Rumors from Apple’s next big iPhone event, which might include an iPhone 11 Pro, new Apple Watch ceramic and titanium models, an update to the cheaper iPhone XR, and more.
Pictures from leaker Majin Bu show what appears to be iPhone 17 Pro Max case boxes with the new texture. It looks like of like the texture on Amazon’s fabric Kindle cases.
Now that Google has coughed up a look at the next Pixel, it’s apparently time for more iPhone rumors. The account @Skyfops on X tweeted two pictures of a cap and sunglasses-wearing man with two phones, claiming he’s holding a test development iPhone, complete with another man seemingly running interference to keep them hidden.
The device in the pictures certainly resembles other supposed leaks, but with AI, Photoshop, and bored students in the summer, are you ready to believe this is Apple’s next iPhone? Bloomberg Apple reporter Mark Gurman reshared the tweet, saying, “This looks legit.”
In Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, he notes that iOS 26’s public beta is expected next week, and a possible tweak for upcoming M5-powered iPad Pros..
The M4 iPad Pro that launched last year switched the orientation of its front-facing camera for use in landscape mode since many people use it like that or in a laptop-like stand, but the new model could also include a portrait-oriented camera, so video calls look fine no matter which way you’re holding it.
Mark Gurman’s newsletter runs the gamut of Apple nexts this weekend, starting with rumors of the “iPhone 17e” kicking off an annual refresh cycle for cheaper iPhones, more iterative chip-bump updates for the Mac and iPad starting this fall, and Apple’s first new Mac external monitor since 2022’s Studio Display.
There’s also some succession plan musing around (secretly swole?) CEO Tim Cook detailing why hardware chief John Ternus is most likely, and how the design team that will be reporting to Cook might do so via Alan Dye and Molly Anderson.
That’s what Apple is working on next, at least according to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The more affordable MacBook would use the same A18 Pro chip found in the iPhone 16 Pro series, and pack a 13-inch display and colorful finishes like silver, blue, pink, and yellow.
Apparently Apple is aiming to sell 5-7 million of them too, making up more than a fifth of its overall laptop sales.
That is, if the actual phone looks anything like these photos from leaker Majin Bu. What do you think?
Mark Gurman’s Bloomberg newsletter brings one more pre-WWDC 25 rumor, saying the most exciting part of the conference will be the rumored design overhaul for iPhone, Mac, and other platforms that he says is called Liquid Glass (remember Microsoft’s Aero Glass, and Apple’s iOS 7 shift away from skeuomorphism?).
Adding “transparency and shine effects in all of Apple’s tool bars, in-app interfaces and controls,” he says it sets the stage for next year’s “Glasswing” iPhone design with curved glass sides, slim bezels, and no cutout section in the display.
The keynote for Apple’s next developer conference is only a week away, and the homepage for the event has just been updated with a short tagline, “sleek peek,” while exec Greg Joswiak tweeted out this new animation. We’re guessing this refers to the visionOS-like design refresh supposedly coming for Apple’s operating systems, and not to the “gap year” for AI features rumored over the weekend.
Whatever it is, we’ll be at Apple Park on June 9th to report the details.
Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter follows up on his earlier news that Apple’s operating systems will switch to Madden-style numbering by saying the new Mac update will be Lake Tahoe-themed.
With just one more week to go before WWDC 25, he’s also suggesting this will be a “gap year” for Apple’s AI ambitions, with projects like LLM Siri, a true ChatGPT competitor, and an Apple Intelligence-enhanced version of its Shortcuts app still in development but possibly not ready for a preview.
The Information reports that three years ago, Musk offered Apple an 18-month exclusive connection via SpaceX in return for $5 billion up front, and $1 billion per year after that to support satellite-connected iPhone features. If Apple didn’t take it within 72 hours, he threatened to announce a competing feature.
Apple went forward with Globalstar (the report also mentions a canceled “Project Eagle” effort with Boeing that would’ve delivered full-blown internet service), and before the iPhone 14 launched, Starlink announced a deal with T-Mobile. Later that year, Musk and Cook met at Apple HQ to discuss Twitter’s App Store presence, “among other things.”
[theinformation.com]
This year’s rumored redesign for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS is also coming to watchOS and tvOS, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. In an April subscriber edition of Power On, he wrote that watchOS would only get elements of the redesign “here and there.”
It’s expected the updates will take cues from the look of the glassy, translucent visionOS, which, Gurman writes, is also getting tweaks where they “make sense for a headset.”
Just weeks after Apple replaced AI chief John Giannandrea as the head of Siri, Bloomberg reports that the company now plans on placing its robotics team under the leadership of John Ternus, the senior vice president of hardware engineering.
The change will allow Giannandrea’s AI team to “focus on underlying artificial intelligence technology,” Bloomberg reports.
The company is working on two follow-ups to the Vision Pro, according to Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. The goal for one is a cheaper Vision Pro. The other would tether to Macs for use as a wired display or for “high-end enterprise applications.”
That’s different from its canceled transparent-lens AR glasses that would have worked the same way, Gurman writes.
Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter notes Apple’s push for an AI agent-powered “Project Mulberry” upgrade for its Health app next year, and that its its long-running attempt noninvasive glucose monitoring via Apple Watch sensors is still “many years away.” (Here’s more on why that’s been so difficult).
But if you’re into hardware, he reports new M5 iPad Pros are already in testing in addition to work on 2027-targeted M6 editions with Apple’s in-house modems, and while the regularly scheduled MacBook Pro M5 refresh is “a lock” for this year, a design overhaul may not come until its M6 update in 2026.
Apple has been expected to switch to a plastic case for its entry level smartwatch, but that plan is reportedly “in serious jeopardy,” according to Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. Gurman writes:
The design team doesn’t like the look, and the operations team is finding it difficult to make the casing materially cheaper than the current aluminum chassis.
One, codenamed J427, is the rumored second-generation Studio Display due “either at the end of this year or early next year,” writes Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in the subscriber version of today’s Power On newsletter. He has written of that one before.
He says another code name, J527, has popped up — Gurman speculates it’s either an alternative to J427 Apple could launch instead, or something with different specs, like a new Pro Display XDR.
Apple supposedly set its rumored HomePod with screen for launch in March before delaying it to Q3 2025. Now supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says it will come after WWDC (and the expected reveal of iOS 19) so that the new smart home device’s interface “aligns with new OS updates.”
