iLounge

Apple today released iOS 6.1, the newest version of the mobile operating system for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Weighing in at 107 MB, the update can be installed over the air or by connecting to iTunes.

According to the release notes, the update adds LTE support for an additional 36 iPhone and 23 iPad LTE carriers, the ability to purchase movie tickets through Fandango with Siri, individual song downloads from iCloud for iTunes Match subscribers, and a new button to reset the Advertising Identifier. Interestingly, using Fandango to purchase tickets requires you to have separately downloaded Fandango’s app. An Apple TV update based upon iOS 6.1 was released simultaneously.

During Apple’s first quarter 2013 financial results conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer made a number of comments related to Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod businesses. The comments ranged from discussions of the iPhone 5 and iPad mini’s sales and manufacturing constraints, to continued iPad cannibalization of Mac computer sales, to the Apple TV.

Additional details are available by clicking on the title of this article.

Reporting its first quarter 2013 financial results today, Apple said it sold 47.8 million iPhones in the quarter, a 29 percent increase year-over-year, and up considerably from 26.9 million units in the prior quarter. Apple sold 22.9 million iPads during the quarter, up 49 percent from the year-ago quarter and up 8.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012. Finally, the company said it sold 12.7 million iPods during the quarter — an 18 percent decrease compared to the same quarter last year. Unit sales of iPhones, iPads, and iPods bring the cumulative totals for the three device categories to 318.8 million, 120.98 million, and 369.08 million, respectively.

In what the company says was its best quarter ever for both revenues and net profits, Apple posted revenue of $54.45 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.81 per diluted share, compared with revenue of $46.33 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share in Q1 2012. Revenue from iTunes/Software/Services—previously known as Other Music Related Products and Services—which includes revenue from the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore, was $3.687 billion for the quarter, up 22 percent year-over-year and 5 percent from the prior quarter. It is being separated from revenues from Apple-branded and third-party iPod accessories, which accounted for $1.829 billion in the quarter, up 25% year over year and 46% over the prior quarter. Apple’s Board of Directors also declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on February 14, 2013, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 11, 2013.

“We’re thrilled with record revenue of over $54 billion and sales of over 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, suggesting that the company sold at least 4.3 million iPod touches in addition to the quarter’s 70.7 million iPads and iPhones. “We’re very confident in our product pipeline as we continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world.”

“We’re pleased to have generated over $23 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “We established new all-time quarterly records for iPhone and iPad sales, significantly broadened our ecosystem, and generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever.

Amazon has announced its MP3 store has been optimized for iPhone and iPod touch. Users can now buy digital music from Amazon’s catalog of more than 22 million songs, directly from Amazon’s store through mobile Safari — the Amazon MP3 mobile website is built on HTML5. Purchases are saved to customers’ Amazon Cloud Player libraries for instant access and playback using the Cloud Player mobile apps. Amazon first launched an iPhone-optimized Kindle Store in 2009; the company has traditionally avoided integrating its store features directly into its iOS apps due to the large amount of content available and to avoid paying a 30 percent cut of sales to Apple.

Apple has seeded developers with iOS 6.1 beta 4. The update is available to registered iOS developers as an over-the-air software update, for those with iOS 6.1 beta already installed. It is unclear what changes may be contained in the release. A new Apple TV beta and a new preview of Xcode 4.6 have also been seeded to developers. [via 9to5Mac]

Amazon has updated its Amazon Instant Video app, adding support for the iPhone and iPod touch. Previously available only for iPad users, the Amazon Instant Video app is now a single, universal app providing access to more than 140,000 videos from the Amazon Instant Video store, and more than 30,000 Prime Instant Video titles are free for Amazon Prime members. The app features “Your Watchlist,” a viewable queue for future viewing, and “Your Video Library,” from which users can download videos for offline viewing. Whispersync lets viewers continue watching videos where they stopped, on any supported devices. A Wi-Fi connection is required for streaming videos, as 3G or 4G streaming is currently not supported.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski seeks greater use of portable electronic devices during airplane flights,The Hill reports. In a letter to FAA acting chief Michael Huerta, Genachowski wrote the FAA “should enable greater use of tablets, e-readers, and other portable devices.” The FAA recently formed a committee to reconsider its policies on in-flight device use, and sought public comments on the matter. “This review comes at a time of tremendous innovation, as mobile devices are increasingly interwoven in our daily lives,” Genachowski wrote.

