Apple released its Q2 2021 earnings report to investors today after the bell, and it was another huge year—so huge, in fact, that investors are concerned it's not sustainable as the world enters a new, later phase of the pandemic.
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Apple reported double-digit growth in every product category. Mac revenue was up 70.1 percent from last year ($9.10 billion and $7.8 billion, respectively), and the iPhone was up 65.5 percent (to $47.94 billion). Both Apple CEO Tim Cook and analysts have called the iPhone 12 launch a "super cycle," in which adoption, upgrades, and sales are particularly strong due to various factors.
Apple CFO Luca Maestri told analysts on an earnings call that the company had "more than 660 million paid subscriptions" across its services division, including video music, news and games, and that its video, music, games and advertising businesses all had their best quarters yet.
While some believe that working from home is merely a temporary side effect of the pandemic, Apple is betting that remote work will likely outlast the coronavirus.
"Where this pandemic will end, many companies will continue to operate in hybrid mode," Cook said in Wednesday's quarterly earnings call. "Work from home will remain very critical."
The supply shortages in the fiscal third quarter will primarily impact the Mac and iPad lineups, Cook and CFO Luca Maestri explained during the call. “We expect to be supply-gated, not demand-gated,” Cook told analysts.
It’s worth remembering, for much more than financial reasons or year-ago compares, just how we felt at this time last year, when everything we knew had to change. Planes sat grounded. Entire business districts were empty and silent. People left groceries or care packages sitting in the garage or in the hall overnight, in recognition of all that we didn’t know and therefore had to imagine. Thanks to researchers and scientists, doctors, and nurses, everyone who can put a shot in an arm and even just check a name off a list, we have reached new days of hopeful resolve. Our work’s not done, but as I said a year ago, while we can’t say for sure how many chapters are in this book, we can have confidence that the ending will be a good one.
"In the whole sample, there were no differences across the three groups," said study author Professor Chad Jensen.
"Night Shift is not superior to using your phone without Night Shift, or even using no phone at all."
The Epic Games lawsuit continues in the form of written testimony ahead of the trial next month. Epic has presented expert arguments from a number of academics from prestigious colleges as it makes its antitrust case against Apple. In particular, the experts took issue with Apple’s claim that the primary role of the App Store was to protect users.
Unfortunately, there are no release notes for AirPods firmware updates. This means we’ll have to wait until the update is fully rolled out to get a grasp on what’s new.
The challenge, which occurs on Thursday, April 29, asks Apple Watch users to complete a dance workout of at least 20 minutes with the Workout app on the Apple Watch.
Along with being able to report accidents, hazards, and speed checks with Siri or your iPhone touchscreen, Apple Maps now lets users share their ETA with others when walking or cycling, and the guides experience is more immersive with a fresh design.
Typewise uses a honeycomb-style keyboard layout, designed specifically for smartphones. The developer says conventional keyboards result in around 1 in 5 words having a typo. The app reduces typos by 4x and results in 33% faster typing speeds.
I do not use Night Shift. If I cannot sleep at night, or, more typically, if I wake up in the middle of the night and cannot get back to sleep, I listen to BBC Radio. I have a shortcut programmed to randomaly play a radio station (between BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4Xtra, and BBC World Service), set the timer to stop the radio, and just close my eyes, listen, and hope to fall asleep before the timer is triggered. In other words, I try very hard not to have to look at the iPhone's screen.
If Apple still makes the screen-less iPod Shuffle, I will buy one.
(Actually, come to think of it, maybe I should just buy a cheap FM radio. After all, BBC World Service is available on the FM here in Singapore.)
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