Apple is expected to release its next-generation iPhone 15 smartphone on 22 September despite rumoured shortages, according to reports. The release date will follow an unveiling event for the iPhone 15 on 12 September or 13 September, Bloomberg reported, which will also see other Apple hardware announced. A separate report from 9to5Mac suggests the launch will take place on Wednesday, 13 September, as mobile carriers have requested that workers not to take that day off due to a major smartphone announcement. Most iPhone launches typically take place on the second Tuesday of September, with the official release taking place later in the month, however last year the unveiling took place on a Wednesday. The switch came amid significant supply disruptions that forced Apple to delay sales of its iPhone 14 Plus to October. Previous rumours surrounding Apple’s 2023 iPhone event suggested at least one of the iPhone 15 models will be delayed due to “severe shortages”. The supply issues relate to a new screen design that is expected to be introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, according to The Information. The premium models will feature a much narrower bezel – the border around the device’s screen – but require a new manufacturing process that Apple has struggled with. Other updates expected for the iPhone 15 include a mysterious button on its side, which could function as a customisable ‘action button’ to allow owners to programme it to perform a variety of tasks. The possible customisations will be camera, flashlight, focus, magnifier, translate, accessibility, shortcuts, silent mode and voice memos, according to Macrumours. Sales of iPhones have dipped this year, Apple’s latest financial results revealed, with analysts blaming “waning growth in the smartphone market”. The Independent has reached out to Apple for comment on the latest reports, though the US tech giant does not typically comment on leaks and rumours relating to unreleased products. Read More Apple iPhone 15 rumours: Pro and Pro Max release date, price, cameras, specs and more

Chalk it up to the heat, to late-summer doldrums, or to the phases of the moon, but the

The 'Wolverine' game will be set in the same universe as the 'Marvel's Spider-Man' series.

President Joe Biden will announce how much money each state is set to receive from the largest-ever federal investment in broadband expansion

For borrowers around the country, the Supreme Court ruling that struck down President Joe Biden's student loan cancellation plan has brought bitterness and frustration

Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. said it is seeking advice from various experts, including Guggenheim Securities as it takes

Reddit has changed its iOS app icon into a pixelated abomination, and is making users