Tony Fadell, former senior vice president of Apple’s iPod division, and widely credited as the “father of the iPod,” says Apple’s own mythology of the iPod being built as a knowing precursor to the iPhone is “revisionist history.” In an interview with The Telegraph, Fadell claims Apple was mainly focused on the Macintosh at the time, as what came to be the iPod team spent “the day job” building the Macintosh. He says Apple is a “visionary company” that enabled the success of the iPod, but “there was no vision of taking everything to a world of iPhones and iPads.”

“We built the iPod in weeks,” Fadell says. “It had to be what I thought it was going to be because there wasn’t time for endless refinements.” Fadell is now founder and CEO of Nest.

Alongside iTunes 11, Apple has released a new version of the Remote iOS app for iTunes. Remote version 3.0 is redesigned, featuring an iPad interface that more closely resembles the look of iTunes 11, plus a more powerful search feature that delivers real-time results as you type.

Up Next, which offers a simpler way of seeing the next songs in a playlist, is included, as is an Expanded view that shows all songs on an album. The app is also optimized for the iPhone 5. Remote 3.0 also features new icons for both itself and connected iTunes libraries, now with gray accents rather than black ones.

Apple has seeded developers with a second beta version of iOS 6.1. As with prior iOS beta updates, beta 2 is available as an over-the-air software update or as a direct download from the iOS Dev Center, and is accompanied by a new beta version of the Apple TV software, as well as an updated version of Xcode and the iOS 6.1 SDK. The new version is listed as build 10B5105c; it is unclear what changes may be contained in the release. iOS 6.1 beta 2 is available now to registered iOS developers.

Apple has updated its Apple Store iPhone and iPod touch app adding Siri integration for compatible devices and rolled out its EasyPay feature to five additional countries. With the latest version, users can now make requests to Siri such as “I want to buy an iPad mini” or “Find prices on MacBook Pro” directly opening the Apple Store app to the appropriate page. Users in Canada, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany can also now take advantage of EasyPay, a feature that allows purchases to be made in an Apple Retail Store with an iPhone 4/4S/5 by scanning the barcode with the camera and completing the transaction directly within the app. Apple Store 2.4 requires iOS 5.0 or later and is available from the App Store as a free download.

Microsoft will release a version of Office for iOS in early 2013, according to The Verge. Office Mobile will debut as free apps, and users will be able to view documents with a Microsoft account. At first offering basic viewing functionality, an Office 365 subscription will allow users to edit documents. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that “Office will work across Windows Phone, iOS and Android.” First reported in early October, it’s now expected Office Mobile for iOS will debut in late February or early March.

Alongside the user release of iOS 6.0.1, Apple has released iOS 6.1 beta to developers. The release supports a number of iOS devices, though the fourth-generation iPad and iPad mini are absent from the list.

Apart from a change to a developer-side searching capability for Maps, other changes in the beta version are not immediately known. [via 9to5Mac]

Apple has released iOS 6.0.1. The update contains various improvements and bug fixes, including:

* a bug that prevents iPhone 5 from installing software updates wirelessly over the air;
* a bug where horizontal lines may be displayed across the keyboard;
* an issue that could cause the camera flash not to go off;
* improved reliability of iPhone 5 and fifth-generation iPod touch when connected to encrypted WPA2 Wi-Fi networks;
* an issue that prevents iPhone from using the cellular network in some instances;
* consolidation of the Use Cellular Data switch for iTunes Match;
* a Passcode Lock bug which sometimes allowed access to Passbook pass details from lock screen; and
* a bug affecting Exchange meetings.

iOS 6.0.1 can be updated directly from your iOS device using Settings > Software Update, or downloaded from iTunes.

Updated Nov. 2: The iPad mini also has iOS 6.0.1, available now.

During Apple’s fourth quarter 2012 financial results conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer made a number of comments related to Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod businesses.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, noted that the iPod touch continued to account for over 50% of iPods sold, and continues to account for 70% of market share, according to NPD. This is despite declines in overall iPod sales.

