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The top 10 books on the Apple Store for week ending 1/1/2023
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Tag: Apple Inc
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World’s largest iPhone factory bounces back from Covid disruption that hurt Apple | CNN Business
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Hong Kong
CNN
—
Production at the world’s biggest iPhone factory, disrupted since October by China’s Covid-19 restrictions and worker protests, is now running at nearly full capacity, according to a Chinese state media report.
The sprawling campus in central China, owned by Apple
(AAPL) supplier Foxconn, was running at 90% of planned production capacity at the end of December, the Henan Daily newspaper reported Tuesday. It cited an interview with Wang Xue, deputy general manager of the facility, which is also known as iPhone city.“At the moment, the order books look good, and the orders will peak from now until a few months after Chinese New Year,” he was quoted as saying. The Lunar New Year will begin on January 22.
Foxconn hasn’t yet responded to CNN’s request for comment about the report.
The company said last month it was working on restoring production, which had been badly affected by supply disruptions caused by Covid restrictions. Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives estimated in November that the disruptions in Zhengzhou had been costing Apple roughly $1 billion a week in lost iPhone sales.
According to a UBS report in November, the wait time for the latest 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max in the United States touched 34 days just before the Christmas holidays because of supply chain constraints in China. The UBS analyst called the wait time “extreme.”
The Henan Daily separately quoted an executive responsible for Foxconn’s logistics as saying that, in the first two days of January, the volume of inbound and outbound shipments had reached the highest level in a year.
The report of a nearly full resumption of production comes one month after China abruptly ended three years of pandemic controls, setting off a huge wave of Covid infections.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, a letter from Foxconn founder Terry Gou played a major role in persuading Chinese leaders to accelerate plans to dismantle the country’s Covid-19 policies. Gou was quoted as warning that strict Covid controls would threaten China’s central position in global supply chains.
Gou’s office told CNN that it “denies the report and its contents.”
Wang was quoted by the Henan Daily as saying iPhone City currently had about 200,000 workers on site. The employees were each eligible for a maximum of 13,000 yuan ($1,883) per month in bonuses, he said, without specifying their base salaries.
The troubles for Foxconn started in October when workers left the campus, located in the central Chinese province of Henan, because of concerns about Covid-related working conditions and shortages of food. Short on staff, bonuses were offered to workers to return.
But violent protests broke out in November when the newly-hired staff said management reneged on their promises. Workers clashed with security officers, before the company eventually offered them cash to quit and leave the site.
Analysts said the production woes at iPhone City would speed up the pace of Apple’s supply chain diversification away from China.
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These 20 stocks were the biggest losers of 2022
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This has been the year of reckoning for Big Tech stocks — even those of companies that have continued to grow sales by double digits.
Below is a list of the 20 stocks in the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.72%
that have declined the most in 2022.First, here’s how the 11 sectors of the benchmark index have performed this year:
S&P 500 sector 2022 price change Forward P/E Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021 Energy 57.8% 9.6 11.1 Utilities -0.5% 18.8 20.4 Consumer Staples -2.7% 20.9 21.8 Healthcare -3.2% 17.4 17.2 Industrials -6.7% 18.0 20.8 Financials -12.1% 11.7 14.6 Materials -13.4% 15.6 16.6 Real Estate -27.7% 16.2 24.2 Information Technology -28.8% 19.6 28.1 Consumer Discretionary -37.4% 20.7 33.2 Communication Services -40.4% 14.0 20.8 S&P 500 -19.2% 16.5 21.4 Source: FactSet The energy sector has been the only one to show a gain in 2022, and it has been a whopper, even as West Texas Intermediate crude oil
CL.1,
+0.41%
has given up most of its gains from earlier in the year. Here’s why investors are still confident in the supply/demand setup for oil and energy stocks.Looking at the worst-performing sectors, you might wonder why the consumer discretionary and communication services sectors have fared worse than information-technology, the core tech sector. One reason is that S&P Dow Jones Indices can surprise investors with its sector choices. The consumer discretionary sector includes Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
+0.70%
and Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
-1.17% ,
which has fallen nearly 50% this year. The communications sector includes Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
-1.21% ,
along with Match Group Inc.
MTCH,
+0.50% ,
which is down 69% for 2022, and Netflix Inc.
NFLX,
-0.44% ,
which is down 52% this year.There have been many reasons easy to cite for Big Tech’s decline, such as a questionable change in strategy for Facebook’s holding company, Meta, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg has put so much of the company’s resources into developing a new world that most people don’t wish to enter, at least yet. Meta’s shares were down 64% for 2022 through Dec. 29.
You might also blame the Twitter-related antics and sales of Tesla shares by CEO Elon Musk for the 65% decline in the electric-vehicle maker’s stock this year. But Tesla had a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 120.3 at the end of 2021, while the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.72%
traded for 21.4 times its weighted forward earnings estimate, according to FactSet. Those P/E ratios have now declined to 21.7 and 16.4, respectively. So Tesla no longer appears to be a very expensive stock, especially for a company that increased its vehicle deliveries by 42% in the third quarter from a year earlier.Analysts polled by FactSet expect Tesla’s stock to double during 2023. It nearly made this list of 20 EV stocks expected to rebound the most in 2023.
The worst-performing S&P 500 stocks of 2022
Here are the 20 stocks in the S&P 500 that fell the most for 2022 through the close on Dec. 29.
Company Ticker 2022 price change Forward P/E Forward P/E as of Dec. 32, 2021 Generac Holdings Inc. GNRC,
-0.84% -71.4% 13.7 30.2 Match Group Inc. MTCH,
+0.50% -68.9% 20.1 48.5 Align Technology Inc. ALGN,
-0.52% -67.7% 27.4 48.7 Tesla Inc. TSLA,
+0.70% -65.4% 21.7 120.3 SVB Financial Group SIVB,
-0.38% -65.4% 10.8 23.0 Catalent Inc. CTLT,
-0.40% -64.6% 13.0 32.5 Meta Platforms Inc. Class A META,
-1.21% -64.2% 14.7 23.5 Signature Bank SBNY,
-0.34% -64.1% 6.2 18.6 PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL,
-0.01% -62.6% 14.8 36.0 V.F. Corp. VFC,
+0.15% -62.5% 11.9 20.4 Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. Series A WBD,
-1.64% -59.9% N/A 7.5 Carnival Corp. CCL,
-0.23% -59.8% 38.1 N/A Stanley Black & Decker Inc. SWK,
-0.42% -59.8% 17.0 15.9 Lumen Technologies Inc. LUMN,
-1.79% -57.8% 7.7 7.8 Zebra Technologies Corp. Class A ZBRA,
-0.44% -56.7% 14.5 30.1 Dish Network Corp. Class A DISH,
-0.96% -56.5% 8.6 10.9 Caesars Entertainment Inc. CZR,
+0.24% -55.7% 51.4 144.5 Lincoln National Corp. LNC,
+0.26% -55.1% 3.4 6.2 Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD,
-0.97% -55.0% 17.8 43.1 Seagate Technology Holdings PLC STX,
-0.55% -53.1% 15.0 12.4 Source: FactSet Click on the tickers for more information about the companies.
Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.
Another way of measuring the biggest stock-market losers of 2022
It is one thing to have a large decline based on the share price, but that doesn’t tell the entire story. How much of a decline have investors seen in the holdings of their shares during the year? The S&P 500’s total market capitalization declined to $31.66 trillion as of Dec. 28 (the most recent figure available) from $40.36 trillion at the end of 2021, according to FactSet.
Shareholders of these companies have suffered the largest declines in market cap during 2022.
