Latest news with #AndrewCornwall
Business Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
Keppel Infrastructure Trust to divest 24.6% stake in Australian bus service business for A$130 million
[SINGAPORE] Keppel Infrastructure Fund Management, the manager of Keppel Infrastructure Trust (KIT), is divesting a 24.6 per cent stake in an Australian bus service business, Ventura Motors, for A$130 million (S$109 million). This is a 19 per cent premium from KIT's acquisition price for the relevant stake, said the manager in a bourse filing on Tuesday (June 10). It had in June 2024 acquired a 97.7 per cent interest in Ventura for an enterprise value of A$600 million. With the divestment, KIT will hold a 73.1 per cent share in the company, and its chief executive officer (CEO) Andrew Cornwall, a 2.3 per cent share. The remaining will be acquired by private investment funds managed by Samsung Asset Management. Kevin Neo, the chief executive of the manager, said the move is part of the trust's value creation strategy. The manager's two recent divestments – including the sale of its 50 per cent stake in a storage facility in the Philippines – are valued at around S$301 million. '(This) will bolster KIT's financial strength and agility, and enhance its ability to capture further opportunities through strategic capital recycling,' said Neo. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up He added that the trust will continue working with Ventura's management to strengthen and grow the business, to generate stable, recurring and predictable cash flows. Headquartered in Melbourne, the bus-service provider has a fleet of around 900 buses and 12 depots. It has the largest market share of public bus services in the Australian state of Victoria, and transports more than 42 million people annually. The transaction is expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year, and is subject to conditions precedent as well as approval from regulators and the authorities. It is not expected to have a material impact on the distribution per unit and net tangible assets per unit of KIT for FY2025. Units of KIT closed flat at S$0.395 on Tuesday, before the announcement.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Apple is about to announce updates to how we use the iPhone and its other devices
Major Apple announcements from its annual developers conference the past two years heralded big changes — which, so far, have largely fallen flat. This year, the tech company badly needs to deliver a win. Apple's weeklong Worldwide Developers Conference, teased with the tagline 'on the horizon,' kicks off with a keynote at 1 pm ET on Monday from its headquarters in Cupertino, California. The annual event is where the company announces updates to the software that runs on billions of Apple devices used worldwide. The iPhone maker is expected to announce relatively modest updates to its Apple Intelligence suite of AI features, such as new translation capabilities, as well as changes that will affect iPhones, AirPods, Apple Watches and more. The big announcements of the prior two years — the Vision Pro headset and Apple Intelligence AI tools — failed to live up to the hype. Although Apple tried to sell its headset as the future of computing, the Vision Pro remains an expensive, niche product since hitting shelves last year. Apple Intelligence features, widely seen as reactive to competitors' offerings, were slow to reach devices after the iPhone 16 launch, and the AI-enhanced Siri heralded at last year's WWDC has been delayed indefinitely. In the meantime, rivals have surged ahead on AI. Google, for example, announced a flurry of updates last month, including more advanced AI search, shopping and productivity capabilities. And steep AI competition aside, Apple is still having a rough year, with ongoing slow iPhone sales growth and a trade war threatening to force the company to raise prices. The iPhone maker has a large installed base — that is, people using its products, which currently totals more than 2 billion active devices. That means even if Apple isn't first to roll out a software innovation, loads of people will still use wind up using their version. But after having delayed the launch of its AI-enhanced Siri, some skeptics worry that consumers could start to look toward other companies' devices for more powerful AI features. 