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Apple Says it Will Fix Software Problems Blamed for Making iPhone 15 Models Too Hot to Handle

FILE - The iPhone 15 phones are shown during an announcement of new products on the Apple campus in Cupertino, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - The iPhone 15 phones are shown during an announcement of new products on the Apple campus in Cupertino, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
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Apple Says it Will Fix Software Problems Blamed for Making iPhone 15 Models Too Hot to Handle

FILE - The iPhone 15 phones are shown during an announcement of new products on the Apple campus in Cupertino, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - The iPhone 15 phones are shown during an announcement of new products on the Apple campus in Cupertino, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Apple is blaming a software bug and other issues tied to popular apps such as Instagram and Uber for causing its recently released iPhone 15 models to heat up and spark complaints about becoming too hot to handle.
The Cupertino, California, company said Saturday that it is working on an update to the iOS17 system that powers the iPhone 15 lineup to prevent the devices from becoming uncomfortably hot and is working with apps that are running in ways “causing them to overload the system."
Instagram, owned by Meta Platforms, modified its social media app earlier this week to prevent it from heating up the device on the latest iPhone operating system.
Uber and other apps such as the video game Asphalt 9 are still in the process of rolling out their updates, Apple said. It didn't specify a timeline for when its own software fix would be issued but said no safety issues should prevent iPhone 15 owners from using their devices while awaiting the update.
“We have identified a few conditions which can cause iPhone to run warmer than expected," Apple in a short statement provided to The Associated Press after media reports detailed overheating complaints that are peppering online message boards.
The Wall Street Journal amplified the worries in a story citing the overheating problem in its own testing of the new iPhones, which went on sale a week ago.
It’s not unusual for new iPhones to get uncomfortably warm during the first few days of use or when they are being restored with backup information stored in the cloud — issues that Apple already flags for users. The devices also can get hot when using apps such as video games and augmented reality technology that require a lot of processing power, but the heating issues with the iPhone 15 models have gone beyond those typical situations.
In its acknowledgement, Apple stressed that the trouble isn't related to the sleek titanium casing that houses the high-end iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max instead of the stainless steel used on older smartphones.
Apple also dismissed speculation that the overheating problem in the new models might be tied to a shift from its proprietary Lightning charging cable to the more widely used USB-C port that allowed it to comply with a mandate issued by European regulators.
Although Apple expressed confidence that the overheating issue can be quickly fixed with the upcoming software updates, the problem still could dampen sales of its marquee product at time when the company has faced three consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines in overall sales.
The downturn has affected iPhone sales, which fell by a combined 4% in the nine months covered by Apple's past three fiscal quarters compared with a year earlier.
Apple is trying to pump up its sales in part by raising the starting price for its top-of-the-line iPhone 15 Pro Max to $1,200, an increase of $100, or 9%, from last year's comparable model.

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Technology

Nintendo to Hike Switch 2 Price, Warns on Profits

FILE - A Nintendo sign is seen outside Nintendo's official store in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Jan. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - A Nintendo sign is seen outside Nintendo's official store in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Jan. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
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Nintendo to Hike Switch 2 Price, Warns on Profits

FILE - A Nintendo sign is seen outside Nintendo's official store in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Jan. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - A Nintendo sign is seen outside Nintendo's official store in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Jan. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Japanese gaming giant Nintendo said Friday it will hike the price of its Switch 2 gaming console as memory chip costs soar, warning that net profit would fall 27 percent this year.

Sony -- whose PlayStation5 has already risen in price -- was more upbeat, projecting a 13-percent rise in income but still with falling sales of its ageing console.

Nintendo said the Switch 2 price in Japan will rise 20 percent from May 25, and from September 1 by 11 percent in the United States to $499.99 and in Europe by six percent to 499.99 euros.

For the year to next March, Nintendo expects net profit to drop 27 percent to 310 billion yen ($1.98 billion) on sales of 2.05 trillion, marking a fall of 11.4 percent.

It also forecast 370 billion yen in operating profit, considerably below the average analyst estimate of 480 billion yen, according to Bloomberg News.

