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Apple’s iOS 18 is now available to download
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On Monday Apple released the new version of iOS, the company’s operating system for the iPhone. iOS 18 is a free download and it works with the iPhone XR & XS or later, as well as the second- and third-generation iPhone SE. In other words, if your iPhone supports iOS 17, you can install iOS 18 on it.
When Apple announced iOS 18 at its annual developer confab WWDC, the company spent quite a bit of time talking about Apple Intelligence. Apple uses this umbrella term for all its upcoming generative AI-related features.
However, Apple Intelligence isn’t part of iOS 18.0. The first AI features will arrive in beta in the U.S. later this fall with iOS 18.1, starting with the ability to rewrite, proofread and summarize long texts. Apple Intelligence will also generate notification summaries and include a clean-up tool for photos.
Genmoji, the native integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and AI-generated images aren’t going to be part of iOS 18.1. They will be released in upcoming .x releases (18.2, 18.3, etc.).
Even without Apple Intelligence, iOS 18 packs several interesting quality-of-life updates, including new home screen customizations with dark and tinted icons, a modular Control Center and many app updates.
Some features that are likely to stand out are the completely redesigned Photos app with a big focus on past memories, the ability to generate live audio transcriptions in the Voice Memos and Notes apps, and a new Passwords app.
How to update your iPhone to iOS 18
The update is currently rolling out and is available both over-the-air in the Settings app and by plugging your device to your computer for a wired update. The latter option is convenient if you don’t have a lot of storage on your phone as it doesn’t require as much free space to update.
But first, back up your device. Make sure your iCloud backup is up to date by opening the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and tapping on your account information at the top and then on your device name. Additionally, you can also plug your iOS device into your computer to do a manual backup in Finder or iTunes for Windows.
Don’t forget to encrypt your backup if you back up to a computer. It is much safer if somebody hacks your computer as encrypted backups can help protect things like saved passwords and health data. This way, you also don’t have to reconnect to all your online accounts if you have to recover from your backup.
To perform the update, you should go to the Settings app, then “General” and then “Software Update.” You should see “Update Requested…” It will then automatically start downloading once the download is available.
While it’s downloading, you can read TechCrunch’s Ivan Mehta’s review about the biggest changes in iOS 18 — listing everything you can expect in this update but also everything you shouldn’t expect. (Note, users in the European Union may also see some differences in features available vs users elsewhere as a result of regional regulations.)
Boeing confirms CFO memo distributed to employees; planning to make significant reductions in supplier expenditures, considering the difficult step of temporary furloughs for many employees
"As you know, our IAM 751 and W24 represented employees in the Pacific Northwest are on strike. We are working in good faith to reach a new contract agreement that reflects their feedback and enables operations to resume. However, our business is in a difficult period. This strike jeopardizes our recovery in a significant way and we must take necessary actions to preserve cash and safeguard our shared future. Importantly, we will protect all funding for safety, quality and direct customer support work. Actions include:
- Instituting a hiring freeze across Boeing for all levels, and pausing on any pay increases associated with internal executive and management promotions
- Stopping any travel that is not for critical customer, program, regulatory or supply chain activity
- Eliminating all first and business class air travel, including for the Executive Council
- Suspending non-essential capital expenditures and facilities spending
- Suspending outside consultant spend and temporarily releasing non-essential contractors
- Pausing charitable and other contributions, and advertising and marketing expenditures
- Reducing company participation in airshows, tradeshows and special events
- Pausing employee recognition and team event spending
- Stopping catered meal and food services at Boeing facilities unless customer related
- Cancelling any team off-site meetings. On-site meetings that require travel should be made virtual
In parallel to the steps above, we are planning to make significant reductions in supplier expenditures and will stop issuing the majority of supplier purchase orders on the 737, 767 and 777 programs. We are also considering the difficult step of temporary furloughs for many employees, managers and executives in the coming weeks. I know that these actions will create some uncertainty and concern, as well as many questions. We'll be sharing additional information in the coming days as we have detailed guidance on implementation of these measures."
A few suppliers / potential impacted companies include: AL, DRS, EADSY, EIX, GE, GXO, RBC, RYCEY, SPR
A few suppliers / potential impacted companies include: AL, DRS, EADSY, EIX, GE, GXO, RBC, RYCEY, SPR
Techno-energy is reshaping the world
Traditional power brokers endowed with reserves of fossil fuels will see their global leverage wane
In a single generation, the cost of solar panels has plummeted by an astounding 99 per cent. The price collapse is remarkable. It also proves that energy markets are being propelled by technology.
For centuries, the rhythmic hum of turbines, powered first by coal, then by oil and gas, has been the heartbeat of industrial progress. But their proliferation is less the story of free markets than power and manipulation. As early as the 1870s, John D Rockefeller of Standard Oil colluded and consolidated to manipulate the supply and price of oil. A century later, Opec’s oil embargo plunged the US into recession. We still feel its aftershocks today. Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas served to reinforce the point: the whims of an autocrat can choke the lifeblood of modern economies.
Now, however, barrels of oil and sacks of coal can be left on the loading yard, replaced by solar panels, wind turbines and batteries.
As markets expand, prices are coming down. This is not just the case for solar photovoltaic panels. Between 1990 and 2023, the price of wind turbines dropped 61 per cent and batteries 97 per cent. In Germany, solar panels are now cheaper than wooden fences. Homeowners can protect their privacy while powering their kitchen appliances.
