Developer Tapbots on Tuesday released a version update for its popular Twitter client Tweetbot, introducing an all-new feature called "media timeline" that limits a user's feed to those tweets with embedded photos and video.  ...

Samsung's latest mobile flagship is a good performer with a massive amount of new software, but reviewers found the sum of the handset's parts didn't add up to the great leap forward many had hoped for.  ...

Sony today introduced the Cyber-shot HX50V, a powerful new compact-form camera featuring 30x optical zoom coupled with a 20.4MP Exmor R CMOS image sensor. The device measures 4.4 inches wide, by 2.6 inches high, and 1.2 inches thick with a weight of 9.6 ounces, making it the smallest and lightest camera with 30x optical zoom capability, according to the company....  ...

There's good news, bad news, and the best news on this one, and I'll give you the good news first. Firaxis' Haunted Hallow appeared on the App Store this morning, which means the game is just about ready for prime time. The free-to-play strategy title was one of my favorite games I got to see at GDC a few months ago. It's a board game, basically, in that you move various monsters around a board trying to claim and conquer space as best you can, though there's a fun house-building mechanic as well, in the way you choose which monsters to summon and fight for you. Firaxis, the creators of Civilization and the recent hit XCOM: Enemy Unknown, are some of the most experienced strategy developers out there, and Haunted Hallow is a free-to-play gift from them straight to the App Store, so it'...

Glassdoor is a site that allows employees of various corporations to rate how they think they're management is doing anonymously, and the company has shared some info with TUAW that it says comes out of Apple's campus in Cupertino. The site works kind of like Yelp for employees, as users can come along and leave ratings and reviews for their own company. But presumably this information came from anyone who works for Apple, not just the employees that work directly with CEO Tim Cook in California.

And what's the word? In short, they love him. Cook has never had anything less than a 92% approval rating since this time last year, and his current approval rating sites at 93% among employees leaving reviews on Glassdoor. During his time overseeing the company, Steve Jobs held a 97% approval rating, and Cook is a few points below that, but still...

Storage solutions manufacturer Akitio today announced the release of the company's new 256GB one-bay, bus-powered "Neutrino" Thunderbolt storage solution. Akitio's new larger-capacity device is a follow-up to the company's successful 120GB SSD solution, which was previously launched in 2012....  ...

Gadget and computing accessory manufacturer Belkin has announced the new NetCam HD Wi-Fi Camera. The new wireless networking camera provides users with instantaneous access via a smartphone or tablet to pets, children and other family members at home in 720p high-definition (HD) video resolution with accompanying digital audio.  ...  ...

Apple’s fiscal second quarter earnings announced Tuesday proved to be a mixed bag for the company—record sales for the March quarter, offset by a drop in income. But Apple CEO Tim Cook is optimistic about the company’s future, as he made clear during a conference call with analysts.

Here’s an edited transcript of what Cook had to say on Tuesday about Apple’s most recent quarter.

We’re now halfway through our fiscal 2013 and we’ve accomplished a tremendous amount. We’ve introduced and ramped production of an unprecedented number of new products, and we’ve set many new sales records. Our revenue for the first half was over $98 billion, and our net income was over $22 billion. During that time, we sold 85 million iPhones, and 42...

Apple released Apple Store 2.6 for the iPhone and iPod touch on Tuesday, adding the ability to receive notifications when iPhone owners are eligible for upgrades. The APple Store app lets users purchase products, set up in-store appointments, and more.

Apple on Tuesday updated its Apple Store app for iOS, adding an ability to send notifications to users when they are eligible for upgrade pricing on a new iPhone through their carrier. The new version (2.6, free) also adds notification support for changes in orders, such as shipping or delivery notices. Previously, the program was able to track a user's order but only when the app was actually in use. Users can now opt for push notifications, as well as schedule Genius, One to One or Specialist appointments, order products for pickup or use EasyPay to buy accessories.... ...

Apple CEO Tim Cook has shed fresh light on Apple's reluctance to build an iPhone with a larger display, while fueling speculation that such a device may be in the works. Answering an analyst question during the company's fiscal Q2 financial conference call, the executive claimed competitors have made sacrifices to resolution, white balance, color quality, screen longevity and portability in their drive to create ever-larger smartphones....  ...

Casey Johnston

Apple CEO Tim Cook surprised investors and Apple-watchers alike on Tuesday by strongly hinting that new products would come out during the fourth fiscal quarter of the year, continuing throughout fiscal 2014. That indicates there still won't be much to see as we charge into Apple's Q3 (which Apple will report toward the end of June), but there may be new products in our grubby little hands by the time the holidays hit this year.
Let's back up a few steps. Apple reported its second quarter 2013 earnings today, which included a quarterly revenue of $43.6 billion (compared to $39.2 billion a year ago) and a quarterly net profit of $9.5 billion (compared to $11.6 billion a year ago). Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones during the second quarter, up slightly from 35.1 billion in last year's Q2, as well as 19.5 billion iPads, up from 11.8 billion. Macs stayed...

