Apple is objecting to GT Advanced Technologies' financing plan over concerns that it would undermine its existing settlement reached with the bankrupt sapphire crystal supplier last year, reports Re/code. GT Advanced reached a settlement with Apple in October 2014 after failing to produce sapphire crystal of the quality desired by the Cupertino-based company for potential use in future products.
GT Advanced is attempting to restructure by raising $95 million through a loan agreement under the supervision of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for New Hampshire, but the financing plan is contingent upon the company receiving enough insurance money to repair any damage to sapphire furnaces following a fire at its former Mesa, Arizona facility a few months ago.
GT Advanced's inspection equipment damaged in Mesa facility fire last May
Apple argues that GT Advanced already determined damage at the facility to be minimal, adding that the terms of the loan agreement give lenders too much leverage to foreclose on the sapphire furnaces that GT Advanced is supposed to sell in order to repay Apple. A group of GT Advanced shareholders have also reportedly questioned why the company needs to raise money nine months into bankruptcy.
GT Advanced filed for bankruptcy last October after it became clear the company was spending over one million dollars per day to run its operations, despite being unable to produce sapphire acceptably by Apple's standards. The company began winding down its sapphire production and decommissioning the furnaces to prepare them for storage and resale through the end of last year.
Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by Juli Clover
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro.
The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup.
The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
Friday December 20, 2024 2:22 pm PST by Juli Clover
It's looking like 2025 is going to be an important year for Apple, with the company planning to revamp the iPhone, push further into smart home products, and improve Apple Intelligence. There are tons of new products rumored for 2025, including new iPhones, M4 Macs, a smart home command center, and much more.
We've highlighted the top five Apple products that will have the biggest impact in...
Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by Joe Rossignol
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year.
Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital."
In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by Juli Clover
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag.
Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
This is such an interesting story. I really wish someone would do an in depth investigative report on it. For a could years there were so many rumor/news stories about how sapphire was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. When Apple contracted with this company the stories talked about how this was such a game change and that Samsung and other phone makers were going to be years behind the curve on sapphire.
Then seemingly over night Apple pulls its contract and GT declares bankrucy. Then stories come out about how the executives of GT dumped their stocks only weeks earlier. Then, after seemingly after all is lost, Apple announces they're going to repurpose the facilities. Now this fire.
I'm not arguing a conspiracy theory, but I feel like there have been so many interesting twists in the story that it really deserves an in depth look at what really happened here.
Apple's contract to buy GT's equipment and facilities might be null and void because of the bankruptcy filing.
Say, I have $1,000,000 in debt and I sell my 3 yachts to someone for $500,000. Then I declare bankruptcy. According to the law in the United States, I can't give up my property and then declare bankruptcy - this is fraud. The other debtors want their share of the bankruptcy estate (which the yachts were part of. Any transactions in the prior 2 years are looked into and can all be taken back.
Apples contract to buy GT's equipment is *part* of the bankruptcy. It is how Apple is going to be able to recover their investment. Trying to get a loan which uses that same equipment as collateral *after* agreeing to sell them to Apple during the bankruptcy proceedings is more than a little shady.
GT can't be trusted ... they have proven that - they are for the quick money with fishy methods, they have no respect for contracts they sign or anything they promise and blame everyone else for their own failure.
Apple's contract to buy GT's equipment and facilities might be null and void because of the bankruptcy filing.
Say, I have $1,000,000 in debt and I sell my 3 yachts to someone for $500,000. Then I declare bankruptcy. According to the law in the United States, I can't give up my property and then declare bankruptcy - this is fraud. The other debtors want their share of the bankruptcy estate (which the yachts were part of. Any transactions in the prior 2 years are looked into and can all be taken back.