Net profit surged 52 percent to 424 billion yen last year on annual sales of 2.31 trillion yen, nearly doubling from the previous year, Nintendo said in a statement.

"Nintendo Switch 2 got off to a good start following its launch in June and global sales continued to grow after that," AFP quoted the company as saying.

It sold 19.86 million units of the new console by March, thanks to games like "Pokemon Pokopia,” "Mario Kart World" and "Donkey Kong Bananza.”

Price rises of memory chips fueled by the artificial intelligence boom have hit makers of games consoles, smartphones and other devices, while disruptions linked to the Iran war have exacerbated supply problems.

Sony said Friday that it sold 16 million PlayStation5 units in the past fiscal year, down from 18.5 million in the previous 12 months.

With 92 million PlayStation2 units sold since its launch in 2020, analysts said the firm was well placed to benefit from the release of smash hit "Grand Theft Auto VI", due in November.

"If there is a game that can sell PlayStations by the millions, it is this one," Gaming industry consultant Serkan Toto told AFP.

For the year to March 2027, the game division is expected to enjoy higher profits despite falling sales, Sony said.

"Sony's more mature PS5 console cycle leaves it better placed to weather higher memory costs," said Amir Anvarzadeh, strategist at Asymmetric Advisors.

"Having already moved past the heavy hardware penetration costs typical of earlier years, Sony's bottom line stands to benefit significantly from the high-margin software sales and ecosystem engagement this launch should trigger," Anvarzadeh said.

Nintendo though is in a more difficult position, Toto said, as Switch 2 customers are "especially price sensitive.”

"The first year game lineup for Switch 2 is much weaker than for its predecessor," he said.

"But now it's time for them to really step on the gas on the software side."

Technology

Tesla's China-made EV Sales Jump 36% in April, Extending Rebound

FILE PHOTO: A Tesla electric vehicle is charged at a Tesla Supercharger battery charging station in Barakaldo, Spain, March 29, 2025. REUTERS/Vincent West/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Tesla electric vehicle is charged at a Tesla Supercharger battery charging station in Barakaldo, Spain, March 29, 2025. REUTERS/Vincent West/File Photo
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Tesla's China-made EV Sales Jump 36% in April, Extending Rebound

FILE PHOTO: A Tesla electric vehicle is charged at a Tesla Supercharger battery charging station in Barakaldo, Spain, March 29, 2025. REUTERS/Vincent West/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Tesla electric vehicle is charged at a Tesla Supercharger battery charging station in Barakaldo, Spain, March 29, 2025. REUTERS/Vincent West/File Photo

Tesla's China-made EV sales jumped 36% on the year in April, a sixth month of gains, as the US automaker fights to hold ground against a wave of cheaper Chinese rivals.

Deliveries of Model 3 and Model Y vehicles built at Tesla's Shanghai plant, including those exported to Europe ⁠and other markets, totaled ⁠79,478 units, data from China Passenger Car Association showed on Thursday.

That was down 7.2% from March this year but well above April 2025 levels.

The figures suggest Tesla is stabilizing in its two most important markets outside the US after a bruising stretch of market share losses, ⁠though regulatory delays around its Full Self-Driving software and new Chinese EVs may limit the recovery.

The US automaker's sales continued to recoverlast month in several European markets, including Sweden, France and Denmark. This was supported by stronger demand for battery EVs as oil prices spiked due to the US-Iran conflict.

Tesla faces regulatory obstacles, with the path toward approval of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) system highly valued by customers, particularly in China, still ⁠uncertain.

The company ⁠now expects to secure full FSD approval in China by the third quarter, CFO Vaibhav Taneja said in April, a delay from its initial target of the first quarter.

Emails from some European regulators reviewed by Reuters indicate EU skepticism toward the technology.

The recovery follows a punishing stretch for Tesla, which lost almost half its European market share in 2025.

Nevertheless, Tesla is stepping up efforts to defend its position against new Chinese models by developing a cheaper, compact SUV produced in China, Reuters reported last month.

