Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple has announced Apple News+, a $9.99/month subscription service that brings together over 300 popular magazines, leading newspapers and digital publishers into a curated experience within the Apple News app. And it’s available now.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Smartphone sell-through in the US market fell 2.7% year-on-year (YoY) in January 2019 to 13.7 million units, according to the latest research from <a href="http://wwwcounterpointresearch.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Counterpoint's Market Pulse program</a>. This is the 14th consecutive month of YoY decline in sales and the second successive year when sales were down on a YoY basis in January. </p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Pandora may be the most popular music streaming service in the US, but it won’t retain the No. 1 spot for much longer. According to eMarketer’s latest <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/articles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration:underline">forecast on digital music listeners</span></a>, Spotify will surpass Pandora in terms of users by 2021—one year sooner than eMarketer predicted last year. Meanwhile, Apple Music continues to thrive.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">In quarter four of 2018 (2018Q4), Australia's personal computer market experienced a -2.5% year-on-year (YoY) decline in unit shipments, according to the latest <a href="http://www.idc.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>IDC research</em></a><em>.  </em>However, Macs did a bit better.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">If you ordered the AirPods 2 last week on the day, they were announced, you should get yours this week. Mine is due to arrive Wednesday, so look for a review soon.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">It’s expected that David Solomon, Goldman Sachs’s chief executive officer will be on hand at Apple’s “It’s Show Time” event today, lending credence to the rumors that the tech giant and the investment bank will team up for an Apple-branded credit card. <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/wf/click?upn=G62jSYfZdO-2F12d8lSllQB69ammsdd3oi-2FNdrbeuMu0n9VTl224eqqjjB9yqEdjzuwtdP14Mk3giuxrIGnrBDYw-3D-3D_vr4CQd6f5d5U92w1G2ot038qxj2d-2BHc-2FraM9ysVslbM2GuwFWb6WaJjYDeKtis-2FvGzGfd7O7yD02Sg9elIOef1ZqgdeWZEVwbI8j4FR2JLvOw7G-2Foq1OAXcTMIsGr8I4kB6RI21oCoTmp64n6KFQpOgtsaDKS5g42kvAIpHVYsUOKsNK-2FtYfyYTmnthch36gr3291UgJbhYzYD78l-2B0rqVSKTQvB9e-2F25sp6qhjMfNksRXo8WOyMhwS8mychG4o3cRFEQ-2BU2TRiURL-2B1jHUhv0Jd0i659M9MznuwsX7B2drDZh-2FH7q-2BUxwYiCIBdok86sF6PFRoLlVlkNrYWf-2BVDhqn67AvZlrEu0a6kBXv5VqA-3D"><span style="text-decoration:underline">Jim Miller</span></a>, vice president of the Banking and Credit Card Practice at J.D. Power, says this is interesting because of several reasons:.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple will hold the “It’s Show time” media event on Monday. Most observers expect the the giant to announce its long-expected video service. Rather than Apple launching a classic Netflix-style subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service, all signs point toward a new and enhanced version of Apple's popular iTunes store and the associated "TV" app for mobiles, according to <a href="https://ovum.informa.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ovum.</a></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;">A California federal judge has allowed Qualcomm to pursue its counterclaim in an antitrust suit that Apple forfeited rights to favorable licensing terms for smartphone technology, reports <a href="https://www.law360.com/technology/articles/1141353/qualcomm-can-seek-claim-apple-forfeited-frand-rights?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>.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Beats, a subsidiary of Apple, plans to release a totally wireless version of its PowerBeats wireless sports headphones, according to <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/beats-answer-to-apples-new-airpods-is-arriving-in-april/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>CNET</em></a>. Seems they’ll be AirPod competitors.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">I <a href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2019/3/20/prediction-well-see-the-airpower-new-ipod-touch-announced-before-weeks-end" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">predicted</a> that Apple’s AirPower would debut this week, but I was obviously wrong. A new rumor from <a href="https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20190322PD202.html)" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>DigiTimes</em> </a>says the long-awaited wireless charger will arrive before the end of the month (that would be Sunday, March 31).</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple is expected to announce both a video streaming service and a news subscription serve at the upcoming “It’s show time” event. <a href="http://www.vox.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Vox </em></a> — an American news and opinion website owned by Vox Media — has agreed to participate in the latter, reports <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-21/apple-is-said-to-sign-up-vox-site-for-news-subscription-service" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Bloomberg</em></a>.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Second Apple patent filing is for Apple has filed for as second patent (number 20190082800) for a “dynamic fit adjustment for wearable electronic devices.” If the invention ever sees the light of day, we could have Apple Watches that allow users to “dynamically adjust” the wearable device’s watchband without having to remove it. The first patent filing was 20160255944 in 2016.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><a href="https://medium.com/altconf/announcing-altconf-2019-9758193e54ba" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AltConf 2019</a> will run June 3-6 at the Marriott San Jose, just a stone’s throw away from Apple’s Worldwide developer Conference. The “alternate Apple developer conference” It’s a free, community-driven and supported event held downtown San Jose.</p>

<p style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Apple Music has announced its latest playlist called Suave, a multi-lingual, global R&B playlist that includes R&B songs in English, Spanish and a bit of Portuguese. </p>