Apple News will launch a real-time election results hub on November 6

Apple is preparing to launch a new way for its customers to track election results. The company, on 8 PM ET on November 6, will swap out the existing Midterm Elections section in the Apple News app, and replace it with a new Election Night section instead. This section will also replace Apple News’ Digest tab at the bottom-center of the app, in order to lead users directly to the special section where they’ll be able to track the live results, updates on key races, latest developments and more.

The company is partnering with the Associated Press for its real-time election results, as do many news organizations thanks to AP’s history and experience with verifying results.

Here, Apple will use that AP data to inform a number of dynamic infographics as well as offer a complete list of federal election results in every state, including House and Senate seats.

These results will update every minute, or you can just “refresh” the page manually to force the update at any time.

If the balance of power in either the House or the Senate is determined by way of the incoming results, Apple News will publish a special alert at the top of the feed and a pop up notification, as well.

The Key Races section, meanwhile, offers another set of live updating infographics, showing the live results from the most interesting House, Senate or Gubernatorial races.

Another section will focus on the latest developments – meaning breaking news headlines and stories related to election night coverage. This will feature news from a variety of sources including Axios, Politico, The Washington Post, Fox News, CNN, The New York Times, CBS, and others.

CBS News, CNN, and Fox News will also contribute video clips to the Election Night hub, while ABC will offer a live video feed. Another live video feed from NBC News will appear in a widget alongside the Live Results infographic.

Apple says users won’t have to authenticate with their TV provider on election night to watch the videos in the hub.

A diversity of news sources was important to Apple, which wanted to have a range of options for people to read, as well as a way to present the news so people could see how it’s being processed across the ideological spectrum.

More importantly, all the news coverage in the hub isn’t being driven by algorithms. For Apple News’ team, Election Night is an all-hands-on-deck type of situation involving real human editors. In fact, human editorial oversight is a key difference between Apple’s approach to news aggregation and curation, compared with competitors like Google, Twitter and Facebook – all of which have come under fire for their outsized roles in the spread of information, and, at times, disinformation.

Apple has been taking the opposite approach, by staffing up an editorial team of former journalists, insteading of leaving news curation to technology.

Apple News is available across iPhone, iPad, and as of this year, Mac devices.

 

 

 

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Apple will stop sharing numbers on how many devices it’s selling

Apple shared its latest quarterly earnings report today, but during its call with investors the company’s CFO Luca Maestri also delivered an unexpected announcement: it won’t be sharing unit sales of its iPhone, iPad or Mac anymore.

This gives analysts (and the public) one less item to determine the health of the company, but according to Apple’s leadership, devices sold aren’t a very good indication of the company’s financial health anymore because the company is selling devices at so many price points.

“Our product ranges for all the major product categories have become wider over time and therefore a unit of sale is less relevant for us at this point compared to the past because we’ve got these much wider sales prices dispersion,” Maestri said in the call. “So unit of sale per se becomes less relevant”

The move perhaps reflects just how much Apple’s pricing has stretched toward the high-end in the past year.

The iPhone XS Max starts at $1,099, the Apple Watch Series 4 starts at $399, the new iPad Pro starts at $799 and the new MacBook Air starts at $1,199. The company is keeping prices pretty consistent on the low-end for iPhone and iPad as it continues to sell older units; that isn’t as true of Mac, which has seen a fairly uniform price bump in the most recent generations of devices (with a $4,999 iMac Pro rounding out the high end).

Unit sales tell a small part of the story. While Apple shipping 46.89 million iPhones this quarter represented flat unit growth, the company’s iPhone revenues jumped 29 percent. That’s because the average sale price of the iPhone went from $793 versus $618 a year ago.

Maestri noted in the call that some of the company’s biggest competitors in smartphone and tablet sales (Google, Samsung) do not break out unit sales in their quarterly earnings reports either. Nevertheless, more data on a company’s performance is better for analysts, so the lack of transparency from Apple here leaves some room for speculation on why they’re making this change now.

Apple beats on Q4 earnings thanks to price hikes, stock still falls 7% after-hours

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Apple beats on Q4 earnings thanks to price hikes, stock still falls 4% after-hours

Despite a beat on its Q4 quarterly earnings, Apple shares still managed to take a beating Thursday.

