LastPass has revealed it’s Christmas naughty and nice list, with Apple top of the pile.  They took the top retail sites and saw who was best at protecting personal information…and who was not. In particular, they looked at “key password requirements and other account security features to develop a ranking of the five most and least secure retail sites, based on whether and how well they met a set of criteria”. Apple was deemed the most secure e-retailer, followed by Best Buy and Home Depot. Wayfair was left propping up the naughty list.

Apple is “aggressively” recruiting engineers to develop chip components in San Diego, according to Bloomberg. The move indicates that Apple may be adding San Diego to the locations in which it designs chips. A number of job listings have appeared for the city, which just happens to be the home of chipmaker Qualcomm. Here’s a snippet:

This month, Apple published 10 job listings on its website for chip design-related positions located in the city, marking the first time the Cupertino, California-based technology giant has publicly recruited for such roles in the Southern California hotbed for chip design. Apple is advertising for engineers to work on multiple types of chip components, including engineers to work on the company’s Neural Engine artificial intelligence processor and wireless chips.

Apple and Barclays are teaming up to offer a special promotion. If you sign up for an Apple Rewards Barclaycard Visa, you’ll get two US$25 Apple Store Gift Cards or App Store Gift Cards.

The Barclaycard Visa with Apple Rewards allows cardholders to rack up points when using the card to purchase products at Apple locations. The card rewards users with 3 points for every $1 spent at Apple, 2 points for every $1 spent at restaurants, and 1 point for every $1 spent on other purchases.

More details can be found on Apple’s financing page.

Apple customers can now buy an unlocked iPhone XR. This means that it’s not tied to a specific carrier so you can use your current SIM card. If you have a prepaid carrier, this is the model you’ll want.

SIM-free iPhone XR models are compatible with AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and other carriers. The iPhone XR starts at US$749 for 64 GB models available in white, black, blue, yellow, coral, and (PRODUCT)RED. Higher-capacity models are available for US$799 (128 GB) and US$899 (256 GB).

There’s a new version of the Apple Watch charger. The model number is MU9F2AM/A and has been added to the online Apple Store.

There are no design tweaks to the dock, which suggests that the new model includes unspecified internal updates. It is not known why Apple has introduced a revamped version, but the changes are likely to be minor.

You can pick up the new charger for US$79. The device is available for delivery starting on Friday, November 16, and should be in retail stores soon.

A couple of iPhone suppliers—Hon Hai and AMS AG—have said they probably won’t make as much money as they thought, and Wall Street is panicking.

The accumulation of warning signs has prompted analyst revisions in the past week. Guggenheim on Wednesday said the company’s recent reliance on rising average selling prices was “no longer enough” to boost growth at a time unit sales show signs of slowing. Shares in Japan Display Inc., one of the quartet that reduced its sales outlook, slid 9.5% Thursday.

I’m certainly no economic expert, but I’m pretty sure the fact that Apple is a stable company now is a good thing. Apple anticipated this years ago and is expanding their sources of revenue. Meanwhile, somewhere on Wall Street little Tommy won’t be getting a Maserati for Christmas.

Teaching children how the value of money and budgets is hard. It is arguably getting even more difficult in our nearly cashless world. It can also be difficult for parents when their kids want some pocket money, but they do not have any cash on them. The AP had a good feature on this issue on Monday. It listed a variety of pre-paid debit cars and apps that can be downloaded and used as a virtual piggy bank.  They include apps such as gohenry, Nimbl and Osper in the UK, and Famzoo and Greenlight, which also works with Apple Pay, in the US. The aim is to offer both flexibility to kids and control for parents.