Table of contents for Issue 135 in iPad & iPhone User

Another quarter, another record for Apple. For the three-month period ending 30 June, Apple posted its best third-quarter numbers ever, with revenue of $53.3 billion, a 17 percent year-over-year growth. Earnings per share came in at a whopping $2.34, up 40 percent from last year and blowing away analyst estimates of $2.19. Now for the important numbers. In Q3 2018, which saw no significant product releases, Apple sold 41 million iPhones (about the same as last year), 11.6 million iPads (slightly more than last year), and just 3.7 million Macs (representing a 13 percent year-over-year decline). However, the new MacBook didn’t release until after the quarter ended, so Apple will likely make up that shortfall next quarter. While Apple doesn’t break out iPhone sales by model, it clearly sold a…

If the best revenge is living well, then Tim Cook is sticking it to everyone. Apple’s stock passed another significant milestone in August, becoming the first company in history to top a market capitalization of a trillion dollars, albeit briefly. That’s a one with 12 zeros. Of course, it wasn’t always this rosy. On 29 September 2000, Apple’s stock dropped more than 50 percent, from $26 to $13, effectively cutting its market capitalization in half, to around $5 billion, and it didn’t look good for the Mac maker. At the time it was hard to see Apple recovering, but since that fateful day the stock has since split twice and soared to unimaginable levels. To put its market cap in perspective, Apple Inc is worth two Facebooks, seven Netflixes, 42…

If the rumours are true – and they are often, if not always – Apple is preparing to release a new generation of iPad Pro models this autumn. I bought the first-generation 12.9in iPad Pro back in 2015 and still use it as my primary portable computer, so I’m excited at the rumours of a major iPad Pro redesign. Let’s sift through the rumours and reports and see if we can work out where the iPad Pro is headed next. Getting bigger and smaller According to supply chain sleuth Ming-Chi Kuo, the new iPad Pros will feature 11- and 12.9in screens. This continues a trend of upsizing the smaller iPad Pro model, which was introduced in early 2016 as a 9.7in model (the traditional iPad size), then replaced with a…

When Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997, he didn’t like what he saw, so he set about changing the corporate culture. A decade later, one proof of his success was the fact that the company seemed to follow a rule book, largely behaving with a consistency that allowed those of us who covered the company to react to wild rumours with phrases like ‘Apple wouldn’t do that’ or ‘that’s not how Apple does things’. But in the years following his death (and the departure of some other Jobs-era executives), Apple has continued to evolve – and in many cases, it’s torn up the old rule book. A lot of the changes strike me as being for the better. I feel like after Steve laid down the law in…

Since the earliest days of iOS, Apple has kept tight control on its users’ relationship with apps. The very first iPhone, of course, only shipped with a dozen or so preinstalled software programs: you couldn’t add more, you couldn’t delete the ones you had. Over the years, Apple has loosened those strictures a bit. First you could add new third-party apps. Later, developers were even able to create and sell software that competed with some of those default options. More recently, you’ve even been able to delete some of those built-in apps. (Adios, Stocks.) But more than a few restrictions have remained nonetheless. Most obviously, the prohibition on installing software from anyplace other than the company’s own App Store. I don’t take particular issue with that; the prevalence of malware…

It’s come to the point where even some of my colleagues who write about Apple are bored by the company’s quarterly results. Granted, this is the good kind of boring – the best third quarter results ever, led by overall revenue of $53.3 billion, a 17 percent growth rate. But it does seem like Apple does the same thing almost every quarter: growth, billions, the works. There’s not a lot of drama in being one of the most valuable companies in the world continuing to churn away at huge profits and product growth. Still, I’m not going to call this boring. Every three months, Apple has to reveal things about itself that it would probably want to keep secret, and these disclosures can help us understand the company and its…

Price: £99 from fave.co/2AQJpdL Olloclip is known for its iPhone camera lenses that easily snap on to the phone, and with its new Connect X system, the company introduces a new iPhone X lens design that makes attachment quick and accurate. Everything joins together, making it easy to take with you. The Connect X system of lenses in Olloclip’s Mobile Photography Box Set looks unlike other lens attachments for phones. The Box Set includes a mount that works for both the front and rear cameras, a super-wide lens, a combo fisheye and macro lens, and an attaching stand. Olloclip’s camera mount was also redesigned for the iPhone X to accommodate the rear-facing cameras on Apple’s flagship phone, which are vertical instead of horizontal. Olloclip also says there was an issue…

