It’s less than 24 hours away Apple’s 2024 iPhone event.
I look forward to watching it tomorrow, September 9, 2024 at 10:00 am PST time. A rare Monday event for Apple. Why is the event taking place on Monday?
Per the Sheriff aka Mark Gurman:
Apple faces threat of major fine just one day after iPhone 16 debut. About eight years ago, the European Commission alleged that Apple and Ireland worked together to help the iPhone maker dodge corporate taxes on more than $100 billion generated in Europe between 2004 and 2014. The commission fined Apple close to $14 billion for what it deemed to be unpaid taxes. Since then, the case has worked its way through courts and an appeals process, and the giant fine amount — a record-sized penalty — has been stuck in an escrow account.
Now, the European Commission has set a date to announce whether Apple has to pay the fine: Tuesday, Sept. 10. Coincidentally enough, that was the same day when Apple had hoped to reveal the iPhone 16, creating a scheduling problem. The company doesn’t know how it will fare in the case, but it would have been too big a risk to hold its launch event at the same time that it’s potentially hit with one of the largest corporate fines ever.
You’re not here to read about Apple’s tax practices, you’re here to read about new iPhones and to learn if you should consider upgrading or not.
In short if you have an iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max, you’re good to wait until the iPhone 17 redesign before upgrading at the earliest. Unless you needed the latest and greatest, which I totally empathize with.
Apple screwed regular iPhone 15 and 15 Plus users this year. It’s unprecedented for a less than 1 year old phone to not be getting all of Apple’s latest software features with the following year’s iOS update.
Regular iPhone 15 owners should possibly consider a trade in before their phones value goes down any further, if you have any interest in the upcoming Apple Intelligence features.
You can read Apple’s explanation of this hardware limitation below:
Apple Explains iPhone 15 Pro Requirement for Apple Intelligence
In The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2024, Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber put the question to Apple’s AI/machine learning head John Giannandrea, marketing chief Greg Joswiak, and software engineering chief Craig Federighi, and this was the response.
Giannandrea: “So these models, when you run them at run times, it’s called inference, and the inference of large language models is incredibly computationally expensive. And so it’s a combination of bandwidth in the device, it’s the size of the Apple Neural Engine, it’s the oomph in the device to actually do these models fast enough to be useful. You could, in theory, run these models on a very old device, but it would be so slow that it would not be useful.
Gruber: “So it’s not a scheme to sell new iPhones?”
Joswiak: “No, not at all. Otherwise, we would have been smart enough just to do our most recent iPads and Macs, too, wouldn’t we?”
Apple’s software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that the company’s first move with any new feature is to work out how to bring it back to older devices as far as possible. But when it comes to Apple Intelligence, “This is the hardware that it takes… It’s a pretty extraordinary thing to run models of this power on an iPhone,” he added.
The iPhone 15 Pro models use the A17 Pro chip, which has a 16-core Neural Engine that’s up to 2x faster than the A16 chip found in the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, performing nearly 35 trillion operations per second. Federighi hinted that RAM is also another aspect of the system that the new AI features require, so it is perhaps no coincidence that all the devices compatible with Apple Intelligence have at least 8GB of RAM.
In short they got caught with their pants down on the rise in popularity of LLM’s over the last couple of years when OpenAI released an early demo of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022.
To learn more about why iPhone 15 and 15 plus won’t support Apple Intelligence read:
Apple Intelligence Won’t Work on Hundreds of Millions of iPhones–but Maybe It Could
iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max users are probably good for another year if you are not interested in Apple Intelligence features. If you want Apple Intelligence a refurb/renewed 15 Pro/Pro Max is also another possible upgrade path.
Apple Intelligence is reported to not be available until October 2024 at the earliest for the general public. If you want to use it now or with your new brand iPhone 16 you will have to install the 18.1 iOS Beta.
Listed below are my product predictions for tomorrow’s event.
Be sure to check out my follow up posts with my thoughts on tomorrow’s event and product announcements.
Products
iPhones
iPhone 16 Lineup Announced
All iPhone 16 models will likely see a $100.00 price increase this year.
iPhone 16 Pro Max – Starting at $1,299.00
iPhone 16 Pro – Starting at $1,099.00
iPhone Pro Max/Pro Color Options: White Titanium, Black Titanium, Natural Titanium, Desert Titanium
Expect “bigger displays” via smaller bezels, longer battery life via increased thickness and/or stacked battery technology, higher storage capacities (up to 2TB), capture button, 4k spatial video capture, and an improved internal thermal design.
Both pro phones will get 48 megapixel ultra wides and the 16 pro will get the x5 telephoto lens that debuted solely on last year’s 15 Pro Max.
iPhone 16 Plus – Starting at $999.00
iPhone 16 – Starting at $899.00
iPhone 16 Color Options: White, Black, Blue, Green, Pink
Expect a phone based on a combination of last year’s iPhone 15 with refreshed color-ways, the addition of the action and capture buttons, vertical cameras, 4k spatial video capture, and an improved internal thermal design.
White braided USB-C 2.0 charging cable included in box for all models.
Perhaps next year’s iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max will finally get a thunderbolt port on the phone?
Apple Watches
Apple Watch Ultra 3
An iterative update on last years Apple Watch Ultra 2
Expect an updated processor to S10, longer battery life, updated Ultra Wide Band Chip from U2 to U3, and new color-ways in line with the iPhone 16, Max, Pro models, on device Apple Intelligence support.
