Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/07/wednesday-morning-news270716/
Apple has picked up the rights to James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke TV series. Apple SVP of internet software and services Eddy Cue says that Carpool Karaoke is a perfect fit for Apple Music, giving subscribers “access to their favourite artists and celebrities who come along for the ride”. Apple’s license covers 16 episodes, which will stream worldwide for Apple Music subscribers.
Apple’s Q3 2016 earnings are out, and the company reported $7.8 billion in profit on $42.4 billion in revenue. While the numbers compare unfavourably to profit and revenue in the year ago quarter ($10.7 billion and $49.6 billion, respectively), Apple’s results were within estimates, and expected given the decline in year-on-year sales of iPhones.
MacRumors has the transcript of the earnings call that followed Apple’s financials, with the hilarious side note that Apple CEO Tim Cook referred to Pokémon as “Pokémans”. Meanwhile, AppleInsider reports that despite Apple’s revenue in China falling 33%, Cook remains optimistic about the region that could prove to be one of Apple’s most important.
Revenue from iPad sales grew 7% year-on-year, even though the iPad category fell in terms of overall sales. The growth in revenue can be attributed to the launch of the iPad Pro, which comes in at a higher price point despite lower unit sales — with 9.95 million iPads sold, the iPad was Apple’s only hardware category to see revenue growth.
Apple Pay is also doing extremely well for Apple, with 400% user growth in this year alone. Cook notes more than half of the service’s transactions originate outside of the US, perhaps due to the more advanced wireless payments infrastructure in countries such as Australia and the UK. Cook also said that the Apple Pay user base is tiny, compared to Apple’s user base in general.
The latest iPhone rumour says the device could have the home button flush with the device. In order to mimic the feel of a button press, the home button would provide some kind of haptic feedback — perhaps something similar to Apple’s Force Touch trackpads, only without the touch-sensitivity and adding fingerprint recognition.
High quality videos of what’s rumoured to be the rear of the next iPhone has been shown off on video, but if you’ve been following these rumours for a while now, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. I guess that’s the problem with Apple rumours — by the time the device comes out, you’ve already seen it.
A patent granted to Apple could see future versions of the Apple Pencil work with Magic Trackpads, allowing users to draw on them much like you could with a drawing tablet.
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology has declared SMS as an outdated method of two-factor authentication. NIST has opened up discussion regarding the next stage of secure communications, specifically calling out SMS as an outdated method of delivering a one-time use code for two-factor authentication.
Adobe has launched Lightroom for Apple TV, but I don’t think you’ll be doing much editing on your big screen. Instead, Lightroom for Apple TV gives you viewing rights to your photos, whether that’s presenting them in a slideshow or quickly flicking through your images to find the one that you’re looking for.
