Taking a look back at this week’s news and headlines from Apple, including iPhone 16’s camera superpower, new buttons for the iPhone 16 Pro, iPad launch dates, Apple Vision Pro demand, open-sourcing iPhone AI, a critical app for the iPad, and more….
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.
Demoing the Apple Vision Pro (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
iPhone 16’s Vision Pro Change
We continue to look closely at the design cues and hardware defining the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. First up this week is a third-party case manufacturer showing off their wares covering a ‘blank’ iPhone dummy unit. The changes to the camera to accommodate the Apple Vision Pro into the ecosystem are clearly visible:
"Last year, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus used a diagonal arrangement on the main camera island. This year, it will move to a vertical arrangement. This becomes a horizontal arrangement when held in the classic landscape mode, allowing stereoscopic video recording for playback on the Vision Pro headset as an Apple-branded Spatial Video."
(Forbes).
Pressing The New iPhone
Also, some new button designs are on the iPhone 16 specs front. Both the new Capture Button and the Action Button, arriving on the vanilla iPhone, may use capacitive technology in place of physical buttons.
"The result is a phone with fewer moving parts. But Apple has never done this with a power button on the iPhone before. The report says the capacitive elements will be on both sides of the phone, with volume switches on one side, presumably with the Action button as well. The other side of the iPhone currently only has one button, the Side Button, which is used to turn the phone on and off."
(Forbes).
This Time, It Really Is The iPad
Following months of “honestly, it’s coming next week,” we finally have a date for Apple’s next launch event, which is widely expected to be the moment that the next iPad is revealed. We know from the press release that it will be Tuesday, May 7th, but what else can we deduce?
"There are always clues in an Apple invite but this one’s pretty clear. The Apple logo, represented in splashes of colored paint, partly conceals a hand holding an Apple Pencil. In other words, there’s an Apple Pencil coming. And what devices does the Apple Pencil work with? That’s right, the iPad."
(Forbes).
Apple Vision Pro Numbers
This week, it was reported that Apple’s niche mixed reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, will see sales fall short of expectations; earlier this year, numbers of 700,000-750,00 were being discussed, and it’s more likely to be around 400,000. As David Heany notes, the biggest issue is not demand but resources:
"With a $3500 entry price Apple Vision Pro was never going to be a breakout mass market hit. The product's very name suggests it's just the beginning of the Vision headset line, and multiple sources have reported that Apple plans a much more affordable model later in the decade. But Vision Pro's price is dictated by its production and supply constraints, and it's those constraints limiting its volume, not lower than expected demand."
(Upload VR).
Intel MacBook Pro Problems
Apple’s latest release of macOS has been causing problems for MacBook owners, but not those on the latest Apple Silicon-powered Mac laptops. If you’re sporting one of the older Intel machines, you’ll know that the refresh to macOS Ventura has been causing havoc, with no acknowledged timescale for a fix in sight:
"The latest update to macOS Ventura features multiple problems that have made the Macs difficult to use. Reported issues include connectivity problems with Wi-Fi and BlueTooth, failed Time Machine backups, UI lag, TouchID issues, and various issues in first- and third-party apps."
(Forbes).
Apple Open Sources AI Ideas
An interesting software release this week by Apple, as it open-sourced eight different large language models through the Hugging Face AI community. These Open Source Efficient Language Models are designed to run locally on consumer technology and highlight Apple’s potential approach to AI PR:
"The steady release of research papers on new techniques has kept Apple’s AI plans visible to the industry if not yet to consumers. By providing the open-source code for these efficient language models and emphasizing on-device processing, Apple is quietly signaling how it hopes to stand out against the raft of Android-powered AI devices,"
(Forbes).
Apple AI Server Plans
AI hardware is also on Apple’s mind, with details on its ambitious plans for AI-focused cloud servers in the future. While the current emphasis may look to highlight the on-device capabilities, Apple is preparing for some heavy lifting in its future:
"According to a post by the Weibo user known as "Phone Chip Expert," Apple has ambitious plans to design its own artificial intelligence server processor. The user, who claims to have 25 years of experience in the integrated circuit industry, including work on Intel's Pentium processors, suggests this processor will be manufactured using TSMC's 3nm node."
(MacRumors).
And Finally...
Literally a call of and finally, reports are coming in that the last great missing app for the iPad will be launched in iPadOS 18. Here comes… the… calculator!
"The lack of an official Calculator app on the iPad has been a long-running meme on social media, given it is such a basic tool. In the meantime, iPad users must rely on third-party calculator apps in the App Store, such as PCalc and Calcbot."
(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.
