iPhone

The bulk of Foxconn’s Chinese staff working on iPhones in India have been ordered back to China, according to a new Bloomberg report. It appears to be part of a concerted effort to prevent “technology, skilled labor and specialized equipment to leave China for manufacturing upstarts such as India.”

That is, if the actual phone looks anything like these photos from leaker Majin Bu. What do you think?

Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo writes in a post on X that Apple supplier Foxconn could “kick off the project” later this year, targeting a 2026 release. Kuo says the display is “one of the few components” that Apple has finalized so far, but “plans remain subject to change.”

In addition to their discussion of what happened with AI Siri, Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak talked about how an Apple Watch might fit into Apple’s AI device plans, if Apple is working on a foldable (“who’s to say?”), and if iPhone prices will go up due to tariffs (“nothing to announce”). It’s worth watching.

Vivo claims its X Fold 5 has achieved an Android first: interoperability with the Apple Watch. According to product manager Han Boxiao the watch can display calls and texts from the X Fold 5, and sync health data. The phone can also receive calls and texts sent to an iPhone, access iCloud, and extend the display of a Mac.

If you’ve got an iPhone running iOS 18.4 or later, the Apple TV Plus tab of the TV app now features a trailer for the upcoming Brad Pitt F1 movie that’s now enhanced with vibrations created by the modern iPhone’s Taptic Engine.

This fun story from The Atlantic is about President Trump’s love of phone calls, and the risks that entails: impersonation, hacking, and much more. But as soon as I read an advisor saying that “he is not walking around with a run-of-the-mill iPhone off the shelf,” I immediately had one thousand more questions. I now need to go find answers.

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.

Shipments dropped 76 percent in April 2025 compared to the year before, as those from India grew by the same percentage, according to new figures from Omdia. April’s figures are low overall, but skewed by March’s efforts to rush 600 tons of product into the US before tariffs hit.

“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” the president revealed during a visit to Qatar, after apparently telling the Apple CEO to stop moving its manufacturing to India. Apple has reportedly planned to use its Indian infrastructure to avoid higher tariffs on Chinese goods. Trump claims the company will now be “upping their production in the United States,” but there are many reasons an American iPhone just won’t happen.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says he asked CEO Tim Cook about how to make US-built iPhones happen (despite Cook’s explanations for why they won’t), per an interview with CNBC:

Despite rumors that Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro smartphones would feature an anti-glare display similar to the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra / S25 Ultra, MacRumors is now pouring cold water on the possibility. Juli Clover reports that Apple has faced difficulties “scaling up the display coating process.” As a result, we’re not going to see this option for the iPhones 17 Pro.