Nasa has launched its Psyche craft into space, on a mission to study an ancient, metallic asteroid. The spacecraft set off on a six year journey, carried away by one of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rockets. It is aimed at an asteroid, also called Psyche, where it will arrive in 2029 and hopes to look back to the beginnings of our own Earth. Most asteroids tend to be rocky or icy, and this is the first exploration of a metal world. Scientists believe it may be the battered remains of an early planet’s core, and could shed light on the inaccessible centers of Earth and other rocky planets. SpaceX launched the spacecraft into a midmorning sky from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Psyche should reach the huge, potato-shaped object in 2029. After decades of visiting faraway worlds of rock, ice and gas, NASA is psyched to pursue one coated in metal. Of the nine or so metal-rich asteroids discovered so far, Psyche is the biggest, orbiting the sun in the outer portion of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter alongside millions of other space rocks. It was discovered in 1852 and named after Greek mythology’s captivating goddess of the soul. “It’s long been humans’ dream to go to the metal core of our Earth. I mean, ask Jules Verne,” said lead scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University. “The pressure is too high. The temperature is too high. The technology is impossible,” she added. “But there’s one way in our solar system that we can look at a metal core and that is by going to this asteroid.” Astronomers know from radar and other observations that the asteroid is big — about 144 miles (232 kilometers) across at its widest and 173 miles (280 kilometers) long. They believe it’s brimming with iron, nickel and other metals, and quite possibly silicates, with a dull, predominantly gray surface likely covered with fine metal grains from cosmic impacts. Otherwise, it’s a speck of light in the night sky, full of mystery until the spacecraft reaches it after traveling more than 2 billion miles (3.6 billion kilometers).Scientists envision spiky metal craters, huge metal cliffs and metal-encrusted eroded lava flows greenish-yellow from sulfur — “almost certain to be completely wrong,” according to Elkins-Tanton. It’s also possible that trace amounts of gold, silver, platinum or iridium — iron-loving elements — could be dissolved in the asteroid’s iron and nickel, she said. “There’s a very good chance that it’s going to be outside of our imaginings, and that is my fondest hope,” she said. Believed to be a planetary building block from the solar system’s formation 4.5 billion years ago, the asteroid can help answer such fundamental questions as how did life arise on Earth and what makes our planet habitable, according to Elkins-Tanton.On Earth, the planet’s iron core is responsible for the magnetic field that shields our atmosphere and enables life. Led by Arizona State University on NASA’s behalf, the $1.2 billion mission will use a roundabout route to get to the asteroid. The van-size spacecraft with solar panels big enough to fill a tennis court will swoop past Mars for a gravity boost in 2026. Three years later, it will reach the asteroid and attempt to go into orbit around it, circling as high as 440 miles (700 kilometers) and as close as 47 miles (75 kilometers) until at least 2031. The spacecraft relies on solar electric propulsion, using xenon gas-fed thrusters and their gentle blue-glowing pulses. An experimental communication system is also along for the ride, using lasers instead of radio waves in an attempt to expand the flow of data from deep space to Earth. NASA expects the test to yield more than 10 times the amount of data, enough to transmit videos from the moon or Mars one day. The spacecraft should have soared a year ago, but was held up by delays in flight software testing attributed to poor management and other issues. The revised schedule added extra travel time. So instead of arriving at the asteroid in 2026 as originally planned, the spacecraft won’t get there until 2029. That’s the same year that another NASA spacecraft — the one that just returned asteroid samples to the Utah desert — will arrive at a different space rock as it buzzes Earth. Additional reporting by Reuters Read More Watch live as Nasa launches spacecraft bound to orbit Psyche asteroid Here’s how you can see the ‘Ring of fire’ solar eclipse on Saturday Nasa opens up pieces of a distant asteroid transported back to Earth Prada to design Nasa’s next-gen space suits for Artemis astronauts 1.2 mile-high ‘dust devil’ spotted on Mars by Nasa’s Perseverance rover Rover captures one-mile-high whirlwind on Mars

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The lives of hundreds of students at a small university in West Virginia have been turned upside down after the school announced just before the start of fall classes that it plans to cease operations

The number of Twitter users is “tanking” following the release of rival app Threads, according to the head of an internet services company. Cloudflare chief executive Matthew Prince shared a graph showing an apparent decline in Twitter’s popularity following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social network late last year, with a steep drop appearing at the start of July when tech rival Mark Zuckerberg launched his text-based app. Separate figures from data intelligence platform Similarweb showed that traffic to Twitter was down 5 per cent in the first two full days that Threads was available, compared with the previous week, while user retention has also declined. In a report on the trend, Similarweb noted that the drop in user retention is “a bad sign for app user loyalty” for Twitter. The metric only accounts for people visiting Twitter’s website and not those using the app, with other measures suggesting the number of daily active users steadily increased in the nine months following Mr Musk’s takeover. Twitter does not publish up-to-date user data and did not respond to a request from The Independent for the latest figures. The launch of Threads last Thursday saw a record number of users flock to the app in its first few days, with Mr Zuckerberg revealing that the app had reached 100 million sign ups on Monday. “That’s mostly organic demand and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet,” the Meta boss posted on Threads. “Can’t believe it’s only been five days!” Recent estimates published by Statista put the number of monthly active Twitter users at around 436 million. The arrival of Threads comes at a difficult time for Twitter, with Mr Musk recently announcing a limit to the number of tweets users can view after issues with data harvesting on the platform. Twitter has threatened to sue Threads’ parent company Meta, claiming former Twitter staff were hired to create a “copycat” platform. “Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” Mr Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro wrote in a letter to Mr Zuckerberg, as reported by Semafor. “Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.” The Independent has reached out to Mr Spiro for further information about any potential legal action. Read More Musk, Zuckerberg and the bitter battle for the future of social media Account tracking Elon Musk’s jet is now on Threads after Twitter suspended it Elon Musk says ‘Zuck is cuck’ as Threads inches closer to 100m users Instagram’s boss has said it will fix some glaring issues with Threads