'Say you're an influencer and you pick up a Samsung phone or a (Google Pixel) phone and say, 'I'm done with my Apple phone. This is real AI and I love it,'' Baird Managing Director Ted Mortonson told CNN. 'That's what Apple risks, that iOS displacement and people saying it's no longer cool.' The company will likely announce updates to its 'Apple Intelligence' system, but most industry watchers believe it remains behind rivals. Apple's updated AI capabilities are likely to be 'at least equivalent' to earlier versions of OpenAI's ChatGPT, Forrester senior analyst Andrew Cornwall said in emailed commentary. Here are some of the major updates Apple is rumored to be announcing at WWDC on Monday. An AirPods update is expected to enable live translation for in-person conversations, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. If an English-speaking user were having a conversation with someone speaking a different language, the AirPods would automatically translate their partner's words into their ears, according to the report. Then, the users' iPhone would translate the user's English speech back into the other language. The offering could make AirPods more competitive with rival products, such as Google's Pixel Buds or Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, which already enabled live translation. Automatic translation is also coming to messages, along with support for conducting polls within the messages app, Apple blog 9to5Mac reports. The pressure is on for Apple to prove that Apple Intelligence justifies buying a new iPhone or Mac. Based on reports, Apple will likely build on what it announced last year rather than previewing massive new AI updates. Among the biggest updates Apple is expected to make is opening its AI models to third-party developers, so users could soon see apps built on the iPhone maker's AI technology. For consumers, the biggest AI-related changes could be a new feature that uses AI to preserve battery life and an AI-powered health coach, Forrester vice president and principal analyst Thomas Husson wrote ahead of the event. Bloomberg has also previously reported that Apple is working on both features. That AI-powered 'battery management' feature would reportedly adjust how much power apps can draw based on device owners' usage trends. Such a tool could be especially useful in the slimmer, iPhone 'Air' model that Apple is rumored to be releasing later this year, which would likely have a less powerful battery. Gurman reported that the new health app and AI health coach — said to be called Project Mulberry inside Apple — would collect data from across users' iPhone, Watch and other devices and use that information to make personalized health recommendations. The company has reportedly brought in health experts to film videos about various conditions, which could be shown to users based on the recommendation of the AI health agent. Apple typically previews software updates in June before releasing the final versions widely in the fall, usually coinciding with new hardware product launches. Rumor has it that Apple's operating system will get a new look. The effort, reportedly dubbed Solarium internally, includes more glassy, translucent windows and notifications that let background images peek through, similar to how windows on the Vision Pro display let users' natural surroundings show through. That could provoke mixed reactions from iPhone owners, said Carolina Milanesi, president and principal analyst at tech analysis firm Creative Strategies. 'Consumers are creatures of habit,' she said. 'And change is always resisted before it's embraced.' And while the name of Apple's latest operating system release typically goes up by one each year (i.e. iOS 17 to iOS 18), Monday's software update is expected to jump to iOS 26 on Monday, and ditto for the Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, TV and Vision Pro operating systems, Gurman reported last month. The change could bring the OS naming convention in line with the year in which customers will be using it. The version announced on Monday will be live on Apple devices from September 2025 through September 2026. It would also create consistency across all of Apple's devices, which currently have different operating system version numbers — for example, macOS 15 and watchOS 11 — because they were released in different years.
