Dennis Sellers

<p><a href="http://www.rippletraining.com/plugin/timelines/">Timelines from Ripple Training</a> -- a $59 plug-in set designed exclusively for Final Cut Pro X -- is a cool collection of eight transition effects that create graphical timelines for videos. </p>

<p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">Apple has been granted a patent (number 20150342307) by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for a “woven display’ that could result in future Apple Watch bands that display information such as medical information and which could even alert you if the watch band isn’t fastened securely (hey, those Apple Watches are expensive).</p>

<p>Wristly — the “the independent voice of Apple Watch” — has published its first annual “State of the Apple Watch” report — <a target="_blank" href="http://tinyurl.com/h2ewpqh" rel="noopener noreferrer">which you can download her</a>e —  of Apple Watch users. The report, based on 2,000-plus Wristly panelists — find a 97 percent satisfaction rating for the Apple smartwatch.</p>

<p>For the fourth year in a row, Walmart ranked No.1 in the Solar Means Business report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), which identifies major commercial solar projects and ranks top corporate solar users. Apple, Kohl’s, Macy's, Walgreens, Target, IKEA, Prologis, FedEx, Intel, General Motors, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, Bed Bath & Beyond, Safeway, Hartz Mountain, Staples, L'Oreal, Kaiser Permanente and Toyota are also among the companies recognized for their amount of solar capacity and number of solar installations.</p>

<p>Apple apparently registered the strongest Friday sales in its entire history on Black Friday (Nov. 27), <a href="http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2015/11/30/this-black-friday-was-strongest-in-apples-history-global-equities/?mod=BOL_hp_blog_tt">says Global Equities' Trip Chowdhry</a>. He attributes this to the company's "strategic shift in selling."</p>

<p>Another day, another lawsuit. Deric White, 68, is suing Apple for “wiping away his life” when he took his iPhone 5 to an Apple Store for repair — and didn’t back up his data. If I’m counting correctly, this is the ninth lawsuit (two involving Wi-Fi Assist and two involving Shanda Games) filed against Apple this year.</p>

<p>Adobe has released its 2015 online shopping data for Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day. A record $4.45 billion is expected to have been spent online, including $2.72 billion on Black Friday, 14 percent more than in 2014 and $1.73 billion on Thanksgiving Day, a 25 percent increase year-over-year (YoY).</p>

<p>If you want to really improve the audio on your Mac's speakers or headphones, plug in the $149.99 <a target="_blank" href="http://tinyurl.com/px5y6b2" rel="noopener noreferrer">D3 Premium 24-bit DAC (digital-to-analog converter)</a> from Audioengine. It bypasses your computer’s headphone jack and sends music directly through USB. The result: a noticeable improvement in the sound coming from your music, movies and games.</p>

<p>While not making them waterproof (although rumors claim the upcoming iPhone 7 will indeed be waterproof), Apple wants to make its iOS devices, and perhaps Mac laptops more resistant to spills. The company has filed for a patent (number 20150340795) with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for “electronic devices with housing port shutters.”</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 for Mac OS X and iOS.</p>

<p>Apple <a target="_blank" href="https://www.apple.com/cn/retail/chaoyangjoycity/" rel="noopener noreferrer">says it will open its 27th store in China</a> on Saturday, Nov. 28, in the Chaoyang Joy City shopping mall, Beijing. It will be the fifth Apple Store to open in China’s capital city.</p>

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://tinyurl.com/p979lb7" rel="noopener noreferrer">Camtasia</a> is an application for recording and annotating audio and video captured from your Mac commonly known as screencasting.  I’ve used other programs in the past to do raw captures from my Mac and then did the painful editing in iMovie and GarageBand but Camtasia does everything  with an intuitive and easy to use Mac interface.</p>

<p>Another day, another lawsuit. Apple has been hit with a second class action lawsuit claiming that the company failed to properly warn users that the new Wi-Fi Assist feature in iOS 9 will use data from their cellular plan.</p>

<p>In a note to clients — as noted by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.appleinsider.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">AppleInsider</a> — Cowen and Company analyst Timothy Acuri says the A9X CPU found in the iPad Pro poses a threat to Intel as it surpasses the Intel Core M processor (the one used in the new 12-inch MacBook).</p>

<p>As announced, Apple is taking orders for the iPad Pro online. However, instead of waiting until Friday, you can pick one up today at an Apple retail store (at least as long as supplies last).</p>