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.
Despite years of rumors and everyone else jumping on the foldable trend, an Apple foldable is nowhere to found. The latest folding iPad rumor from The Elec says 2026 or 2027 for a 7- or 8-inch model, saying it’ll be Apple’s first foldable despite rumors of a foldable iPhone as early as 2025.
MacRumors maintains a running summary that tracks rumors for both the folding iPhone and folding iPad, if you want to dig in.
So says Mark Gurman in the latest Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. That’s not all — in addition to two iPad Air models (one a 12.9-inch!) and OLED iPad Pro tablets, he writes that 13- and- 15-inch MacBook Air models will be updated with M3 chips at the same time.
That would be the first refresh of each iPad and the 13-inch MacBook Air since 2022.
If you got a Series 9 or Ultra 2 before Apple had to remove the blood oxygen feature from new ones on January 17th, congrats!
But if you break your watch doing parkour and replace it with AppleCare, will you lose the feature? That’s a “definite maybe,” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. He wrote today in the subscriber version of Power On that Apple has told AppleCare reps that replacements might not have it.
Part of the online ordering process involves a Face ID-like head scan using your iPhone to size the Vision Pro head strap, but as some complained in a MacRumors thread, multiple scans can produce multiple results.
Not to fear, though. Apple retail employees were told they can swap straps for online customers who get the wrong size, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
91Mobiles published CAD renders of Apple’s rumored larger iPad Air, based on “industry sources.” Apart from size, it looks like the biggest difference will be a changed camera bump on the back.
That probably means Face ID stays exclusive to the iPad Pro for another year, assuming the leak is accurate. Still, a 12.9-inch Air could be a good upgrade if you want a big iPad without the big “Pro” price.
Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo closely follows Apple’s production plans and is saying that for the February 2nd launch day, “Apple will produce 60,000 to 80,000 units of Vision Pro,” with around 500k shipping in 2024.
We had our first Vision Pro experiences last year at WWDC, and in just a couple of weeks, everyone can decide if they’re ready to spend $3,499 for an early entry to the world of spatial computing.
In the subscriber edition of his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg today, Mark Gurman wrote that he believes the first generation of its Airtags Find My tracking devices was “clearly over-produced” and Apple retail stores and warehouses are stuffed full of them.
Echoing previous reports that new models won’t be mass-produced until late 2024, Gurman says they’ll probably hit the market the following year.
That’s according to Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter in Bloomberg.
Apple doesn’t participate in CES, of course, but Gurman writes that he still expects an announcement about Apple’s fancy AR / VR headset to come “in the next week or so” ahead of a February release.
After reiterating that the 13- and- 15-inch MacBook Airs will each get upgraded to Apple’s M3 chip next year (and that Apple will drop the 2020 M1 Air from its lineup), Mark Gurman wrote this in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg:
The move means there’s only a couple Macs left that don’t have the latest processor generation: the Mac Studio and Mac Pro. But they probably won’t get upgraded until the end of 2024 at the earliest, if not 2025.
That’s not terribly surprising, but Gurman notably didn’t mention the Mac Mini, a machine he’s written previously would get an M3 upgrade next year along with the new MacBook Air models, in today’s newsletter.
Following an in-depth report from the Wall Street Journal in September, this update from Bloomberg may further explain why Apple recently extended its deal for Qualcomm modems.
It says Apple already delayed a plan to have the chips ready next year, and now they might not launch in new iPhones until the end of 2025 or in 2026. Issues mentioned include rewriting software it acquired from Intel (one person quoted anonymously said, “Why we thought we could take a failed project from Intel and somehow succeed is a mystery,” and avoiding infringing on Qualcomm’s patents.
I’m a touch miffed that the new iMacs still use Lightning accessories — that’ll change, but when? Next year, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s subscriber edition of Power On.
I suppose if Apple is waiting until the 11th hour to comply with the EU’s common charger rule, desktop input devices are the right ones to do it with. Still, it sure felt like last week would’ve been the right time for it.
An evening event from Apple is an unusual setup, but we’ll be right back here at 8PM ET to find out what the “Scary Fast” event has in store. Until then, The Vergecast crew runs down some of what we’re expecting to see tonight.
The Bloomberg Power On newsletter sees Mark Gurman as sure as he’s been about Apple’s “Scary Fast” event tomorrow. Here’s a summary of the chips expected in the new iMacs and high-end 14- and- 16-inch MacBook Pro models:
• Base M3 chip: 8-core CPU / 10-core GPU, likely with “improved memory configurations.”
• M3 Pro chip: Gurman mentions a 12-core CPU / 18-core GPU configuration, but with a likely upgrade to a 14-core CPU / 20-core GPU.
• M3 Max: 16-core CPU / 40-core GPU, and he mentions a 32-core GPU option. (The M2 Max is currently available in 30-core / 38-core GPU configs.)
After previously saying not to expect the second-gen AirTag until at least the end of 2024, now supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has updated this prediction. His post today states “the mass production schedule for AirTag 2 has been postponed to 2025.”
Whispers have percolated for a while saying there’s a bigger iMac coming. But whatever happened to that rumored mini-LED display?
Well, Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo revived that particular rumor today with a post predicting a 2025 iMac with mini-LED. Otherwise, he says the next 24-inch iMac refresh is due next year. What, no October iMac?
It’s annoying when you have to update your new smartphone right after you buy it, right?
Mark Gurman wrote in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg today that Apple Stores will start getting a “proprietary pad-like device” this year that, when employees put a box of unopened iPhones on it, will prompt the phones to turn on, update themselves, then turn off.
Neat!
Apple acknowledged over the weekend that the iPhone 15 Pro can run a little hot, but said it’s an iOS 17 software issue and it would be fixed soon.
Today, MacRumors reported that Apple is testing iOS 17.0.3 internally; perhaps, as the outlet speculates, that’s the software update that ends our hot iPhone 15 summer. Perhaps.
In a new report, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple will ship 400,000 to 600,000 of its mixed-reality headsets in 2024, an estimate that’s lower than the expected 1 million shipments.
That prediction tracks with a July report from The Financial Times, which similarly states that Apple is preparing to make less than 400,000 Vision Pro headsets next year.
Mark Gurman said on The MacRumors Show podcast yesterday that he “thinks we might” get a new base model iPad in October, noting it tends to come annually, announced via video instead of an event (like the M2 Pro computers early this year).
He says a new iPad Air will come “soonish,” so that doesn’t sound likely for October. But hey, at least we might get those M3 iMacs.
This post on X (formerly Twitter) could show the colors for the standard iPhone 15 — at least, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo lists similar colors in a blog post on Medium.
Kuo also corroborates the oft-rumored titanium frame for the 15 Pro phones, which may have contributed to production issues. He also mentions a possible iPhone 15 Pro gray color, which has been rumored recently.
As spotted by 9to5Mac, the iOS 17 beta 7 has a new haptic feedback pattern that makes the “phone vibrate more prominently” to signal when silent mode is on or off.
That would make sense if Apple ends up replacing the mute switch with a solid-state action button, as the vibration could help users determine which mode it’s in.
