CUPERTINO, California: Apple on Tuesday unveiled its next generation of iPhones — a lineup that will boast better cameras, faster processors, a new charging system and a price hike for the fanciest model.
The showcase at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, comes as the company tries to reverse a mild slump that has seen its sales drop from last year in three consecutive quarters. The malaise is a key reason Apple’s stock price has dipped by about 10 percent since mid-July, dropping the company’s market value below the $3 trillion threshold it reached for the first time earlier this summer.
Investors apparently weren’t impressed with what Apple rolled out Tuesday. The company’s shares fell nearly 2 percent Tuesday, a steeper decline than the major market indexes.
As has been case with Apple and other smartphone makers, the four types of iPhone 15 models aren’t making any major leaps in technology. But Apple added enough new bells and whistles to the top-of-the line model — the iPhone 15 Pro Max — to boost its starting price by $100, or 9 percent, from last year’s version to $1,200. As part of the higher base price, the cheapest iPhone 15 Pro Max will provide 256 megabytes of storage, up from 128 megabytes for the least expensive version of the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Apple is holding the line on prices for rest of the lineup, with the basic iPhone 15 selling for $800, the iPhone 15 Plus for $900 and the iPhone 15 Pro for $1,000.
Although maintaining those prices are bound to squeeze Apple’s profit margins and put further pressure on the company’s stock price, Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro believes it’s a prudent move with still-high inflation and spiking interest rates pinching household budgets. “The reality was that Apple found itself in a challenging position leading up to this event,” Monteiro said.
And the price hike for the iPhone 15 Pro Max could help Apple boost sales if consumers continue to gravitate toward the company’s premium models. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives expects the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max to account for about 75 percent of the device’s total sales in the upcoming year.
All the new models will be available in stores Sept. 22, with preorders beginning this Friday.
One of the biggest changes that Apple announced is a new way to charge the iPhone 15 models and future generations. The company is switching to the USB-C standard that is already widely used on many devices, including its Mac computers and many of its iPads.
Apple is being forced to phase out the Lightning port cables it rolled out in 2012 because of a mandate that European regulators plan to impose in 2024.
Although consumers often don’t like change, the transition to USB-C ports may not be that inconvenient. That’s because the standard is already widely used on a range of computers, smartphones and other devices people already own. The shift to USB-C may even be a popular move since that standard typically charges devices more quickly and also offers faster data transfer speeds.
The basic iPhone 15 models have been redesigned to include a shape-shifting cutout on the display screen that Apple calls its “Dynamic Island” for app notifications — a look that was introduced with last year’s Pro and Pro Max devices. The basic models are also getting a faster chip used in last year’s Pro and Pro Max models, while the next generation of the premium iPhone 15s will run on an even more advanced processor that will enable the devices to accommodate the same kind of video games that typically require a console.
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max also will be equipped with what Apple maintains is the equivalent of seven camera lenses. They will include periscope-style telephoto lens that will improve the quality of photos taken from far distances. The telephoto lens boasts a 5x optical zoom, which lags the 10x optical zoom on Samsung’s premium Galaxy S22 Ultra, but represents an upgrade from the 3x optical zoom on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.
In anticipation of next year’s release of Apple’s mixed reality headset, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will also have a spatial video option designed for viewing on that headset.
Apple is encasing the premium models in titanium that the company says is the same alloy used on some space ships.
Besides its new iPhones, Apple also announced its next generation of smartwatches — a product that made its debut nearly a decade ago. The Series 9 Apple Watch, available in stores Sept. 22, will include a new gesture control that will enable users to control alarms and answer phone calls by double snapping their thumbs with a finger.
Apple’s new iPhones get faster chips, better cameras and new charging ports
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Apple’s new iPhones get faster chips, better cameras and new charging ports
- All the new models will be available in stores Sept. 22, with preorders beginning this Friday
Nine-year-old Thai tattooist makes his mark
- Tattooing is a centuries-old tradition in Thailand
- Knight was one of nearly 200 artists at the Thailand Tattoo Expo
Bangkok: Wielding a cumbersome tattoo gun with his small hands swamped in surgical gloves, nine-year-old Napat Mitmakorn expertly inks the pattern of a fanged serpent on a man’s upper thigh.
“I want to be a tattoo artist and open my own tattoo palour,” he told AFP in his booth at a Bangkok tattoo expo, where fascinated attendees paused to film his work. “I like art so I like to tattoo.”
Tattooing is a centuries-old tradition in Thailand, where tattoo parlours are omnipresent and offer designs ranging from the ancient and spiritual to the modern and profane.
