MacRumors

Apple hasn't divulged sales numbers for the recently released iPhone SE, but during today's second quarter earnings call, company executives said that demand for the device was "very strong" and higher than expected.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the iPhone SE puts Apple in a strategic plan to attract new customers with its affordable price point and powerful internal specifications. Cook says Apple is working hard to meet demand and improve shipping times for the device.

We're thrilled with the response that we've seen on it. It is clear that there is a demand there even much beyond what we thought. That is really why we have the constraint that we have.

Since its release, the iPhone SE has been in short supply despite reports of lackluster sales. For the past several weeks, new iPhone SE orders have listed expected delivery times of two to three weeks, suggesting Apple has not yet been able to meet demand for the device.

Priced attractively at $399 for the entry-level 16GB model, the iPhone SE adopted the external design of the iPhone 5s with parts sourced from later iPhone models like the iPhone 6 and the 6s. The result is a 4-inch iPhone that is on par performance wise with Apple's current flagship devices.

Positive news about the iPhone SE comes as Apple is reporting its first ever decline in iPhone sales and its first year-over-year decline in revenue in 13 years. During the quarter, Apple sold 51 million iPhones, down from 61 million in Q2 2015. Revenue was at $50.6 billion, down from $58 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Apple's guidance for Q3 2016 suggests it expects the downward trend to continue, with the company forecasting expected revenue of $41-43 billion. In Q3 2015, Apple posted revenue of $49.6 billion.

Apple today announced financial results for the second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) of 2016. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $50.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $10.5 billion, or $1.90 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $58 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.6 billion, or $2.33 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. As expected, the year-over-year decline in quarterly revenue was the first for Apple since 2003.

Gross margin for the quarter was 39.4 percent compared to 40.8 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 67 percent of revenue. Apple also declared an increased quarterly dividend payment of $0.57 per share, up from $0.52. The dividend is payable on May 12 to shareholders of record as of May 9. The company currently holds $233 billion in cash and marketable securities, partially offset by $77 billion in long-term debt.

In addition to the increase in the dividend payment, Apple says it will once again expand its share repurchase authorization by an additional $35 billion to $175 billion and the company says it expects to spend over $250 billion in cash under its capital return program by the end of March 2018.

Apple sold 51.1 million iPhones during the quarter, down from 61.2 million a year earlier, while Mac sales were 4.03 million units, down from from 4.56 million units in the year-ago quarter. iPad sales were also down once again, falling to 10.25 million from 12.6 million.

“Our team executed extremely well in the face of strong macroeconomic headwinds,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are very happy with the continued strong growth in revenue from Services, thanks to the incredible strength of the Apple ecosystem and our growing base of over one billion active devices.”

Apple's guidance for the third quarter of fiscal 2016 includes expected revenue of $41–43 billion and gross margin between 37.5 and 38 percent.

Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q2 2016 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Conference Call and Q&A Highlights are available in reverse chronological order after the jump.

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The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation will keep the method that it used to hack into the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook a secret, reports The Wall Street Journal. Citing sources with knowledge of the FBI's plans, the report suggests the FBI will tell the White House that an internal government review does not make sense because it "knows so little" about the hacking tool that was employed.

A government review under the U.S. Vulnerabilities Equities Process, which allows federal agencies to determine whether or not critical security flaws should be shared with companies, would potentially lead to an order to disclose the security vulnerability to Apple. Without a review, Apple may not find out how the iPhone was breached.

The decision, and the technical and bureaucratic justification behind it, would likely keep Apple in the dark about whatever security gap exists on certain models of the company's phones, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The Wall Street Journal's report comes following a statement made by FBI Director James Comey at a cybersecurity event in Washington D.C., which was shared by Reuters. According to Comey, the FBI is still in the process of determining whether or not a government review should move forward.

"We are in the midst of trying to sort that out," Comey said. "The threshold (for disclosure) is, are we aware of the vulnerability, or did we just buy a tool and don't have sufficient knowledge of the vulnerability to implicate the process?"

"We are close to a resolution," he added at a cybersecurity event at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Sources that spoke to Reuters say the Vulnerabilities Equities Process is not set up to handle flaws that are discovered and owned by private companies, with Comey's statement suggesting the FBI does not own the method used to hack the iPhone.

To break into Farook's iPhone 5c, the FBI employed the help of "professional hackers," paying upwards of $1.3 million for a tool exploiting a security vulnerability. While Apple would like details on the flaw so a fix can be implemented, the FBI can keep using the vulnerability so long as it remains unpatched.

The FBI has said the method used to break into the iPhone 5c does not work on the iPhone 5s and later, but it can be used to access iPhone 5c devices running iOS 9.

Update 4/27: In a statement shared by The New York Times, the FBI has confirmed that it will not give Apple details on the hacking method used to break into the iPhone.

"The F.B.I. purchased the method from an outside party so that we could unlock the San Bernardino device," Amy S. Hess, executive assistant director for science and technology, said in a statement.

"We did not, however, purchase the rights to technical details about how the method functions, or the nature and extent of any vulnerability upon which the method may rely in order to operate. As a result, currently we do not have enough technical information about any vulnerability that would permit any meaningful review" by the White House examiners, she said.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Apple today released the third beta of an upcoming iOS 9.3.2 update to developers for testing purposes, one week after the release of the second iOS 9.3.2 beta and more than a month after the launch of iOS 9.3, an update that introduced Night Shift mode and other feature improvements. iOS 9.3.2 has been in testing since April 6.

iOS 9.3.2 beta 3 can be downloaded over-the-air using the beta configuration profile or through the Apple Developer Center.

iOS 9.3.2 is the second minor update to iOS 9.3, coming after iOS 9.3.1, an update that introduced critical bug fixes. iOS 9.3.2 appears to fix a major Game Center bug that has plagued some iOS users for months and it reintroduces the ability to use Night Shift and Low Power Mode simultaneously.