The popular Twitter client Tweetbot has been updated to version 2.8, bringing the addition of a new "media timeline" and image viewer for the iPhone and iPad apps. Media view allows users to see photos and images that have been tweeted directly in their feeds, with the text of the Tweets neatly located above the media.

The app's image viewer has also been updated to be faster and features a redesign. In addition tweet details such as the number of favorites and retweets have been changed to update in real time, Instagram previews have been fixed, along with the standard bug fixes that come with every update.

To locate the new media view, scroll to the top of your timeline and tap the square next to the search button. The update is live now....

With the 10th anniversary of the iTunes Music Store coming up this Sunday, Apple on Tuesday reported its digital storefront, which now includes music, video, apps, and e-books, hit record-breaking revenues of over $4.1 billion for the second quarter of 2013.  ...

Amidst generally positive numbers presented by Apple in its quarterly earnings conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer presented some facts about the burgeoning smartphone market in China. When presented a question by an analyst questioning Apple's present and future success in China -- considering that it doesn't yet sell the iPhone on the largest carrier in the country -- Apple claimed to have its "best quarter ever" regionally....  ...

In a call that alternated between statistics and cheerleading, Apple reported a record breaking $43.6 billion in revenues, albeit with declining profits, results which, nonetheless, actually beat analyst estimates by a whisker. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Speaking during a conference call following the company's Q2 results, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted that the company may have no major product launches until the fall. He refused to talk about the specific timing for particular devices, but told analysts that there is "great stuff coming in the fall and across 2014." The statement may quash rumors of summer updates for the iPhone and/or the iPad and iPad mini....  ...

Apple just had its "best quarter ever" in the increasingly important Chinese market, according to CEO Tim Cook, who says the iPhone maker is well positioned to address China going forward.   ...

In conjunction with its earnings report for Q2 2013, Apple issued a press release announcing some major plans for its ever-growing stockpile of cash.

In March 2012, Apple announced that the company would be instituting a $2.65/share dividend on a quarterly basis with Apple's first dividend payment to investors going out in August of last year.

Now, about one year later, Apple announced its plan to increase its quarterly dividend to $3.05 per share. The next dividend payout to investors is scheduled for May 16, 2013.

What's more, Apple also announced a massive increase to its stock-repurchasing plan.

As part of this program, the Board has increased its share repurchase authorization to $60 billion from the $10 billion level announced last...

It’s 18% lower than it was last year, but it’s still US$9.5 billion in the bank…
Per AppleInsider, Apple on Tuesday said second quarter profits fell roughly 18% to US$9.5 billion — or US$10.09 per diluted share — despite record second quarter sales of US$43.6 billion — the first year-over-year decline in earnings for the one-time tech darling in nearly a decade.
The results for the three-month period ended March 30, 2013 compare to revenue of US$39.2 billion and net profit of US$11.6 billion, or US$12.30 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 37.5 percent, approximately 100 basis points lower than the 47.4 percent reported in the year-ago quarter, as consumers gravitated to more affordable, lower-margin products like the iPad mini...

During its live Q2 2013 earnings call today, Apple execs confirmed that iCloud now boasts 300 million users. That’s up about 20 percent from the 250 million it had in January despite the service continuing to experience relatively regular outages over the last few months.

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Apple Q2 2013 Earnings Call liveblog originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple CEO Tim Cook is currently answering questions from the press following the company’s live Q2 2013 earnings call.  Here are some of the highlights:
Cook on growth in China:
We had our best quarter ever in greater China. Revenue came in at 8.8B. That’s up 11 percent y-o-y. It’s the same as Apple’s growing… iPads grew 138% y-o-y… set new records for sell through for iPhone…
Added about 8000 iPhone point of sales, plan to add more and further grow our distribution. Innovating with our online store there and adding different functionality to the store. China has an usually large number of potential first time smartphone buyers… We’ve seen a significant interest in iPhone 4 there and recently made it even more affordable to make it even more attractive to first time buyers.
Cook on competition:
“In the beginning RIM was the strongest player. Of course today our top competitor from a hardware point of view would be Samsung, and married to Google on the...

Helping Apple post a Street beat on Tuesday was unexpected growth for iPhone and booming iPad sales, contributing to the company's revenues which hit $43.6 billion for the second fiscal quarter of 2013.   ...

It's the earnings report everybody has been waiting for. Apple just announced earnings for the second quarter of its 2013 fiscal year, and the news is actually quite good.

