Steve Sande

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<p>This is the twelfth and final post in this year's edition of our annual 12-part series covering the accessibility features we would like to see Apple bring to its products in the coming year. This series is being put together by Accessibility Editor Alex Jurgensen, with the help of several contributors.</p>

<p>This is the eleventh post in our annual 12-part series covering the accessibility features we would like to see Apple bring to its products in the coming year. This series is being put together by Accessibility Editor Alex Jurgensen, with the help of several contributors.</p>

<p>The first Friday of 2018 arrives with stories about ugly smart sunglasses, a tiny and fast Thunderbolt 3 SSD, and how Apple's App Store is making a huge amount of money:</p><ul><li>Vuzix will be showing its Blade Augmented Reality Sunglasses at CES, which run Alexa and are...well...butt-ugly</li><li>Plugable announced the new Thunderbolt 3 4b0GB NVMe SSD, which is a perfect accessory for video editors on the move</li><li>Sensor Tower data shows just how large app sales have become for both Apple and Google </li></ul>

<p>The silly season of CES is upon us, with all sorts of interesting and sometimes questionable products being announced. Today's example? The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.neutrogena.com/skin360-app.html#video" rel="noopener noreferrer">Neutrogena SkinScanner</a>, which is going to be demoed at CES next week and should be available in the summer of 2018 for $50. </p>

<p>Microsoft Excel has been the power tool for data analysis since it first appeared for the Mac in 1985. Since then it's grown from a pretty garden-variety spreadsheet to a complex and feature-filled app for analyzing numbers, creating charts, and more. Many jobs require a good background in Excel, so if you want to get ahead in business it is an excellent idea to know the app inside and out. Our <strong><a target="_blank" href="https://deals.appleworld.today/sales/the-ultimate-excel-bootcamp-bundle-lifetime-access?utm_source=appleworld.today&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=the-ultimate-excel-bootcamp-bundle-lifetime-access_010518&utm_term=scsf-267955&utm_content=a0x1a000003asKj&scsonar=1" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ultimate Excel Bootcamp Bundle</a></strong> will get your skills to the level you need to be a pro, and you'll have lifetime access to the courses for $49.</p>

<p>A deal on grocery delivery from Apple and Instacart, a big win for TSMC, and it's been an interesting week for Spotify:</p><ul><li>Pay for your grocery delivery via Instacart with Apple Pay, and Apple will pick up the delivery charges through January 10th</li><li>TSMC will reportedly build all of the A12 processors for this year's iPhones, edging out Samsung on what could be a huge order</li><li>Spotify has announced that it has 70 million paid subscribers, is filing for an IPO to go public, and might have to pay out $1.6 billion in a lawsuit</li></ul>

<p>This is the tenth post in our annual 12-part series covering the accessibility features we would like to see Apple bring to its products in the coming year. This series is being put together by Accessibility Editor Alex Jurgensen, with the help of several contributors.</p>

<p>Welcome to AWT TV, a weekly show featuring Steve Sande, Dennis Sellers and Marty Edwards of Apple World Today. Each week we'll discuss what's happened in the world of Apple, talk about new apps and accessories, maybe even have a demonstration or two of the latest software.</p><p>It's the first show of the new year! We hope that you and your families had a pleasant holiday season, and that you're looking forward to 2018 as much as we are. We both had "exciting" New Year's Eve adventures to report (like going to bed early), we talk about the winter weather, and then we get into the real meat of the discussion: what we'd like to see from Apple in 2018.</p>

<p>Augmented Reality isn't proving to be "the next big thing," Apple adds a news podcast feature to Siri in the newest iOS 11.2.5 beta, and Mophie creates a product that can keep a USB-C MacBook running for up to 15 hours over what the internal battery can offer:</p><ul><li>A recent survey from Apptopia shows that developer interest in AR appears to be nearly nonexistent, with AR apps making up only about 0.03% of all apps in the App Store</li><li>Soon, you'll be able to ask Siri to "Give me the news" and get a short news digest podcast in return</li><li>Mophie's new Powerstation AC is going to be very popular with MacBook owners, as it can give the little laptop a total of over a day of battery life</li></ul>

<p>This is the ninth post in our annual 12-part series covering the accessibility features we would like to see Apple bring to its products in the coming year. This series is being put together by Accessibility Editor Alex Jurgensen, with the help of several contributors.</p>

<p>About three years ago when Apple World Today was just launching, one of our first sponsors was <a target="_blank" href="http://typed.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Typed</a>, a simple blogging platform that was being developed by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.realmacsoftware.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Realmac Software</a> and funded through Indiegogo. Yesterday, Realmac's Dan Counsell reported that "with a heavy heart...the time has finally come to shut down the typed.com servers."</p>

<p>The latest iPhones -- X, 8 and 8 Plus -- have the ability to charge without being plugged in. How? Through the Qi wireless charging standard and a Qi charger! If you have a Qi-compatible iPhone or other smartphone but have been wary of spending a lot of money for a wireless charger, your ship has just sailed in. We've got the <strong><a target="_blank" href="https://deals.appleworld.today/sales/qi-wireless-charging-pad?utm_source=appleworld.today&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=qi-wireless-charging-pad_010318&utm_term=scsf-267953&utm_content=a0x1a000003asKh&scsonar=1" rel="noopener noreferrer">Neva Tech Qi Charger for the low price of $10.99</a></strong>. </p>

<p>Steve's back from vacation, so we start off the year with news on an Apple acquisition, conflicting Wall Street forecasts for Apple, a long-awaited iPhone X app update, and Google's most popular searches for last year:</p><ul><li>Apple purchases Buddybuild, which makes continuous integration and debugging tools that will be built into Xcode</li><li>One pair of Wall Street analysts is forecasting low production and sales of iPhone X for the first fiscal quarter of 2018, others think the company is on its way to a $200 share price</li><li>DJI updates its drone app for the iPhone X</li><li>Slime, unicorns, memes and acronyms that defined 2017, as brought to you by Google</li></ul>

<p>This is the eighth post in our annual 12-part series covering the accessibility features we would like to see Apple bring to its products in the coming year. This series is being put together by Accessibility Editor Alex Jurgensen, with the help of several contributors.</p>