Taking a look back at this week’s news and headlines from Apple, including new iPhone 16 features, iPhone 16 design leaks, a long wait for M4 MacBook, iPhone’s Mac mirror arrives, iPad pro sales success, EU challenges App Store, and iPhone AAA games bomb.
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.
An attendee takes a selfie with Apple CEO Tim Cook (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Apple Confirms New iPhone Features
In a whitepaper published this week, Apple has discussed several new approaches to promote device repairability and increase battery longevity. The true-tone and battery meter features will now be accessible by third-party parts fitted to an iPhone and be part of the iOS 18 update:
“Currently, battery health metrics such as maximum capacity and cycle count are not presented to consumers whose devices have third-party batteries. This is because the accuracy of these metrics cannot be verified by Apple… In an effort to improve support for third-party batteries, starting later in 2024, Apple will display battery health metrics with a notification stating that Apple cannot verify the information presented.”
(MacRumors).
New iPhone, New Cases, New Clues
Thanks to a leak of the latest cases for the iPhone 16, we have confirmation of the three key features that Apple is bringing to the base iPhone in 2024. Two new buttons are being added—the action button and the camera button—but the tweaks to the camera to support Apple’s gee-whizz AR headset show the interoperability Apple has fostered:
“these have changed from the iPhone 15’s diagonal arrangement on a square camera island to a vertical arrangement on a more lozenge-shaped island. This shouldn’t impact the regular pictures and video taken on the iPhone, but the arrangement of the lenses will allow side-by-side lenses when recording in landscape mode—that’s the orientation you would need to take stereoscopic videos that would allow 3D playback on the Apple Vision Pro headset.”
(Forbes).
A Long Wait For Mac’s M4
Apple debuted the M4 chipset in the iPad Pro last month. Apple Silicon’s M series has appeared in the iPad Pro before but is predominantly seen as a Mac chip. And the Mac community are going to have to wait nearly six months before the M4 starts to show up in their Macs, MacBooks, and iMacs:
“The entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro is expected to get an M4 chip, while the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will be updated with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. The Mac mini will get M4 and M4 Pro chips. The MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro models won’t be updated with M4 chips until 2025, and it is not yet clear when the iMac might see an update with the refreshed chip technology.”
(MacRumors).
iPhone Meets Mac
Apple’s new implementation of mirroring the iPhone to the Mac display is now available through the iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia developer betas launched at last month’s WWDC. The full public release is expected in early October. As well as sharing controls and digital real estate, mirroring brings the device file systems a little closer.
“Chief among the “more” is a very cool feature where you can drag and drop files from your Mac to your iPhone, which is the last word in convenience. The connected Mac will show notifications from the iPhone on the Mac screen and when you click on the Mac’s screen, they will open onscreen.”
(Forbes).
Apple Finds Retail Success
The latest report from Canalys looks at laptop and tablet sales over the last quarter, and Apple will be happy with the positioning of the two form factors in the market:
“It means that Apple had 14.2% of the desktop and notebook computer market in this quarter. It shipped approximately 2,102,000 Macs, compared to 1,723,000 in Q1 2023…. In total, Apple shipped 4,928,000 iPads in the quarter, down from 5,404,000 the year before. Nonetheless, the iPad remains dominant with 50.8% of the market.”
EU ’s Latest App Store Issues
Regulators in the EU have challenged Apple over the implementation of third-party app stores and the ability of developers to tell consumers of the alternatives to Apple’s own store:
“The tech giant has been given the opportunity to review the investigation’s preliminary findings, and it can avoid a monster fine if it comes back with a proposal which is satisfactory to the EU. The European Commission says that developers should be able to freely tell customers when there are cheaper app stores available beyond the one run by Apple.”
(BBC News).
And Finally…
Apple’s push into AAA gaming has seen a handful of notable names arrive on the iPhone in the last year. Unfortunately financial success has not followed their releases, as research suggests these titles have “bombed”:
“Assassin’s Creed Mirage was downloaded approximately 123,000 times since June 6, Appfigures says. However, it has only managed gross revenue of $138,000. The report believes that the revenue level indicates that fewer than 3,000 people were willing to unlock the full game at $49.99.”
(MobileGamer.biz via Apple Insider).
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.