Apple is gearing up to launch its new iOS 17, which will unleash loads of new features to the iPhone – but the update will cut some models’ values by 50 percent.

The iPhone 8 and iPhone X, released in 2017, will not support the upcoming operating system – and tech experts are urging users to sell or trade in devices before September.

Trade-in value for a mint condition iPhone X is currently around $190, while the iPhone 8 is $90 and $152 for the iPhone 8 Plus.

When iOS 16 dropped last year, the iPhone 7 Plus went from $138 in June 2022 to $80, while the iPhone 6S Plus went from $94 to $47.

Apple’s iPhone X cost $999 in 2017 and was the tech giant’s ten-year anniversary smartphone. 

The smartphone was the first to ditch Touch ID for Facial ID, marking a new era of iPhones.

The device – called ‘the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone’ – boasts more advanced features than the iPhone 8 family that was announced simultaneously.

iPhone X features a glass front and back, a band around the edge made from surgical-grade stainless steel, and an edgeless display – all of which was never before seen in Apple phones.

The iPhone X also includes the first Apple OLED display called the ‘super retina display’ that, on the diagonal, is 5.8 inches.

The anniversary smartphone outshined the flagship devices, but the iPhone 8 was still a fan favorite – at the time.

Apple reported selling 86.3 million iPhone 8 and 8 Plus worldwide, making them one of the best-selling smartphones ever. 

However, the pair were discontinued in February 2020.

Apple released the iPhone SE that year, which was essentially an upgraded iPhone.

And now it seems the end of the line has come for both the iPhone X and iPhone 8.

A report from SellCell states that the smartphones’ values are likely to drop by up to 50 percent and open owners up to a range of security risks.

‘Neither the iPhone X or the iPhone 8 will receive the iOS 17 update, which means the phones won’t get security updates either,’ the report reads.

‘Owners and their data are more at risk of attack by people with malicious intent, like hackers, for example. 

‘These models will become obsolete once the new iOS version rolls out to the public.’

The iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR will be the oldest devices to support iOS 17.

The new updates with iOS 17 promise to be expansive, with a raft of new security features, including improvements to Safari Private Browsing and Apple’s child safety protections and more aesthetic and usability improvements.

The new operating system will have design-driven contact cards for you and the people in your address book and a ‘StandBy’ mode that effectively turns your iPhone into a desk or nightstand clock as it charges — with customizable quick info on display.

 iOS 17 also features keyboard updates – and one that improves autocorrect.

Many users have complained that their words are autocorrected incorrectly, but the new system adds a new language model that has a more accessible shortcut to go back to the original word if the system gets it wrong.

And now, dictation also uses a new AI-powered model.

Another feature that aims to make life easier is the new ‘NameDrop’ that lets users easily share contact information by tapping their devices with someone else’s.

Users can create their own posters that will appear on someone else’s display when they call.

These can include your best selfie or unique emoji – anything that represents who you are.

 Elizabeth Banks showcased her toned arms and legs while putting her groceries in the back of her car outside a supermarket in Los Angeles on Monday.

The actress, 49, who recently returned from an Italian vacation, tried to beat the heat wearing black and white striped mini dress that showed off her toned and tanned figure.

The star added comfy white sneakers as she appeared to be wearing minimal makeup.

The Call Jane star’s blonde hair was pulled back into a loose bun. She wore dark sunglasses atop her head as she put her purchases in the back of her car. 

This comes after the star talked directing the box-office disappointment Charlie’s Angeles. 

The actress, who is currently starring in The Beanie Bubble on Apple TV+, has expanded her resume to include producing and directing since beginning her career in the late 1990s.

With the hype about Barbie, which has earned some $780 million globally so far,  Elizabeth, who directed 2019’s Charlie’s Angels reboot, is speaking out about the difficulties of being the woman calling the shots. 

Her Charlie’s Angels movie opened to mixed reviews and made only $73 million worldwide. 

In an interview with Rolling Stone, she spoke some of the challenges she faced due to the way the film was perceived.  

‘For me, regardless of what the actual product was, so much of the story that the media wanted to tell about Charlie’s Angels was that it was some feminist manifesto,’ she explained.