Company Ticker 2022 market capitalization change ($bil) 2022 price change Apple Inc. AAPL,
-0.63% -$851 -27.0% Amazon.com Inc. AMZN,
-1.17% -$832 -49.5% Microsoft Corp. MSFT,
-1.15% -$728 -28.3% Tesla Inc. TSLA,
+0.70% -$677 -65.4% Meta Platforms Inc. Class A META,
-1.21% -$465 -64.2% Nvidia Corp. NVDA,
-1.37% -$376 -50.3% PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL,
-0.01% -$141 -62.6% Netflix Inc. NFLX,
-0.44% -$138 -51.7% Walt Disney Co. DIS,
-1.62% -$123 -43.7% Salesforce Inc. CRM,
-0.96% -$118 -47.8% Source: FactSet So there is your surprise for today: Apple is this year’s biggest stock-market loser.
Don’t miss: Best stock picks for 2023: Here are Wall Street analysts’ most heavily favored choices
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Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Netflix, Cal-Maine Foods, Southwest and more
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In this photo illustration the Netflix logo seen displayed on a smartphone screen, with graphic representation of the stock market in the background.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Netflix — The streaming giant gained 6.3% following a double upgrade to buy from sell by CFRA. The firm said it would be difficult for competitors to catch up with the company.
Cal-Maine Foods — Cal-Maine shares shed 15% after reporting earnings that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations even as the egg producer reported record sales. The company said the avian flu outbreak limited supply and pushed prices up.
Southwest Airlines — The airline stock rose more than 3%, paring back losses from the previous session when it dropped more than 5%. Severe disruptions at Southwest Airlines have drawn outsized criticism from frustrated travelers, who have dealt with thousands of canceled flights from airlines this week because of winter weather. Southwest Airlines canceled another 60% of its flights on Wednesday. According to The Dallas Morning News, it’s expected to restore its full schedule on Friday.
Lockheed Martin — The defense contractor’s stock rose nearly 1% following news that its Sikorsky unit is contesting a U.S. Army helicopter contract awarded to Textron. It said proposals for the $1.3 billion contract were not evaluated fairly. Textron shares were last up 1.9%.
Tesla — Tesla shares gained more than 7% after selling off during the previous sessions and 37% this month. The stock’s headed for one of its worst months, quarters and years ever.
Apple — The iPhone maker’s stock rose more than 3% after hitting its lowest level since June 2021 earlier in the week.
General Electric — Shares rose 1.7% amid news that General Electric’s health-care spinoff will join the S&P 500 when it starts trading separately on Jan. 4. GE Healthcare will replace Vornado Realty Trust, set to join the S&P MidCap 400.
ImmunoGen — Shares added 6.2% after the biotechnology company announced CFO Susan Altschuller would not return from her time off. Renee Lentini, the vice president and chief accounting officer, was named interim CFO. The stock initially dropped in premarket trading.
TG Therapeutics — The biopharmaceutical stock soared more than 29% on news that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its drug to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis. The drug, known as Briumvi, is expected to roll out during the first quarter of 2023.
— CNBC’s Alex Harring and Sarah Min contributed reporting
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All 30 Dow stocks rise, led by Disney and Apple, the previous session’s worst performers
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average’s
DJIA,
+1.11%
307-point rally in morning trading Thursday was unanimous, as all 30 components were gaining ground. The top performers were shares of Walt Disney Co.
DIS,
+4.43% ,
up 4.1%, and Apple Inc.
AAPL,
+3.15% ,
up 2.7%. Those two stocks happened to be the Dow’s worst performers on Wednesday when the Dow dropped 366 points, with Apple shares shedding 3.1% and Disney’s stock dropping 2.2%. Intel Corp.’s stock
INTC,
+2.33% ,
which is the Dow’s biggest loser year to date, was the Dow’s third-biggest gainer on Thursday with a 2.1% rise. The worst performer on Thursday was Merck & Co. Inc.’s stock
MRK,
+0.09% ,
which ticked up just 0.1%. Merck’s stock was the Dow’s second-best year-to-date performer with a 45.0% gain, behind Chevron Corp.’s
CVX,
+0.68%
51.4% rally.[ad_2]
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‘Five days that killed the year’: These trading sessions accounted for 95% of the S&P 500’s losses in 2022
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Just five trading sessions accounted for more than 95% of S&P 500 index losses in 2022, according to an analysis by Datatrek co-founder Nicholas Colas in a note published Wednesday, as stocks headed for their worst year since 2008.
He described them in the note as the “five days that killed the year”: Two were caused by disappointing inflation data, while the others were triggered by weak corporate earnings and commentary from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
September 13 (-4.3%)
On the worst day for stocks since 2020, the release of the August U.S. consumer price index report sent traders into a panic when the data showed annual headline and core inflation running hotter than expected.
The headline number came in at 8.3% for the 12 months through August, while core inflation — which strips out volatile food and energy prices — accelerated at 6.3%.
Economists and analysts were particularly rattled by the monthly core inflation number, which came in at 0.6%, double the expected rate of 0.3%, stoking concerns about stubbornly high housing costs as energy prices began to decline after earlier being the biggest driver of this year’s inflation.
May 18th (-4.0%).
Retail giant Target Corp.
TGT,
+0.04%
missed first quarter earnings expectations by a wide margin, elevating worries about the U.S. consumer’s ability to cope with inflation into a full-blown panic one day after Walmart Inc.
WMT,
-1.64%
highlighted similar concerns.Adding to the pressure on the market, during an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal Powell acknowledged that “there could be some pain involved” as the FOMC raised interest rates.
June 13 (-3.9%)
This day’s punishing selloff was also triggered by the release of CPI data, as the numbers for the month of May came in higher than expectations. The S&P 500 finished the session in bear-market territory for the first time in 2022, down 21.8% from the record highs reached in early January.
April 29 (-3.6%)
The market’s decline on this day was also triggered by a corporate earnings disappointment. However, this time, the focus was on e-commerce, and the ripple effects sent many of the megacap technology stocks reeling.
Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
-1.16%
— which like both Target and Walmart is a member of the consumer discretionary sector of the S&P 500 — missed earnings expectations for the first quarter while reducing its guidance. The stock ended the day down 14%, its biggest single-session decline since 2006. Apple Inc.
AAPL,
-2.94% ,
Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
-0.68%
and Google owner Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL,
-1.48%
were also down sharply.May 5 (-3.6%)
Markets tumbled one day after Powell assured investors during a post-meeting press conference that the Fed wasn’t considering interest-rate hikes of greater than 50 basis points. Of course, this statement didn’t age well, as the central bank went on to hike interest rates by 75 basis points at the following four consecutive meetings.
According to Colas, investors can glean some helpful insights about the root causes of this year’s market misery from these five sessions.
To wit, investors had clearly realized by the spring that stubbornly high inflation would force the Fed to raise its benchmark interest rate more aggressively than it was letting on. Also, inflated expectations for corporate earnings helped contribute to the pain as U.S. consumer spending waned.
U.S. stocks sold off far more often than they traded higher this year, a deviation from the historic pattern since World War II whereby stocks typically climb far more often than they fall. Through Tuesday’s session, the index fell during 141 trading days (including Tuesday), while finishing higher during 107 up days.
The S&P 500 was on track to finish 2022 down more than 20% as of midday on Wednesday as all three of the main indexes were trading in the red, with the S&P 500
SPX,
-1.03% ,
Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-1.20%
and Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.88%
adding to their losses with just two more trading days left in the year.[ad_2]
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Apple stock drops toward 18-month low, heads for worst year since the financial crisis
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Shares of Apple Inc. dropped 2.8% in midday trading Wednesday, to put them on track for a fourth-straight decline and the lowest close in 18 months. The technology behemoth’s stock was the worst performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on the day, as the Dow slumped 288 points, or 0.9%. Apple’s stock has lost 6.7% during its four-day losing streak. It has shed 14.6% in December, to put it on track for the worst monthly performance since it tumbled 18.4% in November 2018, amid concerns over the macroeconomic backdrop and production challenges in China as COVID cases surge. Apple generated $74.20 billion in revenue from China in fiscal 2022, representing 18.8% of total revenue. With a year-to-date selloff of 28.8%, the stock is headed for the biggest yearly drop since it plunged 56.9% in 2008, during the financial crisis.
