74 million iPhones, smarter covers, new version of iOS

Apple sells 74M iPhones over the holiday quarter

The holidays were good to Apple as reported by the company this week. Over 74 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus handsets were sold. This contributed heavily to the firm's outstanding financial results reported this week.

The iPhone sales led Apple to a record quarter for both revenues and profits.

iOS 8.1.3 lowers free memory requirement for OS upgrades

Owners of iOS devices with low storage capacity were unable to easily upgrate to iOS 8 when it was first released. A process involving deleting stuff to create enough free storage was required to upgrade from iOS 7 to version 8.

Apple released iOS 8.1.3 this week that among other things reduced the free space required for OS upgrades to make them easier to install in the future.

Patent shows iPad Smart Cover could gain cool features

Apple has a new patent that involves increasing the functionality of the iPad Smart Cover. Currently the cover uses magnets to turn the iPad on and off when the cover is opened and closed, respectively.

Diagrams from the patent application show the ability to open just a fold of the cover, exposing onscreen controls that can be operated without unlocking the iPad.

More Android owners switching to iPhone than ever

Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that after the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus they have seen more Android owners switching than ever. The number of switchers have only been tracked for three years.

Perhaps more importantly, Cook also said that only 15 percent of new iPhone purchases were made by those upgrading from an older iPhone. Since Apple sold over 74 million iPhones last quarter, that is a huge number of new customers for the iPhone.