The new iPhone 14 smartphones are on display at an Apple Store at The Grove in Los Angeles, Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
On March 1, Apple will start charging an extra $20 for battery replacements on out-of-warranty iPhones, according to an update on the AppleCare+ webpage.
The new price will be $99 for the iPhone 14, and while these models are currently under warranty, they won't be after the one-year anniversary of their release in September 2023.
At that point, the higher price point could encourage customers with broken batteries to simply buy a new phone rather than shell out nearly $100 for a replacement part.
Apple has adjusted prices multiple times in recent years, as supply chain issues have raised production costs. Just last month, labor unrest at an iPhone supplier in China led to a production shortfall. The company struggled with similar disruptions throughout the pandemic.
There is also a history of consumers pushing back against Apple's practices around batteries. The company in 2020 was forced to pay $113 million in fines to settle consumer fraud lawsuits around a controversy known as "batterygate," in which iPhone users discovered that Apple installed new software that made devices with older batteries operate slower.
In addition, CEO Tim Cook in 2019 wrote in a letter to investors that "some customers taking advantage of significantly reduced pricing for iPhone battery replacements" was partly behind a lower-than-expected iPhone sales.
Just a week after talks of him starting his own social media platform, Tesla CEO Elon Musk purchased a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter. The stock by resulted in a price surge for both Twitter and Tesla stocks, but questions are swirling about how much of an active stake this will be for the controversial figure who's had a fraught relationship with the platform over the years. Dan Ives, the managing director of equity research at Wedbush, joined Cheddar News to discuss. "I think this is a start of what's gonna really be a soap opera with Musk, either getting on the board or forcing significant strategic changes at Twitter," he noted.
Bees are responsible for the bulk of fruit and vegetable pollination — and they're negatively being affected by climate change. Tech startup Beewise is offering a solution with artificial intelligence to create robotic, autonomous hives to help the vulnerable bee populations. Saar Safra, co-founder & CEO, joined Cheddar News to talk about the company's recent $80 million to help make this project possible. "Our solution is not only hardware," he said. "Its software and biology all in one device. That's the challenge, and that's what sets us apart."
Space tourism continues to be generating buzz after the most recent Blue Origin launch. Two of its passengers made history as the first married couple to travel to space. The couple, Marc Hagle, CEO at Tricor, and Sharon Hagle, CEO at Spacekids Global, joined Cheddar News fresh off of their trip to talk about their experience and future space travel plans. "If there is a Santa Claus, we’ll have the opportunity to fly with Virgin Galactic, and maybe we'll have the opportunity to fly with SpaceX," said Marc Hagle, followed by Sharon explaining they had already signed up with Virgin Galactic about 15 years ago.
The metaverse may be the next big thing in the music world. Cheddar News’ Michelle Castillo sat down with Jon Vlassopulos, VP and head of music at Roblox, to discuss virtual concerts and more.
The head of Russia’s space program says the future of the ISS hangs in the balance after the U.S., EU, and Canadian space agencies missed a deadline to meet Russian demands for lifting sanctions on Russian enterprises and hardware.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 4, 2022, with reports of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, a weekend shooting in Sacramento killing six and injuring 12, Mexico ending its gas subsidization for U.S. drivers, and the University of South Carolina winning the women's NCAA basketball championship, and more.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is taking a 9.2% stake in Twitter to become the social media platform's largest shareholder. Musk purchased approximately 73.5 million shares, according to a regulatory filing Monday.
