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Apple today released the second beta of an upcoming iOS 9.3 update for public beta testers, just a few days after seeding the second iOS 9.3 beta to developers. iOS 9.3's second public beta comes a week after Apple released iOS 9.2.1, a minor update, to the public.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the second iOS 9.3 update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on their iOS device.

Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and OS X betas.

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iOS 9.3 is a major update to the iOS 9 operating system, introducing a long list of new features and improvements. iOS 9.3's biggest new feature is Night Shift mode, which is designed to automatically cut down on the amount of blue light an iOS user is exposed to at night by shifting to more yellow tones for the iPhone or iPad's display. With iOS 9.3, there's a number of changes for educational users, and the iPhone is now able to pair with multiple Apple Watches.

The update also includes new 3D Touch Quick Actions for stock apps like Weather, Settings, Compass, Health, App Store, and iTunes Store, plus it introduces password protection for individual notes in the Notes app. News in iOS 9.3 includes in-line video playback, landscape mode on the iPhone, and more personalization, while the Health app introduces a new Apple Watch-style "Activity" interface.

Today's second beta includes support for a Night Shift toggle in the Control Center on iOS devices. Night Shift is denoted by a new eye-shaped icon in between the icons for the timer and the calculator on the iPhone. Tapping on the icon brings up options to turn the feature on or disable it until the next day.

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A full list of changes in iOS 9.3 can be found in our "What's New" post. iOS 9.3 will launch to the public this spring.

As noted by AnandTech, Intel this week quietly released an updated processor price list which includes several new Skylake chips that could be used in an updated 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro.

The direct upgrade path for the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro would use the following quad-core chip options: a 2.6 GHz Core i7-6770HQ, a 2.7 GHz Core i7-6870HQ, and a 2.8 GHz Core i7-6970HQ, all coming in at the same price points as the Haswell variants currently used in the MacBook Pro.

Perhaps a more intriguing but less likely scenario involves a series of new mobile Xeon E3 chips. These chips could offer even better CPU, graphics, and memory performance, although pricing becomes an issue with the highest-performing chip in the family.

As for the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, Intel announced chips appropriate for those machines back in September, although it suggested the chips would not actually be launching until early 2016. Those chips have been included on Intel's price lists for several months, but have been slow to show up in the wild. A claimed benchmark for a 13-inch MacBook Pro running one of these chips last week appears to have been a fake.

Most of Apple's Mac lineup is in need of updates, as Intel's Skylake delays have hampered Apple's ability to launch refreshed models. But with the Skylake logjam finally starting to break, Apple appears set to update its entire notebook lineup over the next several months. Opportunities for major product introductions could come at Apple's rumored March media event or at WWDC likely scheduled for mid-June, although smaller updates could come at any time via press release.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a research note obtained by MacRumors that predicts two 5.5-inch versions of the "iPhone 7 Plus" are in development, one with a single iSight rear-facing camera and another boasting a dual-camera design.

The rumored iPhone 7 Plus model with a dual-lens camera system would take advantage of imaging algorithms that Apple acquired through its purchase of Israeli camera technology company LinX Imaging last year.

LinX technology offers several improvements the iPhone 7 Plus could benefit from, including multiple sensors for a smaller size, possibly eliminating the need for a protruding camera lens. The lenses would also have better sensitivity to light and greatly improved image quality in low light.

Specifically, Kuo cites the LinX Imaging algorithm for its unique ability to achieve high-end dual-camera applications such as optical zoom simulation while sidestepping the traditional bottlenecks associated with compact camera module (CCM) assembly.

To that end, Kuo expects a 2-3x optical zoom function to feature in Apple's iPhone 7 Plus. However, owing to supply chain constraints on dual-camera modules, the KGI analyst expects the larger handset to come in single-camera and dual-camera versions.

Apple is well known for headlining improvements to the camera technology in its iPhones and showcasing their photography capabilities as a market-leading feature.

Even so, major improvements to camera technology have typically come in "S" release years, therefore it remains to be seen whether Apple chooses to include such improvements in this or the next generation of its flagship devices.

Safari users are today reporting an odd issue causing Apple's web browser app to crash on both Macs and iOS devices. Several Mac users are also not receiving autocomplete suggestions when entering text into Safari's address bar, with many pages including sites like Google failing to load completely. For many iPhone and iPad users, simply tapping on the URL bar causes Safari to crash.

URL searches, autocomplete, Top Sites and other Safari features rely on queries being sent to and returned by Apple's servers, suggesting this is where the problem lies. The issue also seems to depend on what data the browser most recently cached.