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You got a new iPhone for the holidays. Here’s the ultimate guide to getting the most out of it
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iPhone 14
Sofia Pitt | CNBC
You may have gotten Apple’s iPhone 14 as a gift for the holidays. If you’re upgrading from a much older iPhone model, there’s going to be a bit of a learning curve when it comes to navigating your brand-new iPhone.
If you were gifted the iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max, you may be wondering what a Dynamic Island is (that little floating graphic at the top of your screen). If you were gifted any of the iPhone 14 models, you’ll want to know what emergency SOS via satellite is and how to use it. There are also little hacks you should know about, such as editing or unsending iMessages, which I use all the time and can really come in handy.
Here are some iPhone 14 tips and tricks to get you started.
How to edit or unsend an iMessage
How to edit an iMessage in iOS 16
Todd Haselton | CNBC
You can now edit and delete iMessages you’ve already sent. This next feature works for anyone who has an iPhone released in 2017 or later. Just make sure your iPhone is running on iOS 16 or newer. (You can check by going to Settings > General > About.)
You’ll have only two minutes to unsend an iMessage and 15 minutes to edit an iMessage. This perk doesn’t work with SMS text messages, the type that shows up as green bubbles instead of blue ones. And it only works if the other person you’re texting also has iOS 16 or newer installed.
To edit an iMessage:
- Open iMessage.
- Press and hold the message you want to edit.
- A Quick Actions menu will appear.
- Tap Edit.
- Choose Edit to change the message.
- Once you’re done editing, hit the blue check mark.
- You can edit a single message up to five times.
- You’ll have 15 minutes from the time you sent it to change your message.
To unsend an iMessage:
- Open iMessage.
- Press and hold the message you want to unsend.
- A Quick Actions menu will appear.
- Tap Undo Send.
- Undo Send works up to two minutes after sending.
- When you try to unsend iMessages that were sent to someone running iOS 15 or earlier software, they may still be able to see them.
- If the person you are texting has iOS 16, a message will appear saying you unsent a text message. The person you’re texting won’t know what that message was, as long as they didn’t see a preview of that text when the original iMessage was sent.
How to delete duplicate photos
A new feature called “duplicate detection” helps to aggregate all of your repetitive photos. It’s only available on iOS 16, which you can download as long as you have an iPhone 8 or newer. Using this new feature can help you free up wasted storage space.
- Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
- Tap Albums at the bottom of your screen.
- In Albums, scroll down to the section titled Utilities.
- Under the Utilities section, select Duplicates.
- You’ll see duplicate matches and an option to Merge.
- Tap Merge to delete duplicate photos.
- To go through your duplicates faster, choose Select in the top right corner to choose multiple photos at once. You can even choose Select All to merge all of the duplicate photos iOS 16 detects.
How to turn on the battery percentage indicator
Apple’s iOS 16 Beta 5 shows battery percentage
Todd Haselton | CNBC
You can now see your battery percentage in the battery icon at the top of your screen. It’s useful if you want more details on how much battery life you have left. Knowing you have a 60% charge is a lot easier to see than trying to gauge it from an icon. So, turn on the battery percentage indicator.
How to turn on the battery percentage indicator:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Battery.
- Toggle on Battery Percentage.
You’ll now see that little number indicating your battery life inside the battery icon on the top right-hand corner of your iPhone screen.
How to use emergency SOS via satellite
Emergency SOS via satellite on iPhone 14.
Apple
In November, Apple launched emergency SOS via satellite for all iPhone 14 users, which allows users to text emergency services when they’re off the grid, whether camping in the mountains or driving in a remote area at night. The service is free for the first two years.
How to use emergency SOS via satellite:
- In the event of an emergency, try calling 911. If you don’t have cell service, your phone will try to connect to another carrier’s tower. If that doesn’t work, an option to use “Emergency Text via Satellite” will pop up.
- You can also go to iMessage to text 911 or SOS, then tap Emergency Services.
- An option will populate, allowing you to tap to report an emergency.
- Emergency questions will populate to help you best describe your situation. The first prompt will say “What’s the emergency?” You’ll then be able to select from options such as “Car or vehicle issue” or “sickness or injury.” Next, you’ll be led through a series of more in-depth questions.
- You’ll be given the option to notify your emergency contacts to let them know you reached out to emergency services, along with your location and the nature of your emergency. You can also use the Find My app to share your location with friends and family via satellite.
- To connect to a satellite, your phone will ask you to point it toward the sky. As long as you have a clear view, you should be able to connect to a satellite, but it could take up to 15 seconds for your messages to go through. If you don’t have a clear view of the sky, because of trees or another obstruction, the texts may take a minute to go through. And because satellites orbit the earth quickly, you’ll have to move your phone slightly to stay connected throughout the conversation.
- Once you’ve connected to emergency services via satellite, they’ll immediately know your location and the nature of your emergency, but you’ll be asked a few more questions to help emergency personnel locate you and to come prepared.
- If you have your medical ID set up through your iPhone’s health settings, emergency services will be able to see important personal information, like what medications you’re taking and the names of your emergency contacts.
How to identify a song
Tap this button to identify songs from your iPhone.
Todd Haselton | CNBC
This next trick works with all iPhones, but many people don’t know about it and it’s super fun and useful. You can identify the song that’s playing on the radio at a bar, in your car, or at a friend’s house, all without having to open an app. All you have to do is swipe down and tap a single button.
Apple acquired the music recognition service Shazam in 2018 and setting it up on your iPhone is easy.
- Open Settings on your iPhone.
- Tap Control Center.
- Scroll down under “More” and tap the green ‘+’ button next to Music Recognition.
That adds the music recognition function to Control Center, which you access by swiping down from the top-right of your screen, or from the bottom of the screen if you have an iPhone with a Home button.
Once you’ve done that, you can use your iPhone to identify a song by swiping down from the top-right of the screen to open Control Center and then tapping the Shazam button. Your phone will listen for a few seconds, then show the artist and title at the top of your screen. And it’ll save a history of the songs you’ve identified so you can go back and see them later. To do that, just press and hold the Shazam button.
How to use widgets
Widgets on your iPhone let you see info from your favorite apps without having to actually open those apps. You can use widgets on your home screen and lock screen, or you can use widgets from Today View by swiping right from the home screen or lock screen.
To see widgets on your home screen:
- From the Home Screen, touch and hold a widget or an empty area until the apps jiggle.
- Tap the Add button in the upper left corner.
- Select a widget, choose a widget size, then tap Add Widget.
- Tap Done.
To add widgets from Today View:
- Touch and hold a widget or an empty area in Today View until the apps jiggle. You can access Today View by swiping right from the home screen or lock screen.
- Tap the add button in the upper left corner.
- Scroll down to select a widget, then choose from three widget sizes.
- Tap Add widget, then tap Done.
How to clean up your home screen
The App Library organizes all of your apps for you.
Todd Haselton | CNBC
To keep your iPhone’s home screen organized, you can clean things up by adding and deleting apps.
To save space and declutter your iPhone, here’s how to delete apps you don’t use:
- Go to the App Library and tap the search field to open the list.
- Touch and hold the app icon, then tap Delete App.
- Tap Delete again to confirm.
To keep an app downloaded, but remove it from your home screen:
- Touch and hold the app.
- Tap Remove App.
- Tap Remove from home screen.
You’ll notice that when you swipe on your home screen from right to left, there are multiple pages that house your apps.
To remove an entire page from your home screen:
- Touch and hold an empty area on your home screen.
- Tap the dots near the bottom of your screen.
- Tap the circle under the page that you want to hide.
- Tap the Remove button, then tap Remove.
To hide an entire page, but not delete it:
- Touch and hold an empty area on your home screen.
