Apple's 2024 plans revealed...

Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.

Is Apple losing its luster? After a quiet, slumping year of sales, the tech giant is reportedly plotting a major set of releases for early 2024.

But will the updates be enough to get consumers to open their wallets? Let’s investigate…

In today’s tech rundown:

• Apple preps iPad and Mac upgrades to boost sales

• Giant CO2 battery aims to slash emissions

• 9 new products

• AMD introduces new AI chips to compete with NVIDIA

• Scientists develop new device for insulin delivery

• 23andMe updates ToS, new class action waiver

Read time: 3 minutes

TODAY’S HEADLINES

APPLE

🍎 Apple preps iPad and Mac upgrades to boost sales

The Rundown: After an unprecedented lull in iPad releases, Apple is reportedly (paywall article) readying major iPad and Mac updates for early 2024 — featuring new sizes, displays, processors, and more — to help reinvigorate declining sales.

The details:

• New models incoming allegedly include a 12.9" iPad Air joining the 10.9" version, an iPad Pro with OLED displays, an M3 MacBook Air, and OS software updates.

• The refreshes target the slumping Mac and iPad business, now accounting for just 15% of Apple's revenue.

• The company saw iPad sales drop 10% and Mac sales plunge 34% last quarter.

• Other 2024 Apple device upgrades in the works range from the Vision VR/AR headset to blood pressure tracking Apple Watch models, new iPhone sizes, and updated AirPods.

The relevance: After no iPad updates for an entire year, it’s unsurprising to see a massive push coming in 2024. As the iPads inch towards near-Macbook capabilities, does one product line risk cannibalizing the other in the process?

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ENERGY TECH

🔋 Giant CO2 battery aims to slash emissions

The Rundown: An Italian startup just built a first-of-its-kind battery using carbon dioxide instead of lithium to store renewable energy — with big implications for costs and sustainability.

The details:

• Energy Dome's CO2 battery works by compressing CO2 gas into liquid to store energy, then converting it back to gas to generate electricity.

• Using CO2 instead of air allows 10x smaller facilities, with the system cutting costs in half versus lithium-ion batteries by utilizing steel.

• After a successful pilot plant, Energy Dome secured €140 million to build a large-scale CO2 battery plant in Sardinia.

Why it matters: Using CO2 to cut… CO2 may sound odd, but Energy Dome's closed-loop battery touts dramatic space and cost edges over lithium. If scalable, these savings could drive mass adoption to slash emissions.

NEW PRODUCTS

🤖 Deepgram- Introducing Aura, a powerful text-to-speech (TTS) API built for real-time conversations. Be the first to try Aura by joining the waitlist (link)*

🕸 Toofan- Next-gen AI web design studio (link)

🎨 Visual Electric- The first image generator designed for creatives (link)

🎧 PodMixt- Get personalized audio summaries of your favorite podcasts (link)

🤖 Competely- AI-powered competitive analysis in minutes (link)

🎥 MagicAnimate- A model framework to transform images to dynamic videos (link)

🧠 Humata- Ask questions and chat with any file instantly using AI (link)

🔥 PromptPal- Share & discover the best AI prompts (link)

👾 Dante- Custom GPT chatbots trained on your data (link)

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

* = This is sponsored content

SNIPPETS

Google provides a recovery process for Drive for desktop users to retrieve files lost due to a sync issue.

AMD introduces MI300 chips for more efficient AI training, rivaling Nvidia.

Meta is adding new AI capabilities to Meta AI like "reimagine" for iterative image generation in chats and Reels integration, with over 20 new trial upgrades underway.

Researchers have developed DNA nanobots capable of exponential self-replication, potentially leading to in-body drug manufacturing applications.

Scientists have developed an implantable device (SHEATH) that could revolutionize insulin delivery for Type 1 diabetes.

Apple releases new MLX frameworks, hinting at potential expansion into generative AI applications, including text, image, and video generation.

23andMe updates its terms of service, including a class-action waiver, following a data breach, giving users 30 days to opt-out.

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THAT’S A WRAP

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