Alphabet’s just-released Q4 earnings has seen its stock price rise in after hours trading, resulting in the Mountain View-based company passing Apple to become the most valuable company in the world. The company’s market capitalization was $517.6 billion at close, and while the price is still fluctuating after hours, Alphabet’s market cap will be over $540 billion tomorrow if these prices hold…

At market’s close, GOOG Class C stock was trading at $752, but immediately shot up to $813, an 8% jump. It is currently trading just shy of $800. Apple has held the title of most valuable company in the world since taking over Exxon Mobil in 2011. In the weeks leading up to earnings season, however, many speculated that Alphabet could take the mantle with strong earnings.

When the markets closed today, Google had $517.6 billion market capitalization while Apple was at $538.7 billion. With the after hours valuation of more than $540 billion, though, this marks the first time since 2010 that Google has passed Apple in market cap.

In its Q4 2015 fiscal report, the company reported revenue of $21.3 billion, up 18%. Net income for Q4 2015 was $3.97 billion. Of its total revenue, advertising consisted of right about $16.3 billion, with Google’s own websites accounting for about $12.4 billion. Advertising revenue is up 17 percent year over year, while that of Google’s own sites are up 20 percent year over year. Aggregate paid clicks rose 31 percent year over year, while cost-per-click rates fell 13 percent compared to Q4 of 2014.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai also noted during Alphabet’s earnings call that Gmail now has more than 1 billion active monthly users.

As part of the Alphabet reorganization, the company now reports earnings from the core Google business and its “Other Bet” companies. To learn more about the company’s earnings check out the livestream of the call happening now.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple, GOOG, Google, market cap, most valuable company, stock, valuable

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Today marks the official kick off of Americans deciding who will be the next President of the United States with the Iowa caucuses taking place tonight. So without stepping into partisan territory, I wanted to share a few helpful tips for keeping up with the whole election season using your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Calendar

First up is a classic calendar tip for following exactly when and where everyone will be voting across the country. Some states hold caucuses while other states hold primaries, different parties often vote on different days, and U.S. territories (not just states) make the calendar.

The easiest way to keep track of when everyone votes and where is to subscribe to a calendar that already has all of this information. The New York Times has a page where you can view 2008 and 2012 winners, delegate counts, and this year’s results as they’re counted.

There’s also a full 2016 primary calendar put together that works with Google Calendar as well as Apple’s Calendar app on the Mac. You can’t subscribe from iOS, but subscribing on the Mac syncs with iPhone and iPad if you’re using iCloud. Here’s how:

1. Launch Calendar on the Mac, and click File > New Calendar Subscription:
2. Copy and paste this URL: http://ift.tt/1Sz0adl

I keep track of my calendar on iPhone, iPad, and Mac using Fantastical, and subscription calendars work just fine there too. Of course you can unsubscribe at any time, or just hide the calendar until you need it, but it’s especially useful if you want an easy way to track the election schedule.

Podcasts

While subscribing to a calendar can tell you when people vote, subscribing to the right podcasts can help you learn why and how people vote. Because I ready and write about technology daily and record a weekly Apple podcast, the majority of podcasts I subscribe to are about politics so I have a few recommendations here.

First up, the Sunday morning TV shows — in podcast form — where you’ll often hear interviews with presidential candidates:

• ABC News: This Week
• CBS: Face the Nation
• CNN: State of the Union
• Fox News Sunday
• NBC: Meet the Press

If you’re really interested in government, campaigning, and politics, these podcasts offer historical storytelling and wonky discussions that are worth a listen:

• The Axe Files with David Axelrod
• Face the Nation 2016 Diary
• Off Message with Politico’s Glenn Thrush
• Slate’s Political Gabfest 
• Slate’s Whistlestop
• Vox’s The Weeds

Personally, I use Apple’s Podcasts app on iPhone and iPad to listen to shows (iTunes on the Mac stinks as staying in sync), but Overcast for iOS is a popular alternative with Smart Speed features to make subscribing to way-too-many podcasts like I do more manageable. Downcast has an iPad and iPhone app (with CarPlay and Apple Watch versions) and Mac app as well if you want the same experience across platforms.

Apps

Finally, I’ll recommend three election season apps for your iPhone.

Breaking News is my go-to app for receiving push notifications for any major news story. You can easily find a dozen news apps from different sources, but Breaking News works for me as a single app to reliably serve up need-to-know headlines in real time.

