Dr Olivet Buck died after contracting Ebola while treating patients in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Some 80 army medics are travelling to Sierra Leone as part of UK efforts to tackle the Ebola outbreak, as screening begins at Gatwick.

The regularity of bombings in Baghdad makes fire-fighting a busy and dangerous profession.

The Nigerian government is still hopeful of securing the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram.

Two players wave their hands around to conduct in Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved.

We've spent years cataloguing the missteps and issues that have plagued the Kinect motion sensor, Microsoft's would-be answer to the Nintendo Wii. Somehow, in spite of its huge list of flaws—flawed voice recognition, noticeable lag, a dearth of good games, and even an underwhelming successor—its creators stubbornly continued to insist that the robotic eyeball accessory was necessary.

That changed once Microsoft needed to lighten the load on its sinking ship of Xbox One sales. The sensor, which used to be included with every Xbox One console, was sent overboard in June, and with it came a much-needed $100 price drop (not to mention a dropped requirement for game makers to support it, freeing up system resources). Even before that change, game makers weren't clamoring to take advantage of Kinect 2.0's pack-in status, but Microsoft's decision was seen as a death knell. At that point, only a few forthcoming Kinect-specific games were left to kick at the ground and mutter, "aw, nuts."

Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved was arguably the biggest of the remaining motion-sensing holdouts. Harmonix's latest game promised a new way to control and experience music, just as the studio's Rock Band and Dance Central had done in the past, and its mix of weird motion gameplay and impressive remix selection got our music-gaming hopes up. Now, at launch, it no longer has to contend with the pressure of proving Kinect 2.0's value—a feat this uneven final product could never accomplish. But this actually works out in this game's favor and takes quite a weight off its shoulders. As a modest success, DF:ME does a fine job helping the add-on bow out gracefully and stylishly.

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A report published today claims that banning too many pesticides will lead to lower yields on farm, which in turn could result in an increase in food imports, and job losses

An Australian man is convicted of performing a sex act in front of a webcam "watched by" a computer-generated child he believed was real.

A woman who helped the Ukrainian army fight in east Ukraine has detailed the violence pro-Russian rebels then subjected her to.

The US government has paid dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals millions of dollars in Social Security benefits after forcing them to leave the US.

The bodies of seven women have been recovered in the US state of Indiana as a man confessed to a recent murder and led authorities to more.

According to the UN, rape and other forms of sexual violence by all sides in South Sudan's civil war have become so widespread that a two-year-old child was among the victims.

US fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, who dressed former first ladies Jackie Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, has died aged 82, US media report.

Version:next-20141021 (linux-next) Released:2014-10-21

Wait, what happened at this thing?!? Microsoft

In San Francisco today, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said something that was more than a little surprising: Microsoft loves Linux. The operating system once described as a "cancer" by Nadella's predecessor, Steve Ballmer, is now being embraced with open arms (if not extended), at least when it comes to Redmond's Azure cloud platform. Nadella told us that some 20 percent of VMs on Azure use the open source operating system.

The San Francisco event served a dual purpose. First, it was an opportunity for Microsoft to tell the world just how much Azure had grown—Microsoft may not have been first to the cloud computing scene, but a ton of investment and development means that the company is now credible, and, if Gartner's magic quadrants are to be believed, world-leading. Second, the event served to introduce new features and partnerships.

Microsoft's major sales pitch for Azure is essentially a three-pronged argument that Microsoft is the only company that can really do cloud right.

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The former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam has died at the age of ninety-eight.

In the first part of his road trip across Ukraine ahead of parliamentary elections, Steve Rosenberg meets a candidate who was persecuted by pro-Russian rebels.

This afternoon, Apple released their financial results for Q4 2014, which ended September 27, 2014. Strong iPhone sales, as well as a resurgence in Mac sales, boosted the company’s revenue above the $40 billion USD guidance to $42.1 billion. Operating income came in at $11.165 billion, with a net income of $8.467 billion for the quarter. This resulted in an earnings per share of $1.43, which beat analysts’ expectations of $1.31 per share. Gross margin was a respectable 38% for the quarter, compared to 37% in Q4 2013.

Apple declared a cash dividend of $0.47 per share which will be paid out to all shareholders of record as of November 10th, on November 13th. Over $20 billion was returned to shareholders in Q4 as part of the share buyback program and other market transactions.

Apple Q4 2014 Financial Results (GAAP)   Q4'2014 Q3'2014 Q4'2013 Revenue (in Billions USD) $42.123 $37.432 $37.472 Operating Income (in Billions USD) $11.165 $10.282 $10.030 Gross Margin (in Billions USD) $16.009 $14.735 $13.871 Net Income (in Billions USD) $8.467 $7.748 $7.512 Margins 38.0% 39.4% 37.0% Earnings per Share (in USD) $1.43 $1.28 $1.19

As is the norm, the iPhone was the star of the show. In September, Apple of course launched two new iPhone models which brought the total volume of devices sold to 39.272 million for the quarter, which is up 11.5% from the previous quarter and 16.2% from the same quarter a year ago. The iPhone 6 and 6+ are apparently selling very well, with Apple selling all of the units they are making at the moment. iPhones accounted for 56% of Apple’s revenue this quarter. With the iPhone 6 only being available for a couple of weeks this quarter, expect the units to jump significantly for Q1 2015, which began September 28.