Shares are down 4 percent in after-hours trading after the company released its Q4 quarterly earnings report, detailing $62.90 billion in revenue beating analyst expectations of $61.57 billion, with earnings per share hitting $2.91 beating an expected $2.78 EPS. The results represent a 20 percent year-over-year growth in revenues at the company.

Apple shipped 46.89 million iPhones this quarter with unit sales staying flat but revenue jumping 29 percent, a result of Apple’s strategy this past year to hike prices of their most high-end devices. The company shipped 9.7 million iPads (a 6 percent decrease YoY with a 15 percent revenue decrease) and 5.3 million Macs (a 2 percent decrease YoY).

Beyond wrenching more money from users with hardware upgrades, Apple has continued the trend of pulling more revenue from user services like Apple Music, Apple Care and iCloud. The company reported that its Services division reached an all-time-high of $10 billion in revenue, climbing 17 percent year-over-year.

It’s been a rough past few weeks for the Nasdaq, tech stocks have been floundering though Apple has weathered the storm far better than most on the heels of several new hardware announcements. Earlier this week, the company introduced new models of the iPad Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Mini at an event in New York. This comes on the heels of the release of three new iPhone models and a redesign of the Apple Watch.

Over the past several months, the company has been bumping the prices of its newest devices promoting a broader spread between their older releases and newest devices. The iPhone XS Max starts at $1,099, the Apple Watch Series 4 starts at $399, the new iPad Pro starts at $799 and the new MacBook Air starts at $1,199.

We’ll have more details later this afternoon during the company’s investor call.

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Google walkout organizer: ‘I hope I still have a career in Silicon Valley after this’

Shouting “women’s rights are worker’s rights” and a number of other #TimesUp and #MeToo chants, upwards of 1,000 Google employees gathered in San Francisco’s Harry Bridges Plaza Thursday to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment and misconduct cases.

Staffers from all of Google’s San Francisco offices were in attendance. An organizer, who declined to be named, told TechCrunch there were 1,500 Google employees across the globe that participated in the 48-hour effort to arrange a worldwide walkout. The effort was a major success. More than 3,000 Googlers and supporters of the movement attended the New York City walkout alone. As many as 1,000 Googlers and others came out for the San Francisco walkout, which the organizers said, was double the number they expected.

Cathay Bi, a Google employee in San Francisco and one of the walkout organizers, told a group of journalists at the rally that she was conflicted with participating in the walkout and ultimately decided not to go public with her own story of sexual harassment.

“I experienced sexual harassment at Google and I didn’t feel safe talking about it,” said Bi, pictured above. “That feeling of not being safe is why I’m out here today. I’d love it if everyone felt safe talking about it.”

[gallery ids="1740837,1740838,1740839,1740841,1740840,1740843,1740845"]

“There were many times over the course of the last 24 hours that I emailed the group and said ‘I’m not doing this because I’m scared’ but that fear is something everyone else feels,” she said. “I said to myself last night, I hope I still have a career in Silicon Valley after this.”

Other organizers declined to go on the record.

There were protests around the globe today, including in London, Dublin, Montreal, Singapore, New York City, San Francisco and Cambridge, following a New York Times investigation that revealed Google had given Android co-creator Andy Rubin a $90 million exit package despite multiple relationships with other Google staffers and credible accusations of sexual misconduct. That story, coupled with tech’s well-established issue of harassment and discrimination toward women and underrepresented minorities, was a catalyst for today’s rallies.

At the rally, Googlers read off their list of demands, which includes an end to forced arbitration in cases of harassment and discrimination, a commitment to end pay and opportunity inequity and a clear, inclusive process for reporting sexual misconduct safely and anonymously.

They’re also requesting that the search giant promote chief diversity officer Danielle Brown to a role in which she reports directly to chief executive officer Sundar Pichai, as well as the addition of an employee representative to the company’s board of directors.

Here’s the statement from Pichai Google provided to TechCrunch this morning: “Earlier this week, we let Googlers know that we are aware of the activities planned for today and that employees will have the support they need if they wish to participate. Employees have raised constructive ideas for how we can improve our policies and our processes going forward. We are taking in all their feedback so we can turn these ideas into action.”

