Dennis Sellers

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/house-committee-requests-tech-executives-emails-in-antitrust-probe-11568377800?emailToken=0887bfef6965e5c1bf0683a66992f799k7RFJsSs0YzEn6OuxJNJlp%2FqEd85Mhf3%20AhPgNLSrWUwGVDlo26NbwGf2GTYgPAWFBpEQKudlAHBsldK5sRPzNJGrbBLjGn%2FY9rj0TbIZj4nn1l7XzcnTzvt%2FxKMbrJK&reflink=article_copyURL_share" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Wall Street Journal</em> </a>says U.S. House lawmakers are demanding emails and executive communications from four technology giants (Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Alphabet/Google) as they look for evidence of anticompetitive behavior.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/jj-abrams-bad-robot-warnermedia-deal-analysis-1239406" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Hollywood Reporter</a> says writer/producer/director J.J. Abrams turned down a $500 million offer from Apple for his Bad Robot production company because he didn’t want to be limited to movies and TV shows that were Apple-only.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple TV+, Apple’s movie streaming service, will launch in India at a reduced price point of INR 99 (US$1.40) per month, in order to compete with a growing raft of local and international video streaming services, according to <a href="https://www.rapidtvnews.com/2019091257283/apple-tv-to-undercut-netflix-amazon-in-india.html?utm_campaign=apple-tv-to-undercut-netflix-amazon-in-india&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_2240#axzz5zPOfsfzH" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">RapidTV News</a>.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">There’s TouchID and FaceID. How about “Palm ID” on future iPhones and iPads?</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Today is Friday the 13th, so I’m serving up a list of three iOS apps and one Mac app to “celebrate” the big day. First, let’s look at the iOS apps.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has announced a billing grace period for subscriptions. The tech giant says it has “worked closely with leading developers to create a solution for reducing customer churn while improving the experience for auto-renewable subscriptions.”</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Another day, another lawsuit. As noted by <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/09/12/oled-patent-aggregator-suing-apple-over-implementation-of-every-screen-it-uses)" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AppleInsider,</a> Solas OLED (<a href="https://www.solasoled.com"><span style="text-decoration:underline">https://www.solasoled.com</span></a>) is suing Apple for patent infringement.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Future iPhones and iPads may see displays on their sides as well as on the touch screen. Apple has filed for a patent (number 20190278394) for “electronic devices with sidewall displays.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">According to the latest figures published by <a href="https://www.idc.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">IDC,</a> the overall EMEA [Europe, Middle East, and Africa) tablet market declined 11.7% year-over-year, shipping 9.6 million units in the second quarter of 2019. Apple retained market leadership in EMEA, with the help of a buoyant detachable quarter and the resurrection of the iPad mini. </p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Shipments of wrist-worn wearables — inclusive of smartwatches, basic watches, and wrist bands — reached 34.2 million units, up 28.8% year over year during the second quarter of 2019 (2Q19), according to new data from the International Data Corporation (<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.idc.com&esheet=52092122&newsitemid=20190912005263&lan=en-US&anchor=IDC&index=1&md5=f9c748a6b8361017213fd6cc59c09c25" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">IDC</a>) <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.idc.com%2Ftracker%2Fshowproductinfo.jsp%3Fprod_id%3D962&esheet=52092122&newsitemid=20190912005263&lan=en-US&anchor=Worldwide+Quarterly+Wearable+Device+Tracker&index=2&md5=d9cf227ea22c950ed2da20a72fb626dd" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker</a>. </p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><em>The Columbia Journalism Review</em> (<em>CJR</em>) <a href="https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/apple-news-local-journalism.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">writes</a> that Apple News, Apple’s news aggregator with some 85 million users, doesn’t distribute news evenly. It promotes the stores of big publishers even when they're derived from original, local sources, while ignoring those original sources, the article adds.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Starting on Friday, Sept. 13, Walgreens customers will receive 3% Daily Cash when they use Apple Card with Apple Pay on eligible purchases, including prescriptions, made in Walgreens and Duane Reade stores, and for purchases made on the Walgreens app and on <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwalgreens.com%2F&esheet=52092139&newsitemid=20190912005304&lan=en-US&anchor=walgreens.com&index=1&md5=abdc6d0cd114bdd493499027e2dd0e36" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">walgreens.com</a>. </p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">A klutz like me needs a screen protector on his iPhone (and iPad Pro and Apple Watch….). Having one that also sports health features is even better. Enter the Glass Elite VisionGuard+ for the Apple iPhone <a href="https://www.zagg.com/us/en_us/invisibleshield/glass-elite-visionguard-plus-iphone-xs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">iPhone XS</a>, <a href="https://www.zagg.com/us/en_us/invisibleshield/glass-elite-visionguard-plus-iphone-xs-max" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">XS Max</a> and <a href="https://www.zagg.com/us/en_us/invisibleshield/glass-elite-visionguard-plus-iphone-xr" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">XR</a>.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has cut the prices of the 11-inch and 12.9-inch <a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-ipad/ipad-pro">1TB iPad Pros</a> by $200 in the U.S. This leads me to believe they’re clearing out inventory for new models that (I suspect) will debut next month.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has made available the third public betas of iOS 13.1 an iPadOS 13.1. Which, as I’ve noted before, is unusual since iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 don’t arrive until Sept. 19,</p>