Taking a look back at this week’s news and headlines from Apple, including iPhone 16 Pro release dates, a bigger iPhone 16 battery, a surprise iOS update, Apple Intelligence delayed, iPhone Air plans, new Macs for 2024, and why Bing isn’t in your iPhone.
Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the many discussions around Apple in the last seven days. You can also read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes.
iPhone 16 Pro Release Date Clues
It may have taken place around the second Tuesday of September every year. Still, until Apple announces the date, speculation about the launch date of the iPhone 16 family will continue. Everything points to the 10th, though, including the rapidly accelerating manufacturing chain building up stock for the big day:
“..[which] suggests that production of the iPhone is on schedule, that is, no delays are anticipated at this stage. If that’s correct, that means the likelihood of the iPhone 16 series being on sale in September is very strong. More specifically, it leaves the possible date for the keynote that unveils the hardware—alongside the Apple Watch Series 10 and perhaps new AirPods—seems to be holding steady at Tuesday, September 10.”
(Forbes).
Customers look at the Australian release of the latest iPhone and Apple Watch models (Photo by James … [+]
There’s A Bigger Battery In Town
Apple is set to bump up the iPhone battery by one of the largest margins in recent years. It’s not the first time that Aple has increased the battery size of the iPhone. The question now is what will it do with it, offer more endurance to the consumer, or offer more power to the software?
“The change in capacity of the iPhone 16 Pro over the previous Pro model shows the most marked difference, with an over 9% increase (303 mAh). Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro Max, while not as dramatic as its smaller sibling, gets an over 5% increase (254 mAh). Combined with efficiency improvements, the increases should see both devices offer more sustained real-world usage on a single charge.”
(MacRumors).
A Rush iOS Update
This week saw a point release of iOS. Rather than a planned upgrade with more features, this looks to be a security patch to improve the encryption on iCloud services:
“There are no new features mentioned by Apple, but the main element is fixing a problem. The company describes it like this: “This update includes important bug fixes and addresses an issue that prevents enabling or disabling Advanced Data Protection.”
(Forbes).
iOS AI Delayed
Speaking of iOS, the big software update for the coming year will be in generative AI and the awkwardly titled Apple Intelligence backronym. While Android prepares for the second generation of AI to be revealed, Apple will delay the launch of the basic implementation until the month after the launch of the new phones, before the key software arrives late in Q1 2025:
“That means the very first iPhone 16 buyers could be without some of Apple’s latest AI features that it announced at WWDC last month, including Rewrite, Image Playground, Genmoji, audio transcription, webpage summaries and a revamped Siri”.
(Forbes).
The Air Around The iPhone
Looking further ahead, the iPhone 17 family is set to welcome a new member. The slim iPhone has been discussed in depth over the last year, but now we have a name. iPhone AIr.
“It’s a name that makes sense, since Apple already has an iPad Air line that sits between the base iPads and the Pro models, and which at one time was positioned as being a slim option (although the latest model isn’t as thin as the latest iPad Pro). The MacBook Air is similarly positioned as a slim device”
(TechRadar).
New Macs This Year
Apple may put the focus back on the Mac portfolio later this year but don’t expect too much. While there will be the usual bump up in specs for the Apple Silicon M4, everything else is pretty much “same again” apart from the processor and standardising the desktop I/O ports:
“With a new update coming to these models this fall, Gurman doesn’t expect much other than the introduction of new M4 chips. The M4 chip first debuted in the iPad Pro back in May, with no Mac models receiving the new chip yet. Since the iMac still uses Lightning accessories, I’d also guess that we’ll see USB-C accessories in the box of the 24-inch iMac model with M4 later this year.”
(9to5Mac).
And Finally…
The papers from Google’s Anti-Trust case continue to reveal the inner workings and thoughts of those inside Apple. One of those was the option for Apple to switch to Microsoft’s Bing as the default search engine… or not:
“Google pays Apple billions of dollars a year to be the default search engine in Safari. But according to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, there’s no other meaningful alternative. During the trial, he said that “there’s no price that Microsoft could ever offer” to Apple to get the company to preload Bing in Safari.
(The Verge).
Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here, or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.