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The Beats-Expectations Edition Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Apple Beats Expectations In Q3 2016, But Slump Continues, by Josh Centers and Michael E. Cohen, TidBITS

The Services category continues to be a bright spot in Apple’s quarterly results, with a whopping 19 percent year-over-year increase in revenue.

Apple’s Cash On Hand Decreased For The First Time In Nearly Two Years, by Fitz Tepper, TechCrunch

The decrease in cash on hand tells us that Apple is finally figuring out how to utilize its absurdly large cash stash, something investors have long been complaining about.

Apple Sees iPad Revenue Growth For The First Time In 10 Quarters, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

While iPad revenue was up based on the higher average selling price of the 9.7 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models, overall unit sales continued to decline.

Apple Is Still Shrinking, by Dan Frommer, Recode

Here’s a good sense of where Apple is right now: Its only two growing businesses are the iPad — where unit shipments fell year over year but revenue grew — and its Services business — mostly iTunes and the App Store.

And expectations are now low enough that a second consecutive quarterof shrinkage — and a third now projected — still sent shares up 5 percent in after-hours trading. (And let’s be realistic: Apple, which generated $8 billion of profit during the quarter, is fine.)

Apple Forecasts Third Consecutive Revenue Decline Next Quarter, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Apple expects fourth quarter revenue of between $45.5 billion and $47.5 billion, which would be up to 12 percent lower than the $51.5 billion in revenue it posted in the year-ago July-September quarter.

Filmed In An Apple Car?

'Carpool Karaoke' Series Coming Exclusively To Apple Music, by Natalie Jarvey, Hollywood Reporter

The viral segment that broke out on the Late Late Show with James Corden is being turned into its own series, which will air first exclusively for subscribers to Apple's music streaming app.

Carpool Karaoke, which will be produced by CBS Television Studios and Fulwell 73, the production company of Late Late Show executive producer Ben Winston, will expand on the late night segment's format with celebrity guests who sing along to their favorite songs and surprise fans during their ride. The host of the series is expected to be announced at a later date, though Corden is not expected to take the wheel like he does in the Late Late Show segment.

Juice Estimation

Why Your Phone Dies When It Claims To Have Battery Left, by Mark Smirniotis, The Wirecutter

Between voltage, the current discharge rate, battery age, and the aggregate performance of its counterparts, it just has a lot to keep track of, and sometimes the resulting estimate just isn’t very accurate.

Anti-Jobs

California Closes The Steve Jobs License Plate Loophole, by Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica

On Monday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a new law that does away with the loophole. From 2019, California joins most of the other states in the nation by requiring newly bought cars to be issued temporary license plates. Additionally, the law will create a system to allow car sellers to report details of the sale to the DMV, including the date of sale and the names and addresses of the dealer and purchaser.

Stuff

Runkeeper’s Running Groups Is A Virtual Running Club For You And Your Buddies, by Paul Sawers, VentureBeat

Once a new Running Group has been set up, you select a challenge, such as a set number of runs over a given week or a total distance traversed in a week or a month. As each member of the group completes a run, notifications are sent to everyone, and there is also a new group-chat feature to engage in a little friendly banter.

Adobe Launches Lightroom For Apple TV, by Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge

Adobe is launching Lightroom on the Apple TV today, giving photographers an easy way to display their edited photos up on a big screen. That's really all this app is: a photo viewer.

Notes

Platform Wars: The Final Score, by Benedict Evans

That is, the war is over. Yes, we'll go from 2.5bn smartphones to 5bn, but the dynamics of the two ecosystems will not change much with that growth. Apple will get some more uses, perhaps, while Android will convert most of that next 2.5bn, but most of those people are in emerging markets and most will be buying phones for under $50 and certainly under $100.

Rather, the changes, and the things to think about, come from other directions - VR and AR on one hand, AI and machine learning on the other. They might change the balance between Apple and Google, but they're more likely to make that distinction boring.

Australian Banks Say Apple Pay Is Anticompetitive, Appeal To Anti-trust Regulators, by Mikey Campbell, AppleInsider

Three of Australia's major banks on Wednesday filed a joint application with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to force Apple into negotiations over the installation of third-party mobile payments software on iPhone.

Some Of Yahoo's Media All-stars Looking To Leave After Verizon Deal, by Brian Stelter, CNNMoney

Yahoo spent millions of dollars to hire media all-stars like Katie Couric, Joe Zee and David Pogue. So what's going to happen with them now that Yahoo is being swallowed up by Verizon? The short answer is, they don't know. And if Verizon knows, it's not telling yet.

The Truth About VR And Vomit, by Daniel Fries, Versions

In flight simulators, the Navy has perhaps the most practical application of something resembling VR, and their research is focused on how they can minimize sickness and how well people can accomplish tasks while nauseated. On the other hand, when your goal is enjoyment of a game or movie, your threshold is probably lower, but maybe vomit in entertainment has a different appeal—it’s disgusting, but powerful and noteworthy, and it seems to keep coming up in popular art and culture in a way that other bodily functions don’t.

Bottom of the Page

Did anyone bother to check with Apple whether they bought Carpool Karaoke because it ties in with Apple Music, or because it ties in with the new Apple Car?

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