Category Archives: iPhone

Android, Apple, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Earnings, Episodes, FCC, Google, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Smartphones, Wireless

Episode 31 – News Roundup, Apple Earnings

This week, we once again did our brief news roundup on several topic items, but then we spent the bulk of the time on Apple’s fiscal Q1 2016 earnings, which came out earlier this week (and skipped our Question of the Week and Weekly Pick features).

Our news roundup covered three items: the FCC’s move to open up the cable set-top box market, the disclosure of what are purported to be Google’s revenues from Android as part of the Oracle-Google court case, and insights from the earnings of the US wireless carriers.

In our discussion of Apple’s earnings, we covered the iPhone and guidance for the March quarter, what’s going on with iPhone growth and when it’s likely to turn around again. We talked about the significant foreign exchange impact Apple has been facing, and the fact that it’s been forced to talk about it now that its growth has slowed dramatically. We discussed Apple Watch sales briefly, talked about China and India specifically, and also discussed the iPad, Mac, and the potential for new products in 2017. Lastly, we also covered Apple’s new emphasis on its Services business and the power of its installed base (something Jan wrote about this week on the Beyond Devices blog).

As ever, you’ll find links to related content and various ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded SoundCloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also now have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

2016, App Store, Apple, Apple Pay, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Episodes, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Jeff Williams, Mac, Management, Phil Schiller, Predictions, Smart home, Swift

Episode 27 – News Roundup, 2016 Predictions

For our final episode of the year, we decided to focus on our predictions for 2016. We kick off the episode with a review of three news items from the past few days: the Apple management changes announced on Thursday, December 17th; the recent Morgan Stanley report calling for lower iPhone sales; and the open-sourcing of Swift and the related interview of Craig Federighi by John Gruber. Following a roughly 15-minute roundup of these news items, we spend the rest of the time discussing our predictions for 2016, starting with our predictions for Apple’s various product lines, and then broadening out to cover other industry trends and companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft. We hope you enjoy this last episode of 2015 – we’ll be taking a break for the weeks of Christmas and the New Year, and will be back the week of CES, which Jan will be attending January 4-7. Enjoy the holidays and we’ll see you in January!

As ever, the SoundCloud player is embedded below, and under that you can find a list of links relating to this week’s episode along with links to other formats for the episode.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also now have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

  • Apple’s press release about the executive changes
  • An article covering the Morgan Stanley iPhone estimates
  • Apple’s press release about open-sourcing Swift
  • Craig Federighi’s interview on John Gruber’s Talk Show podcast, and the transcript of the conversation
  • Episode 2 of the Beyond Devices Podcast, in which we first discussed the open-sourcing of Swift and talked about many of the same topics covered by the Federighi interview.

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Apple, Apple Watch, Earnings, Episodes, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Mashable, Phil Schiller

Episode 21 – Apple September Quarter Earnings, Mashable Article/Interview

This episode is devoted almost entirely to Apple’s September quarter earnings (Apple’s Fiscal 2015 fourth quarter, and calendar quarter Q3 2015). Following up on last week’s preview episode, we discuss the guidance for next quarter and what it signifies, but also individual results for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch (such as we can glean them), and so on. We also discuss Tim Cook’s remarks on China and Apple’s rapidly-growing enterprise business. We wrap up the episode with a discussion of Mashable’s excellent article on Apple’s design process, based on interviews with Phil Schiller and VP of Mac and iPad engineering John Ternus. And of course there’s our Weekly Pick as usual, with Jan recommending an album he’s discovered recently.

As usual, the SoundCloud player is embedded below, and under that you’ll find some links to content relating to this episode.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also now have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Apple, Apple Music, Episodes, Google, iPhone, Nexus

Episode 17 – Google Event, A Series Chips, iPhone and Apple Music Impressions

We kick off this week’s episode with a discussion of Google’s event on Tuesday. We discuss the new Nexus phones and the history of Google’s Nexus programs, the new Chromecast devices, and Google’s strategy for the TV. Our Question of the Week is about Apple’s A-Series Chips, and Aaron’s been doing some research into how Apple has managed both to make such rapid advances and to compete so effectively against other approaches. Aaron explains the differences and relationships between fabless manufacturers, foundries, and Integrated Device Manufacturers, the role of Apple’s PA Semi acquisition, the importance of the ARM architecture, and more.

Our final topic is a discussion of our personal experiences with Apple’s new iPhones, as well as our conflicting responses to Apple Music (Jan has just allowed his trial to roll over into a paid subscription, while Aaron has cancelled). And Jan’s Weekly Pick is the Launch Center Pro app, which in its latest version makes interesting use of Apple’s new 3D Touch Quick Actions.