If you follow enough people on Twitter that frequently share political news stories, Nuzzel can be a particularly useful app. You set a threshold for how many times friends should share stories on Twitter and Facebook, the Nuzzel alerts you with a push notification. Personally, I follow a lot of tech-focused accounts as well so there’s a fair mix for me.

And I’ll leave you with this wild card app from The Washington Post: Floppy Candidate. It’s a ridiculous take on the Flappy Bird game phenomena that came and went a couple of years back, only you play as presidential candidates “Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ben Carson, Bernie Sanders, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Martin O’Malley and John Kasich” plus 2020-candidate Kanye West because why not. It’s completely silly but somehow still feels historical and useful with candidate quizzes and campaign references that political buffs like me will appreciate.

Have you own tips for keeping up with the election cycle with your iPhone, iPad, and Mac? As ever, let us know in the comment.

Filed under:
How-To, iOS, iOS Devices, Mac, Tips and Tricks Tagged: how to, iOS, Podcasts, tutorial

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Apple’s under construction Campus 2 building in Cupertino is rapidly taking shape as this latest flyover video from Duncan Sinfield shows.

The video gets us as close to the site as we’ve seen yet with the video showing a ton of progress made on the main circular building that will house a large portion of the total 13,000 or so employees the campus will hold.

Evidence that Apple is nearing completion on at least the exterior of the main building can be seen at around 45 seconds in the video where Sinfield notes you can see the roof being lifted in place, and we also get our best shot yet at the large glass panels Apple has been installing on the main building as of a few months back.

In addition, the flyover also gives us a tour of progress on the surrounding campus including the parking structure, auditorium and other buildings now nearing completion. As noted in the full video below, Apple can be seen putting the finishing touches on the entrance to its large underground auditorium located on-site but away from the main building. We previously got an up-close look at inside the auditorium before Apple recently put the roof on, as can be seen in the video below.

We’ve been keeping track of the project since before Apple broke ground at the site, and we’ve compiled a timeline of the progress that we’re continually updating with the latest drone flyovers, official shots from the City of Cupertino and Apple, and news surrounding the project.

The company plans to start moving in sometime after completion currently scheduled for the end of the year.

Head below for the full flyover video:

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: 4k, Apple, auditorium, campus 2, Cupertino, drone, exterior, flyover, glass panels, roof, video

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IDC is out with its latest report on worldwide tablet shipments following Apple’s Q1 2016 earnings and in the report shares a nugget about iPad Pro sales.

It may not surprise you, but Apple’s new 12.9-inch iPad, which many would have you believe is the company’s first to compete directly with detachable and hybrid tablets/laptops, outsold Microsoft Surface and other detachable tablets, according to the report:

This quarter was unique as we had new detachables in the market from all three of the major platform players,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers. “Despite lukewarm reviews, the iPad Pro was the clear winner this season as it was the top selling detachable, surpassing notable entries from Microsoft and other PC vendors. It’s also important to note that the transition towards detachable tablets has presented positive opportunities for both Apple and Microsoft. However, Google’s recent foray into this space has been rather lackluster as the Android platform will require a lot more refinement to achieve any measurable success.”

IDC claims Apple “was able to curb the decline in iPad revenues as its model mix shifted towards higher priced iPads” with a successful iPad Pro launch, but it doesn’t share any of its specific data on iPad Pro sales versus iPad or Surface sales in general in its report.

The win for iPad Pro, IDC notes, comes as worldwide tablet sales are down -13.7% year over year to 65.9 million units in the last quarter of 2015 and to 206.8 million for 2015 from 230.1 million in 2014. Apple, however, holds its lead in the tablet category overall despite a -24.8% year-over-year decline. Apple sold 16.1 million iPads in the last quarter of 2015, putting it in the lead ahead of number two Samsung with 9 million units shipped (as highlighted in IDC’s chart above). And here’s a look at the outcome for tablet shipments for the year based on IDC’s data, which puts Apple in first position with 49.6 million units shipped (-21.8% year over year), followed by Samsung, Lenovo, ASUS, and Huawei:

The iPad Pro is the first to come with an Apple-made detachable keyboard and a screen size in the territory of hybrids like Microsoft’s Surface, which is presumably why IDC puts it in the “detachable tablet” category, but some would argue the Pro isn’t exactly a direct hybrid competitor — since it doesn’t come with a keyboard, still relies on Apple’s iOS mobile operating system, and doesn’t pack in as much processing power as the true laptop/tablet hybrids like Surface.

