MacRumors

Apple's "Other Products" category, which includes AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, HomePod, Beats products, iPod touch, and other Apple-branded and third-party accessories brought in nearly $4 billion in revenue, up an impressive 38 percent compared to the year-ago quarter that brought in $2.9 billion in revenue.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the Apple Watch, one of the most lucrative products in the "Other" category, saw strong revenue growth "in the double digits" year-over-year, setting a March quarter revenue record. Apple does not break down "Other" product sales, so specific numbers on Apple Watch sales are unavailable.

Cook described AirPods, another popular "Other" product as a "runaway hit" that the company is still working to keep in stock.

Wearables saw a combined revenue increase of almost 50 percent year over year, which includes AirPods, Beats, and Apple Watch. Cook said that Apple's wearables business is now the size of a Fortune 300 company.

Cook didn't have much to say about the HomePod, which is also in the "Other" category, but he said that he believes it is a "breakthrough" speaker that will change the way we listen to music.

Apple is "looking forward" to adding new features to the HomePod and introducing it to more markets soon, but he gave no timeline for these updates.

Apple's services category has continued to see rapid growth and it is becoming an increasingly important revenue driver for Apple.

In the second fiscal quarter of 2018, Apple's services brought in $9.19 billion in revenue, up 31 percent compared to the $7 billion in revenue services earned in the second quarter of 2017.

For the last several quarters, Apple's services revenue has grown so quickly that Apple sets a new record with each earnings announcement, and the second quarter of 2018 is no exception. Apple's services category includes iTunes, the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Pay, and AppleCare.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that in Q2 2018, the App Store, Apple Music, Apple and iCloud set all time revenue records. Apple Music set a new record for both revenue and paid subscribers, which, as was announced recently, has hit 40 million.

Apple's paid subscriptions surpassed 270 million, up 100 million from a year ago and up 30 million in the last 90 days alone.

Recently, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty predicted that over the course of the next five years, services revenue growth will contribute more than 50 percent of Apple's total revenue growth.

Huberty estimated that services revenue is at $30 per device, with just 18 percent of Apple's total device install base subscribing to paid Apple services, leaving a lot of room for growth in the coming years.

Apple in 2016 set itself a goal to double its services revenue by 2020, and the company is well on its way towards hitting that goal. Apple in 2016 earned $24 billion in revenue from services, so the double goal is $48 million.

Apple is planning to expand Apple Pay to Norway, Poland, and Ukraine in the near future, Apple CEO Tim Cook said this afternoon during Apple's earnings call covering the second fiscal quarter of 2018.

Cook did not provide specific information on a potential launch date, beyond the announcement that it would be coming "in the next several months."

Cook said that Apple Pay continues to see strong growth, with the service setting a new all-time quarterly revenue record.

Apple Pay activations have doubled year over year, and total Apple Pay transactions have tripled. With launches for transportation services in countries like Japan, Apple Pay has seen significant growth. Cook said that Apple Pay is no the most successful mobile transit payment system in Toyko.

Over the course of the last few years, Apple has been working rapidly to expand Apple Pay to additional countries, and it is now available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, Hong Kong, France, Russia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, UAE, and Brazil.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this morning hosted a keynote event for the F8 developers conference, where he unveiled several new features that are coming to the social network.

Watch Party is a new Facebook feature that will allow you to watch videos while also chatting with your friends. When introducing the feature, Zuckerberg joked about his recent congressional testimony. "Let's say your friend is testifying in Congress," he said. "Now you can watch and laugh together, cry together."

Facebook plans to overhaul the Groups feature, which Zuckerberg says is one of the most meaning parts of Facebook. There will be a new groups tab to make groups more central to the overall Facebook experience. A new join group button and plugin will be available to developers and website administrators to make it easier for Facebook users to create and join groups.

The other major feature that's coming to Facebook is a dating feature, which Zuckerberg says is designed to help people build meaningful relationships. "This is for building real long-term relationships, not just hookups," said Zuckerberg.

The dating feature will be within Facebook, and it will be opt-in, allowing people to make a dating profile if desired. Facebook says the feature has been built with "Privacy and Safety in mind." Your friends will not see your profile, friends won't come up as dating options, and you'll only see suggestions of people who fit your preferences

For WhatsApp, Facebook's popular encrypted messaging app, Facebook will add Group Video calling features and it will expand WhatsApp businesses to allow larger companies to access WhatsApp for interacting with customers.

For Messenger, Facebook is redesigning the app's interface with a focus on making it clean, fast, and simple. Messenger will also gain the AR Camera Effects platform for using augmented reality effects when connected to friends and family.

At today's F8 developer conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled some new features that are coming soon to Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.

Instagram's Explore tab will be getting a new look that's more focused on various topics.

