Apple’s iPhone 15 is reportedly set for mid-September launch

Published

2 years ago

August 7, 2023

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Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, on June 5, 2023.

Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images

Apple’s next-generation iPhone 15 is slated for sales launch around Sept. 22, Bloomberg reported Monday.

When the company unveils a new iPhone model, the hype-filled events are typically watched simultaneously by millions of viewers online. Analysts focus on next-generation product launches as a way to gauge consumer spending; consumers themselves usually have a raft of new features to look forward to.

The sale date will be preceded by an Apple event the week prior, either on Sept. 12 or 13, Bloomberg reported.

In the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings, it reported that iPhone sales fell 2% to $39.67 billion.

“The smartphone industry is tough in the U.S. right now,” CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach last week.

The current-generation iPhone 14 was hit hard by Covid-related production issues at Foxconn plants in China, which stifled 2022 holiday sales. Apple is reportedly working to diversify its supply chain throughout Southeast Asia.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple's upcoming iPhone 15 looks like 'mini super-cycle,' says Wedbush's Dan Ives

Technology

Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup’s robots could ‘fracture a human skull’

Published

7 hours ago

November 21, 2025

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$Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup's robots could 'fracture a human skull'$

Startup Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots.

Figure AI

Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup’s former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company’s robots “were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.”

Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Friday in a federal court in the Northern District of California. Gruendel’s attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his “most direct and documented safety complaints.”

The suit lands two months after Figure was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. That’s a 15-fold increase in valuation from early 2024, when the company raised a round from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft.

In the complaint, Gruendel’s lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot’s lethal capabilities, and said one “had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.”

The complaint also says Gruendel warned company leaders not to “downgrade” a “safety road map” that he had been asked to present to two prospective investors who ended up funding the company.

Gruendel worried that a “product safety plan which contributed to their decision to invest” had been “gutted” the same month Figure closed the investment round, a move that “could be interpreted as fraudulent,” the suit says.

The plaintiff’s concerns were “treated as obstacles, not obligations,” and the company cited a “vague ‘change in business direction’ as the pretext” for his termination, according to the suit.

Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial.

Figure didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did attorneys for Gruendel.

The humanoid robot market remains nascent today, with companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics pursuing futuristic offerings, alongside Figure, while China’s Unitree Robotics is preparing for an IPO. Morgan Stanley said in a report in May that adoption is “likely to accelerate in the 2030s” and could top $5 trillion by 2050.

Read the filing here: