Dennis Sellers

<p>Apple has pushed back against Qualcomm’s bid to kill at least part of Apple’s suit accusing the chipmaker of demanding excessive royalties, saying that the company’s attempts to keep the court from taking a closer look at its patent portfolio are “astounding,” according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.law360.com/technology/articles/956114/apple-says-qualcomm-s-evasion-of-patent-exam-astounding-?nl_pk=ade0cf2b-ea3f-464b-bc93-d8e19277ac63&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=technology" rel="noopener noreferrer">Law360</a>.</p>

<p>If you don't need all the data that iStat Menus (2017/8/21/istat-menus-serves-up-all-the-stats-you-could-want-and-more-about-your-mac) provides, you may be happy with Stater. It's an $8.99 system-monitoring app for macOS (10.9 or later) that displays all information in one dock icon and a dock menu.</p>

<p>Last week there was a <a target="_blank" href="http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/08/16/questionable-blurry-pics-attempt-to-revive-rumors-of-a-60-inch-oled-apple-television" rel="noopener noreferrer">quickly dismissed rumor</a> that Apple was working on a 60-inch OLED Apple television. For years, it was anticipated that the tech giant would unveil an “iTV.” That’s probably not going to happen, but those rumors did make for some interesting speculation.</p>

<p>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>The AWT News Update is on hiatus while my compadre, Steve, is on an “eclipse” road trip. In its place, I’ll offer a text-only (no podcast) summary of breaking stories with a tip o’ my hat to my former website, <em>Apple Daily Report</em>.</p>

<p>Don’t fall for this scam: con artists are calling people across the U.S. and Canada and claiming that their iCloud accounts have been hacked. As noted by the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/con-claims-that-apple-support-is-calling-you/article_c29eacbb-5774-5e00-9803-96e41668e6cf.html" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Herald-Dispatch</em></a>, BBB Scam Tracker has received numerous reports of this scam in the past few weeks, and some targets say they've gotten 10 or more calls a day.</p>

<p>Kalypso Media has released Sudden Strike 4, a World Ware II strategy title for macOS. It sends you off on three extensive campaigns set amongst the battlefields of the second World War.</p>

<p>The percentage of global point of sale transactions occurring through contactless payments — accounted for about 15% of transactions this year — will grow to 53% within five years, according to a new POS [point-of-sale] study from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.juniperresearch.com/press/press-releases/contactless-account-more-than-1-in-2-pos-trans" rel="noopener noreferrer">Juniper Research</a>. What’s more, according to research by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pymnts.com/mobile-wallet-adoption-2017/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pymnts</a> , which covers the payments and commerce markets, Apple Pay had the highest usage rate among those who could use contactless payment for a transaction. </p>

<p>The trial for <a target="_blank" href="http://www.andreaelectronics.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Andrea Electronics</a>, which sells PureAudio Pro Recorder and Live Recorder apps for iOS devices, and Apple is slated to begin at the U.S. International Trade Commission today. The former company is suing the tech giant on five counts of patent infringement relating to noise cancellation technology.</p>

<p>Apple is now accepting donations to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.splcenter.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Southern Poverty Law Center</a>, an Alabama-based non-profit organization.</p>

<p>Forget the “personal digital assistant” (that would be Apple’s Siri, of course). The tech giant wants your Mac to serve as your “lifestyle companion system.” The company has been granted a patent for “systems and methods for providing audio and visual cues via a portable electronic device.” </p>

<p>If you need to keep in-depth stats on your Mac's system operation, iStat Menus for Mac is arguably the best app for the job. The latest version (5) boasted a new design, more statistics, and more languages.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.technavio.com/?utm_source=t5&utm_medium=bw&utm_campaign=businesswire" rel="noopener noreferrer">Technavio</a> has announced the top five leading vendors in their recent<strong> </strong>global smart speaker market<strong> </strong>report that covers a time period through 2021. Apple’s on the list. Since the tech giant doesn’t make smart speakers, I’m assuming that the company makes the list based on expected sales of the HomePod when it debuts.</p>

<p>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>There’s a lot happening in the world of Apple news this week. Following are the hottest articles for the week of August 14-18.</p>