Benjamin Mayo

Alongside the iPhone 15 announcement, Apple introduced the Apple Watch Series 9 this week. It was a relatively minor iterative update, but one feature in particular caught my attention: offline Siri.

Siri can be frustrating at the best of times, but it is particularly poor on the Apple Watch due to its seemingly unstable network connection. A long pause and a “Working on that” announcement is an ever too common experience. Offline Siri with the Apple Watch Series 9 could make this a thing of the past.

Contemporaneous with the launch of the iPhone 15, a scandal surrounding the iPhone 12 brewed this week. France regulators have banned sales of iPhone 12 as it claimed the phone’s radiation exposure exceeded legal limits.

Apple has rejected the findings. But the story is still gaining steam. Via Reuters, Belgium this morning said that it is also now reviewing potential health risks relating to iPhone 12.

This week, Tim Cook reaffirmed Apple’s previously-announced plans to ship its Vision Pro AR/VR headset “early next year.” ‘”Early” in Apple parlance can mean as late as May, but various signs point to this truly meaning a debut in the first few months of 2024.

But if you are planning to get Apple’s first ever spatial computer, we also learned this week about some important prerequisites. To get the most out of your Apple Vision pro headset, you’ll also need to invest in Apple’s latest-and-greatest iPhone 15 Pro and AirPods Pro earbuds …

During the September keynote event, Apple touted a whole bunch of new Portrait mode features for the iPhone 15 series, like automatic capture of Portrait mode shots while using the main shooting mode in the Camera app and the ability to change the subject in focus in the Portrait mode shot after you have taken it.

Well, it turns out that at least some of that stuff is also coming to older phones too. Twitter user Dylan pointed out that on the iOS 17 release candidate build, iPhone 14 Pro users can also refocus their Portrait mode shots after they have been taken.

Apple has stopped selling both the MagSafe Battery Pack and the MagSafe Duo Charger, following the launch of the iPhone 15 with USB-C.

The reason for the discontinuation of these accessories is pretty obvious: they were iPhone accessories that featured Lightning ports for power. Rather than replace them with USB-C versions, Apple has opted to stop selling them altogether.

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max feature an all-new chassis design, utilizing titanium for the first time in an iPhone. The 15 Pro replaces the old stainless steel sides with a brushed titanium surround.

Titanium is much lighter than stainless steel, boasting one of the best strength-to-weight ratios of any metal. This results in Apple’s lightest ever Pro phones. Here’s the details …

As part of its iPhone 15 event, Apple today announced new higher storage options for its iCloud plans.

Previously, an individual iCloud account maxed out at 2 TB storage, for $9.99/month. But beginning September 18, Apple will offer 6 TB and 12 TB plans, offering more storage for personal photos, videos, documents and data. But these new large storage tiers will come to a large hit to your wallet …

Apple today announced that iPhone 15 Pro is powered by a new Apple Silicon chip, which Apple calls ‘A17 Pro’.

A17 Pro is fabricated using an industry-leading 3 nanometer process, housing a total of 19 billion transistors. Apple says the high-performance cores in A17 chip are up to 10% faster, and mean iPhone remains the fastest smartphone in the industry. However, the bigger focus this year is on the GPU performance.

Apple today unveiled the iPhone 15 lineup, which notably replaces the Lightning connector with USB-C. This means customer no longer need proprietary cables to charge their iPhone or transfer data.

USB-C cables are readily available, and are also used by most modern Android phones. However, some Apple customers will be frustrated that they will need to replace their collection of Lightning cables and accessories.

Apple today announced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, featuring improved performance, the Dynamic Island previously seen on iPhone 14 Pro, a range of new colors, and a USB-C port replacing the Lightning connector. iPhone 15 stays at the same price as last year, starting at $799.

Like last year, iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus sport 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch displays. However, Apple said that maximum brightness can now go up to 2000 nits. You can preorder the iPhone 15 this Friday, with the device launching on September 22.

Just hours before Apple is set to unveil the new iPhone 15 and Apple Watch Series 9 lineup, reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo tweeted that Apple is now unlikely to launch new iPads until 2024.

Last week, Kuo said that no new MacBooks are due until next year either. Save possibly an iMac refresh, it doesn’t seem like Apple will have much — if any — new hardware products to announce for the rest of the year, so today’s Wonderlust event might be it.

As is ritual, the Apple Store is down ahead of Apple’s September ‘Wonderlust’ event later today, where the company will officially announce the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, Apple Watch Series 9 and second-generation Apple Watch Ultra.

You can tune into the event from 10 AM Pacific Time, and stay tuned to 9to5Mac for full coverage of all the announcements.

For the first time, Apple will sell new made-in-India iPhone models on launch day (via Bloomberg). That means the iPhone 15 you buy on September 22 could have been manufactured in India, a sign that Apple’s worldwide supply chain infrastructure is taking significant steps to expand beyond China.

While Apple has been making iPhones in India for some time, their production schedules have lagged behind the longstanding “primary” iPhone assembly facilities in China like Foxconn.

Apple today announced that it is partnering with Indian streaming channel aggregator Tata Play Binge to offer Apple TV+ as part of the premier bundle, which features 27 video services including content from Disney Hotstar, LionsgatePLAY and others.

The bundle including Apple TV+ costs 399 rupees per month. Although the move sacrifices some direct subscriber revenue potential, it gives Apple original TV shows and movies much more reach in a market where Apple was unlikely to make a big dent on its own.

Qualcomm announced today that Apple will continue to use Qualcomm 5G modems for the iPhone at least through 2026, two years longer than what the company had previously declared to investors.

The statement confirms that the original schedule for the Apple 5G modem has been pushed back from the initial 2024 release window, following internal delays with Apple’s modem chip development.

Via Bloomberg, Apple might not be ready to transition all of its iPhone headphone accessories in sync when Apple announces the iPhone 15 next week, which will replace the Lightning port with USB-C.

A USB-C case for AirPods Pro is expected to be available this fall, but a USB-C case for Apple’s lower-end AirPods is not due until 2024. Equally disappointing is the fact that Bloomberg says Apple’s high-end $549 AirPods Max will also become more out of date for a few months, as they are also not expected to be updated with USB-C charging until sometime next year.

Apple is set to announce the iPhone 15 Pro at its September event on Tuesday. Ahead of the official announcements, Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has released his latest update on what to expect.

Excitingly, Gurman reports that the switch from stainless steel to titanium for the sides of the new chassis will translate to an overall weight reduction, as well as looking cool. According to this sources, the iPhone 15 Pro models will get about 10% lighter. And yet, thanks to the efficiency improvements of the new A17 chip, they will tout even longer battery life.

Dan Ives at Wedbush is the latest analyst to predict price increases for the iPhone 15, which Apple will officially unveil next week on September 12, as part of its “Wonderlust” media event.

The analyst is expecting the base model iPhone 15 price to remain unchanged, but sees $100 price bumps for both the 6.1-inch Pro and 6.7-inch Pro Max. This would be the first time Apple has increased pro iPhone prices since the iPhone X debuted at $999 in 2017. For context, the iPhone 14 Pro currently starts at $999, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at $1,099.