‘People kept saying, “You’re the first female director of Charlie’s Angels!” And I was like, “They’ve only done a TV show and McG’s movies… what are you talking about? There’s not this long legacy.”

‘I just loved the franchise,’ the Massachusetts native said.

‘There was not this gendered agenda from me,’ she contended. 

‘That was very much laid on top of the work, and it was a little bit of a bummer. It felt like it pigeonholed me and the audience for the movie.

‘To lose control of the narrative like that was a real bummer,’ she claimed.

‘You realize how the media can frame something regardless of how you’ve framed it. 

‘I happen to be a woman who directed a Charlie’s Angels movie that happened to star three incredible women. You can’t control the media saying, “You’re a lady director, and that’s special!” — which it is, but it’s not the only thing,’ she pointed out.

‘I remember having a conversation with someone who was like, “You guys are going to have a partnership with Drybar” — which is, like, a hair-blowing thing — and I was like, “Alright… but could we have an ad during the baseball playoffs? It’s not only this one thing.”

‘It was interesting to see how the industry sees things that star women. It was a real lesson for me.’

She did not address how audience members found the film too ‘woke,’ which seemed to be the main complaint. 

The Cocaine Bear director hasn’t shied away from other projects. She is currently signed to direct The Greater Good, described as a ‘comedic version of The X-Files.’

She also produced Bottoms, starring Emma Seligman, Rachel Sennott and Kaia Gerber. 

The comedy about two unpopular lesbians who start a fight club so they can have sex with cheerleaders before their high school graduation opens August 25.

Sir Chris Whitty today defended the worst-case scenarios advisors give Government, like the terrifying models pumped out during the pandemic.

Doomsday forecasts are vital for planning purposes, the chief medical officer told the Covid Inquiry.

Although Sir Chris accepted assumptions can be morbid, he insisted high potential death tolls, like those cited during the darkest days of the crisis, allowed officials to prepare in case they came to fruition.

It gave ministers chance to work out where they were ‘going to bury the bodies’, he said. 

Horrifying predictions of upwards of 500,000 deaths are infamous for spooking No10 into declaring the first lockdown in March 2020.

Vaccines — considered the only safe route out of the pandemic — were still months away from being deployed. 

But the restrictions had huge knock-on effects, crippling the economy and causing huge backlogs within an already overwhelmed NHS.

Sir Chris, who took over in the role as CMO in October 2019, just three months before Covid officially began, made the statement during his evidence to the Inquiry today. 

Questioned by lead counsel Hugo Keith KC about ‘worst case’ scenarios put together by experts and presented to the Government, Sir Chris — who’s nicknamed Dr Doom in some corners — defended the practise. 

‘It is sensible to have a plan for “if everything fails what are we going to do”,’ he said. 

‘We do still need to be able to say, “let’s go to the top of the range, actually we could end up with 750,000 people dying, where are we going to bury the bodies”.’

Sir Chris added: ‘These are important, they may seem morbid, but they’re practically important planning.’

While he did not highlight any specific scientific modelling or predictions used during the pandemic, Sir Chris has previously defended the use of unlikely worst case scenarios for Covid. 

Morbid predictions made by scientists during the pandemic have come under huge scrutiny. 

One which has drawn particular focus is modelling by SAGE expert Imperial College London epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson, dubbed Professor Lockdown.

It warned 510,000 people could die from Covid if ministers didn’t act in early 2020.

That specific model, which critics have since labelled as flawed, is single-handedly credited with spooking ministers into banishing Britons into lockdown to thwart the spread of the virus.

It added that trying to ‘mitigate’ the spread – allowing it to continue but attempting to slow it down with limited measures such as isolation for those with symptoms — would have halved it to around 260,000.

The report also showed that mitigation would not be insufficient to prevent the NHS becoming overwhelmed by looking at bed capacity.

If the strictest possible measures are introduced – including school closures and mandatory home quarantine – the number of deaths over a two-year period will fall below 20,000, the scientists said.

Britain’s current Covid death toll stands in the region of 220,000. 

Other models were also heavily disputed, including a terrifying 4,000 deaths per day chart presented at a Downing Street press conference in the inter of 2020. 

Scientists not involved in guiding the Government’s response claimed they failed to account for basic behavioural changes and underestimating the strength of natural immunity.