- Tap the dots near the bottom of your screen.
- Tap the circle under the page that you want to hide.
- Tap Done.
To unhide a page, repeat the steps above. Then use the App Library to quickly find apps hidden on different pages.
How to turn off 5G to save battery life
The iPhone 12, by default, will save battery by switching between 5G and 4G LTE as needed.
Todd Haselton | CNBC
5G cell service works with all carriers and iPhone models 12, 13, 14 and SE 3. On the iPhone, Apple uses a 5G Auto Setting as a default. This enables Smart Data mode. When 5G speeds don’t provide a better experience, your phone will automatically switch to LTE, saving battery life.
If your phone is not on 5G Auto and instead on 5G On, you could be draining your battery. That’s because no matter what connection is best, your iPhone is always trying to connect to 5G.
To optimize your battery life, here’s how to turn off 5G:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Cellular.
- Tap Cellular Data Options.
- Tap Voice & Data.
- To turn off 5G, tap LTE for better battery life.
Or let your iPhone decide for you to optimize battery:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Cellular.
- Tap Cellular Data Options.
- Tap Data Mode.
- Tap Low Data Mode when you want to conserve your battery life.
How to charge your iPhone faster and conserve battery
Apple’s 18W fast charger for iPhone 11.
If you’re upgrading from a much older model iPhone, don’t use your old charger. As long as you have an iPhone 8 or newer, you can charge your phone by 50% in 30 minutes using a 20-watt power adapter with a USB-C to lightning cable charger. But there are some other battery tricks you should know about.
Turn on Low Power Mode to conserve battery:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Battery.
- Toggle Low Power Mode on.
You’ll see under this option an explanation from Apple that says: “Low Power Mode temporarily reduces background activity like downloads and mail fetch until you can fully charge your iPhone.”
Turn down your screen brightness to conserve battery:
If your screen is on maximum brightness, it’s draining your iPhone’s battery. To turn it down:
- Swipe down from the upper left corner of your iPhone.
- There’s a rectangle icon where you’ll see an image of a sun. Swipe down on the icon until the screen’s brightness is reduced.
Check your iPhone’s battery health:
Apple has a tool that’s automatically built into your iPhone to help prevent your battery from losing efficacy. This feature also makes your iPhone charge slower based on your routines. Here’s how to turn it off:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Battery.
- Tap Battery Health & Charging
- Toggle off Optimized Battery Charging.
How to use Focus so you don’t get notifications all day
Apple’s new Focus feature in iOS 15
Todd Haselton | CNBC
As long as you have iOS 15 or newer, you can set up a feature called Focus which allows you to choose the alerts and notifications you receive and let others know you’re busy. This can help you avoid getting distracted by all of your phone’s notifications while you’re trying to work, sleep or drive.
- Open Settings.
- Tap Focus.
- Tap options such as Do Not Disturb, Personal, Sleep or Work.
- Tap Customize.
- Select allowed or silenced notifications from people and apps. This way if your child, or boss, is calling, you’ll still get notified.
- You can also enable Time Sensitive notifications from apps, which allows apps not in your allowed list to send notifications marked as Time Sensitive.
- You can swipe down from the top-right of your home screen to turn on Focus.
When you’re on Focus, your status will automatically be displayed in your Messages app so when people try to send you a message, they’ll see that you’ve silenced your notifications, but they can still choose to notify you if it’s urgent.
Also, if you have an iPad or Apple Watch, or any other Apple device set up, Focus will automatically be applied across all your Apple devices that are signed in with the same Apple ID.
How to customize your lock screen
Apple iPhone lock screen
Source: Apple
There are some new cool lock screens on the iPhone 14.
To change up your lock screen:
- Touch and hold the lock screen until the Customize button appears at the bottom of your screen.
- Tap Customize.
- Tap Add Widgets to add views of your favorite apps, such as upcoming calendar events, your Apple Watch battery life, the weather, the news, a countdown, or your upcoming alarms.
Use Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro
Apple’s new Dynamic Island feature on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Sofia Pitt
Dynamic Island is the coolest feature Apple introduced this year. Instead of that blank notch that used to house the selfie camera and microphone, there’s a new interactive pill display that has the ability to shape-shift on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Let’s say you’re reading an article. You can also control the music you’re listening to by tapping Dynamic Island instead of switching applications. It’s useful.
The space can be used to show other things, such as directions, AirPod connection status and battery life, or a timer. It can even split into two separate cutouts, so you can see a timer on one side and track the arrival time of your Lyft simultaneously, for example.
How to turn off the always-on display on iPhone 14 Pro
Always-on display toggled off on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Sofia Pitt
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max have a feature called an always-on display, which Android phones have had for years. The advantage is that you can see your widgets, such as the date and the weather, as well as the time, in a low-light mode when your phone is locked. The feature isn’t supposed to be a drain on your battery.
But, if you’re like me and want more peace and quiet without the urge to look over at your phone, here’s how to turn off the always-on display.
- Open Settings.
- Tap Display & Brightness.
- Scroll down to Always On and toggle it off to deactivate the feature.
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This company has wiped out more investor wealth in 2022 than Tesla
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Elon Musk has been trying this week to defend Tesla’s abysmal stock performance in 2022. The electric vehicle giant has seen its stock plummet by 61% this year, making it the 11th-worst performing stock in the S&P 500 in 2022.
“As bank savings account interest rates, which are guaranteed, start to approach stock market returns, which are *not* guaranteed, people will increasingly move their money out of stocks into cash, thus causing stocks to drop,” Musk tweeted.
You might expect that Tesla’s stock drop has wiped out more investor wealth than any other stock in the world this year. But you would be wrong.
If we look at declines in market capitalization — the value of companies’ common-shares outstanding — Tesla
TSLA,
-1.76%
has been the fourth worst-performing stock in the benchmark S&P 500 this year, as of 1 p.m. ET on Dec. 21:Company Ticker 2022 market cap change ($bil) Intraday market cap on Dec. 21 ($bil) Dec. 31, 2021 market cap ($bil) 2022 price change Amazon.com Inc. AMZN,
+1.74% -$805 $886 $1,691 -48% Apple Inc. AAPL,
-0.28% -$753 $2,160 $2,913 -24% Microsoft Corp. MSFT,
+0.23% -$700 $1,825 $2,525 -27% Tesla Inc. TSLA,
-1.76% -$622 $439 $1,061 -61% Meta Platforms Inc. Class A META,
+0.79% -$466 $318 $784 -64% Nvidia Corp. NVDA,
-0.87% -$329 $406 $735 -44% PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL,
+0.67% -$143 $79 $222 -63% Netflix Inc. NFLX,
-0.94% -$134 $133 $267 -51% Walt Disney Co. DIS,
+1.55% -$122 $160 $282 -44% Salesforce Inc. CRM,
+0.19% -$119 $131 $250 -49% Source: FactSet On a percentage basis, all these stocks have performed worse than the full S&P 500, which has fallen 19%, excluding dividends.
Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
+1.74%
has erased more shareholder wealth than any other publicly traded company in 2022. In total, investors in Amazon have lost $804.6 billion this year. The stock is down 48% in 2022.Apple Inc.
AAPL,
-0.28%
and Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+0.23%
have also suffered larger market-cap declines than Tesla, by virtue of their sheer size.The companies have different fiscal and annual period ends, but if we look at data for the past three reported quarters and compare to the same period a year earlier, here’s how the four stack up:
Company Ticker Change in sales for three quarters from year-earlier period Change in EPS for three quarters from year-earlier period Amazon.com Inc. AMZN,
+1.74%
10% N/A Apple Inc.
AAPL,
-0.28% 6% 2% Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+0.23% 14% -2% Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
-1.76% 58% 169% Source: FactSet Amazon showed a net loss of $3 billion for the first three quarters of 2022 as the company neared the end of its extraordinary multiyear effort to build out its warehouse and fulfillment infrastructure. For the first three quarters of 2021, the company booked $19 billion in profits. When announcing Amazon’s third-quarter results CEO Andy Jassy said the company was working methodically toward “a stronger cost structure for the business moving forward.”
