Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, and sold about 6 million devices in the first year. Last year when Apple introduced the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the company sold over twice as many, about 13 million devices, in just three days. As Apple has improved the iPhone year over year, the company has sold as astonishing number of devices, and of course you can now see iPhones everywhere. Apple announced this week that it has now sold over 1 billion iPhones. It was only about two years ago that Apple sold its 500 millionth iPhone. I liked how Joseph Keller of iMore tried to put that number in context: “[I]t took 27 years for one billion PCs to be sold. Disney welcomed the one billionth visitor to its theme parks after 49 years of operation, and it was 131 years before there were one billion cars driving across roads across the world.” And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Florida attorney Katie Floyd describes 10 great productivity apps.
- South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn reviews Dark Sky, one of my favorite iPhone weather apps.
- California attorney David Sparks notes on his MacSparky website that he created a series of videos teaching how to use the Drafts app.
- Jim Dalrymple of The Loop reports that Pokemon Go has set an App Store record for downloads, and that Apple has now paid out $50 billion to app developers. Seems like it was just yesterday when the App Store started in 2008. How far we’ve come.
- Jason Snell of Six Colors prepared some interesting graphs after Apple’s 2016 Q3 financial announcements and provided interesting commentary.
- Apple has slowly been taking steps into the content business. Even so, I was surprised to see that Apple bought to right to a new TV series based on the Carpool Karaoke skits of James Corden’s late night show, as reported by Cynthia Littleton of Variety.
- Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac explains how an iPhone app and an implant are giving a 9-year-old boy his hearing back.
- Chuck La Tournous explains how his Apple Watch helped to save his life, in an article for Macworld.
- And finally, Apple announced that it will sell limited edition Apple Watch nylon bands during the Olympics, with each band based on a country flag. Looks like a fun way to support your country at the Olympics and remember the experience afterwards. Here is what some of them look like. (via GQ).
