The home button at the bottom of the screen is gone and has been replaced with a fingerprint reader in the power button. It has a more squared design, similar to the iPad Air and iPad Pro, with a large 10.9-inch screen, USB-C in place of the Lightning connector, and will ship in different colors like red, yellow, blue and white.
Apple also announced a new $249 Magic Keyboard Folio case for the iPad that has a kickstand, a trackpad with support for multitouch and a magnetic connector that automatically charges it. But there’s something strange about the Apple Pencil support.
The new iPad doesn’t work with the better second-generation Apple Pencil, which charges on the side of the iPad Air, iPad mini and iPad Pro. Since the new iPad uses USB-C instead of a Lightning port — which is used to charge the Apple Pencil on earlier models — you’ll need to buy a $9 USB-C to Lightning adapter in order to charge the Apple Pencil.
Apple will sell different configurations, including Wi-Fi only and WiFi + 5G cellular, but it starts at $449, which is a bump from the $329 starting price of the ninth-generation iPad. It’s available to order Tuesday and will be in stores beginning Oct. 26.
Apple iPad Pro 2022
Apple’s new iPad Pros in 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes.
Apple
As in recent years, the company will sell two sizes of the iPad Pros: an 11-inch model and a larger 12.9-inch model with a nicer screen.
The big change to the iPad Pro is a new M2 processor, which is the same one that was introduced in the MacBook Air earlier this year. Apple said it’s up to 15% faster than the M1 processor used in the last model of the iPad Pro that was introduced in 2021.
The Apple Pencil works a bit differently on the new iPad Pros, too. The screen can now detect the tip of the Pencil up to 12 mm above the surface of the screen. Apple says this will allow artists to sketch with more precision and makes handwriting-to-text conversions faster.
The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 while the 12.9-inch model starts at $1,099. They’re available to order beginning Tuesday and land in stores on Oct. 26.
Apple TV 4K 2022
Apple TV 4K 2022
Apple
The Apple TV 4K has a faster processor and ships in two models, a Wi-Fi-only version with 64GB of storage and a Wi-Fi + Ethernet model, which allows for a wired internet connection and has twice the storage.
The streaming box adds support for HDR10+, another high-dynamic range standard that, if offered by the TV it’s connected to, should help improve picture quality, especially in dark scenes. And the updated processor, which Apple says is 50% faster than the previous version, should make things like loading apps and games faster.
The new Apple TV 4K has the updated Siri Remote with standard USB-C charging, which is the same cable used to charge iPads and non-Apple products. The remote used to use Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector.
The new Apple TV 4K starts at $129 and can be ordered beginning Tuesday. It hits stores Nov. 4.
Artificial intelligence chipmaker Cerebras Systems said on Friday that it’s withdrawing plans for an IPO, days after announcing that it raised over $1 billion in a fundraising round.
In a filing with the SEC, Cerebras said it does not intend to conduct a proposed offering “at this time,” but didn’t provide a reason. A spokesperson told CNBC on Friday that the company still hopes to go public as soon as possible.
Cerebras filed for an IPO just over a year ago, as it was ramping up to take on Nvidia in an effort to create processors for running generative AI models. The filing revealed a heavy reliance on a single customer in the United Arab Emirates, Microsoft-backed G42, which is also a Cerebras investor.
In its prospectus, Cerebras said it had given voluntary notice to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States about selling shares to G42. In March, the company announced that the committee had provided clearance.
Since its initial filing to go public on the Nasdaq, Cerebras has shifted its focus away from selling systems and more toward providing a cloud service for accepting incoming queries to models that use its chips underneath.
The announced withdrawal comes three days into a U.S. government shutdown that’s left agencies like the SEC operating with a small staff. In a plan for a shutdown published in August, the SEC said its electronic system EDGAR “is operated pursuant to a contract and thus will remain fully functional as long as funding for the contractor remains available through permitted means.”
On Tuesday, Cerebras said it had raised $1.1 billion at a valuation of $8.1 billion in a private funding round. At the time, CEO Andrew Feldman said that the company still wanted to go public, rather than continue to raise venture capital.
“I don’t think this is an indication of a preference for one or the other,” he told CNBC in an interview. “I think we have tremendous opportunities in front of us, and I think it’s good practice, when you have enormous opportunities, not to let them fall by the wayside for lack of capital.”