It is not the first time the Government’s top scientists have defended gloomy Covid data.

Sir Patrick Vallance, No10’s former chief scientific advisor, admitted in 2020 his ‘regrets’ of the forecast of the 4,000 Covid deaths a day over that winter which was used to justify a second national lockdown.

He made the comments alongside Sir Chris when the pair were hauled before MPs to defend SAGE’s modelling that also predicted hospitals would be overrun with virus patients by the end of November that year.

At the time Sir Chris conceded that the 4,000 daily deaths prediction was unlikely to come true because the modelling was a worst-case scenario based on a situation where no extra measures were brought in. 

But the experts defended the science behind the gloomy forecast and said it was realistic to expect levels seen in April would be surpassed at the peak of a second wave, unless there was a lockdown.

While presenting evidence to today’s Inquiry Sir Chris was repeatedly told to slow down by officials as he gave evidence on the country’s preparedness for the pandemic. 

‘Whilst, I may say so, your evidence is wonderfully clear, it is difficult to transcribe,’ the inquiry’s chief lawyer Hugo Keith KC said. 

As stenographers struggled to keep up with him, Sir Chris joked ‘my enthusiasm is running away with me’.

He also slammed the abuse some members of the public had levelled at the scientists who stepped forward to advise the Government during the crisis. 

He called the abuse targeted at the independent scientific advisers ‘extremely concerning’ and told the probe the UK should be ‘very firm’ in saying it ‘appreciates the work of these people’.  

‘The level and abuse and in some cases threats to people who volunteer their time is an extremely concerning one and one we should be very firm in saying that society very much appreciates the work of these people, who put in considerable amounts of time, usually for no recompense,’ he said.

As the face of the NHS’s virus battle, Sir Chris alongside other prominent prominent scientists including Sir Patrick Vallance and Professor Neil Ferguson, were both championed and criticised by Britons. 

Sir Chris was himself a victim of such abuse, at one point being held in a headlock and jeered at by thugs who filmed the encounter. 

He also told Mr Keith: ‘We – society – need to ensure scientists know their service is valued.’ 

But as he gave evidence to the Inquiry, anti-coronavirus vaccine protesters gathered in the streets outside the building in Paddington. 

Holding signs that read ‘Covid jabs toxic by design’ and ‘Would your Government harm you?’, the group was approached by police officers. 

Sir Chris opened his evidence this morning by addressing the families bereaved by the pandemic, and referred to his first-hand experience of being on the Covid front line for 12 weeks.

‘I can say to the families who are here I saw the extraordinary impact and devastation for individuals and the families,’ he said.

Later he also revealed the county’s science advisory system may struggle between emergencies. 

Under questioning from Mr Keith, Sir Chris said: ‘There are a number of bodies which give advice irrespective of whether there’s an emergency or not.

‘Some of those are relevant in emergencies, if they happen in their area of work.

‘Also, and I think this is important, in the way we think about it as a co-ordination mechanism for how to prioritise the advice that’s given.’

He added: ‘I think that there are no structural problems that I think need to be changed.

‘However, I think what this did demonstrate was that whilst the system can be extremely fast-moving during an emergency, I think it is sometimes less well co-ordinated between emergencies, and I think from that some problems actually arose.’

Giving evidence later in the afternoon, Sir Chris also said SAGE was not best-placed to challenge or provide advice on economic decisions taken during Covid. 

He told the Inquiry: ‘If you had two economists on SAGE, you would not be in a situation where SAGE would suddenly become an economically extraordinarily competent body.

‘It would be a competent, scientific body with two economists on it which does not strike me as actually answering any terribly useful questions.

‘The very, very narrow bit where I think that SAGE in the health emergencies can have a role is in health economics, which is a very specific bit of microeconomics.’

He added: ‘And I don’t think SAGE people, including myself, have the competence to assure Government that they consider the economic problem and they can now give a central view on it.

‘I think that would have to be done separately.’

Later, under questioning, Sir Chris however also admitted: ‘we did not give sufficient thought to what we could do to stop, in its tracks, a pandemic on the scale of Covid, or indeed any other pathogen that could realistically go there’.

