That growth was led by Apple and its blockbuster iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which captured the overwhelming majority of the industry’s profit. Android, meanwhile, was relegated to a record-low of 11 percent global smartphone profit share during the quarter.

Apple had 89 percent and Android took 11 percent. It’s hard to argue with numbers like that.

Web-only access is a free level of iCloud service that’s available to anyone, including people who don’t own or use Apple devices. It includes access to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for iCloud and 1 GB of free storage for any documents you create.

This is such a great idea.

Bloomberg:

For almost a century, Kellogg defined the American breakfast: a moment when people would be jolted out of their drowsiness—often with a stupendous serving of sugar.

The sales of 19 of Kellogg’s top 25 cereals eroded last year, according to Consumer Edge Research, a Stamford (Conn.) firm that tracks the food industry. Sales of Frosted Flakes, the company’s No. 1 brand, fell 4.5 percent.

Kellogg executives don’t expect cereal sales to return to growth this year, though they hope to slow the rate of decline and do better in 2016. But some Wall Street analysts say cereal sales may never fully recover. In Battle Creek, so-called Cereal City, that would be the equivalent of the apocalypse.

I haven’t sat down to a bowl of breakfast cereal in more than a decade but my favourite was always Apple Jacks.

Ars Technica:

The Federal Communications Commission today voted to enforce net neutrality rules that prevent Internet providers—including cellular carriers—from blocking or throttling traffic or giving priority to Web services in exchange for payment.

The most controversial part of the FCC’s decision reclassifies fixed and mobile broadband as a telecommunications service, with providers to be regulated as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. This decision brings Internet service under the same type of regulatory regime faced by wireline telephone service and mobile voice, though the FCC is forbearing from stricter utility-style rules that it could also apply under Title II.

This is a big step but the fight isn’t over yet.

Apple updated its web site today confirming it will live stream the March 9 event.

Reuters:

China has dropped some of the world’s leading technology brands from its approved state purchase lists, while approving thousands more locally made products, in what some say is a response to revelations of widespread Western cybersurveillance.

Others put the shift down to a protectionist impulse to shield China’s domestic technology industry from competition.

And:

China’s change of tack coincided with leaks by former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden in mid-2013 that exposed several global surveillance program, many of them run by the NSA with the cooperation of telecom companies and European governments.

“The Snowden incident, it’s become a real concern, especially for top leaders,” said Tu Xinquan, Associate Director of the China Institute of WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. “In some sense the American government has some responsibility for that; (China’s) concerns have some legitimacy.”

Apple continues to be a favorite among Chinese consumers, so it’s not clear how big an impact this will have on Apple’s inroads in China.

Zac Hall, writing for 9to5mac:

it’s no secret that Final Cut Pro X, the overhauled follow up to Apple’s widely used video editing software, wasn’t exactly a hit with its users when the app was first released in 2011.

A comprehensive change in the way the software functioned and a lack of legacy features from the prior version gave the app a reputation for being “iMovie Pro” rather than a true professional desktop video editor. Soon after its launch, Apple addressed the flood of criticism with an FAQ site and a promise that more features would slowly become available in the new version.

Nearly four years later, the first Hollywood film edited in Final Cut Pro X is set to be released. To showcase the movie debut and FCPX’s role in the film, Apple has launched a microsite detailing the production.

Astonishing that there’s not been a single film edited with Final Cut Pro X to hit the theaters in the last four years.

From this USA Today article:

Focus directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa choose Final Cut for a simple reason: “We wanted to do the edit in a way that was quicker,” says Ficarra.

The move produced “a lot of eye rolling and sympathetic prayers,” he adds. But the negativity about FCPX was based on “old information,” and not informed, he says.

He says the speed of the new FCPX enabled the directors and editing team to be able to cut the film as they were shooting, instead of after production wrapped. “It’s a totally different way to look at the process.”

Maybe the likening of Final Cut Pro X to an iMovie Pro is a good thing:

Many editors called the new FCPX “iMovie Pro,” when it was released, and not ready for the big leagues, but Ficarra says he likes that FCPX is easier to use, and that it’s look and feel is akin to iMovie.

“We have a whole generation of kids learning on iMovie,” he says. “They’ll be familiar with this tool when they get into the real world.”

Here’s a link to Apple’s Final Cut Pro X Focus page.

This is exactly what I’d expect from Apple—lots of room on the page with the focus being on the product, and not on a bunch of needless words. It speaks for itself.

Jim, Shawn and Dave talk about Steve Jobs, Apple Watch pricing and Roadie Tuner!

Sponsored by WALTR (Visit the link and use the code BIGBEARDSPECIAL for 33% off).

I never realized how many great beard t-shirts were out there. I need to make my own beard t-shirts.

The list of software known to use the same HTTPS-breaking technology recently found preinstalled on Lenovo laptops has risen dramatically with the discovery of at least 12 new titles, including one that’s categorized as a malicious trojan by a major antivirus provider.

Good luck Lenovo users.

Apple is very particular and thorough.

Today in Media History: In 1964, sportswriters reported that Cassius Clay was the new heavyweight boxing champion.

What a great story.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook was in Israel on Wednesday, and had a meeting with President Reuven Rivlin, as Apple is prepared to open a new office in the country.

Bloomberg Business:

Apple Inc. was told to pay $532.9 million after a federal jury said the company’s iTunes software used a Texas company’s patented inventions without permission.