As ever, relevant links and more are beneath the SoundCloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also now have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Ad blockers, Apple, Content blockers, Episodes, Events, iOS 9, iPhone, Safari, WatchOS

Episode 16 – New iPhones, Content Blockers, iOS 9

Episode 16 is a fairly iPhone-centric affair. We start out with a review of the new software releases from Apple over the past week, with iOS 9 landing on schedule last week and WatchOS 2 arriving a few days late. We discuss some of our favorite built-in features, and also the relatively small number of apps that seem to be taking advantage of the new features in both operating systems.

Our Question of the Week this week is about the hot topic of the moment – content blockers in iOS 9. This discussion starts at around 23:35 in the episode, and we review the context and the technical details behind Apple’s implementation of content blocker extensions in Safari, the worries some people have about the implications of these content blockers, and an evaluation of the likely impact over time.

Our final topic is the new iPhones, and this section of the episode starts at around 41:40. Neither of us has our hands on these devices yet, but we discuss the reviews and what they reveal about reviewers, as well as our take on the preorder process and early numbers from Apple and what (if anything) they might signify.

As usual, we wrap up with our Weekly Pick, which this time around is a band Aaron recommends. The SoundCloud player is below as usual, with links to relevant content and other material beneath that.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also now have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Apple, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Episodes, Events, iPad, iPhone

Episode 15 – Apple September 2015 Event Deep Dive

Last week, we did a quick half-hour quick take on Apple’s September event, and briefly covered all the major announcements. This week, we dive a little deeper on each of the announcements, but focus mostly on the Apple Watch, iPad, and Apple TV announcements, touching only briefly on the iPhone, which we’ll cover in a bit more depth next week. On the Apple Watch front, Aaron notes that there are no obvious killer apps for the Watch yet, even with the WatchOS 2 release imminent, and we talk about the implications for product upgrade and release cycles given the addition of new color options last week. With regard to the iPad Pro, we discuss Steve Jobs’s famous comment about the role of the stylus, as well as Tim Cook’s remark from the event itself that the iPad represents “the clearest expression of our vision of the future of computing”. Aaron also follows up on his comment from last week about the possible role of the iPad Pro in college settings. On the subject of the Apple TV, we discuss the interesting storage limitations Apple has placed on apps, along with the significance of the On-Demand Resources model; the requirement for all games to support Apple’s Siri Remote, and not just third-party controllers; and possible upgrade cycles. With the iPhone, we discuss briefly the significance of 3D Touch, the new cameras, and a few other features, as well as Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program. As ever, the SoundCloud player is embedded below, and links to other versions as well as other relevant content are underneath that.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also now have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Apple, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Episodes, Events, Gaming, iPad, iPhone

Episode 14 – Apple September Event First Take

This is our quick take on Apple’s September event, which was recorded with Jan sitting outside the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, immediately following the conclusion of the Apple event. As such, the audio on this episode is not up to our usual standards. It’s also shorter than most of our episodes and doesn’t follow our usual format. Instead, you’ll hear about 25 minutes of quick conversation following the chronological order of Apple’s event, with some tidbits from the hands-on experience. We’ll do a deeper dive next week, hopefully with our usual audio quality!

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also now have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Android Wear, Apple, Apple TV, Consoles, Developers, Episodes, Gaming, Google, iPhone

Episode 13 – Apple Event Preview, Apple TV as Game Console, Android Wear and iPhone

Ahead of Apple’s big event next week, we spend the majority of our time previewing the likely announcements. The conversation kicks off with a general discussion of what we’re expecting with regard to new iPhones, iPads, and the new Apple TV, including a brief discussion of the reporting and in particular the scoops some publications seem to be getting very good at, notably Mark Gurman at 9to5Mac. We then do a deep dive on the Apple TV, as Aaron answers our Question of the Week: “How would the new Apple TV compete as a gaming console?” Aaron talks through the technical capabilities of the device and the developer program Apple is likely to build around the Apple TV and how these compare to the leading consoles in the market today, and we also discuss the controller(s) for gaming on the Apple TV, content restrictions, and social gaming. Our final brief topic is the announcement this week that Android Wear devices will now work with iPhones, albeit in a very limited fashion. Jan wraps things up with our Weekly Pick, which this week is an app, for the first time.

The SoundCloud player for the episode is embedded below, and underneath that you’ll find some links to related content, including Jan’s piece today on the Apple TV for Techpinions.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also now have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.