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Tag: iphone

Amazing iOS Features that will Benefit your Business

Apple has announced several revolutionary measures stretching across enterprise IT, developer and consumer spheres.

Among the features is an interesting one known as continuity. This feature allows you to start a given activity on one device and complete it on another. This means you can start working on a document on your iPad and finish it on a Windows PC. Any changes made from one of your devices are replicated on all the others.

Other interesting features are he HomeKit and HealthKit platforms which depend on a range of technologies to incorporate personal data and functionality, that is, your health and your home. Although both do not have an instant enterprise impact, both make iOS devices, such as an iPhone, more personal than they have been in the past.

The incorporation of the HomeKit and the HealthKit, though largely accepted, have their own fair share of concerns. For instance, users are more concerned on what information IT professionals or employees can access or see on a managed device. In view of this concern, Apple has designed features that protect user privacy as they have done with iOS 7. In addition, with iOS 8, the policy has to change from full wiping to wiping only the corporate data. This will prevent wiping off of the user’s personal data.

The introduction of Mail Drop and iCloud Drive is big news to OS X, the iCloud interface, and iOS. The Mail Drop is a welcome addition to iCloud as it has the ability to load huge attachments automatically into your iCloud account.

Other features that you stand to enjoy with the new iOS 8 include AirDrop, Auto-Hotspot, iOS app extensions, and Markup, among others.

Apple currently dominated the enterprise mobility space and it seems it will remain so for a long time to come.

June 13, 2016
Apple Reports Record Q3 2015 Results
Apple has just announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 third quarter (ended June 27, 2015). The company posted quarterly revenue of $49.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $10.7 billion. These results compare to revenue of $37.4 billion and net profit of $7.7 billion in the year-ago quarter.

In the Q3 2015 Apple sold:
- iPhone: 47 million units (35 mln in Q3 2014)
- iPad: 10.9 million units (13 mln in Q3 2014)
- Mac: 4.7 million units (4.4 mln in Q3 2014)
Revenue by product:
- iPhone: $31.3 b
- iPad: $4.5 b
- Mac: $6 b
- Services (iTunes, AppleCare, Apple Pay, licensing and other services): $5 b
- Other products ( Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats Electronics, iPod and Apple-branded and third-party accessories): 2.6 b
Gross margin was 39.7 percent compared to 39.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

According to Apple, “the growth was fueled by record third quarter sales of iPhone and Mac, all-time record revenue from services and the successful launch of Apple Watch.”

“In the third quarter our year-over-year growth rate accelerated from the first half of fiscal 2015, with revenue up 33 percent and earnings per share up 45 percent,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We generated very strong operating cash flow of $15 billion, and we returned over $13 billion to shareholders through our capital return program.”

Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $.52 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on August 13, 2015, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 10, 2015.
July 21, 2015
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook Says Chinese Tastes Considered in Apple Product Designs

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook recently admitted that Apple takes into account Chinese consumer tastes as it designs its products. He further revealed that Apple considers details such as color palettes that are specifically tailored to suit local tastes.

The decision to include a gold iPhone last year for instance was a bold statement of inclusion of its Chinese customer’s tastes where gold is a favorite. Greater Chine, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, is now Apple’s 2^nd largest market and it is also a battleground for the American company as it faces stiff competition from Xiaomi Corp. and Samsung Electronics.

Tim made this comments last month during a tour to China where he was visiting the company’s largest store worldwide in eastern city of Hangzhou. Tim also commented on the Apple Watch saying that it had already had a promising start having attracted more developer interest than the earliest iPads and iPhones had. Developers are developing more than 3,500 apps for the wearable and that is far ahead of the 500 apps available for the iPhone (2008 edition) and the 1,000 apps for the 1^st iPad back in 2010, he added.

Apple is still silent on the initial sales for the watch, which is considered its first truly new product after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs. It is also seen as a key test on Tim’s ability to shape the company’ products.

June 25, 2015
A Number of Macs and iPhones are about to become ‘Vintage’ or ‘Obsolete’ in June, losing Apple Repair Support

Starting 9^th June, 2015 a couple of Apple products will be classified as either vintage or obsolete in Europe, Canada, Asia-Pacific, United States, Japan, Latin American and Apple Retail Stores.

