Apple Rumors

Apple says it’s been working on AI research for years, and recent job listings show its current focus, reports the Financial Times.

ESPN reports Apple is a “likely leader” to snag broadcasting rights starting next year, but it’s not that simple.

The upcoming iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are expected to come with an action button — similar to the one on the Apple Watch Ultra — that replaces the device’s ring/silent switch. But now, we have a better idea of what it might be able to do.

As spotted by MacRumors, Apple’s TestFlight app has been updated to support visionOS. That’s a sign Apple could start shipping out dev kits soon, allowing developers to test out their apps for the $3,499 mixed-reality system.

In a pair of tweets, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple would “aggressively” upgrade hardware specs with an eye to the ecosystem around its $3,499 headset.

In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman is again highlighting Apple Vision Pro successors. That includes a 2nd-gen Vision Pro with a faster processor, as well as a cheaper one that could arrive by late 2025, with a two-product split mirroring Apple’s phones, laptops, and tablets.

We may not know until after WWDC, but Apple’s mixed reality headset probably won’t address every AR issue right out of the gate. As pointed out by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter today:

Late last year, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said Apple would change Siri’s invocation phrase to just “Siri” but was unsure about how long that shift might take. Now he says the change will be announced along with everything else we’ll hear about at WWDC next week.

Apple has a little AR teaser for WWDC (spotted by MacRumors). To see it, visit the Apple Events website using Safari on your iPhone or iPad and tap “AR Experience,” point your camera at a wall, and you’ll get a colorful animated logo with June 6th, 2023 — the WWDC keynote date — printed inside.

At the exact same time as Microsoft’s Build developer conference kicked off, the folks at Apple released schedule details for their own developer event, WWDC.

Next year’s iPhone 16 Pro display will jump from 6.1 inches (iPhone 15 Pro) to 6.3 inches, while the Pro Max will jump from 6.7 (iPhone 15 Pro Max) to 6.9 inches, say analysts Kuo and Young.

Apple’s so-called “Reality Pro” AR/VR headset that could cost as much as $3,000 is said to be running on an operating system called xrOS — a stylized wordmark for its “extended reality OS” that Apple wants to own. Seems like a solid bet at this point, but we’ll know for sure when WWDC kicks off on June 5th.

MacRumors got ahold of a research note from supply chain analyst Jeff Pu at Haitong International Securities suggesting a new 48MP sensor stack for the camera in these non-Pro phones will lead to production issues.

Palmer Luckey who, as the primary inventor of the Oculus Rift, should know a thing or two about VR headsets, tweeted out his one-line approval ahead of its expected unveiling on June 5th.

The Verge’s 2015 Apple Watch review:

Just when you thought that rumors of a higher-end 27-inch Apple Studio Display had been killed off, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo resurrects them. The noted supply-chain sleuth says it’ll arrive with Mini LED technology and “thinner panel thickness, a narrower bezel, and extended product lifespan” in “2024 or early 2025.”

9to5Mac says it’s gotten more details on the iPhone 15 Pro via a “detailed CAD” file and other sources, and it’s showing us what the upcoming phone could look like. We’ve heard a lot of the rumors before — titanium frame, USB-C, thinner bezels, a great new color — but the renders really bring this story to life.

Well-connected supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says mass production for Apple’s rumored headset has been pushed back and forecasts shipping numbers this year of 200k to 300k units instead of 500,000 or so.

Poor Magic Leap — it really does have a decent augmented reality headset these days, but it was way, way too early to the consumer AR party, and now Apple is the guest of honor. No wonder it’s venting a little schadenfreude at Apple’s apparent internal woes.

While Apple may not be making any monumental jumps into AI just yet, the company acquired a startup last month that leverages machine learning technology to compress and decompress videos, as first spotted by TechCrunch.

In yet another sign that Apple’s upcoming headset is nearing launch, the company covertly showed off the device during a “glitzy” presentation at the Steve Jobs Theater, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The fancier iPhones will apparently switch from a mute switch to a mute button this year, and new renders in a video spotted by leaker ShrimpApplePro reveal that it, well, looks like a button. If this is the real deal, I’m curious if it will be an improvement over the switch, which has been an iPhone staple since the very first one.

Within an article examining the shortfalls of AI voice helpers over the last few years, like Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri, the New York Times has a note about Apple’s internal tech demos:

While Apple has been exploring the idea of adding health-focused features to its AirPods for years, now Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman believes this is finally on the horizon.