With Apple’s next iPhone(s) due in September, rumours about what we can expect have reached fever pitch. Here we look at what’s been said and analyse what seems feasible. Dual-SIM iPhones on the way Reported on 31 July 2018 The fifth beta of iOS 12 went out to developers on 30 July and it only took one day for the tipsters at 9to5Mac to spot an intriguing bit of code that points to dual-SIM enabled hardware on the way. In the part of the system responsible for generating diagnostic reports, there are references to ‘secondSimStatus’ and ‘secondSimTrayStatus’. Elsewhere, another component has an ‘isDualSimDevice’ reference. Plausible? There have been rumours of dual-SIM iPhones in the works for years. In many countries where smartphone use is growing the fastest, it’s a lot…

Running out of storage space is often an issue for iPhone and iPad owners. There is, however, more you can do to fix it beyond freeing up some space by deleting rarely used apps, moving files to the cloud and generally optimizing the way storage is handled. If you bought a device with a low capacity the problem is likely to recur, because you can’t upgrade an iPhone or iPad to have more storage: a 32GB iPhone will be a 32GB iPhone forever. But wait a second before you rush off to buy a new phone. You might not be able to upgrade an iDevice’s internal storage specifications, but you can add more storage with external accessories. And there’s plenty of them out there. Leef iBridge 3 Price: £44.99 from…

Apple’s quarterly financial calls are usually a time for big numbers: record revenue, billions in income, millions of iPhones sold, and so on. But what I always find more interesting are the titbits that make their way through, like tiny rowboats at risk of being crushed by the monstrous rocks that are Apple’s blockbuster financial results. This quarter was no different. There were more than a few breadcrumbs dropped by Apple CEO Tim Cook in-between fielding questions about gross margins and talking about tariffs, some of which zipped by so fast that they were all too easy to miss. I’ve picked out two that perked up my ears, along with the larger significance that I think they import. There’s something in the Air(Pods) The early days of the AirPods were…

Price: Free from fave.co/2vxAwAx As the popularity of podcasts continues to grow, the apps used to listen to them have matured. Apple offers its own free Podcasts app, but several freemium and paid options remain, each with their own approach and options. Supertop’s Castro stands out for its inbox approach, which allows triage for dealing with an abundance of podcast subscriptions. The new Castro 3 adds requested features to the app, including a trim silences option (long available as Smart Speed in the competing Overcast app), as well as better chapter support, a rewritten voice enhancer, and per-podcast settings for several controls. But Castro 3 also comes with a new business model. While Castro 2 was a onetime paid app, the new release is free, offers a Watch app, and…

When iOS 12 hits iOS devices this autumn, it will instantly be familiar to the millions of users that rush to install it. Apple may be ushering in a new version of its mobile operating system with a whole set of new features, but the focus will still be where it’s always been: on individual apps. As it stands, iOS – like macOS, Android, and pretty much every operating system out there – is basically a means to our apps. Whether you’re making a call, sending a message, or watching a movie, you’re using an individual app to do it. Even if you look at iOS 12’s main features – Memoji, Group FaceTime, AR measuring – they all require opening an app first. But after 10 years of downloading apps…

If you’re out and about a lot this summer, then you might be in need of some new games to play on your iPhone. Luckily, we’ve a nice bounty of big and entertaining iPhone and iPad games, headlined by Gameloft’s glossy racing offering, Asphalt 9: Legends. Beyond that freemium gem, there’s also alluring indie game Holedown, location-based augmented reality blaster The Walking Dead: Our World, peculiar Japanese role-playing game Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2, and quite a bit more worth checking out. 1. Asphalt 9: Legends Price: Free from fave.co/2OUi651 After five years, Gameloft’s long-awaited sequel to Asphalt 8: Airborne (free from fave.co/2MyikNC) is finally here – and early on, Asphalt 9: Legends is every bit the fast, fun, and flashy sequel we’ve been looking for. Asphalt 9 doesn’t break…