Dennis Sellers

<p>Robert Sharpe, senior director of global data center services at Apple, provided evidence showing the importance of the company’s planned Irish data center at ahearing in Galway County, Ireland, this week, reports <a target="_blank" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-apple-document-highlights-extent-of-apple-data-centre-ireland-2016-5?r=UK&IR=T" rel="noopener noreferrer">Business Insider</a>.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.growthbeats.com/quickshift" rel="noopener noreferrer">QuickShift</a> is a brand new tool from Growth Beats designed to reduce desktop clutter. Personally, I’m a neat freak so my Mac Desktop is pretty well organized. However, my wonderful wife’s Desktop has dozens, perhaps hundreds, of files scattered everywhere. Looking at her MacBook screen makes my head hurt — especially when she’s having a technical problem and calls for her hubby’s assistance.</p>

<p>Cables, cables, we all got cables. Between our iPhones, iPads, Macs, and (for some folks) Android gadgets, too darn many cables. Since a truly wireless world is still some time away, you can possibly simplify your life with <a target="_blank" href="http://www.adata.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">ADATA</a>’s Charge/Sync 2-in-1 cable.</p>

<p>Over the years, I’ve collected lots of nifty T-shirts from trade shows I’ve covered — mainly the late, lamented Macworld Expos held in Boston, San Francisco, New York, Tokyo, and Paris. Over the next few weeks I’ll be “modeling” some of the items in my collection.</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>Yesterday <a target="_blank" href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2016/5/24/rumor-apple-is-working-on-an-amazon-echo-rival-and-siri-sdk" rel="noopener noreferrer">it was reported </a>that Apple is working on "an Amazon Echo-like device with a speaker and microphone that people can use to turn on music, get news headlines or set a timer” that will be powered by Siri. Now <a target="_blank" href="http://venturebeat.com/2016/05/26/apple-tv-amazon-echo-competitor/" rel="noopener noreferrer">VentureBeat says</a> that such a gadget may come in the form of a refreshed Apple TV, rather than a new hardware product.</p>

<p>VirnetX has formally asked a Texas court this week to order Apple to stop providing its FaceTime and iMessage features to customers, following the patent troll’s early court victory regarding patent infringement.</p>

<p>Here’s why Apple needs more physical retail stores in China. According to a recent survey conducted for the China market by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.abiresearch.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">ABI Research</a>, more than 50% of respondents report purchasing a mobile phone online. This is significantly higher than the roughly 36% of U.S. consumers doing the same.</p>

<p>The Pixelmator Team has announced Pixelmator 3.5 Canyon, an update to its image editor for Mac OS X. It’s one of my favorite apps; check out <a target="_blank" href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2015/10/16/pixelmator-for-os-x-is-a-powerful-image-editor-for-the-rest-of-us?rq=Pixelmator" rel="noopener noreferrer">my review here</a>.</p>

<p>Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day. However, you never can tell which ones will materialize in a real product, so here are today’s patent highlights:</p>

<p>Apple considered a buyout of Time Warner in late 2015, with Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services raising the idea at a meeting with Time Warner’s head of corporate strategy, Olaf Olafsson, reports <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ft.com/home/us" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Financial Times. </a></p>

<p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.adata.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">ADATA Technology</a>’s PV150 Power Bank provides extra juice to your iPhone or iPad — and looks good doing it thanks to its leather-textured exterior. (The exterior is actually made of plastic, but sports leather textures and stitching.)</p>

<p>If you've ever wanted to be a god, <a target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/1Rogf3G" rel="noopener noreferrer">Black and White 2 </a>from Feral Interactive gives you the chance. It's a $19.99 sequel to the real-time strategy sequel for Mac OS X 10.9.5 or higher. It's a fun, addicting game, though not without flaws. </p>

<p>The smart home market holds out the possibility of being a game changer with a world of helpful promises made by Apple’s HomeKit, Nest, Vivint, Philips and others. But bridging the gap in satisfaction between device and continued use through applications has been rough going. </p>