Oppenheimer also noted that the demand for the iPhone 5 continues to outstrip supply and the company continues to work as hard as it can to get an iPhone into the hands of every customer who wants one.

Additional details are available by clicking on the title of this article.

Reporting its fourth quarter 2012 financial results today, Apple said it sold 26.9 million iPhones in the quarter, a 58 percent increase year-over-year, up somewhat from 26 million units in the prior quarter. Apple sold 14 million iPads during the quarter, up 26 percent from the year-ago quarter but down from 17 million units in the third quarter of 2012. Finally, the company said it sold 5.3 million iPods during the quarter — a 19 percent decrease compared to the same quarter last year. Unit sales of iPhones, iPads, and iPods bring the cumulative totals for the three device categories to 271 million, 98.08 million, and 356.38 million, respectively, though Apple did note at a media event several days ago that iPad sales have since surpassed the 100 million mark.

Apple posted revenue of $35.97 billion and net quarterly profit of $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per diluted share, compared with revenue of $28.27 billion and net quarterly profit of $6.62 billion, or $7.05 per diluted share in Q4 2011. Revenue from Other Music Related Products and Services, which includes revenue from the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore in addition to sales of iPod services and Apple-branded and third-party iPod accessories, was 2.29 billion for the quarter, up 43 percent year-over-year and 29 percent from the prior quarter. Apple’s Board of Directors also declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on November 15, 2012, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 12, 2012.

“We’re very proud to end a fantastic fiscal year with record September quarter results,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod products ever, and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline.”

“We’re pleased to have generated over $41 billion in net income and over $50 billion in operating cash flow in fiscal 2012,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2013, we expect revenue of about $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75.”

The new fifth-generation iPod touch lacks a light sensor to enable an auto-brightness setting, and its thin body is the reason, according to an email from Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller. Published by 9to5Mac, Schiller’s email was sent in response to a customer who inquired about the lack of an auto-brightness setting, an omission noted in iLounge’s review of the new iPod touch last week. “The 5th generation iPod touch does not have a built-in automatic light sensor (it’s just too thin!),” Schiller wrote. The new iPod touch is 0.24” thick.

iFixit has torn down the fifth-generation iPod touch, and confirmed that the device contains 512 MB of RAM — just as reported by Geekbench testing, and the same as the iPhone 4/4S, but more than the 256MB of RAM found in the previous generation iPod touch. Apple’s A5 processor and 32 GB of NAND flash from Toshiba were also found in the new iPod touch. The battery notably has jumped to 1030 mAh, more than the fourth-generation iPod touch’s 930 mAh cell. The device’s display is claimed to be “a much simpler, cheaper design” than the iPhone 5 display.

Also in the teardown, iFixit found a weaker, rubber-membrane design on the iPod touch home button, when compared to the iPhone 5. The iPod touch was given a repairability score of 3 out of 10, meaning the device will be hard to repair. By comparison, a score of 7 was awarded to the iPhone 5.

iLounge has posted a complete unboxing and comparison gallery of Apple’s new iPod touch to Flickr. Photos of the fifth-generation iPod touch focus on the new aluminum body and 4” Retina Display, in addition to comparison shots with earlier iPod touch models, and the iPhone 5.

For a more focused collection of images, check out our iPod touch (fifth-generation) First Look. A comprehensive review will follow in the near future.

Unboxings of the new iPod touch and nano by Japanese blog Macotakara have confirmed a point that Apple obscured during last month’s iPhone 5-focused launch event: although EarPods are included with both of the new iPods, neither iPod’s earphones include the Remote and Mic functionality found in the $29 standalone accessory and the version packaged with the iPhone 5—the model Apple is now calling EarPods with Remote and Mic. The new iPods’ versions feature the newly redesigned earbuds with standard cabling and a 3.5mm audio connector; they do not include the carrying case included with the iPhone 5’s EarPods.

Macotakara confirms that the remote and microphone features from the standalone EarPods with Remote and Mic model do work with both of the new iPods. A full review of the EarPods with Remote and Mic is available here.