Dennis Sellers

<p>Future alarm clocks on your iOS and watchOS devices may be a bit more “understanding” of your personal needs. Apple has filed for a patent (number 9,826,930) for “adjusting alarms based on sleep onset latency.”</p>

<p>If you have a 12-inch MacBook and find it frustrating that it only packs one USB-C port, consider adding the $99.95 IOGEAR <a target="_blank" href="https://www.iogear.com/product/GUD3C03/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Compact USB-C Docking Station with PD Pass-Thru</a> to your Christmas wish list. </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>Apple has told Rene Ritchie of <em>iMore</em> that it’s working on a fix for the root access vulnerability in macOS High Sierra. The bug, discovered by <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/lemiorhan/status/935578694541770752" rel="noopener noreferrer">developer Lemi Ergin</a>, lets anyone log into an admin account using the username "root" with no password.</p>

<p>Apple has scheduled downtime for iTunes Connect from Dec. 23-27, so its employees can celebrate the holidays. iTunes Connect is a suite of web-based tools for managing content sold on iTunes, the iBooks Store, and the various app stores. </p>

<p>Rosenblatt Analyst Jun Zhang estimates that Apple sold six million iPhone X’s during Black Friday for a total of 15 million units so far, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.streetinsider.com/Analyst+Comments/Apple+%28AAPL%29%3A+iPhone+X+Production+Ahead+of+Schedule%2C+6+Mil+Est+Sold+Through+Black+Friday+Weekend+-+Rosenblatt/13544265.html" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>StreetInsider</em></a>. </p>

<p>Apple is preparing to test autonomous vehicles at an old Fiat Chrysler testing ground in the Arizona desert near Phoenix, according to a <a target="_blank" href="https://jalopnik.com/apple-might-be-leasing-chryslers-old-proving-grounds-to-1820782763" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Jalopnik</em> report</a>. Quoting an unnamed “source familiar with the matter,” the article says the tech giant is recruiting engineers and technicians to the site.</p>

<p>November 16th, 2017 was the date that I decided to purchase the iPhone X to get my son the free iPhone 8. I knew going into it that there would be a wait for the iPhone X. I definitely one that loves instant gratification so this was going to be tough. The sales rep at the AT&T store told me it would be mid December before it arrived. This contradicted what the AT&T website said though. The website said that it would ship between 11/29/2017 and 12/6/2017. This was still going to be a tough waiting period for me. Shortly after I finalized the order, I received an email and text that aligned with the AT&T website's initial estimated date. </p>

<p>Apple has opened registration for thousands of free <a target="_blank" href="https://www.apple.com/today/collection/hourofcode/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hour of Code sessions</a> available at all Apple Stores from Dec. 4-10. The company also introduced a new educational challenge in Swift Playgrounds and added new teacher resources to the Everyone Can Code curriculum to help teach Swift, Apple’s programming language.</p>

<p>Adobe has released its 2017 online shopping data for Cyber Monday and the holiday weekend overall. Apple’s AirPods were some of the hottest sellers during the online shopping day.</p>

<p>Apple has been granted another patent (number 20170185161) for a “gesture-based user interface” that hints at gesture controls for Macs. This one is dubbed “three dimensional user interface session using depth sensors.”</p>

<p>Currently, Apple’s augmented reality (AR) efforts focus on the iPad and iPhone. But a newly granted patent (number 9,830,844) hints that those efforts will expand to the Mac.</p>

<p>Apple has launched an official <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8xoRh-on8e3eFfaF8UcQjw" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apple Support YouTube channel</a>, which already has 1,513 subscribers. </p>

<p>Apple has emailed customers that they can donate to their favorite charitable causes using Apple Pay on Giving Tuesday (that’s today). The promotes six charities: the American Red Cross, charity: water, DonorsChoose.org, (PRODUCT)RED, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and the World Wildlife Fund. </p>

<p>The reasonably priced ($24.95) <a target="_blank" href="http://usa.just-mobile.com/tenc-iphone.html#.WgtUYLbMxBw" rel="noopener noreferrer">TENC for iPhone X</a> from Just Mobile— available in crystal clear, matte clear and matte black — perfectly lines up with the smartphone’s edges (the top two corners are completely covered, and the bottom two corners are covered to the curve). The no-frills case offers protection while offering easy access to all ports, buttons, switches. </p>