Dennis Sellers

<p>Apple plans to start selling its smart watch in Brazil in October, according to <em>InfoMoney</em>, a web portal based in Brazil that covers financial and business news. However, it's going to be expensive.</p>

<p>Apple’s redesigned company store opened this past weekend in Cupertino, California. Among the changes — according to <a target="_blank" href="http://tinyurl.com/npzu9p7" rel="noopener noreferrer">MacMagazine</a> — the store will sell, for the first time, the iPhone, iPad, Macs, and Apple Watch along with a new collection of Apple-branded merchandise including clothing, mugs, and other collectibles.</p>

<p>Apple, the Japanese market leader, saw its share of Japan's smartphone market, drop from 51.1 percent to 39.1 percent in the second quarter, reports <em>MK Daily Economy</em>, a daily newspaper based in Seoul. Meanwhile, Samsung's share of Japan’s smartphone market hit 12%, up from 5.2 percent in the first quarter.</p>

<p>Apple says that, as expected, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.apple.com/iphone-6s/" rel="noopener noreferrer">the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus</a> will be available at 8a.m. local time on Friday, Sept. 25 at Apple’s retail stores. What's more, in a press announcement,  Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, says that "iOS 9 is also off to an amazing start, on pace to be downloaded by more users than any other software release in Apple’s history."</p>

<p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">I love living in Nashville, Tennessee. But I can't help but be a little jealous of another city a few miles down the road: <a target="_blank" href="http://chattanoogagig.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chattanooga, Tennessee</a>, which has implemented super-fast, publicly owned Internet via its Electric Power Board (EPB). The city offers 1 Gigabit-per-second Internet speed to every home and business throughout the community.</p>

<p>Apple told <a target="_blank" href="http://tinyurl.com/nvmc4rz" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters</a> that it's cleaning up its Apple App Store to remove malicious iPhone and iPad programs identified in the first large-scale attack on the online store.</p>

<p>Apple executives have reportedly discussed their plans for an “autonomous vehicle” with officials at California’s department of motor vehicles (DMV).</p>

<p>At its 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference Apple held a session about support for dedicated third-party gaming controllers for iOS devices as part of its MFi Program (“Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad”). At the time I thought it might mean better game controller support for the Mac, but so far that hasn't happened.</p>

<p>If you need a cool desk lamp to go with your Mac desktop set-up — or anywhere else in your home or office — the <a target="_blank" href="http://tinyurl.com/qfr5dxr" rel="noopener noreferrer">Satechi: Flexible LED Desk Lamp</a> looks good, works great, and even sports a USB port.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">When Apple releases an update of its mobile operating system iOS, as it did yesterday with iOS 9, millions of users rush to update their iPhones and iPads. However, we make the switch to the new operating system, we shouldn’t be surprised to see apps crashing more often than we may be accustomed to.</p>

<p>Despite some early hiccups, iOS 9 has rebounded strongly. According to Mixpanel’s data, it’s already nearing 12% adoption, less than 24 hours after its debut. (<a target="_blank" href="http://mixpanel.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mixpanel</a> is an analytics platform for mobile and web devices.)</p>

<p>One complaint I have about the upcoming Apple TV is its lack of 4K support, which would help "future proof" it. Now Amazon has announced the new Fire TV Stick, which has such support. It's <a target="_blank" href="http://tinyurl.com/pt44vmu" rel="noopener noreferrer">now available for pre-order</a> for US$99.99 — a price tag lower than that of the next gen Apple set-top box.  </p>

<p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">Apple pooh-poohs physical media (hey, it wants you to buy all your content on iTunes) and has, in fact, filed for a patent (number 20150261425) with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for "optimized presentation of multimedia content" that shows why downloadable media is better than DVDs and Blu-rays. It also discusses ways to make items purchased at the iTunes Store even better.</p>

<p>Apple has set up wholly owned Apple Technology Service (Shanghai) Co Ltd to bring Apple Pay to China, reports Yicai — as noted by <em>BrightWire.com</em>, a global investment newswire.</p>

<p>According to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.canalys.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Canalys</a>, worldwide 3D printer shipments rose 52% year on year in the first half of 2015. The research group predicts that the worldwide market will reach US$20.2 billion by 2019. Some folks think that Apple should enter this market. Perhaps they're right, but I don't think our favorite tech company will make its own printer. </p>