Apple tallied $43.6 billion in sales for its fiscal second quarter—a record for the company’s March quarter—and saw a net profit of $9.6 billion. So naturally, Wall Street has decided that Apple is doomed.

But is it? We talk Apple’s fortunes in this edition of the Macworld Podcast, as senior editor Dan Moren and editorial director Jason Snell join me in making sense of all the numbers thrown out as part of this week’s earnings announcement. We explain why the picture’s not as bleak as Wall Street might paint, address some areas of concern, and even spend some time talking about those forthcoming product announcements Tim Cook hinted at during his remarks with analysts.

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Show Notes

You can follow along with our talk of revenue and income by reading Macworld’s report on Apple’s second-quarter earnings news. We also live-blogged Apple’s conference call with analysts and offered an edited transcript of Tim Cook’s remarks.

Speaking of Tim Cook, we also mention his promise of a professional Mac sometime in 2013. Will it appear before the fall rollout of new products that Cook promised on Tuesday—say at this June’s Worldwide Developers Conference? I guess we’ll just have to wait to find out.

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Drafts, the hugely popular iOS app for making quick text bits and notes, and then repurposing them in all kinds of ways, hit version 3.0 on Wednesday. The new version adds better organization options for drafts and actions, new action options, Reminders integration, and more.

At its core, Drafts () is focused on launching quickly and letting you instantly tap out notes on your iPad or iPhone. The drafts you create are saved automatically, but the real appeal of the app is that you can then act on your text or send it to other apps. Developer Agile Tortoise has been regularly adding all sorts of actions: Whereas the initial version of the app offered just a few, Drafts 3.0 packs in dozens. For example, you can publish drafts to Twitter, App.net, or Facebook; turn them into calendar entries (including optional Fantastical connectivity); save them as Reminders; send them to Evernote; push them to Dropbox; and plenty more.

In fact, the Drafts actions list has grown so long that for some people, the most welcome feature in Drafts 3.0 is a new option for organizing actions. In the Manage Actions section of the app’s settings, you can now organize actions into four tabs (labeled |, ||, |||, and ||||); you also, as always, hide unused actions. Although the organization itself feels a bit clunky—you tap a task, choose which pane it should belong to, and tweak what should happen afterwards—it’s one of those set-it-and-forget-it processes: Once you’ve crafted the perfect action-pane setup for yourself, you never need to revisit that section of the settings.

For example, since I don’t use Evernote or Markdown, I hid actions related to those services. (It’s easy to restore hidden actions from the Hidden tab.) I ended up organizing my tabs with the first pane being for sharing drafts on social services, the second for integrations with built-in apps (Messages, Mail, Calendar, Reminders), the third for core iOS actions (Open In, Copy, Print), and the fourth for third-party integrations (Dropbox, Fantastical, and the like). This new organizational takes accessing actions from tedious to awesome.

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After months of anxious developer anticipation, Apple on Wednesday announced the dates for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which the company says will run from June 10 to June 14 at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco. Tickets will go on sale on April 25 at 10 a.m. PT, 1 p.m. ET.

Last year, tickets for WWDC sold out in just two hours.

Apple says that this year’s conference will cover a wide range of topics for both iOS and OS X. As it did last year, Apple is promising more than 100 technical sessions led by Apple engineers, with more than 1000 Apple engineers in attendance to offer code-level assistance and advice to developers. As per tradition, WWDC 2013 will also play host to the annual Apple Design Awards.

WWDC tickets will cost $1599. Apple notes that you must be a member of the iOS Developer Program, iOS Developer Enterprise Program, or the Mac Developer Program as of the announcement of WWDC (5:30 a.m. PT, April 24), and at the time of your ticket purchase, to purchase tickets. Developers between 13 and 17 years of age must have their ticket purchased by their parent or guardian who is an eligible member. Individuals are limited to a single ticket; organizations are limited to five. The same credit card may be used up to five times to purchase all of the tickets for an organization, but each team member must sign in with his or her own Apple ID to purchase a ticket.

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As some investors feared, Apple on Tuesday reported numbers that were worse than its performance a year ago for the second quarter—though the company still saw record sales for its March quarter.

The company posted $43.6 billion in revenue for the quarter, with net profit of $9.5 billion. That puts earnings at $10.09 per diluted share, down from $12.30 a year ago. In the same quarter last year, Apple reported $39.2 billion in revenue and profit of $11.6 billion.

While Wall Street is sure to take a dim view of Apple’s quarterly performance, it’s worth noting the company had a large bar to clear to surpass the second quarter of 2012. In that year-ago quarter, Apple saw profit nearly double to record levels for the March quarter on the strength of the strength of the third-generation iPad’s debut. In the just-completed quarter, Apple didn’t introduce any new products.

Apple’s gross margin for the quarter was down nearly 10 percent from the year-ago quarter: 37.5 percent for the 2013 quarter, compared to 47.4 percent for the second quarter of 2012.

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Apple announced record sales for its March quarter on Tuesday, thanks to strong demand for the iPhone and iPad. But the company’s quarterly profits fell from the year-ago quarter.

Apple’s revenue rose 11 percent to $43.6 billion for the quarter ended March 30. Income fell to $9.5 billion from $11.6 billion last year.

You can get a complete overview of Apple’s quarterly performance or follow the company’s quarterly briefing with analysts below.

The $100 Flower/Tower Floor Stand lets you mount your iPad and then adjust it for prime viewing whether you’re sitting or standing. It’s available in 3-meter or 5-meter versions to get just the right viewing height.

