Dennis Sellers

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Another day, another lawsuit. <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/apple-accused-of-selling-itunes-customers-data/article27246661.ece" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Bloomberg</em> reports</a> that Apple is being sued by customers who say the tech giant is unlawfully disclosing and selling personal info about their iTunes purchases as well as their personal data, despite the company’s advertising claim that “What happens on your iPhone. stays on your iPhone.”</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has been granted a patent (number 10,296,126) for a “shape detecting input” device that hints at a touchscreen Mac. And it would “recognize” not only your fingers and a stylus, but other objects as well.</p>

<p class="" 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 class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has scooped up <a href="http://www.tueohealth.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tueo Health</a>, which makes an objective asthma status measurement solution designed to help parents monitor asthma symptoms in children using a mobile app and commercial breathing sensors, reports <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/24/apple-acquires-asthma-detection-start-up-tueo-health.htm"><em>CNBC</em></a>. It’s another move by the tech giant to add more health features to its products.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has released iOS 12.3.1. It provides bug fixes for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch regarding to Voice over LTE calls and Messages. </p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple is teaming up with Taco Bell for an “order ahead and avoid the line with Apple Pay” promo for its payment service. You can use the Taco Bell app and Apple Pay to get tacos for $1 through May 29. </p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">As noted by <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2019/05/23/apple-store-taipei-xinyi-a13-opening-soon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>9to5Mac</em>,</a> Apple is expected to open its second store in Taiwan soon. It will be located the Xinyi District of Tapei.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Another day, another lawsuit. As noted by <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/05/23/fresh-app-store-monopoly-lawsuit-arrives-after-us-supreme-court-ruling" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInsider</em></a>, following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, a new class action lawsuit accuses Apple of artificially inflating App Store prices through a monopoly on iOS app distribution.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">iAvatar, anyone? Apple has filed for another  patent (number 20160086386) for an “avatar creation and editing” that would allow users to create custom avatars (onscreen representations of a person) for use in online games and other applications. The other two patent filings are number 20160086386 and 9,576,400.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">In a new <a href="https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/13240025" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Geekbench benchmark</a>, the new MacBook Pro with a 2.4GHz Core i9 chip earned a single-core score of 5879 and a multi-core score of 29184. That’s a substantial leap over the previous high-end 6-core MacBook Pro from 2018.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Samsung is talking with Apple about supplying OLED displays for a 16-inch MacBook Pro and future iPad Pro models, according to Korean site <a href="https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelec.kr%2Fnews%2FarticleView.html%3Fidxno%3D1695" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Elec</a> as noted and translated by <a href="http://www.macrumors.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>MacRumors</em></a>.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.jamf.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jamf</a>, which specializes in Apple management, has announced the results of an independent survey on higher ed students’ device preference.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Almost five years ago, Ben Kunz writing for <em>Bloomberg Businessweek, </em>predicted that Apple devices would soon project holograms "like you’ve never seen." Sounds a bit out-there, right? But Kunz could have been onto something. The tech giant has applied for a patent (number 20190150731) for an “information system and method for provide information using a holographic element.”</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has filed for a patent (number 20190158552) for a network media device that pulls multimedia data from one or more sources (e.g., a multimedia website or a multimedia server computer) at a first time, stores it to long-term storage within the device and transmits the stored multimedia data to one or more designated multimedia playback devices at a second time.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple currently has 33 employees working on augmented reality projects, according to <em>Thinknum</em>. A word-cloud analysis of openings for AR since 2016 shows a clear move from R&D to market research, resale, and retail applications, the article says.</p>