1. Apple announced record-breaking profit
Do you know someone that owns the iPhone 6 or the 6 Plus? The answer is probably yes, seeing as Apple has sold 74.5 million iPhones since its release in September. That is a staggering demand for just three months of sales.
This result means that Apple has achieved the highest quarterly profit ever made by a public company. Their net profit is £11.8bn, which beats the previous profit made by ExxonMobil in the second quarter of 2012.
Apple will certainly be celebrating this result, however they have suffered a 22% loss in sales for iPads, probably owing to the popularity of the iPhone 6 plus. After all, the iPhone 6 Plus is almost like a mini, mini iPad!
2. CES 2015 welcomed the “third age of technology”
Speaking of gadgets, this month hosted the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This four-day event saw more than 20,000 new gadgets and tech trends revealed, much to the excitement of the 150,000 tech enthusiasts in attendance.
Highlights included:
– Health and fitness gadgets were inserted seamlessly into clothes and could measure heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tone.
– Samsung stated they would ensure all of their products were interconnected in the next five years with Samsung’s UK Vice President claiming, “We’re entering the third age of technology.”
– Cars that drive by themselves were also very popular, with Mercedes, Audi and Nissan all showcasing cars that could pick up their driver by the touch of a smartwatch!
Encouragingly, a large number of the gadgets presented at CES are being released during 2015- watch this space!
3. Google Glass had the January Blues
There was sad news for Google Glass fans this month as it was reported that they would be halting production.
The wearable tech, which was only released in the UK in June 2014, was still a prototype when customers purchased it for £1,000. Now it looks unlikely that they will see the final product.
Fortunately Google has stated that they will not give up hope entirely, and instead will develop ‘Glass at Work’ which is for enterprises and companies. They also plan to create a new version of Glass and this will hopefully improve on the functionality and, perhaps more importantly, the price tag!
4. Twitter’s group messaging and video became a reality
After some speculation, we were delighted to hear that Twitter started to roll out their new features that promise a greater user experience.
First is group messaging, which can now be used privately as well as publicly when tweeting a small group of people. Twitter wanted to ensure that their users had a variety of ways to communicate using their social media channel.
Following this theme is the addition of video, which allows users to film and upload a video without having to leave the app. Now we can share videos of up to 30 seconds by a click on a button, meaning that our tweets can create engaging content in an instant.
5. Uber sent some US Cities a puppy-shaped delivery
This might not be technically tech related but we couldn’t help but share this adorable news from Uber. For one day only Uber delivered puppies to offices in 10 cities across the US, for a mere $30.
The event was to promote the Animal Planet television channel and their upcoming Puppy Bowl XI Special, so office workers could pay for 15 minutes of time with the puppies.
All of the dogs were also from local animal shelters and were available for adoption. The campaign for an office dog at Spindogs continues…