The current fix for iOS and Mac involves disabling Safari Suggestions, which stops the app from crashing to the home screen. On your iOS device, go into Settings, tap Safari, and toggle off the "Safari Suggestions" switch. On your Mac, the same setting is found in Safari -> Preferences -> Search.

Alternatively, opening a Private Browsing window also appears to solve the issue.

The problem appears to be affecting users around the world and will likely be resolved when Apple corrects the service on their end.

Update: According to BuzzFeed, Apple has now fixed the issue that was causing the Safari browser to crash on iOS and Macs due to issues with Safari Suggestions.

Both the Apple Watch and the Apple TV set new quarterly sales records in 1Q 2016, according to information shared by Tim Cook during today's earnings call. The Apple Watch saw especially strong sales in December as people purchased the device during the holiday season, something that's perhaps not a surprise given the significant discounts offered by some third-party retailers.

While Apple did not offer discounts itself, Best Buy cut prices on the Apple Watch by $100, and Target offered a $100 gift card with the purchase of an Apple Watch. These price drops likely boosted Apple Watch sales by a good amount during the quarter. Apple also expanded Apple Watch availability to more than 48 countries ahead of the holiday season.

As for the Apple TV, Apple says it saw its best quarter ever following the launch of the fourth-generation device. The Apple TV 4, priced at $149 to $199 depending on capacity, includes features like a full App Store, a touch-based remote control and Siri voice control. Available apps on the Apple TV have expanded, with 3,600 total apps now downloadable on the device.

Apple does not break out sales of the Apple Watch and the Apple TV, choosing instead to lump them into an "Other" category that also includes iPods and Beats headphones, so exact sales numbers for the two devices are not known. Revenue for the Other category did see a big increase, jumping more than 40 percent from $2.7 billion in 1Q2015 to $4.35 billion in 1Q2016. Sales were also up quarter over quarter, as revenue in 4Q2015 was at $3 billion.

Overall, it was a record quarter for Apple with $18.4 billion in profit on $75.9 billion in revenue. During the quarter, the company sold 74.8 million iPhones, 16.1 million iPads, and 5.3 million Macs.

Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed during the company's financial earnings conference call today that iPhone sales will likely decline in the March quarter, marking the first year-over-year decline since the smartphone was released in June 2007. The decline will be realized if Apple sells fewer than 61.2 million iPhones this quarter.

Apple forecasts that its total revenue in Q2 2016 will be between $50 and $53 billion, compared to $58 billion in the year-ago quarter, signaling the company's first year-over-year drop in revenue in thirteen years. Apple has posted over 50 quarters of year-over-year revenue growth since 2003.

Apple is currently facing significant foreign exchange headwinds. A strong U.S. dollar makes it more difficult for Apple, which reports its earnings in U.S. dollars, to perform when some 66% of their business is overseas. Every $100 of Apple’s non-U.S. dollar revenue earned in Q4 2014 translates into only $85 U.S. dollars today.

Financial analysts had already predicted the iPhone would face its first quarterly sales decline in Q2 2016 compared to the year-ago quarter, with some reports claiming the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus may not outsell last year's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, its first devices with larger than 4-inch screens.

iPhone growth in the just-announced first fiscal quarter of 2016 was the slowest since the smartphone's introduction in 2007. Apple sold a record 74.8 million iPhones during the quarter, which includes the busy holiday shopping season, up only 300,000 units from 74.5 million a year earlier.

Nevertheless, Cook said that 60% of customers who have owned an iPhone prior to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have not yet upgraded, meaning there is a large base of potential customers that could upgrade to newer models, including the iPhone 7 expected in September, over the coming year.

Today's announcement has been referred to by some as "peak iPhone," but Cook remains optimistic about annual iPhone sales in 2016. Even if Apple sells a projected 45 to 50 million iPhones next quarter, that would still be more revenue from one product than most companies earn overall in a single quarter.

During today's earnings call for the first fiscal quarter of 2016 (fourth calendar quarter), analyst Gene Munster asked Tim Cook to share his thoughts on virtual reality in an effort to get a hint on whether or not that's a feature Apple is working on for future devices. "What are your thoughts on the VR theme?" Munster asked. "Is this a geeky niche or something that could go mainstream?"

In response, Tim Cook said that he does not believe that virtual reality is a niche. "It's really cool," he said. "And it has some interesting applications."

