Taking a look back at this week’s news and headlines from Apple, including the iPhone Air leaks, new iPhone SE details, iPhone 15 special offers, AI headlines paused, Apple Card’s new home, iCloud in 2025, and Tim Cook’s inauguration seat.
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.
iPhone Air Design Leaks
Apple’s iPhone plans for 2025 include a new addition to the portfolio with an ultra-fashionable ‘thin’ iPhone. Details on the presumptively named iPhone Air are coming out, with the biggest question addressed. How thin is thin?
“But exactly how much thinner has just taken a new turn. A new report by Ming-Chi Kuo from TFI Securities, a hugely respected analyst, suggests that what’s called “the 2H25 ultra-thin iPhone,” could be a phone “with the thinnest part around 5.5mm,” according to Kuo.”
(Forbes).
iPhone SE Details
Before the iPhone Air’s potential launch in September, Apple will release the fifth mid-range iPhone SE. It’s going to have a few of the bells and whistles of the current iPhone 16 family, but it needs to keep on both the cost and how much it might cannibalize the more expensive iPhones.
“The controls and ports on the right-hand side of the iPhone SE are clearly visible. A physical SIM card tray is at the lowest extreme. Above that are two volume buttons, and the traditional mute switch is above. This switch has been dropped from the main line of iPhones in favour of a programmable Action Button.”
(Forbes).
iPhone 15 Special Offers
Until then, there’s a new choice in the Apple Store for their next iPhone. The iPhone 15 family is showing up the Apple Refurb store. These generally offer a fifteen percent discount on the list price (usually enough to buy Apple Care and a refurb iPhone for the price of the same iPhone when new. The twist this time around is the Pro and Pro Max phones are available:
“While Apple’s regular iPhones stay in the range for several years, if you want the Pro, you need to buy it in the 12 months after it’s released, and then it’s gone. However, Apple just brought the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, in some countries, on its refurbished site, at lower prices. Apple made this move unexpectedly early.”
(Forbes).
Apple Addresses AI News Issues
Apple has been facing increasing pressure to take action on the generative AI news alert Apple Intelligence has been providing (notably from the BBC). Part of the feature has been disabled and will return in a later release, others now come with a warning:
“For now, Notification Summaries for the News and Entertainment category have been temporarily disabled, and Apple is working on improvements. Notification Summaries for news will return in a future software update. In the Settings app, when a user activates Notification Summaries, Apple has added a warning that this is a beta feature and that there could be errors.”
(MacRumors).
Apple Card Looking For A New Home
The partnership between Goldman achs and Apple to manage the Apple Card is currently up for renegotiation and Apple is looking at other financial institutions to take over the credit card.
“Apple is in talks with Barclays to replace Goldman Sachs as the tech giant’s credit card partner, said two sources familiar with the matter, as the Wall Street giant steps back from its consumer finance ambitions. Credit card issuer Synchrony Financial is also in discussions with Apple about the card partnership, the first source said. Both sources declined to be identified discussing private talks.”
(Reuters).
iCloud For 2025
Apple’s iCloud service has drawn much ire for the paltry 5GB free tier, but Michael Burkhardt argues that the rest of theirs need to be re-organised to be fit for purpose in 2025:
“nstead of introducing a new fourth lower end tier, why not just adjust how much storage everyone gets? After nearly ten years of the lower end 50GB and 200GB plans remaining at the prices they are today, I think it’s about time to change things up. After all, file sizes are only getting larger. 50GB is probably barely enough for most peoples iPhone backup at this point.”
(9to5Mac).
And Finally…
As the media circus gathers around the US Presidential inauguration, much is being made of the presence of Elon Muskc, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. There’s less noise over the attendance of Apple CEO Tim Cook, but many are keeping a close eye on any interaction of the major tech firms with the White House.
“The appearance from the tech titans comes as the industry has sought to warm relations with Trump following his victory last November, and despite frequent clashes during his first term in office. Many, including Cook, have traveled to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where the president-elect and Musk have held a series of private meetings and dinners to discuss plans for the coming term.”
(Bloomberg).
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.
