Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">One of the most common battery-powered devices are our cell phones. With more than 300 million mobile phones in use throughout the U.S.alone, that's a lot of battery power according to <a href="https://www.devicepitstop.com/store-locator/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Device Pitstop</a>.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Global sales of smartphones to end users stalled in the fourth quarter of 2018, totaling 408.4 million units — growth of just 0.1% over the fourth quarter of 2017, according to the <a href="http://www.gartner.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gartner, Inc. research group</a>. Apple recorded its worst quarterly decline (11.8%) since the first quarter of 2016.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Charter Communications has announced that it will launch Spectrum TV Essentials, a $14.99/month, Internet delivered over-the-top (OTT) video service, to be made available exclusively in Charter's footprint to Spectrum Internet customers who don't already subscribe to Spectrum video services. It will be available through the Spectrum TV App for the Apple TV, iOS devices, Android devices, Roku, Xbox One, Amazon Kindle Fire, Samsung Smart TVs, and computers (via <a href="http://SpectrumTV.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration:underline">SpectrumTV.com</span></a>).</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has toppled from first place to 17th place in the World’s Most Innovative Companies list from <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Fast Company</em></a><em>.</em></p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.apple.com/education/apple-teacher/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apple Teacher </a>— a a free professional learning program designed to support and celebrate educators using Apple products for teaching and learning — has been updated with a new professional learning experience. </p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has released the third public betas of iOS 12.2, watchOS 5.2, and tvOS 12.2. </p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">According to new research from <a href="http://www.loupventures.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Loup Ventures</a> — based on survey work as well as the growth in transactions, countries, locations, and banks — 43% of global iPhone users have enabled Apple Pay. </p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has <a href="https://itunes-console.partnerize.com/login/itunes/en_us" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">revamped its Affiliate Program</a> — which provides a way to link to songs, apps, and more — earning participants commissions on sales. The program has gotten a redesigned interface and new navigation system.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple will likely preview the long promised, redesigned, modular Mac Pro at this June’s Worldwide Developers Conference, according to a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-20/apple-is-said-to-target-combining-iphone-ipad-mac-apps-by-2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Bloomberg</em></a> by Mark Gurman. The tech giant will also release more details about “Project Marizan,” he adds. The Sellers Research Group (that’s me) says there’s a 100% chance that both will happen. </p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has been granted a patent that, if it ever materializes in a product, would equip your Mac laptop, iPhone, and iPad with environmental sensors to better protect the speakers and microphones. Basically, the sensors would alert users when water, smoke, excessive heat, etc., is detected so they could protect their gadgets.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">The Sellers Research Firm (that’s me) disagrees, but a new study from <a href="http://www.juniperresearch.com/CMSModules/Newsletters/CMSPages/Redirect.ashx?linkguid=f360b089-9b0d-4bc6-8567-05ec2833213f&email=submitnews%40applecentral.com&hash=898d7744c1fb18e3162d64eeaff77c4d3cc1a3b3101c2b7a131d8a324f3f7a58" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration:underline">Juniper Research</span></a> has found that the four biggest smartwatch vendors — Apple, Fossil, Fitbit and Samsung — will have their market share for connected watch shipments fall to 47% by 2023, down from an estimated 58% in 2018. The decline is linked to the growth of smaller players, including Garmin, Huami and Huawei amongst others, claims Juniper.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2379181-1&h=3128232010&u=https%3A%2F%2Frokt.com%2F&a=Rokt" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration:underline">Rokt</span></a>, which specializes in e-commerce marketing technology, announced that James Wilson has joined the executive team as chief technology officer. He has over 20 years experience in software and network engineering, most recently working in the U.S. in senior engineering roles at both Apple and Amazon.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">OWC has released its free <a href="https://www.owcdigital.com/products/dock-ejector" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dock Ejector app,</a> which allows users to safely disconnect from all OWC docks with one click. </p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Epson America has added voice-activated printing compatibility with Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant. The Epson EcoTank, WorkForce, and Expression printers are now compatible with three popular voice assistant platforms, including Amazon Alexa.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Despite a 10.4% decline in the fourth quarter, Apple continues to dominate the smartphone market in Japan. According to the <a href="http://www.canalys.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Canalys research group</a>  its market share exceeded 50% for the first time in 2018. That’s up from 48% in 2017 and 48.2% in 2016.</p>