| Apple had a very strong quarter, Sandberg sounds off, Twitter celebrates Black History Month and more in The Daily Crunch for February 1, 2017. And Facebook wants to help you find more friends, but don't we have enough already? 1. Apple's quarterly earnings impress Apple enjoyed very strong quarterly earnings, which bested most analyst expectations, with a modest return to iPhone sales growth that helped buoy results overall. The services side of the business also helped out considerably. App Store enjoyed its strongest holiday quarter ever, which is surprising given a lot of observer and analyst sentiment regarding general consumer disinterest in downloading new apps. Big app makers are likely the ones to benefit most from this growth, but it's still a promising sign for the future of Apple's digital software marketplace. 
2. Sheryl Sandberg joins the chorus of tech execs against Trump's immigration order Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg shared a post expressing her concern over the impact Trump's executive order on refugees will have on women. She's a little late to the party, but she did come out pretty strong against the move, noting that this is "not how it should be in America." 3. Twitter's Blackbirds employee group launches a bot for Black History Month Twitter has a new bot launching for Black History Month, which starts today. The bot is the product of Twitter's Blackbirds employee resource group, and bears the group's name. If Twitter users DM the bot, it'll provide you one of four possible responses: a fact related to something that happened on this date in black history, a community event going on right now in major U.S. cities, or a tip on self-care or noteworthy moments from around the user community. 4. Facebook wants you to discover people now, too Facebook wants to start helping you make new friends, rather than just connecting with existing ones. A new test feature on mobile called "Discover People" will encourage people to introduce themselves to others, and offer up potential connections via networks like city, events, and employers. It's kind of like the user suggestion thing but maybe a tad less easy to ignore. 5. Snapchat's hoping to expand the appeal of its AR filters Snapchat has done well popularizing augmented reality through use of its facial filters, which can change a lot and analyze live images from your cameras to modify your visage. It's not looking to do the same advanced image processing with landscapes, so it can add objects and other things that aren't really there on the fly. Sounds cool. Also sounds potentially lucrative, for advertisers. 6. GoPro takes a second crack at the skies GoPro's Karma was a significant attempt to increase its product range with a drone, a first for the company. But it fumbled the launch, which resulted in a recall and a months-long delay coming to market while the company addressed its battery bungling issues. Now it's back, but it'll have a much higher hill to climb this time around, and I don't love tis chances. 7. GTA publisher looks to social games Take-Two a major games publisher whose titles include Grand Theft Auto, Civilization, BioShock and more is looking to expand into social mobile games, with an acquisition of a Zynga-like European studio called Social Point. There's money in making bad games with addictive hooks and plenty of in-app purchases, apparently. | 
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