Jim and Merlin… wait, no, Gruber. Jim and John Gruber talk about the iPhone SE, iPad Pro, and Apple Watch.

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Rene Ritchie and Jason Snell put together a transcript of Apple’s earnings call today.

Apple on Tuesday reported revenue of $50.6 billion and quarterly net income of $10.5 billion. These results are down from revenue of $58 billion and net income of $13.6 billion, or $2.33 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. […]

FBI Director James Comey said on Tuesday that his agency was still assessing whether a vulnerability used to unlock an iPhone linked to one of the San Bernardino killers would go through a government review to determine if it should be disclosed to Apple or the public.

I’d be shocked if they disclosed the flaw to Apple or the public. If this is the only way they have to get into these phones, they have no reason to disclose the flaw.

Still to this day, the pummeling grooves of John Bonham, Ian Paice, Keith Moon and Bill Ward continue to inspire writers and underline the fact that in classic rock, the drums are – and should be – loud, obnoxious and play as much of a leading part as anything else in a song.

I have quite a few of these drum groove libraries from Toontrack. They do a great job with them and I’ll be adding this one to my collection.

I interviewed former Apple CEO John Sculley on April 11th, an insightful and enjoyable experience. While the interview was ostensibly centered around his 2014 book Moonshot! (on Amazon and iBooks), Mr. Sculley also shared anecdotes about his time at Apple experiences with the late Steve Jobs, some of which I hadn’t previously heard.

Great interview. You can read it or listen to the audio.

Screens is a beautiful, yet powerful Screen Sharing and VNC client that lets you connect back to your Mac, Windows or Linux PC from the comfort of your living room, the corner coffee shop or anywhere in the world.

I do love this app.

Bid now on this opportunity to have lunch with Apple CEO Tim Cook on campus in Cupertino, California, and to be his guest at an Apple keynote event!

Tim, we should really do lunch sometime soon.

Appleton announced that she was leaving Box in a Medium post last week. Today she said on Facebook that she had joined Apple, but didn’t elaborate on the nature of the job. “Officially an Apple employee. Excited for this adventure!” she wrote.

Good move.

The Beard Bash has become an annual event at WWDC, and it has been wildly successful for the last four years. This year, in conjunction with iMore, we are building on that success and we’re stepping it up a few notches.

First, we’ve moved the party to The Mezzanine in San Francisco, one of the city’s finest live music venues. We will also have two bands this year. The party will kick off with a San Francisco staple of rock music, The Department of Rock. This band is a lot of fun and they have an incredible setlist.

The party’s headlining band will be familiar to many of you: Airplane Mode, an indie rock band from New York City. Known for their heavy use of Apple products on-stage, founding members (Dave Wiskus and Joe Cieplinski) have strong ties to the iOS developer community.

The party will be on Monday, June 13, 2016 from 8:00-11:00 pm and we will have free beer and wine available. You must be 21 to attend, and you will be asked to show ID at the door.

Unlike previous years, we will not be sending out invitations for the party. Instead, we will be opening up the invite list to everyone. You will have to RSVP and show that at the door. So, if you’re attending WWDC and want to attend the party, you’re welcome to come. We’ll be opening the RSVP list later this week, so be prepared to sign-up quickly.

We have a couple of great sponsors for this years Beard Bash including Pixelmator, along with MacPaw, and of course, iMore. We thank them for their support for this fun event.

We hope you’ll attend the party and enjoy a few of the surprises that are in store for you.

Nothing will ever top Cookie Monster, but these are good.

Major Peake, who ran the 26.2-mile course in three hours, 18 minutes and 50 seconds on earth back in 1999, saw the roads pass under his feet in real time on an iPad.

I thought this was a cool trick to get your kick drum and bass together in the mix. I’m going to try this out.

Since Prince’s sudden death, speculation has mounted over the trove of unreleased music he left behind: how much of it there really is, when it may emerge and who will get to make decisions about what happens to it.

But nearly as much uncertainty hangs over his existing body of work, which has been largely unavailable on many of the most popular online services, including Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.

I wonder what the person who ultimately has control will do.

On Friday, the Department of Justice said in a filing that it would no longer seek a court order to compel Apple to help it unlock a Brooklyn drug dealer’s iPhone.

In a letter sent to Judge Margo K. Brodie of the Eastern Distict of New York, who had been considering the government request, U.S. attorneys said that an unnamed individual had provided the device’s pass code and that “the government used that pass code by hand and gained access to the iPhone.”

Still not over.

In the race to develop self-driving cars, the United States and Europe lead in technology, but China is coming up fast in the outside lane with a regulatory structure that could put it ahead in the popular adoption of autonomous cars on its highways and city streets.

I’m not surprised at all. This is going to be an interesting battle over the next 5 years or so.

Apple:

Starting June 1, 2016, all new watchOS apps submitted to the App Store must be native apps built with the watchOS 2 SDK or later.

Yes. Please.

This is one of my favorite Dio songs. Such a simple beat, but damn this song rocks.

“Microsoft has agreed to withdraw its regulatory complaints against Google, reflecting our changing legal priorities. We will continue to focus on competing vigorously for business and for customers,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email.

Google, in a separate email, said the companies would want to compete vigorously based on the merits of their products, not in “legal proceedings”.

Dan Moren:

But. My chief frustration—and what keeps me from using more of the service’s functionality—is that the only way to get at the features is via my computer or iOS apps. I can’t stream any of this content where I watch most things: my TV.

That may be changing, though.

I read Dan’s piece with a lot of interest. This could be a great app for a lot of people on Apple TV. Comcast seems to want to do something to get the FCC off its back, and this could be it.

Marco Arment:

While a good search-ad system could benefit the App Store, customers, and many of us, nothing in Apple’s track record suggests that they’re willing or able to do this well.

But a bad search-ad system, on top of bad search, will only further damage the App Store, funnel more of our already slim margins back into Apple like a massive regressive tax, and erode customers’ confidence in installing new apps.

I’ll be honest: I can’t imagine a scenario where this would go well.

The paywalled report claims that the fighting is holding back Apple from fixing “technical problems that have plagued iCloud and iTunes,” while at least one key engineering manager is said to have departed the company over the ongoing conflict.

Political infighting is the worst.

FY 16 Second Quarter Results Apple’s second quarter earnings announcement has been rescheduled to Tuesday, April 26, at 2:00 p.m. PT/5:00 p.m. ET out of respect for the friends and family of Bill Campbell, whose memorial service will be held Monday. Apple executives and employees will be attending the service to remember Bill and his many years of friendship and service to the Apple community.

Very classy.

Reviews in the tech industry are hit or miss at best—we can all agree on that. Sometimes a review comes out that I just don’t get at all. Mashable’s review of the latest MacBook is one such review for me.

Microsoft Corp’s quarterly adjusted profit missed analysts’ estimates as a continued slump in personal computer sales hurt the company’s core Windows business, sending its shares down 4 percent in extended trading.

Bad day to report earnings.

Google’s parent Alphabet Inc reported a first-quarter adjusted profit that was lower than analysts’ estimates, as cost per clicks fell.

I believe this is only going to get worse.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said on Thursday the agency paid more to get into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters than he will make in the remaining seven years and four months he has in his job.

According to figures from the FBI and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Comey’s annual salary as of January 2015 was $183,300. Without a raise or bonus, Comey will make $1.34 million over the remainder of his job.

I have no issue with that.

Legendary musician Prince has died, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

So sad.

I’ve been waiting for this! I’m a Les Paul guy, but I think I’m going to try something different and go with the Warhammer Pelham Blue FR this time.