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS Devices, Tech Industry Tagged: detachabe, hybrid, IDC, iPad Pro, Laptop, Microsoft Surface, sales, tablet

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With Apple expected to hold an event next month, iPad Air 3 rumors are continuing to trickle out with various degrees of reliability. The latest is yet another schematic claiming to show the upcoming iPad Air refresh courtesy of Engadget, which cites a “reliable source”. While the blueprint appears to build on existing rumors like the presence of a camera flash, Apple’s new Smart Connector, and a quad-speaker design, the illustration claims to show that the iPad Air 3 will have just barely thicker dimensions than the current 9.7-inch iPad that it replaces.

While the screen size will remain the same, the purported schematic leak claims the iPad Air 3 will be 6.15 mm thick, 169.60 mm wide and 240 mm tall. The iPad Air 2’s official tech specs put it at 6.1 mm thick, 169.5 mm wide, and 240 mm tall, so we’re talking about a 0.05 mm increase in depth and a 0.1mm jump in width. For good measure, the iPad Air was 7.5 mm thick with the same height and width as the current iPad Air 2.

The takeaway here is that if these dimensions do pan out, the iPad Air 3 will still be worthy of its ‘Air’ name and won’t even approach the depth of the original iPad Air. The difference would actually be quite difficult to notice as 0.05 mm is even less than the 0.2mm gain in thickness between the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s, which went from 6.9 mm to 7.1 mm after gaining a 3D Touch pressure sensitive display. Admittedly, the 0.1 mm increased width and sketchy appearance of the blueprint overall make us a bit skeptical.

Still, a very minor increase in thickness would not be surprising considering that Apple has been testing a version with Apple Pencil support currently only offered on the iPad Pro, as we reported last week. Apple’s digital stylus currently works exclusively with the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which is the model that Apple used to introduce the quad-speaker design and Smart Connector for powering peripherals like hardware keyboards. No iPad to date has featured a camera flash, which would be a first with the iPad Air 3 and certainly a standout feature.

Apple is also expected to introduce the updated 4-inch iPhone hardware, using the name iPhone 5se as we previously reported, next month alongside new Apple Watch bands and software updates.

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: Apple Pencil, Flash, iPad, ipad air, iPad Air 3, Smart Connector, Tablets

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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

Time to chuck your cable bill, Mohu Leaf Paper-Thin Indoor HDTV Antenna is $24 today

Amazon Gold Box–Everything for your home computer network: SSDs from $40, NAS from $159, Wifi Range Extenders from $33

JayBird Freedom Sweatproof Bluetooth Earbuds: $30, 66 Audio BTS+ Bluetooth Sports Headphones: $37 shipped

App Store Free App of the Week: Piloteer goes free for the very first time ($2 value)

Award-winning iOS platformer Thomas Was Alone is now available for just $1 (Reg. $5)

Highly-rated puzzler Osmos now 80% off on iPhone & iPad: $1 ea. (Reg. up to $5)

Best USB/Jump Start batteries for your car from Bestek, Aukey, more

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

Streaming Media Players: Chromecast (2nd gen) w/ free $10 Gift Card $35, Fire TV Stick w/ Voice Remote $40 (Reg. $50)

Prep for Valentine’s Day w/ these gift card deals: Applebee’s $50 for $40, Regal Movies $25 for $20, more

• All-time low prices on Philips Hue Go: $80 (Reg. $100), Hue Tap Switch: $50 (Reg. $60)
• UE Roll Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker in multiple colors: $70 shipped (Reg. $100)
• SanDisk 32GB USB-C Flash Drive for 12″ MacBook & more: $34 Prime shipped (Reg. $50)
• Rugged 10,000mAh Solar dual USB Battery w/ 2 USB lamps: $13 Prime shipped
• Media: Amazon $5 Digital HD/Blu-ray Sale: How to Train Your Dragon, more
• Daily Deals: Anker USB Solar Charger $40, Denon Soundbar + sub $400, more
• Games/Apps: Minecraft Story Mode $20, iOS freebies, more
• Kindle First Books for February: The Last Girl, North of Here, Winter Men, more

