Taking a look back at this week’s news and headlines from Apple, including potential iPhone 17 Air pricing, the iPhone SE cancellation, iPhone 17 camera designs, Genmoji finally arriving in macOS, consumers’ not sold on AI, AirPods Max problems, and happy birthday AirPods.
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.
The Price Of Air
When it was launched, the MacBook Air was a premium-priced laptop benefiting the new techniques and design decisions. Will the same thing happen with the presumptively named iPhone Air that will go in next year’s iPhone 17 family? Or will Apple slot it in as a replacement to the iPhone Plus and straddle the vanilla and Pro model:
“In details that fit with previous reports, Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie say, “Starting next year, Apple plans to introduce an iPhone that will be thinner than the approximately 8-millimeter profile of current models, said people familiar with the company’s plans. But then, it goes on: “The model is intended to be cheaper than Pro models, with a simplified camera system to reduce costs.”
(Forbes).
iPhone SE 2022 Cancelled
Apple’s iPhone SE is a mainstay of the portfolio, capturing the mid-range market. That won’t be the case for the first quarter of 2025, as new European regulations for USB-C charging hardware mean the current SE will be removed from sale. It’s going to be months before Apple can replace it with a new Apple Intelligence supporting iPhone SE:
“Apple was always going to replace the current iPhone SE when the newer model arrived. No doubt Tim Cook and his team would have preferred to keep the iPhone SE launched in 2022 on sale for another four or five months until the 2025 version arrived. Alas, the European Union’s mandate for USB-C to be the universal charging port on consumer electronics has put paid to that.”
(Forbes).
iPhone 17 Camera Redesign Issues
Lots of chatter this week over the positioning of the camera lenses in the iPhone 17 main cameras. While new centerline options or changed triangular arrangements are out there, the feeling is that these are mockups just to ensure they are not the best way forward. After all, the current lenses are set up to be side-by-side in landscape mode for a reason:
“Second, one of the main reasons for the iPhone 16 design change was to allow the regular iPhone to shoot spatial videos for the first time when the phone was held in landscape orientation. It seems strange that Apple would ditch this so quickly—though it could be overcome by software and lens changes, it’s true, if the image was cropped in a different way.”
(Forbes).
Mac’s Genmoji Breakthrough
While iOS and iPadOS picked up the emotionally powerful genmoji in the 18.2 updates, macOS users were denied the avatar technology. They can rest easy, though, the software has shown up in the beta of macOS 18.2 and should be available to the public early in 2025:
“With Genmoji, Mac users can input a text prompt to create a custom character that behaves just like an emoji on devices running iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, macOS Sequoia 15.1 and later. On earlier versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, and on Android devices, Genmoji show up as an image.”
(MacRumors).
Thanks AI, But No Thanks
A timely reminder this week that, for all the promotion and activity around generative AI on smartphones, consumers are still not sold on the benefits of the technology, accorin to a new survey from SellCell:
“Smartphone users in general are unsatisfied with the existing AI features as the survey recorded 73% of Apple Intelligence users and 87% of Galaxy AI users stating the new features to be either ‘not very valuable’ or they ‘add little to no value’ to their smartphone experience.”
(9to5Mac).
An Old Fashioned AirPods Max Problem
The latest AirPods Max may come with a (mandated by the EU) USB-C charging port. Yet the USB-C port is lacking a significant feature that the lightning port offered. The option to use a wired connection.
“If you bought Apple’s Lightning to 3.5 mm Audio Cable, you could connect your Lightning AirPods Max to any headphone jack and listen over a wired connection. This feature was great for airplanes, podcast recording, and a variety of other use cases. It didn’t technically provide lossless audio playback, but having a wired option was nice nonetheless. …Apple made a change with the newest AirPods Max. There’s now no way to do wired playback with the AirPods Max with USB-C.”
(9to5Mac).
And Finally…
Eight years ago this week, Apple introduced the AirPods. Following on from the wired EarPods that became a staple of iPhone and iPod adverts, what promises did Apple make in the 2016 presentation, and do you think it has delivered on them?
“Priced at $159, the first-generation AirPods introduced key features such as one-tap pairing with Apple devices and in-ear detection for automatic play-pause functionality. Powered by Apple’s custom W1 chip, they delivered enhanced audio quality compared to wired EarPods and set a new standard for battery life in a compact, completely wireless design.”
(MacRumors).
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.