Sir Chris said one issue ‘we really absolutely should have taken much more seriously, was the capability to scale up’. 

But he told the inquiry that interventions like quarantines and school closures were not new ideas – with some dating back to the Middle Ages. 

However, he highlighted the nation’s lockdown as the ‘very big new idea’ of how to handle a pandemic. 

‘I’m talking here very, very specifically about the state saying people have to go home and stay at home, except under very limited circumstances – a very radical thing to do,’ he said. 

He added that it would have been ‘very surprising’ for a scientific committee to have planned lockdowns with their ‘huge economic and social impact ramifications’ in advance, without ‘this being requested by a senior politician’. 

As many as 70 witnesses will contribute to the first module on pandemic preparedness. 

Ex-health secretary Matt Hancock, and former first minister for Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, and the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency Dame Jenny Harries will be among next week’s witnesses.

Mr Hancock is expected to give evidence on Tuesday while Ms Sturgeon and her former deputy John Swinney will appear on Thursday.

Dame Jenny, a former deputy chief medical officer for England, will also appear on Monday.

The first module will run for six weeks, until 20 July. The probe is not expected to conclude until 2026.

A separate Scottish Covid Inquiry chaired by Lord Brailsford is looking at the pandemic response in devolved areas in Scotland.

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has said he and the Welsh government are fully committed to the inquiry, though they maintain that there is no need for Wales to hold its own inquiry.

Apple fans still have four months left to wait before the iPhone 15 is expected to arrive, but a new leak gives the most detailed view yet of the firm’s new flagship. 

‘Very accurate’ dummy units in a new video from MacRumors show all four of the new iPhone 15 models – including the standard model and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. 

Like previous leaks, the units show the iPhone 15 has a USB-C charging port instead of a Lightning port, due to legislation passed in 2022 by the European Union. 

All four models also have ‘frosted back glass’, curvier edges, and come with Dynamic Island, the pill-shaped notch at the top of the screen. 

It follows rumours that the high-end version of the new iPhone 15 will be Apple’s most expensive smartphone yet.

MacRumors revealed the four iPhone 15 dummy units in a video posted to YouTube, presented by content creator Dan Barbera. 

Dummy smartphones are sent out by phone makers to third-party case manufacturers in the run-up to a device’s release. 

Although the objects look exactly like the real thing, they tend to be made largely of plastic and don’t contain the required circuitry to actually function. 

Even so, MacRumors claims the dummy units provide ‘early impressions of what the iPhone 15 line-up is going to look and feel like’ when it’s released in September. 

‘All of the rumours that have been circulating about the upcoming iPhone 15 seem to be corroborated and confirmed with these dummy units,’ said Barbera. 

‘The dummy units are very accurate and show us a glimpse of what case manufacturers are using and expecting when it comes to the new iPhones.’ 

He said that at first glance the four iPhone 15 models ‘don’t look very different’ to last year’s iPhone 14, although there are ‘a few things’ that become noticeable on closer inspection. 

Firstly, the Lightning charging port of previous iPhones has gone, replaced by USB-C, the charging technology already used by Android phones.

Apple has had to switch from Lightning, discernible by its eight pins, to USB-C due to new European legislation that is aiming to reduce electronic waste. 

Barbera, who tried out the new port with a USB-C charger, seems certain that the charging technology is all but confirmed for the next iPhone. 

‘We’ve had basically confirmation from Apple themselves that this is going to happen – and that’s been the rumour for a while,’ he said. 

‘It’s nice just to be able to stick a USB-C cord into the bottom and actually see that it’s a perfect fit.’ 

‘You get that sense of relief that we’re finally going to be able to carry one cable for almost all modern-day electronics.’ 

The edges of the iPhone 15 are much curvier compared with the iPhone 14 models, which makes it more comfortable in the hand, according to Barbera. 

‘Those sharp corners, those sharp edges are a lot more rounded off now, they’re no longer squared, it’s kind of like a square-circle combination,’ he said. 

iPhone 15’s edges also have a more ‘dull, brushed’ look than the shiny metal edges on the iPhone 14 models, thanks to the use of titanium instead of stainless steel, while the back is a matte glass rather than polished glass. 

The switch control on the side of the iPhone 15 models is no longer a switch that users can toggle on and off, but a press-down button. 

