Apple announced it is halfway towards its goal of becoming 100% carbon neutral by 2030 through a mix of clean energy investments and new product designs made of completely recycled metals. In a meeting with Mother Nature, Tim Cook promised that fulfilling the second half of its goal remains his top priority.
“Double Tap” Spatial Computing Comes to New Apple Watch
Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 by introducing a new interface feature, the “double tap”, a virtual action button activated by making a snapping finger motion. Double tap is similar to spatial computing motions demoed during June’s Vision Pro announcement, indicating that Apple has just begun bringing spatial computing interfaces to its devices.
New iPhones Have Different USB-C Ports
Apple officially incorporated the USB-C port into the latest iPhones, but not all USB-C connections are created equal. The iPhone 15’s USB-C port is limited to the standard USB speed of 480mbps while the iPhone 15 Pro’s USB-C port supports full Thunderbolt speeds thanks to the integrated USB-C controller on the new A17 Pro chip.
iPhone Buyers Deal with Buggy Apple Store
New iPhones went on sale this morning at 8am ET, but customers across the country reported repeated errors in the checkout process. The strategy previously endorsed by Apple of configuring your new iPhone ahead of time to quickly check out on launch day was reportedly compromised as numerous users reported their Apple Store “favorites” menu to be inaccessible for much of the morning.
Secretary of Energy Blocks EV Charger with Gas Car
In a scene suitable for a political satire like Veep, US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s press team blocked public use of an electric car charger with a gas-powered car to save it for the Secretary’s use. Ironically, Secretary Granhold intended to use the charger as part of a press event touting the Biden Administration’s investments in EV charging infrastructure but it was delayed when an annoyed EV driver called the police on the Secretary’s staff.
Google Preps for Launch of GPT-Competitor “Gemini”
The AI Wars continue to grow as Google comes closer to the launch of its AI cloud service competitor to OpenAI’s GPT, allegedly called Gemini. Gemini will allow Google Cloud users to train Google’s Bard AI models on proprietary data, similar to Microsoft’s GPT service on Azure.
TikTok Fined Over $400 Million by European Union
TikTok has been hit with a record fine for compromising privacy settings on millions of children’s devices. The fine comes amidst intense scrutiny by American and European regulators of social media data storage practices.
Las Vegas Casinos Fall Victim to Classic Phishing Attacks
The two largest operators of casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, both suffered massive cyber attacks that resulted in millions of dollars in ransom payments to unlock affected systems. Allegedly coordinated by the hacker group Scatter Spider, the attacks were made possible by classic phishing attacks.
Musk Biographer Admits Misreporting Starlink Issue in Ukraine
Famed biography author Walter Isaacson, who previously wrote biographies of Steve Jobs and Benjamin Franklin, admitted to misreporting details of Elon Musk’s involvement in a dispute with the Ukrainian military over its use of Starlink internet service in his biography of Musk. Isaacson wrote that Musk ordered the disconnection of Ukrainian drones from Starlink to stop an attack on Russian forces when in reality there had been a longstanding rule in place preventing Starlink’s use in non-defensive operations.