Apple Loop: iPhone 17 Ultra Mystery, iPhone 17 Air Specs, Apple's Foldable iPad Dream
Taking a look back at this week's news and headlines from Apple, including iPhone 17 Air specs, mysterious iPhone 17 Ultra, WWDC Plans, Apple's Foldable Choice, Overcast improves Apple Watch support, Audiobooks show the way, and what is Jony Ive up to?
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.
Jonathan Ive, the British-born designer who headed up Apple's industrial design team (Photo Paul ...)
It may be fashionably thin, but the upcoming iPhone 17 Air will have an Achilles heel… there's not a lot of room for a battery, with some suggesting a capacity could be as low as 2,800 mAh. One question that may help address the thorny issue of battery capacity in a small form factor is new technology. Will Apple introduce a new battery style from TDK? After all, TDK is ramping up production mid-June, which would fit nicely into a pre-release production schedule for the iPhone 17 Air.
"TDK's silicon-anode batteries store about 15% more energy in the same physical space compared to conventional graphite-based batteries. The extra density is possible because silicon can hold more lithium ions per gram than graphite, making it ideal for devices where every millimeter counts."
(Apple Insider).
The iPhone 17 Air is on the way, as is the iPhone 17. You'd assume an iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, but what if Apple decides to push the boat out at the high end and replace the Pro Max branding. Marcus Mendes argues why an iPhone Ultra is needed:
"We seem to be a few months away from the release of a new member of the iPhone family, extra-officially named iPhone 17 Air. Apple tends to be quite conservative when it comes to iPhone suffixes, so it would make sense to take this opportunity to reframe the entire line-up, bringing it closer to the MacBook and iPad naming conventions."
(9to5Mac).
Apple has sent the invites and released the schedule for next month's Worldwide Developers Conference. This includes details on the public keynote, which will be streamed on YouTube and Apple TV. Other sessions require a developer registration. Forbes' contributor David Phelan looks over the program and leans into one of the more traditional parts of any invite… the clues to the big news:
"The image is a circle (that's Apple Park!) in a design that looked like it was made of translucent glass. That ties in with reports that the software Apple will announce is predicted to have more of the translucent feel of Apple Vision Pro menus. The lettering is colorful, like a rainbow.
"Similarly, Apple's Newsroom post features the rainbow lettering, topped by a glassy semicircle with hints of the colors onboard. Again, Apple may be previewing what's rumored to be a big design change coming."
(Forbes).
Apple is not expected to enter the foldables market until 2027 at the earliest, yet the question of how remains one of the more popular ones. Will it go for a large iPad tablet that can be folded to a comfortable carrying size, or will it be more revolutionary in the laptop market with a MacBook Fold? Darren Allan looks at the top options:
"Personally I think the MacBook idea is the frontrunner (and rumors about Apple working on a notebook with a virtual keyboard have been around for ages). Although more innovative and attention-grabbing, that is the riskier move, admittedly, in terms of getting Mac fans to accept the ditching of a physical keyboard in favor of a screen-based effort. It'd have to be a very good virtual keyboard, that's for sure. A big iPad would be a safer avenue to tread when you look at these ideas in that light."
(TechRadar).
One of the best podcast clients on iOS remains a solo developer project. Marco Orment's Overcast has been delivering podcasts for more than ten years and is under constant development. The latest addition is a ground-up reworking of the Apple Watch client:
"Overcast's Apple Watch app has been completely rewritten from the ground up and should be 'more responsive, efficient, and reliable.' In a post on Mastodon, Marco says the Apple Watch app 'has the modern single-target infrastructure, rather than the legacy watchOS dual-extension combo.' All of this should lead to vastly improved performance and reliability."
(9to5Mac).
Apple's updated App Store policies have allowed developers to sell digital items outside of Apple's electronic garden. Spotify is one of the first to take advantage. Its latest update allows audiobooks to be listed and searched for in-app, but purchased elsewhere:
"It's finally possible to purchase an audiobook from Spotify's iPhone app with just a few taps. On Monday, Spotify announced that Apple approved an update that allows users in the US to see audiobook pricing within the app and buy individual audiobooks outside the App Store."
(The Verge).
Sir Jony Ive is a key part of the Apple story, and even when he is no longer with the company, he can impact the tales from Cupertino. With Ive moving quickly through the AI space with the purchase of Ive's AI startup by OpenAI. There's a device coming in the future, but not much is known. Yet it is already disrupting:
"It's clearly not a pair of smart glasses, as Ive is reported to have been skeptical about creating something for the user to wear. It will be part of a 'family of devices,' suggesting that, like Apple products, the products will be integrated… It already sounded like the device would not have a display, and [Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo's] report echoed this: 'It will have cameras and microphones for environmental detection, with no display functionality.'
(Forbes).
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.
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