Apple Daily: Apple's Historic Profits, YouTube Dumps Flash, Jobs Biopic Casting

According to Standard and Poor's, Apple made history yesterday when it released its quarterly earnings report as all those iPhone sales resulted in the most profitable quarter in history. Elsewhere, YouTube finally gives in and goes full HTML5, and Universal Pictures releases the final cast list for the Steve Jobs biopic.

Apple Just Had the Most Profitable Quarter in History

According to credit ratings leader Standard & Poor's, the big numbers cited in Apple's quarterly earnings report yesterday weren't just a big deal by Apple standards. By S&P's reckoning, Apple's net profit of $18 billion means it had the most profitable quarter in history, and by such a wide margin that the Cupertino company's record is well ahead of ExxonMobil's $15.9 billion reported in 2012.

As 9to5Mac notes, people all across the Internet have been trying to put these numbers in perspective. A Reddit user going by the name of Cal00 points out that Apple made more from its iPhone sales than Microsoft and Google made from their entire product lines. TechCrunch calculated that Apple made a profit of $8.3 million per hour.

As expected, Apple's massive success during the quarter springs mainly from the sale of 74.5 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units, each featuring the larger screens that users had been wanting for years.

YouTube Dumps Flash in Favor of HTML5

In the early years of the iPhone, you didn't have to pay much attention to know that Steve Jobs had some serious issues with Flash, and that he steadfastedly refused to allow it on the newborn iOS. In 2010, he even wrote a well-known memo about it. At the time, many people called Jobs and Apple stubborn, if not backwards. But yesterday YouTube made the jump from Flash to Jobs's beloved HTML5, proving once again that the Apple co-founder's ideas were ahead of their time, not behind them.

From now on, YouTube will start playing videos with HTML5 regardless of whether you have Flash installed or not. The key advantage of HTML5 is that you can play it on almost any system, while Flash requires a plugin made for the specific operating system it's running on. In its announcement, Google acknowledged Apple's contributions to the dominance of HTML5 in a statement to VentureBeat:

"These advancements have benefited not just YouTube’s community, but the entire industry," said YouTube. "Other content providers like Netflix and Vimeo, as well as companies like Microsoft and Apple have embraced HTML5 and been key contributors to its success."

Universal Pictures Releases Cast List for Steve Jobs Biopic

Today Universal Pictures announced the cast list for the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic directed by Danny Boyle, putting an end to scores of rumors that have popped up over the past few months as the project lost and gained both actors and directors. Most of the casting decisions were more or less common knowledge as of yesterday, but there are still some surprises in store (via Cult of Mac). For instance, we finally know which part Kate Winslet is playing.

Above: Michael Fassbender 

Michael Fassbender of X-Men: Days of Future Past fame will play Steve Jobs, while Seth Rogen will play Steve Wozniak. Michael Stuhlbarg of Boardwalk Empire will portray Andy Hertzfeld, Jeff Daniels took the role of Apple CEO John Sculley, and Adam Shapiro will be Avie Tevanian. Kate Winslet will play Mac marketing chief Joanna Hoffman (a key figure in promoting the first Mac), and the relatively unknown Sarah Snook will play PR personality Andrea Cunningham. Three actresses — Makenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo, and Perla Haney-Jardine — will play Jobs's daughter Lisa as she ages from 5 to 19.

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