September 20, 2024 2:47 PM

Apple starts its iPhone 16 series sale in India, long queues seen outside stores

Long queues formed outside Apple stores on Friday as the tech giant began selling its latest generation of iPhones in India. Eager customers gathered at Delhi’s Saket store and the flagship store in Mumbai’s BKC, awaiting their chance to purchase the new iPhone 16. Akshay, who arrived at 6 AM, shared his excitement after purchasing the iPhone 16 Pro Max. "I love iOS 18, and the zoom camera quality has improved significantly," he said. Another dedicated customer, Ujjwal Shah, waited for 21...

September 14, 2024 10:40 AM

OpenAI’s stunning $150 billion valuation hinges on upending corporate structure, sources say

OpenAI's new financing round is expected to come in the form of convertible notes, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, who said its $150 billion valuation will be contingent on whether the ChatGPT-maker can upend its corporate structure and remove a profit cap for investors, Reuters reported. The details of the conditions of the $6.5 billion funding, which have not been previously reported, show how far OpenAI, the most valuable AI startup in the world, has come from a res...

September 10, 2024 5:43 PM

Apple loses fight against 13 billion euro EU tax order to Ireland

Apple on Tuesday (September 10) lost its fight against an order by EU competition regulators to pay 13 billion euros in back taxes to Ireland as part of an EU crackdown against sweetheart deals between EU countries and multinationals. The European Commission issued the order in 2016, saying that the iPhone maker benefited from two Irish tax rulings for over two decades that artificially reduced its tax burden to as low as 0.005% in 2014. The European Union will continue its work against harmfu...

September 2, 2024 12:22 PM

Apple set for music, TV streaming fight in India after Airtel deal

Apple's partnership with India's second-biggest telecoms firm will give the iPhone maker a sorely needed boost in a content market where it lags far behind the likes of Spotify and Walt Disney. The U.S. technology giant, working to boost revenue globally from services including apps, payments and media, is set to offer free music and video streaming to many of Bharti Airtel's 281 million customers. The deal is likely to greatly expand the user base for Apple TV+ and Apple Music in a country wh...

August 7, 2024 2:22 PM

Google monopoly ruling could help Apple defense in antitrust case

Apple could be the winner after Alphabet's Google lost its fight with the U.S. antitrust enforcers earlier this week, with a ruling that supports the iPhone maker's defense in its own antitrust court battle with U.S. prosecutors, legal experts said. A federal judge mostly sided with state and federal antitrust enforcers in the blockbuster case on Monday that ruled Google's search business was an illegal monopoly, but threw out a claim by several U.S. states that one of Google's ad tools was des...

August 2, 2024 11:17 AM

Apple pins hopes on AI for iPhone upgrades as China sales falter

Apple said its third-quarter iPhone sales were better than expected and forecast more gains on Thursday as it bets on artificial intelligence to attract buyers, even as its overall China business disappointed. Shares of the company rose nearly 1% in extended trading, outperforming other tech stocks that were broadly lower. Apple is expected to launch this fall what analysts have called the biggest software upgrade for the iPhone. It includes artificial intelligence features and comes at a time...

September 16, 2024 6:14 PM

Apple charged with breaching EU tech rules, faces another probe

European Union antitrust regulators charged on Monday that Apple breached the bloc's tech rules, a charge that could result in a hefty fine for the iPhone maker which also faces another investigation into new fees imposed on app developers. The European Commission, which is also the EU's antitrust and technology regulator, said it had sent its preliminary findings to Apple following an investigation launched in March. The charge against Apple is the first by the Commission under its landmark D...

June 13, 2024 1:43 PM

AI-powered Apple overtakes Microsoft as world’s most valuable company

Apple once again became the world's most valuable company on Wednesday, dethroning Microsoft from the top spot, as the iPhone maker pushed ahead in a race to dominate artificial intelligence technology. Its shares jumped nearly 4% to a record $215.04, giving it a market valuation of $3.29 trillion. Microsoft's market capitalization stood at $3.24 trillion, falling behind Apple for the first time in five months. The stock surge comes as the tech-heavy Nasdaq hit a record high on fresh signs of ...

June 12, 2024 2:16 PM

How Apple used Google’s help to train its AI models

On stage on Monday CEO Tim Cook's Apple announced a splashy deal with OpenAI to include its powerful artificial intelligence model as a part of its voice assistant, Siri. But in the fine print of a technical document Apple published after the event, the company makes clear that Alphabet's Google has emerged as another winner in the Cupertino, California, company's quest to catch up in AI. To build Apple's foundation AI models, the company's engineers used its framework software with a range of...

June 11, 2024 12:35 PM

Apple brings ChatGPT and more AI to devices

Apple unveiled a long-awaited AI strategy on Monday, integrating its new "Apple Intelligence" technology across its suite of apps including Siri and bringing OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT to its devices. In the nearly two-hour long presentation at Apple's annual developer conference, executives including CEO Tim Cook touted how voice assistant Siri would be able to interact with messages, emails, calendar, as well as third party apps. Siri will be able to write emails and change the tone of voice to...