Egypt Independent
4 days ago
- Business
- Egypt Independent
Apple is about to announce updates to how we use the iPhone and its other devices
New York CNN — Major Apple announcements from its annual developers conference the past two years heralded big changes — which, so far, have largely fallen flat. This year, the tech company badly needs to deliver a win. Apple's weeklong Worldwide Developers Conference, teased with the tagline 'on the horizon,' kicks off with a keynote at 1 pm ET on Monday from its headquarters in Cupertino, California. The annual event is where the company announces updates to the software that runs on billions of Apple devices used worldwide. The iPhone maker is expected to announce relatively modest updates to its Apple Intelligence suite of AI features, such as new translation capabilities, as well as changes that will affect iPhones, AirPods, Apple Watches and more. The big announcements of the prior two years — the Vision Pro headset and Apple Intelligence AI tools — failed to live up to the hype. Although Apple tried to sell its headset as the future of computing, the Vision Pro remains an expensive, niche product since hitting shelves last year. Apple Intelligence features, widely seen as reactive to competitors' offerings, were slow to reach devices after the iPhone 16 launch, and the AI-enhanced Siri heralded at last year's WWDC has been delayed indefinitely. In the meantime, rivals have surged ahead on AI. Google, for example, announced a flurry of updates last month, including more advanced AI search, shopping and productivity capabilities. And steep AI competition aside, Apple is still having a rough year, with ongoing slow iPhone sales growth and a trade war threatening to force the company to raise prices. The iPhone maker has a large installed base — that is, people using its products, which currently totals more than 2 billion active devices. That means even if Apple isn't first to roll out a software innovation, loads of people will still use wind up using their version. But after having delayed the launch of its AI-enhanced Siri, some skeptics worry that consumers could start to look toward other companies' devices for more powerful AI features. 'Say you're an influencer and you pick up a Samsung phone or a (Google Pixel) phone and say, 'I'm done with my Apple phone. This is real AI and I love it,'' Baird Managing Director Ted Mortonson told CNN. 'That's what Apple risks, that iOS displacement and people saying it's no longer cool.' The company will likely announce updates to its 'Apple Intelligence' system, but most industry watchers believe it remains behind rivals. Apple's updated AI capabilities are likely to be 'at least equivalent' to earlier versions of OpenAI's ChatGPT, Forrester senior analyst Andrew Cornwall said in emailed commentary. Here are some of the major updates Apple is rumored to be announcing at WWDC on Monday. Live Translation for AirPods An AirPods update is expected to enable live translation for in-person conversations, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. If an English-speaking user were having a conversation with someone speaking a different language, the AirPods would automatically translate their partner's words into their ears, according to the report. Then, the users' iPhone would translate the user's English speech back into the other language. The offering could make AirPods more competitive with rival products, such as Google's Pixel Buds or Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, which already enabled live translation. Automatic translation is also coming to messages, along with support for conducting polls within the messages app, Apple blog 9to5Mac reports. The pressure is on for Apple to prove that Apple Intelligence justifies buying a new iPhone or Mac. Based on reports, Apple will likely build on what it announced last year rather than previewing massive new AI updates. Among the biggest updates Apple is expected to make is opening its AI models to third-party developers, so users could soon see apps built on the iPhone maker's AI technology. For consumers, the biggest AI-related changes could be a new feature that uses AI to preserve battery life and an AI-powered health coach, Forrester vice president and principal analyst Thomas Husson wrote ahead of the event. Bloomberg has also previously reported that Apple is working on both features. That AI-powered 'battery management' feature would reportedly adjust how much power apps can draw based on device owners' usage trends. Such a tool could be especially useful in the slimmer, iPhone 'Air' model that Apple is rumored to be releasing later this year, which would likely have a less powerful battery. Gurman reported that the new health app and AI health coach — said to be called Project Mulberry inside Apple — would collect data from across users' iPhone, Watch and other devices and use that information to make personalized health recommendations. The company has reportedly brought in health experts to film videos about various conditions, which could be shown to users based on the recommendation of the AI health agent. Apple typically previews software updates in June before releasing the final versions widely in the fall, usually coinciding with new hardware product launches. A new look for… iOS 26? Rumor has it that Apple's operating system will get a new look. The effort, reportedly dubbed Solarium internally, includes more glassy, translucent windows and notifications that let background images peek through, similar to how windows on the Vision Pro display let users' natural surroundings show through. That could provoke mixed reactions from iPhone owners, said Carolina Milanesi, president and principal analyst at tech analysis firm Creative Strategies. 'Consumers are creatures of habit,' she said. 'And change is always resisted before it's embraced.' And while the name of Apple's latest operating system release typically goes up by one each year (i.e. iOS 17 to iOS 18), Monday's software update is expected to jump to iOS 26 on Monday, and ditto for the Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, TV and Vision Pro operating systems, Gurman reported last month. The change could bring the OS naming convention in line with the year in which customers will be using it. The version announced on Monday will be live on Apple devices from September 2025 through September 2026. It would also create consistency across all of Apple's devices, which currently have different operating system version numbers — for example, macOS 15 and watchOS 11 — because they were released in different years.