By contrast, benchmark costs for crude oil, coal and natural gas have increased in real terms over the past century. Consumers have been subjected to the churning volatility of petrochemical politics too. And lowering prices by improving the machines that turn those resources into energy — power plants and engines — is difficult and expensive.
New energy production will therefore follow the path of other technology sectors, with innovation spurring new businesses. Virtual power plants can already string together solar panels from small and large companies, household batteries and sometimes even a slice of an electric vehicle’s battery. The US Department of Energy reckons as much as 8 per cent of peak electricity demand is already met by such collaborative endeavours.
For energy stalwarts, a radically different mindset is required to deal with what is fast becoming a very different world. As the techno-energy system increases efficiency, electricity will become the common currency. Analysts will care less about dollars per barrel of oil and more about cents per kilowatt-hour generated.
Traditional energy power brokers — those endowed with reserves of fossil fuels — will see their global leverage wane. Imbalances will be redistributed. Renewable resources are more equitably and generously distributed. According to Rocky Mountain Institute, every country in the world barring Japan and a handful of nations in eastern and central Europe, have renewable resources capable of meeting their current energy demands 10 times over. The global south is the richest region of them all.
Today’s energy markets do not yet reflect the structure of a technology-driven sector. For one thing, the cost of producing and distributing energy varies by geography. Prices should too. Regional pricing, such as that already found in Texas, is essential to eliminate distortions and encourage investment that drives prices down and capacity up.
Energy technologies have far lower lifetime costs than their fossil counterparts too. After all, once you have bought a solar panel or battery, it does its job without needing to be refuelled with expensive oil and gas. However, upfront prices can be higher than equivalent non-renewable systems, even in the face of staggering declines in cost. Adapting to this system, which is more costly to buy and much cheaper to run, can be aided by the finance industry.
Policymakers also need to make it easier for households and businesses to participate in a properly distributed electricity system. US regulators, who often hail from the fossil fuel industry, have not made it easy for smaller players to compete with incumbents. Adjusting electricity prices based on real-time supply and demand could also help to match energy use with renewable energy production.
Industry must fashion its own response. This means investments in new processes for making steel, cement, glass and the materials upon which the modern world is built.
Scientists from the University of Exeter recently concluded that we have passed a “global irreversible . . . tipping point . . . where solar energy gradually comes to dominate global electricity markets”. Our current political economy has been built around natural resources. This transition will have a profound impact on that structure.
BP puts $2bn US onshore wind business up for sale
Oil major trims renewables business and sells off underperforming assets
BP has put bp Wind Energy, its onshore wind business in the US, estimated to be worth $2bn, up for sale as it trims its renewables business and sells off underperforming assets.
The UK-listed oil major said it would sell the nine wind farms it owns outright and its share in a tenth in Hawaii in order to focus on Lightsource bp, the solar energy business it is in the process of buying.
BP also wrote down the value of its offshore US wind business by $1.1bn last year after struggling to make progress on three projects on the east coast.
“Ultimately, offshore wind in the US is fundamentally broken,” said the company’s former renewables chief Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath last November. She left BP in April.
The new head of the gas and low carbon division William Lin said on Monday that BP’s onshore wind business was “not aligned with our plans for growth in Lightsource bp” and that the company would continue “to simplify our portfolio and focus on value”.
The oil major has refocused on its core oil and gas business since Murray Auchincloss was appointed chief executive in January. Analysts expect BP to drop a commitment to reduce its oil and gas output to 2mn barrels a day (b/d) by 2030.
BP’s share price has fallen more than 20 per cent in the past 12 months on fears that it will cut its earnings guidance and have to reduce its distributions to shareholders.
“BP’s $7bn annual buyback does not appear to be covered from 2025 onwards,” said Kim Fustier at HSBC in a note last month as the bank downgraded the company.
The wind farms, spread across seven states, are all operational and have a combined capacity of 1.7GW, of which BP owns 1.3GW. Analysts at RBC Capital Markets said they could be worth upwards of $2bn.
“This is another signal that BP is rationalising its energy transition strategy, and there are likely willing buyers for these assets that would be worth more than what is implied in the shares, which is likely close to zero,” said Biraj Borkhataria, an analyst at RBC.
BP has a pipeline of another 12.7GW of onshore wind globally, but did not comment on what would happen to any of the prospective projects in the US. One person close to the company said the sale was for BP’s “entire onshore wind business”.
The oil company does not split out the earnings from its onshore wind business, but its gas and renewables arm made a replacement cost profit of $8.7bn last year.
Solar is now challenging wind as the largest source of renewable electricity generation on the US grid. BloombergNEF expects nearly three times more solar capacity than wind to be installed in the US from 2024 to 2035, totalling 737GW of new solar and 199GW of new wind projects.
Solar is the cheapest form of generation and faces fewer obstacles in permitting, grid connection and supply chain constraints.
The US is widely expected to miss its 30GW offshore wind target for 2030 after high interest rates and supply chain snarl-ups forced developers to cancel roughly a third of previously planned projects.
President Joe Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act offers lucrative 10-year tax credits to lower the cost of wind deployment and attract local manufacturing.
Nevertheless, wind installations on land have slowed, falling 26 per in 2023 compared with the previous year and wind turbine manufacturers including Siemens Gamesa, Vestas, and GE Vernova have continued to report losses in their wind segments.
Wind made up 10 per cent of US power generation last year compared with 4 per cent from solar, according to the US Energy Information Administration.