The incredible growth of Amazon’s cloud business has stalled and disappointed the expectations the company had nurtured on Wall Street. The Amazon Web Services business is facing increasing competition from the likes of Microsoft and its customers are pulling back. Meanwhile, retail sales have also come in weak going into the Christmas and holiday season.
Amazon’s stock has declined 22% since it closed at $110.96 on Oct. 27, right before it disappointed investors not only with its third-quarter results, but with its outlook: It expects to break even during the holiday quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet had previously expected a profit of more than $5 billion.
Tesla stands in contrast to Amazon, as you can see on the table above. Its sales grew by 58% during the first three quarters of 2022 from the year-earlier period and its earnings per share rose nearly threefold.
This has been a year of significant declines for shares of giant tech-oriented companies, especially those that had traded at lofty price-to-earnings valuations — that group includes Amazon and Tesla. In fact, these companies have given up all their pandemic era gains int he stock market.
But with Tesla’s results so outstanding through the first three quarters of 2022, it raises the question: How much of the drop in the electric car makers share price was tied to Musk’s actions as CEO of Twitter, which he acquired on Oct. 27 after a monthslong saga? And how much of a relief rally, if any, might there be for Tesla if Musk, as expected, steps down as Twitter CEO?
How about some bottom-feeding?
Here’s the same list of 10 stocks in the S&P 500 that have seen the largest declines in market cap this year, with a summary of analysts’ ratings, consensus price targets and declines in their forward price-to-earnings ratios:
Company Ticker Share “buy” ratings Dec. 21 closing price Cons. price target Implied 12-month upside potential Forward P/E as of Dec. 20 Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021 Amazon.com Inc. AMZN,
+1.74% 91% $85.19 $134.85 58% 49.3 64.9 Apple Inc. AAPL,
-0.28% 74% $132.30 $173.44 31% 21.4 30.2 Microsoft Corp. MSFT,
+0.23% 91% $241.80 $293.06 21% 23.7 34.0 Tesla Inc. TSLA,
-1.76% 63% $137.80 $272.64 98% 24.6 120.3 Meta Platforms Inc. Class A META,
+0.79% 63% $117.09 $145.45 24% 14.5 23.5 Nvidia Corp. NVDA,
-0.87% 68% $160.85 $195.72 22% 39.2 58.0 PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL,
+0.67% 71% $68.76 $104.32 52% 14.5 36.0 Netflix Inc. NFLX,
-0.94% 47% $288.19 $302.89 5% 28.4 45.6 Walt Disney Co. DIS,
+1.55% 82% $87.02 $119.60 37% 19.8 34.2 Salesforce Inc. CRM,
+0.19% 78% $128.45 $195.18 52% 23.4 53.5 Source: FactSet A majority of analysts see a golden path ahead for 2023 for all of these stocks except for Netflix.
For more information about any of these companies, click the tickers.
Click here for a detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.
Don’t miss: 11 high-yield dividend stocks that are Wall Street’s favorites for 2023
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TikTok banned on government devices under spending bill passed by Congress
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Researchers at the University of Vermont analyzed 1,000 TikTok videos under the most popular hashtags related to body image and eating
Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto | Getty Images
Under the bipartisan spending bill that passed both chambers of Congress on Friday, TikTok will be banned from government devices, underscoring the growing concern about the popular video-sharing app owned by China’s ByteDance.
The bill, which still has to be signed into law by President Joe Biden, also calls on e-commerce platforms to do more vetting to help deter counterfeit goods from being sold online, and forces companies pursuing large mergers to pay more to file with federal antitrust agencies.
related investing news
Congress failed to pass many of the most aggressive bills targeting tech, including antitrust legislation that would require app stores developed by Apple and Google to give developers more payment options, and a measure mandating new guardrails to protect kids online. And though Congress made more headway this year than in the past toward a compromise bill on national privacy standards, there remains only a patchwork of state laws determining how consumer data is protected.
Center-left tech industry group Chamber of Progress cheered the exclusion of several antitrust bills that would have targeted its backers, which include Apple, Amazon, Google and Meta.
“What you don’t see in this year’s omnibus are the more controversial measures that have raised red flags on issues like content moderation,” Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich said in a statement following the release of the package text earlier this week. The group earlier raised concerns about a prominent antitrust measure, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act.
Another industry group, NetChoice, also applauded Congress for “refusing to include radical and unchecked progressive proposals to overhaul American antitrust law in this omnibus.”
But the bills lawmakers passed in the spending package will still make their mark on the tech industry in other ways.
TikTok ban on government devices
The banning of TikTok on government devices could benefit rival platforms like Snap and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram that also fight for young consumers’ attention. The bill includes an exception for law enforcement, national security and research purposes.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as FBI Director Christopher Wray, have voiced fear that TikTok’s ownership structure could make U.S. user data vulnerable, since companies based in China may be required by law to hand over user information. TikTok has repeatedly said its U.S. user data is not based in China, though those assurances have done little to alleviate concern.
The company has been working toward a deal with the administration to assuage national security fears through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.
“We’re disappointed that Congress has moved to ban TikTok on government devices — a political gesture that will do nothing to advance national security interests — rather than encouraging the Administration to conclude its national security review,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement following the release of the package text. “The agreement under review by CFIUS will meaningfully address any security concerns that have been raised at both the federal and state level. These plans have been developed under the oversight of our country’s top national security agencies — plans that we are well underway in implementing — to further secure our platform in the United States, and we will continue to brief lawmakers on them.”
Deterring online counterfeit sales
The spending package also includes the INFORM Consumers Act, which seeks to deter counterfeit, stolen or harmful products from being sold online. The bill requires online marketplaces like Amazon to promptly collect information like bank and contact details from “any high-volume third party seller” and to verify that data.
Though Amazon initially opposed the bill last year, writing that it was “pushed by some big-box retailers” and claiming it would punish small businesses that sell online, the company ended up supporting a version of the bill, saying it was important to have a federal standard rather than a patchwork of state laws. Etsy and eBay had earlier supported the bill.
“Passing the bipartisan INFORM Act would be a major victory for consumers, who deserve to know who they’re buying from when they visit an online marketplace,” Kovacevich said in a statement. “This legislation has been through years of hearings and markups and has earned the support of both parties as well as brick-and-mortar stores and online marketplaces.”
Etsy’s head of Americas advocacy and public policy, Jeffrey Zubricki, said in a statement the bill “will achieve our shared goal of protecting consumers from bad actors while avoiding overly broad disclosure requirements that would harm our sellers’ privacy and hinder their ability to run their creative businesses.”
Higher fees for big mergers
While more ambitious antitrust measures targeting digital platforms didn’t make it into the end-of-year legislation, there is one bill to help raise money for the antitrust agencies that scrutinize mergers. The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act will raise the cost companies pursuing large mergers must pay to file with the antitrust agencies, as they’re required to do under the law. The bill also lowers the cost for smaller deals and allows the fees to be adjusted each year based on the consumer price index.
The measure is meant to help fund the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division, which have seen a large uptick in merger filings over the past few years without adequate budget increases.
While it fell short of antitrust advocates’ hopes, the inclusion of the merger filing fee bill still gained praise.
“This is a major milestone for the anti-monopoly movement,” said Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, backed in part by the Omidyar Network. Miller said the bill will “significantly strengthen antitrust law for the first time since 1976.”
“Big Tech, Big Ag and Big Pharma spent extraordinary sums in an unprecedented effort to keep Congress from delivering on antitrust reform and undermine the ability of state and federal enforcers to uphold the law — and they lost,” Miller added.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who sponsored the bill, said in a statement earlier this week its inclusion “is an important step to restructure merger fees after decades of the status quo so we can provide our antitrust enforcers with the resources they need to do their jobs.”
