Dennis Sellers

<p>Australia's three biggest banks, including the top lender, National Australia Bank, have lodged a joint application with anti-trust regulators seeking approval to collectively negotiate with Apple to install their own electronic payments applications on iPhones, reports <a target="_blank" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-banks-apple-idUSKCN10709W" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters</a>.</p>

<p>Questions about data sovereignty, data security and cloud computing are important issues are important for every person who has an email account — and that includes you. Technichor's Horcrux Email Backup for Mac users lets you automatically keep you data rather than surrendering it to third party services.</p>

<p>Digital payments using wearables devices such as the combination of Apple Pay and the Apple Watch will drive more than $500 billion in transaction volume annually by 2020, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.tractica.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tractica</a>. That will be up from $3.1 billion in 2015.</p>

<p>During a conference call about Apple’s latest financial results, CEO Tim Cook was asked about the Apple TV and its plans regarding the larger streaming TV/video content scenario.</p>

<p>Mac sales for the fiscal 2016 third quarter that ended June 25 were down, but the news wasn’t all bad. Apple sold 4.25 million units during the period, down from from 4.8 million units in the year-ago quarter. However, Mac sales were up 5% from the previous quarter and revenues were up 3% sequentially. </p>

<p>However, though unit sales were down 3% from the previous quarter, revenues were up 10% thanks to the iPad Pro. About half of iPad Pro buyers are purchasing them for work, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. </p>

<p>When it comes to the iPhone, there’s good news and bad news. Apple sold 40.4 million iPhones during the fiscal 2016 third quarter that ended June 25. Unit sales were down 21% from the previous quarter and 15% down from the year-ago quarter.  </p>

<p>Apple App Store revenue was up 37% to an all-time high in the fiscal 2016 third quarter that ended June 25. Also, the average amount spent per customer was the highest ever measured. Apple expects its services category to be the size of a Fortune 100 company by next year, says CEO Tim Cook.</p>

<p>Apple has <a target="_blank" href="http://seekingalpha.com/news/3196023-apple-buys-carpool-karaoke-cbs-apple-music-distribution?source=email_rt_mc_readmore&uprof=53&dr=1#email_link" rel="noopener noreferrer">reportedly bought</a> the <em>Carpool Karaoke</em> series being spun out of <em>The Late Late Show with James Corden</em> on CBS. No word on what the purchase price was.</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>According to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20160726PD205.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">DigiTimes</a>, the second generation Apple Watch will arrive this September or October. Considering that the first generation smartwatch went o sale in September 2014, that timetable sounds about right.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.fluentco.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fluent</a>, an ad tech company, has released a report on Apple products, which surveyed 2,144 Americans to better understand their views of Apple products—the iPhone in particular. The survey results confirmed the belief that Apple has a strong core business, but also demonstrated that consumers are divided on the extent to which Apple will continue to lead its competitors. According to Fluent:</p>

<p>Sometimes you have to wonder what tech analysts and pundits are thinking. There are two op-ed pieces today suggesting changes to Apple that simply aren’t going to happen. One recommends breaking Apple into separate companies. The other recommends firing Tim Cook.</p>

<p>Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day. However, you never can tell which ones will materialize in a real product, so here are today’s patent highlights: </p>

<p>Six people from New York state have been charged in "an organized criminal enterprise" during which fraudulent transactions allegedly were attempted at an Apple store (pictured) in Deer Park, Illinois, Lake County authorities told the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/news/ct-lns-lake-county-apple-arrests-0726-20160725-story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chicago Tribune</a>.</p>