Now, employees around the Globe will await Google’s highly-anticipated course of “action.”

“These types of changes don’t happen overnight,” Bi said. “If we expected them overnight we would have the wrong expectations of how these movements take place.”

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Google employees across the globe are walking out now to protest sexual harassment

Google employees are fed up with the search giant’s lack of transparency when it comes to handling sexual harassment and misconduct allegations.

This morning, thousands of Googlers from San Francisco to Dublin are walking out in hopes of bringing real change to the company. The protest follows a New York Times report last week that revealed Google had provided Android co-creator Andy Rubin a $90 million payout package despite credible allegations of sexual misconduct made against him.

The protestors have five key asks:

1. An end to forced arbitration in cases of harassment and discrimination.
2. A commitment to end pay and opportunity inequity.
3. A publicly disclosed sexual harassment transparency report.
4. A clear, uniform, globally inclusive process for reporting sexual misconduct safely and anonymously.
5. Elevate the chief diversity officer to answer directly to the chief executive officer and make recommendations directly to the board of directors. And appoint an employee representative to the board.

Plans of the walkout emerged earlier this week, just days after the bombshell NYT report was released. According to BuzzFeed, some 200 Googlers began staging the protest; the group quickly grew to thousands, including non-U.S. Googlers. Google CEO Sundar Pichai had reportedly condoned the protest in an internal e-mail to employees Tuesday.

“Earlier this week, we let Googlers know that we are aware of the activities planned for today and that employees will have the support they need if they wish to participate,” Pichai said in a statement provided to TechCrunch today. “Employees have raised constructive ideas for how we can improve our policies and our processes going forward. We are taking in all their feedback so we can turn these ideas into action.”

Pichai also responded to the NYT report with a letter co-signed by vice president of people operations Eileen Naughton, admitting that 48 people had been terminated at the company for sexual harassment in the past two years alone, including 13 senior employees.

We’ll be at the San Francisco protest, which begins at 11:10 a.m. PST. Here’s a look at protestors around the globe this morning.

The #googlewalkout in Zurich has impressive numbers! @googlewalkout pic.twitter.com/bgLHDLYfez

— Ted (@TedOnPrivacy) November 1, 2018

Google employees in Montreal have gathered up the street from their office on the campus of McGill University – #GoogleWalkout @GoogleWalkout – No one willing to speak on the record, but one explaining that the action says it all. pic.twitter.com/lB8siMeWMj

— Elias Makos (@eliasmakos) November 1, 2018

#GoogleWalkout Cambridge — seems like the whole office is here. Can't get a photo that accurately expresses the magnitude. pic.twitter.com/94rIbQJ9Ls

— mc #YesOn3 millen (@mcmillen) November 1, 2018

More signs from Google NYC’s pre-walkout sign making! #GoogleWalkout pic.twitter.com/4hjTJaHtqS

— Google Walkout For Real Change (@GoogleWalkout) November 1, 2018

Google NYC #GoogleWalkout pic.twitter.com/5BJ0u5EZCJ

— Google Walkout For Real Change (@GoogleWalkout) November 1, 2018

#GoogleWalkout Dublin. pic.twitter.com/joL1uHGavJ

— Ciara O'Brien (@ciaraobrien) November 1, 2018

The first of many coordinated #GoogleWalkout protests has begun – this is at the firm’s office in Singapore. (Pic via https://t.co/h44RZYGGHV ) pic.twitter.com/QeFgmPbHnN

— Dave Lee (@DaveLeeBBC) November 1, 2018

Hello from Google in London. A groups just came out for the #googlewalkout pic.twitter.com/nTeZ9rSAKC

— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) November 1, 2018

Google terminated 48 employees for sexual harassment in the last two years

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Fitbit earnings beat expectations on strength of smartwatch sales

Fitbit is slowly righting its financial ship, courtesy of a successful push into smartwatch category. The wearable company reported a profit (when adjusted for items such as stock-based compensation) thanks to growing sales in the new category.   