“This is clearly the beginning of this fight and not the end,” she said. “I will continue to work across the aisle to protect consumers and strengthen competition.”
Empowering state AGs in antitrust cases
Another antitrust bill included in the package was a version of the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act. The bill gives state attorneys general the same power as federal enforcers in antitrust cases to choose the district in which they bring their cases and prevent them from being consolidated in a different district.
Under the legislation, companies defending against claims of antitrust violations won’t be able to pick what they perceive to be a more favorable venue to fight the case.
That’s what happened in an antitrust case against Google brought by a group of state attorneys general accusing the company of illegally monopolizing the digital advertising market. The company transferred the case from Texas to New York, to be heard alongside private antitrust complaints against the company in the pretrial proceedings.
Last year, attorneys general from 52 states and territories wrote Congress in support of the legislation.
Transparency on ransomware attacks
The bipartisan RANSOMWARE Act also made it into the spending bill, requiring the FTC to report to Congress on the number and types of foreign ransomware or other cyberattack complaints it receives.
The FTC also must report to Congress trends in numbers it sees in these complaints, including those that come from individuals, companies or governments of foreign adversaries like China, North Korea, Iran and Russia. And it must share information on its litigation actions related to these cases and their results.
The FTC can also share recommendations for new laws to strengthen resilience against these attacks as well as for best practices that businesses can follow to protect themselves.
Research into tech impacts on kids
A version of the Children and Media Research Advancement (CAMRA) Act is included in the package, directing the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct or support research on the effects of media and technology on infants, kids and adolescents.
Those effects could include the impact on cognitive, mental and physical health by technologies like social media, artificial intelligence, video games or virtual reality, according to the legislation. The director of the National Institutes of Health must deliver a report to Congress on its work within two years of the law’s enactment.
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Best portable chargers in 2022 | CNN Underscored
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CNN
—
Even when working from home, a power supply can be hard to come by, what with your computer, monitor, WiFi hub and other gadgets and gizmos and their wall chargers hogging those sparse outlets. And when you’re on the go, a solid power source is especially a necessity. The solution: a portable charger to keep your phone, tablet and more juiced to the max.
So to help identify the best options for avoiding that dreaded “low battery” notification, we spent several weeks testing portable chargers — draining devices, charging them up and calculating capacities. Ultimately, we found three winners that each stole the show in their own way.
Best portable charger overall
Where the Anker PowerCore 13000 shone most was in charging capacity. It boasts 13,000mAh, which is enough to fully charge an iPhone 11 two and a half times. Plus, it has two fast-charging USB Type-A ports so you can juice a pair of devices simultaneously.
The most portable
The ultraportable Belkin Power Pocket 5K is almost the exact same size as an iPhone SE, but weighs even less. And, proving the old adage “big things come in small packages” correct, it packs enough power to fully charge an iPhone 11 from its singular USB Type-A port.
Best portable charger for iPhone
The Belkin Boost Power Pocket 5K goes hand-in-hand with iPhones thanks to the inclusion of a Lightning port along with the USB Type A port. That means you can use the same cord to charge your phone and refill the battery.
Benjamin Levin/CNN Simply put, the Anker PowerCore 13000 packs a ton of value.
You can charge a lot with this thing — and quickly. The PowerCore 13000 has enough capacity to bring an iPhone 11 to full charge two and a half times, or two Samsung Galaxy S20s from empty to more than 90%. And you won’t be sitting by idly for too long, either, as the PowerCore 13000 takes just 41 minutes to charge an iPhone 11 to 50%, tied for fastest charging in our testing.
While the PowerCore 13000 doesn’t fully live up to its promise of 13,000mAh (we found it delivers 7918mAh), it hit a respectable 61% of what’s advertised — a percentage that put it about average among all the batteries we tested. In other words: None of the portable chargers we tested fully lived up to their claims, and the PowerCore 13000 still has more charging capacity than most others we tested. (You can read more about how we measured mAhs by scrolling down.) Plus, it’s just a few more bucks than the Belkin Pocket Power 5K for more than double the mAhs.
The side of the battery houses three ports: dual USB Type-A ports (which are fast-charging) and a micro-USB port to charge the battery itself — allowing you to run several USB-C cables to different devices all at once. When we charged an iPhone 11 and a Nintendo Switch simultaneously, the battery barely heated up. Four LED lights alert you to the charger’s remaining battery life, with a button on the edge to turn the lights on.
The charger’s matte plastic design feels nice to the touch and resists smudging surprisingly well. It’s about the size of a full wallet, so it’s easy to carry around. And it’s durable: The charger survived our drop tests, which included a 3-foot drop onto grass and a 1.5-foot drop onto carpet, with neither external nor internal damage. (You can read more about our durability testing below.)
Overall, not only does the Anker PowerCore 13000 pack major mAhs, but it’s got two ports for your USB cables and is fairly small and durable.
Benjamin Levin/CNN When we first encountered the Belkin Power Pocket 5K, it was hard to believe its size: just 5 inches long, 2.5 inches wide and a half-inch thick. There are few places this battery won’t fit, yet many devices it’ll charge.
It was the smallest and the lightest charger we tested; you might even mistake it for the phone in your pocket. This portable charger is really the definition of a personal power bank, easily whipped out of a pocket and held alongside your mobile device.
The charging capacity of the Power Pocket 5k is modest, but it did come closest to living up to its claimed output out of all the models we tested. While its maximum capacity is stated to be 5,000mAh, we measured it at about 3,655mAh. That’s 73% of the expected value, which is 12% better than average in our testing. While its capacity isn’t huge, it’s more than enough to bring an iPhone 11 or Samsung Galaxy S10 battery back to full life. The only significant downside we could find was the charging speed: It takes a little more than 51 minutes to charge an iPhone 11 to 50%.
The Anker PowerCore 13000 features four battery-indicating LEDs on its side alongside a button to turn them on. Around the corner are the ports: a single USB-C input along with a micro-USB port to charge the battery with the included charging cable. Like the PowerCore 13000, the Pocket Power 5K received no superficial or internal damage during our drop testing. And you can rest assured that even if you do break it, it comes with a two-year warranty along with a generous $2,500 connected equipment warranty (which covers unlikely electrical damage to tech that was properly plugged into the Pocket Power 5K).
The wee-as-can-be Belkin Pocket Power 5K is impressive for its size. Although the capacity isn’t huge, it’s more than enough to fulfill the needs of most personal devices and small enough to keep in your pocket everywhere you go — and a bit lighter on the wallet for those on a budget.
Benjamin Levin/CNN The Belkin Boost Charge Power Pocket 5K offers a bit less capacity than the Belkin Power Pocket 5K, but it’s a match made in heaven for iPhones — and it charges faster, too.
Along one side of the Belkin Boost Charge resides a USB Type-A port and a Lightning port (MFi-approved) to charge the battery. This is the big deal here — that’s the very same kind of port that your iPhone and iPad has. In other words, as long as you have a Lightning cable to charge your iPhone (we’re going to assume you do), you have a cable to recharge your battery, too. Consolidating cables is a big win in our book. This charger also pairs better alongside a smartphone because it’s lighter than the Anker 13000 and sports more of a rectangular shape, so it fits a bit more snug in the hand.
The Boost Power Pocket 5K has more than enough juice to fully charge an iPhone 11. It also took a little more than 45 minutes to charge an iPhone 11 to 50%, which is faster than the Belkin Pocket Power 5K by six minutes. The capacity of the BOOST Power Pocket 5K is advertised as 5,000mAh and, during our testing, we measured about 3,415mAh. That’s nearly 70% of the advertised value, making it one of the top three batteries we tested in terms of living up to its promise (the average was about 61%).
