Dennis Sellers

<p>Apple is facing new questions from U.S. government officials about its handling of “Batterygate”, reports <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-french-officials-question-apple-over-iphone-battery-slowdowns-1515545073" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Wall Street Journal</em></a>. On Tuesday, Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, pressed Apple for answers to a series of questions about how the company decided to throttle back iPhone processing performance in phones with older batteries.</p>

<p>Apple has to fork over $184 million to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs for additional taxes, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ft.com/content/797fd406-f57f-11e7-8715-e94187b3017e" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to</a> the <em>Financial Times</em>. The payment from Apple Europe came after HMRC conducted an "extensive audit" of the company's pre-2015 tax filings.</p>

<p>Oops, never mind. Even though <a target="_blank" href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8092650/jimmy-iovine-leaving-apple-music-august" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Billboard</em></a> reported that Apple Music exec Jimmy Iovine will depart the tech giant in August, around the time his company shares have fully vested, apparently he’s not leaving. He told <a target="_blank" href="http://variety.com/2018/music/news/jimmy-iovine-refutes-rumors-leaving-apple-1202658511/" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Variety</em></a> that he’s committed to staying on the Apple team and helping the company get music streaming right. </p>

<p>Apple will hand its China cloud operations over to a state-owned partner Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co. (GCBD) on Feb. 28, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-sets-date-for-china-data-handover-1515578949?mod=rss_Technology" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Wall Street Journal</em></a>.</p>

<p>Apple has been granted a patent (number 9,865,280) for “structured dictation using intelligent automated assistants ” conversion that shows the company is eyeing ways to improve this functionality using Siri on its iOS and macOS devices.</p>

<p>I’ve been using the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jbl.com/factory-refurbished/JBL+FLIP+II+SAS.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">JBL Flip 2 </a>portable wireless speaker for a few weeks now, and the first word that comes to mind is "Wow!" If you're in the market for a powerful Bluetooth speaker at a reasonable price, the JBL Flip 2 is where you should look first — especially since the price has been reduced from $99.95 to $69.99.</p>

<p>You can use the Disk Utility in macOS High Sierra to delete a disk set that's no longer needed. When you delete a set, the data recorded on the disks isn't deleted. For example, deleting a mirrored RAID set leaves each disk in the set with a copy of all the RAID data. </p>

<p>This week the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is in full swing in Las Vegas. There are too many announcements to list each one in a separate article, so here are some of today’s highlights:</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>The <a target="_blank" href="http://kellyoliverpublicrelations.pr-optout.com/Tracking.aspx?Data=HHL%3d%3e4%3b4%40%26JDG%3c%3a2%3f%2c74%3f%26SDG%3c90%3a.&RE=MC&RI=3956681&Preview=False&DistributionActionID=31378&Action=Follow+Link" rel="noopener noreferrer">Parents Television Council</a> welcomed <a target="_blank" href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2018/1/9/apple-plans-to-beef-up-parental-control-features-in-ios" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apple’s announcement</a> that the company would provide additional safeguards on its mobile devices for children. The news follows a request by Apple investor Jana Partners LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System to find ways to limit or restrict children’s access to mobile phones, in part, because of their concerns about phone usage on children’s mental health.</p>

<p>RE:Vision Effects has announced <a target="_blank" href="http://revisionfx.com/products/relens/" rel="noopener noreferrer">RE:Lens</a>, a plug-in set for 360 (equirectangular) and fisheye workflow, for Apple’s Final Cut Pro X and Motion.</p>

<p>Apple plans to invest in LG Innotek in order to secure a steady supply of 3D sensing modules for this year’s iPhones and iPads, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.theinvestor.co.kr/view.php?ud=20180109000879" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Investor</em></a>. The sensing module, which enables a mobile device to capture 3-D data and recognize a user even in a dark environment, is a key component of iPhone X’s facial recognition solution.</p>

<p>A new study from <a href="http://www.juniperresearch.com/CMSModules/Newsletters/CMSPages/Redirect.ashx?linkguid=c2cf0483-82c8-4f6c-ad80-5c0e5bb282b3&email=submitnews%40applecentral.com&hash=898d7744c1fb18e3162d64eeaff77c4d3cc1a3b3101c2b7a131d8a324f3f7a58">Juniper Research</a> has found that the global number of registered mobile domestic money transfer users is expected to reach 2.5 billion this year, up from an estimated 1.7 billion in 2016.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.frontiersmart.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Frontier Smart Technologies</a> is adding support for AirPlay 2 to its SmartSDK (software development kit). The company is previewing its AirPlay 2 implementation at this year’s CES.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amalgaminsights.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amalgam Insights</a>, a consulting and strategy firm, predicts that Apple stands to lose as much as $10 billion in 2018 from delayed revenues associated with “Batterygate” — its disclosure about batteries in older iPhones.</p>