Napat’s father Nattawut Sangtong said he introduced his son — who goes by the nickname “Knight” — to the craft of tattooing to swerve the pitfalls of contemporary childhood.
“I just wanted to keep him away from his phone because he was addicted to gaming and had a short attention span,” said the 38-year-old, also an amateur tattooist, who works at a block printing factory.
The father-son duo together learned from TikTok tutorials and practiced on paper before graduating to artificial leather simulating human skin, and then the real thing.
Knight said he swiftly picked up the skills because art is his favorite school subject. Recognizing his son’s talent, Nattawut now coaches him in two-hour sessions three days a week.
“It’s not just tattooing, it’s like meditation,” Nattawut said.
The pair run a TikTok channel together — “The Tattoo Artist with Milk Teeth” — where they livestream Knight’s sessions and sometimes draw hundreds of thousands of viewers with a single clip.
His Saturday session at the Thailand Tattoo Expo was his public debut, as he tattooed his uncle for a second time — marking him with an eight-inch (20 centimeter) mythical Naga serpent.
Unfazed by the techno music blaring from massive speakers, Knight predicts the creature from Hindu and Thai folklore will take 12 hours to complete.
For now, his father insists he only works on family and friends — opening up to public clients would require more rigorous hygiene training.
But Naruebet Chonlatachaisit, Knight’s uncle, is relaxed as the tattoo takes shape on his left leg. “I trust him, and I think he’ll only improve,” he says.
Knight was one of nearly 200 artists at the Thailand Tattoo Expo — but drew outsized attention among the crowds of thousands of visitors this weekend.
Office worker Napat Muangsawang stopped by the boy’s booth to admire his meticulous artistry.
“It’s quite amazing. Tattooing isn’t easy,” he said. “It’s not like drawing on a paper where you can just erase it.”
California man wins $50m in lawsuit over burns from Starbucks tea
- He has suffered permanent and life-changing disfigurement, according to his attorneys
- Garcia’s negligence lawsuit blamed his injuries on Starbucks, saying that an employee didn’t wedge the scalding-hot tea firmly enough into a takeout tray
LOS ANGELES: A delivery driver has won $50 million in a lawsuit after being seriously burned when a Starbucks drink spilled in his lap at a California drive-through, court records show.
A Los Angeles County jury found Friday for Michael Garcia, who underwent skin grafts and other procedures on his genitals after a venti-sized tea drink spilled instants after he collected it on Feb. 8, 2020. He has suffered permanent and life-changing disfigurement, according to his attorneys.
Garcia’s negligence lawsuit blamed his injuries on Starbucks, saying that an employee didn’t wedge the scalding-hot tea firmly enough into a takeout tray.
“This jury verdict is a critical step in holding Starbucks accountable for flagrant disregard for customer safety and failure to accept responsibility,” one of Garcia’s attorneys, Nick Rowley, said in a statement.
Starbucks said it sympathized with Garcia but planned to appeal.
“We disagree with the jury’s decision that we were at fault for this incident and believe the damages awarded to be excessive,” the Seattle-based coffee giant said in a statement to media outlets, adding that it was “committed to the highest safety standards” in handling hot drinks.
US eateries have faced lawsuits before over customer burns.
In one famous 1990s case, a New Mexico jury awarded a woman nearly $3 million in damages for burns she suffered while trying to pry the lid off a cup of coffee at a McDonald’s drive-through. A judge later reduced the award, and the case ultimately was settled for an undisclosed sum under $600,000.
Juries have sided with restaurants at times, as in another 1990s case involving a child who tipped a cup of McDonald’s coffee onto himself in Iowa.
China deports Japanese tourists over Great Wall buttocks photos
- Incident at the World Heritage site near Beijing concerned a man who showed his bottom and a woman who took photos
- Exposing the lower half of the body in a public place is against the law in China, according to the reports
TOKYO: Two Japanese tourists in their 20s were detained for two weeks in China and then deported for taking photos showing one of the traveler’s exposed buttocks at the Great Wall, local media reported.
The incident at the World Heritage site near Beijing concerned a man who showed his bottom and a woman who took photos, NTV and other Japanese media outlets reported on Thursday.
The Embassy of Japan in China said Friday it “confirmed on January 3 that two Japanese nationals were detained by local authorities at the Great Wall.”
They “were released and returned to Japan during January,” it said in a statement.
The tourists were detained on the spot by security guards and held for around two weeks, the reports said, citing sources.
Exposing the lower half of the body in a public place is against the law in China, according to the reports.
The tourists reportedly told the Japanese embassy they did it as a prank.
