Apple is one of the biggest companies on the planet, but they couldn’t get this one product to work and have now dumped it.
For a lot of people when they think of technology they think of Apple. I mean, for the normal person they are essentially everywhere and have done their best for years to dominate the smartphone market.
But behind the scenes, Apple were actually trying to branch out into a new market. Though after a decade of work, they scrapped the whole thing.
There’s no denying Apple dominate the tech industry (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Scrapped projects probably come and go on a near daily basis at massive tech companies except this one cost quite a pretty penny.
In 10 years, Apple has spent $10 billion trying to get this product off the ground and into the consumer’s hands, and it just wasn’t meant to be.
We are, of course, talking about their secretive and now-scrapped car project, named Titan.
While it isn’t exactly clear why the company decided to ditch the product in early 2024, they did internally tell the 2,000 employees that were working on it that it was being discontinued.
Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The project was initially intended to take Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla before shifting towards becoming a self-driving car. However, this would eventually be scrapped and they would go back to being an electric vehicle to rival Tesla.
You can only imagine how many millions were wasted flip-flopping on what the goal of the project was.
In 2024, when the project was cancelled, Apple redirected its resources toward generative artificial intelligence which ultimately meant 600 employees involved in the project were left without a job.
A post on Instagram reflected on this swing and a miss by Apple but few were that sympathetic to the massive company, despite its massive financial losses.
Apple hoped their project Titan car would rival Elon Musk’s Tesla (Getty Stock Image)
One person joked: “They can afford it from all the money they annually collect from re-releasing the same phone.”
Another joked: “So this why y’all stop giving us a charger in the box ?” while a third added: “Imagine a car that starts glitching when the new model comes out.”
And someone else commented: “Billion dollars… I guess iPhones is about to cost us $10.00 more so they can make that money back up lol.”
While another user added a little bit of optimism and said: “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
The tech war has been reignited as Mark Zuckerberg has shared his opinion on the Apple Vision Pro.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that the Meta CEO probably isn’t the biggest fan of Apple.
It makes sense, the companies are often fighting for dominion of the tech market and Zuckerberg has previously called Apple one of Facebook’s biggest competitors.
In a hilariously brazen move, Zuckerberg has conducted his own review of Apple’s latest product, the Apple Vision Pro.
Apple has said it hopes to blur the lines between the real and virtual world (yikes) with a wearable display that allows the user to have access to multiple screens in an augmented reality.
Many critics have suggested this is proof the ‘end is near’ and we are moving closer to a dystopian reality like that seen in TV show Black Mirror.
However, Apple was actually late to the party as it introduced a product with features similar to one already on the market.
In fact, in his video posted to his Instagram page on February 13, Zuckerberg claimed there is a cheaper and ‘better product’ already out there.
Instagram/@zuck
In a move that is no surprise to anyone, Zuckerberg promoted his company’s own product, the Meta Quest 3, which was unveiled in June last year.
I wonder if Zuckerberg might be a little biased in his assessment since… you know… he owns everything Meta makes.
In the video, that has been liked more than 150,000 times, he said: “The different companies made different design decisions for the headsets, they have different strengths, but overall Quest is better for the vast majority of things that people use mixed reality for.
“My friend Kenny is actually capturing this video on Quest’s high resolution mixed reality passthrough right now. We are just here in my living room, you can see his browsers windows and whatever he has got running up here.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
“Quest 3 does high quality pass through with big screens just like Vision Pro but we also designed it for a lot of other things.”
After trying the Apple Vision Pro, Zuckerberg proceeded to claim that his product is better for moving around, playing games, socializing as well as working out.
While much of the video was quite critical of Apple, he noted that the device did have some good features – and some that are even better than Quest 3 – such as a higher resolution screen.
However, Zuckerberg ultimately concluded that his product is seven times cheaper – as it costs just under $500 compared to Apple’s $3,500 device – has no wires that get in the way, is 120g lighter, has a wider field of view and an apparently brighter screen in comparison.
UNILAD has contacted Apple for comment.
The Simpsons have seemingly done it yet again – but this time, it’s getting even more bizarre.
Everyone loves The Simpsons, how could you not?
While it’s always been a popular show, for the past few years it’s become…well kinda creepy as the show seems to foreshadow the future with an eerie accuracy.
It’s freaking us out at this point.
A previous episode showed Trump becoming president before he was elected in 2017, while another showed Richard Branson flying into space before the Virgin Galactic completed its first journey to the edge of space in 2023.
And people believe that the show had even showed ‘smartwatches’ 12 years before they were made.
It’s as eerie as it is hilarious.
In 2016, an episode titled ‘Friends and Family’ was aired, which almost gave a Black Mirror feel to the cartoon, showing Homer and Marge lying in bed while using virtual reality headsets, which soon catches on to the whole of Springfield.
And many think that the tech has an uncanny resemblance to the new Apple Vision Pro.
Simpsons/Disney
The release by tech giants, the new ‘virtual reality headset’ means that you can scroll your feed just by flicking your wrist, or can be used by eye movement or controlled by ‘hand movement, where the user can basically play games etc, with gesticulation while wearing the headset’.
Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations, said: “Apple Vision Pro is unlocking the imaginations of our worldwide developer community, and we’re inspired by the range of spatial experiences they’ve created for this exciting new platform.
“With more than 600 new spatial experiences to explore in the all-new App Store, alongside more than one million compatible apps across iOS and iPadOS, users can discover a wide array of apps that expand the boundaries of what’s possible.”
However, The Simpsons also showed a similar looking headset in the episode which aired eight years ago – and it’s got the internet talking.
Apple
One person said: “Guess what.. the Simpson predicted the future .. Yet again..
Apple Vision Pro.”
“It’s truly mind-blowing how “The Simpsons” continues to predict the future with eerie accuracy!” another said.
“It seems like every time we turn around, there’s another wacky, far-fetched prediction from the show that turns out to be spot-on.”
A third added: “The Simpsons look more and more like modern-day Nostradamus.”
And a fourth said: “These guys are in whole another level.”
Even down to way it looks and the way it’s used, it seems like The Simpsons isn’t done with freaking us out with premonitions just yet.
Sometimes you get your hands on an iPhone that seems to last for eternity and other times, you barely make it until the end of the working day without reaching for a charging cable.
You may think you’re staying organized or even helping your phone’s battery by swiping up all of the history of apps you’ve been scrolling aimlessly throughout the day.
It makes sense in your head right? Closing all the browsers, freeing up space and essentially not having them running in the background and decreasing your battery?
Wrong. Apple has since weighed in about how swiping up on all your history of apps actually impacts your phone and battery life.
Apple has a tip to help stop you reaching for a charger as often (Getty Stock Images)
Even though you can quickly jump back and forth between apps when you keep them ‘open’, all the apps you think you have running in the background aren’t actually as active as you might think.
On its discussion forum, Apple explains: “When your recently used apps appear, the apps aren’t open, but they’re in standby mode to help you navigate and multitask.”
Some apps you’ve recently come out of will run ‘for a short period of time’, but as soon as they fall into that suspended state, they aren’t ‘actively in use, open or taking up system resources’.
Aka, they’re not draining the battery, and closing them won’t keep your phone alive for longer.
In fact, force-closing the apps can be detrimental, as Apple adds: “You should force an app to close only if it’s unresponsive.”
John Gruber, a gadget-focused journalist, offered further insight on the blog Daring Fireball into why closing apps can actually be bad for your battery.
You actually shouldn’t be swiping clear your app history (Getty Stock Images)
Gruber explained: “Apps in the background are effectively ‘frozen’, severely limiting what they can do in the background and freeing up the RAM they were using. iOS is really, really good at this.
“It is so good at this that unfreezing a frozen app takes up way less CPU (and energy) than relaunching an app that had been forced to quit.
“Not only does force quitting your apps not help, it actually hurts. Your battery life will be worse and it will take much longer to switch apps if you force quit apps in the background.”
If you’ve been left horrified at the revelation that closing apps can be bad for your battery, then don’t worry, because Apple has shared some other tips on how to make the most out of your iPhone.
To maximize battery life, the company recommends updating to the latest software, lowering your brightness, making use of ‘Low Power Mode’ and turning off Location Services.
Employees who are not transferred will be laid off by the company.
Apple had reportedly hoped to develop a new form of battery which was cheaper to produce.
The company had also been trying to develop software which would make the car completely self-driving.
Stakeholders in Apple have greeted the news with a ‘sigh of relief’.
Dan Morgan is a senior portfolio manager at Apple shareholder Synovus Trust, and told Dailywire: “Apple canceling this project is a sigh of relief for us.
“When you looked at Apple’s future initiatives, the car project was always the most far-fetched for Apple.
Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
“This just isn’t in their wheelhouse.”
The project had also been met with scepticism, with technology analyst Richard Windsor saying last year: “It makes no sense whatsoever for Apple to sell a car.
“Apple makes 40-50pc gross margins on the products it sells, and it will not make that on seats and steering wheels.”
The tech giant had reportedly sunk billions of dollars into the project.
However, it has cancelled the development of the idea as it struggled to catch up with Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors.
Musk greeted the news by tweeting an emoji of a salute and a cigarette.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the project had been the subject of a number of periods of restructuring.
These came as the tech company tried to figure out how it could move forward with developing the car.
Some executives at the company had even pitched the idea of purchasing an automotive manufacturer, or at least partnering with one, but the deal never materialised.
JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images
Apple’s apparent decision to roll back its electric vehicle project comes as demand for electric vehicles remains low.
Mercedes recently announced it would be rolling back on its commitment to only manufacture electric vehicles by 2030.
In its fourth quarter earnings statement, Mercedes said: “Customers and market conditions will set the pace of the transformation.
“The company plans to be in a position to cater to different customer needs, whether it’s an all-electric drivetrain or an electrified combustion engine, until well into the 2030s.”
Apple has also been exploring other avenues outside of its computers, tablets, and smartphones.
The company recently launched the Apple Vision Pro, a headset which uses augmented reality to create displays for the user.
