You might have noticed this on other blogs earlier today: Apple approved an app called Handy Light, which was pretty similar to other flashlight apps on the App Store. Except for one little insignificant and absolutely unnoticeable detail for American users: it allowed tethering on the iPhone.
With AT&T. For free. Boom.
We’re following Apple’s earnings call live, and during the Q&A section a question about the data center Apple is building in North Carolina just came up. The response:
“Apple NC data center build is on schedule, should be complete end of the calendar year, start using it in 2011.” And, they said that today they couldn’t share more details. Now this is just speculation, but many times we reported that NC data center could be meant for the possible migration of iTunes in the cloud. The must requested cloud music service from Apple everyone is waiting for.
If the rumors of the data center hosting the huge iTunes catalogue are true, then we might not see iTunes.com in the cloud until next year. Maybe even the second quarter of next year. Which is WWDC period.
Sounds interesting? Could iTunes in the cloud be more than a simple music streaming service? Hosted databases, movie streaming, TV shows? Perhaps to integrate with the new Apple TV?
Time will tell.
You’d think if you were going to make the attempt to sell Mac users a security product they didn’t want in the first place, you’d at least support their web browser of choice. Seriously McAfee? I might be a little rash, but I’m not wasting a gig of memory and 150 MB of hard drive space for this, especially after seeing how they treat Windows computers.
[via Macworld]
We’re assuming at least one of our lovely readers has helped Apple reach new record breaking levels with all those Macs selling like hotcakes, and we wouldn’t be surprised if you were in need of a tote to carry your precious machine. Gizmodo reports that Timbuk2 is having one helluva sale right now if you’re interested in some quality bags, so we suggest you check out their (up to) 60% off promo-a-day for the opportunity to save some bucks and score some sweet shwag.
[via Gizmodo]
Here are some notes we’re taking from the call:
Mac growth 33% vs. 22% PC;
iTunes Store revenue over $1 billion and growing 25% year over year;
Over 5 billions apps downloaded;
Over 100 million iOS devices sold;
9 million average revenue per Apple Store, 5.9MM a year ago;
60.5MM visitors compared to 38.6 a year ago;
Estimate cost of the iPhone 4 cases is about $175m ;
“We thought capacity of 1M iPad units per month was very bold. Analysts thought we might sell 1M units in the whole year.”
Tim Cook on the iPad: “It’s not following a typical early adopter curve taking a long time to cross into the mainstream”
[updating…]
Apple has just posted the official financial results for its fiscal 2010 third quarter, and once again they broke records established just a few months earlier in the first quarter.
Skimming through the press release this caught my attention:
“It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple’s history with iPhone 4,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year.”
Of course they have new products coming this year. He’s stating the obvious, but let me make a few considerations about it. The iPod Touch is set to go under a major overhaul in September, perhaps with the addition of a camera and FaceTime capabilities. We can pretty much bet on it.
What intrigues me is thinking about new Apple TVs and new Macbooks for the holiday season. Apple TV has been marked as a hobby many times in the past, but judging from Apple’s press releases and conferences, they keep on mentioning the device as if they’re teasing us. And what about Macs, which had the most successful quarter ever? What about rumors of Mac OS X 10.7 approaching advanced development stages?
My best guess is, Apple will roll out new Apple TVs (perhaps with Magic Trackpads) later this year, together with new Macbooks by the holiday season and new iPod Touches in September.
The Mac isn’t dead. The iPad 2 won’t be released until next year. Steve, surprise us.
Apple has just announced their third quarter fiscal results for 2010. 3.47 million Macs were sold this quarter, setting a quarterly record with a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. iPod sales have predictably declined by 8 percent over the year-ago quarter, all while Apple managed to sell 9.41 million units. 8.4 million iPhones have been sold, representing a 61 precent increase, with 3.21 million iPads sold.
These are incredibly positive numbers for Apple all around, and Cupertino is claiming new records have been broken with record revenue earnings increase of 78 percent – a revenue of 15.7 billion dollars, with a new quarterly profit of 3.25 billion.
From Apple’s press statement:
“We’re really pleased to have generated over $4 billion of cash during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue of about $18 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $3.44”
Steve Jobs is reported as saying, “iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year.”
The numbers for Macs sold are quite amazing, especially as people expected sales to be cannibalized by the iPad. Even when Apple’s not showcasing their prime product, Macs are practically flying off the shelves.
You can catch Apple’s entire third quarter press release here.
Are you an IT professional looking at ways you can hone your skills on the Macintosh? Check out the MacTech Conference in Los Angeles from November 3-5th. Not only do you get to see Andy Ihnatko in his prime and glory, but you have the opportunity to listen to the great folks behind Delicious Monster and Red Sweater Software.
Mailplane is a nifty little app for Mac OS X which wraps Cocoa around Gmail’s web interface and allows you to quickly switch between multiple accounts, drag & drop from Gmail to Mac OS X’s Finder, pick up contacts from Address Book. It’s got many other additional features, it’s one of my most used Mac apps to date and it was one of the first applications I reviewed here on MacStories.
So when I heard that Ruben Bakker, the developer behind Mailplane, had no plans to release an iPad version, I was kind of sad. Ok for the iPhone, we have Mailroom there. But on the iPad? It would be perfect on it. With the larger screen, Gmail’s iPad web interface and the magical factor of the device, I bet it would turn out to be awesome. Still, no Mailplane.
Luckily for me, for us, and for anyone else willing to configure 5+ Gmail accounts in a single app, there’s Mailboxes for iPad. Is it Mailplane? No. Does it let you switch between multiple accounts? Yep.
