Apple Holds Launch Event For New Products At Its Headquarters

Apple CEO Tim Cook looks at a new iPhone 14 Pro (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Cell Signal

The new iPhone isn’t doing it for Verizon

So far Apple sales signals are mixed.

10/22/24 9:36AM

Some analysts expected the new iPhone, replete with Apple Intelligence, would drive a supercycle of iPhone sales. While we won’t hear from Apple until the end of the month about those initial sales, Verizon, which sells plenty of phones, reported today, and it didn’t look great for Apple.

So far, it seems Apple’s iPhone 16 hasn’t helped Verizon sell hardware. Wireless-equipment revenue declined 8% from a year earlier, offsetting gains Verizon made in services revenue and causing it to miss analyst estimates. Total upgrade volume (people trading in their old phone for a newer one) was down 10% year over year. Of course, that data is for all phone sales, not just iPhones.

It’s not clear how impressive Apple’s AI phone will be, since Apple Intelligence features won’t be available to the general public until next week. What we’ve seen so far in the beta version doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Either way, people don’t actually buy new iPhones for the new features but rather because their old phones no longer work that well or were lost or broken.

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said during Goldman Sachs’ tech conference last month that upgrade cycles have gotten “longer and longer,” from 12 months in the 1990s to 40 months now, as “people keep the phone because the quality is higher and it works really good.”

Bullish analysts are hoping the incorporation of AI will be such a fundamental improvement that people will have to upgrade.

Apple has actually seen record iPhone sales volume in Q3, according to data last week from Canalys, but much of that came from sales of older, less expensive models.

“The ongoing strong demand for the iPhone 15 series, along with Apple’s legacy models, played a crucial role in its Q3 performance,” Canalys analyst Runar Bjørhovde wrote. “Despite a modest initial reception, the iPhone 16 is expected to help Apple maintain a strong finish to 2024 and help momentum in H1 2025, particularly as Apple Intelligence expands into new markets and supports additional languages.”

In China, sales of the new model were up 20% in the first three weeks, compared to the first three weeks of sales for the previous model last year. Right after the iPhone 16 went on sale in the US last month, we saw that traffic to Apple’s website had declined from the past few years.

What happens with the iPhone is a big deal for Apple, since it accounts for about half its overall revenue. Right now those signals are decidedly mixed.

Jon Keegan2h

Sora’s ghoulish reanimation of dead celebrities raises alarms

OpenAI’s video generation app Sora has spent its first two weeks at the top of the charts.

The startup’s fast-and-loose approach to enforcing intellectual property rights has seen the app flooded with videos of trademarked characters in all sorts of ugly scenarios.

But another area where Sora users have been pushing the limits involves videos that reanimate dead celebrities.

And we’re not talking just JFK, MLK, and Einstein. Videos featuring more recently deceased figures such as Robin Williams (11 years ago), painter Bob Ross (30 years ago), Stephen Hawking (seven years ago), and even Queen Elizabeth II (three years ago) have been generated. Some of the videos are racist and offensive, shocking the relatives of the figures.

OpenAI told The Washington Post that it is now allowing representatives of “recently deceased” celebrities and public figures to request that their likenesses be blocked from the service, though the company did not give a precise time frame for what it considered recent.

AI videos of dead celebrities are horrifying many of their families

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But another area where Sora users have been pushing the limits involves videos that reanimate dead celebrities.

Rani Molla3h

Tesla is selling unsold Cybertrucks to Elon Musk’s other companies

Sales of Tesla’s Cybertruck, once expected to reach hundreds of thousands per year, are currently in the low tens of thousands range and falling. Last quarter in the US, Tesla sold fewer than 5,400 of the “apocalypse-proof” vehicles, for a total of about 16,000 this year, Business Insider reports, citing Cox Automotive data.

That’s a 63% drop from the same quarter a year ago, even as Tesla as a whole notched its best quarterly sales ever, spurred by the expiration of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.

With sales lagging, the company has dialed back production of the stainless steel behemoths, but there’s still been an excess.

Fortunately for Tesla, Electrek reports that CEO Elon Musk has other uses for Cybertrucks within his other companies, which often share resources and personnel. Tesla is delivering truckloads of the EV to both xAI (which Tesla shareholders will vote next month on whether to invest in) and SpaceX, where Cybertrucks are replacing internal combustion engine support fleets.

There’s a lot of chatter about “circular deals” in the billion-dollar pacts announced in the AI space on a weekly basis. But it doesn’t get much more circular than this, with production and buying activity kept within the Musk corporate family.

Elon Musk's SpaceX and xAI are buying Tesla's unsold Cybertrucks

That’s a 63% drop from the same quarter a year ago, even as Tesla as a whole notched its best quarterly sales ever, spurred by the expiration of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.

With sales lagging, the company has dialed back production of the stainless steel behemoths, but there’s still been an excess.

Rani Molla5h

Tesla has begun selling the Model Y Standard in parts of Europe, where it has lots of cheaper competition

Days after rolling out “Standard” trim levels of its Model Y and Model 3 in the US, Tesla has started selling the Model Y Standard in some European countries. Standard Model Ys begin at about 40,000 euros, depending on the country, roughly 10,000 euros cheaper than the current Premium versions. In the US, Standard versions are about $5,000 cheaper than their souped-up peers. The model isn’t yet on sale in the UK or Ireland, where cars are driven on the left-hand side of the road.

While the Standard Teslas are cheaper, they pale in comparison to the many affordable EV options available in Europe, including those from China’s BYD, some of which start below 25,000 euros. CEO Elon Musk has called Europe the company’s “weakest market,” blaming the lack of approval for Tesla’s full self-driving technology for the shortfall.

Model 3 Standards don’t appear to be available yet in Europe.

Jon Keegan10/10/25

OpenAI commits up to $25 billion for 500-megawatt “Stargate Argentina” data center

OpenAI has reportedly signed a letter of intent to invest up to $25 billion on “Stargate Argentina,” a new 500-megawatt AI data center.

Reuters reports that the deal would involve tax incentives.

In a video announcing the project, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said:

“Our vision for Stargate Argentina is to deliver a major boost to the country’s AI infrastructure, creating a foundation for new capabilities from smarter public services to tools that help small businesses compete globally.”

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

You may remember the name “Stargate” from the megaproject that tech giants and the Trump administration announced earlier this year to build a huge number of data centers in the US. And you may remember Argentina as the nation the Trump administration is now bailing out with a $20 billion currency swap.

Millie Giles

BORN TO SCROLL

10/10/25

Nearly 40% of kids under 2 years old interact with smartphones, according to their parents

A new Pew Research study outlines just how pervasive technology use among US children has become.