Apple's own guidance for Q2 2013 expected revenues in the range of $41-43 billion, with gross margins in the range of 37.5 to 38.5 percent. Wall Street analysts were in the same general range, with institutional investors looking at an average earnings number of $41.82 billion and independent analysts a bit more bullish at $43.75 billion. Results for the same quarter last year were $39.19 billion in revenue, earnings per share of $12.30, and a gross margin of 47.4 percent.

Actual results for the quarter were as follows:

• Revenue: $43.6 billion (beat expectations and institutional investors)
• Earnings Per Share: $10.09
• Gross Margin: 37.5% (met expectations, did...

Apple hasn't released any new products in about six months, but investors have plenty to look forward to this year and in 2014. Company CEO Tim Cook said plenty is coming later this year and throughout 2014, and that includes more than just hardware.

Apple is set to hold an investor conference call detailing the company's fiscal second-quarter financial performance. Check our live page for continuous updates from the event, which is scheduled to begin at 2PM Pacific, 5PM Eastern....   ...

After weeks of negative speculation on the Street, Apple hit its numbers in its second-quarter earnings released on Tuesday.
The stand-out product this time around, however, wasn’t the iPhone — usually the darling of consumer tech sales estimates. It was the iPad.
Apple sold 19.5 million iPads during the second quarter, 7.7 million more devices compared to the same period a year ago.
That’s a healthy boost, especially when contrasted against the relatively modest gains in iPhone sales; Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones in Q2, just 2.3 million more devices than the company sold in the year-ago quarter.
My guess is, Apple’s lower cost iPad mini likely bolstered those numbers from last year — though there’s no concrete way to tell, as the company doesn’t break those numbers down for us. It’s all iPads. (CFO Peter Oppenheimer said much of that growth, however, was seen in...

Along with earnings that hit US$43.6 billion, Apple reported on Tuesday that it is more than doubling its investment in returning capital to investors. The company is adding $55 billion to its shareholder returns, bringing the total up to $100 billion, and includes a 15 percent increase in the quarterly dividend.

As some investors feared, Apple on Tuesday reported numbers that were worse than its performance a year ago for the second quarter—though the company still saw record sales for its March quarter.

The company posted $43.6 billion in revenue for the quarter, with net profit of $9.5 billion. That puts earnings at $10.09 per diluted share, down from $12.30 a year ago. In the same quarter last year, Apple reported $39.2 billion in revenue and profit of $11.6 billion.

While Wall Street is sure to take a dim view of Apple’s quarterly performance, it’s worth noting the company had a large bar to clear to surpass the second quarter of 2012. In that year-ago quarter, Apple saw profit nearly double to record levels for the March quarter on the strength of the strength of the third-generation iPad’s debut. In the just-completed quarter, Apple didn’t introduce any new...

Apple today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a significant increase to the Company’s program to return capital to shareholders. The Company expects to utilize a total of $100 billion of cash under the expanded program by the end of calendar 2015. This represents a $55 billion increase to the program announced last year and translates to an average rate of $30 billion per year from the time of the first dividend payment in August 2012 through December 2015.

As part of this program, the Board has increased its share repurchase authorization to $60 billion from the $10 billion level announced last year. This is the largest single share repurchase authorization in history and is expected to be executed by the end of calendar 2015. Apple also expects to utilize about $1 billion annually to net-share-settle vesting restricted stock units.

Additionally, the Board has approved a 15% increase in the Company’s quarterly dividend and today has declared a...

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

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Subscribe via RSSDaily Update for April 23, 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:45:00 EST. Please see our...

Apple’s second-quarter earnings are in, and it’s a beat. Not the downturn in numbers the street was expecting, exactly.
There’s even better news for shareholders: The company is boosting its dividend by 15 percent, adding a healthy $50 billion, the “largest single share repurchase authorization in history,” according to the company. Apple expects the full execution of $100 billion under the program to be finished by the end of 2015.
“We are very fortunate to be in a position to more than double the size of the capital return program we announced last year,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We believe so strongly that repurchasing our shares represents an attractive use of our capital that we have dedicated the vast majority of the...

Apple on Tuesday said second quarter profits fell roughly 18% to $9.5 billion -- or $10.09 per diluted share -- despite record second quarter sales of $43.6 billion -- the first year-over-year decline in earnings for the one-time tech darling in over a decade.  ...

If Apple’s recent stock market performance had got you thinking 2013 might be a year to forget, you might want to reconsider. The company just turned in an old school beat.
For the quarter ended in March, the company reported earnings of $10.09 per share on revenue of $43.6 billion. That’s above the $9.98 per share on revenue of $42.3 billion analysts had predicted, and at the higher end of Apple’s own range of guidance for the period: Earnings of between $9.23 and $10.23 per share on sales of $41 billion to $43 billion.
And there was plenty more good news where that came from:
• Apple sold a ton of iPhones and iPads. This time last year, the company shipped 35 million iPhones and 11.8 million iPads — double the number it sold the year before. During the quarter reported today, Apple sold 37.4 million...

