*By Conor White*
Rumors are swirling about what exactly Apple will unveil at its Oct. 30 event in Brooklyn, N.Y., barely a month after the tech giant released its newest ー and most expensive ー generation of iPhones.
While the launch of an updated iPad Pro seems to be a safe bet, PC World staff writer Michael Simon said Apple ($AAPL) enthusiasts should also watch for a lower-cost MacBook.
"The rumors are kind of all over the place," Simon said. "But it does look like Apple is designing something that's low cost."
That could come as some comfort from those still smarting from the price tag of the highest-end iPhone XS Max, which runs nearly $1,500 ー more than the base model MacBook. The company's "cheaper" iPhone XR is available for pre-order beginning Friday and starts at $749.
In an interview Friday on Cheddar, Simon said no one is sure what the company will do next in the realm of laptops and computers.
"Apple's kind of in their experimental phase with the Mac," he said. "It's not quite going away yet, it's not selling nearly as much as the iPhone, so they have room to experiment."
"We're going to see if they can shore up that real low-end market that they've abandoned for a while," Simon added.
The slate of products revealed this month could suggest where Apple is heading. Mac sales in the latest quarter were down 13 percent from the previous year. And while the company has sold a quarter billion iPads since the original release in April 2010, more sophisticated and powerful smartphones have led to a global decline in tablet sales, too. Simon believes, ultimately, the products that shake out will be somewhere in the middle.
"In five to 10 years I think we're going to see some kind of a hybrid machine that isn't a computer, isn't an iPad," he said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/for-apple-no-sleep-til-brooklyn).
A moon landing attempt by a private US company appears doomed because of a fuel leak on the newly launched spacecraft. Astrobotic Technology managed to orient the lander toward the sun Monday so its solar panel could capture sunlight and charge its onboard battery.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has announced that 100,000 businesses have signed up for a new database that collects ownership information intended to help unmask shell company owners. Yellen says the database will send the message that “the United States is not a haven for dirty money.”
A new version of the federal student aid application known as the FAFSA is available for the 2024-2025 school year, but only on a limited basis as the U.S. Department of Education works on a redesign meant to make it easier to apply.
A steep budget deficit caused by plummeting tax revenues and escalating school voucher costs will be in focus Monday as Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature return for a new session at the state Capitol.
The first U.S. lunar lander in more than 50 years is on its way to the moon. The private lander from Astrobotic Technology blasted off Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, catching a ride on United Launch Alliance's brand new rocket Vulcan.
Global prices for food commodities like grain and vegetable oil fell last year from record highs in 2022, when Russia’s war in Ukraine, drought and other factors helped worsen hunger worldwide, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday.
Wall Street is drifting higher after reports showed the job market remains solid, but key parts of the economy still don’t look like they’re overheating.
The Biden administration is docking more than $2 million in payments to student loan servicers that failed to send billing statements on time after the end of a pandemic payment freeze.
The nation’s employers added a robust 216,000 jobs last month, the latest sign that the American job market remains resilient even in the face of sharply higher interest rates.
A U.S. labor agency has accused SpaceX of unlawfully firing employees who penned an open letter critical of CEO Elon Musk and creating an impression that worker activities were under surveillance by the rocket ship company.
