Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Aluminum companies Alcoa Corp. and Rio Tinto Aluminum have announced a joint venture to commercialize patented technology that eliminates direct greenhouse gas emissions from the traditional smelting process, a key step in aluminum production. Apple helped accelerate the development of this tech.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple and Goldman Sachs, an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York City, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/goldman-sachs-apple-team-up-on-new-credit-card-1525965387?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1&tesla=y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">will launch</a> a new joint credit card, according to the Wall Street Journal, quoting unnamed sources. The card will reportedly carry the Apple Pay brand and will arrive in early 2019.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Nektony has released <a href="https://nektony.com/startup-disk-full-fixer" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Startup Disk Full Fixer</a>, a freeware app for Mac users who suffer from low disk space on their desktops or laptops. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Market research firm <a href="http://www.trendforce.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TrendForce </a>reports that the global tablet shipments for the first quarter of 2018 (1Q18) recorded only 31.29 million units, a steep quarterly decline of 35.0% due to the traditional off season. Apple took first place in the market with 9.11 million units of iPad devices shipped, bringing its market share up to 29.1%, 1.2 percentage points up from 1Q17. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">German chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor’s stock has tumbled in recent months on rumors that Apple is working on its own power management integrated circuits (PMIC), after which it might drop Dialog's battery-saving chip.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple’s Michigan Avenue retail store and the Foster + Jones architecture firm earned an Award of Merit on Wednesday at the annual awards ceremony held by the International Association of Lighting Designers in Chicago. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is expected to put an an MLCD+ display in an upcoming 6.1-inch iPhone, according to <a href="http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=22140" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Business Korea</em></a>. It’s the same sort of screen LG used in its G7 ThinQ smartphone.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">If you use the Signal desktop client on a Mac, be careful with the app’s as they may expose your private messages, reports <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kzke7z/signal-disappearing-messages-are-stored-indefinitely-on-mac-hard-drives" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Motherboard</em></a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Due to delays in the approval process, Apple is dropping a $1 billion plan to open a data center in Athenry, Ireland, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-ireland/apple-drops-plans-for-data-center-in-ireland-due-to-planning-delays-rte-idUSKBN1IB0XT" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">RTE reports</a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The U.S. Transportation Department has <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/09/alphabet-apple-microsoft-part-of-usdot-drone-pilots-amazon-bypassed.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">announced</a> the winners of its drone pilot project, which aims to produce data and assist the FAA in establishing safety regulations for UAVs. Apple is among them.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Perceptive Automation's Indigo is an intelligent, and useful, home control server . And the company concentrates its development efforts on the Mac. Cool! Indigo provides tools to manage, automate, and control your home.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">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 style="white-space: pre-wrap;">WaterField Designs has announced the <a href="https://www.sfbags.com/products/pro-executive-laptop-backpack" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pro Backpack</a>, designed in collaboration with customers “to address the style and functionality needs of modern executives.” Shipping begins June 8.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve is indisposed this afternoon, so the AWT News Update is on a one-day hiatus. In its place, 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 style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple plans to sell video service subscriptions through its TV app instead of having them subscribe to them via individual apps, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-09/apple-is-said-to-plan-selling-video-subscriptions-through-tv-app?utm_source=google&utm_medium=bd&cmpId=google" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bloomberg sources</a>.</p>