Facebook also plans to add a new video chat feature to Instagram, allowing two or more people to chat with each other using a FaceTime or Skype-style video chatting interface.

You can use the video chat feature to chat one-on-one with someone or with a group of people, and you can chat while continuing to browse Instagram.

Instagram is also gaining an AR Camera Effects platform, which will allow Instagram photos to be enhanced with augmented reality effects.

It's not quite clear exactly when these new features will be coming to Instagram.

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming watchOS 4.3.1 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the first watchOS 4.3.1 beta and a month after releasing watchOS 4.3.

Once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Apple Developer Center, the new watchOS 4.3.1 beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software update.

To install the update, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it has to be in range of the iPhone.

Shortly before watchOS 4.3.1 was introduced, Apple stopped allowing developers to update Apple Watch apps built on the original watchOS 1 SDK. In watchOS 4.3.1, there's an alert when launching a watchOS 1 app that warns that the app may not be compatible with future versions of watchOS. This suggests Apple will drop support for watchOS 1 apps entirely in the future, just as it did with support for 32-bit iOS apps in iOS 11.

Code hidden within watchOS 4.3.1 also suggests Apple is working on introducing support for custom third-party watch faces, but this is likely a feature that would be introduced as part of a major watchOS 5 update rather than through watchOS 4.3.1.

There were no other new features discovered in watchOS 4.3.1, which is unsurprising as this is a minor 4.x.x update. It's likely this update focuses primarily on bug fixes to address issues discovered since the release of watchOS 4.3.

Apple does not provide detailed release notes for watchOS, so we may not know what's included in the update until it sees a public release.

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.4 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the first beta and a month after releasing the tvOS 11.3 update.

Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the new tvOS 11.4 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that's installed using Xcode.

tvOS 11.4, paired with iOS 11.4, reintroduces AirPlay 2 features that were present in early tvOS and iOS 11.3 betas but were removed ahead of release. With AirPlay 2, the same audio content can be played on multiple devices (like the Apple TV) throughout your home. After installing iOS 11.4 and tvOS 11.4, the Apple TV will once again be listed in the Home app.

There were no other new features discovered in the first two tvOS 11.4 updates, and it's likely it focuses on bug fixes and other small improvements. Apple's tvOS updates have historically been minor in scale, and we may not find any other new additions.

We'll update this post should new features be introduced in the third beta of tvOS 11.4.

Update: Apple has made a new public beta of tvOS 11.4 available to its public beta testing group.

Ahead of Facebook's F8 Developer Conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is building a new "Clear History" privacy control option to erase some of the data Facebook has collected.

Zuckerberg likens the new Clear History tool to the ability to clear cookies and cache on a web browser. Zuckerberg says it "will be a simple control" that will clear browsing history on Facebook, erasing what you've clicked on, the websites you've visited, the ads you've interacted with, and more.

Facebook's first focus will be on the information that Facebook gets from websites and apps that use Facebook's ads and analytics tools. When the Clear History update debuts, users will be able to see and erase this information.

Once we roll out this update, you'll be able to see information about the apps and websites you've interacted with, and you'll be able to clear this information from your account. You'll even be able to turn off having this information stored with your account.

Zuckerberg warns that after clearing your content "your Facebook won't be as good" until it relearns your preferences, but he says Facebook believes this is an "example of the kind of control we think you should have."

Zuckerberg says the company is working to make sure the controls are clear, and that more info will come soon. Additional details on new privacy control options may be shared at today's F8 conference, which begins soon.

A recent study claimed that the Apple Watch can detect abnormal heart rhythms with 97 percent accuracy, and today Apple CEO Tim Cook shared a new story in which the company's wearable device did just that, saving someone's life in the process.

Speaking with Tampa, Florida's ABC affiliate WFTS, 18-year-old Deanna Recktenwald said that one day her Apple Watch warned her that her resting heart rate hit 190 beats per minute. After staff at a walk-in clinic confirmed a similar heart rate, Deanna was sent to the emergency room where doctors found that she was in kidney failure.

Deanna's parents gifted her the Apple Watch for Christmas last year, with the family now thankful for its ability to alert them to a condition that might have otherwise continued to go unnoticed. "Now that we have some answers to why this is happening we can prevent something major from happening down the road," said Deanna.

Deanna's mother Stacey wrote to Apple, explaining what happened and thanking the company for the Apple Watch.

"After about an hour the blood work came back and the doctors reviewed the results and told us that Deanna was in Kidney Failure. Her kidneys were only functioning at 20%. She had no symptoms of any kidney issues or any other medical issues. If it wasn't for her Apple watch alarming her about her HR we wouldn't have discovered her kidney issue.