All in all, the Belkin Boost Charge Power Pocket 5K is a terrific personal charger for your iPhone. With both MFi certification and cable consolidation thanks to the Lightning port, it should really stand out to iPhone users.
We ran each and every portable charger through a series of tests. We charged each battery to full, ran it dry juicing up one or several devices, calculated its capacity and compared charging speeds. At the same time, we took a look at properties like weight, size, build quality and visual design. Whether it was a chunky battery that could charge all our tech, or a slim, sleek battery with enough to fill an iPhone, we put these things through the ringer.
Read on to see the breakdowns of all our testing categories.
- Battery Size: We noted how many milliamp Hours (mAh) each battery promised.
- Meets Estimation: This is where we measured how much each battery could actually provide in mAhs. To do so, we charged a variety of devices with each battery, recording how much battery life (aka what percentage) each device gained. When a device was at about 95%, but the battery was not empty, we immediately swapped it for a different device. Once a battery was empty, we calculated how many mAhs it provided in total across all the devices it charged and then divided the promised total by the recorded value. This allowed us to figure out what percentage of its promised total each battery provided. We used a 0.3M Nomad Universal Cable, plugged into a battery’s USB-A port (fast charging if available), to charge each device. The device pool we chose from for charging was: iPhone 11, iPhone 8, Fire HD 10 tablet, Nintendo Switch and Bose QuietComfort 35 II.
- Design and materials: We researched what materials each battery was made of, as well as how many color options are available. We also felt out the quality of each battery’s build. Visually, we checked out how each device looked alongside a variety of tech, noting if it appeared too big or small beside it, as well as if you could hold a battery and a phone in the same hand or pocket. The device pool we chose from for this was: iPhone 11, Fire HD 10 tablet and Nintendo Switch.
- Size and weight: We checked each battery’s dimensions, volume and weight. In our scoring, we favored smaller, lighter devices.
- Dust resistance: We checked whether the product is rated to resist dust, and to what extent it does so. This test was incorporated into our drop test below. After dropping a device onto grass, we checked how much dust and dirt it picked up. We also look into whether these particles could be dislodged from the ports via shaking the device or using compressed air.
- Drop Test: We performed two drop tests: 3 feet onto grass and 1.5 feet onto carpet. The former was to simulate a likely drop scenario outdoors, and the latter indoors. After each test, we examined the battery for superficial damage and checked whether it still functioned.
- Number of ports: We counted the number of ports on each device that could output power. We noted each port type, which could be one of the following: USB Type-A, USB Type-C, micro USB or Lightning. We also noted how many, if any, USB Type-A ports supported fast charging.
- Wireless charging: We noted whether a device supported wireless charging.
- Speed of charge: We charged an iPhone 11 from about 5% until it received 50% battery, recording how long the process took.
- Warranty: We researched the duration of each device’s warranty.
The Otterbox Otterspot is unlike any portable charger we’ve seen before. The system works as follows: A disk-shaped charging pad can charge mobile devices wirelessly, as well as the included disk-shaped battery via charging pins. The battery, which can be stacked up to three on the pad, can charge devices wirelessly or with a cable and then be recharged upon the pad. Wirelessly, it only delivered 2,519mAh to an iPhone 11. With a wired connection, it provided 3,134mAh. This is significantly less than, say, the 3,655mAh from the Belkin Pocket Power 5K with the same 5,000mAh promise. Overall, the Otterbox Otterspot is an awesome concept that may need some work on the capacity end.
TheAnker PowerCore III Sense 10K is a beautiful charger. It comes in multiple vibrant colors and features a woven yarn surface on top and matte plastic below. Unfortunately, it only provided 4,189mAh of its expected 10,000mAh capacity. This is 42% of the expected value, compared with the 61% the Anker PowerCore 13,000 was able to achieve. Despite its aesthetic beauty and quality build, this battery dropped the ball on capacity.
The Anker PowerCore II 20000 is the same price as the Anker PowerCore III Sense 10K, but provides 12,300mAh of its promised 20,000mAh. This is a more respectable 61.5% of what’s expected. The battery is pretty hefty and large, but it feels very durable and has a unique texture that eliminates most smudging. Compared to its 20,000mAh counterpart, the Elecjet PowerPie Power Bank, it weighs way less and provides more mAhs.
The Aukey 8,000mAh Power Bank was a favorite among those we tested. It’s quite slim, and a little lighter than the Anker PowerCore 13000. Out of the 8,000mAh expectation, it delivered 5509mAhs, which is almost 70%. That’s impressive, made better by three functional output ports and wireless charging (a feature that didn’t end up working on our unit). But despite this battery’s promising properties, it fell short of the PowerCore 13000’s capacity at a higher price, and it didn’t charge an iPhone 11 nearly as fast.
The Elecjet PowerPie Power Bank lists the same 20,000mAh capacity as the Anker PowerCore II 20000, except it reached just 11,969mAh, or about 60% of what we expected. It also weighs more and has a less sleek design, which didn’t help it score-wise. Overall, it’s got a lot of juice to provide, but it didn’t find a place among the winners.
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Semiconductor maker Micron announces 10% staff reduction, suspends bonuses
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Semiconductor maker Micron announced Wednesday that it would reduce its headcount by about 10% in 2023, in the latest example of a technology industry slowdown affecting employment.
Shares of Micron fell more than 1% in extended trading.
related investing news
Idaho-based Micron has about 48,000 employees, according to a recent SEC filing. The company said it would hit its reduction target through voluntary departures as well as layoffs.
Micron also said it is suspending 2023 bonuses.
“On December 21, 2022, we announced a restructure plan in response to challenging industry conditions,” the company said in an SEC filing. “Under the restructure plan, we expect to reduce our headcount by approximately 10% over calendar year 2023, through a combination of voluntary attrition and personnel reductions.”
Micron said it expected a $30 million charge in the current quarter related to the restructuring, which will also include less investment into manufacturing capacity and cost-cutting programs.
The move comes as Micron reported fiscal first-quarter 2023 results where it missed analyst estimates for earnings and revenue, and forecast a larger loss per share than expected in the current quarter.
Here’s how Micron did versus Refinitiv consensus estimates for the quarter ending in December:
- Loss per share: $0.04, adjusted, versus $0.01 estimated
- Revenues: $4.09 billion versus $4.11 billion estimated
Micron said it expected a loss of 62 cents per share on revenue of $3.8 billion in the current quarter. Analysts had expected guidance of a loss of 30 cents per share on $3.75 billion in sales.
Micron is best known for supplying memory to computer makers, but it is facing an environment where PC sales have already started to slow or shrink, while server sales are expected to show little growth in 2023.
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in prepared remarks that there is too much memory supply and not enough demand, which has resulted in the company keeping more inventory and losing pricing power.
“In the last several months, we have seen a dramatic drop in demand,” Mehrotra said, according to the prepared remarks.
He said he expects the company’s profitability to “remain challenged” through the end of 2023 but that the firm expects revenue and free cash flow to recover later in 2023. Micron said it has suspended share repurchases.
Micron’s restructuring comes after other semiconductor companies have announced hiring freezes or layoffs. In October, Intel announced that it would lay off workers as part of a plan to cut $10 billion in spending. Nvidia announced a hiring slowdown over the summer, and Qualcomm announced its hiring freeze in November.
But it’s not just semiconductor companies adjusting after two pandemic-fueled years of growth and supply issues. Tech companies including Meta, Twitter, Snap, Stripe and Tesla have also cut staff as companies gird for a potential recession and higher interest rates.
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Costco CEO’s cautious consumer outlook justifies our near-term view on the stock
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A shopper wearing a protective mask looks at a television for sale inside a Costco store in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, March 3, 2021.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Craig Jelinek, chief executive officer of Club holding Costco (COST), said Monday he sees a more-vigilant consumer this holiday shopping season and potentially beyond. However, he also said inflation is generally trending in the right direction, a development that’s good for the U.S. economy over the long term.
