Apple

Although Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has neither confirmed nor even officially commented on it, it appears that the company plans to establish itself in the automobile industry. Since reports of Apple's mysterious minivans emerged, the past few weeks have been abuzz with rumors about Apple's intentions, enough so to warrant some serious investigation. The Wall Street Journal looked into the matter and found that Apple does indeed have a secret project codenamed "Titan" that appears to be involved with automobiles. Further investigation by Bloomberg found that, for the moment, Apple's goal is to have an electric car on the market by 2020. If done right, this could turn out to be another enormous source of revenue for Apple.

Other items of interest from last week:

After a successful public beta of OS X Yosemite, Apple plans to have a public iOS beta, which will be a first. The company is planning to release a public iOS 8.3 beta in mid March alongside the developer version. Apple also intends to

Enthusiasts have been anticipating an Apple TV refresh for quite some time now, yet Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been very quiet on that front recently. It's possible that they are waiting for the dust to settle from the seemingly endless negotiations between content providers and cable/satellite companies. A report from re/code last week says that Apple is in talks with content providers, and may be looking to put together "bundles of programming - but not the entire TV lineup that pay-TV providers generally offer," to sell directly to consumers over the web, bypassing the cable companies altogether (though most cable providers also provide internet access, so that could quickly become a leverage point for them depending on what happens with net neutrality).

Some other items of note from last week:

Apple last week admitted its connection to the camera-equipped minivans that have recently been spotted throughout the country. The slew of sightings has many speculating that Apple is testing autonomous "iCars," but AppleInsider offers some compelling arguments that the vans are contributing data to Apple's 3D FlyOver feature.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares opened last week on Tuesday morning at $107.84 and made gains for the rest of the week, closing at $112.98 on Friday. Apple will announce its Q1 FY15 earnings tomorrow at 5 PM ET. Most analysts expect very positive numbers from the holiday quarter, and for that success to continue into Q2, as the iPhone 6 is still in very high demand, especially in China.

Ming-Chi Kuo, of KGI Securities, expects record breaking sales of 73 million iPhones over the holiday quarter. He also estimates 61.3 million sales for Q2, which would be up from last year's second quarter. He believes the Apple Watch will launch in March and will sell just under 3 million units before the end of that quarter. He expects a 12-inch MacBook Air with Retina display to hit the shelves sometime before the end of April.

Targeted search advertising firm, Chitika, last week released the results of an iPhone usage study that showed a positive correlation between iPhone usage and education level - states with a higher percentage of the population holding a Bachelor's or higher degree had a higher percentage of iPhone users. No geographic correlation was uncovered, but the study also showed a positive correlation with population density.

Apple last week released its executives' 2014 earnings. Newcomer Angela Ahrendts topped the list with $73.3 million, with the majority of it coming from a $70 million stock award. Tim Cook received a compensation increase and more than doubled his earnings from the previous year, going from $4.2 million to $9.5 million. To be clear, Tim Cook is the better compensated of the two. He received a $70 million stock award in 2013, and when he took over as CEO, he received a $378 million payout package plus $373 million in stock options.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) last week announced record breaking sales for the App Store. The first week of the new year set a new sales record with over half a billion dollars in app and in-app purchases, and New Year's Day was the biggest day in the App Store's history. Apple also reported that app sales were up 50% in 2014 and generated $10 billion for developers - 40% of the $25 billion total since the App Store opened in 2008.

Apple's developer page reported last week that iOS 8 is now on 68% of all registered Apple devices.