Let’s Talk Apple – Ep. 23 (July 2015)

Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
• Bren Finan – @BrenFinan
• Victor Cajiao from the Artechulate Podcast – @victorcajiao

The show starts with a look at some interesting Apple-related numbers and statistics released during July before moving on to the legal news and some followups from last month’s show (mainly Apple Music related). The three main stories for the month are Apple’s 3rd quarter earnings, the new iPod Touch, and a collection of security-related stories. The show finishes with a quick roundup of some other short Apple-related stories that broke in July.

You’ll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar – the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!

Links:

Notable Numbers

• Safari offers better battery life on OS X than any other browser – www.macobserver.com/…
• WSJ reports that millennials are watching dramatically less TV than older generations – http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2015/07/24/this-chart-shows-why-comcast-would-be-interested-in-vice-media-and-buzzfeed/
• iOS now bigger than Wintel – www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple makes 92% of smartphone profits, on less than 20% of smartphone sales – arstechnica.com/…

Legal Latest

• Authors and book sellers demand US DoJ anti-trust investigation of Amazon – daringfireball.net/…

Followups

• Apple Music
  • Eddie Cue says Home Sharing might be back – www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple releases iTunes 12.2.1 to address the DRM bug some people experienced with Apple Music – www.macobserver.com/…
  • RELATED – an interesting explanation of the problem's cause – www.mcelhearn.com/…
  • iMore explain why most Beats 1 shows can't be podcasts (in a word, licensing) – www.imore.com/…
  • US Senator Al Franken sends an open letter to the FTC asking them to investigate Apple Music – www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple Music can't be listened to on traditional iPods (any iPod other than the Touch) – www.imore.com/…
• Apple Pay Launches in the UK – www.apple.com/…

Main Stories

1. Apple Q3 Earnings – www.apple.com/…
   • The numbers:
     • Revenue: $49.6Bn (up from $37.4Bn YAQ)
     • Net Profit: $10.7Bn (up from $7.7Bn YAQ)
     • Earnings per Share: $1.85 (up from $1.28 YAQ)
     • iPhone Unit Sales: 47.5m (up 35% from 35.2m YAQ)
     • iPad Unit Sales: 10.9m (down 18% from 13.2m YAQ)
     • Mac Unit Sales: 4.7m (up 9% from 4.4m YAQ)
   • No actual Apple Watch numbers released, but Tim Cook says Apple Watch it doing very well – www.macobserver.com/…
   • Tim Cook still 'bullish' on iPad – www.macobserver.com/…
   • As noted by Gruber, Apple shares of course went down on a record quarter, while the business press didn't bat an eye-lit over MS's $2.1Bn quarterly loss – daringfireball.net/…
2. A new iPod Touch – www.macobserver.com/…
   • 500% faster CPU, 900% faster graphics – arstechnica.com/…
3. Apple & Security – a mixed bag
   • iOS 9 & OS X 10.11 el Capitan will switch from Two-Step authentication, to a new fully OS-integrated Two-Factor authentication which Apple say will be more streamlined – http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/os-x-el-capitan-beefs-up-security-with-new-two-factor-authentication-system
   • Thunderstrike 2 – rootkit that uses thunderbolt accessories to spread – no physical access needed this time – arstechnica.com/…
   • 0-day exploit in OS X comes under active attack (a worryingly amateurish mistake, patched in 10.11, but not yet back-ported to 10.10) – arstechnica.com/…

Quick Stories

• OS X el Capitan & iOS 9 public betas released – arstechnica.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
  • For the first time, Apple have disabled App Store reviews from devices running the iOS beta – arstechnica.com/…
• The White House launched the American Business Act on Climate Pledge, and Apple was one of the first to sign – www.whitehouse.gov/…
• Apple & other tech companies support LGBT Non-Discrimination Act – www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple & Samsung working together on electronic SIM standard – www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple hired Doug Betts, a car expert formerly from Fiat Chrysler – www.macobserver.com/…
• Another trailer for another Jobs movie – Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine – iheartapple2.com/…