Steve Sande

<p>It’s time to save some of your hard-earned money with our <a target="_blank" href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/?tag=deals" rel="noopener noreferrer">Daily Deals</a>, featuring exclusive deals for AWT readers, hardware discounts and our own handpicked iOS and OS X sales. All prices are USD and subject to change. Please check prices before you purchase as some deals may expire quickly.</p>

<p><span>BitTorrent has released new free apps for communicating securely. Bleep is available both as a </span><a target="_blank" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bittorrent-bleep/id941305420?mt=8" rel="noopener noreferrer">freely downloaded iOS app</a><span> on the iOS App Store, and as a </span><a target="_blank" href="http://www.bleep.pm/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mac app</a><span> that can be downloaded from the Bleep website, and it sets up direct peer-to-peer encrypted communications that cannot be intercepted as no messages are ever stored in the cloud. There's not even a signup process, so nobody has to know you're using Bleep.</span></p>

<p><span>Been waiting for that Space Black Apple Watch with the snazzy leather loop to grace  your doorway? Fire up </span><a href="http://junecloud.com/software/iphone/deliveries.html">Deliveries</a><span> and check on the status, as the first wave of those orders are preparing for shipment.</span></p>

<p><span>Google has issued an update to its </span><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-news-weather/id913753848?mt=8">Google News & Weather app for iPhone</a><span> that adds support for Apple Watch. After installing the update, users can browse top news items and local weather reports on their Watches. Some of the articles are accompanied by images, but looking at photos on the Apple Watch is less than ideal.</span></p>

<p>It’s time to save some of your hard-earned money with our <a target="_blank" href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/?tag=deals" rel="noopener noreferrer">Daily Deals</a>, featuring exclusive deals for AWT readers, hardware discounts and our own handpicked iOS and OS X sales. All prices are USD and subject to change. Please check prices before you purchase as some deals may expire quickly.</p>

<p>A few years ago, iPhone owners were enchanted by the release of a fun, flexible and functional curvy iPhone stand called <a href="http://www.fusechicken.com/products/bobine">Bobine</a>. That stand is still popular and available from the design shop that created it — <a href="fusechicken.com">Fuse Chicken</a> of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio — for just $35. The company has just released a new $25 dock just for Apple Watch called the <a href="http://www.fusechicken.com/products/bobinewatch">Bobine WATCH</a>, and it carries on the family tradition of being a useful and fun way to charge your favorite Apple products.</p>

<p>Here are some of the best free apps, app updates and new apps that have landed in the App Store recently. Today’s notable apps include a discount on SkySafari 4 for iOS and OS X; the new Fit Men Cook app; and a significant update to Citymapper. All app prices are USD and subject to change. Some deals may expire quickly, so grab them while you can. </p>

<p>For most of us who have been around the Mac community since the beginning, the first name that comes to mind when we think of database applications is <a href="filemaker.com">FileMaker</a>. The app first came out in 1985, and it was a flat-file database app that really showed off the power of the Mac’s graphical user interface. 30 years later, FileMaker has just taken the wraps off of the latest incarnation of the platform, FileMaker Pro 14.</p>

<p>It’s time to save some of your hard-earned money with our <a target="_blank" href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/?tag=deals" rel="noopener noreferrer">Daily Deals</a>, featuring exclusive deals for AWT readers, hardware discounts and our own handpicked iOS and OS X sales. All prices are USD and subject to change. Please check prices before you purchase as some deals may expire quickly.</p>

<p>Here are some of the best free apps, app updates and new apps that have landed in the App Store recently. Today’s notable apps include a discount on Transloader for OS X, the new Tallowmere game and a notable update to Transmit for iOS. All app prices are USD and subject to change. Some deals may expire quickly, so grab them while you can.</p>

<p>Before I got an Apple Watch, I was a big fan of <a target="_blank" href="http://fitbit.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fitbit</a> products. The first activity tracker I owned was one of the first Fitbits, which had its own little quirks — it needed frequent charging on a USB-connected stand, you had to put it on its charging stand to sync it, and syncing sometimes would stop working for no apparent reason. Fitbit learned a lot from those early devices, and now has a family of six devices. The company is a leader in the activity tracker market niche, and their products just keep getting better and more useful. Today’s AWT Health Club will take a look at the six different Fitbits and describe the type of person who might be attracted to each.</p>

<p>My first thought upon opening the box for the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O66PYFA/appwortod-20/">Phiaton BT 220 NC Wireless Active Noise Cancelling Headphones</a> (US$179.99 list price, $160.55 via affiliate link) was that for a wireless headphone, there were sure a lot of wires. There is a USB to micro-USB charging cable, an Everplay-X cable to let you listen to tunes from your iPhone or iPod touch even when the battery on the headphones isn’t charged up, and even two wires going from the receiver box to the earbuds. I don’t have anything against wires and cables; I just thought it was rather ironic that a “wireless” device came with so many cables.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">Apple CEO Tim Cook has joined <a href="http://www.weibo.com/login.php?lang=en-us">Weibo</a>, a microblogging service by China's Sina Corp. The service has 200 million active users and, as of this writing, <a href="http://www.weibo.com/timcook">Cook's verified account</a> has over 320,000 followers. </p><p>Cook's sign-up happens just as Apple has announced great progress towards its environmental initiatives in China, which is a very big market for the company. </p><p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">I wonder if Weibo has a <a href="http://readwrite.com/2008/07/17/the_story_of_the_fail_whale">fail whale</a></p>

<p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">I'm not a fan of the red dot.</p><p>As I spend more time with my Apple Watch, I'm taking note of <a href="https://appleworld.dreamhosters.com/blog/2015/5/7/these-apple-watch-settings-make-me-less-annoying">aspects I love</a> and others that I don't. Currently, the bee in my digital bonnet is the little red dot that indicates unread notifications. </p>

<p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">Apple has greatly advanced its environmental initiatives in China, including <a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/05/11Apple-Announces-New-Environmental-Initiatives-in-China.html?1431306142">the creation and management of one million acres of responsibly-managed forest</a>. </p><p>The forest project is a partnership between Apple and World Wildlife Fund China, which represents another step towards Apple's goal of having a net-zero impact on the world's <a href="http://www.mohawkconnects.com/support/faqs/environment-what-virgin-fiber">virgin fiber</a>. </p><p style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">Apple is also building a 40-megawatt solar farm in Sichuan Province, which will generate enough energy to power the equivalent of 61,000 Chinese homes.</p>