According to Apple, vintage products are those that have been in production for more than 5 years and less than 7 years. Apple has discontinued hardware service for all vintage products apart from Macintosh products purchased in Turkey and Products purchased in California, United States.

Obsolete products on the other hand are those that were discontinued more than 7 years ago. These products hardware service has been discontinued with no exceptions.

Some of the iPhone models that are about to get the boot include the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G (China), iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS (China). These models will achieve the vintage status if they were bought in California.

Other Apple products that are becoming obsolete come 9^th include iMac (24-inch, Mid 2007), iMac (20-inch, Mid 2007, and MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid-2009). These products will no longer be supported for service or repair unless they were bought in Turkey. In addition, a few more Apple products lose the vintage status after they were marked as obsolete in the US and they include Xserve RAID (SFP, Late 2004), Xserve (Late 2006), AirPort Express Base Station, MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.4/2.2GHZ), and MacBook Pro (17-inch, 2.4GHZ).

The above products will achieve their new status (vintage or obsolete) sometime next month and they will therefore no longer be supported for repair by authorized resellers or Apple Stores. However, Apple will continue offering support to AppleCare customers by phone.

A comprehensive list of the vintage and obsolete Apple devices is available here.

May 26, 2015
Confirmed: Apple HomeKit Products to Start Shipping in June

Soon your iPhone will control your locks, cameras, lights, thermostats, doors, plugs and switches via corresponding apps.

Apple has confirmed to Mashable that the HomeKit products will start shipping in June this year. This news comes in the wake of another published by Fortune claiming that Apple users might have to wait longer for HomeKit products.

Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman, said in an email directed to Mashable that the HomeKit had already attracted dozes of partners who are ready to provide HomeKit accessories, with the first hitting the market as early as next month.

The HomeKit platform was first announced in June last year during Apple’s developers conference promising to replace garage clickers, thermostat dials, and light switches with a single control panel that seamlessly integrates with Apple devices. Siri could for example be extended to respond to commands for HomeKit enabled products.

It is important to note that Apple won’t be launching HomeKit by turning on a switch since the HomeKit products will be available once the approved accessory developers go live with their products.

Apple opened the certification process last November and the first batch of approvals came in January. Apple says it is now waiting for the device makers to launch their products.

Also read: Apple TV will be the center of Apple’s smart home

May 22, 2015
Broadcom’s Internet of Things WICED Platform Now Offers Full HomeKit Support
Broadcom has announced that its Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices (WICED) SDK now offers full HomeKit support. As the first company to meet HomeKit technical specifications for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Smart, Broadcom expands its Internet of Things (IoT) portfolio offerings.

Broadcom’s WICED platform enables developers and OEMs to take advantage of the growing Apple’s HomeKit ecosystem. By helping companies create IoT products that are HomeKit compliant, Broadcom is said to reduce time-to-market and improve the consumer experience.

Broadcom’s WICED platform can also connect endpoints through a process known as bridging that delivers the benefits of HomeKit through a hardware module. This allows a product like a Bluetooth Smart light bulb to connect to a smart plug containing Broadcom’s WICED module, creating a bridge from the light bulb to the user’s HomeKit-supported app on their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

HomeKit offers a set of common protocols making it easier for customers to control HomeKit-enabled accessories using Siri or iOS applications. HomeKit is built on a secure foundation with end-to-end encryption which provides customers a secure connection between their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and HomeKit-enabled accessory.

Key Features:
- Support for 802.11ab/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Smart
- Compact design to support multiple microcontrollers (MCUs) and systems-on-a-chip (SOCs)
- Low memory footprint
- Integrated development tools
- Reliable interoperability and integrated security
- Upgradeable over wireless connections
Availability
Broadcom’s WICED SDK and hardware module with HomeKit support are available now.
May 14, 2015
WhatsApp now with Free Calling Service, new Sharing Extensions, and More…

The popular cross-platform chatting service WhatsApp recently released a major update to its iPhone app introducing some new ways to share content with family and friends.

The latest update to the iPhone app allows WhatsApp uses to call other connected users around the world for free. Similar to FaceTime Audio and Skype, WhatsApp calling service uses VoIP rather than the regular cellular service to make calls.

