Apple's week: Huge profits, Apple TV launch, and WiFi Assist lawsuit

Mac OS X also found to have the most vulnerable apps

Apple had a mixed seven days, having reported a Q4 profit of over $11bn only to face a lawsuit from a California couple over the WiFi Assist feature introduced in latest version of iOS 9.

The company also revealed that pre-orders of the new version of the Apple TV are now live, but topped the charts as the technology vendor with the most vulnerable applications.

Apple passes $50bn profit mark, helped by 48 million iPhone sales

Apple posted a huge profit of $11.1bn for its fourth quarter, significantly building on the $8.5bn a year earlier.

The profit was derived from revenue of $51.5bn, which pushed Apple's full-year revenues to a staggering $234bn and profit of $53bn. This was a huge increase on the 2014 revenue of $182bn and profit of $39bn.

Apple faces $5m WiFi Assist lawsuit

Apple faces a lawsuit from a California couple seeking damages of $5m over the WiFi Assist feature which has caused some consumers to use excessive data and increase their bills.

WiFi Assist was introduced with iOS for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S Plus and is designed to automatically switch a device to mobile data if a connection on WiFi is weak or unstable. Apple has been accused of failing to explain the feature clearly, leading people to exceed their mobile data allowance when they thought they were on WiFi.

Apple poaches Nvidia's deep learning director to fuel automotive plans

Apple poached Nvidia's director of deep learning, Jonathan Cohen, in what appeared to be a move to boost its own upcoming car technology.

Nvidia's GPU-accelerated deep learning technology has been targeted at autonomous cars, so it would not take much of a leap in imagination to expect that Cohen could be working on Apple's take on car technology and even driverless vehicles.

Latest Apple TV is available to pre-order from £129

The latest version of Apple TV went live for pre-order in the UK this week, and shipping of the media streaming box began a few days after orders were placed.

Apple TV is described as "the future of television", and is available in 32GB and 64GB configurations for £129 and £169.

Mac OS X applications are leading the PC vulnerability war

The INQUIRER reported that applications on Apple's Mac OS X operating system have knocked Oracle off the top spot for having the most vulnerable software.

A report from security firm Secunia said that many private PCs contain apps from vendors such as Apple, Adobe and Oracle that are unpatched or reaching end-of-life, leaving machines open to hackers.