*By Hope King*
Apple showed some love to the MacBook Air and Mac Mini Tuesday.
The trillion dollar tech giant hosted its second event in two months to introduce new versions of these somewhat neglected devices.
The MacBook Air was last fully refreshed eight years ago, with a small update three years ago. The Mac Mini hasn’t gotten an update in four years.
Reports ahead of the event anticipated the announcements, but that didn’t leave the crowd — made up of Apple employees, guests, partners, and media — any less enthused when C.E.O. Tim Cook and team finally got on stage.
When the video of the MacBook Air played on stage there were "whoo-hoos" from the crowd when the retina display was featured, and more when the three different color options came on screen: gold, silver, and space gray.
One of the moments that drew the biggest cheers was when Laura Legros, VP of hardware engineering, announced the body of the MacBook Air would be made from 100 percent recycled aluminum.
"That's one of the really exciting things about the product today," Legros told Cheddar after the event. "This is many, many years in the making of actually being able to develop a process out of the materials that we already are using in our production process."
Apple is entering a phase of slowing growth for its iPhone, its most important product for revenue and profits. The company is also seeing increased competition from the likes of Amazon ($AMZN) and Facebook ($FB), two names which are suddenly threats. Amazon this year released 70 new devices and Facebook recently came out with its first-ever hardware devices, the Portal and Portal Plus.
According to Apple, the company unveiled 10 new products this year — more so than in years past.
Can new colors like gold help Apple sell more Apple Watches and computers? Future earnings reports will be the proof, but for now, Apple is heading into one of its trickiest holiday seasons yet.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
