Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011, was a tough act to follow. But Tim Cook seems to be doing so well at it that his eventual successor may also have big shoes to fill.

Initially seen as a mere caretaker for the iconic franchise that Jobs built before his 2011 death, Cook has forged his own distinctive legacy. He will mark his ninth anniversary as Apple’s CEO Monday -- the same day the company will split its stock for the second time during his reign.

Grooming Cook as heir apparent was “one of Steve Jobs’ greatest accomplishments that is vastly underappreciated,” said long-time Apple analyst Gene Munster, who is now managing partner of Loup Ventures.

The upcoming four-for-one stock split, a move that has no effect on share price but often spurs investor enthusiasm, is one measure of Apple’s success under Cook. The company was worth just under $400 billion when Cook the helm; it’s worth five times more than that today, and has just become the first U.S. company to boast a market value of $2 trillion. Its share performance has easily eclipsed the benchmark S&P 500, which has roughly tripled in value during the past nine years.

Cook, 59, has also struck out in into novel territory. Apple now pays a quarterly dividend, a step Jobs resisted partly because he associated shareholder payments with stodgy companies that were past their prime. Cook also used his powerful perch to become an outspoken advocate for civil rights and renewable energy, and on a personal level came out as the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company in 2014.

Apple declined to make Cook available for an interview. But it did point to 2009 comments Cook made to financial analysts when he was running the company while Jobs battled pancreatic cancer.

Apple also has stumbled a few times under Cook’s leadership.

Cook has turned the app store into the cornerstone of a services division that he set out to expand four years ago. At the time, it was growing clear that sales of the iPhone -- Apple’s biggest money maker -- were destined to slow down as innovations grew sparse and consumers kept their old devices for longer.

To help offset that trend, Cook began to emphasize recurring revenue from app commission, warranty programs and streaming subscriptions to music, video, games and news sold for the more 1.5 billion devices already running on the company’s software.

Apple’s services division now generates $50 billion in annual revenue, more than all but 65 companies in the Fortune 500. Ives estimates Apple’s services division by itself is worth about $750 billion -- about the same as Facebook currently is in its entirety.

That division could be worth even more now had Cook done something many analysts believe Apple should have done at least five years ago by dipping into a hoard of cash that at one point surpassed $260 billion to buy Netflix or a major movie studio to fuel its video streaming ambitions.

Source: AP

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On Monday, Apple officially releases its first public beta of watchOS 7 for Apple Watch Series 3 and up. Although Apple has had the watchOS beta program for years now, this marks the first time that Apple releases it as a public beta. This means you won’t be required to have a developer account to download and test the next version of watchOS.

The most significant additions to watchOS 7 include official sleep tracking, improved bicycle directions and navigation, more watch face customizations including complications for Siri Shortcuts, a new hand-washing timer, and new workout modes.

The Apple Watch has been missing native sleep tracking for years, but that hasn’t kept it from being one of the best-selling smartwatches. The Sleep app will have automatic sleep tracking, and a new tab will be added to the Health app. Dancing has been added as a fitness workout on the Apple Watch.

Apple Watch users will now be able to share custom watch faces and download faces from curated lists on the App Store.

WatchOS 7 will become publicly available for all Apple Watch Series 3 and newer starting this fall.

Source:gsmarena

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Today Apple has released iOS 13.6.1 and iPadOS 13.6.1 to all supported devices. As the small increment in versioning implies, this build is all about fixing issues, and doesn't bring any new features to the table. Still, that doesn't mean you shouldn't install the update as soon as possible.

After all, it promises to get rid of green tint on some displays, which was caused by a thermal management issue, apparently. It also fixes an issue which disabled Exposure Notifications for some users.

Additionally, an issue that prevented unneeded system data files from being automatically deleted when storage got low has been addressed, which should be especially useful for owners of older iPhones and iPads with not a lot of storage space available to begin with.

The iOS 13.6.1 update is a 110MB download, and should be ready for install right away if you check for it through Settings > General > Software Update. You may have already been notified about it.

This is likely to be among the last updates to iOS 13, seeing as how iOS 14 is due to be released this fall - and probably as soon as next month, if we go by Apple's timelines in years past.

Source: Gsmarena

 

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Apple is about to change its subscription services, like Apple Music, Apple TV+ and so on, with a new Health service announced in the coming weeks.

An announcement is likely next month or in October, a new report from Bloomberg claims. While Bloomberg focuses mostly on the revised subscription system, where different services are bundled together for a lower cost than individual subscriptions, for me it’s the Apple Fitness suggestion that’s the most striking. Here’s everything you need to know about both parts of the report.

Apple Fitness

This looks like being a whole new service, intriguingly. Apparently, it’s going to be made up of virtual fitness classes which can be used by an app that will work on the iPad as well as on the iPhone and Apple TV.

By the way, it might not be called Apple Fitness, but let’s remember that the iPhone Activity app, found on iPhones linked to Apple Watch, is being renamed Fitness in iOS 14.

This project, you might like to know, has the codename Seymour, and is seen as something to rival classes offered by Nike or Peleton.

Apple will doubtless have its own take on this – if it was going to be a carbon copy of Nike Training Club or Peleton’s offerings, it wouldn’t bother. The integration of the app across multiple Apple platforms is interesting, but since Nike and others do that already, there’s going to be more to it than that.

Bloomberg says that Seymour will be a new subscription that will be offered in a higher-end bundle with other Apple services. It’s not clear from this whether or not it will be available as a standalone service.

Apple One bundled services

The suggestion of Apple bundling its various subscriptions has been mooted for some time but seems to be gaining momentum just now. After all, services are increasingly important to Apple and there’s a lot to choose from. Apple Music costs $9.99 a month. The gaming service, Apple Arcade, is $4.99 a month, as is Apple TV+, although buying a wide range of Apple products delivered a year’s free subscription of the TV+ service. Then there’s Apple News+, $9.99 a month and iCloud which starts with a free tier but rises to $6.99 a month for 2TB of data storage.

The latest indication is that Apple will link multiple services together under the aegis of Apple One, though this may just be a working title.

Bloomberg says the Apple One bundle could be launched with the next iPhone, which means it could be revealed as early as September.

 

Multiple tiers

A basic Apple One package would pair Apple Music with Apple TV+ for, presumably, something less than the two would currently cost. The next step up might add Apple Arcade, then there would be another tier with Apple News+ in the mix and another that includes extra iCloud storage.

All of which is very similar to Amazon’s Prime offering, where delivery of purchases is included alongside a video streaming service, among other things, for one monthly fee.

 

Family tiers

The report claims that all these options will be skewed towards families. So far, Apple Music has two main tariffs, individual at $9.99 and family at $14.99. Arcade, News+ and TV+ all include family sharing of up to six people and the highest iCloud storage tier is shareable within a family.

What’s interesting about the Apple range of services is they are so different. Someone with Apple News+ may well like Apple Music but have no desire for Arcade, say. The addition of the family aspect means a more diverse group of interests could be satisfied.

 

The overall intention, of course, will be to increase subscription numbers. And if it’s priced carefully enough, it could be a no-brainer to upgrade.

Source:Forbes

 

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Apple Inc. added two new online radio channels to its streaming music service and renamed the flagship station Apple Music 1, shedding the Beats brand that had been in place since the debut in 2015.

One of the new stations features hits from the 1980s, 90s and 2000s, and the other plays popular country music. Apple Music 1 will continue to feature modern pop, Latin music and DJ hosts.

Apple Music competes with Spotify Technology SA in music streaming. Spotify has sought to add subscribers by amping up its podcast offerings, with exclusives from Michelle Obama and Joe Rogan. For Apple, subscriptions are a key part of its strategy to add new sources of revenue. The technology giant is expected to release a series of bundles, currently known internally as Apple One, as early as October to spur more interest.
 

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