Dennis Sellers

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Global smartwatch shipments grew a healthy rate of 48% year-on-year in quarter one of 2019 driven by Apple, Samsung, Fitbit, and Huawei, according to the latest research from Counterpoint’s <a href="https://report.counterpointresearch.com/posts/report_view/iot/1201" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Global Smartwatch Tracker</a>. And approximately one out of every three smartwatches sold is an Apple Watch.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple may be preparing to beef up the virtual features in its GarageBand music creation apps for iOS and macOS. The tech giant has applied for a patent (number 20190129611) dubbed “enhanced virtual instrument techniques.”</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Sometimes you need to quickly and easily clean the background of a photograph. PhotoScissors 5 by TeoreX is a convenient tool for doing this.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Since Steve and I can’t cover everything, at the end of each week day, we’ll offer this wrap-up of news items you should check out.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">The apps and social platforms industry ranked 10th out of the 15 studied in MBLM's <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2452294-1&h=1507599577&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmblm.com%2Flab%2Fbrandintimacy-study%2F&a=Brand+Intimacy+2019+Study" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brand Intimacy 2019 Study</a>, which is the largest study of brands based on emotions, rising two spots since 2018. Last year's leader, Apple Music, fell to the #5 position.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wjvdb4/apple-is-telling-lawmakers-people-will-hurt-themselves-if-they-try-to-fix-iphones" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">VICE’s Motherboard claims that</a> an Apple representative and lobbyist for CompTIA, a trade organization that represents big tech companies, have been privately meeting with California lawmakers to encourage them to kill legislation that would make it easier for consumers to repair their electronics.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple’s 19,000 square foot Carnegie Library retail store will open Thursday, May 11, at 10 a.m. (local time). The tech giant says that “inspired by the rich history of Carnegie Library, we are reimagining Apple Carnegie Library as a brand-new space to learn.”</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Last week it was reported that Apple was losing three members of its Industrial Design team. Now another one has departed.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">According to the latest market share survey from <a href="http://netmarkeshare.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NetMarketShare,</a> the market share for macOS was up slightly in April, while iOS was down slightly.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Several <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/apple-airplay-2-tvs/">smart TV makers will support Apple’s AirPlay 2</a> wireless streaming tech this year, and Samsung has become the first TV maker to include iTunes. So it’s possible that Apple could decide to ditch its Apple TV set-top box.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">The Apple Watch provides haptic feedback already, and future watchbands for the smartwatch may do the same. Apple has been granted a patent (number 10,276,001) for a “band attachment with haptic response.”</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">In a <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209594" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new support document</a>, Apple says Aperture —its discontinued high end photo editing software — won’t run in versions of the Mac operating system after macOS Mojave. The doc explains how to migrate your Aperture libraries to Photos or Adobe Lightroom Classic.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">With iPhones with 5G support <a href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2019/4/22/analyst-apple-likely-to-ship-200-million-iphones-in-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">expected to debut</a> next year with iPad Pros with <a href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2019/4/25/analyst-ipad-pros-with-5g-support-coming-in-2021?rq=5G" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">5G support predicted</a> for 2021, why not a MacBook Pro that supports the next gen technology?</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Today Plugable launched <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__plugable.com_products_ud-2Dcube_&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=Ow4aPy9cQd3igcFvmMGyfG9-O_-GjrDliLiWOH5EUvlQNQHoxZFegoMc_GhVhFyE&m=hS8haqcqFPdCn8goMNf16JhDflr211Ee6mZPCoVpvLE&s=6cswIeXJjnNtYIbLmMIJdhTo5uaKKBxxXPjVzcUnOrM&e="><span style="text-decoration:underline">The Cube</span></a>, a $79.99, portable (2.5 x 2.3 x 1.4 inches) USB-C mini docking station. I received an advance copy, so have had almost a week to play around with it — and I’m impressed.</p>

<p class="" style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Since Steve and I can’t cover everything, at the end of each week day, we’ll offer this wrap-up of news items you should check out.</p>