It’s time for another edition of winners and losers and it doesn’t take much to guess who our winner is this week.
Apple held its biggest launch event of the year on Tuesday with the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro handsets being the stars of the show. Meanwhile, Nintendo shared some sad news regarding the future of mobile racer, Mario Kart Tour.
Winner: Apple
Our winner is Apple after the company announced a small change at this week’s launch event that had previously been the subject of years of rumours and anticipation.
The company is finally doing away with the Lightning port on the iPhone 15. The new iPhone will instead conform to the USB-C charging standard already shared by hundreds of Android phones and other tech devices on the market.
Not only will this make it easier to switch from one smartphone to another at a time when charging bricks are rarely included in the box, but it also means that Apple users will be able to use the same cable to charge everything from their iPhone to their MacBook.
Of course, the ubiquitousness of USB-C isn’t the only reason we’re excited about Apple’s move away from Lightning. USB-C also offers up the possibility of faster charging speeds and speedier data transfer speeds, with the latter being something we can already see on the iPhone 15 Pro.
All-in-all, the switch from Lightning to USB-C is a minor change that has been a long time coming for Apple and we can’t wait to experience the benefits it’ll bring to the iPhone in the coming years.
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Loser: Nintendo
Our loser this week is Nintendo after the company announced that it will no longer be updating Mario Kart Tour with new content from next month.
The final tour update will be the Battle Tour arriving on October 4. Any content that rolls out later will be tours that we’ve seen before, including the upcoming Halloween Tour.
“No new courses, drivers, karts, or gliders will be added following the Battle Tour starting 04/10/2023,” confirmed Nintendo in an in-game message (via VCG). “We hope you continue to enjoy playing Mario Kart Tour.”
We’re happy to hear that Mario Kart Tour doesn’t seem to be going anywhere just yet, but the end of new content is definitely sad news. It’s been four years since the game first arrived on our smartphones in September 2019 and in that time it has become a popular title for iOS and Android gamers alike.
On the positive side, rumours about Mario Kart 9 have been mounting, leaving us hopeful that the follow-up to 2014’s Mario Kart 8 is finally on the horizon.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
