Dennis Sellers

<p>In a note to clients — as noted by AppleInsider — Guggenheim analyst Robert Cihra says Apple is apparently looking to simplify iPhone branding for its next gen smartphones due later this year.</p>

<p>Grayshift, the firm behind the GrayKey iPhone hacking tool, has been, well, hacked. According to Motherboard, leaked portions of GrayKey code online and demanded over $15,000 from the company to stop publishing the material. The code itself doesn’t appear to be particularly sensitive, but Grayshift confirmed to Motherboard the brief data leak that led to the extortion attempt.</p>

<p>After attending a state dinner on Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook is staying in Washington for a closed-door meeting today in the Oval Office. The meeting is scheduled for 1.45 p.m. Washington, D.C., time. It will be closed to the press.</p>

<p>Apple has been granted a patent (number 9,953,088) for “crowd sourcing information to fulfill user requests.” Crow sourcing is the practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people.</p>

<p>Smith Micro Software’s Clip Studio Paint Ex (the app once known as Manga Studio) includes frame-by-frame animation features and more that enables digital artists to create classical animations from their designs using a sequence of drawings that flow automatically to create the illusion of movement. However, it’s days are numbered, so you might want to grab a copy soon if it’s of interest to you.</p>

<p>With Mail on macOS High Sierra, it’s easy to reply to or forward messages. And if the message contains attachments, you can include them if you wish. </p>

<p>On a regular basis, Apple World Today posts a list of notable new apps or app updates that have been released. They may not necessarily be new, but they're popular and deserve mention. Here are today's picks.</p>

<p>Apple has rolled iOS 11.3.1 and a macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 security update.</p>

<p>In a recent analysis of more than 500 consumer brands in a variety of categories, Engagement Labs ranked the brands that are the most talked about in consumer conversations. The rankings, which are part of the company's TotalSocial Brand Awards series, are based on the volume of conversation about the brand online (via social media) and offline (via face-to-face conversations).</p>

<p>Apple is showing India’s most junior developers it wants to help smooth their way to the App Store, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.</p>

<p>Apple will place the first deposit of its € 13 billion (approximately $14 billio) Irish tax bill in an escrow account next month, Minister for Finance Pascal Donohoe says. He added that he would be signing the escrow framework deed, which sets out the legal agreement regarding the recovery of the alleged state aid with the tech giant later today, reports The Irish Times.</p>

<p>Apple has thrown its support behind the UK government's Year of Engineering and is bringing students to meet with several of its important teams, reports The Independent.</p>

<p>Apple is reportedly negotiating with Samsung Display for a reduction of the price of OLED panels as the iPhone X maker looks to lower the production cost in order to ramp up sales of OLED-based models, according to DigiTimes, quoting unnamed “industry sources.”</p>

<p>Apple and Samsung will join battle again in the never ending patent battle next month, but CEO Tim Cook and design guru Jony Ive won't be in the courtroom.</p>

<p>Apple has determined that, in a limited number of 13-inch MacBook Pro (non-Touch Bar) units, a component may fail causing the built-in battery to expand. This is not a safety issue and Apple will replace eligible batteries, free of charge. Affected units were manufactured between October 2016 and October 2017 and eligibility is determined by the product serial number.</p>