I think Apple’s latest financial results just managed to sneak in, and while the analysis is yet to come, Apple has reported a record first quarter. Briefly: revenue was at $75.9 billion, with $18.4 billion in profit. TechCrunch writes Apple sold 74.8 million iPhones, 16.1 million iPads, and 5.3 million Macs during the period ending December 26, 2015.
With Apple’s incredible financials comes a renewed focus on the corporate tax avoidance practiced by many tech giants. In Australia, Apple paid $85 million in tax on almost $8 billion in revenue, and while that may seem somewhat reasonable, consider that Apple Australia’s revenue grew by $1.8 billion in 2015, yet the company only paid $4.5 million more in tax compared to the previous year, as a result of minimising its taxable income.
The latest in iPhone rumours is from 9to5Mac, who says the [iPhone 5se will have a faster A9/M9 chip](No Text in Clipboard) with the always-on Siri capability. Like the current iPhone, capacities will also come in the same 16 and 64GB configurations, although why Apple is sticking to its guns and still offering 16GB devices is beyond me.
The latest update for tvOS brings back a podcast app to the big screen, with tvOS 9.1.1 restoring a feature that wasn’t there for the launch of the new platform. Ars Technica checks out Apple’s latest podcast app.
Apple has released tvOS 9.2 beta 2 to developers, which brings yet another new app to the platform. Access to your iCloud Photo Library from the new Apple TV is only a few taps away, and with tvOS’ photos app also supporting Live Photos, you’ll be able to enjoy your special moments on whatever screen you have with you.
The second beta of iOS 9.3 has also been seeded to developers, bringing a Night Shift toggle in Control Centre. The second betas of OS X 10.11.4 and watchOS 2.2 have also been released to developers, and if history has told us anything, the public beta versions shouldn’t be too far behind.
With a rumoured iPad Air revamp on the way, a sketchy, uh, sketch of the iPad Air 3 shows the same four-speaker layout as the iPad Pro. While that design comes at the cost of battery capacity on the iPad Pro, I wonder if we’ll see the same internal changes on the iPad Air to accommodate speakers rather than a bigger battery.
Apple has hired Doug Bowman, an AR/VR researcher who has literally written the book on 3D interface design. It’s not known if Apple will be working on its own VR projects, but they’re always thinking about the next big thing.
The Verge has shown off Microsoft’s iOS keyboard, which has a special one-handed mode, where you can either swipe or tap letters using a curved keyboard. Microsoft’s WordFlow keyboard for iOS will be out in the coming months.
Apple’s latest ad for the Apple TV puts the spotlight on some of the apps that are available for the device, including content consumption as well as entertainment.
Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/01/wednesday-morning-news270116/