Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple jumps into the number one spot as the Most Valuable US brand, with a brand worth of $316 billion on the strength of devices combined with services , according to the latest BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable US Brands ranking, announced by <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.wpp.com&d=DwMF-g&c=zdK58V2JKULZdB8nuBRpog&r=Q0WgIBe5Xw87AlCGKS9GxKqB4y5BrIiF4f9CjO56gS9IasEIJcVJqYC0VAfRIGga&m=bQLOfQEcB-_MYmDBhiZV952NqCyC3Vw3eKuHfqmv7H4&s=U8B4QRCQH6HN0drAgZWO_vK32M6Ca7fO9enH_yEnX7o&e=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WPP</a> and <a href="http://www.millwardbrown.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kantar Millward Brown</a>. The tech giant placed second in last year’s rankings.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is “aggressively hiring” engineers in Qualcomm’s home base of San Diego, seeking designers to develop wireless components and processors that would further weaken the chipmaker’s chances of again supplying chips for the iPhone maker’s future devices, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-15/apple-recruiting-chip-engineers-to-work-in-qualcomm-s-backyard" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Bloomberg</em></a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple wants your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch to be able to get back to Wi-Fi quickly if they have cellular/Wi-Fi connectivity. The company has filed for a patent (number 20180332506) for “fast return to Wi-Fi.”</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple wants Siri to be able to work when you don’t have an online connection. The company has filed for a patent (number 20180330731) for an “offline personal assistant” for an offline mode that wouldn’t require on a backend server to assist with Siri’s functions.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Heading into the competitive holiday shopping season, Walmart is poised to capture an even larger portion of this year’s online retail sales. According to <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">eMarkete</a>r’s latest retail forecast, Walmart will overtake Apple to become the third largest retailer in terms of e-commerce sales this year in the U.S. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is teaming up with Ray-Ban, the Ialian brand of sunglasses and eyeglasses, for a new Apple Pay promo: use the company’s mobile payment service and get $45 off your next purchase when you spend $180 or more at Ray-Ban.com.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The <a href="http://www.adl.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ADL</a> says Apple CEO Tim Cook will be the first recipient of ADL’s Courage Against Hate award for his work as a “champion of unity, diversity, and social progress.”</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">For the third annual Stop Slavery Award, Apple, Unilever and Thai Union are among the biggest global brands shortlisted from a number of high-profile companies representing a range of industries from fashion to financial services to fossil fuels. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has announced its latest retail location, Apple Champs-Élysées, paying tribute to Paris’s rich history and creativity and housed in a Haussmann-era apartment building. With its opening, Apple will  have 506 retail stores in 26 countries and an online store available in 39 countries.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">ROLI has released a new edition of the Songmaker Kit that features an “extraordinarily deep” integration with GarageBand for macOS</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.mykwilt.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Kwilt</span></a> has launched the Kwilt2 ($79) and Kwilt3 ($149), two platform-agnostic devices that turn any USB memory key or external drive into a private cloud at home where consumers can offload photos and videos from their smartphones, cameras and other devices and access their content anytime, anywhere.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has released a <a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MU962AM/A/40mm-productred-sport-loop" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">(PRODUCT)RED color version</a> of the Apple Watch Sport Loop. It costs $49 and is available in 40mm and 44mm sizes. A portion of the proceeds goes to the Global Fund's efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is selling an updated version of its <a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MU9F2AM/A/apple-watch-magnetic-charging-dock?fnode=a5426740396d512cc84958e61de7f77e83e00750683ef7a83373c00bf727fade1bcb68151d74cfc73e618db2a799ed0b6c19ad545a87d158b0206f3a41686afde9436deb4905aeae76c88392959e7ff88cd13a2c263ebca31828cdee885cba1e" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Dock</a>, although it’s not clear what’s different about it other than a new model number (MU9F2AM/A instead of MLDW2AM/A).</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is now taking orders for <a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/15-inch-space-gray-2.6ghz-6-core-512gb" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">15-inch MacBook Pros</a> with AMD Radeon Pro Vega GPUs (graphics processing units). These new graphics options purportedly deliver up to 60% faster graphics performance for the most demanding video editing, 3D design and rendering workloads.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The <a href="http://www.hitecglobal.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Hispanic Information Technology Executive Council</span></a> (HITEC) recently announced Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president, Internet Software and Services, as the 2018 Estrella Award recipient. He was recognized with this award during the HITEC Leadership Summit hosted by Cisco in San Jose on Nov. 8.</p>