Dennis Sellers

<p>The European Commission — an institution of the European Union, responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the EU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the EU — says it’s accepted a request from Austria, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden to assess under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of Shazam by Apple. </p>

<p>On Saturday, reports said that Apple plans to open its first China data center in 2020. Now it looks like Apple will have <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-datacenter/apple-to-build-a-second-data-center-in-china-xinhua-idUSKBN1FQ2E6" rel="noopener noreferrer">two centers</a> operable by that date. </p>

<p>Apple Watch shipments beat expectations, topping 18 million in 2017, up by more than 54% from 2016, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.canalys.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Canalys</a>. </p>

<p>As noted by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.macrumors.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>MacRumors</em></a>, the HomePod supply is beginning to shorten ahead of the speaker's launch this Friday across the U.S. United Kingdom, and Australia. </p>

<p>Apple has been granted another patent (number 9885459) for a Mac user interface that utilizes gesture recognition. The invention involves “pattern projection using micro-lenses.”</p>

<p>The New York Police Department has begun scrapping 36,000 smartphones it gave police officers over the past two years because they’re already obsolete and can’t be upgraded, and are turning to iPhones reports <a target="_blank" href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2017/8/28/nypd-to-replace-nokia-smartphones-with-iphones?rq=New%20York" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The New York Post</em></a>.</p>

<p>Stephen Friend, a health researcher and co-founder of Sage Bionetworks, has left Apple after serving less than two years on the job to become an “independent entrepreneur,” reports <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/05/stephen-friend-leaves-apple-health.html" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>CNBC</em></a>. No reason was given for the departure.</p>

<p>A couple of years ago, Apple posted a listing to its Jobs at Apple page describing an engineering project manager position for "Apple Search." Could the company could be working on a full-fledged search engine for use on macOS and iOS platforms?</p>

<p>Sometimes you need transfer music and other files from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. That’s when <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/1A3tT6B" rel="noopener noreferrer">TouchCopy</a> comes in handy. And the latest version (16) adds support for the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.</p>

<p>I’m an ice cream addict. Twice a week I make a big batch of the world’s greatest dessert. In doing so, I have to time the mixing process for 30 minutes. I use iOS 11’s Siri to set a timer on my iPhone X to tell me when the mixing time is completed.</p>

<p>The AWT News Update is on hiatus while my compadre, Steve, deals with a death in the family. Prayers go out to the entire Sande family. In the place of the AWT News Update, I’ll offer a text-only (no podcast) summary of breaking stories with a tip o’ my hat to my former website, <em>Apple Daily Report</em>.</p>

<p>Veteran music journalist Alex Gale has been named head of editorial for Apple Music, reports <a target="_blank" href="http://variety.com/2018/music/news/apple-music-alex-gale-head-of-editorial-1202687925/" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Variety</em></a>. Apple’s music streaming service now has over 36 million subscribers.</p>

<p>Apple and Apple Authorized Service Providers will offer some customers who own a 16GB iPhone 5c that's in need of replacement a 32GB model instead, reports <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macrumors.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>MacRumors</em></a>.</p>

<p>Good news for the iPad Pro: the worldwide detachable tablet market (those with attachable/detachable keyboards) grew to 6.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2017 (4Q17), an increase of 10.3% from the previous holiday season, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) <a target="_blank" href="http://www.idc.com/tracker/showproductinfo.jsp?prod_id=81" rel="noopener noreferrer">Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker</a>. Apple maintained a solid lead in the holiday quarter driving growth both through its lower-priced 9.7-inch iPad as well as its newly refreshed iPad Pro products, notes the research group.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20180205PD210.html" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>DigiTimes</em></a> says some Apple suppliers are poised to benefit from new or increased orders from the tech giant to help produce next-generation iPad, MacBook, and Apple Watch models this year. The article than says that new versions of the devices will debut starting in March.</p>