Dennis Sellers

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.firstib.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">First Internet Bank</a> has enhanced its mobile app to include smartwatch capabilities. Customers with an Apple Watch can securely access account information through their smartwatch, without logging in.</p>

<p>U.S. consumption of music continued to grow in the first half of 2016, even as sales of most formats declined, according to Border City Media’s state-of-the-industry data service, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.buzzanglemusic.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">BuzzAngle Music</a>. With the pace of audio streaming more than doubling activity tracked over the same period last year, total industry consumption was up by 6.5%.</p>

<p>Apple wants your iOS device — mainly your iPhone — to assist you when emergency calls (such as those to 911) are made. The company has applied for a patent (number 9,386,414) for “location support for emergency calls.”</p>

<p>Applebot, the RSS fetcher for the Apple News service, faces problems when it visits websites that uses encryption certificates from the <a href="https://www.slightfuture.com/security/letsencrypt-experiences">Let’s Encrypt</a> certificate authority, notes <a target="_blank" href="https://www.slightfuture.com/webdev/excessive-applenewsbot-requests" rel="noopener noreferrer">Slight Future</a>.</p>

<p>Apple wants to encourage millions of iPhone owners to register as organ donors through a software update that will add an easy sign-up button to the health information app that comes installed on every iPhone, reports <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/05/the-associated-press-apple-urges-organ-donation-via-new-iphone-software.html)" rel="noopener noreferrer">CNBC</a>.</p>

<p>If you’re like me, you probably have several devices charging at any given time. This requires multiple USB ports and/or chargers, which results in a bit of desktop clutter. Satechi’s $29.99 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.satechi.net/index.php/satechi-60w-6-port-multi-port-usb-desktop-charging-station-524" rel="noopener noreferrer">Multi-Port USB Charging Station</a> helps alleviate this problem. </p>

<p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">One of the advantages Microsoft's Word has over Apple's Pages is a good grammar checker. Pages' Proofreader feature just isn't as comprehensive. If you want to add better grammar checking features to Pages, try <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/1ooyQP9" rel="noopener noreferrer">Grammarian Pro2 X </a>($49.95) from Linguisoft. It checks grammar and spelling errors interactively (as-you-type) or batch checking (all-at-once).</p>

<p>According to the latest market share survey from <a target="_blank" href="http://netmarkeshare.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">NetMarketShare</a>, the market share for Mac OS X dipped in June, while iOS rose.</p>

<p>Yesterday <a target="_blank" href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2016/6/30/spotify-apple-is-using-its-app-store-as-a-weapon-against-us" rel="noopener noreferrer">Spotify accused Apple</a> of making it harder for the streaming music company to compete by blocking a new version of its iPhone app, hinting that the move was due to competition with Apple Music.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-in-talks-to-acquire-jay-zs-tidal-music-service-1467325314" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Wall Street Times</a> says Apple is in talks to buy Jay Z’s Tidal music service. The article says the Cupertino, California-based company is considering the possibility to beef up its own Apple Music service because of Tidal’s strong tied to popular artists such as Kanye West and Madonna.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/1GMVzut" rel="noopener noreferrer">Corduroy Code's Fileloupe</a> for Mac OS X Yosemite and El Capitan combines the features of a photo viewer, video player and document browser into a single, fast utility the complements several apps that come with the operating system. It can easily handle thousands of files with smooth scrolling and fluid window resizing.</p>

<p>There are several iOS apps that turn iPhones and iPads into document scanners, so why doesn't someone build a stand for iDevices that would allow them to replace dedicated scanners?</p>

<p>Let's be honest: the speakers that come with Apple laptops are tinny. Of course, so are the speakers in most laptops from any company. If you want to upgrade your audio a bit with some portable speakers, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.paloaltoaudio.com/shop-page/musik/musik-copy/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Palo Alto Audio Design's $59.95 Musik</a> is one solution.</p>

<p>Apple CEO Tim Cook <a target="_blank" href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160630006346/en/NIKE-Phil-Knight-Complete-Planned-Chairman-Succession" rel="noopener noreferrer">has been named Nike’s lead independent director</a>. He’s been a Nike director since 2005, is chair of the Board’s Compensation Committee and serves as a member of the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.sling.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sling TV</a> — available on the fourth generation Apple TV — has unveiled new single-stream and multi-stream services, “Sling Orange” and “Sling Blue.” Sling Orange now includes BBC America and is still priced at $20 per month. Sling Blue now features NBC, USA, Bravo, NBC Sports Network, Syfy, BBC America and costs $25 per month for new customers. </p>