Dennis Sellers

<p>This should be great news for the Mac (and perhaps the Pad Pro) after this week’s WWDC announcements): the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.DanielResearchGroup.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Daniel Research Group</a>, a market research firm specializing in forecasting technology markets, predicts that the personal computer market (in which the firm includes tablets) will grow 2.3% annually over the next five years.</p>

<p>Apple wants its iPhone to work better with hearing aids. The company has been granted a patent (number 9,672,804) for a “hearing aid compatible audio device with acoustic noise cancellation.”</p>

<p>Yesterday, the gang at iFixIt (they tear down tech gadgets and look at their innards so you don't have to) disassembled one of the new 21.5-inch iMacs and found (to everyone's surprise) that the memory was upgradeable. It’ the first time Apple has included removable RAM in a 21.5-inch iMac since 2013. </p>

<p>Apple has been granted a patent (number 20170163589) for “sharing of activity metadata via messaging systems” that hints at increased functionality of the Messages app on iOS and macOS devices. However, it also adds the potential for ads appearing in the utility.</p>

<p>Feral Interactive has announced that Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III, the latest episode in Relic Entertainment’s real-time strategy series, <a target="_blank" href="https://store.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-linux-games/dawnofwar3/" rel="noopener noreferrer">has been released</a> for macOS and Linux.</p>

<p>Apple’s upcoming “iPhone 8” might lag behind the competition in data speed because only one modem manufacturer will have a high-speed product available in time for the phones, claims <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-09/apple-s-new-iphones-said-to-miss-out-on-higher-speed-data-links" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bloomberg</a>.</p>

<p>Apple has hired Dr. Sumbul Desai, the executive director of Stanford Medicine's center for digital health, who led a telemedicine project there and has been overseeing a project to promote health uses for the Apple Watch, reports <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/08/apple-hires-sumbul-desai-stanford-digital-health-executive-director.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">CNBC</a>.</p>

<p>If you're a comic book fan, you’ll want to download the free <a target="_blank" href="http://valiantentertainment.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=602a5e9c5c907c97823068aa9&id=ed40fa39d4&e=6721c454ed" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Valiant Comics mobile app</strong></a><strong> </strong>for iOS. It’s an all-inclusive, one-stop destination for the complete Valiant library.</p>

<p>Apple adding support for Near Field Communication (NFC) tags in iOS 11 means that all iPhone 7 and newer will be able to read NFC tags just like Android.  This means most people owning a smartphone (over two billion in the world) now have an NFC reader available in their pocket to interact with NFC tags anywhere and at any time. </p>

<p>Sonnet Technologies will ship the <a href="http://www.sonnettech.com/product/egfx-breakaway-box.html">eGFX Breakaway Box</a> in late June. It’s a Thunderbolt 3-to-PCI Express (PCIe) expansion chassis with a single slot for connecting any size Thunderbolt-compatible PCIe card, including high-performance graphics (GPU) cards to a Thunderbolt 3-equipped computer. </p>

<p>The gang at iFixIt, which tears apart new products and looks at their innards so you don't have to, got their hands on the refreshed Retina MacBook 2017 and the MacBook Pro 13" Touch Bar 2017, and found that not too much has changed, hardware-wise. </p>

<p>Reuters <a target="_blank" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-data-security-idUSKBN18Z0H0?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FbusinessNews+%28Business+News%29" rel="noopener noreferrer">reports</a> that the European Union wants legislation allowing law enforcement to access a suspect’s data straight from the tech company, circumventing going through the legal system — even when the request crosses country borders.</p>

<p>Apple has been granted a patent (number 20170164141) for “opportunistic offloading of tasks between nearby computing devices” that could hint at increasing functionality in the company’s Handoff feature. With Handoff, you can start something on one device (Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch) and then pick it up on another without losing focus on what you’re doing. </p>

<p>Global Delight has unveiled Boom 3D, a next gen app that builds on Boom 2, its Mac audio enhancement tool. Powered by Global Delight's patent-pending audio engine, it provides a virtual surround audio experience.</p>

<p>Samsung continues to press the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Federal Circuit ruling that it must pay $120 million for infringing Apple’s smartphone patents, arguing this week the lower court’s decisions in the case dramatically change patent law and will harm innovation, reports the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.law360.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Law360 website</a>.</p>