Dennis Sellers

<p class="">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 this week’s picks.</p>

<p class="">Apple has acquired Voysis, an artificial intelligence start-up, to improve the natural language skills of Siri, its personal digit assistant.</p>

<p class="">Several Democratic senators asked Apple CEO Tim Cook about the privacy of the company’s new COVID-19 screening app and website, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-03/apple-ceo-cook-questioned-by-senators-on-covid-19-screening-app">Bloomberg.</a></p>

<p class="">Here’s another reason to dislike Facebook (the world’s frenemy): according to <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6824735-Declaration-of-Shalev-Hulio-in-Support-of.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a declaration from NSO CEO Shalev Hulio</a>, two Facebook representatives approached NSO in October 2017 and asked to purchase the right to use certain capabilities of Pegasus. In other words, the company wanted to buy an Apple spying tool, according to <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pke9k9/facebook-wanted-nso-spyware-to-monitor-users" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Motherboard</a>.</p>

<p class=""><a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/legend-of-the-skyfish-2/id1358468246" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Legend of the Skyfish 2</a> is the latest addition to the Apple Arcade line-up on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV (alas, there's no Mac version).</p>

<p class="">Apple has accidentally leaked some info on two unreleased Apple products: the follow-up to the iPhone SE and the “AirTags.”</p>

<p class=""><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-03/apple-tells-staff-u-s-stores-to-remain-closed-until-early-may?sref=9hGJlFio" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bloomberg</a> reports that Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail + People, told employees in a memo that its retail stores in the U.S. will remain closed and work-from-home procedures will stay in place until early May due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All the stores outside the Greater China area were closed on March 17.</p>

<p class="">Water resistance iPhone? Humbug! That’s nothing. Apple wants one that’s totally waterproof as evidenced by a newly granted patent (number 20200104021) for an “underwater user interface.”</p>

<p class="">Apple has filed for another patent (number 20200104038) for controlling Macs, iPads, and Apple TVs (the set-top box) by motion gestures.</p>

<p class="">It's official: the <a href="http://www.publix.com/"><span style="text-decoration:underline">Publix </span></a>super market chain (my favorite, by the way) has announced that it’s rolling out contactless pay — including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay -- to all its stores, including GreenWise Market.</p>

<p class="">Intel says it’s breaking the 5GHz barrier for laptops with the launch of the 10th Gen Intel Core H-series mobile processors that's particularly suited to “gamers and creators.” That said, they should be a natural fit for the next generation of 16-inch MacBook Pros.</p>

<p class="">On the new <a href="http://www.macvoices.com/macvoices-20107-macvoices-briefing-five-more-ways-to-improve-your-videoconferencing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">episode of MacVoices</a>, host Chuck Joiner provides five more ways to improve your videoconferencing skills. Find out what to do and what not to do.</p>

<p class="">Conferencing usage has skyrocketed in the last three weeks with <a href="http://freeconferencecall.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FreeConferenceCall.com</a> reporting a nearly 700% increase in new customer sign-ups the week of March 22 (vs. sign-ups from the week of Feb. 23). It also looks as if it could be a viable alternative to the <a href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2020/4/1/zoom-sued-for-security-failures-so-its-time-for-apple-to-open-source-facettime?rq=Zoom" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">trouble-plagued Zoom</a>.</p>

<p class="">Satechi is donating 5% of all sales today through April 15 to <a href="https://projectcure.org/project-cure-response-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Project C.U.R.E.</a>, which is working diligently to provide critical supplies and resources to hospitals and heroes on the front lines of the fight against theCOVID-IT pandemic.</p>

<p class="">Apple has filed for a patent (number 20200106955) for “devices, methods, and graphic user interfaces for assisted photo taking” with the goal of helping the vision-impaired take better pics with their iPhones and iPads.</p>