Dennis Sellers

<p>The 2017 Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Cyber Monday kickoff to the holiday shopping season produced big results <a target="_blank" href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/11/26/online-sales-surge-over-thanksgiving-day-weekend/892767001/" rel="noopener noreferrer">for retailers</a>. Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumers dropped more than $11 billion, which is a significant increase from 2016.  </p>

<p>Apple has released <a target="_blank" href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208315" rel="noopener noreferrer">Security Update 2017-001</a> to fix a vulnerability that enables access to the root superuser with a blank password on any Mac running macOS High Sierra version 10.3.1. </p>

<p>Video games that put the player in the shoes of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as he kills criminals have been removed from the Apple App Store, reports the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42165328" rel="noopener noreferrer">BBC</a>. Thousands of people have been killed by police during the president's crackdown on drug-related crime, the article adds.</p>

<p>On day two of my iPhone X ownership, I hopped on my Harley and headed out to run some errands. I paired my iPhone X up with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.harley-davidson.com/store/boom%21-audio-bluetooth-cruiser-amp-and-speaker-kit" rel="noopener noreferrer">Boom Audio Bluetooth speakers</a> on my Heritage and loaded up an Amazon Music playlist. Everything appeared to be working great. When I was leaving my 1st stop, I started the music again, but instead of coming out of my Bluetooth speakers, the music was playing from the phone. I forgot the speakers in settings and re-paired. All was well again. Next stop, same thing. I decided to revisit this issue later. I didn't think I had bigger issues.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.fusionguitars.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fusion Guitar</a> is a new iPhone/iPod-integrated, portable, wireless electric guitar with built-in amp, battery and speakers. It’s available at a special holiday price of $899 through Dec. 24 with promo code:  ROCK-N-ROLL-SANTA-FG.</p>

<p>Comercia Global Payments EP, S.L. — a joint venture between U.S.-based Global Payments, a provider of payment technology services, and CaixaBank, which specializes in retail banking in Spain — announced that it’s now bringing its customers Apple Pay.</p>

<p>According to a new forecast from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.idc.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">IDC</a> overall smartphone shipments will steadily grow from 1.5 billion units in 2017 to 1.7 billion units in 2021. Apple's launch of the iPhone 8/8+ and X in late 2017 set the company up to return to iPhone volume growth in 2017, adds the research group. </p>

<p>The Pixelmator Team has released Pixelmator Pro, codenamed Whirlwind, which includes a modern single-window interface, nondestructive, GPU-powered image editing tools, machine learning-enhanced editing features, and more. </p>

<p>Here we go again. Apple <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-qualcomm/apple-accuses-qualcomm-patent-infringement-in-countersuit-idUSKBN1DT1UU?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtechnologyNews+%28Reuters+Technology+News%29" rel="noopener noreferrer">has filed a countersuit</a> against Qualcomm, the world’s dominant supplier of baseband processors, alleging patent infringement and seeks unspecified damages. The tech giant says Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 and 820 processors, found in Android phones from Samsung and Alphabet, infringe on battery life patents owned by Apple. </p>

<p>B-Eng has introduced Similar Pic Finder 1.0, a duplicate image discovery utility for macOS. It tracks down duplicates and copies of pictures.</p>

<p>Future alarm clocks on your iOS and watchOS devices may be a bit more “understanding” of your personal needs. Apple has filed for a patent (number 9,826,930) for “adjusting alarms based on sleep onset latency.”</p>

<p>If you have a 12-inch MacBook and find it frustrating that it only packs one USB-C port, consider adding the $99.95 IOGEAR <a target="_blank" href="https://www.iogear.com/product/GUD3C03/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Compact USB-C Docking Station with PD Pass-Thru</a> to your Christmas wish list. </p>

<p>On a regular basis, <em>Apple World Today</em> 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 told Rene Ritchie of <em>iMore</em> that it’s working on a fix for the root access vulnerability in macOS High Sierra. The bug, discovered by <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/lemiorhan/status/935578694541770752" rel="noopener noreferrer">developer Lemi Ergin</a>, lets anyone log into an admin account using the username "root" with no password.</p>

<p>Apple has scheduled downtime for iTunes Connect from Dec. 23-27, so its employees can celebrate the holidays. iTunes Connect is a suite of web-based tools for managing content sold on iTunes, the iBooks Store, and the various app stores. </p>