Apple moves beyond the iPhone, Foursquare plans your next vacation, GoPro and Periscope are a match made in Heaven, the Microsoft executive caught using an iPhone, and a rapper and physicist argue about science.
Apple has issued its latest earning report, covering the first fiscal quarter of 2016. We won’t bore you with the details, because if you’re an investor you’ll already know, and if you’re not an investor you won’t care. However, these financial results are interesting for one very good reason.
Apple made more money in the last quarter than ever before, bringing in $75.9 billion. In the same quarter last year, Apple reported revenues of $74.6 billion. However, while this makes Apple the most valuable company in the world, trouble looms on the horizon, with Apple itself predicting a downturn in the next quarter.
The company is predicting revenues of between $50 billion and $53 billion, which is a lot less than the $58 billion it reported in the same quarter last year, and less even than the $55 billion analysts were predicting. If this plays out as expected, it will mark Apple’s worst year-on-year quarterly decline since 2001.
The blame for this is being pinned squarely on the iPhone, which is expected to see a dip in sales over the next three months. Sales of the iPhone represent around 68 percent of Apple’s total revenue, so if the iPhone falls out of fashion, Apple will pay for it, both literally and figuratively.
Apple isn’t yet doomed, and it would churlish to suggest anything of the sort. However, it’s becomingly increasingly clear the company needs to look beyond the iPhone for its longterm future. What that next big thing will be remains unclear, but the company is clearly investing a lot of money in electric cars, as revealed by Elon Musk earlier this month.
Foursquare, which came to prominence by asking you to detail where they are at any given time, has launched Trip Tips, which focuses on where you’re going in the future. Trip Tips is designed to provide a simpler way of crowdsourcing tips and advice about future vacation destinations.
You simply add your destination, dates, and any other relevant information, and then send out the link to family and friends. They can then add advice, travel tips, and places they recommend you visit while you’re there. You can then view these details while there via the Foursquare Android or iOS app.
Trip Tips is a simple yet effective tool that certainly makes the process easier than it used to be. The only problem is finding people who have previously been to the location you’re headed to, which is where social networks prove their worth.
Just be careful who you divulge your vacation plans to, as telling too many people your house will be empty between two dates is asking for trouble. As you would already know if you’d read our informal guide to sharing information on Facebook.
GoLIVE, GoPro. https://t.co/VAMhWrBWKm pic.twitter.com/KPrGFiz3bV
— Periscope (@periscopeco) January 26, 2016
GoPro is teaming up with Periscope to allow you to stream your adventures live to the world. Anyone with a GoPro Hero4 camera and an iPhone can broadcast their video footage as it happens, and Twitter owning Periscope, this opens up a huge potential audience.
Extreme sports enthusiasts will be able to show off to their Twitter followers, and those who have their GoPro mounted on a drone will be able to go live at scenes of breaking news stories. It’s an exciting partnership, but with Twitter, Periscope, and GoPro all struggling to maintain interest in their products, this could help set the three back on an upwards trajectory.
Hey, strangers! Today in Kyoto we stumbled across a HAIR SHRINE! I paid my respects, thinking of all of you! pic.twitter.com/BpsfA4lHKJ
— joebelfiore (@joebelfiore) January 26, 2016
Joe Belfiore, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Operating Systems, and the face of Windows 10 and Windows Phone, has been caught using an iPhone. Belfiore, who is currently on a year-long sabbatical, tweeted a picture of himself from Kyoto that came “via Twitter for iPhone”.
Many of his followers were quick to point out that he had inadvertently outed himself as an iPhone user. However, Belfiore defended himself by posting a comment on The Verge, explaining why he’s using an iPhone while on his jaunt to Japan. He said:
“It’s very important for me to understand products like the iPhone and Android phones, which are heavily used by PC users around the world, and which represent the competition for Windows Phone”.
“To understand the benefits and drawbacks of a full ecosystem like Windows, Android, iOS — you have to LIVE IN IT. You have to feel its strengths and weaknesses, be let down, be delighted. And you can’t do that just ‘playing around’ with a device for a couple of days”.
Which actually makes a lot of sense. After all, how can Microsoft possibly hope to not only compete with Android and iOS, but actually surpass it with its own mobile offering without first knowing the competition inside and out? So, Joe, we will let you off this time, especially as the iPhone needs all the help it can get right now (see above).
And finally, it’s universally accepted that the Earth isn’t flat. It may not be a perfectly round sphere, but only a complete idiot would think it’s a flat plain with edges. Cue B.o.B., a rapper who recently posted a series of tweets questioning the fact that the Earth is round. Even though it is.
One of the many people who tried to put him right was Neil deGrasse Tyson, the respected cosmologist and astrophysicist. B.o.B.’s response? To ignore scientific facts in favor of producing the diss track you see above, which calls deGrasse Tyson out by name. I’m truly lost for words. [H/T Digital Trends]
Do you think Apple is actually in trouble this time? What tools do you use to plan your vacations? Are you interested in broadcasting live from your GoPro? Is Joe Belfiore right to test the competition? Whose side are you on out of B.o.B. and Neil deGrasse Tyson?
Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.
Tech News Digest is a daily column paring the technology news of the day down into bite-sized chunks that are easy to read and perfect for sharing.
Image Credits: Hakan Dahlstrom via Flickr
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