Juli Clover, MacRumors: Hovering over the Apple logo and moving the mouse allows the current artwork to be erased and replaced with a new logo design. Apple created a total of six logos for the May 7 “Let Loose” event, and the interactive eraser cycles through those options. Would be cool if Apple’s managed to pull off being able to use the end of the new Pencil as an eraser, just like a real pencil.  ★  ..read more

From a Washington Post story headlined “Apple Is Behind in AI and Killed Its Self-Driving Car Project. What’s Next?”: The company’s Greater China region, which encompasses mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, has long been one of Apple’s most crucial growth zones. But growing pressure from a handful local rivals — including Shenzhen-based Huawei, which surmounted U.S. sanctions aimed at slowing its advance in late 2023 by producing a smartphone with a domestically made processor — cut sharply into Apple’s market share in the region earlier this year. Data from market research firm Cou ..read more

Stephen Hackett, writing at 512 Pixels: I know AI is all the rage right now and having a deal to bring ChatGPT into your software is trendy, but including a tool like this in what is basically a mouse driver is ridiculous. I’m not opposed to using AI in software. I’m just opposed to when it shows up as an unexpected, poorly-implemented feature in software that doesn’t need it. At least Logitech’s Mac developers did such a bad job with it, that it was easy to spot. Logitech committed a bunch of sins with this mouse driver. First, it just seems ridiculous to add an AI prompt feature to a mouse ..read more

Jason Aten, writing for Inc.: I don’t run marathons or climb mountains or dive. I don’t often find myself in remote locations in precarious situations. I joked that, for me, the Apple Watch Ultra will be the perfect thing to wear while other people are working out. Like, for example, when I’m keeping track of my daughter’s cross-country race splits. When I first started wearing the Ultra, I was sure the most useful feature was what Apple calls the Action Button. I still think the ability to assign a dedicated button to things like starting a workout or a stopwatch is great, but there’s a far ..read more

Russell Brandom, reporting for Rest of World: IT rules passed by India in 2021 require services like WhatsApp to maintain “traceability” for all messages, allowing authorities to follow forwarded messages to the “first originator” of the text. In a Delhi High Court proceeding last Thursday, WhatsApp said it would be forced to leave the country if the court required traceability, as doing so would mean breaking end-to-end encryption. It’s a common stance for encrypted chat services generally, and WhatsApp has made this threat before — most notably in a protracted legal fight in Brazil that res ..read more

I think this “May the Fourth” nonsense has gotten out of hand but this commercial from Apple is chef’s kiss. So fun. (Via Dan Moren, who points out a bunch of Easter eggs.)  ★  ..read more

From Six Colors’s transcript of Apple’s financial results conference call: Keep in mind, as we described on the last call, in the March quarter a year ago, we were able to replenish iPhone channel inventory and fulfill significant pent-up demand from the December quarter COVID-related supply disruptions on the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. We estimate this one-time impact added close to $5 billion to the March quarter revenue last year. If we removed this from last year’s results, our March quarter total company revenue this year would have grown. Despite this impact, we were still able to de ..read more

My recent focus on the European Union’s DMA and the notion that, if the EU pushes too hard, Apple might pull back from sales in the EU, had me looking at how the company defines the “Europe” segment in its financial reporting. On the surface one might think that Apple’s “Europe” is just the EU plus the United Kingdom and Norway. But it’s actually much bigger than that: it’s all of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India. (Last I checked Africa is a pretty big continent, and India a pretty populous country.) Today’s financial report for Q2 FY2024 got me wondering how exactly defines its othe ..read more

Apple Newsroom: Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2024 second quarter ended March 30, 2024. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $90.8 billion, down 4 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.53. Net sales year-over-year by product (from Apple’s consolidated statement): Percentage Dollars iPhone -10% -$5.4B Mac +4% +$0.3B iPad -17% -$1.1B Wearables, etc. -10% -$0.8B Services +14% +3.0B And by region: Percentage Dollars Americas -1% -$0.5B Europe +1% +$0.2B Greater China -8% -$1.4B Japan -13% -$0.9B Rest ..read more

Federico Viticci returns to the show to discuss MacStories’s 15th anniversary, Apple’s upcoming “Let Loose” keynote for new iPad hardware, and more. Sponsored by: Nuts.com: The world’s best snacks, delivered fast and fresh. Trade Coffee: The best coffee is made at home. Enjoy a free bag of roasted-to-order coffee and $15 off select plans when you join Trade. Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.  ★  ..read more