Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><em>shots</em>, the “international source of news, trends and inspiration for advertising creative,” has announced the winners of its annual shots Awards for exceptional creative work. Apple won two awards for its “Welcome Home” ad. You can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=305ryPvU6A8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">view it here</a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has been granted two patents (number 20180307375 and 20180307374) for “finger tracking in wet environment” with the goal of making iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches work better even if their screens are wet. Hopefully, that will include sweat, something that sometimes makes it difficult to quickly operate my smartwatch when I’m running. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple will almost certainly introduce new iPad Pros at its Oct. 30 “There’s more in the making” media event. Some pundits are predicting the tablets will ditch the Lightning connector for USB-C. Will that make it possible to use a mouse with an iPad Pro? Probably not, but I can dream, can’t I?</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">“Turn your dated digital rocks into diamonds” is the tagline for Diamond Assets, one of the two top (Petabyte) sponsors at this week’s Jamf Nation User Conference (JUNC) 2018. Diamond Assets works with both enterprise and education customers to enable complete upgrading to new Apple devices.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple wants you to know that reviewers really, really love the iPhone Xr. So the company has posted a round-up of enthusiastic reviews on its <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/10/iphone-xr-the-reviews-are-in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Newsroom web page</a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">As noted by <a href="https://consomac.fr/news-9503-apple-depose-ses-nouveaux-macs-doctobre-2018.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>Consomac</em></span></a> and <a href="https://www.mysmartprice.com/gear/apple-macbook-2018/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>MySmartPrice</em></span></a><em>,</em> regulatory details filed with the Eurasian Economic Commission indicate that three new Mac desktops and one new laptop is on the way. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The Autorit Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), Italy’s anti-trust agency, is fining Apple and Samsung 5 million euros (about $5.7 million) each following complaints they used software updates to slow down their mobile phones, reports <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-samsung-italy-antitrust/italian-watchdog-fines-apple-samsung-over-software-updates-idUSKCN1MY1CN" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Reuters</em></a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has been granted a patent (number 10,108,335) for a “touch-based, interactive learning environment” using iPads and Swift Playgrounds, the company’s app designed to teach basic programming concepts like loops and conditionals using an animated character that the budding programmers direct by writing code.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple’s $999 Thunderbolt Display was discontinued in 2016, so it’s time for new Apple monitors. The Oct. 30 “There’s more in the making” event would be the perfect time to unveil such displays, especially if the tech giant unveils updated iMacs, MacBooks, and Mac minis, as expected.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">If you use an external display with your Mac laptop, you can use Command-F1 in macOS Mojave to turn display mirroring on and off.  Display mirroring is when your external monitor and laptop display show the same screen.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/10/23/it-took-apple-four-days-to-sell-initial-iphone-xr-supply" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInsider</em></a>, late Monday Apple sold out of launch day iPhone Xr units in the U.S. Orders placed through the company's online storefront now showing estimated delivery dates pushed out to November.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Minder Softworks has released Photonium Access is a menubar widget for macOS that allows users to access their Photos library. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple plans to launch its planned TV subscription service in more than 100 countries, according to <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-to-launch-tv-subscription-service-globally" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Information</em></a><em>, </em>quoting three unnamed “people familiar with the matter.” It will debut in the U.S. in the first half of next year, the article adds.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve Carell has been cast as a male lead opposite Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston in Apple’s untitled morning show drama series, reports <a href="https://deadline.com/2018/10/steve-carell-star-apple-morning-show-series-reese-witherspoon-jennifer-aniston-1202487958/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Deadline</em></a>. It makes his first TV series role since his Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe-winning turn on NBC’s <em>The Office.</em></p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is teaming up with Simplon, a French digital vocational school, to teach Swift coding to students. It’s part of the tech giant’s “Everyone Can Code” initiative.</p>