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Taiwan to fine Foxconn for unauthorized China investment
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Taiwan’s government said on Saturday it would fine Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, for an unauthorized investment in a Chinese chip maker even after the Taiwanese firm said it would be selling the stake.
Qilai Shen | Corbis Historical | Getty Images
Taiwan’s government said on Saturday it would fine Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, for an unauthorized investment in a Chinese chip maker even after the Taiwanese firm said it would be selling the stake.
Taiwan has turned a wary eye on China’s ambition to boost its semiconductor industry and is tightening legislation to prevent what it says is China stealing its chip technology.
Foxconn, a major Apple Inc supplier and iPhone maker, disclosed in July it was a shareholder of embattled Chinese chip conglomerate Tsinghua Unigroup.
Late Friday, Foxconn said in a filing to the Taipei stock exchange its subsidiary in China had agreed to sell its entire equity stake in Tsinghua Unigroup.
Taiwan’s Economy Ministry said in response that its investment commission, which has to approve all foreign investments, will ask Foxconn on Monday for a “complete explanation” about the investment.
“As for the fact that the investment was not declared beforehand, the amount will still be calculated in accordance with the formula and the penalty will be imposed in accordance with the law,” it said, without giving details.
Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
People familiar with the matter have previously told Reuters that Foxconn did not seek approval from the Taiwan government before the investment was made and authorities believe it violated a law governing self-ruled Taiwan’s relations with China, which claims the island as its own.
In a statement on Saturday before the economy ministry’s, Foxconn said as the year-end approached the original investment had “remained unfinalized.”
Foxconn said that Xingwei, 99% controlled by its China-listed unit Foxconn Industrial Internet Co Ltd (FII), had agreed to sell its holdings for at least 5.38 billion yuan ($772 million) to a Chinese company called Yantai Haixiu.
Xingwei controls a 48.9% stake in a different entity that holds a 20% stake in the vehicle owning all of Unigroup.
“In order to avoid uncertainties from further delays or impact to investment planning and the flexible deployment of capital, the Xingwei Fund will transfer its entire holding in Shengyue Guangzhou to Yantai Haixiu,” it said.
“After the transfer is completed, FII will no longer indirectly hold any equity in Tsinghua Unigroup.”
Tsinghua Unigroup did not respond to a request for comment.
Taiwanese law states the government can prohibit investment in China “based on the consideration of national security and industry development.” Violators of the law could be fined repeatedly until corrections are made.
Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, is keen to make auto chips in particular as it expands into the electric vehicle market.
The company has been seeking to acquire chip plants globally as a worldwide chip shortage rattles producers of goods from cars to electronics.
Taipei prohibits companies from building their most advanced foundries in China to ensure they do not site their best technology offshore.
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Marc Benioff tells Salesforce workers that new employees are ‘facing lower productivity’
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Marlena Sloss | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff told employees in a Slack message on Friday that the company’s newest hires aren’t being productive enough, and he asked for feedback as to why that’s the case.
“Are we not building tribal knowledge with new employees without an office culture?” he asked in a message viewed by CNBC. He said he was “asking for a friend,” a phrase people often use on the internet to humorously reveal their curiosity about a topic. The message included an emoji showing a smiling face with a halo hovering over it, suggesting innocence.
Benioff’s companywide message addresses what’s become a hot-button issue in Silicon Valley. Since the arrival of Covid sent workers home almost three years ago, companies have been trying to reimagine a future workplace that allows more employee flexibility than in the past. Some businesses have allowed employees to work from anywhere permanently.
Salesforce, the biggest private employer in San Francisco, was among the first tech companies to tell its workforce they didn’t have to come back. Last year, Salesforce acquired communications app Slack, and Benioff said people can work very effectively from their homes. Salesforce said it would let teams decide how much time they would be in office.
But Benioff may be recognizing some of the challenges remote work presents. On Friday he highlighted an issue that he said was affecting employees who joined Salesforce this year and last. Salesforce’s headcount grew by 32% in the past year, and last month it cut hundreds of jobs.
A Salesforce spokesperson declined to comment on Benioff’s message but sent a statement on the company’s policy.
“We have a hybrid work environment that empowers leaders and teams to work together with purpose,” the spokesperson wrote. “They can decide when and where they come together to collaborate, innovate, and drive customer success.”
Benioff is contending with slowing revenue growth as the economy weakens, and a thinning of the upper ranks within Salesforce. Last month, the company said Bret Taylor would be stepping down from his position as co-CEO in January. He’d just been promoted to share the top job with Benioff a year earlier. And days later, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield announced his departure.
Here’s the full text of Benioff’s Slack post:
How do we increase the productivity of our employees at salesforce? New employees (hired during the pandemic in 2021 & 2022) are especially facing much lower productivity. Is this a reflection of our office policy? Are we not building tribal knowledge with new employees without an office culture? Are our managers not directly addressing productivity with their teams? Are we not investing enough time into our new employees? Do managers focus enough time and energy on onboarding new employees & achieving productivity? is coming as a new employee to salesforce too overwhelming? Asking for a friend. (Im leaving this open ended to get the broadest level of response.)
The message prompted a variety of comments.
Some reacted with an emoji stating “THIS” alongside an up arrow. Others chose emojis that read “WFH” or “citation needed.” Dozens went with a standard emoji known as thinking face.
Benioff chimed in again in the responses.
“Asking hard questions of employees (and customers and each other) for their answers is one of the most effective ways to get answers as a leader today,” he wrote. “It’s why we bought Slack because there is no better way to ask questions and crowd source answers quickly. Already today we have almost 500 replies to these questions — amazing and incredibly useful!”
He was displeased that his message found its way to the press, ultimately ending up on Twitter.
“I hope you will agree it is also disappointing that our private conversations here were almost immediately given to the public media,” he wrote. “I wonder how do we reinforce that Trust is our highest company value? How do we demonstrate the power of Trust and Transparency without an immediate public disclosure. It gets to the heart of who we are at salesforce.”
His responses were shared with CNBC.
WATCH: Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff on Bret Taylor’s departure from the company
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Foxconn to ease COVID-19 curbs in Chinese iPhone factory
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HONG KONG — The company that assembles Apple Inc.’s iPhones has announced it is easing COVID-19 restrictions at its largest factory in China that led thousands of workers to quit and drastically slowed production.
Foxconn Technology Group said in a statement on one of its official WeChat social media accounts that it would end the so-called “closed loop” system at the facility in Zhengzhou, central China, that required workers to stay in their workplaces and dormitories to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections.
The move announced Wednesday came about a week after China began easing harsh COVID-19 curbs despite signs the number of infections is rising.
Following a spate of protests across the country last month many “zero-COVID” restrictions were lifted. That means people no longer need to take frequent COVID-19 tests to travel on public transport. If they do test positive for the virus, they can isolate at home if they have only mild or no symptoms instead of being sent to a quarantine center.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government is still officially committed to stopping virus transmission. But the government’s latest moves suggest authorities will tolerate more infections without quarantines or shutting down travel or businesses.
Thousands of workers at the huge factory in Zhengzhou walked out in late October over complaints of unsafe working conditions — such as food shortages due to closed cafeterias — and a virus outbreak at the plant.
The last quarter of the year is typically a busy season for companies like Foxconn as they ramp up production ahead of the end of year holiday rush. Apple has warned that iPhone 14 deliveries would be delayed due to manufacturing disruptions.
Foxconn, headquartered in New Taipei City, Taiwan, has been trying to rebuild its workforce after the massive walkout in late October. The company then ended up apologizing after a pay dispute triggered protests by workers who said Foxconn had changed the terms of wages offered to attract them to the factory.
In its announcement, the company said it would no longer provide free meals to workers because factory cafeterias would reopen. Instead, meal expenses will be deducted from employees’ wages as usual, though workers who must quarantine after testing positive for the virus will still get free meals.
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