Dennis Sellers

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Another day, another lawsuit. A third lawsuit has been filed against Apple for alleged flaws in the butterfly keyboards of recent Mac laptops. It was filed June 2 was filed on behalf of “Diego Binatena individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated,” reports <a href="http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2018/06/a-third-class-action-has-been-filed-against-apple-in-california-over-macbook-pro-keyboard-problems.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Patently Appl</em></a><em>e</em>.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">According to a <a href="https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20180604PD202.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>DigiTimes</em> report</a>, Apple plans to tighten its grip on the supply chains of new MacBook models through direct pricing negotiations with third-party suppliers of non-key parts such as screws, metallic parts and plastics parts needed for the production of key components by contracted suppliers.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Facebook is under the gun again after <em>The New York Times</em> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/03/technology/facebook-device-partners-users-friends-data.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">revealed</a> data sharing deals with 60 companies (including Apple) that gave over users' education history, relationship status, work, religion and political leaning.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has been granted a patent (number 9,448,683) by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for a “network media device,” which hints at an Apple NAS device/home server, something I’ve long wanted. The device would pull multimedia data from one or more sources (e.g., a multimedia website or a multimedia server computer) at a first time, stores it to long-term storage within the device and transmits the stored multimedia data to one or more designated multimedia playback devices at a second time.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">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 style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Toshiba has announced the completion of the sale of its memory chip business to an investment group lead by Bain Capital, reports <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/toshiba-wraps-up-sale-of-memory-chip-business-to-bain-capital-consortium/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>ZDNet</em></a>. The consortium includes Apple, SK Hynix, Dell, and Seagate Technology.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">At next week’s Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple will debut tools allowing two iPhones to share augmented reality while limiting personal data sent to servers, reports<em> </em><a href="http://news.trust.org//item/20180601191500-yh0qh/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Reuters</em></a>, quoting two “unnamed people familiar with the matter.”</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Shares of Apple hit an all-time high today of $190. The gain comes amid a bullish note out of UBS. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has released macOS High Sierra 10.13.5. It offers support for Messages in iCloud and performance updates. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple may be <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-looks-to-expand-advertising-business-with-new-network-for-apps-1527869990" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">expanding its digital ad business</a> into ground covered more by Facebook and Google, according to <em>The Wall Street Journal, </em>quoting unnamed “people familiar with the matter.”</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">For a limited time, U.S. Cellular is offering an “<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.uscellular.com%2Fdevices%2Fphones%2Fapple-iphone-8-gold-64gb.html%3FproductId%3Dprod12220142%26customer-type%3Dnc%26skuType%3Dfinancing%26transactionType%3DaddLine%26monthsSelect%3D30%26filters%3D%257b%2522category%2522%3A%255b%2522smartphone%2522%255d%2C%2522manufacturer%2522%3A%255b%2522Apple%25AE%2522%255d%257d%26page%3Ddevice%2Fapple%2Fiphone-8&esheet=51815289&newsitemid=20180601005036&lan=en-US&anchor=iPhone+8&index=3&md5=6919778620d61a4b2db2ea78d93b963e" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">iPhone 8</a> on us” for new lines with unlimited data – including new customers switching to U.S. Cellular and current customers adding new lines for family or friends. </p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">One of Apple’s next premium smartphones, reportedly named as the iPhone X Plus, is also anticipated to come fitted with three camera lenses on the rear, according to <a href="http://www.theinvestor.co.kr/view.php?ud=20180530000858" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Korea Herald</em></a>. If so, this will happen about a year ahead of most predictions.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple has turned down an invitation to an European Union lawmakers’ hearing, saying it doesn’t want to prejudice its challenge to an EU order to pay up to 13 billion euros (about $18 billion) in back taxes to Ireland, reports <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-apple-taxation/apple-declines-invite-to-eu-hearing-cites-appeal-against-eu-tax-order-idUSKCN1IX4JK" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Reuters</em></a>. A European Parliament committee is holding the hearing on tax evasion on June 21.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple <a href="https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=05312018a" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has announced</a> that its Search Ads Advanced platform allows developers to create more ad variations using all of the screenshots and app previews from their App Store product page.</p>

<p style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The general consensus is that the focus at the <a href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2018/5/22/apples-2018-wwdc-keynote-will-be-held-as-expected-on-june-4?rq=WWDC%20keynote" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apple Worldwide Developer Conference keynote</a> on Monday will be on software and that no new hardware will be introduced. However, I’m going out on a limb and saying that we’ll get a preview of the iMac, which celebrates its 20th birthday in August.</p>