Apple Daily Report for May 17, 2018

Steve is out of pocket this week, so the AWT News Update is on a brief hiatus. In its place, I’ll offer a text-only (no podcast) summary of breaking stories with a tip o’ my hat to my former website, Apple Daily Report.

Apple’s plan to set up a new campus in North Carolina’s “Research Triangle” could be announced as early as June, with Republican legislators reportedly close to passing a financial incentives package granting benefits to the tech giant.

In a round of questioning on Wednesday in the never-ending Apple vs. Samsung legal battle, Apple expert witnesses Adam Ball and Susan Kare argued the merits of Apple’s patents, reports CNET. The two sided with Apple’s lawyers in viewing three granted design patents as applicable to iPhone’s “articles of manufacture.” 

Apple has updated the front page and accessibility section of Apple.com in celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day. The event is held on the third Thursday of May every year and was created to promote inclusion and usability of technology for anyone with a disability. 

Apple Pay has expanded to the Ukraine; customers who bank with PrivatBank can now register their cards on their iPhones, iPads, Apple Watch and Macs. The Ukrainian Finance Minster announced the news on Facebook.

The overall PC market sales are turning weaker than expected in the traditional low season of the second quarter of 2018 despite stable gaming and business PC demand, due mainly to sluggish buying sentiment for consumer PCs and the abrupt waning in demand for crypto mining devices starting in April. 

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