Dennis Sellers

<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 today's picks.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has released new public betas of macOS 10.13.6, iOS 11.4.1, and tvOS 11.4.1. 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.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The inaugural Management Top 250 from <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-leaders-head-the-management-top-250-1527778857" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Wall Street Journal</em></a> delivered a clear message: among big companies, the tech giants are the best managed.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Parks Associates has announced <a href="http://www.parksassociates.com/report/smarttv-v-smp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new research </a> showing that ownership of streaming media players has risen from about 6% of U.S. broadband households in 2010 to almost 40% at the beginning of 2018. </p><p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"></p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to data from <a href="http://www.counterpointresearch.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Counterpoint’s Channel Monitor service</a>, the best-selling phone bought online in China in April was the iPhone 8 Plus, with the iPhone X in third place, and the iPhone 8 in fourth. Apple now has 16% of the country’s mobile commerce market share.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Flying Meat has launched <a href="https://flyingmeat.com/retrobatch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Retrobatch 1.0</a>, a batch image processor for macOS. It sports a nodal interface for processing single images or thousands of images. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has hired multiple engineers and research staff from Intel and other local tech employees for a new facility in Washington County, Oregon, close to the chipmaker’s home base, according to <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2018/05/apple_quietly_opens_oregon_eng_1.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Oregon Live</em></a><em>. </em>This will certainly fuel speculation that Apple plans to make its own ARM processors for the Mac (which I think is true).</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.ecoxgear.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ECOXGEAR</a>’s $249.99 EcoBoulder is a modern day boom box that’s tough and ready for all sorts of summer fun. Equipped with 100 watts of power, an 8-inch full range speaker, 3-inch tweeter plus an 8-inch passive woofer, you can pump out some serious tunes at any outdoor outing.</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 today's picks.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I’d say there’s little-to-no change of this happening, but a group known as the Digital Wellness Warriors have <a href="https://www.change.org/p/apple-allow-digital-wellness-developers-to-help-ios-users" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">launched a petition</a> requesting that Apple let third-party developers make changes to the iOS interface and user experience. The group says that “we are restricted in our ability to help the iOS user base, due to the nature of Apple’s operating systems.”</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is leasing a 62,000-square-foot, four-decades-old building in Santa Clara, California, and is renovating it, reports the <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/05/30/apple-leases-santa-clara-offices-launches-renovation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Mercury News</em></a>. The article says that “extensive construction” is underway inside the offices located at 2845 Bowers and 2855 Bowers.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has given a straight-to-series order to <a href="http://deadline.com/tag/dickinson/"><em>Dickinson</em></a>, a half-hour comedy starring Oscar-nominated actress Hailee Steinfeld (<em>Pitch Perfect 3, True Grit</em>) in the title role of 1980s poet Emily Dickinson, from Paul Lee’s recently launched independent studio, reports <a href="http://deadline.com/2018/05/hailee-steinfeld-star-dickinson-comedy-series-apple-emily-dickinson-1202400062/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Deadline</em></a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.raindesigninc.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rain Design</a> has launched a new assortment of laptop stands: the mBar ($39.90), mBar pro ($49.90), and mBar pro+ ($59.90).</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to <a href="https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/apple-music-launches-music-publishing-division-headed-by-elena-segal"><em>Music Business Worldwide</em></a>, Apple has launched a new internal division dedicated to music publishing led by Elena Segal (pictured below), who was previously legal director of iTunes International. She’s now Apple Music’s global director of Music Publishing.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The Maxim Group <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/30/apple-gets-downgraded-on-concern-services-focus-wont-deliver-big-profits.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has downgraded</a> Apple from “buy” to “hold” and lowered the price target from $204 to $200, a 6% upside to yesterday’s close. Nehal Chokshi — an analyst at at the investment banking firm, cites concerns about the services business and subscriptions.</p>