I honestly feel that your Apple Watch has saved my daughter's life. She is heading off for college in August and her condition may have been overlooked and if it wasn't caught now the doctor said she would have needed a kidney transplant. I am forever grateful to Apple for developing such an amazing lifesaving product. Now I can send her off to college and know that she can monitor her HR and seek attention if it alarms her again.

Tim Cook responded to Stacey in an email, and this morning tweeted about the event. "Stories like Deanna's inspire us to dream bigger and push harder every day," Cook's tweet reads. Apple has even teamed up with Stanford for its own study on whether the Apple Watch can detect abnormal heart rhythms and other common heart problems.

In addition to Cardiogram's study on abnormal heart rhythms, a study published by the company late last year reported that the Apple Watch may be able to accurately detect hypertension and sleep apnea. The study found that Cardiogram's deep neural network was able to recognize hypertension (aka high blood pressure) with 82 percent accuracy and sleep apnea with 90 percent accuracy. In 2018, Cardiogram's latest study suggested the Apple Watch can be used to detect the signs of diabetes.

Following a legal battle that's been ongoing between Apple and LTE chipmaker Qualcomm since early 2017, the latter company today announced an initiative aimed at defusing tensions with Apple. Specifically, Qualcomm says it will "broaden" its use of a lower-cost licensing model moving forward (via Reuters).

The move is a response to the FTC's original complaint that Qualcomm was engaging in anticompetitive patent licensing practices in order to remain the dominant supplier of LTE chips for smartphones. Soon after the FTC targeted Qualcomm, Apple sued the supplier, stating that Qualcomm "reinforces its dominance" through exclusionary tactics and high patent licensing fees.

Now, Qualcomm will receive a lower licensing rate when it does business with customers like Apple, Samsung, and Huawei. Qualcomm licensing division head Alex Rogers hopes that this move will eventually resolve its disputes with Apple and one other unnamed company, thought to be Huawei.

“It’s a good context for dealing with the two licensee issues we have now,” Alex Rogers, the head of Qualcomm’s licensing division, told Reuters in an interview, naming Apple but leaving Huawei unnamed as is the company’s policy when a dispute hasn’t become public through a court proceeding.

Rogers did not comment directly on the likelihood of resolving either customer dispute.

Rogers explains that Qualcomm is doing this by "including more technology" in its licensable patents without raising prices. Before, smartphone makers had the chance to buy two sets of Qualcomm patents, representing a "full suite" or a "standard essential" set. While most customers license both bundles to avoid lawsuits, Qualcomm is aiming to ease tensions by both making it easier for companies to license only the low-cost patent set, and by adding 5G wireless network patents to the sets at no additional cost.

“We have not lowered the rate. What we’re doing is including more technology, more (intellectual property) in the offering without increasing the price,” Rogers added

While Qualcomm has made its move at finally ending the long legal dispute with Apple, the Cupertino company has not yet responded to the announcement. Rogers says that both the Apple dispute and reportedly Huawei "are essentially now being handled within the framework of the current programme."

Given the legal dispute between the two companies, a rumor in late 2017 suggested Apple is considering eliminating Qualcomm chips from its future devices, instead relying on Intel and MediaTek. More recently, unnamed sources speaking with Fast Company stated that while Intel will supply Apple with a 70 percent majority of LTE chips for the 2018 iPhones, Qualcomm will still be sourced for the remaining supply.

The Lumos Smart Bike Helmet, which got its start as a Kickstarter project back in 2015, is the first bike helmet to make its way to Apple retail stores.

Available from the online Apple Store and in retail locations in the United States and Europe as of today, the $180 Lumos Helmet has integrated LEDs to keep you safe when riding at night and built-in gesture controlled turn signals.

There are 10 white LEDs on the front, 16 red LEDs on the back, and 11 amber/red LEDs on each side that can serve as the aforementioned turn signals. You control the turn signals built into the helmet with a connected Apple Watch, with the helmet able to interpret your hand gestures to activate the lights on the helmet.

Previously, the helmet's built-in turn signals were controlled via a remote attached to the handlebars of a bike, but the new Apple Watch integration makes it simpler than ever to signal your intentions to drivers on the road.

The Lumos Helmet also has a beta feature that's able to detect when you're braking hard on your bike, flashing the lights on the helmet to a bright red.

Through a Bluetooth connection to the iPhone, the Lumos Helmet records your bike riding activity and uploads it to the Apple Health or Strava app.

Design wise, the helmet is safety certified and meets gold standard safety certifications in the United States and Europe, and it has been created to be durable and weatherproof so it can be used in rain, snow, and fog. There's just a single size available, which can fit most adult head sizes in the range of 21.3 to 24.4 inches.

The Lumos Helmet can be purchased from the online Apple Store or through an Apple retail store for $179.95.