Volkswagen gets ready to premiere its FahrvergiPhonenügen, the problems with MobileMe finally get laid at the feet of the man responsible, and Apple extends a helping hand in China. The remainders for Monday, April 22, 2013 are working overtime—fighting crime, fighting crime.

World premiere – the new iBeetle Auto Shanghai (Volkswagen Media Services)

For all of you who hoped that Apple would some day make a car, Volkswagen is apparently getting ready to release the new iBeetle, the first Volkswagen that includes an iPhone dock. I’m telling you, people, this is the automotive innovation of 2009.

You are not Steve Jobs (Medium)

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In March, I wrote an article about how Apple should change the way iTunes Store purchases work. Namely, that there should be a way to buy content now, but download it later—especially in the case of large video files such as movies or TV show seasons.

Lo and behold, on Friday Apple did just that, adding new download options for a variety of content, including movies, individual TV show episodes, TV Season Passes, and completed seasons. You get the same options for movie bundles, music box sets, and for when you choose to complete a TV season or Season Pass.

When purchasing any of the above items using iTunes 11 on a Mac or Windows PC, or an iOS device running iOS 6 or later, you’re now presented with Later and Download (or Download All) buttons. Tap Later and the purchased items will be added to your iTunes account and accessible to stream or download in the future via Apple’s iTunes in the Cloud feature. It’s a handy feature if you, say, want to buy a movie on sale while you have a spotty data connection; you can make sure to get the cheaper price, then download the item when you get home—or even just play it from the cloud.

Note that the new option is available to those who live in countries or regions where Apple supports iTunes in the Cloud for video and audio. You can check Apple’s complete list to see if you qualify.

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Wall Street’s eyes are on Apple, which announces its latest quarterly earnings this Tuesday, April 23, at 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern. As always, Macworld will be on hand with live coverage of the announcement, along with the subsequent question-and-answer session with financial analysts.

While Apple’s status as one of the most valuable companies in the world means that its financial information is always scrutinized, this quarter may see even more attention than usual. The company’s stock price has declined precipitously over the last six months, from a high of over $700 to well under $400. The financial community will be waiting, breath held, to see if Apple will continue to buck their expectations.

Great and not-so-great expectations

Make no mistake, though: This is about the expectations game. The cause of the stock price drop can be laid squarely at the feet of rumors aplenty; there are whispers of everything from low demand for iPhones to cut component orders. And, of course, there’s the general lingering feeling in the minds of many analysts—rational or not—that Apple needs to deliver some new revolution in order to ensure continued success.

But is such a pessimistic outlook really warranted? During last quarter’s financials, CEO Tim Cook cautioned against reading too much into the company’s supply chain, describing it as “very complex” and saying that “it’s good to question the accuracy of any kind of rumor about build plans.”

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Siri’s eidetic memory has an expiration date after all, Apple gets a brush off from some Antarctic birds, and Tim Cook reaches the end of his tether. It’s curtains for the remainders for Friday, April 19, 2013.

Apple Finally Reveals How Long Siri Keeps Your Data (Wired)

Finally. These concerns over how long Siri retains your data have been raging, unanswered, for all of 24 hours.

Penguin to terminate ebook deal with Apple in bid to end European antitrust investigation (The Verge)

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There’s been a lot of talk lately about how Google Now is Android’s secret weapon in the mobile platform wars with iOS. If Siri is a digital “assistant”—taking your instructions, sending messages, and updating your calendar—Google Now is more of a concierge, reminding you of that next appointment, checking the weather for you, and generally anticipating your needs. No good idea remains unexploited for long, though, and this week brought forth Osito, a free “predictive intelligence” iPhone app that offers many of the most prominent features of Google Now.

To do that job, though, Osito ties into a range of information already offered on your phone. You’ll have to give it access to location services and to your calendar; you’ll also want to enable push notifications. It’s not required that you give the app access to your Google account, though you may want to if you do any of your scheduling through Google Calendar. (The company promises to keep all of this data private.)

After you’re tied into the app, Osito offers a number of services: It looks at your schedule, where your next meeting is at, and where you’re located, then gives you a nudge when it’s time to get on the road to arrive on time at that event. If the weather is going to be wet, windy, or in any way unusual during that trip, the app alerts you to that, too. Similarly, if there’s a traffic jam on your route, the app will let you know—offering you new directions and the opportunity to alert any contacts at your destination that you might be late.

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Monkey Boxing scratches an itch you didn’t know you had … Yahoo Mail added iPad support … and Pepper Plate updated with enhanced iPhone features

The Barbour Leather Flip Case (iPhone 5; £40) features typical English-tartan lining and is made from real leather embossed with the logo of the venerable Barbour clothing designer.

The interior of the flip case, which also sports a number of cutouts to give you prompt access to all the iPhone’s ports and cameras, features a couple convenient pockets and compartments for storing cards and cash.

Amazon took not just a page from Apple’s book, but apparently a whole site. Elsewhere, Intel is telling it like it is, and Jonathan Ive racks up yet another major award. What were the remainders for Thursday, April 18, 2013 saying again?

Amazon’s Goodreads Purchase Scuttled Apple Partnership (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)

Sneaksy Bezoses! Before Amazon snapped up Goodreads, the book-recommendation site was apparently on the verge of doing a deal to integrate its content with Apple’s iBookstore. Which at least explains why the only recommendation I get from the iBookstore is to read Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs. Over and over again. Forever.

Intel’s CEO coy about hinting at Apple deal (CNet)

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The $150 BoomBottle, also from Scosche, is a clever, rugged Bluetooth speaker that fits in the water-bottle cage on your bike for on-the-go music listening. The BoomBottle offers up to 10 hours of playback between charges.