Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">If you’ve forked out the big bucks for the 2018 MacBook Pro, you’ll want to protect it when you’re on the go. One fine item for helping keep it pristine is the <a href="http://tinyurl.com/phwq6j8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Palm Rest and Trackpad Protector</a> from UPPERCASE. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Since Steve and I can’t cover everything, at the end of each week day, we’ll offer this wrap-up of news items you should check out.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Japan is investigating allegations that pressure from Apple forced Yahoo Japan to pull back from a game platform that competes with the App Store, reports <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Apple-probed-in-Japan-over-anti-competitive-behavior" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Nikkei</em>.</a></p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has dropped to sixth in the global laptop market<strong> </strong>with its market share sliding to 6.5%, according to new data from <a href="http://www.trendforce.com">TrendForce</a>. That’s down from 7.7% in the first quarter of 2018.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Happy birthday, iMac. The ground-breaking all-in-one was launched on May 6, 1998, at a Macworld Expo by Steve Jobs. I’ve owned every iteration of the iMac since then, so I’m expecting Apple to give us a cool new version any day now.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I have no doubt that Apple is working on an AR/VR headset ("Apple Glasses"), but am still skeptical that the tech giant plans to build a full blown car. However, in a note to clients — as reported by <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/08/14/kuo-apple-car-likely-to-launch-in-2023-2025-fuel-2-trillion-company-valuation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInside</em>r</a> — well known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts we’ll see the latter by 2025, and the former in 2020.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple repeatedly denies that it has any plans for a touch screen Mac. However, a newly granted patent (number 10,048,788) for “touch screen display uniformity” hints at such a device. Or perhaps an iOS laptop.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Griffin Technology’s elegant <a href="https://griffintechnology.com/us/products/stands-and-mounts/elevator" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elevator</a> elevates a laptop such as Apple’s new MacBook Pro up 5.5 inches, which offers several advantages. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Since Steve and I can’t cover everything, at the end of each week day, we’ll offer this wrap-up of news items you should check out.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/14/apple-looks-to-develop-chip-for-processing-health-data.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>CNBC</em> reports</a> that recent Apple job listings show the tech giant has a team exploring a custom processor that can make better sense of health information coming off sensors from inside its devices.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to the latest quarterly research from <a href="http://www.strategyanalytics.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Strategy Analytics</a>, Amazon’s global smart speaker share of shipments fell to 41% in the second quarter of 2018 from 44% in quarter one. And Apple’s HomePod increased its market share to 6% on sales of 700,000.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">WaterField Designs has introduced the $49 <a href="https://www.sfbags.com/products/tech-pocket-gear-case">Tech Pocket</a>, a minimalist pouch that functions as an extra pocket for stowing frequently-used, small tech gear.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has been granted a patent (number 10,049,663) for an “intelligent automated assistant for media exploration” with the goal of making Siri better at finding music and videos you wish to listen to or watch.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told his people to stop buying American electronics and encouraging them to switch from iPhones to Samsung devices.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The Australian government is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-security-data/australia-plans-law-for-tech-firms-to-hand-over-encrypted-private-data-idUSKBN1KZ0W5?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtechnologyNews+%28Reuters+Technology+News%29" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">considering a new law </a>that would require tech companies like Apple to give police access to private encrypted data linked to suspected illegal activities. </p>