Dennis Sellers

<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.elgato.com/en/avea" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elgato’s Avea Flare</a> is a novelty item, but a fun novelty item. Whether it’s US$99.95 worth of fun, only you can decide. </p>

<p>Apple has an annual subscription program that allows you to update to the latest and greatest version of the smartphone. What if you could do the same with your Mac, iPad, and Apple Watch? As an Apple journalist that would be very cool and convenient. I can’t see it happening, but <a href="http://www.ccsinsight.com/">CCS Insights</a> predicts the Cupertino, California-based company will introduce a combined subscription model for its hardware and services in 2018.</p>

<p>The AWT News Update is on hiatus while my compadre, Steve, takes a road 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><a target="_blank" href="http://www.xero.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Xero</a> has announced the integration of Apple Pay through Stripe. Xero is online accounting software for small businesses.</p>

<p>Apple has introduced a sixth beta version of iOS 10.2, and fifth beta of macOS 10.12.2 Sierra to developers and public beta tester. A fourth watchOS 3.1.1 developer beta has also been seeded.</p>

<p>OWC has introduced the <a href="http://globalmessaging1.prnewswire.com/clickthrough/servlet/clickthrough?msg_id=8374411&adr_order=160&url=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub3djZGlnaXRhbC5jb20vcHJvZHVjdHMvZXh0ZXJuYWwtc3RvcmFnZS9tZXJj%0AdXJ5LWVsaXRlLXByby1kdWFsLXRiLW92ZXJ2aWV3">OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual with Thunderbolt 2 Technology</a>. Designed in Austin, Texas, by the OWC new product development team, it offers speeds up to 474 MB/s, capacities up to 20TB, and RAID modes 0 and 1. </p>

<p>The folks at AMPware has launched the US$89 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.getampware.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">AMPware cas</a>e, a patent-pending charge case that has a crank (yep, a crank) located on the back of the case that folds out and can be turned to generate enough power for one hour of normal use from five minutes of cranking. </p>

<p>While the smartwatch market took a tumble this quarter, the overall wearables market grew 3.1% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2016 (3Q16). Total wearables shipments reached 23 million in the quarter, according to data from the International Data Corporation, (<a href="http://www.idc.com/">IDC</a>) <a href="http://www.idc.com/tracker/showproductinfo.jsp?prod_id=962">Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker</a>.</p>

<p>Red Dwarf Games has debuted Tales of Cosmos, a point-and-click adventure game for Mac and Windows computers. The player assumes the roles of Perseus and Gagayev, animal astronauts who become stranded on an unknown planet, and helps them get to the bottom of a cosmic mystery. </p>

<p>AKVIS has released <a href="http://akvis.com/en/watercolor/index.php">AKVIS Watercolor</a> for macOS and Windows. It’s an app designed to make a photo look like a watercolor painting.</p>

<p>If you're an audiophile with some really cool headphones, you want to keep them close at hand. The US$39.95 <a target="_blank" href="http://usa.just-mobile.com/headstand-avant.html#.WDy5O3eZNBw" rel="noopener noreferrer">Just Mobile HeadStand Avant</a> offers a high-design stand to hang those high-design headphones.</p>

<p>Video and visual technologies are becoming increasingly important for interacting with customers and each other, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.gartner.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gartner, Inc</a>. The research group predicts that by 2017, live video broadcasting will be the new "selfie" and recommends that product managers start creating a "visual" strategy straight away to accommodate this trend.</p>

<p>Apple’s vice president of special projects Paul Deneve has disappeared from the <a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/">Apple executive bios page</a>, as noted by <a target="_blank" href="http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/12/02/apple-scrubs-paul-deneves-bio-page-from-website" rel="noopener noreferrer">AppleInsider</a>. </p>

<p>Apple has sent a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) acknowledging that it is working on self-driving cars. The letter requests that NHTSA facilitate testing of self-driving development vehicles on public roads, as well as provide standards for data sharing and privacy. </p>