Updated on June 23 with details on Apple Intelligence in EU, M4 release schedule.
Taking a look back at this week’s news and headlines from Apple, including the latest iPhone 16 leaks, the iPhone’s AI limitation, a new MacBook Pro for Christmas, Apple’s open-source AI, when Siri will get Apple Intelligence, an AI supercycle of iPhones, and what happened to Apple’s i?
Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the many discussions around Apple in the last seven days. You can also read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes.
iPhone 16 Case Clues
A raft of cases for the iPhone 16 on show this week have been spotted this week. They might not show the internals of the next-generation iPhones, but it does give us more potential information on the camera and its use alongside Apple’s Spatial Computing plans:
"The photos once again point to a subtly revamped design for the iPhone 16, featuring two vertically aligned camera lenses. One theory suggests this arrangement is to accommodate spatial video recording capabilities for Apple's Vision Pro mixed reality headset, even on the base models. For optimal spatial capture, the lenses need to be horizontally aligned, mimicking the position of human eyes."
(TechNetbooks).
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iPhone’s AI Limitations
Apple has confirmed that of the current iPhones, only the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max will support Apple Intelligence AI. This is down to a mix of memory, processor, and bandwidth on the board, as Apple's John Giannandrea explained on a recent “Talk Show” podcast:
"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."
(Forbes).
M4 MacBook Pro Before Christmas
Apple took the surprising step to debut the latest M4 silicon in the iPad Pro, rather than any Mac. At some point, the macOS family will see the M4 arrive, and it is likely to be the MacBook Pro that will be first in line:
"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. The 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 is not yet clear when the iMac might see an update with the refreshed chip technology."
(MacRumors).
Updated on June 23 with Apple’s M4 release schedule.
Apple’s M4 Plans For The Mac Family
More details on Apple’s rollout of the M4 chipset across the Mac family have been published by Bloomberg this weekend. As reported earlier in the week, the MacBook Pro line-up will debut the M4 on Mac hardware in late 2024. Disappointingly, the MacBook Air will not be updated to M4 until the spring of 2025:
“M4-based Mac Pro and Mac Studio still on track for latter half of next year. There’s been speculation online about when to expect the M4 Mac line, which I first discussed months ago. After checking around, I don’t see a change in schedule. The M4 iMacs, MacBook Pros (low- and high-end versions) and Mac minis (low- and high-end models as well) are due between the end of 2024 and early 2025."
(Bloomberg).
Apple’s Open Source AI Efforts
Although Apple has yet to ship any of its Apple Intelligence AI software to the public, part of its AI effort is available. Hugging Face is an online open-source service that shares machine learning models and datasets. Apple has uploaded a further 20 models to the service, adding to the models uploaded earlier this year:
"Apple has made a significant stride in its efforts to empower developers with cutting-edge on-device AI capabilities. The tech giant recently released 20 new Core ML models and 4 datasets on Hugging Face, a leading community platform for sharing AI models and code.
(Venture Beat).
AI Will Be Late To The iPhone Party
As for the public arrival of Apple Intelligence? That’s going to take longer than expected. While iOS 18 will ship with the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro in September, with a subsequent release for older iPhones, Apple Intelligence may not arrive until early 2025:
"Siri in iOS 18 will still have some "new bells and whistles" come September, including a new interface that glows a light around the edge of the screen…[but] we will have to wait until next year to see Apple's most significant enhancements to Siri. An iOS 18 update in 2025 should bring with it the following improvements to Apple's virtual assistant:
(MacRumors).
Update June 22: details on the Apple Intelligence availability in the EU.
Apple Intelligence May Not Ship In EU
Speaking to the Financial Times this weekend, an Apple Spokesperson has laid out why Apple Intelligence will not be fully released in the EU. It comes down to the interactions of the DMA with iOS and iPadOS. There is no clear guidance on whether Apple Intelligence satisfies the regulators or if it would lead to further investigation. Crucially, this will not be determined before a release. Given the exposure to a significant fine, Apple has declined to take the risk at this moment:
“Due to the regulatory uncertainties brought about by the Digital Markets Act,” Apple said on Friday, “we do not believe that we will be able to roll out three of these features — iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay Screen Sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence — to our EU users this year.”
An AI Dreams Of A Supercycle
With the launch of AI for the iPhone (no matter when it arrives), there is an expectation that Apple will sell a lot of AI-capable iPhones. With very little backwards compatibility, will this trigger a “super-cycle” of iPhone sales? Analysts at Wedbush believe it will:
“...as Apple’s AI strategy is rolled out this will catalyze a long awaited super cycle in Cupertino with 270 million iPhones of the 1.5 billion worldwide in the golden installed base not upgrading their smartphones in more than 4 years based on our estimates,:
(9to5Mac).
And Finally...
Once upon a time, everything started with “i”. Now, the product names all start with “Apple.” What’s going on with that? Naturally, there's a new Reddit discussion on Apple's branding this week, which has a lot of theories as to why, including this one:
"Using Apple in the name is a marketing ploy to ensure brand recognition. Acura back in the 90s found out the hard way when they started naming their cars like Legend and Integra and nobody knew who made them. Renaming their cars to RDX, MDX etc forced people to insert "Acura" back into the conversation. Apple's doing it too I think"
Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here, or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.