Closely held Smartflash LLC, which claimed that Apple infringed three patents, was seeking $852 million in damages, while Apple said it was worth $4.5 million at most. A federal jury in Tyler, Texas, where Smartflash is based, on Tuesday rejected Apple’s arguments that it didn’t use the inventions and that the patents were invalid.

The dispute is over digital rights management and inventions related to data storage and managing access through payment systems. Smartflash claimed that iTunes used the inventions in applications such as Game Circus LLC’s Coin Dozer and 4 Pics 1 Movie. Apple pledged to appeal.

Apple’s response:

“Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented,” said Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman. “We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system.”

This one’s not over.

Joanna Stern:

Without much thought, I did what most Americans do every two years: I agreed to be locked in by a multibillion-dollar wireless company. With pricey contracts and confusing add-ons, they make it incredibly hard to leave, let alone take our phones with us. I deserve to walk around with “Property of Verizon” stamped on my forehead.

I know a lot of people that are going for the unlocked phone so they don’t have to be locked in any more. It’s more expensive upfront, but sometimes the flexibility is worth it.

Broadcast television may be now facing a similar, scary phase shift. Netflix has been making inroads among U.S. consumers for years, but its impact on the key 18-to-49-year-old demographic has so far been limited. Old habits die hard and many viewers have remained mostly loyal to habit of gorging on linear television on Thursday nights.

But the most recent numbers have some scary elements that point to a possibly massive disruption in the near term. Broadcast TV consumption among 18-to-34-year-old Americans plunged by 11% in the Christmas quarter. Ominously, audiences of young-skewing cable channels like Nickelodeon and MTV are now sliding by 14 to 17% year-on-year.

I’ll be honest, I’m more excited about a new Netflix series than I am about anything on one of the big networks.

Interesting article from John Cassidy in The New Yorker. If Apple is working on a car, I think they could give the traditional car companies more of a run than Cassidy does.

Tim Cook posted this tweet today. I still miss Steve. He would have been 60 today.

The car was from 1999, but Marc has designed a lot of transportation vehicles. Just another interesting point.

Medium:

(Apple is) in a lot of ways the story of a technology company hanging around, making interesting things, and waiting for the world to actually need what they wanted to build.

But also something to remember: narratives are bullshit. It’s the people who show up and build and keep going who ultimately write the stories that last.

Many don’t remember or know just how bad off Apple was in those days. It’s path has got to be considered the most remarkable story in the history of business.

In my previous post, I speculated that the high end Apple Watch Edition model would be priced between $3,400 and $6,800. This was purely an educated guess. Regardless of the price, the Edition models will certainly set you back a pretty penny.

Serenity Caldwell, writing for iMore:

> I understand the justification of replacing an iPhone or a Mac when they’ve become too slow or outdated for their task — at most, I’ve spent $2000-$3000 on such a device, and its cost-per-year averages out to something where I don’t feel wasteful in replacing the machine. > > Watches are different. They’re jewelry. They’re as much a fashion accessory as they are a device. And watches can have a long lifespan, if treated properly. Every watch enthusiast loves dive watches. Watches have people trained in the art of repair, keeping someone’s $20,000 timepiece from becoming a useless paperweight. > > Once Apple jumps into that price point and that industry, should it expect that users will pay $10,000 again 18-30 months down the line to replace their watch? Does the advent of digital mean we’re expected to replace our heirlooms now, rather than pass them down? I really don’t know. Maybe the Edition is truly just meant for those who look at $5000 cost-per-year of ownership as no big deal on their bank account. Companies like Vertu have made a living off those customers; why shouldn’t Apple? > > But I’d like to believe Apple is better than that. If they truly want to command the watch industry, they might take another page from watch-makers: repairability.

Read the whole article. Serenity lays out the premise of a replaceable core, an inner working that can be drag and drop replaced. Rather than laying out for a new Apple Watch every few years, is it possible that Apple will make the Apple Watch repairable/upgradeable? A solid idea.

Mark Gurman, writing for 9to5mac:

This Concierge program, spearheaded by Retail Senior Vice President Angela Ahrendts, moves away from the classic appointment model. Instead, a customer describes the issue to an Apple Store employee, who inputs the issue into an updated iPad application. Using a special algorithm, the application provides the customer a wait time based on issue priorities. For example, a customer seeking an iPhone screen replacement will automatically be placed higher in the queue than a customer seeking help with a minor iCloud issue.

Once you are in the queue, the new process will send you a sequence of three iMessage/SMS notifications:

• An initial text message confirming the Genius Bar request and providing the wait time
• A text message telling the customer to start heading back to the Apple Store
• A final text message telling the customer that their technician is ready to help and where they can be located in the store

Given that the vast majority of Apple Stores are in malls or adjacent to high traffic shopping areas, this would give you the chance to walk in, get on the queue, then take care of other nearby errands.

For the time being, Apple Store Genius Bar appointments that are booked online will remain mostly unchanged and will not gain the text message-based system that will replace walk-in appointments.

Question is, will a timed, online appointment place you at the front of the queue if you arrive on time?

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Jim’s Note: I had the opportunity to test djay Pro for Mac and loved it. I’m still using it.

A handy bit of info from Apple’s support site, just in case you ever need it.

I’ve been watching this robot tuner for quite some time. I decided to take the plunge this morning and give it a try.