Feldman thought the original prospectus from last year was out of date, especially considering developments in AI, the spokesperson said on Friday.
Well heeled technology companies have been quickly signing up for additional infrastructure to handle demand. On Tuesday CoreWeave, which rents out Nvidia chips through a cloud service, said it had signed a $14.2 billion agreement with Meta. ChatGPT operator OpenAI said last week that it had committed to spending $300 billion on cloud services from Oracle.
The government shutdown did not factor into Cerebras’ decision, the spokesperson said.
An employee arranges a salad dressing display at an Amazon Fresh grocery store on December 12, 2024 in Federal Way, Washington.
David Ryder | Getty Images
Amazon is closing four more Fresh supermarkets in Southern California as the e-commerce giant continues to focus its grocery strategy around Whole Foods and delivery.
The closures will take place in the coming weeks, Amazon confirmed to CNBC. They follow the shuttering of four other U.S. locations in recent months, in Washington, Virginia, New York and a Los Angeles suburb.
“Certain locations work better than others, and after an assessment, we’ve made the decision to close these Amazon Fresh locations,” Amazon spokesperson Griffin Buch said in a statement. “We’re working closely with affected employees to help them find new roles within Amazon wherever possible.”
At one Fresh supermarket in La Verne, California, employees were told to gather for an all-hands meeting on Wednesday, according to an internal message viewed by CNBC. They learned at the meeting that the store would close in mid-November, and that employees would receive a severance package, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the details were confidential.
The other three stores that are closing are in cities of Mission Viejo, La Habra and Whittier.
Last week, Amazon said it intends to close 14 Fresh grocery stores in the U.K. and convert its five other locations there into Whole Foods markets.
Amazon said it regularly evaluates its store portfolio, which can lead to opening, reopening, relocating or closing certain locations. In the U.S., the company has more than 60 remaining Fresh stores. Last year, the company removed its “Just Walk Out” cashierless technology from the stores. It’s also been culling its footprint of Go cashierless convenience stores.
Amazon has been determined to become a major grocery player for nearly two decades. The company launched Amazon Fresh in 2007, then a pilot project for fresh food delivery, before acquiring upscale chain Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017, its biggest purchase on record.
Amazon debuted its Fresh grocery chain in 2020, with an eye toward mass-market shoppers. The rollout has been turbulent since its early days.
The company opened a flurry of Fresh locations by 2022, but the expansion plans ran into CEO Andy Jassy’s widespread cost-cutting efforts as the company reckoned with the impact of rising interest rates and soaring inflation. In 2023, Amazon announced it would shut some Fresh stores and halt further openings temporarily as it evaluated how to make the chain stand out for shoppers.
While it’s closing Fresh stores, Amazon continues to “innovate and invest in making grocery shopping easier, faster, and more affordable,” Buch said. The company still maintains 500 Whole Foods locations and has opened mini “daily shop” Whole Foods stores in New York City.
On Wednesday, Amazon also launched a new “price-conscious” grocery brand that will be offered online and in its physical stores. And last month, Amazon expanded same-day delivery of fresh foods to more pockets of the U.S.
Jassy and other company executives have touted the success of sales of “everyday essentials” within its online grocery business, which refers to items such as canned goods, paper towels, dish soap and snacks. Jassy told investors at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in May that he remains “bullish” on grocery, calling it a “significant business” for Amazon.
Inside Google’s quantum computing lab in Santa Barbara, California.
CNBC
Quantum computing stocks are wrapping up a big week of double-digit gains.
Shares of Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum and Quantum Computing have surged more than 20%. Rigetti and D-Wave Quantum have more than doubled and tripled, respectively, since the start of the year. Arqit Quantum skyrocketed more than 32% this week.
The jump in shares followed a wave of positive news in the quantum space.
Rigetti said it had purchase orders totalling $5.7 million for two of its 9-qubit Novera quantum computing systems. The owner of drugmaker Novo Nordisk and the Danish government also invested 300 million euros in a quantum venture fund.
In a blog post earlier this week, Nvidia also highlighted accelerated computing, which it argues can make “quantum computing breakthroughs of today and tomorrow possible.”