Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Cupertino, California — Apple’s home base — may introduce a tax that would charge the tech giant an additional fee based on its number of employees. The city has hired a firm to poll residents asking their thoughts on such a tax, and how it should be spent, according to <a href="https://www.cultofmac.com/549311/cupertino-extra-taxes-apple/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Cult of Mac</em></a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg says ruled legal action against Apple over its Powerbeats headphones can go ahead "in part,” reports the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44197119" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>BBC</em></a>. The lawsuit was filed in September 2017.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have signed a deal to produce films and series for Netflix instead of Apple. Netflix announced the agreement in a <a href="https://twitter.com/netflix/status/998594451378397185" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tweet</a>:</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Nektony has debuted Startup Disk Full Fixer, a free productivity app for macOS 10.13 or later. The utility — available at the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/startup-disk-full-fixer/id1346655838" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mac App Store</a> — is specifically designed for finding and removing junk files to free up more HD space. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has fallen one place in the <a href="https://9to5mac.com/guides/fortune-500/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fortune 500</a> rankings, based on company revenues, dropping from third place to fourth. Still, the tech giant remains the most valuable and profitable company on the list with $850 billion in market cap and $48 billion in profits.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Following closing arguments Friday, the five women and three men of a California federal jury filed out of a San Jose courthouse for a weekend break with a billion-dollar question hanging in the air. A decision is expected today, according to <a href="https://www.law360.com/technology/articles/1045106/fate-of-apple-s-1b-ip-fight-with-samsung-in-jury-s-hands?nl_pk=ade0cf2b-ea3f-464b-bc93-d8e19277ac63&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=technology" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Law360</em></a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has filed for a patent (number 20180133573) for an “integrated media jukebox and physiologic data handling application.” Though it sounds like it involves music (and it does, pertaining to workout playlists), it also involves methods for tracking exercise performance with interaction between an Apple Watch and a Mac or iPad.</p>

<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>