Apple has strongest-ever March quarter Apple exceeded all expectations in its fiscal second quarter, exceeding Street estimates on revenue, Mac and iPod sales. Apple posted revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $5.26 billion and net quarterly profit of $770 million, or $0.87 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Consensus estimates had pointed to $6.96 billion in revenue, 2 million Mac sales, 10 million iPod and 1.7 million iPhone sales in the quarter. Apple exceeded these expectations. Apple shipped 2,289,000 Macs, representing 51 per cent unit growth and 54 per cent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. It sold 10,644,000 iPods during the quarter, representing one per cent unit growth and eight per cent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone sales were 1,703,000. Gross margin was 32.9 per cent, down from 35.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 per cent of the quarter’s revenue. “We’re delighted to report 43 per cent revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With over $17 billion in revenue for the first half of our fiscal year, we have strong momentum to launch some terrific new products in the coming quarters.” “We’re thrilled to have generated $4 billion in cash flow from operations in the first half of fiscal 2008, yielding an ending cash balance of $19.4 billion,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the third quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $7.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.00.” Apple's estimates for Q3 slightly exceed Wall Street consensus estimates, which were pegged at around $7.16 billion for the quarter. Apple provided live streaming of its Q2 2008 financial results conference call.

			ITV programmes now available on iTunes Enjoy the best in award-winning drama, comedy, entertainment and cult classics from ITV on the iTunes Store. UK customers can now download complete series of classic ITV shows like Cold Feet, Brideshead Revisited and Captain Scarlet. “We want to give viewers the opportunity to watch their favourite shows wherever they are”, says Dawn Airey, Managaging Director of ITV global content. “ITV has thousands of hours of classic content in the archive which we are bringing to a whole new audience via iTunes”. Watch out for more great additions coming soon on iTunes.

			Join the team at the Apple Store in Bristol Apple is now recruiting for an upcoming retail store located in Bristol City Centre. If you’re looking for a rewarding environment in which to build your career using your special skills and talents, and if working at Apple has always been your dream job, then you might just be one of the passionate individuals we’re looking for

			Apple ships fourth version of iPhone SDK Apple adds support for Open GL ES to iPhone SDK Jonny Evans Apple has released the fourth version of its iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) . A note on Apple's developer website explains: "The fourth beta version of the iPhone SDK includes Xcode IDE, iPhone simulator with Open GL ES support, Interface Builder, Instruments, frameworks and samples, compilers, and Shark analysis tool."

			Microsoft may abandon Yahoo deal - Ballmer Microsoft may abandon its $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo Jeremy Kirk Microsoft gave its first hint that it may abandon its $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo, as it approaches the deadline for a threatened proxy battle to oust Yahoo's board. At a conference in Milan on Wednesday, CEO Steve Ballmer said Microsoft is "prepared to move forward without merging with Yahoo," according to a transcript provided by the company. Ballmer again repeated that acquiring Yahoo is essential for enabling Microsoft to succeed in the online advertising business, where both companies have been chasing Google. "Today Google has the lead, there's no doubt about it and I wanna make sure that they have plenty of competition," Ballmer said. "We think the best way to move that forward quickly is to come together with Yahoo. I hope that it works, but if it doesn't we go forward alone." Ballmer's comments come as Yahoo is facing a Microsoft-imposed deadline of Saturday for accepting the deal. Ballmer warned earlier this month that Microsoft would then try to replace Yahoo's board of directors in order to take the bid directly to Yahoo's shareholders. Yahoo has maintained it has considered the offer but claims it undervalues the company. Both companies have traded sharp barbs in successive public letters over the deal. Since Microsoft's offer became public in February, Yahoo has scrambled to portray itself as a nimble company with potential and improving financial performance. On Tuesday, Yahoo reported net income of $542 million, or $0.37 per share, for its first quarter of 2008. That's up from $142 million, or $0.10 per share, from the same period a year earlier. Yahoo has courted other suitors, including Time Warner's AOL, as a possible merger partner in order to fend off Microsoft. Yahoo also struck a deal with Microsoft's arch nemesis, Google, to display Google's text ads next to Yahoo searches for a trial period of around two weeks.. Further complicating the deal were rumours that Microsoft was in talks with News Corp., owner of the Wall Street Journal and the social networking site MySpace, to make a joint bid for Yahoo.

			Visual Hub with Dave in Oz

			Usenet Part 2 RAR Files RAR format is the compression format that became the norm for newsgroups because of its ability to split up and archive. You will find that RAR files are numbered and should break up a file into matching sizes, except the final part, which will be whatever size is left my the archiving process.

