Apple Weekly News Roundup: Earnings report, iPad 3 details revealed

iPad 3 colors

With the first earnings report of fiscal 2016 in the rear view mirror, Apple and its investors are looking forward to future products. The next generation iPad is rumored to be coming in March, and details on hardware upgrades in the pipeline have surfaced. In addition to iPad 3 rumors, analysts have published more speculation on the upcoming iPhone 7 Plus. In other news, many Netflix fans will see price increases later this year, as the company phases out grandfathered subscription rates. See below for this week's highlights, and beware the Crash Safari website on iOS devices!

Trick website causing iPhones to crash

Users of mobile devices are warned to stay away from a prank URL (crashsafari.co) to keep their browsers from crashing. iPhones can overheat and reboot when visiting the trick website, which sends thousands of characters per second to the web browser. While the site has been around since last year, it has been increasing in popularity thanks to link-shortening services which disguise the true name. If your iPhone mysteriously shuts down after visiting a strange link, this could be the reason.

Netflix increasing grandfathered pricing plans

After holding prices steady for existing HD streaming customers, Netflix is gearing up to increase subscription rates. The company announced that two-year price freezes are set to expire beginning in February. Over the second and third quarter of 2016, Netflix will bring pricing into line for all of its members. This means that people with the grandfathered rates of $7.99 or $8.99 per month will see increases to $9.99. That is unless they downgrade to a basic plan, which costs $7.99 but does not include HD quality or multiple screens. Netflix expects to hit 80 million users later this quarter.

Apple delivers fiscal Q1 earnings report

Investors were not thrilled with Apple's earnings report on Tuesday, despite record-setting revenue of $75.9 billion during the holiday quarter. Flattening iPhone demand continued to put pressure on stock prices, with Apple shares (NASDAQ:AAPL) tanking to near 52-week lows in Thursday trading. CEO Tim Cook reported that Apple's installed user base surpassed one billion active devices for the first time. There were some bright spots in the report, such as the increases in iPhone sales seen in India (+76%) and China (+18%). Apple has also seen significant growth in Services (+26%) and Other Products (+62%), which includes the Apple Watch and Apple TV. The company clocked a first quarter profit of $18.4 billion.

iPhone 7 Plus to feature dual-lens LinX camera

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (KGI Securities) believes Apple will feature a dual-sensor camera system in the next iPhone Plus. Apple acquired LinX imaging in April of last year, gaining technology that dovetails nicely with a recent optical zoom patent application. Kuo predicts that Apple will launch both single-lens and dual-lens versions of the iPhone 7 Plus. Two iSight camera modules in the premium version would make new imaging features possible, such as a 2-3x optical zoom. LinX technology can also be used to improve low-light picture quality and capture 3D images of nearby objects or surroundings.

iPad 3 will be waterproof

The iPad 3 is widely expected to launch in March. As this month fast approaches, details on the next generation Apple tablet have been surfacing at an increasing clip. While not confirmed, several reports point to an iPad 3 with a fully dust and waterproof chassis, rated at IP67. This is despite leaked design sketches showing four speaker grilles on the iPad 3. Besides more speakers, another design cue the iPad 3 is expected to borrow from its cousin, the iPad Pro is 4 GB of RAM. In part, the increased memory would be needed to drive an upgraded 4K display. If the 9-inch iPad 3 actually ships with a 4K display, this would quadruple the number of pixels found in the previous generation iPad.