Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple wants Siri, its “personal digital assistant,” to be able to whisper a response.The company has been granted a patent (number 10,192,552) for a “digital assistant providing a whispered speech.”</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple <a href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2019/1/24/apple-lays-off-200-employees-from-project-titan-its-apple-car-project" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">may have cut 200 folks</a> from its “Project Titan/Apple Car” team, but the tech giant is still working on automotive projects and has been granted a patent (number 10,189,434) for an “augmented safety restraint” for automated vehicles.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple <a href="https://www.law360.com/technology/articles/1122202/apple-urges-fed-circ-to-ax-virnetx-s-600m-patent-win?nl_pk=ade0cf2b-ea3f-464b-bc93-d8e19277ac63&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=technology&read_more=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has urged </a> the Federal Circuit to toss a nearly $600 million judgment that VirnetX secured against the tech giant, arguing that the asserted claims of all the patents in the case have been invalidated by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple won't face a proposed class action accusing it of selling millions of watches with defective screens that can crack or shatter, after a California federal judge found the plaintiff failed to provide an explanation for the alleged cracking, reports <a href="https://www.law360.com/technology/articles/1122658/apple-users-can-t-link-broken-watches-to-a-defect-koh-says?nl_pk=ade0cf2b-ea3f-464b-bc93-d8e19277ac63&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=technology)" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Law360</em></a><em>.</em></p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Aetna, a CVS Health business, has launched Attain, a “health experience” designed in collaboration with Apple. </p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple’s streaming video service could launch by mid-April, according to <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/amazon-changes-tack-on-video-offering-as-apple-joins-market" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Information</em></a>. The article says the tech giant has told companies tapped to air shows that this is the planned launch of the service.</p><p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"></p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">According to <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/01/28/group-facetime-exploit-lets-callers-listen-in-on-recipients-audio-before-accepting-call" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInsider</em></a>, an exploit allows a FaceTime Video caller to hear the audio from a recipient's iPhone without the call even being picked up.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">In iOS 12, you can draw or type on any photo you take when using the Photos app.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple Mail in iOS 12 has some overlooked nifty features. Among them:</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/sundance-apple-takes-jada-pinkett-smith-produced-drama-hala-1203121394/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Variety</em></a> reports that Apple has purchased a coming-of-age drama entitled <em>Hala</em> at the Sundance Film Festival. </p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Oops. In 2012, Apple CEO Timothy D. Cook, <a href="http://rockcenter.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/06/15708290-apple-ceo-tim-cook-announces-plans-to-manufacture-mac-computers-in-usa?lite" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration:underline">went on prime-time television</span></a> to announce that Apple would make a Mac in the U.S. for the first time in years. However, when the tech giant began making the computer in Austin, Texas, it struggled to find enough screws, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/technology/iphones-apple-china-made.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The New York Times</em></a>, quoting three unnamed “people who worked on the project.”</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has opened its doors to 11 female-founded app development companies for the inaugural session of Entrepreneur Camp. </p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has released the first public betas of macOS 10.14.4, iOS 12.2, and tvOS 12.2.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple is planning a subscription service for games, according to <a href="https://cheddar.com/videos/apple-plans-gaming-subscription-service-sources" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Cheddar</em>,</a> quoting five unnamed “people familiar with the matter.”</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">In 2018, Apple spent $60 billion with 9,000 American component suppliers and companies, an increase of more than 10% from the year before, supporting more than 450,000 jobs, according to <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/01/component-manufacturing-drives-apple-us-job-creation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a press release </a>on the company’s Newsroom webpage.</p>