			Hi Will I am still loving your podcast.  Knowing your love of Widgets I thought that you might enjoy this one. http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/justforfun/eyes2homeriswatchingyou.html Yours in fun. The forum cat. +++++++++++++++++ Hi Will. I finally have got round to emailing you my suggestion for a frankenwidget plugin that's been around for a while but I couldn't live without it.  It's the 'guitarchords' plugin made by wubbahed.com.  Basically it allows you to play, via midi, any guitar chord sound that you can think of.  It also allows you to work out how to play that chord in any place on the neck, so that when you're working out a musical progression but you suddenly realise that you're not a full blown guitar God like Jimi Page or Steve Vai you can work out which chord will work with what. It's got me out of several creative holes writing wise so I thought I'd share the love with any other british mac listeners.  They can check out any of my songs on www.lastfm.com and search for Sam Mangan, or go to my website at: http://web.mac.com/samboway/Sam_Mangan_-_Musician/Entrance_-_Sam_Mangan_.html Also, if you still would like me to contribute anything to the podcast in terms of tips for creative professionals when it comes to editing using Final Cut Studio etc I'd still be up for it. Best regards, Sam Mangan samboway@mac.com

			Also, if you're looking for another site to feature in the photo gallery section of the British Mac podcast you might like to visit mine at www.gavingough.com. I'm a travel photographer and you can see a few examples of my work there. Lastly, the pub featured on the "Mac and Mouse" part of your web site is, as I'm sure you know, the Square and Compass at Worth Matravers. Arguably the very best pub in the world, I am sure you will agree. I'll be down there this weekend so if you're in the area and fancy a pint of Guinness... Cheers! Gavin GAVIN GOUGH PHOTOGRAPHY

			Joke from Dave in Oz

			Hi Will. Sounds wonderful.  You are more than welcome to use some of my music in the podcast which is very kind of you.  I'm very happy to contribute to the podcast on a regular basis.  We'll need to work out how to title it correctly for the full on 'British Mac feel'.  Maybe some kind of title that reflects films / TV with a mac kinda twist. Once again, thanks for offering to promote my music.  It's also worth mentioning that any aspiring musicians who want to be able to write with other musicians but can't get into a band then iCompositions is where I have met many people from around the world and have written with people across 4 other countries!!!  We're just finishing another one up at the moment which has two Americans, myself (a brit) and a German as well.  You just couldn't do that 10 years ago (when I used to use an old oil heater for a drum kit!!!!!) Best regards, Sam Mangan samboway@mac.com

			Hi Will I certainly did hear the podcast and many thanks for answering my audio question. It makes a lot more sense to me now and I understand why my little Skype headset won't work. Time to get a bit more serious audio-wise I think. I love the story about you falling off the piano stool at the Square and Compass. It's funny how life can be quite circular sometimes. We've both been drinking in there for more years than probably either of us would like to admit to although I can't claim the honour of having camped in the garden. And now I'm listening to the podcast on which you'll mention my web site in the Gallery (for which, many thanks). OK, it's probably not a coincidence to beat all other coincidences but there's a nice synchronicity about it. I'm probably not doing any more photo tours in Dorset for a while as I'm moving to Bangkok next month with a view to running photo tours and workshops in South-East Asia, India and Nepal. If you think British Mac listeners might be interested then they can sign up for my newsletter on my web site. However, when I come back to Blighty I'll definitely be keen to get back to Swanage and to have a beer at Worth Matravers so I'll see what you're up to. Perhaps we can re-live your piano stool acrobatics. What a fine sight that would be. A British Mac adventure game? Genius! I can't wait. Will it involve drinking lots of Guinness? I sincerely hope so. Thanks Will. Keep up the good work. I'm just about to open a beer so here's to you, British Mac and the Square and Compass, splendidly eccentric British institutions all! Cheers! Gavin

			Hi Will, Been listening for a few months now. I think part of the charm of the pod cast is imagining how it confuses listeners from the U.S. To that end I would like to nominate my favour British icon "Alec Clifton Taylor". I don't know if you remember him but it must be about 25 years ago when he had several TV series on architecture. He had a habit of standing to one side of the picture and leaning into the frame. He was a gentle academic with strong opinions expressed in a most understated low key manner.   For me his classic quote sees him standing in front of a house with a large picture window and saying:- "if you should inherit a nice little house, and want to ruin it, and ruin it completely, this is what you do."   Can you imaging the owners being asked permission to film out side their house and then seeing that? Anyway keep up the good work, now only another 6 hours before I can go home, rid my self of windows and play with my Mac. P.S. My first Mac was in 1984 (I still have that one)   Mike Cook