Dennis Sellers

<p>Apple’s iPads and Macs — which accounted for about half of the mobile devices shipped to schools in the United States in 2013 — are steadily losing ground to inexpensive Chromebook laptops, according to a new report from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.futuresourceo-consulting.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Futuresource Consulting</a>.</p>

<p>There was <a target="_blank" href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2017/2/28/rumor-the-iphone-8-will-have-a-curved-screen-and-ditch-lightning-for-usb-c" rel="noopener noreferrer">a rumor this week</a> that Apple will ditch the Lightning port for a USB-C port on the upcoming “iPhone 8.” I said it wouldn't happen and apparently KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo agrees.</p>

<p>Samsung again leads LG Electronics and Apple as the most-sued patent defendant in 2016, according to the fourth annual <a target="_blank" href="http://pages.lexmachina.com/Email_Patent-Report-2016_LP---Social.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">Patent Litigation Year in Review report</a> from Lex Machine, creator of the Legal Analytics program. Tech and pharmaceutical companies comprise the top 10, with Amazon, Asus, Actavis and AT&T among the top patent defendants.</p>

<p>The University of Arizona’s Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing has announced the lineup of presenters for the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.globalretailingconference.org" rel="noopener noreferrer">21st Annual Global Retailing Conference</a> set for April 20-21 at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort in Tucson. Among the speakers at this leadership summit will be Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail and Online Stores.</p>

<p>The worldwide wearables market reached a new all-time high as shipments reached 33.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016 (4Q16), growing 16.9% year over year. Shipments for the entire year grew 25% as new vendors entered the market and previous champions refreshed their product lineups. </p>

<p>MCE Technologies (MCE) is shipping what it says is the world's fastest 1TB Internal PCIe-based SSD Upgrade for the Mac Pro (late 2013). Based on 4-Lane PCIe bandwidth, the <a target="_blank" href="http://tinyurl.com/jk52wo7" rel="noopener noreferrer">MCE 1TB SSD Upgrade</a> features read speeds of up to 1400MB/sec and write speeds of up to 1150MB/s. </p>

<p>Future iPhones and iPads — and perhaps even Macs — could have displays that fold like paper. Apple has filed for a patent (number 20170060183)<strong> for “electronic devices with retractable displays.”</strong></p>

<p>iCloud Keychain keeps the website login information and credit card information you use with AutoFill in Safari on macOS Sierra (and iOS). The Wi-Fi network information up to date across all your Macs running macOS 0.9 or later) and iOS devices running iOS 7.0.3 or later.</p>

<p>Questions about data sovereignty, data security and cloud computing may seem most appropriate for corporations and governments, but the issues are important for every person who has an email account. Technichor's Horcrux Email Backup is a Mac app that lets email users automatically keep their data rather than surrendering it to third party services. And it’s useful because it runs in the background, so you don’t have to give it a lot of thought.</p>

<p>A federal appeals court has tossed a jury verdict that had required Apple to pay $533 million to Smartflash, a patent holding company (which some might calla a “patent troll”), which claims that claimed the Cupertino, California-based company’s iTunes software infringed its data storage patents, reports <a target="_blank" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-lawsuit-patent-idUSKBN1685D5?utm_source=applenews" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters</a>.</p>

<p>The AWT News Update is on hiatus while my compadre, Steve, takes a trip. 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>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>Coming off the smartphone market's lowest year-over-year growth of 2.5% in 2016, a new forecast from the International Data Corporation (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.idc.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">IDC</a>) <a target="_blank" href="http://www.idc.com/tracker/showproductinfo.jsp?prod_id=37" rel="noopener noreferrer">Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker</a> shows worldwide smartphone shipments rebounding in 2017 and beyond. </p>

<p>Quark has announced <a target="_blank" href="http://www.quark.com/2017" rel="noopener noreferrer">QuarkXPress 2017</a>, the next major release of the company’s graphic design and layout software for professional print and digital production. It’s due in the second quarter of this year.</p>

<p>According to the latest market share survey from <a target="_blank" href="http://netmarkeshare.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">NetMarketShare</a>, the market share for both macOS and iOS was down in February.</p>