The surprise for this quarter was Mac sales, which grew an astonishing 21% year-over-year, and 25% sequentially. It is even more amazing when you consider that the MacBook Pro line only got a slight refresh last quarter, and the iMac, Mac Mini, and MacBook Air got no significant updates at all. Apple said that they “won back to school” and they certainly did as a percentage increase. Overall Mac sales were 5.52 million, as compared to 4.413 million last quarter and 4.574 million at the same time last year. With this increase, Apple stated that they have the highest PC sales percentage since 1995. Revenue for the Mac was also big, as would be expected with the gain in sales. Mac revenue is now back to number two overall for the company with $6.625 billion for Q4.

Apple Q4 2014 Device Sales (thousands)   Q4'2014 Q3'2014 Q4'2013 Seq Change Year/Year Change iPhone 39,272 35,203 33,797 +12% +16% iPad 12,316 13,276 14,079 -7% -13% Mac 5,520 4,413 4,574 +25% +21% iPod 2,641 2,926 3,498 -10% -24%
 

iPad sales continue to be the thorn in Apple’s side these days, with a sales decrease for the third consecutive quarter. iPad sales fell to just 12.3 million, down from 14.1 million last year, which is a 13% drop. Clearly they are not giving up on the market, and the two new devices launched last week as well as the holiday season should put an end to the decline in sales for Q1. Apple said that iPad sales were ahead of iPhone sales over the same initial four years, so they are happy with where it is at, but still three straight quarters of sales decline is not what they would have been hoping for.

The venerable iPod likely got the final unit and revenue breakdown, with the iPod going to be rolled into the new Other category, with the iPod being joined by Accessories, Beats, Apple TV, and other products in the new reporting category such as watches when they are released. iPod sales fell 24% from last year, with 2.6 million devices sold. Revenue came in at just $410 million (just!) for the quarter.

Finally, iTunes/Software/Services was up 8% year-over-year with $4.6 billion for the quarter, with the App Store continuing to drive revenues for the Apple ecosystem.

Apple Q4 2014 Revenue by Product (billions)   Q4'2014 Q3'2014 Q4'2013 Revenue for current quarter iPhone $23.678 $19.751 $19.510 56.2% iPad $5.316 $5.889 $6.186 12.6% Mac $6.625 $5.540 $5.624 15.7% iPod $0.410 $0.442 $0.573 1% iTunes/Software/Services $4.608 $4.485 $4.260 10.9% Accessories $1.486 $1.325 $1.319 3.5%

Outlook for Q1 2015 is a big boost for the holiday season. Revenue is expected to come between $63.5 and $66.5 billion with margins between 37.5 and 38.5 percent. Q1 will of course include more sales of the new iPhone, but also new product launches such as the iPads, and the Mac refresh we saw last week. Also new to the quarter will the Apple Pay, which was not available for Q4 2014. Apple divulged on the earnings call that it will not be charging anything to retailers or consumers for using the new pay system, but that they do have a financial arrangement with the financial institutions to earn money through the system. Details of those arrangements were kept confidential. In the end, if someone is paying, it will of course be the consumer even if it is just through product markups. We do not know though if the cost of the system will be any higher than the credit cards already charge, so it may amount to a zero anyway.

Apple has been a company which has been printing money for a long time, and with the latest product launches that does not seem to be ending anytime soon. The one key here is Mac sales, which were very high, especially when compared to the PC industry as a whole which has recovered somewhat, but is possibly still at small decline overall for the year.

Update: The story originally stated Software and Other would be a single category, but there will be two categories for Software and Other.

Source: Apple Investor Relations

On Friday, a Monterey County woman was charged with wiretapping a police officer and possessing "illegal interception devices,” according to the Northern California District Attorney’s office. The District Attorney said that Kristin Nyunt, age 40, allegedly intercepted communications made by a police officer on his mobile phone.

Nyunt is the ex-wife of former Pacific Grove Police Commander John Nyunt, and she has already been sentenced to eight years and four months in prison after pleading guilty in July to five counts of identity theft, two counts of computer network fraud, one count of residential burglary, and two counts of forgery.

In the latest charges [PDF], the District Attorney accused Nyunt of using illegal spyware including MobiStealth, StealthGenie, and mSpy to intercept "sensitive law enforcement communication” in real time. Nyunt allegedly placed the spyware on a police officer’s phone surreptitiously, although court documents do not detail how or why.

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Apple's A7 was its first 64-bit chip. Now, the company is ready to mandate 64-bit support. iFixit

Apple released iOS 8.1 to the public today, but it delivered something else to developers too. As of February 1, 2015 Apple will require all App Store submissions to include 64-bit support and to be built with the iOS 8 SDK.

If you've got an older iPhone or iPad (anything with an Apple A5 or A6 chip in it) this announcement means nothing to you. Like their OS X counterparts, 64-bit iOS apps can be distributed as universal binaries that support both 32- and 64-bit processors. 9to5Mac also reports that existing 32-bit apps will remain in the App Store. Only developers submitting new apps or updates to existing apps will need to comply with the new rules. Apple is usually fairly aggressive about mandating use of its latest developer tools. It required developers to switch to Xcode 5 and comply with iOS 7's new design rules in February of 2014—for older devices, this is just business as usual.

If you've got a 64-bit device, though, you may stand to get significant performance boosts to your apps. Remember, for ARM processors the move to 64-bit isn't just about addressing more RAM—64-bit ARM chips come with a new ARMv8 instruction set that cleans up some of the cruft found in ARMv7. Our benchmarks estimate that an Apple A7 can run 64-bit code up to 30 percent faster than it runs 32-bit code. An A8 can be as much as 40 percent faster.

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A year ago a charity in the Netherlands created a fake profile of a girl called Sweetie to pose in teen chat rooms.