Color-ways: Natural Titanium, Black Titanium, Desert Titanium
Apple Watch Series 10
An iterative update on last years Apple Watch Series 9.
Expect an updated processor to S10, longer battery life, updated Ultra Wide Band Chip to U3, and new color-ways in line with the iPhone 16 models, on device Apple Intelligence support.
Larger screens are rumored to. I’m skeptical of this. Lots of people love the current Apple Watch sizes. To me a larger screen means smaller screen bezels, not a larger overall watch.
Perhaps the new sizes will be 42mm and 46mm as predicted by David Phelan in the article linked above.
Apple Watch SE
Long overdue for an upgrade the aging Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) released in September 2022, may get a always on screen, larger screen and take on the the design language of the Series 7 or 8 Apple Watch.
Accessories
AirPods 4
Estimated Price: $169.00
USB-C Wireless Charging Case will now be included instead of Lightning Charging Case
Active Noise Cancellation Added
AirPods Pro 3
Estimated Price: $249.00
Update to AirPods Pro 2nd generation earbuds.
USB-C Wireless Charging Case will now be included instead of Lightning Charging Case
AirPods Max 2
Estimated Price: $599.00
Updated AirPods Max to feature USB-C port, lossless Audio Streaming via USB-C cable, color matched cable, new color ways to match iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max models.
Colors: Black Titanium, Natural Titanium, Desert Titanium, Blue, Green, Product Red
iPhone Cases “FineWoven” v2 for iPhone 16 Lineup Only
Replaces current FineWoven lineup with an upgraded v2 take on the product lineup, an Apple branded case alternative to their discounted lineup of leather cases.
All cases will feature MagSafe and support for Qi2 Charging.
The FineWoven product revision is in response to the litany of criticism received by the first generation product lineup for the iPhone 15 series. The revised cases will likely only be available for the latest and greatest iPhone 16 lineup.
The Verge: The new FineWoven iPhone cases are very bad
Apple weaved itself into a fine mess with the awful iPhone 15 FineWoven case
Check out some awesome alternatives to the FineWoven Cases linked below:
Peak Design Mobile Everyday Case iPhone 14 Pro – Charcoal Gray
Peak Design Mobile Everyday Loop Case iPhone 14 Pro
I’ve used the Peak Design Everyday Loop Case with my iPhone 14 Pro with no issues.
The loop is super handy and way more desecrate and less ugly compared to those obnoxious Pop-Sockets.
iPad mini (7th generation)
Estimated Price: $499.00 and up.
Adds:
Updated A18 Chip to support on device Apple Intelligence
Ram up from 4GB to 8GB
Base storage up from 64GB to 128GB
Similar Color-ways to existing lineup: Space Gray, Pink, Purple, Starlight.
Perhaps Purple is replaced with Blue or Green from the iPhone 16 lineup?
Software
iOS 18
To be released to the public the following Tuesday, September 16th after the event.
I’ve been running both the Public betas and I am now on the 18.1 Developer on my daily carry. It’s running great, with very few issues.
This is a big OS Upgrade.
Sadly on iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max and the entire iPhone 16 lineup uses will get to take advantage of Apple Intelligence on device.
Creating a bifurcated iPhone experience for older devices that support iOS18.
Here’s hoping Apple can find away to leverage PCC to bring Apple Intelligence to older iPhones in the future?
Sadly that may not be possible due to the RAM limitations of all iPhones’ pre A17 Pro which have a maximum of 6GBs of RAM.
To say that I am outraged that my 2 year old iPhone 14 Pro can’t run Apple Intelligence is an understatement.
More on that in the near future.
iPadOS 18
To be released to the public the following Monday, September 16th after the event.
I’ve been running both the Public betas and I am now on the 18.1 Developer on my daily carry. It’s running great, with very few issues.
This is a big OS Upgrade.
M1 and newer iPad users will get Apple Intelligence. Everyone else is out of luck.
macOS 15 Sequoia
To be released to the public the following Monday, September 16th after the event.
This is going to be a modest and iterative OS Upgrade.
I plan to install it day one on my main Mac.
The only major issue I am concerned about is the screen recording permission dialogues. This could be really annoying for Audio Professionals.
Read more about this new annoyance here: macOS Sequoia will now prompt you monthly (not weekly) for screen recording permissions
M1 and newer Mac users will get Apple Intelligence. Everyone else is out of luck.
watchOS 11
To be released to the public the following Monday, September 16th after the event.
This is going to be a modest and iterative OS Upgrade.
Which builds on last years major watchOS 10 redesign.
visionOS 2
To be released to the public the following Monday, September 16th after the event.
This is going to be a modest and iterative OS Upgrade.
Does anyone even care about the Vision Pro?
8 months in and still no native Netflix and Youtube apps.
Perhaps people don’t like having computers strapped to their faces?
Read More
Bloomberg: Apple’s AI Rollout Is Too Staggered to Spur iPhone ‘Super Cycle’
The Verge: It’s time for the regular iPhone to shine
The Verge: How to watch Apple’s ‘Glowtime’ iPhone 16 event
ATP: iPhone 15 Exit Interview
Music Listened To While Writing This Post
Links And Things
If you enjoyed the post and found it to be useful. Entirely optional, and appreciated. Thanks for your support!
Written on MacBook Pro and iPad Pro using Drafts Pro in Markdown.
Disclosure: Ian LeCheminant is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, he may receive a small commission.
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