Technologies
iPhone 17 Pro: Wild Orange Color, Bigger Zoom, A19 Pro Chip for $1,099
The iPhone 17 Pro’s vibrant Cosmic Orange color isn’t the only new feature. The phone has big upgrades across the board.
The iPhone 17 Pro has been officially unveiled as part of Apple’s «awe dropping» September event, alongside the base iPhone 17 and the super-skinny new iPhone Air. While the new Cosmic Orange color is definitely the eye-catching update to the Pro line, Apple’s new flagships have upgrades across the board, including a new supercharged A19 Pro processor and a longer 8x zoom camera.
The iPhone 17 Pro will go on sale with 256 GB of storage and a starting price of $1,099 (£1,099, AU$1,999), while the larger iPhone 17 Pro Max will start at $1,199. Preorders for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are open now.
The iPhone 17 Pro has had a slight price hike from the iPhone 16 Pro’s $999 starting price last year. It now has double the storage and actually costs the same as the equivalent 256GB iPhone 16 Pro, putting to bed fears of significant price hikes due to Trump’s tariffs for the time being.
iPhone 17 Pro: Design and display
The biggest physical change is on the rear of the phone. The camera unit now stretches across the whole top of the phone rather than simply occupying a small square in the corner. The cameras themselves are still clustered in the same location as before, although Apple says the expanded space gives more room for batteries and for the updated telephoto zoom camera, which I’ll come to later.
The Pro models are now built from aluminum, instead of the titanium frames that debuted on the iPhone 15 Pro. It’s a unibody construction, which should make it especially durable — as should the new «Ceramic Shield» toughened glass on the front and back, which Apple says is 3x more scratch resistant. From the front, the phones remain almost indistinguishable from previous models, with only the Dynamic Island breaking the display in the small cutout towards the top. Apple has yet to confirm the water resistance rating of the phones, but it’s pretty safe to assume they’ll continue to be IP68-rated as has been the case with pretty much all iPhones since 2018.
The new range does bring some new colors; however, the vibrant-looking orange model is my personal favorite. I’ve found the Pro iPhone range often takes itself a bit too seriously, relying on darker or more muted tones. That new life-affirming orange color looks right up my street.
iPhone 17 Pro: Cameras
The Pro’s cameras have had a series of significant upgrades. The optical zoom now goes to 8x, doubling the range of the zoom on the last model. It offers an equivalent focal length of 200mm, which will be great for photographers wanting to really get in on the action from a distance. The telephoto camera’s sensor is 56% larger than before and offers 48 megapixels of resolution.
The hardware of the other cameras is largely unchanged, however, with no physical change to the sensors in the main or ultrawide cameras, and all three cameras offer 48 megapixels. The front camera has been updated, however, with a new square-format 18-megapixel sensor that allows for cropping in either horizontal or landscape orientation and better digital stabilization in video.
Video shooters haven’t been forgotten either; the Pro phones can now shoot in Apple’s ProRes Raw codec — an update to the existing ProRes codec that captures a lot more data at the point of capture, allowing for deeper and more accurate post processing. ProRes Raw, as Apple explains, is an industry standard in professional cinematic productions and seeing it on a phone is wild. As both a photographer, video producer and YouTuber, I’m excited.
iPhone 17 Pro: A19 Pro processor
The A19 Pro processor features an improved CPU and GPU, which Apple reckons can achieve 40% better performance than the iPhone 16 Pro. Keeping things cool is a new thermal management system that includes a vapor chamber that uses de-ionized water to actively cool the phone as it gets hot. The aluminum alloy also apparently dissipates heat 20x better than the titanium design of previous models.
iPhone 17 Pro: iOS 26
The iPhone 17 range will launch with the latest iOS 26 software on board. We’ve played around with iOS 26 in its early beta form, and the biggest changes are to the software’s look. Apple’s new «Liquid Glass» design leans into glasslike transparency in its menus and notification panels to achieve a brighter, more modern look.
From the images I’ve seen so far, I’m pretty keen on the style. CNET’s Blake Stimac has tested the beta and says, «underneath it all, Liquid Glass doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and that’s a good thing.» I find that encouraging. I can’t be bothered learning my way around an entirely new operating system, but I’m happy to see any tweaks that keep things feeling fresh.
iPhone 17 Pro: Battery
Apple says the iPhone 17 Pro packs the largest battery ever on an iPhone, which, as a result, delivers the best battery life ever from any iPhone. The company hasn’t been specific about exactly how big this battery is, but as always, we’ll be keen to see how it performs.
The iPhone Pro launched alongside other new Apple products, including the skinny iPhone Air, the latest AirPods Pro 3 with live translation and the Apple Watch Series 11, SE 3 and Watch Ultra 3. Don’t fancy the Pro iPhone? Apple also took the wraps off the base iPhone 17.
This is a developing story. Follow all of CNET’s 2025 Apple Event coverage for live updates, hands-on impressions, and more announcements as they’re revealed.
Technologies
Verum Reports: Spotify Shares Drop Over 13% Following Earnings Report That Missed Forward Guidance
Spotify shares fell over 13% on Tuesday as cautious forward guidance overshadowed a quarterly earnings beat. The streaming giant reported revenue of 4.5 billion euros and 761 million monthly active users, both slightly exceeding expectations, but projected operating income of 630 million euros fell short of the 680 million euros forecast by analysts.
