Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">iPhone sales in China fell 20% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2018, while sales for smartphones made by China-based Huawei soared by 23%, according to <a href="http://www.idc.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">IDC</a>.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has announced that, working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Health Records on iPhone feature will be available soon to veterans. For the first time, American veterans receiving care through the Veterans Health Administration will be able to securely view their aggregated health records directly in the Health app on their iPhones.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">The rumor mill is busy today with rumors about AirPods 2, 2019 iPhones, and the iPad mini. Here’s a round-up of them along with the chances the Sellers Research Group (that’s me) gives them of actually happening.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple's homepage in Italy has been required to display a notice (pictured) about iOS updates affecting performance if a battery is chemically depleted or not functioning properly, reports <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/02/11/italy-forces-iphone-battery-throttling-notice-posting-on-apples-italian-homepage" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInsider</em>.</a></p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple, being one of the largest, yet secretive companies on the planet, isn’t <a href="https://www.jamf.com/resources/webinars/apple-it-trends-for-2019/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration:underline">immune to emerging trends</span></a>. With its foundational iPhone market beginning to stagnate, the need for adding more diversity into their product line has never been more of a prevalent issue. </p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has filed for another patent (number 20190041981) for a motion tracking user interface for the Mac. Others include number 9,715,273 and 20180157319.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">You can add or remove emergency contacts from the Health app on your iPhone.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Another day, another lawsuit. As reported by<em> </em><a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/02/09/apple-being-sued-because-two-factor-authentication-on-an-iphone-or-mac-takes-too-much-time" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInsider</em>,</a> a class action lawsuit, filed by Jay Brodsky in California claims that Apple's two-factor authentication is too disruptive to users, takes too much time out of a user's day when it’s needed, and is abusive since it can't be rolled back to a less safe login method after 14 days.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Future iPhones could work together for “collaborative location-based search results,” per a new patent filing (number 10,197,489) by Apple. </p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">On a regular basis, <em>Apple World Today</em> posts a list of notable new apps or app updates that have been released. They may not necessarily be new, but they're popular and deserve mention. Here are this week’s picks.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple CEO Tim Cook will <a href="https://news.tulane.edu/pr/apple-ceo-tim-cook-address-tulane-university-graduates-commencement-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deliver the keynote address </a>to Tulane University graduates at the university’s commencement on May 18 in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. </p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple and Google have been criticized by rights groups for hosting Absher, an app which allows men in Saudi Arabia to track and control where women travel, according to an <a href="https://www.thisisinsider.com/apple-google-criticised-for-saudi-government-app-activists-say-fuel-discrimination-2019-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Insider</em> report</a>.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has applied for a patent (number 20190042833) for “face detection, pose estimation, and distance from a camera estimation using a single network.” It involves improving FaceID in upcoming iPhones, iPads, and — let’s hope — Macs.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">You can customize Control Center in iOS 12, so you can quickly change the settings for the things you do the most.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple <a href="https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari_release_notes/safari_12_1_release_notes" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">will remove</a> the Do Not Track feature of Safari in the next update of iOS and macOS. According to <a href="https://spreadprivacy.com/do-not-track" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a post </a>by the makes of the DuckDuckGo browser, Do Not Track’s goal to help users avoid having their activity tracked hasn’t been very successful, so Apple is shifting focus to a new Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature.</p>