Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has been granted a patent (number 10,108,335) for a “touch-based, interactive learning environment” using iPads and Swift Playgrounds, the company’s app designed to teach basic programming concepts like loops and conditionals using an animated character that the budding programmers direct by writing code.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple’s $999 Thunderbolt Display was discontinued in 2016, so it’s time for new Apple monitors. The Oct. 30 “There’s more in the making” event would be the perfect time to unveil such displays, especially if the tech giant unveils updated iMacs, MacBooks, and Mac minis, as expected.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">If you use an external display with your Mac laptop, you can use Command-F1 in macOS Mojave to turn display mirroring on and off.  Display mirroring is when your external monitor and laptop display show the same screen.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/10/23/it-took-apple-four-days-to-sell-initial-iphone-xr-supply" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInsider</em></a>, late Monday Apple sold out of launch day iPhone Xr units in the U.S. Orders placed through the company's online storefront now showing estimated delivery dates pushed out to November.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Minder Softworks has released Photonium Access is a menubar widget for macOS that allows users to access their Photos library. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple plans to launch its planned TV subscription service in more than 100 countries, according to <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-to-launch-tv-subscription-service-globally" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Information</em></a><em>, </em>quoting three unnamed “people familiar with the matter.” It will debut in the U.S. in the first half of next year, the article adds.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve Carell has been cast as a male lead opposite Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston in Apple’s untitled morning show drama series, reports <a href="https://deadline.com/2018/10/steve-carell-star-apple-morning-show-series-reese-witherspoon-jennifer-aniston-1202487958/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Deadline</em></a>. It makes his first TV series role since his Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe-winning turn on NBC’s <em>The Office.</em></p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is teaming up with Simplon, a French digital vocational school, to teach Swift coding to students. It’s part of the tech giant’s “Everyone Can Code” initiative.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has been granted a patent (number 10,108,202) for a “peloton” that involves a self-driving car. Actually, two self-driving cars.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The <a href="https://www.itic.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Information Technology Industry Council</a> (ITI), a technology lobbying group that represents Apple and other companies, has released a framework for regulations to protect user privacy. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple will fix the “beautygate” issues with the upcoming release of iOS 12.1, according to <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/23/18011814/iphone-xs-beautygate-fixed-ios-12-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Verge</em></a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Everyone is speculating — and with good reason — about big iPad Pro announcements at Apple’s Oct. 30 “There’s more in the making” media event. However, I believe Apple may have an iMac surprise in store for us, as well.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The Universal Clipboard feature in macOS High Sierra/Mojave and iOS 11/12 allows you to copy content, including text, images, photos and video from one Apple device and paste it in another. That includes copying entire files between Macs.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">As noted by <a href="http://www.macrumors.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>MacRumors</em></a>. Apple has added 2018 models of the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar <a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbook_pro/15" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">to its refurbished store</a> in the U.S. for the first time.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s still hope for a big uptick in HomePod sales. According to a major new consumer survey by <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.strategyanalytics.com&esheet=51886687&newsitemid=20181022005596&lan=en-US&anchor=Strategy+Analytics&index=1&md5=c009e3342a0cbb31ca288f77d7831611" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Strategy Analytics</a>, the most popular smart speaker model in the U.S. is the Amazon Echo, which accounts for 23% of all smart speakers in use. Including all its models, Amazon accounts for 63% of smart speakers in use, while Google accounts for 17% and Apple 4%. </p>