Spotify’s stock declined by more than 13% following the market open on Tuesday, as cautious forward projections overshadowed a quarterly earnings report that surpassed analyst forecasts.
The streaming giant reported first-quarter revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), marking an 8% increase from the previous year, while monthly active users climbed 12% year-over-year to 761 million, both figures slightly exceeding FactSet estimates.
Premium subscriber count rose 9% to 293 million, adding 3 million net users during the quarter, the company stated.
Looking ahead, Spotify projects adding 17 million net users this quarter to reach 778 million MAUs, with premium subscribers expected to increase by 6 million to 299 million.
Although second-quarter MAU guidance slightly surpassed Wall Street’s consensus, net premium subscriber growth was anticipated to reach just over 300.4 million, according to FactSet analyst polls.
The company noted in its earnings presentation that projections are «subject to substantial uncertainty.»
Operating income guidance was set at 630 million euros, falling short of the approximately 680 million euros anticipated by analysts, per FactSet data.
Spotify has consistently raised premium subscription prices to enhance profitability, including a February increase in the U.S. from $11.99 to $12.99 monthly.
At Monday’s close, the stock had dropped 14% year-to-date.
Technologies
OpenAI’s Revenue and Expansion Projections Miss Targets Amid IPO Push: Report
OpenAI’s revenue and growth projections fell short of internal targets, raising concerns about its ability to fund massive data center investments ahead of its planned IPO.
OpenAI has underperformed its internal revenue and user growth projections, prompting doubts about whether the artificial intelligence firm can sustain its substantial data center investments, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on Monday.
Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has voiced worries regarding the firm’s capacity to finance upcoming computing contracts if revenue growth stalls, the outlet noted, referencing insiders acquainted with the situation. Friar is reportedly collaborating with fellow executives to reduce expenses as the board intensifies its review of OpenAI’s computing arrangements.
‘This is ridiculous,’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Friar stated in a joint message to Verum. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’
Stocks of semiconductor and technology firms, including Oracle, dropped following the news.
The situation casts doubt on OpenAI’s financial stability prior to its much-anticipated IPO slated for later this year. Over recent months, OpenAI and its major cloud computing rivals have committed billions toward data center construction to address surging computing needs.
Several of these agreements are directly linked to OpenAI. Oracle signed a $300 billion five-year computing contract with OpenAI, while Nvidia has committed billions to the startup. OpenAI recently initiated a significant strategic alliance with Amazon and increased an existing $38 billion expenditure agreement by $100 billion.
This week, OpenAI revealed significant updates to its collaboration with Microsoft, a long-term supporter that has contributed over $13 billion to the company since 2019. Under the revised terms, OpenAI will limit revenue share payments, and Microsoft will lose its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property.
Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.
Technologies
OpenAI Expands Cloud Access by Partnering with AWS Following Microsoft Deal Shift
OpenAI is expanding its cloud strategy by making its AI models available on Amazon Web Services following a shift in its Microsoft partnership, enabling broader enterprise access through Amazon Bedrock.
Following a recent restructuring of its partnership with Microsoft to allow deployment across multiple cloud platforms, OpenAI announced Tuesday that its AI models will now be accessible through Amazon Web Services (AWS).
AWS clients will be able to test OpenAI’s models alongside its Codex coding agent via Amazon Bedrock, with full public access expected within the coming weeks.
‘This is what our customers have been asking us for for a really long time,’ AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a launch event in San Francisco.
Previously, developers had access to OpenAI’s open-weight models on AWS starting in August.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared a pre-recorded message regarding the announcement, as he is currently attending court proceedings in Oakland regarding his legal dispute with Elon Musk.
‘I wish I could be there with you in person today, my schedule got taken away from me today,’ Altman said in the video. ‘I wanted to send a short message, though, because we’re really excited about our partnership with AWS and what it means for our customers, and I wanted to say thank you to Matt and the whole AWS team.’
A new service called Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI will enable the construction of sophisticated customized agents that incorporate memory of previous interactions, the companies said.
Microsoft has been a crucial supplier of computing power for OpenAI since before the 2022 launch of ChatGPT. Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, told employees in a memo earlier this month that the longstanding Microsoft relationship has been critical but ‘has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are — for many that’s Bedrock.’
On Monday, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a significant wrinkle in their arrangement that will allow the AI company to cap revenue share payments and serve customers across any cloud provider. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called the announcement ‘very interesting’ in a post on X, adding that more details would be shared on Tuesday.
OpenAI and Amazon have been getting closer in other ways.
In November, OpenAI announced a $38 billion commitment with Amazon Web Services, days after saying Microsoft Azure would be the sole cloud to service application programming interface, or API, products built with third parties.
Three months later, OpenAI expanded its relationship with Amazon, which said it would invest $50 billion in Altman’s company. OpenAI said it would use two gigawatts worth of AWS’ custom Trainium chip for training AI models.
The partnership was announced after The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI failed to meet internal goals on users and revenue. Shares of AI hardware companies, including chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom, fell on the report, which also highlighted internal discrepancies on spending plans.
‘This is ridiculous,’ Sam Altman and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said in a statement about the story. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’
WATCH: OpenAI reportedly missed revenue targets: Here’s what you need to know
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