​Apple to invest $1B in SoftBank's tech fund

Apple has said it will invest $1 billion in one of the world's biggest future-tech funds.

The iPhone-maker confirmed Wednesday that it plans to invest the money in the SoftBank Vision Fund, according to The Wall Street Journal. The investment fund, created by Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank Group, is scheduled to launch in the next few weeks with a focus on emerging technologies.

 

10 ways the iPhone changed everything

Ten years ago, Nokia was the world's largest phone maker. Microsoft was gearing up to launch Windows Vista. And the best new products at CES included a wireless TV and an MP3 player that streamed internet radio.

Then, on Jan. 9, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a device that went on to change the world -- a $499 iPhone that came with 4GB of storage. It was a mobile phone, a music player and an Internet device.

 

A smart home scoreboard for CES 2017

How about a good, old-fashioned technology arms race?

You could just buy a smart light bulb set, but for a lot of consumers (reportedly more than 5 million of you, as of November 2016), it's Amazon's voice-activated Alexa that will be the entry point for controlling devices around your home.

Along with Amazon, Apple continues to grow its Siri-powered HomeKit smart home system. Google has also entered the fray with its own blandly named smart home AI, Google Assistant, which featured prominently in Google's Echo-imitating Google Home speaker in November 2016.

 

6 apps to install on a new MacBook

These are the first six apps I installed on my new MacBook Pro, from a text expander to a word processor, with four useful apps in between. All are free except the first, which costs only $5 and offers a free trial. Let's take them in alphabetical order.

aText

aText is a simple, text-expansion app that lets you create abbreviations for commonly typed words and phrases. With it, for example, I can type "@@" instead of my email address. Or "ty" instead of "thank you." It offers other features but it's worth the cost simply for a handful of keyboard shortcuts that saves me time each day.

aText costs $4.99 (£4.18 in the UK and AU$7.05 in Australia) and is available from Tran Ky Nam Software. You can try aText free for 14 days.

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Making your own keyboard shortcuts in aText can save so much time.

Photo by Matt Elliott/CNET

 

Tim Cook's pay slips after Apple's 2016 dip

Apple failed to meet its annual sales goals in 2016, and CEO Tim Cook paid the price.

Cook earned $8.75 million in 2016, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from Apple on Friday. That compares with $10.28 million in 2015, and $9.22 million in 2014.

The Cupertino, California-based company had aimed to surpass its $223.6 billion in sales from 2015. Instead it fell short in 2016, raking in $215.6 billion.