Looking back at this week’s news and headlines from Apple, including new iPhone 16 features, iPhone 16 design leaks, long wait for M4 MacBook, iPhone’s Mac mirror arrives, iPad pro sales success, EU challenges App Store and iPhone AAA games bomb.
The Apple Loop is here to remind you of some of the many discussions surrounding Apple over the past seven days. You can also read my weekly roundup of Android news here on Forbes.
A visitor takes a selfie with Apple CEO Tim Cook (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Apple confirms new iPhone features
In a white paper published this week, Apple discussed several new approaches to promote device repairability and increase battery life. True Tone and battery measurement features will now be available from third-party parts installed on iPhones and will be part of the iOS 18 update:
“Currently, battery health indicators such as maximum capacity and cycle count are not presented to users whose devices have third-party batteries. This is because the accuracy of these metrics cannot be verified by Apple… In an effort to improve support for third-party batteries, starting later in 2024, Apple will display battery health metrics with a notification , that Apple cannot verify the information presented.”
(MacRumors).
New iPhone, new cases, new clues
Thanks to a leak of the latest iPhone 16 cases, we have confirmation of the three key features Apple is bringing to the base iPhone in 2024. Two new buttons are added – the action button and the camera button – but tweaks to the camera to supports Apple’s gee-whizz AR headset, show the interoperability that Apple promotes:
“they’ve changed from the iPhone 15’s diagonal placement on a square camera island to a vertical placement on a more diamond-shaped island. This shouldn’t affect regular iPhone photos and videos, but the lens placement will allow lenses side by side when recording in landscape mode – that’s the orientation you’ll need to capture stereoscopic videos that will enable 3D playback on the Apple Vision Pro headset.”
(Forbes).
Long wait for M4 on Mac
Apple debuted the M4 chipset in the iPad Pro last month. Apple’s M Series Silicon has appeared in the iPad Pro before, but is primarily seen as a Mac chip. And the Mac community will have to wait almost six months before the M4 starts showing up in their Macs, MacBooks and iMacs:
“The entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro is expected to get an M4 chip, while the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will be updated with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. Mac mini will get M4 and M4 Pro chips. The MacBook Air, Mac Studio and Mac Pro models won’t be updated with M4 chips until 2025, and it’s not yet clear when the iMac might get an update with the updated chip technology.”
(MacRumors).
iPhone meets Mac
Apple’s new iPhone-to-Mac display mirroring implementation is now available through the iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia developer betas launched at WWDC last month. The full public release is expected in early October. Besides sharing controls and digital real estate, mirroring brings the device’s file systems a little closer.
Chief among the more is a very cool feature where you can drag and drop files from your Mac to your iPhone, which is the ultimate in convenience. The connected Mac will show notifications from the iPhone on the Mac screen, and when you click on the Mac screen, they will open on the screen.”
(Forbes).
Apple is finding success in retail
The latest report from Canalys looks at laptop and tablet sales last quarter, and Apple will be pleased with the positioning of both form factors in the market:
“That means Apple had 14.2% of the desktop and notebook market this quarter. Approximately 2,102,000 Macs shipped, compared to 1,723,000 in Q1 2023… In total, Apple shipped 4,928,000 iPads in the quarter, down from 5,404,000 a year earlier. However, the iPad remained dominant with 50.8% of the market.”
(Apple Insider).
The latest EU App Store issues
EU regulators have challenged Apple over the implementation of third-party app stores and the ability of developers to tell consumers about alternatives to Apple’s own store:
“The tech giant has been given the opportunity to review the investigation’s preliminary findings and could avoid a monstrous fine if it comes back with a proposal that is satisfactory to the EU.” The European Commission says developers should be free to tell customers when there are cheaper app stores available outside of the one run by Apple.”
(BBC News).
And finally…
Apple’s push into AAA gaming has resulted in a handful of notable iPhone names over the past year. Unfortunately, financial success did not follow their releases, as research shows that these titles “bombed”:
“Assassin’s Creed Mirage has been downloaded approximately 123,000 times since June 6, Appfigures says. However, it managed to gross $138,000 in revenue. The report believes that revenue level indicates that less than 3,000 people wanted to unlock the full game at $49.99. “
(MobileGamer.biz via Apple Insider).
The Apple Loop brings you seven days of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Be sure to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here, and this week’s edition of the Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.