Meanwhile, Dynamic Island – a feature introduced last year with just the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max – will feature on all iPhone 15 models, Barbera said. 

Dynamic Island is a pill-shaped notch at the top of the screen that hides the front-facing camera but also changes size to show important alerts, notifications and activities, blurring the boundary between hardware and software. 

Previous rumours suggested the new phone’s volume-up and volume-down buttons on the side of the iPhone 15 will be incorporated into one long seesaw-style button.

However, Barbera said this ‘is probably not going to happen this year’, suggesting Apple could introduce the single button for the iPhone 16 in 2024 instead. 

The new video from MacRumors isn’t the first to claim to show dummy units of the iPhone 15. 

Earlier this month, a video posted to YouTube by Unbox Therapy showed the dummy for the most expensive iPhone 15, which is variously referred to as ‘iPhone 15 Ultra’ and ‘iPhone 15 Pro Max’. 

This particular dummy also revealed a USB-C charging port, thinner bezels, ‘brushed aluminum edges’ and a press-down button instead of a switch on the top left edge. 

Overall, the Unbox Therapy presenter called the new device ‘incredible’ and ‘one of the best-looking models I’ve ever handled or looked at’. 

Various sources are divided as to whether prices for the iPhone 15 family of smartphones will be higher than the iPhone 14.

One report from Taiwan’s United Daily News says the iPhone 15 Pro Max will be RMB 20,000, equivalent to $2,900 or £2,300. 

However, Patently Apple calls this price rumour ‘a propaganda campaign’ started by Apple’s rivals in an attempt to direct them towards Chinese-made smartphones. 

Apple is gearing up to release another huge product next month – its first ever mixed reality headset, which is expected to work closely with the next iPhone. 

An artist has taken camouflage to the next level with her incredible body illustrations that see her models blend into beautiful murals.

Emma Hack, famed for her work on Gotye’s music video, paints the skin of nude bodies and has amassed over 500 million Youtube hits with her mesmerizing work on the famous music video.

Now the Australian artist will take her work to an exciting new level as she prepares to paint a model live for the first time in a UK gallery.

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The 41-year-old will spend up to 15-hours illustrating the nude’s skin to make her blend into the background of an artwork.

The exhibition that will be shown at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery in London is made up of Emma’s latest collections.

The collection, entitle Blossom, features four wallpaper artworks by the later interior designer Florence Broadhurst that Emma uses as a backdrop for her models.

Emma who will be creating the live installation at the gallery on the preview day  says that she is not nervous to be doing her work in front of an audience but she is worried about becoming distracted.

‘I don’t find it daunting, but it is exhausting and time-consuming, also chatting to viewers distracts me so I do plan to create as much as possible prior to the public viewing.’

For Emma the process of creating her work can be a lengthily one as she says she has many things to consider when coming up with the design.

‘Generally I research the idea and look at photos I have taken from my travels. I consider what I want the viewer to feel, how the flow of composition appears for the viewer.

‘I then either paint a background or choose some wallpaper from an archive, before heading into the studio with my model, slowly painting her outer edges, then filling in the detail on centre of the form.’

In an exciting twist several pieces called Birds of a Feather feature live birds that are held by the naked models, who wear nothing more than a glove to protect their hands.

Emma says that having live animals in the piece can add complications so she doesn’t involve them until completion.

‘If there is a bird in the work, they arrive towards the end of the process and are positioned. I then photograph the results.’

Although Emma seems completely at ease with the nudes that she works with she admits that she wasn’t always so comfortable with the naked body.

‘In the beginning I found the nude models daunting as I have always been quite shy about my own body.

‘I think this is why I was trusted by my first models as I always make sure they are comfortable with what I am doing.’ 

Despite each piece taking between eight and 15 hours to complete Emma is not yet jaded by the process and says that working with animals makes her job entirely unpredictable.

‘You never know what to expect working with birds and animals. The owl is very cute, but also very naughty and it is hard getting him to look at me.

‘We tend to throw things on the ground or play phone sounds to make noise to get his attention.

‘It’s very hard for the model to hold a straight face while this is happening and quite often they get the giggles.’

The exhibition will be on show Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery in London from June 25 until August 2.