newer iPhone SE, Apple doubled its market share in India to 4% in the quarter, the research firms said. Overall, Apple shipped more than 3.2 million iPhone units in India in 2020, up 60% year-on-year, Counterpoint said. The shipment growth comes months after Apple launched its online store in the country and offered customers a wide-range of financing and upgrade options, AppleCare+, and lucrative perks such as a free set of AirPods with the purchase of iPhone 11. The company plans to open its first physical retail store in the country later this year.
M. Night Shyamalan Discusses How 'Servant' Got Supernatural
The second episode of season two of Servant is now available on Apple TV+. In the latest video explaining the show, creator M. Night Shyamalan discusses the unique supernatural elements in the series.
Tim Cook to Address European Data Protection Conference
Apple CEO Tim Cook is set to speak at the Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection conference this week. Apple’s senior director for privacy, Jane Horvath, is also set to appear, 9to5 Mac reported.
As first reported by Macerkopf, Cook will appear virtually during the CPDP conference on Thursday, January 28. The focus of the CPDP conference this year is “”Enforcement of rights in a changing world,” and Cook specifically will speak at the beginning of the session in a talk titled “A path to empowering user choice and boosting user trust in advertising.” Cook will appear alongside a handful of other privacy executives and politicians, including Apple’s own senior director for privacy Jane Horvath: John Edwards, New Zealand privacy commissioner; Marcel Kolaja, vice president of the European Parliament; Lucy Purdon, policy director, Privacy International; Marshall Erwin, chief security officer, Mozilla; Jane Horvath, senior director for privacy, Apple.
The Apple TV+ Freeloading Dilemma — Media+
Author, blogger, and podcaster Dan Moren joins Charlotte Henry to discuss the Apple TV+ freeloading problem. Almost nobody is paying for the service. Very few want to. How can Apple make money from streaming?
Preorder Otterbox Gaming Accessories That Ship in February
Known for its smartphone cases, this year Otterbox presented a range of gaming accessories for mobile gamers. I was privy to the company’s video presentation at virtual CES and was impressed with these new products. Otterbox partnered with Microsoft and several of these accessories are made for the Xbox controller. However, they did inform us in the video that the mobile gaming clip is compatible with all console game controllers. You can preorder them today and they start shipping mid-February.
Twitter Client ‘Tweetbot’ Becomes a Subscription App
Tweetbot was updated to version six on Tuesday and it brings several notable features, including the move to subscription pricing.
Even though the Tweetbot subscription isn’t expensive, I think Tapbots owes its users more than it has delivered. It’s a shame because Tweetbot remains one of the premier third-party Twitter clients for iOS. Hopefully, the lack of new features in this update will be addressed in subsequent releases.
Another subscription app that I’ll be deleting. For me, the only advantage Tweetbot has over Twitter is the lack of sponsored tweets, aka ads. While that is a notable feature worth paying for, one downside to Tweetbot includes never getting timely notifications.
'Tehran' Renewed for Second Season on Apple TV+
Apple TV+ has announced that Israeli espionage thriller ‘Tehran’ will return for a second season on the streaming service.