The rise of tablets, the drop in PC sales, and the shift in profit in the smartphone market means a changing set companies to watch. Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

As planned, Apple has announced its Q2 2013 earnings results.
Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2013 second quarter ended March 30, 2013. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $43.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $39.2 billion and net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 37.5 percent compared to 47.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 66 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
The Company sold 37.4 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 35.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 19.5 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 11.8 million in the year-ago...

Just off the wires, Apple is more than doubling its capital returns citing its inability to stop making more money than it can spend to “operate the business, invest in our future, and maintain flexibility to take advantage of strategic opportunities.”
As part of this program, Apple’s board has increased its share repurchase authorization to $60 billion from the $10 billion level announced last year. This is the largest single share repurchase authorization in history and is expected to be executed by the end of calendar 2015. Apple also expects to utilize about $1 billion annually to net-share-settle vesting restricted stock units.
More details in the press release that follows:

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CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apple® today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a significant increase...

Apple announced record sales for its March quarter on Tuesday, thanks to strong demand for the iPhone and iPad. But the company’s quarterly profits fell from the year-ago quarter.

Apple’s revenue rose 11 percent to $43.6 billion for the quarter ended March 30. Income fell to $9.5 billion from $11.6 billion last year.

You can get a complete overview of Apple’s quarterly performance or follow the company’s quarterly briefing with analysts below.

Apple 2Q 2013 Financial Report

Click here to read: Apple 2Q 2013 Financial Report

A new Cut the Rope game has hit the App Store from ZeptoLab UK Limited. Cut the Rope: Time Travel ($1) features two monsters to feed in each level as the physics-based puzzler returns in different new settings, including the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, a pirate ship, ancient Egypt,…

Google has purchased natural language processing engine Wavii for more than $30 million, according to TechCrunch.
Read the full story on 9to5Google.

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Anybody who has been watching Apple's share prices since September 2012 would think that the company is in the midst of a huge crisis. Shares of AAPL have dropped from a high of over US$700 a share to around $400 now, and the financial press is sure that the company is doomed. Abdel Ibrahim, co-founder of The Tech Block and a technical analysis trader for about ten years, points out that based on a look at historical data, large upswings in AAPL share price followed by swift downturns are actually quite normal for the company.

Ibrahim based his analysis on what is called Fibonacci retracements, a method of technical analysis that uses "the idea that markets will retrace a predictable portion of a move, after which they will continue to move in the original direction." In other words, the share price will rise significantly, then fall back to a lower level before...

Yesterday in the MacNN forums, Professional Poster "Paco500" was looking for assistance with a trackpad that was not registering clicks on a MacBook Air. In the thread titled "21.5-inch iMac" Professional Poster "mattyb" was trying to decide between purchasing two different iMac models, but was looking for some advice from other forum-goers before taking the plunge....  ...

This week eCost.com has reduced the price on the refurbished LaCie 1TB Little Big Disk external hard drive with Thunderbolt from $449.99 down to $169.99, a savings of $280. That's about $180 less than buying this hard drive brand new anywhere else. This hard drive features 1TB of storage space in a compact, lightweight form factor with Thunderbolt connectivity that can be used to play, edit and acquire multiple uncompressed A/V streams directly from the drive regardless of the resolution of the content. A limited warranty is included from LaCie.... ...

We'll find out how Apple's financial fortunes are faring a bit later this afternoon, but for now there's a report out of The NPD Group showing that Apple now dominates home digital video the way it does the digital music market.

The numbers are staggering: Apple's iTunes Store had a 67 percent share of electronic sell-through (EST) for television shows in 2012. How big is that? The nearest competitor was Xbox Video with a 14 percent share of EST.

The stats were also in favor of Apple for feature-length movie downloads, with the company pulling in a 65 percent share of EST. Xbox Video and Amazon Instant video weren't even...

Hewlett-Packard has just posted a video of its new touch-screen, graphing calculator to be released in the fall of 2013.  Early information for the HP Prime includes a BASIC programming language and ability to run various solver apps. It has 32 MB of RAM, 256 MB of Flash memory, a 3.5-inch color touch-screen with 320 x 240 resolution, and will be about 10 mm thick.  It looks to be derived from the previous family of HP-39g and HP-50g graphing calculator technology, but the new model has a beautiful brushed metal look and what seems to be a cleaner keyboard design. No pricing or specific release date has been announced. It's really great to see HP continuing its tradition of quality RPN hand-held calculators for engineering and science.
...

Apple is now selling refurbished seventh-generation iPod nanos in its online store for $129. All colors are now available, except for red. Refurbished fifth-generation iPod touch models also recently went on sale in the online store. [via 9to5Mac]

A newly granted patent would allow owners of Apple devices to retrieve passwords by connecting to a specific peripheral, potentially eliminating the need for traditional recovery methods.  ...