This feature has been expected for a while now since Facebook introduced the same service sometime last year. WhatsApp confirms that this new service will be rolling out to subscribers over the next few weeks.

This updated version will also include an iOS 8 sharing extension that makes it easy to send links, photos, and video to other WhatsApp users from other apps on the iPhone. You can also edit your contacts right from the app, access the camera, or send crop, rotate, and send multiple videos at once.

May 7, 2015
Vodafone and Dropbox Team up on Cloud Storage

Vodafone and Dropbox are partnering to provide the telco’s Android and iPhone users with free cloud storage for a year.

Starting this month, new Vodafone users will have 25 GB of cloud storage space on Dropbox. This service will be available to Vodafone’s Android and iPhone users. A majority of Vodafone’s Android phones will come preloaded with the Dropbbox app.

What’s the implication? Well, Vodafone users can now count on extra space that can also make switching over to a new phone a much easier process as all you have to do is save all your videos, photos, and all your files on your old phone to Dropbox and then just sign in to your Dropbox app in your new phone and all your files will be there waiting for you.

Vodafone also said that it will use Dropbox as its platform for its Backup+ service that allows Vodafone users to backup messages, multimedia content, and contacts on the cloud. The Backup+ service will start rolling out by the end of March, 2015 and will be ready for use over the coming months.

The partnership between Dropbox and Vodafone is not entirely a new concept as just last year around October 02 entered a partnership with Box to resell the cloud storage service to SMEs.

March 12, 2015
Apple and IBM partner to bring a ‘new class’ of business iPhone and iPad apps to enterprise
Apple and IBM announced yesterday an exclusive partnership to transform enterprise mobility through a ‘new class’ of business apps – MobileFirst for iOS that will bring IBM’s big data and analytics capabilities to iPhone and iPad.

The partnership aims to ‘address key industry mobility challenges’ by creating:
- a new class of more than 100 industry-specific enterprise solutions including native apps, developed exclusively from the ground up, for iPhone and iPad;
- unique IBM cloud services optimized for iOS, including device management, security, analytics and mobile integration;
- new AppleCare® service and support offering tailored to the needs of the enterprise; and
- new packaged offerings from IBM for device activation, supply and management.
As part of the agreement, IBM will also sell iPhones and iPads with the industry-specific solutions to business clients worldwide.

Specifically, the two companies are working together to deliver the following elements of enterprise mobile solutions:

– Mobile solutions that transform business: The companies will collaborate to build IBM MobileFirst for iOS Solutions—a new class of “made-for-business apps” targeting specific industry issues or opportunities in retail, healthcare, banking, travel and transportation, telecommunications and insurance, among others, that will become available starting this fall and into 2015.

– Mobile platform: The IBM MobileFirst Platform for iOS will deliver the services required for an end-to-end enterprise capability, from analytics, workflow and cloud storage, to fleet-scale device management, security and integration.

– Mobile service and support: AppleCare for Enterprise will provide IT departments and end users with 24/7 assistance from Apple’s customer support group, with on-site service delivered by IBM.

– Packaged service offerings: IBM is introducing IBM MobileFirst Supply and Management for device supply, activation and management services for iPhone and iPad, with leasing options.
July 16, 2014
Apple introduces iCloud Drive

At the WWDC 2014 Apple has introduced iCloud Drive that will be available this fall with the newly announced iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

What does iCloud Drive bring to the table?

There are a lot of features and benefits that comes with the drive, but one that is really dominant is the freedom. With iCloud Drive you can access, edit, and safely store your data across all your devices. You can also edit one of your documents and the changes reflect on all other devices, including iOS devices, Mac and Windows.

iCloud Drive brings with it a next generation level of cooperation and collaboration between apps, enhancing the ability to work, edit, and access the same file across multiple apps and devices.

How to Store

The storage process of any file/document is as easy as promised. To upload, you just have to drag your item/s to your drive on your Mac, PC or any iOS powered device. You can also start a new document on any of the iCloud-enabled apps and they will be stored on your drive.

With iCloud Drive, you can also open/start working on a document on one app and finish it on another. For instance, if you are creating a picture, you can start it on a sketching app and move it for painting on a paint app and so on.

June 4, 2014