JBL Flip 3 Splashproof Bluetooth Speaker: $80 shipped (Reg. $100) wp.me/p1xTlR-N2z https://t.co/CoqhHg8Syw

—
9to5Toys (@9to5toys) February 01, 2016

MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

Amazon’s best-selling iPhone Virtual Reality kit $20 Prime shipped (Reg. $40)

Apple TV 32GB w/ Siri Remote and HDMI Cable $126 shipped (Reg. $149+), 64GB $176 shipped – also now available in refurbished condition via Apple

• Samsung 850 EVO SSD: 1TB $289 (Reg. $325+), 2TB $586 (Reg. $618+)
• 1080p 60Hz LED HDTVs — RCA 46-inch: $250 (Reg. $300)
• Anker’s reinforced MFi Lightning cables: 6-ft $10 Prime shipped (Reg. $12), more
• DJI Phantom 3 Standard Drone w/ 2.7K Camera (refurb): $429 shipped (Orig. $1,000)
• ALLPOWERS 10,000mAh Solar Panel Charger for $11 (Reg. $17)
• Make the switch to reusable glass water bottles w/ this Aquasana 6-pack for $19 (Reg. $40)
• Upgrade your home’s lighting w/ this 4-Pack of Philips LED Bulbs for $10 (Reg. $20)
• Bluetooth 20W Speakers: Sony SRSX5 $80 shipped, TaoTronics $40 shipped
• Give your Apple Watch and iPhone a home w/ this aluminum dock: $10 (Reg. $14)
• Free Xbox Live Gold Games for February: Hand of Fate, Styx Master of the Shadows, more
• Free PS Plus Games for February: HellDivers Democracy Strikes Back, more
• Prime Members: VIZIO Sound Bar w/ Wireless Sub $198 shipped (Reg. $218)
• Moe’s Southwest Grill: Buy One, Get One Free burrito promotion
• Sam’s Club 1-year membership + $20 gift card $45 ($120 value)
• Free eBook download: “IT Guide to Mac Backup for Business”
• Aukey adapters: Bluetooth 4.1 Audio Receiver $11, Car FM Radio Transmitter $11
• Several refurbished 12-inch MacBook w/ Retina display models are now available

Game pre-orders for Amazon Prime members –Zelda, Far Cry Primal, FFXV: $48 ea (Reg. $60)

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

Build your own 1:5000-scale New York City with this incredible Kickstarter project

The CrossOver from NextDesk turns nearly any setup into a motorized standing desk

• Fluance mixes mid-century design with Bluetooth technology in its new Hi-Fi system
• Aereo’s founder is returning with a new ISP that beams gigabit speeds into your home
• This German eBike blends a minimalist design with serious battery power
• You have to see NERF’s new Crossbow and Zombie Brainsaw that are coming out this fall
• Upcoming 2016 LEGO sets focus on Marvel, Star Wars and City collections
• Razor introduces two new electric-powered products at Toy Fair 2016
• Netflix February Preview: Better Call Saul – Season 1, more
• Check out Amazon’s Super Bowl commercial starring Alec Baldwin and Dan Marino
• It took a year of planning and 18,000 pieces to create this custom LEGO Arkham Asylum build

Filed under: Tips and Tricks Tagged: 9to5Toys, Amazon, Amazon Gold Box, app deals, Best Buy, Bluetooth Sports Headphones, Daily Deals, free apps, Gold Box, Indoor HDTV Antenna, JayBird Freedom, Mohu Leaf Paper-Thin, Piloteer, QNAP NAS, SSD, video games, WD NAS

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Michael Sayman, known for creating the iOS game 4 Snaps, shared a story today on what it was like growing up in the world of iOS development at such a young age. After his first app’s major success at the age of 13, an app based on his Club Penguin blog, Sayman soon gained to media attention and began to travel the world sharing his story. In the profile, he delves into the irony of being paid to travel and tell this personal story on success, all the while his parents were struggling financially at home.

Sayamn also explains how he became the primary bill-payer for the household and what that was like for a teen in school.

All of my money was going to providing for my family. I didn’t think anything of it, because what was I going to do with $12,000 a month? I was 14! I didn’t need it for anything. I had already bought myself the highest-end Mac I could and the best iPhone I could. That was it for me. I didn’t want anything else.

