Dennis Sellers

<p>Ireland is closer to collecting €15B (about $15 billion) in Apple taxes following European Commission criticism that the country was dragging its feet.</p>

<p>Apple has been granted a patent (number 9,824,719) for an automatic recording and authoring tool. It involves GarageBand for macOS and iOS and Logic Pro X for macOS.</p>

<p>Apple expects to ship 4M HomePods next year, according to a<em> </em><a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-21/why-apple-s-homepod-is-three-years-behind-amazon-s-echo" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Bloomberg</em></a> report. Last week Apple said the smart speaker launch will now happen in “early 2018” instead of in December, as expected. <em>Buzzfeed</em>’s John Paczkowski <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/JohnPaczkowski/status/931556183806132224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F9to5mac.com%2F2017%2F11%2F17%2Fhomepad-delay%2F" rel="noopener noreferrer">tweets</a> the full statement from the tech giant: </p>

<p>Apple, Samsung Electronics and Amazon will be the top three tablet vendors worldwide in 2017, while Huawei will move to fourth place, surpassing Lenovo thanks to a strategy to push product differentiation, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.digitimes.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">DigiTimes Research. </a></p>

<p>The <em><a target="_blank" href="https://www.ft.com/content/7cb56786-cda1-11e7-b781-794ce08b24dc" rel="noopener noreferrer">Financial Times</a></em> reports that supplier Foxconn illegally employed and overworked students due to the production delays with the iPhone X.  Six of the students told the publication that they regularly work 11-hour days at a factory in Zhengzhou.</p>

<p>Apple has pulled Microsoft’s Skype from its China App Store. Regarding the matter, the tech giant tells<em> </em><a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/business/skype-app-china.html?_r=1" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The New York Times</em></a>: </p>

<p>Along with the iPhone X, Apple released the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MQRW2/iphone-x-leather-folio-cosmos-blue?fnode=42" rel="noopener noreferrer">iPhone X Leather Folio</a>. It’s as gorgeous as you’d expect, but, with a price tag of $99, it’s hard to recommend it over <a target="_blank" href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2017/11/16/nomads-leather-cases-for-the-iphone-x-offer-something-for-everyone?rq=Leather%20Folio" rel="noopener noreferrer">similar leather cases</a> from companies such as Nomad.</p>

<p>You can easily take a screenshot on your iPhone X, though the procedure is a bit different from previous Apple smartphones. Here’s how:</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>By 2022, devices running Google Assistant are going to be much more prevalent in the smartphone market than those running competing native voice assistants like Apple's Siri or Samsung's Bixby, <a target="_blank" href="http://e.businessinsider.com/click/11297507.1339/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3RyYXRlZ3lhbmFseXRpY3MuY29tL3N0cmF0ZWd5LWFuYWx5dGljcy9uZXdzL3N0cmF0ZWd5LWFuYWx5dGljcy1wcmVzcy1yZWxlYXNlcy9zdHJhdGVneS1hbmFseXRpY3MtcHJlc3MtcmVsZWFzZS8yMDE3LzEwLzI1L2dvb2dsZS1sZWFkcy1pbi1haS1wb3dlcmVkLXNtYXJ0cGhvbmVzIy5XZzhPS25YeXRUWg/56378b5356cf60046a8b4ca0Bd7f206b8" rel="noopener noreferrer">according</a> to Strategy Analytics. The research group says one out of every three smartphones sold worldwide this year will use artificial intelligence (AI) to power virtual assistants. </p>

<p>Another day, another lawsuit. Gustafson Nicolai, a Los Angeles-based law firm, has filed three more lawsuits against Apple in less than a month over “exploding” iPhones. That brings their total to five lawsuits in the matter.</p>

<p>Apple is committed 100% to  using nrecycled material or renewable material to make its products, the company's vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, Lisa Jackson, told<em> </em><a target="_blank" href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/apple-exec-on-making-a-completely-green-iphone-and-tackling-child-labour-concerns-in-supply-chain/news-story/f6de8b8f40fdb2956df67868cf2e81ca" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>news.com.au</em></a>.</p>

<p>Apple is working with its supplier TSMC to solve manufacturing issues preventing volume production of micro-LED display panels, reducing its own R&D team for developing Micro LED display products in northern Taiwan, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20171117PD202.html" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>DigiTimes</em></a>.</p>

<p>Of the two dozen collectable categories on offer at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.Breker.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Auction Team Breker</a>’s autumn extravaganza in Cologne, Germany, computing and calculation came out on top. The highest price of the day was a Apple’s Lisa-1 personal computer, which went for $50,300.</p>

<p>CareerBliss, the leading career community with over three million open jobs, has released new data identifying the “CareerBliss Happiest Retail Employers for 2017.” Apple ranks fifth on the list, preceded by Neiman Marcus, AT&T, Foot Locker, and Ace Hardware.</p>