Total revenues rose slightly to $393.6 million in the third quarter compared with the same period last year. The company did report a loss this quarter under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). But it was rosier than in previous quarters and showed that Fitbit is moving in the right direction. Net losses narrowed considerably to $2.1 million from $113.4 million this time last year. A good deal of the company’s revenue is being driven by the shift to smartwatches, which now comprise around half of Fitbit’s total revenue.

It’s a gamble that’s finally starting to pay off for the company. Fitbit launched its first smartwatch in August of last year. The Ionic was the result of three high-profile acquisitions: Pebble, Coin and Vector. It was an ambitious product that found the company embracing the one bright spot in an otherwise stagnant wearables market.

What felt like an extremely expensive Hail Mary for the company was ultimately bogged down by poor reviews (including one on this site), thanks to poor industrial design, among other issues. In an interview with TechCrunch earlier this year, CEO James Park admitted that the Ionic ultimately wasn’t a mainstream device. “It was a performance-oriented product,” Park said at the time. “That audience is much smaller than a mass appeal device.”

Its followup, the Versa, however, address many of the biggest complaints plaguing the Ionic, and has clearly proven a hit for Fitbit.

This is the first time the company has posted adjusted profitability since Q3 of 2016. Of the 3.5 million wearables it sold this quarter, 49 percent were smartwatches. Fitbit’s combined smartwatch sales currently put it in the number two position in the U.S., behind only Apple. It seems the company’s gamble is beginning to pay off.

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Consumers spent $329M on the top 10 subscription video apps last quarter

Last year, the top subscription video apps like Netflix and Hulu raked in a combined $781 million, and that trend is showing no sign of slowing down in 2018. In the third quarter of 2018, U.S. consumers spent an estimated $329 million in the top 10 subscription video-on-demand apps across the App Store and Google Play — a figure that’s up 15 percent from the $285 million spent in Q1.

The data is the latest in a new report from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, which has been following the growth of subscription video apps for some time. Last year, for example, it found that Netflix’s app topped the charts in terms of revenue, when compared with all the other non-game apps on the market.

Netflix hasn’t fallen from its top-ranked position, the new data shows. In fact, it’s continuing to grow.

The app pulled in an estimated $132 million in consumer spending across the app stores in Q3, which is up 78 percent from the $74 million spent in the third quarter of 2017.

However, Hulu is now growing faster, the report found. It saw subscription revenue jump 86 percent to $39 million, up from $21 million a year ago.

It seems some consumers may have made the move to Hulu thanks to the extra cash they had on hand, thanks to dropping their HBO subscription.

The only subscription video app that saw revenue decline in Q3 was HBO NOW, which took in $41 million in the quarter, down 40 percent from the $68 million in Q3 2017. But notably absent this quarter was the network’s biggest draw, “Game of Thrones,” which had been airing at this time last year. A drop was expected.

The top-grossing chart of these subscription video apps for Q3 2018 looks very similar to last year’s in terms of the apps included, and sometimes, even their rankings.

But two services made moves, the report says.

YouTube TV jumped from $3 million in the year-ago quarter to $16 million in Q3 on Apple’s App Store, thanks to its expanded market penetration and consumer adoption. And ESPN Live Sports, which added in-app subscriptions in Q2, grossed $4.6 million in the third quarter, up 119 percent from Q2.

Even CBS is doing well, despite the fact that not everyone loves the new “Star Trek.”

Still, it appears CBS made a good move by betting on fans’ devotion to the franchise, as U.S. consumers spent $6 million in the app in Q3 2018, up 50 percent from the $4 million spent in Q3 2017.

The report’s data includes subscription revenues only, not refunds or in-app advertising revenues, Sensor Tower notes.

The broad increases in consumer spending on these video apps is yet another example of the significant and growing subscription business — much of which is taking place on mobile. Subscriptions accounted for $10.6 billion in consumer spend on the App Store in 2017, and are poised to grow to $75.7 billion by 2022, an earlier report found.

However, the top subscription apps aren’t all video apps. Others that consistently rank highly in the U.S. include Tinder, Spotify and Pandora, for example. Currently, the top-grossing chart for the App Store includes a number of non-games, like Netflix (No. 1), YouTube (No. 2), Tinder (No. 3), Pandora (No. 4), Hulu (No. 7), and Bumble (No. 8).

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