Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to the latest quarterly research from <a href="http://www.strategyanalytics.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Strategy Analytics</a>, global smart speaker shipments reached 9.2 million units in the first quarter (Q1) of 2018. The research group says Apple shipped about 600,000 HomePods to garner 6% of the market.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In a note to clients — as noted by <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/05/17/apple-glasses-ar-headset-could-launch-in-2021-says-gene-munster" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AppleInsider</em></a>, Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster — says Apple’s augmented reality (AR) headset  will arrive in 2021 and sell more than 10 million units in its first year.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has been granted a patent (number 20180136800) for “user interfaces for browsing content from multiple content applications on an electronic device.” The goal: present media items such as music, movies, and TV shows from different media applications in a unified media browsing app on Apple devices such as Macs, iPads, Apple TVs, and iPhones.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">This isn’t exactly a shock, but Chinese consumers prefer home-grown smartphone maker Huawei over Apple's iPhone, according to a survey from Reputation Institute, an independent research company. The Cupertino, California-based company places 12th on the country’s list of favorite global companies.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is teaming up with Instacart and offering free delivery of groceries using its <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/instacart/id545599256?mt=8&ls=1&app=itunes" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">free mobile app.</a></p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple is teaming up with educators for blind and deaf communities across the U.S. to bring accessible coding to their schools. Beginning this fall, schools supporting students with vision, hearing or other assistive needs will start teaching the <a href="https://www.apple.com/everyone-can-code/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Everyone Can Code</a> curricula for <a href="https://www.apple.com/swift/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Swift</a>, Apple’s programming language.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">With Family Sharing on macOS High Sierra, you can start a new family group and invite people to join, or you can join someone else's family group.  This makes it easy for up to six people in your family to share iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases, an Apple Music family membership, and an iCloud storage plan, without sharing accounts. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve is out of pocket this week, so the AWT News Update is on a brief hiatus. 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 style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Good news: The <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/16/net-neutrality-senate-votes-halt-repeal-obama-era-rules/613404002/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Senate has voted</a> to keep in place “Net Neutrality” rules that prevent Internet providers from blocking or slowing users’ access to certain websites and charging more for faster delivery of some content.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple’s “spaceship campus” in Cupertino, California just opened in April, but a new campus of the tech giant could be located in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, a 22 million square foot research park, according to the <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2018/05/15/sources-research-triangle-park-tops-apples-short.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Triangle Business Journal</em></a>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple’s most recent iPhone X and iPhone 8 releases ignited a new craze towards wireless and fast charging. However, Apple still provides their consumers with outdated 5W chargers that they’ve been using since 2007. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Sonnet Technologies has announced the $199 Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 Edition, the latest product in the company's expanding line of Thunderbolt 3 to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) adapters. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Here's an idea for an iPhone feature I'd love to see: a mute feature with a timer. Let me explain. I'm going to a meeting, church service, etc., so I set my iPhone's volume to vibrate only. After all, you don't want to get a phone call when the boss is on a tear or the preacher's really into his lesson.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.pearlmountainsoft.com/scrapbook-crafter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Scrapbook Crafter</a> from Pearl Mountain Software is easy-to-use digital scrapbook software for macOS 10.7 or higher that lets both novice and professional crafters to create fun and original scrapbooks quickly. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has been granted a patent (number 9,973,674) for a remote camera user interface. The goal: to make it easier to take “selfies” on your devices (especially the iPhone).</p>