Apple Breakfast: Pre-event rumours go wild

Apple generates a lot of news, and it can be hard to keep up. If your mind was on other things this week, our Saturday-morning roundup of Apple-related headlines will bring you up to date.

If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up to our newsletters. You can also follow us on Twitter for breaking news stories.

Rumours run wild as event season beckons

With most likely just over two weeks to go until Apple unveils the new iPhone models for 2021 it’s no wonder that rumours about the new models are flying right now. This week we’ve seen a supposed leaked image of a new Rose Gold iPhone 13 Pro and what could be an iPhone 13 packaging label, heard that the iPhone 13 will be ‘more expensive’ due to the higher component costs due to global shortages, and infamous leaker Jon Prosser has claimed that Apple is testing new Face ID that will work with masks and fogged up glasses. Catch up with all the iPhone 13 rumours.

It’s pretty clear that new iPhones are coming soon with lots of new features, but spare a few minutes reflection for the features that have come and gone from our phones. In this week’s Different Think we discuss Four iPhone features we wish would make a comeback.

iPhone sales figures normally fall just before the introduction of a new generation, but reports claim that this isn’t the case with the iPhone 12. If the iPhone 12 is selling too well could this be a problem for iPhone 13? An alternative way of looking at this is to ask When is the best time to buy an iPhone?

Alongside the new iPhone we’re also expecting to see a new Apple Watch and new AirPods. It’s not surprising therefore that the rumours about both products are hotting up. This week we’ve heard that there will be new screen sizes for the new Apple Watches, with images said to show evidence of this appearing on Twitter, see: Another Apple Watch leak: photos indicate new sizes.

As for when this autumn’s first Apple event will take place we’re still hearing 14 September, but now Jon Prosser has added that his sources have the pre-order and on-sale dates of the iPhone 13 lineup confirmed for the 17 September and 24 September. Those are the dates we would have predicted, assuming the 14 September date is correct.

The new Twitter profile picture for Apple’s head of environmental protection indicates that filming may be underway for this autumn’s Apple keynotes. The Twitter profile picture for Lisa Jackson shows production equipment in the background.

News in brief

Once the iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch launches are out of the way attention will turn to the Mac. Two new MacBook Pro models are expected to launch this autumn and as you would expect the rumours are ramping up. This week we’ve heard that the new 14in MacBook Pro will cost more than the models it replaces. 

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has also confirmed (via his Power On newsletter) that the new M1X Mac mini will launch “in the next several months”. The new model “will have an updated design and more ports than the current model.” A new design is also anticipated. See: New powerful Mac mini coming soon.

Looking ahead to next year, Apple has postponed the return to the office again. Now Apple’s employees won’t be expected back in the building until January 2022 at the earliest. The change of plans is due to the rising infection rates of Covid-19, in particular the Delta variant.

It looks like new AirPods will be launching soon, but if you were hoping for new AirPods Pro you’ll have a longer wait. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman doesn’t believe Apple has any update plans for the AirPods Pro in 2021: “I don’t think that there will be a hardware update of the AirPods Pro before 2022,” he said. More here: No new AirPods Pro before 2022. Wondering if it’s safe to buy AirPods now? Read: Should I Buy AirPods Now Or Wait?

Software, bugs & problems

If you are waiting eagerly for iOS 15 we have some bad news: yet another feature won’t be ready for prime time. Apple has decided to hold back iCloud Private Relay from full release, instead it will be released as a beta. When it does arrive iCloud Private Relay will encrypt all traffic leaving a users device so that it can’t be read by anyone between the user and the website. It is similar to what a VPN does, but VPNs do a lot more than encrypt traffic. Read about the seven iOS 15 features that won’t be available at launch.

Spy software Pegasus is back. Researchers have discovered a new vulnerability in iOS that has been exploited by Pegasus. It happened a couple of months back, but significantly it bypassed Apple’s Blastdoor security measures. Read: How to check if your iPhone is infected by NSO’s Pegasus spyware.

If you use Whatsapp on your iPhone you might be pleased to learn that a Whatsapp iPad app is in the works. It is possible to use Whatsapp on the iPad (and Mac for that matter) but doing so requires using a web app. The new iPad app will no doubt improve the experience.

Apple deals of the week

I’ve embedded a list of the best current Apple deals below, but other than that, we’re done for this week. See you next Saturday, and stay Appley!