Tech News 2Night 72 (Transcript)

[Top TN2 Animation ] Tonight, Surprise! Apple made billions but has the company peaked?, Facebook's earnings aren't too shabby either, Amazon Prime adds HBO, and is the FCC destroying net neutrality? Tech News 2Night is Next! [TWiT Open] [Main TN2 Open] This is Tech News 2Night Episode 72, for Wednesday April 23, 2014 I'm Sarah Lane, Let's get right to the Tech Feed! It was a big day for earnings reports, but let's start alphabetically. Apple has released its fiscal Q2 2014 earnings, reporting $45.6 billion in revenue, and $10.2 billion in net profit representing $11.62 per share. Compared to the year-ago quarter, that's a growth of 4.6 percent in revenue, and 15.2 percent in earnings per share. [INTERVIEW] Mitch Wagner, West Coast Bureau Chief, Light Reading - analysts and Apple anticipated flat quarter, mostly due to slight decline in iPad sales, slight increase in iPhone sales. But Apple performed better than anticipated. iPhone sales up 16.8%. better international performance esp. in China? shares jumped 7%. is it still doom and gloom for apple's future? -What does the future look like for Apple? Some have said Apple has stopped growing, iPad fatigue. What do you say to that? -Former CEO John Sculley told CNBC that Apple needs to prove it can make ""creative leaps"". -There is buzz about new products on the horizon from Apple: iWatch, larger iPhone, etc. Will this keep Apple from plateauing? / Siri may be expanding out of idevices and into your living room. Code in Apple’s iOS 7.1 software suggests that Apple is considering voice support for its Apple TV settopbox. Code referencing "Assistant" — the iOS name for Siri — shows Apple TV alongside the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices, all of which already support Siri. / Facebook's got a big milestone to report - In its first-quarter earnings today, the company announced it now hosts more than one billion users visiting its site on mobile devices every month. Facebook also posted a profit of 34 cents on earnings of $2.5 billion, which beat analysts' estimates. Compared to the same quarter a year ago; revenue is up 72 percent. Mobile is going strong for Facebook - the company makes 59% of its advertising revenue from mobile devices, up from 53% the previous quarter and much higher than from 30% the year ago quarter. Shares of Facebook were up 2% at $62.50 in after-hours trading. / A day ahead of its Q1 earnings report, Amazon has announced it now has streaming rights to a number of HBO series and will make them available through Prime Instant Video starting May 21st. The company also said that it will add HBO Go to its recently launched streaming video box, Fire TV — “targeting a launch by year-end," though no official date as of yet. Re/code reports that Amazon is paying HBO more than $300 million over the course of the three-year term, according to multiple people familiar with the deal. This is a first for HBO including its shows in an outside subscription streaming service, but Prime Instant Video’s selection won’t have as much content that's available through HBO Go, though, and new episodes aren’t won't be available right away, it's mostly legacy shows and HBO original movies. Prime Instant Video is available to Amazon Prime members, who pay $99 per year for unlimited two-day shipping, streaming video and access to some ebooks. / The Wall Street Journal is reporting that The Federal Communication Commission's proposal for new net neutrality rules will allow internet service providers to charge companies for preferential treatment, which effectively is the death of net neutrality. The rules will allow providers to charge companies for preferential treatment so long as they offer that treatment to all interested parties on "commercially reasonable" terms, with the FCC deciding whether the terms are reasonable on a case-by-case basis. Providers will reportedly not be able to block individual websites, but the Journal reports that some forms of discrimination will be allowed, though that will apparently not include slowing down websites. The FCC will begin to internally circulate the rules tomorrow ahead of a vote on May 15th. / Markplace of handmade goods Etsy has acquired Grand St, which sells indie electronics online. Back in February, Grand St. launched its own version of a marketplace where indie electronics companies could sell their wares. The companies say they'll keep their marketplaces separate, though Grand St.'s eight employees will join Etsy at its Brooklyn, NY headquarters. [Kicker!] and finally.. Google Maps Street View wants you to travel through time. How? Now Street View can display multiple pictures of a place taken over a span of years. Vinay Shet, Google Street View product manager, explains in a blog post: "We've gathered historical imagery from past Street View collections dating back to 2007 to create this digital time capsule of the world." Maybe not such a jump back in history yet, but hey, give Google another 10 years, or even 30 years from now, when all the streets are empty, because we've all moved to space. [good bye] That's it for this edition of Tech News 2Night. Subscribe to this show at Twit.tv/tn2, and write us at tn2@twit.tv Don't miss our morning news program, Tech News Today, tomorrow and every weekday at 10am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern. I'm Sarah Lane, thanks for watching. [Close, Cache Fly BB, Credits] [Bandwidth Billboard]