*By Alisha Haridasani*
Apple plans to introduce software that will reportedly help habitual iPhone users spend less time glued to their smartphones, a shift away from the company’s efforts to keep people more reliant on its hardware.
The company is expected to unveil its Digital Health initiative at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference next week in San Jose, [Bloomberg reported](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-31/apple-to-tout-digital-health-ar-features-at-software-conference). The tools, bundled with the new iOS mobile operating system, help monitor how much time people spend on their phones.
The Digital Health tools are likely a response to concerns raised by two of the company's shareholders in January about the possibly addictive nature of some smartphone apps, particularly among children. “We believe there is a clear need for Apple to offer parents more choices and tools to help them ensure that young consumers are using their products in an optimal manner,” the shareholders said in an [open letter](https://thinkdifferentlyaboutkids.com/).
Apple’s decision to encourage people to put down the company’s most popular product may seem counterintuitive, but it may also point towards a future business strategy for Apple that is more reliant on its services business, which includes Apple Music and iCloud.
The iPhone accounted for more than 60 percent of Apple's revenue in [Q2](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/Q2_FY18_Data_Summary.pdf), but growth in sales have slowed in the past few years. Apple’s services, however, are starting to generate more revenue, surpassing revenue from iPads, Macs, and other accessories, such as Apple Watch and Apple TV.
Apple has tried to boost subscriptions for its Music service and has invested in producing original content, as competition with Spotify and Netflix heats up.
Renewable energy company Heliogen has gone public via a SPAC merger with blank check company Athena Technology Acquisition Corp. on the NYSE. Joining Cheddar, founder and CEO Bill Gross went into why he felt the end of 2021 was the best time to get into the public markets. "If you think of the Industrial Revolution and the digital revolution, this renewable revolution is probably going to be as big or larger than that," he said. "So we're going to use this capital to scale our business, to meet more customer demand, to do more projects in parallel, and to scale our research and development to continue to drive down the price to be competitive with fossil fuels."
Carl "The Moon" Runefelt, a Bitcoin investment expert, recently made a hefty purchase of a $2 million Bugatti sports car at a Dubai dealership. The Swedish crypto evangelist joined Cheddar to talk about how he made the big acquisition of a luxury item he had long had his eye on and why he chose the dealership, The Car Vault, to make the unprecedented transaction. "They accepted crypto directly, and that was important to me," he said. "I am not going to go to any car dealership that don't accept crypto, and that's kind of a principle I have today."
2021 proved that crypto currency is here to stay. This year saw more and more adoptions of crypto, from top athletes looking to be paid in bitcoin, to Elon Musk even experimenting with bitcoin and dogecoin payments for a bit over at Tesla. And it wasn't all bitcoin either - other cryptos like Cardano and Solana saw some action in 2021 as well. Patrick McConlogue, CEO of Overline and former Citadel Investment Group Engineer explains why 2021 was such a good year for crypto, and what to expect in 2022.
2021 saw markets continue to be impacted by the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic -most recently in the form of the Omicron variant- in addition to the global supply chain shortage, and increased inflation. But it wasn't all bad news, as crypto soared throughout the year, and meme stocks continued to have a moment. With the year coming to a close, investors are keeping an eye out to see if they should expect more of the same in the new year. Chris Vecchio, Senior Analyst, at DailyFX tells us what market trends to be on the watch for in 2022.
