Dennis Sellers

<p>America's top companies are investing in solar in record amounts, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association's brand new <a href="http://www.seia.org/solarmeansbiz"><em>Solar Means Business 2017</em></a> report, which tracks on-site commercial solar installations and ranks top corporate solar users. Apple is among the companies honored.</p>

<p>Apple has filed for a patent (number 20180108346) for a “method and apparatus for discovering trending terms in speech requests,” part of an effort to improve Siri, its personal digital assistant.</p>

<p>Apple is teaming up with McDonald’s offering an order of free medium fries with any purchase made by Apple Pay users using the restaurant chain’s <a target="_blank" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mcdonalds/id922103212?mt=8&ls=1&app=iTunes" rel="noopener noreferrer">free mobile app</a>.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-18/qualcomm-cutting-jobs-to-live-up-to-promise-of-slashing-costs" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Bloomberg</em> </a>reports that Qualcomm is slicing around 1,500 jobs in California as part of a broader workforce reduction aimed at meeting a commitment to investors to pare costs by $1 billion.</p>

<p>Apple has applied for two more patents involving water resistant improvements for its various devices — the iPhone being the most obvious candidate for such enhancements.</p>

<p>Timo Josten’s <a target="_blank" href="https://getdropsha.re" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dropshare</a>, a file sharing tool, is a useful menu bar application for drag and dropping to upload files, screenshots and even directories to your own server, Amazon S3 and Rackspace Cloud Files. Landing pages can be synchronized with Dropshare Sync.</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 released its second public beta of macOS High Sierra 10.13.5. Among other things it reintroduces Messages on iCloud, which allows you to store “iMessages” in iCloud.</p>

<p>Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) has released analysis of the results of its research on mobile phone operating systems and brands for the calendar quarter that ended March 31, 2018. The research shows that, during this time period, Samsung accounted for 39% of US mobile phone activations in the third quarter. Apple had 31%, with LG next at 14%. All other brands accounted for 17% of activations.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.youmail.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">YouMail</a>, a provider of free robocall blocking software and the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.robocallindex.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">YouMail Robocall Index</a>, has released an analysis of the over 3.1 billion robocalls made in the U.S. in March, showing that iPhone users get more robocalls than Android users. </p>

<p>TD Ameritrade is launching Apple Business Chat support to deliver financial market updates, investor education, research and trading information to customers using the Messages app on iPhones and iPads. </p>

<p>People using their phones while driving is a major problem, but Apple’s “Do Not Disturb” iPhone feature is helping. With the feature, iOS 11 can “sense” when you might be driving and help keep you from being distracted by calls, texts, and notifications. </p>

<p>In a note to clients — as noted by the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-faces-the-music-1524043801?mod=rss_Technology" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Wall Street Journal</em></a> — Macquarie Capital analyst Ben Schahter estimates that Apple Music will average 40% annual growth over the next three years, making it the fastest-growing part of the company’s Services segment. </p>

<p>Apple may be close to announcing a follow-up to the iPhone SE, after the discovery of a regulatory filing by <a target="_blank" href="//consomac.fr/news-8433-presentation-imminente-pour-liphonese2.html" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Consomac</em></a> — as noted by <a target="_blank" href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/04/18/new-iphone-se-2-likely-exposed-by-european-regulatory-agency" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInsider</em></a> — that reveals details and images for unannounced mobile devices from the tech giant.</p>

<p>U.S. iPhone users spent 23% more on in-app purchases (IAP) and premium apps in 2017 than <a target="_blank" href="https://sensortower.com/blog/revenue-per-iphone-2016" rel="noopener noreferrer">the year before</a>, Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data reveals. </p>