Apple reports record earnings despite softening economy and weakened currencies

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

This is Apple’s biggest revenue and profit ever and likely the most revenue reported by any company, yet it is still dampened by falling short of expectations plus the first ever sales decline for iPhone in Q2, which will be the first downturn for Apple’s marquee product since its launch back in 2007.

Apple held its holiday quarter earnings call yesterday and reported $75.9 billion in revenue, $18.4 billion in profits which breaks previous records for the company despite the global ‘softening’ of the economy and devaled currencies.  Apple’s success is bolstered by iPhone sales, the company sold 74.8 million units for the quarter. iPad sales continued to fall at 16.1 million units sold despite the addition of the iPad Pro, and Mac unit sales were at 5.3 million units in what is traditionally considered Apple’s strongest quarter.

For the same quarter a year ago, Apple reported the following for comparison. $74.6b in revenue, $18 billion in profit, 74.4m iPhones, 21.4m iPads, and 5.5m Macs. Analysts were predicting around $76.6b in revenue, 75m iPhones, 17.3m iPads, and 5.8m Macs this quarter. 

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Microsoft’s News Pro app focuses on your work

A new Microsoft Garage app for iOS and the web puts the focus on your career. The News Pro app is a delivery service with “hyper-relevant news for your work.” What it does is it pools together stories based on your work-related interests on Facebook or LinkedIn. According to 9to5Mac’s Greg Barbosa, the iOS app delivers stories on topics you may already be interested in. The example he gave was the news items he was able to get based on his interest in computer software. The Highlights section of the app gave him different stories on various software companies. The app’s Explore section takes categorizations to a granular level as it has subcategories you can explore based on more general topics, making it easier to find stories that you are interested in reading. The app comes with a Speedy View that mimics the Reader View of Safari. It’s available for free download if you want to try it out on iOS.

Source: Microsoft News | Via: 9to5Mac | Download: Apple App Store (Free)

Make a simple personal site with Adobe Portfolio

There’s a growing need particularly for those in the creative field to have a personal website or portfolio online to showcase your work. If coding a site is too daunting for you, Adobe is offering a new service called Portfolio through its Creative Cloud suite. This new feature will let you create your own simple site, much like what you can do with the likes of Squarespace. You can use an existing layout and then tweak or change the design as you see fit. The designs can accommodate the varying screen sizes of the different gadgets you use. It’ll also let you personalize your URL and password-protect certain pages. And yes, you also get access to website analytics. To use portfolio, you’ll need to have a Creative Cloud subscription plan.

Source: Adobe | Via: SlashGear

Android users get video rewind filter on Snapchat

Last year, Snapchat introduced some fun filters that let you play around with your video snaps. One feature missing on Android was the Rewind filter. As its name suggests, it just lets you record snaps and play these in reverse. Now, Android users finally get to play around with this filter. Just swipe right after recording a video until you stumble on the three reverse arrows to create your own reverse videos. Update your Snapchat app to the latest version to get to play around with this.

Source: Android Central | Download: Google Play Store (Free)