Dennis Sellers

<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>According to <a target="_blank" href="http://deadline.com/2018/01/apple-see-epic-drama-series-steven-knight-francis-lawrence-1202240151/" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Deadline</em></a>, Apple has landed the TV package, <a href="http://deadline.com/tag/see/"><em>See</em></a> with a straight-to-series order. A world-building drama set in the future, the project is written by <em>Peaky Blinders</em> creator Steven Knight and directed by Francis Lawrence (<em>The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2</em>).</p>

<p>When U.S. adults were asked which consumer technology company is the most innovative, Apple was the clear winner among a list of 12 businesses, chosen by 26% of the 2,201 participants in a recent Morning Consult <a target="_blank" href="https://morningconsult.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Brands-IoT-Crosstabs-180102-FIN.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer">survey</a>. Samsung came in second, at 14%.</p>

<p>A bug report <a target="_blank" href="https://openradar.appspot.com/36350507" rel="noopener noreferrer">submitted on Open Radar</a> — and, as noted by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macrumors.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>MacRumors</em></a> — reveals a security vulnerability in the current version of macOS High Sierra that allows the App Store menu in System Preferences to be unlocked with any password. </p>

<p>India has made it easier for brands such as Apple to open stores in the country. The Indian government announced Wednesday that global single-brand retailers will no longer need its permission to own and operate stores in the country, reports <em><a target="_blank" href="http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/10/investing/india-retail-restrictions-relaxed/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">CNN Money</a></em>.</p>

<p>The latest smartphone operating system data from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kantarworldpanel.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kantar Worldpanel ComTech</a> reveals a mixed performance for iOS in the three months ending November 2017. </p>

<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>