But the pressure of paying the bills started to increase and my grades in middle school started to go down fast. I used to have A’s and B’s, and at that point started to get C’s and D’s.

Stories of app developers struggling in the App Store aren’t too uncommon, but to hear it come from someone who is so young is rare. Sayman describes the challenge of explaining to his parents what exactly it was that he was doing to pull in the amount of revenue he was each month. Now 19 years old, and a product manager at Facebook, he feels it is the time to “share what it’s like to succeed in a world where everything is falling down around you.” It’s certainly a standout, motivating experience worth reading about.

4 Snaps and the Club Penguin Cheats apps are available in the App Store for free with in-app purchases.

Filed under: Developers Tagged: 4Snaps, App Store, Club Penguin, developers, Facebook, iOS, iPhone, Michael Sayman

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As our sister-site Electrek covers so well, the automobile landscape is clearly changing with electric vehicles replacing gas-powered cars, autonomous features potentially replacing drivers, and Apple even developing an EV of its own. But Porsche wants no part in that future, says CEO Oliver Blume. Reuters reports that Blume told German media this week essentially that a Porsche is meant to be driven, and that an iPhone is meant for your pocket, not the road:

“One wants to drive a Porsche by oneself,” Blume said in an interview with regional newspaper Westfalen-Blatt published on Monday.

“An iPhone belongs in your pocket, not on the road,” Blume added, saying that Porsche did not need to team up with any big technology companies.

While Blume was using the iPhone line largely to explain away the need for computerized vehicles and embrace the nature of high-performance cars like Porsches, it’s a curious one as the new 911 features Apple’s CarPlay …

There’s also a mild dash of the classic Ed Colligan line in there with Blume clearly defining the place for real cars and the place for iPhones in a dismissive way. Frankly, if given the choice between a Porsche as-is or a Porsche with autonomous driving capabilities, I’d choose the latter hands-down (although, for the record, I am not declining the traditional Porsche if offered!).

And smarter, iPhone-like cars certainly seem to be the way of the future.

While ‘autonomous features’ can be loosely defined to include any feature that assists the driver and not just full-on self-driving cars, Reuters points out that research by Boston Consulting Group shows market penetration for these features will reach 13% and make up an estimated $42 billion market by 2025.

While the project has already had its fair share of expected turbulence, the rumored Apple Car could debut around that time with one reported target for introduction set for 2020.

And evidence shows autonomous vehicles are safer than human drivers (which isn’t hard to believe for me) with Tesla and Google leading the way forward in that arena for the time being.

What do you think? Is a Porsche not a Porsche unless you’re fully in control behind the wheel, or are autonomous features going to be a part of every car in the future?

Filed under: Apple Car, CarPlay Tagged: Apple Car, autonomous driving, CarPlay, Oliver Blume, Porsche

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BlackBerry phones were once the default choice for enterprise, the combination of physical keyboard and secure messaging facility the two key selling-points. Those days are long gone.

The company dismissed the iPhone when it was launched in 2007, claiming that touchscreen phones could never compete with physical keyboards – before doing a U-turn by launching its own touchscreen phone less than a year later. A series of major service outages and a failure to deliver the promised BlackBerry 10 in 2011 sealed the company’s fate as a major player, and it today appears set to completely cede the secure messaging space to Apple.

BlackBerry CEO John Chen effectively admitted in December that the company had a ‘backdoor’ into its supposedly secure messaging system, and the company has now stated that it will this year make only Android phones – a platform not noted for its security credentials. This shortly after Microsoft’s Windows Phone looked even more irrelevant, the company reporting that revenues had halved year-on-year …

While BB10-powered phones remain on sale for the moment, there seems little prospect that it would make only Android phones this year before resuming production of BB10 phones later. The BB10 ‘secure’ platform is now living on borrowed time.

While BlackBerry is reportedly working hard to persuade government customers that its Android-powered phones can also be secure, there seems little realistic prospect of the company selling this message to corporate customers. Android’s history is littered with major security flaws.

We’re not talking flaws that affect a small number of apps, or issues that permit only limited access to attackers, but multiple examples of malware that impacts almost every app and allows an attacker to take complete control of a phone. Against this type of background, and a deliberate policy to build in a backdoor, it seems hard to see how BlackBerry could realistically present Android-powered phones as a secure platform.