Technology

Musk's SpaceX Strikes Data Center Deal with Anthropic

The deal involving Elon Musk's SpaceX and Anthropic marks a surprising partnership between two companies whose leaders have been publicly at odds. Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP
The deal involving Elon Musk's SpaceX and Anthropic marks a surprising partnership between two companies whose leaders have been publicly at odds. Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP
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Musk's SpaceX Strikes Data Center Deal with Anthropic

The deal involving Elon Musk's SpaceX and Anthropic marks a surprising partnership between two companies whose leaders have been publicly at odds. Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP
The deal involving Elon Musk's SpaceX and Anthropic marks a surprising partnership between two companies whose leaders have been publicly at odds. Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP

AI startup Anthropic announced Wednesday it has agreed to a major computing partnership with Elon Musk's SpaceX, securing access to a vast data center as the Claude maker scrambles to keep pace with surging demand for its AI services.

Under the deal, Anthropic will use all of the compute capacity at SpaceX's Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee -- a facility originally built to power Musk's rival AI venture, xAI, AFP said.

The agreement gives Anthropic access to more than 300 megawatts of capacity, backed by over 220,000 Nvidia AI chips, within one month.

The company said the additional capacity would directly benefit subscribers to its Claude Pro and Claude Max plans.

Anthropic also announced it was immediately letting users do more with its technology.

The company said it was doubling the amount of Claude Code -- an AI-powered coding assistant that can write, edit, and debug software -- that paying subscribers can use in a five-hour window and eliminating restrictions that had previously cut access during busy periods.

The SpaceX deal marks a surprising partnership between two companies whose leaders have been publicly at odds.

Musk wrote in February that Anthropic "hates Western Civilization" and questioned whether there was a "more hypocritical company than Anthropic."

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has rankled Musk and other Silicon Valley insiders with his public warnings about the dangers of AI.

Amodei has also clashed with the Trump administration after the Pentagon designated Anthropic a supply chain risk earlier this year, a move Anthropic said amounted to unconstitutional retaliation for the company's advocacy on AI safety.

But on Wednesday Musk changed his tone, writing on X that he had spent time with senior Anthropic staff over the past week and was "impressed."

"Everyone I met was highly competent and cared a great deal about doing the right thing," he wrote.

In a separate post, Musk said he was "dissolving" xAI as a standalone company. "It will just be SpaceXAI, the AI products from SpaceX," he added, without elaborating.

SpaceX merged with xAI earlier this year in a deal valuing the two companies at $1.25 trillion. The company is widely expected to pursue an IPO this year that could be among the largest in corporate history.

The Colossus facility in Memphis has been a source of controversy.

xAI installed dozens of natural gas-burning turbines to power the site, claiming no federal permit was required because they were only for temporary use -- a move that drew persistent protests from civil rights groups who said it worsened air pollution in the Memphis area.

The SpaceX pact is the latest in a string of major compute agreements Anthropic has announced in recent months as the company looks to secure the computing power needed to meet its growing needs.

These include megadeals with Amazon, Google and Broadcom, Microsoft and Nvidia, and an infrastructure investment with Fluidstack.

- AI battle -

The announcement comes as Anthropic and OpenAI -- crosstown rivals in San Francisco -- are locked in a direct battle to equip businesses with AI agents: semi-autonomous assistants capable of writing code, analyzing large volumes of documents, or processing medical records, whose adoption is accelerating rapidly.

On Tuesday, Anthropic unveiled 10 AI agents tailored specifically for banks, insurers, and asset managers -- tools capable of drafting sales presentations, conducting regulatory checks, and analyzing financial statements.

OpenAI, meanwhile, announced a partnership Tuesday with global auditing giant PwC to support its financial operations.

But the race to deploy AI agents is running headlong into a scramble for the chips and energy needed to power them.

Data center construction in the United States, despite moving at an accelerated pace, has struggled to keep up.

And the energy-hungry projects, blamed for driving up household electricity bills, are drawing growing opposition from American citizens -- an issue that could weigh on November's midterm elections.