News

Far Out Event: Here’s Everything That Apple Announced

The iPhone 14 series was announced this Wednesday, along with a new set of AirPods and two versions of the Apple Watch.

Published

4 years ago

September 8, 2022

For more Septembers than we can remember, we’ve waited excitedly for news of the latest iPhone release. 2022’s “Far Out” event at Apple’s Cupertino campus certainly didn’t disappoint, with four new smartphones, two watches and an updated set of headphones announced to a gathering of excited journalists.

The iPhone 14 Lineup

The first news from the event is what Apple didn’t announce. If you were still clinging to the hope that the company would release an updated iPhone mini, your dreams have been dashed. The model failed to sell in significant volumes and has officially been dumped from the lineup, though support for existing models will continue for years.

Instead, the iPhone lineup consists of four new models (if we discount the existing iPhone SE). There’s the entry-level iPhone 14, a new iPhone 14 with a bigger display, called the iPhone 14 Max, and two high-end models in the same form factors: The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Both Max Models feature 6.7-inch screens, whereas the standard sizes stick to a 6.1-inch display. Besides the chassis sizes, the Max models of both the entry-level and Pro phones are essentially the same as their smaller counterparts.

So what’s the difference between the Pro and regular models of the iPhone 14?

The base model sticks to the same format as last year’s device, even using the same a15 processor from the iPhone 13, albeit getting a slight bump in specs as it uses the chip from last year’s pro model.

Overall, it has to be said that there seems to be little reason for iPhone 13 owners to upgrade to the new model. There’s a slightly wider aperture to the camera, a slight boost to RAM, and that’s about it. Indeed, if you used the iPhone 13 and 14 side by side, you’d be very hard-pressed to work out which was which.

Of course, the iPhone 14 Max does bring a larger screen to the party and offers Apple fans the option to get a big display without shelling out for the Pro Max — though all told, the entry-level phones aren’t as exciting as we’d hoped.

The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are where Apple has invested most of its energy this year. Despite looking very similar to the outgoing models, there are a couple of awesome upgrades that are worth noting:

The big news is that the infamous notch that houses the front camera and Face ID sensor has been shrunk down to a pill-shaped lozenge. The new shape is called the “Dynamic Island”, and can change shape, expanding to incorporate different functions such as music control or navigation, or perform background tasks while using other apps.

There’s also always-on support for the display, a massive boost to the primary camera, which climbs from 12 to 48 megapixels, and better low-light performance as well as 8K video recording.

So what will the new models cost when they’re available to order? The iPhone 14 costs $799 and will be available on September 16th. The iPhone 14 Plus is $899 and will be available on October 7th. The iPhone 14 Pro is $999, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max is $1,099 and will be on sale by September 14th.

New Apple Watches

Like the entry-level iPhones, the Apple Watch Series 8 only has incremental updates for this year, with a boost to its health sensors, motion detection and gyroscopes.

Aside from a range of new straps, the big news for Apple Watch fans is the announcement of the Ultra, an adventure-focused model aimed squarely at the likes of Garmin. The Apple Watch Ultra gets a huge 49mm titanium case, 36 hours of battery life (and up to 60 in extended power mode), and an action button to switch what you’re tracking with a quick press.

The Series 8 watches start at $399 for the GPS model and $499 for the cellular version, while the Ultra model will set enthusiasts back a whopping $799.

Second-Gen AirPods Pro

This year’s Apple launch event also sees the Cupertino company boost the specs of its AirPod Pro wireless headphones. Apple claims the new H2 chip inside the buds helps with noise cancellation and offers a jump in sound quality. Battery life is now improved at 6+ hours, and new touch controls allow volume changes with a finger swipe.

Overall, the event was both exciting and underwhelming. The Pro iPhone models offer genuine groundbreaking improvements, yet the rest of Apple’s lineup appears to be an exercise in recession proofing as we await an economic downturn.

News

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.