September 14 Tech news roundup: Apple launches iPhone 16 series, Google Search adds links to pages from Internet Archive, ChatGPT Plus prices could be increased

Apple launches the iPhone 16 series with major improvements

Apple announced the iPhone 16 lineup this week, with several hardware improvements. The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are powered by an A18 SoC, while the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max have an A18 Pro chip. The devices run on iOS 18, and support Apple Intelligence. That said, Apple’s AI features are not ready yet, they will be introduced as part of the iOS 18.1 update in the near future.

The basic models of the iPhone 16 still have a 60Hz refresh rate, the ProMotion Display remains exclusive to the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. On the bright side, all 4 models of the iPhone 16 have an Action button that debuted in the previous iteration’s Pro models. One interesting addition to the iPhone 16 is the Camera Control button, which allows you to perform various actions quickly, from taking a picture instantly to start recording a video. The new iPhones offer improved fast charging, and network speeds, something which Apple didn’t really highlight during the launch event.

Google Search adds links to cached pages from Internet Archive

Earlier this year, Google made a rather puzzling decision to remove support for Cached Links from search results. This meant users could not view webpages that were taken down, or edited. However, there is good news. The search giant has added links to archived versions of webpages from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Unlike the good old Google Cached Links, which you could access by just clicking on the three-dot menu button, the Internet Archive’s links are buried under the “About This Page” section. So you will need to click on the menu, and then on the “About This Page” option, and then on the archived link. This will allow users to view older versions of a webpage, or even entire websites that are no longer accessible. The feature is still rolling out to users, so don’t be surprised if you don’t find the links to the Wayback Machine yet.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus subscription price could increase

OpenAI is considering whether to increase the subscription price of its premium service, ChatGPT Plus. Currently, the subscription for the AI chatbot is available for $20 per month. A report claims that the prices could shoot up to $2000. But it is unclear whether it is an annual fee or not. OpenAI could likely offer these higher priced plans at a tier that supports new, more advanced artificial intelligence models that focus on solving complex problems, such as multistep mathematical equations that require a level of reasoning similar to humans (multistep reasoning). Another reason for the price increase could be because of the financial status of the company, which is reportedly in a bad shape. According to some stats, the operating cost for the current language models is about $700,000 per day.

Windows September 2024 security updates released

Microsoft has released the September 2024 security updates for Windows 11 and Windows 10 computers. The updates ship with 79 security patches related to various Microsoft products, and 12 patches for non-Microsoft software. There are some known issues in the latest update. Windows 10 version 22H2 users may be unable to change the profile picture of their account.Enterprise users may face difficulties when upgrading from a licensed version of Windows 11 Pro to a Windows Enterprise subscription. There are no workarounds for this bug, and the one mentioned above.

Installing the September Windows Update could result in failure of booting on dual-boot systems that have Linux as an option. Users may run into an error related to SBAT, and Security Policy Violation. Fortunately, there is a workaround for this problem. This bug affects both Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs.

Firefox 115 ESR to support older versions of Windows and Mac till March 2025

Mozilla has announced that it has extended Firefox 115 ESR support for old Windows and macOS devices. Older versions of the operating system will continue to receive software patches for the browser until March 2025. This means users will be able to get security patches until the said date.

While the current version of Firefox ESR is 128, users on legacy operating systems cannot install that. But they can use Firefox 115 ESR, so this is good news for users who are still using Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, or macOS 10.12 up to 10.14. According to Mozilla, 10% of Firefox users are using those operating systems. Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge ended support for these operating systems already. It is unclear whether Mozilla would extend support for the old operating systems beyond March 2025, but if there are many users on the platform, the browser maker may decide to continue offering security patches for the legacy versions.

Apple Intelligence launch delayed; will only arrive in October

Apple Intelligence has been a hotly discussed topic, and many users were expecting that the AI features would be available as soon as the iPhone 16 was launched. However, that is not the case. Apple has confirmed that it has pushed back the launch of Apple Intelligence by a month. Some of its new features will be available for English language users in the U.S, followed by localized versions of English in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. Apple will reportedly release its image generation feature, called Image Playground, as part of iOS 18.2, which may be released next month. The company is expecting to launch its custom emoji creator, Genmoji, with iOS 18.4 that could ship by the end of the year.

iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS 15 Sequoia to release on September 16

Apple has announced the release date for iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS 15 Sequoia. You may be aware that newly launched iPhones come with the latest version of iOS out of the box. Traditionally, Apple has always delayed the release of new versions of macOS by a few weeks, while iOS and iPadOS are released together. This is changing, 2024 will mark the first time that Apple releases all three versions of the operating systems simultaneously. The new iterations of the operating systems will be available on September 16 for eligible devices.

macOS 15 will bring a slew of new features including Window Tiling, iPhone Mirroring, the Passwords app, Live audio transcription, Math expressions in Notes, and many more improvements.