Apple has a massive advantage over Android manufacturers, controlling both hardware and software and – jailbroken devices aside – deciding what apps are and aren’t allowed to run on iPhones. That level of hardware and software integration provides a unique level of security, for example banking apps which can use Touch ID but have no access to fingerprint data, merely asking the Secure Enclave for a yes/no answer on whether a valid fingerprint has been used.

That doesn’t mean that iOS devices are immune to malware – they aren’t. But significant issues are extremely rare, and on those occasions they do occur, Apple is able to act swiftly to solve the problem.

Apple has also adopted an absolutely unwavering commitment to the principle that user security and privacy overrides the desire governments have for backdoor access. Apple’s attitude is, quite rightly, that if you deliberately build a weakness into a platform for use by the good guys, it’s only a matter of time before it is discovered and exploited by the bad guys.

That commitment is built into Apple’s systems. iOS 8 introduced strong encryption into iPhones and iPads, meaning that even if a law enforcement official comes knocking on Apple’s door with a locked iPhone and a court order demanding that Apple break into it, the company will be unable to do so.

The same is true of iMessages and FaceTime calls. Both use end-to-end encryption, meaning that not even Apple could intercept and decrypt the messages because – as Tim Cook told Charlie Rose back in 2014 – “we don’t have the key.”

Apple has been criticized for this approach by numerous government and law enforcement agencies – among them the United States Attorney General, the FBI, the DOJ, the Homeland Security Committee and CIA and more. Apple has been accused of everything from protecting child abusers to facilitating terrorists. To its credit, Apple has resisted all such pressure, Tim Cook saying last year that we should not “give in to scare-mongering.”

9to5Mac readers strongly support Apple’s position, some 93% of you stating that the company is right to stand firm on encryption, with only 3.5% opposed.

If enterprises aren’t satisfied with that, they also have the option of an even more secure platform built on top of iOS by some noted former jailbreakers.

With Windows Phone sliding into irrelevance, the BB10 platform on the way out, BlackBerry admitting to building in a backdoor vulnerability and its switch to a platform which has a very poor track-record for security, it seems to me that iOS is now the only sensible choice for anyone – enterprise and individual alike – looking for a secure communications platform.

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: Android, Apple Inc, BB10, BlackBerry, Encryption, Government, iPad, iPhone, law enforcement, Security, Windows Phone

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Airmail, the popular third-party email client for the Mac, has landed today on the iPhone for the first time. The brand new Airmail for iPhone app works with various email services including Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, and Exchange, and even features iCloud sync to keep the mobile and desktop preferences on the same page. Airmail also includes modern features for the latest iPhones, third-party app integration, and email management features missing after Dropbox retired Mailbox.

As far as email apps go, my personal iCloud email goes through the built-in Mail app, but the Gmail experience is sub par as almost everyone probably knows. For that reason, I’ve always kept my work email in a separate app.

Up until now, I’ve bounced between Dropbox’s Mailbox (which shuts down later this month), Google’s Gmail app, Microsoft’s Outlook, and Readdle’s Spark which all take a similar approach to email with various differences in terms of features and how things work. But none offer a great Mac app yet, which is why I’ve relied on Airmail on OS X to manage my work inbox.

As mentioned at the top, Airmail for Mac and iPhone both feature iCloud sync which lets you set preferences in one version of the app and enjoy them on the other automatically.

Airmail also features actions made popular by the retired Mailbox app like the ability to “snooze” emails for a later time. Third-party services can be integrated closely with Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Wunderlist, Fantastical, Deliveries and more through supported app extensions, which Apple’s Mail app curiously lacks.

Airmail’s ready for the latest iPhones. Airmail features 3D Touch quick actions from the Home screen on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Firmly pressing the app icon lets you see your unified inbox, jump directly to search in the app, view attachments from emails, and compose a new message.

And just like Airmail for Mac, you can easily customize the way Airmail for iPhone looks and works with appearance and action options within the app’s settings.

Airmail for iPhone is available now on the App Store for $4.99; Airmail for iPad is currently in development. Airmail for Mac, with full OS X El Capitan support, is also available through the Mac App Store for $9.99.

I recommend checking Airmail for iPhone out if you’re looking for a richer email experience than what Apple’s Mail app offers. Airmail syncs nicely with the desktop version, works well with third-party apps, and provides a solid Gmail experience with push notifications and more.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Airmail, email, Gmail, icloud

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