Apple

People are rushing to buy Apple’s iPhone 17, but it’s probably not because of the iPhone 17

More people went to Apple’s website when preorders for the new iPhone began than have since 2022.

9/19/25 9:19AM

Apple’s iPhone 17 went on sale today and it looks like it might be a relative hit. That might not have much to do with the iPhone 17 itself.

More people turned up for Apple’s online iPhone 17 event earlier this month than have since 2022, according to data shared with Sherwood News by digital market intelligence company Similarweb. The same goes for traffic a few days later, when the phone became available for preorder, suggesting more people might be buying a new iPhone during the preorder period than have in three years.

At the event, Apple unveiled a new slimmer iPhone Air as well as a basic iPhone and an iPhone Pro with faster chips, along with better cameras and larger displays. Apple didn’t mention much about AI, but Apple’s rollout of AI has been spotty at best.

However, people don’t really buy new iPhones because of new features or incremental hardware improvements. Instead, the main driver of iPhone upgrades is because someone’s old phone is obsolete or broken or its battery just doesn’t last as long as it used to.

And 2025 happens to be a big year for older iPhones. That’s because during the early years of the pandemic, Apple experienced a “supercycle” of iPhone upgrades as people trapped at home with extra cash shelled out for new tech.

2020 and 2021 also coincided with natural upgrade cycles, as many had been holding on to their previous iPhones like the iPhone 6 for years at that point. Some had been waiting for a 5G phone as well, which Apple rolled out in 2020, so it was as good a time as any for a new phone.

Here we are, four or five years later, and the people who upgraded in 2020 and 2021 are likely dealing with shorter battery life, smashed screens, and all the other annoyances of old phones.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives recently estimated that “315 million iPhone users of 1.5 billion users worldwide have not upgraded their phones in over 4 years speaking to an upgrade opportunity on the horizon for Cupertino with China front and center.”

That’s good for Apple, but it doesn’t mean it’s because of anything Apple in particular has done.

Jon Keegan8m

Google testing Gemini app for Mac, aims to compete with Claude Cowork and Codex

Bloomberg is reporting that Google is testing a new version of its Gemini AI app that runs on Apple’s Mac computers.

Currently both OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude have Mac apps, which allow for deeper AI automation with files on the computer.

Google is testing a feature called "Desktop Intelligence" which grants Gemini access to the items on the user’s screen, according to the report. The app is currently in beta testing.

Google Begins Testing Gemini Mac App to Match ChatGPT and Claude

Google is testing a feature called "Desktop Intelligence" which grants Gemini access to the items on the user’s screen, according to the report. The app is currently in beta testing.

Jon Keegan47m

Bezos seeks $100 billion for AI-enhanced manufacturing fund, WSJ reports

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is seeking to raise a $100 billion fund that would purchase manufacturing companies and use AI to automate their work processes, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.

The fund would use technology from Project Prometheus, where Bezos was recently was named co-CEO. The start-up aims to apply the latest generative AI breakthroughs to reinvent industrial manufacturing.

The $100 billion fund would be used to buy existing manufacturing businesses to transform, according to the report.

Bezos has reportedly met with the heads of sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East, and recently traveled to Singapore, as part of the fundraising effort.

Exclusive | Jeff Bezos in Talks to Raise $100 Billion for AI Manufacturing Fund

The $100 billion fund would be used to buy existing manufacturing businesses to transform, according to the report.

Bezos has reportedly met with the heads of sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East, and recently traveled to Singapore, as part of the fundraising effort.

Jon Keegan5h

OpenAI acquires Astral, adding talent to Codex team

OpenAI has acquired open-source Python tool developer Astral, bringing aboard additional coding talent for its Codex team.

The company said the acquisition will help Codex “expand beyond coding” by helping address a wider range of development tasks, such as planning, testing, and code maintenance.

OpenAI said Codex has seen “3x user growth and 5x usage increase” since the start of 2026, and has over 2 million weekly active users.

Software development is emerging as one of the key battlegrounds where OpenAI is competing for market share with Anthropic, which has been enjoying success with its Claude Code product.

OpenAI said it will continue to support Astral’s open-source software projects.

OpenAI to acquire Astral

OpenAI said Codex has seen “3x user growth and 5x usage increase” since the start of 2026, and has over 2 million weekly active users.

Software development is emerging as one of the key battlegrounds where OpenAI is competing for market share with Anthropic, which has been enjoying success with its Claude Code product.

OpenAI said it will continue to support Astral’s open-source software projects.

Rani Molla5h

Elon Musk gives an estimate for Tesla’s AI6 chip timeline... while the AI5 is still unfinished

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said yesterday that the company’s AI6 chip could, with “some luck and acceleration using AI,” be finalized and sent to manufacturing by December. For those paying attention, Tesla hasn’t confirmed that its previous chip, the AI5, has reached tape-out, with Musk saying only that the design is in “good shape” and “almost done.” Still, Musk is already talking about subsequent chips AI6, AI7, AI8, and beyond.

Here’s a roundup of when these chips are expected, what they’re supposed to do, and what Musk himself has said about them.

While the AI5 and AI6 will be made by TSMC and Samsung, respectively, Musk has said Tesla eventually aims to manufacture its future AI chips at Tesla’s upcoming Terafab factory in Austin.

Rani Molla8h

NHTSA expands Tesla FSD probe, focusing on whether system can detect when cameras can’t see the road

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is expanding its probe into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system into an engineering analysis covering about 3.2 million Teslas, a majority of its vehicles that are on the road in the US, Reuters reports.

The agency is focusing on Tesla’s “degradation detection system,” which is meant to recognize when its camera-based technology cannot reliably perceive the road and prompt drivers to intervene:

“Available incident data raise concerns that Tesla’s degradation detection system, both as originally deployed and later updated, fails to detect and/or warn the driver appropriately under degraded visibility conditions such as glare and airborne obscurants. In the crashes that ODI has reviewed, the system did not detect common roadway conditions that impaired camera visibility and/or provide alerts when camera performance had deteriorated until immediately before the crash occurred.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long argued that the company’s self-driving approach does not require the expensive lidar sensors used by rivals such as Waymo.

NHTSA deepens probe into Tesla's driver-assistance system