With virtual reality products like the Oculus Rift gaining in popularity, there has been speculation that Apple will release some kind of virtual reality or augmented reality feature in its iOS devices. Apple reportedly has a small team of employees working on exploring the augmented reality field.

Last week, Apple hired one of the leading virtual reality experts in the United States, Doug Bowman. Apple has also made some recent acquisitions that point towards an interest in VR/AR, including augmented reality startup Metaio, real-time motion capture firm Faceshift, and expression analysis startup Emotient.

Apple has also filed several patents for virtual reality products over the years, including video goggles, motion-sensing 3D virtual interfaces for iOS devices, and 3D "hyper reality" displays.

Apple today announced financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2016, which corresponds to the fourth calendar quarter of 2015. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $75.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $18.4 billion, or $3.28 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $74.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $18 billion, or $3.06 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Both revenue and earnings were company records.

Gross margin for the quarter was 40.1 percent compared to 39.9 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 66 percent of revenue. Apple also declared an upcoming dividend payment of $0.52 per share, payable on February 11 to shareholders of record as of February 8. The company currently holds $215.7 billion in cash and marketable securities, partially offset by $53.2 billion in long-term debt.

Apple sold a record 74.8 million iPhones during the quarter, up slightly from 74.5 million a year earlier, while Mac sales were down slightly to 5.3 million units sold from 5.5 million units in the year-ago quarter. iPad sales were also down once again, falling to 16.1 million from 21.4 million despite the introduction of the iPad Pro during the quarter.

“Our team delivered Apple’s biggest quarter ever, thanks to the world’s most innovative products and all-time record sales of iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple TV,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The growth of our Services business accelerated during the quarter to produce record results, and our installed base recently crossed a major milestone of one billion active devices.”

Apple's guidance for the second quarter of fiscal 2016 includes expected revenue of $50–53 billion and gross margin between 39 and 39.5 percent. Revenue guidance is slightly below analyst expectations.

In supplemental materials, Apple explains that currency headwinds have cost the company 15 percent in earnings over the past 18 months. Using "constant currency" measures, Apple's revenue for the holiday quarter would have been $80.8 billion for an 8 percent increase year-over-year.

Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q1 2016 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Conference Call and Q&A Highlights are available in reverse chronological order after the jump.

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Apple is planning to add subscription content from publishers with paywalls to its Apple News app, reports Reuters. This will allow sites that require subscriptions or memberships to view content to have more control over who reads their articles, but it will also introduce barriers for readers.

All content on Apple News is available for free with the existing model, but with support for subscriptions, publishers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal could limit the number of free articles Apple News users can access before requiring them to subscribe.

With no support for subscription content, publishers are limited on how they can make money through Apple News. Existing subscriber-only sites currently share their articles for free or offer only an excerpt, directing readers to a website to read the full content. Publishers are said to be unhappy with the information Apple provides them about readers, so this paywall compromise could soothe relationships and give publishers new ways to gain potential subscribers.

"Ensuring subscription mechanisms in our off-platform distribution partnerships is critical," said Katie Vanneck-Smith, chief customer officer of Dow Jones, which publishes the Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones is working with Apple and others to take advantage of new platforms, she added. She declined to comment on the specifics of conversations with Apple.

Apple's decision to allow subscription content in the Apple News app may not be popular with Apple News readers, but it's a feature that will allow Apple to differentiate itself from other news platforms that don't offer paid content to attract publishers.

Introduced in September, Apple News is said to have somewhere around 40 million users, but it is not clear if that number reflects people who use the Apple News app on a regular basis or those who have accessed the app at one point or another. It's also not clear if that number is accurate - Apple recently announced that it has been underestimating the number of Apple News readers and providing incorrect usage statistics to publishers.

Barclays has confirmed that it will launch Apple Pay within the next 45 to 60 days, based on a two-week-old email dated January 12, suggesting the large British bank will support the iPhone-based mobile payments service by no later than March 28.

The launch date was provided by Barclays CEO of Personal and Corporate Banking Ashok Vaswani in what appears to be a legitimate email sent to customer Oli Foster-Burnell, and later reported by Engadget. We can verify the executive has emailed customers about Apple Pay in the past.

Barclays is the only financial institution among the "Big Four" banks in the U.K. that has yet to adopt Apple Pay. The country's participating issuers include the Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander, Tesco Bank, TSB and Ulster Bank.

Apple Pay launched in the U.K. in July 2015 at more than 250,000 locations across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and Barclays is perhaps the most notable holdout from the group of banks supporting the mobile payments service. The bank serves over 48 million customers.