Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">If you’re looking for a cool-looking, wireless, portable (about 4 x 7 inches and weighing about a pound) speaker that packs decent sound for its size, give a listen to the $39.99 <a href="https://limitlessinnovations.com/tikitunes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TikiTunes</a>. </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;">Apple shipped 3.5 million Apple Watches in the second quarter of 2018, 30% more than in the same period last year, according to <a href="http://www.canalys.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Canalys</a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Let the Apple Car rumors continue. Apple has filed for a patent (number 20180208209) for “comfort profiles” involving a self-driving car. It’s designed to make the environment of such a vehicle as comfortable as possible for multiple passengers.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has applied for a patent (number 20180212455) for “inductive charging between electronic devices.” It would allow one Apple device to charge another.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In a <a href="https://www.macworld.com/article/3292218/macs/macbook-pro-throttling-quality-control.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Macworld</em> article</a>, Michael Simon says that Apple should hire or promote someone to a new position of Senior Vice President of Quality Control. He’s right. In fact, the company needs a whole team on the matter.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Yikes! Apple <a href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2018/7/24/apple-addresses-thermal-throttling-issues-on-the-new-macbook-pros" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has just fixed </a>the “throttling” issues with the new MacBook Pros, but now it appears that there may be a problem with the T2 chip on the new laptops, as well as the iMac Pro.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is teaming up with Fandango, Groupon, Grubhub, <a href="http://hotels.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hotels.com</a>, Houzz, Rue La La, Seamless, and StubHub, for a new Apple Pay prom</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The Rymet is an upcoming (due next month) competitor to the AZIO Retro Classic; see my review of the <a href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2018/4/20/the-azio-retro-classic-combines-nostalgia-modern-tech-into-one-funky-retro-keyboard?rq=retro%20keyboard" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">latter here</a>. Both combine a retro look with modern features. </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;">Apple is offering the premiere episode of Hulu's <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/02/stephen-king-j-j-abrams-castle-rock-hulu-release-date/"><em>Castle Rock</em></a> free on the Apple TV app. It'll be available to iPhone, iPad and Apple TV users in the U.S. later today and will be there exclusively for two weeks.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Nike is bringing its free <a href="https://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/nike-plus/training-app" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Training Club app</a> to the Apple Watch. It’s packed with 100-plus works with audio and visual guidance from a variety of fitness experts.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">If Apple is ever going to launch its own streaming service — and I think it will — now is the time. In 2015, there were 205.4 million traditional pay television subscribers in the U.S., but by 2022, the number will have fallen to just 169.7 million, according to a new study by <a href="http://www.emarketer.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">eMarketer</a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Some of the criticism of Apple's Siri may be undeserved. <a href="http://www.loupventures.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Loup Ventures</a> — a research-driven venture capital firm — recently asked Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, and Cortana 800 questions each. This time, Google Assistant was able to answer 86% of them correctly vs. Siri at 79%, Alexa at 61%, and Cortana at 52%.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple’s iPhone market share dropped in China, but the tech giant still held onto fifth place among the country’s smartphone makers, according to the <a href="http://www.canalys.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Canalys research group</a>. </p>