Aside from those tweaks, there appear to be no outward-facing changes, with the update focusing on under-the-hood improvements. Any new features or fixes found in the third beta will be listed below.

Apple is set to announce its financial earnings results for the second quarter of the 2016 fiscal year at 1:30 p.m. Pacific, and the consensus among analysts is that the iPhone maker will report its first quarterly revenue decline in over a decade.

Wall Street analysts project that Apple will report revenue of around $52 billion, or nearly a 10-percent decline compared to the year-ago quarter. Today's earnings results are based on the three-month period between December 27, 2015 and March 26, 2016.

Apple itself projected quarterly revenue of between $50 and $53 billion, compared to $58 billion in the year-ago quarter, possibly signaling the end of over 50 consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue growth dating back to 2003.

Tim Cook, CEO, already cautioned investors that iPhone sales will likely decline in the second fiscal quarter. That decline will be realized if Apple sells fewer than 61.2 million iPhones this quarter, which appears likely given most analysts expect sales to hover around the 50 to 51 million mark.

MacRumors will be providing live blog coverage of Apple's earnings conference call with CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri at 2:00 p.m. Pacific.

AAPL is trading slightly lower on the NASDAQ at around the $104 mark in pre-market trading ahead of today's announcement.

The Smart Connector on the iPad Pro has thus far only been used for keyboard accessories including the Logitech Create and Apple's own Smart Keyboard, but today, Logitech is debuting a new accessory that uses a little known functionality of the Smart Connector -- charging.

Logitech's new Logi BASE is a stand for the 9.7 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models, allowing them to charge cable-free in landscape mode through the Smart Connector. Logitech sent MacRumors a Logi BASE ahead of its debut, so we were able to get a few days of hands-on time with it.

Made of solid aluminum matching the Silver iPad Pro models, the Logi BASE has a Lightning port on the back to accommodate a Lightning cable, which is used to power the accessory. On the front of the stand, there are three male Smart Connector prongs that fit into the Smart Connector port on the iPad Pro to deliver power to the tablet whenever it's sitting in the stand. The Lightning port is located right in the middle of the stand, something that I found somewhat inconvenient for cable management when positioned on my desk.

A plastic lip holds the iPad Pro in place, and a rubber bottom ensures the stand stays firmly in place on a flat surface made of wood, metal, granite, or other similar hard material. The iPad Pro rests against aluminum in the back, and while this didn't cause scratching during my limited testing period, it doesn't seem as ideal as a rubber coating to protect the aluminum shell of the iPad.

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With the launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, Apple introduced an iPhone Upgrade Program in the U.S. designed to let Apple customers pay a monthly installment fee for a new iPhone and trade it in after 12 months of payments to get the next-generation iPhone.

When it debuted, the iPhone Upgrade Program required customers to purchase their iPhones within an Apple retail store to take advantage of the service, but as of today, the iPhone Upgrade Program is also available as an option when purchasing an iPhone from Apple's online store.

Apple's iPhone purchasing pages have been updated to reflect the change, with Apple's own pricing listed as a payment plan option instead of the carrier pricing options that were previously listed when purchasing an iPhone.

With the iPhone Upgrade Program, installment pricing on the entry-level iPhone 6s begins at $32.41 per month while pricing on the larger-screened entry-level iPhone 6s Plus begins at $36.58 per month. Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program is unique compared to carrier installment plans because it includes AppleCare+ in the monthly price.

The iPhone Upgrade Program is available for devices purchased with AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint service.

For the fourth year in a row, Apple CEO Tim Cook is participating in a charity auction through CharityBuzz, offering whoever bids the most the chance to eat lunch with him at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino. As with last year's auction, Cook is also offering tickets to an unspecified Apple keynote event.

Two people will be able to attend the lunch meeting with Cook, with the experience set to last for approximately one hour. Lunch is included in the price of the auction, but travel and accommodations are not. The offer expires on May 5, 2017, and will be scheduled at a "mutually agreed upon date."

With the expiration date set to happen in May of 2017 and the second Apple campus set to be finished in late 2016, there's a chance the auction winner could be invited to the second Apple Campus, though the auction makes no mention of this.

The auction, which will last until May 5, has an estimated value of $100,000, but bids have already reached $110,000. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human rights, a charity that aims to achieve a "just and peaceful world by partnering with human rights leaders, teaching social justice and advancing corporate responsibility." Tim Cook has supported the RFK Center for several years running and was recently elected to the board of directors.

In 2015, Cook's charity lunch raised $200,000, while the 2014 auction brought in $330,001 and the 2013 auction brought in $610,000.

Apple today uploaded two new iPhone 6s ads to its YouTube channel, highlighting built-in features including Touch ID and the video taking capabilities of the iPhone 6s, including 4K video capture.

The first video, "Fingerprint," focuses on all of the things that can be done with Touch ID beyond unlocking a device, including opening passcode protected apps, checking into flights, signing documents, making purchases with Apple Pay, and starting cars.

With Touch ID on iPhone 6s, your fingerprint does way more than just unlock your phone.

The second video, "Onions," features the 4K video capturing functionality included in the iPhone 6s. In the hyperbolic and humorous video, a child captures her mother cutting onions, which goes viral because of its impressive quality.

4K video on iPhone 6s makes whatever you shoot look amazing. Even onions.

Unlike other recent iPhone 6s ads Apple has uploaded, these new videos focus on features and do not feature celebrities, aside from a cameo from Neil Patrick Harris in "Onions." Apple's most recent iPhone 6s spots have covered features like hands-free Hey Siri functionality, the photo taking abilities of the device, and Live Photos.