Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple's legal team argued in a recent federal filing that the tech giant has no idea what "ideological diversity" means, in hopes that it wouldn't have to consider diverse candidates for its board of directors, according to the National Center's Free Enterprise Project, which focuses on shareholder activism and the confluence of big government and big business.</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;">As noted by<em> </em><a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/11/01/initial-2018-macbook-air-benchmarks-show-modest-improvement-over-2017-macbook" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInsider</em></a>, new <a href="https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/compare/10565877?baseline=10565877" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tests</a> from the Geekbench benchmarking service show Apple's new MacBook Air outperforming last year's 12-inch MacBook with Intel Core i5 processor, but falling short of the same model with a Core i7 CPU.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Laura Newell has departed Apple to go to work for Collective Health, a company with a workforce health management system that boasts more than 120,000 members and 30 enterprise clients.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.strategyanalytics.com%2Faccess-services%2Fdevices%2Fwearables%2Fmarket-data%2Freport-detail%2Fglobal-smartwatch-vendor-market-share-by-region-q3-2018&esheet=51893553&newsitemid=20181102005341&lan=en-US&anchor=global+smartwatch+shipments+grew+an+impressive+67+percent&index=1&md5=da81963153e3d67ad788e429fb14e163">global smartwatch shipments grew 67% </a>annually to reach 10 million units in the third quarter (Q3) of 2018. The Apple Watch maintained first position with 45% global smartwatch marketshare, while Fitbit jumped into second place, overtaking Samsung and Garmin.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The worldwide tablet market declined 8.6% during the third quarter of 2018 (3Q18) as global shipments fell to 36.4 million, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) <a href="http://www.idc.com/tracker/showproductinfo.jsp?prod_id=81" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker</span></a>. Apple continued to dominate the market.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Starting with its next fiscal quarter, Apple will stop listing how many Macs, iPhones, and iPads shipped each quarter, but will only report only the revenues each part of the company recorded.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2Fy7z9q99d&esheet=51893243&newsitemid=20181101006210&lan=en-US&anchor=global+smartphone+shipments+fell+8+percent+annually&index=1&md5=c04d46e93f3d26a86c7cdca3bcae745d" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">global smartphone shipments fell 8% annually </a>to reach 360 million units in the third quarter (Q3) 2018. Apple’s iPhone bucked the trend, but sales were flat.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to the latest market share survey from <a href="http://netmarkeshare.com/">NetMarketShare,</a> the market share for both macOS and iOS up were last month.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The Apple Pencil 2, which Apple debuted this week, can connect wirelessly to an iPad Pro to pair and charge. And the tech giant has filed for a patent (number 20180314349) for the tech behind this.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">There are default apps that open certain types of files in macOS Mojave. However, you can change this.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has served up the first public beta of iOS 12.1.1. The public betas are available on <a href="https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apple's Beta Software Program website</a>. Just remember that beta software, so proceed with care. Apple does public betas in order to increase the size of the pool of testers. The tech giant recommends keeping back-ups of your files before installing a public beta.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has announced financial results for its fiscal 2018 fourth quarter that ended Sept. 29, 2018. The company posted quarterly revenue of $62.9 billion, an increase of 20% from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.91, up 41%.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.otterbox.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Otterbox</a> has announced cases for the new iPad Pros introduced this week. The Defender Series offers protection for the 11-inch and 12.9-inch Apple tablets.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Researchers at Stanford University's School of Medicine have completed enrollment of a large-scale study using the Apple Watch to determine whether a wearable technology can identify atrial fibrillation. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2018.09.002">study rationale and design</a>, published in the <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/american-heart-journal"><em>American Heart Journal</em></a>, describes the design of this unique clinical trial, the largest screening study on atrial fibrillation ever done.</p>