Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple Music and the Sony-owned Ministry of Sound label have struck an exclusive playlist deal that will effectively shut out Spotify, a rep for Apple confirmed to <a href="https://variety.com/2018/biz/news/ministry-of-sound-exclusive-playlist-apple-music-spotify-1202965811/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Variety</em></a>. News of the deal, which was <a href="https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/apple-music-and-ministry-of-sound-strike-deal-to-push-mos-playlists-worldwide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">first reported by Music Business Worldwide</span></a>, will see exclusive Ministry of Sound-branded playlists being posted on Apple Music beginning Thursday (Oct. 4).</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">More than 70 new <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/07/apple-celebrates-world-emoji-day/">emoji</a> will be coming soon to the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac, including new characters with red hair, gray hair and curly hair, a new emoji for bald people, more emotive smiley faces and additional emoji representing animals, sports and food. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apparently, Apple is still struggling to gain the foothold it wants in India. The iPhone Xs and Xs Max reportedly saw lower sales in the Indian market with several large retailers across the country saying they are for the first time left with little less than half the stock supplied to them after the first weekend sales. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Bit Lasso has debuted Swatch 1.0, a color palette organizer for the Mac. It allows users to organize their palettes by project, client, or however makes sense to their workflow. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Some pundits expect Apple to introduce a (slightly) less expensive model  of the HomePod (the HomePod Mini?), while I’d love to see a higher end, home theater model with Dolby Atmos support (the HomePod Theater?). The tech giant has been granted a patent (number 10,091,583) that shows the company has at least considered the latter.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Students at three universities — Duke University and the Universities of Alabama and Oklahoma — can now use just their iPhone and Apple Watch to get around on and off campus. The Wallet app on these Apple devices adds support for student ID cards, making it more convenient to access everything on campus, says Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Just Mobile’s <a href="https://just-mobile.com/collections/case-screen-protector-for-new-iphones/products/xkin-3d-iphone-xs-max?variant=13815302684714" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Xkin 3D Tempered Glass</a> offers a lot of protection for an iPhone Xs Max. However, be warned that it takes patience to install it, and I found the installation instructions to be confusing.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">macOS Mojave introduces a feature called Stacks, which clears cluttered desktops by automatically organizing files into groups based on file types like images, presentations, PDFs and text documents. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">A child abuse <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4951289-iPhone-X-Face-ID-Search-in-Ohio.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">investigation unearthed by </a><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4951289-iPhone-X-Face-ID-Search-in-Ohio.html"><em>Forbes</em></a><em> </em>includes the first known case in which law enforcement used Apple Face ID facial recognition technology to open a suspect's iPhone. That's by any police agency anywhere in the world, not just in America.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to the latest market share survey from <a href="http://netmarkeshare.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NetMarketShare,</a> the market share for macOS was up, but iOS was down last month.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple’s Everyone Can Create curriculum is now <a href="http://apple.co/everyonecancreate" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">available on Apple Books</a>. It teaches students to develop and communicate ideas through drawing, music, video and photos on an iPad. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">As of today, Apple’s iTunes Affiliate Program is no longer available. However, <a href="https://t.yesware.com/tt/43f55562feade6577d0ca701cbdea5643f555225/1ea0c1ec720fc62f11d49d72394842b0/5e7a493e4850be7153d9166c851f7e7e/setapp.com/news/alternative-to-itunes-affiliate-program" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Setapp has announced its Affiliate Program</span></a>, which offers a way to receive revenue from macOS apps.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Following the news of Apple discontinuing its photo print services on Sept. 30, 2018, Mimeo Photos says it will continue to offer users the same end product that customers have received with Apple.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.TemkinGroup.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Temkin Group</a> has released a new research report "<em>Net Promoter Score Benchmark Study, 2018</em>" based on a study of 10,000 U.S. consumers and the companies they most recommend. Apple is near the top of the list.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Since Apple’s AirPower wireless charger has been delayed again (some folks are saying it’s delayed forever), it’s time to look at other options. And there are lots of ‘em out there.</p>