“Out of protection for individual privacy,” the Japanese embassy declined to comment on specific details, including whether the tourists will be barred from traveling to China or face additional punishment such as fines or jail time.
The reports sparked outrage in China, where memories of atrocities committed during Japan’s colonial occupation of the country in the 1930s and 1940s still inspire strong feelings.
A hashtag translating to “Japanese man and woman detained for indecent behavior at the Great Wall” had been viewed over 60 million times on social media platform Weibo by Friday morning.
Many top-liked comments blasted the tourists for the act, with some using hateful language toward Japanese people.
Stargazers marvel at ‘Blood Moon’, rare total lunar eclipse
- Stargazers across a swathe of the world marvelled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of Friday morning
BELO HORIZONTE: Stargazers across a swathe of the world marvelled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of Friday morning.
The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa.
The phenomenon happens when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite.
But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the Moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the Moon glowed a reddish color.
This is because the only sunlight that reaches the Moon is “bent and scattered” as it goes through Earth’s atmosphere, said Daniel Brown, an astronomer at Britain’s Nottingham Trent University.
It is similar to how the light can become pink or red during sunrises or sunsets on Earth, he added.
The more clouds and dust there are in Earth’s atmosphere, the redder the Moon appears.
Brown called the lunar eclipse, which will last around six hours, “an amazing way to see the solar system in action.”
The period when the Moon is completely in Earth’s shadow — called the totality — lasts just over an hour.
This event has been dubbed the “Blood Worm Moon,” after one of the names given to March full moons by some Native Americans.
In North America, the moon started to look like a bite was being taken out of it from 1:09 am Eastern Time (0509 GMT), with the totality from 2:26 am to 3:31 am, according to NASA.
In France, the totality is from 7:26 am to 8:31 am local time (0626-0731 GMT), according to the French Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation.
Only the most western parts of Europe, such as France’s Brittany region, will get any chance to see the totality before the Moon sets.
People in New Zealand have the opposite problem, with the eclipse only partially visible as the Moon rose.
Brown dislikes the term “Blood Moon,” saying it has a negative connotation and “originates from a misinformed theory of the end of the world.”
But not all societies took a negative view of these celestial shows.
Some people in Africa traditionally viewed a lunar eclipse as a conflict between the Sun and Moon that could be resolved by people “demonstrating on Earth how we work together” and laying old feuds aside, Brown said.
He called it “an amazing story that should inspire us all.”
It is the first total lunar eclipse since 2022, but there will be another one this September.
Thursday’s event is a “Micromoon,” meaning the Moon is the farthest away it gets from Earth, making it appear about seven percent smaller than normal, according to the website Earthsky.
This is the opposite of a “Supermoon,” as was seen during 2022’s lunar eclipse.
Some stargazers will be in for another treat later this month — a partial solar eclipse, which is when the Moon blocks out the Sun’s light on Earth.
This eclipse will be visible on March 29 in eastern Canada, parts of Europe, northern Russia and northwest Africa.
Viewing even a partial solar eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous, and people are advised to use special eclipse glasses or pinhole projectors.
Egyptian wrestler, who can pull a train by the strength of his teeth, sets 3 world records
- Mahrous this week received formal recognition by the Guinness World Records in three categories
- He says he pulled the two-ton locomotive in under 40 seconds
CAIRO: Pulling a train by the strength of your teeth is no easy task. But for Egyptian wrestler Ashraf Mahrous, also known by his nickname Kabonga, it’s just one of several things he can do to show off his astonishing strength.
Mahrous this week received formal recognition by the Guinness World Records in three categories, including the heaviest rail pull using only his teeth. His two other certificates are for the heaviest locomotive pull and for the fastest 100-meter road vehicle pull.
He says he pulled the two-ton locomotive in under 40 seconds.
On Thursday, crowds gathered at the Ramses train station in downtown Cairo to watch and cheer him on as he pulled a train — weighing 279 tons — with a rope held by his teeth for a distance of nearly 10 meters (33 feet).
He then repeated the feat, pulling the train with the strap around his shoulders to cheering spectators.
Mahrous, who is in his 40s and also is president of the Egyptian Federation for Professional Wrestlers, was previously recognized by the the international franchise for cracking and eating 11 raw eggs in 30 seconds in February 2024, and for pulling a 15,730-kilogram truck with his teeth in June 2021.
One of the organizers of Thursday’s spectacle in the Egyptian capital, Dawlet Elnakeb, who runs a sports company, said Mahrous trained — but not very consistently — for just 20 days before the event.
Mahrous simply has “abnormal strength,” Elnakeb said.
