Steve Sande

<p>While most crowdfunding projects look at short term gains for a small group of developers, here's a project that is worthy of your attention whether or not you have children. <strong><a target="_blank" href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/stemtrunk-educational-toy-subscription-service-toys-kids#/" rel="noopener noreferrer">STEMtrunk</a></strong>, a project by Aaron Watkins, is a brilliant crowdfunding project that seeks to create a subscription service for educational toys.</p>

<p>Happy St. Patrick's Day (one day early)! Today's Apple World Today News Update Podcast includes a pot of gold and a leprechaun, as well as the usual important and informative news bits:</p><ul><li>Apple World Today has launched the new Team AWT Community Forum, an online discussion group for Team AWT members</li><li>Are you a developer in Paris? If so, look in your email inbox for an invitation to an Apple event next Friday</li><li>That Steve Jobs job application from 1973? It sold at auction for $174,000</li><li>Apple's R&D expenditures this year are going to be HUGE</li></ul>

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<p>Steve's finally back from his Spring Training trip, and has several timely news items for today's podcast:</p><ul><li>Are you a Team AWT member? Keep an eye on your email inbox for something new...</li><li>Apple's App Store has been blocked in Iran today, although nobody is owning up to who's doing the blocking</li><li>Media giant iHeartMedia has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, struggling with streaming competitors like Apple and Spotify, ad revenues flowing to Facebook and Google, and a lack of radio listeners</li><li>Google's changing its wearables brand from Android Wear to Wear OS in hopes of being more competitive with the Apple Watch line</li></ul>

<p>I have a confession. I have a spelling and grammar checker called Grammarly running 24/7 and use it on almost everything I write on my Mac in any app, including Word, Ulysses, Mail, Safari, and pretty much every other app in which I write more than a few sentences. </p>

<p>Imagine getting ten powerful Mac apps for about $2 each -- that's a heck of a deal, right? We have that deal for you today with the <strong><a target="_blank" href="https://deals.appleworld.today/sales/the-2018-mac-essentials-bundle-busycal-3?utm_source=appleworld.today&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=the-2018-mac-essentials-bundle-busycal-3_031418&utm_term=scsf-280981&utm_content=a0x1a000003bKG8&scsonar=1" rel="noopener noreferrer">2018 Mac Essentials Bundle, available for a short time for $19.99</a></strong>.</p>

<p>Are you still charging your iPhone X, iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus the old-fashioned way -- with a Lightning cable? These three iPhones take advantage of Qi wireless charging technology, meaning that you can place them on any Qi charging stand and get power without using a cable. Perhaps you think the charging stands are too expensive, so we're here today with a deal to get of that misconception. We have the <strong><a target="_blank" href="https://deals.appleworld.today/sales/qi-wireless-fast-charger-stand?utm_source=appleworld.today&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=qi-wireless-fast-charger-stand_031218&utm_term=scsf-281109&utm_content=a0x1a000003bKvO&scsonar=1" rel="noopener noreferrer">Neva Tech Qi Wireless Fast Charging Stand on sale for $22</a></strong>, much less than its $70 regular price. </p>

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<p>Starting off your development career is easy when you have a solid foundation in the tools that Apple provides for developers, including Sketch and Xcode. Today's deal is targeted at iOS developers new and old, and it brings Design+Code's online video lessons to you for $39, a bargain compared to the regular $150 price tag. The <a target="_blank" href="https://deals.appleworld.today/sales/design-code-2?utm_source=appleworld.today&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=design-code-2_030518&utm_term=scsf-275808&utm_content=a0x1a000003bHio&scsonar=1" rel="noopener noreferrer">iOS Design & Xcode Training course</a> will add to your iOS toolkit no matter how long you've been a developer. </p>

<p>On today's News Update podcast, we give you three stories that deal with Apple competitors Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. Please note that the podcast will be on spring break until March 14.</p><ul><li>Facebook is testing a new feature that could make it easier to post your status to your News Feed: something called Voice Clips. It lets users record short audio clips that friends and family can then listen to.</li><li>Amazon's Alexa digital assistant went mute for a while today after a data center issue caused a regional outage of Amazon Web Services</li><li>Apple's wonderful accessibility features for the vision impaired and blind received a boost today from Microsoft with the Redmond, Washington company's new Soundscape app for iPhone</li></ul>

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<p>Welcome to March! As the daffodils begin to peek out, we have a few stories from the world of Apple for you:</p><ul><li>The Apple Watch Series 3 propelled Apple into the leader spot of the wearables market in the 4th calendar quarter of 2017</li><li>Going to the movies this weekend? Use Apple Pay with Fandango and you can get $5 off of two or more tickets</li><li>Asymco analyst Horace Dediu calculates that two out of three Apple devices ever sold are still in use</li><li>The big four US mobile carriers have joined forces to create a new secure authentication method that will eventually replace those SMS texts of two-factor authentication codes</li></ul>

<p>I heard this on one of my favorite podcasts—<a target="_blank" href="http://workingsmarter4productions.acemlnc.com/lt.php?s=d761e775a0ccfec972b1fe9bd2436384&i=106A255A2A660" rel="noopener noreferrer">MacGeekGab</a>—and it reminded me that if I had forgotten about it, so (perhaps) have you.<br /> </p>

<p>Finally, the last day of February... Today's podcast gives us stories about competition in the tech biz, as well as an upcoming IPO and a new use for the Apple Watch Series 3:</p><ul><li>Google is taking on Slack with its new Hangouts Chat for G Suite</li><li>Move over, Google Pixel 2 - although you claim you're the best smartphone camera, Consumer Reports puts the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus atop the smartphone camera heap</li><li>Spotify is planning on a $1 billion IPO soon</li><li>Your Apple Watch Series 3 can now track your skiing or snowboarding activities</li></ul>

<p>Did you purchase a 2017 iMac Pro but couldn't afford the amount of RAM you really wanted? Other World Computing (at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.macsales.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">MacSales.com</a>) has announced that it is now offering <a target="_blank" href="https://eshop.macsales.com/NewsRoom/Framework.cfm?page=PR/02-21-2018-imac-pro-memory-upgrades.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">memory upgrades for all models of the iMac Pro</a>.</p>