Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to a <a href="https://www.loveios.net/2018/05/rumor-homepod-price-199-beats-brand.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new rumor</a>, Apple is working with MediaTek, a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company, to introduce a $199 HomePod (the current model is $349). However, per the rumor, it won’t be called a HomePod, but will use the Beats brand. (Apple bought Beats Electronics almost four years ago for $3 billion.)</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.addigy.com">Addigy</a>, a provider of cloud-based macOS/iOS management software, has highlighted five key GDPR processes and guidance for achieving Apple device compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) going into effect on May 25.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has taken new action against app developers in order to comply with new cybersecurity laws in China. According to <a href="https://www.slashgear.com/apple-pulls-callkit-apps-from-chinese-app-store-following-new-law-20531312/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>SlashGear</em></a>, the tech giant has started warning iOS developers that any apps using Apple’s CallKit will be pulled from the Chinese App Store unless they remove the framework’s integration. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Synology has launched the $799.99 <a href="https://www.synology.com/products/DS1618+" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DiskStation DS1618+</a>, a 6six-bay NAS designed for file serving, application hosting, data backup, and real-time collaboration.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.StarTech.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">StarTech</a> has announced two new Thunderbolt 3 Mini Docking Stations that allow users to connect two DisplayPort or HDMI monitors with 4K resolution without the need for additional adapters. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has filed for a patent (number 20180137864) for “multi-microphone speech recognition systems and related techniques.” The goal seems to be to improve the accuracy of Siri, it’s personal digital assistant.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Today, I'm going to talk about our #1 requested topic right now: the top Mac games of 2018 so far.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">When you use Family Sharing in iOS 11, it's easy to share your location with family members in Find My Friends or the Messages app. You can even help family members locate their missing devices in Find My iPhone.</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;">The U.S. government can’t help in Apple’s court fight against the European Union’s order to pay Ireland a record 13 billion euros (about $15.3 billion) in unpaid taxes.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve is out of pocket this week, so the AWT News Update is on a brief 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;">According to the latest quarterly research from <a href="http://www.strategyanalytics.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Strategy Analytics</a>, global smart speaker shipments reached 9.2 million units in the first quarter (Q1) of 2018. The research group says Apple shipped about 600,000 HomePods to garner 6% of the market.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In a note to clients — as noted by <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/05/17/apple-glasses-ar-headset-could-launch-in-2021-says-gene-munster" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInsider</em></a>, Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster — says Apple’s augmented reality (AR) headset  will arrive in 2021 and sell more than 10 million units in its first year.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has been granted a patent (number 20180136800) for “user interfaces for browsing content from multiple content applications on an electronic device.” The goal: present media items such as music, movies, and TV shows from different media applications in a unified media browsing app on Apple devices such as Macs, iPads, Apple TVs, and iPhones.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">This isn’t exactly a shock, but Chinese consumers prefer home-grown smartphone maker Huawei over Apple's iPhone, according to a survey from Reputation Institute, an independent research company. The Cupertino, California-based company places 12th on the country’s list of favorite global companies.</p>