Apple today confirmed rumors that it will be hosting an event on September 7 and it can be said with a reasonable amount of certainty that it’s being held to reveal the iPhone 14 family, new smartwatches, and AirPods. The invite has a very space-centric design and it has led to all sorts of speculations regarding what it might be hinting at.
Does the iPhone 14 event invite have to mean something?
Not necessarily but Apple loves to have vague imagery on its invites and people love to infer meanings from them. And if history is any indication, the artworks are not random and often do foretell stuff, but not necessarily particularly significant things.
For instance, last year, the tagline was ‘California Streaming‘ and some had speculated that the imagery pointed to portrait mode for videos and graphite and gold color options and this did materialize.
For the iPhone 12, the tagline was ‘Hi, Speed,‘ which was indicative of the forthcoming 5nm A14 Bionic chip and 5G connectivity, but the accompanying graphic did not hold any clues, as we now know. iPhone 11’s ‘By innovation only‘ invite featured the same colors as the range.
That implies that there are some secrets, however insignificant, buried within the iPhone 14 invite and it’s our job to decipher them.
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will allow you to see quick information without needing to unlock them
If we want to uncover what the iPhone 14 invite means, a good starting point is the rumor mill. First up, we have the rumored always-on functionality, which will presumably allow the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro and the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro to light up only some parts of the OLED displays to show glanceable information such as the time, battery level, and notifications while remaining locked. Perhaps this is what the dark sky and the stars are hinting at?
Satellite connectivity
Last year’s iPhone 13 was rumored to offer satellite connectivity but that did not pan out and the iPhone 14 series is now expected to come with his feature. It will let you send messages over satellite networks when cellular coverage is not available. Since satellites float in space, the space theme might be a confirmation of sorts that this feature is on the way?
Astrophotography
Astronomy photography traditionally requires a few accessories but some of the best Android phones out there from Google, Realme, Vivo, and Xiaomi come with an astrophotography mode to let you take images of the night sky. The mode works by automatically taking multiple-exposure photos and stacking them together to remove noise.
EverythingApplePro and Max Weinbach had said last year that the iPhone 13 would have an astrophotography mode to detect different artifacts such as the stars and moons and adjust exposure settings accordingly. That did not come to fruition so it’s possible that the feature is ready for prime time this year.
The iPhone 14 invite has the tagline ‘Far out,’ and maybe Apple is teasing that the phones will be able to take pictures of distant space objects. After all, the Pros are rumored to come with a new, bigger 48MP sensor, which means they will be better equipped for low light scenarios.
I-cutout
The Apple logo in the invite is as unobtrusive as the rumored i-cutout setup
This one is a bad take but hear me out! This is (mostly) an all-black image with the outline of the Apple logo in the middle and the logo is not all that obtrusive. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are highly likely to sport a notch-less look with pill-shaped and hole cutouts and maybe, just maybe, this is what the image represents. Sure, the cutouts will not be as invisible as an under-display camera, but they will still create a more seamless viewing experience.
The iPhone 14 event will mostly be an in-person affair this year though Apple may also show some pre-recorded videos.
The regular 6.1-inch iPhone 14 and 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max are said to be minor upgrades over their 2021 counterparts, whereas the Pros could boast a new chip, a more capable display, and the aforementioned new main camera and design.
