Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Bingeing on Netflix boxsets, sharing stories on Facebook and downloading content from Apple's iTunes have contributed to a record year of brand value growth in the 2018 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking released today by <a href="http://www.wpp.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WPP</a> and <a href="http://www.millwardbrown.com/brandz/top-global-brands" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kantar Millward Brown</a>. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Elgato’s portable LED lamp Eve Flare and the smart water controller Eve Aqua will be available beginning Monday, June 25, with pre-orders starting immediately. They’re HomeKit enabled, wireless, water-resistant, and accessible from an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Siri.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple’s HomePod wireless speaker now delivers an even more immersive listening experience throughout the home with support for HomePod stereo pairs and a new multi-room audio system in iOS 11.4. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has been granted another patent (number 9,983630) for an electronic device with a wraparound display. The most likely candidate for such a device is, of course, the iPhone, but it could also apply, at least in part, to Macs and iPads.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple will launch at least one new iPhone model with a triple-lens rear camera next year, according to Taiwanese website <a href="https://money.udn.com/money/story/5612/3165866" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Economic Daily News</em></a>, citing a research note from Deutsche Securities analyst Jialin Lu. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Pegatron Corp., one of the two Taiwanese companies that assemble iPhones and iPads, is the likely candidate to land orders from Apple to produce an ARM-based MacBook, reports <a href="https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20180529PD211.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>DigiTimes</em></a>, quoting unnamed “industry sources.” However, don’t look for such a product anytime soon.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/29/apple-set-to-use-only-oled-screens-for-future-iphones-report.html%0A" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">planning</a> to use OLED screens for all its upcoming iPhone models, according to South Korea's <em>Electronic Times</em>. At the moment, only the iPhone X sports an OLED display; the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus have LCD screens.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The last time I went on vacation, I lugged several power adapters in my suitcase for my various Apple devices. If you find yourself in the same situation, you can make your life easier with Oneadaptr’s $74.99 <a href="https://oneadaptr.com/collections/evri/products/evri-80w-usb-c-charging-station-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EVRI 80W USB-C Charging Station</a>. It can provide you with plenty of juice when you’re on the go.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Global sales of smartphones to end users returned to growth in the first quarter of 2018 with a 1.3% increase over the same period in 2017, according to <a href="http://www.gartner.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gartner, Inc</a>. The delayed sales boost for Apple from last quarter materialized, as the company’ smartphone unit sales returned to growth in the first quarter of 2018, with an increase of 4% year-on-year.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Subscription video on-demand (SVOD) app revenue growth is <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsensortower.com%2Fblog%2Fsvod-revenue-2017&esheet=51809723&newsitemid=20180522005553&lan=en-US&anchor=skyrocketing&index=1&md5=95eaefe4669478bf09973ee70edd5c48">skyrocketing</a>. With <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fvariety.com%2F2017%2Fbiz%2Fnews%2Fcord-cutting-2017-estimates-cancel-cable-satellite-tv-1202556594%2F&esheet=51809723&newsitemid=20180522005553&lan=en-US&anchor=22+million+people+in+the+U.S.+%E2%80%9Ccutting+the+cord%2C%E2%80%9D&index=2&md5=dac0959af2fe83f135a9d92e12ee3b3f">22 million people in the U.S. “cutting the cord,”</a> one-size-fits-all approaches to entertainment must change rapidly to meet and exceed the evolving expectations of savvy consumers. The SVOD era puts customers in the driver’s seat, cementing the customer experience (CX) as the main competitive differentiator, according to UserTesting, a research group that “enables every organization to deliver the best customer experience powered by human insights.”</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 today's picks.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to a report at <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2018/05/25/apple-project-star-arm-details/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>9to5Mac</em></a> — which you should definitely check out — Apple is working on a new project codenamed “Star,” which could be “the first Mac with an ARM processor, or the first iOS notebook…or something completely different.”</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is making a “significant change” to the wireless NFC [near-field communication] chip in the iPhone that will allow users to more securely unlock doors enabled with the same technology, according to a report at <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-to-expand-secure-wireless-chip-beyond-payments?shared=e9786c7aa654c9f4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Information</em></a>, which quotes an unnamed “person familiar with the matter.” If true, the tech giant could announce the change as part of iOS 12, which is expected to be previewed at next month’s Worldwide Developer Conference.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has announced the upcoming closure of a retail store in Atlantic City, N.J. without plans to open a new one in the immediate area, according to <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/05/25/apples-atlantic-city-store-to-close-displacing-52-workers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInsider</em></a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Here we go again. As noted by <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/05/25/voip-pal-again-accuses-apple-of-patent-infringement-with-facetime-imessage-wi-fi-calling-in-iphone" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInsider</em></a>, patent holder VoIP-Pal has launched a new set of lawsuits against Apple, once more accusing the iPhone maker of infringing a collection of four voice over IP patents with the iMessage, FaceTime, and Wi-Fi Calling functions. </p>