Apple Event Rumour Round Up

Apple finally announced its much anticipated September event. Titled ‘California Streaming’, the Cupertino tech giant is expected to take the wraps off many new hardware products. You can watch the event live on September 14th at 10 am PDT. Here’s a summary of everything we can expect and some wild card products that might also make an appearance.

iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro

As is a tradition at this point in time, Apple is expected to unveil the latest version of the iPhone. Pundits expect this generation to be called ‘iPhone 13’ rather than ‘iPhone 12 S’. We also expect that Apple will maintain the same four models, iPhone 13 and 13 mini and iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. Rumoured features include:

• A smaller notch with the earpiece moving up to the very edge of the display bezel
• 120Hz ProMotion display for the Pro Models with a variable refresh rate. According to the latest leaks, this will lock at 60Hz when in low power mode
• An always-on display for devices that support ProMotion
• A faster A15 chip with more energy-efficient performance cores and a low power modem from Qualcomm
• Larger batteries in all models with the iPhone 13 Mini expected to receive an hour longer battery life
• Increased storage options including a rumoured 1TB model
• Sensor shift stabilisation that made its debut on the iPhone 12 Pro Max is expected to come to all iPhone 13 models
• Camera sensors across each model will be larger and able to receive more light with the Ultra-Wide camera able to receive up to 40 percent more
• Portrait mode for a video allegedly called ‘Cinematic Video’ which will use a combination of machine learning, depth data from the LiDAR Scanner (expected to appear on all models) and Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS)
• Improvements to Night Mode photography including an Astro Photography mode
• ProRes Video on the iPhone 13 Pro models for ultra-high-quality raw video footage

Take all of the above with a grain of salt as this is based on rumours (albeit corroborated by multiple sources) and nothing if official until Apple makes the announcement.

Apple Watch Series 7

In addition to major updates to the iPhone, we also expect to see big changes for the Apple Watch. In fact, this might be the biggest change to the Apple Watch in the history of the product. Expected features include:

• An all-new design featuring flat edges reminiscent of the iPhone 12 and iPad Pro (first reported by Jon Prosser of FPT)
• Larger displays with narrower borders. Anticipated to be 41mm and 45mm respectively
• A new display lamination technique will bring the display closer to the cover glass for improved image quality
• New watch faces that take advantage of the larger displays
• Support for legacy watch bands
• Larger batteries thanks to slightly larger cases that should enable an increase to Apple’s rated 18 hours of battery life
• A faster S7 chip with energy-efficient RAM
• New health features including the ability to detect sleep apnea have been rumoured but the data on this is sketchy
• New health sensors such as blood pressure monitoring and non-invasive blood glucose monitoring have also been long rumoured but are less likely to make the cut this year but you never know!

AirPods 3

It’s been quite a while now since Apple updated its standard AirPods. Over 2 and a half years. But this upgrade is expected to be substantial (at least according to Max Weinbach):

• An all-new design that will look and feel familiar to the design of the AirPods Pro. Likely without ear tips
• Controls built into the stems like AirPods Pro including a force sensor
• Improved sound quality thanks to a combination of new drivers and machine learning algorithms
• A larger capacity battery in the charging case, perhaps up to 20% larger
• Wireless charging as standard

Other Possibilities

Apple has a number of products in its roster that are overdue an update. We may see updates to the iPad, iPad Mini and iPad Air. It’s also possible we could see the long rumoured design refresh of the MacBook Pro with a next generation Apple Silicon chip. Rumours have also pointed towards a next generation Mac Mini with an ‘M1X chip.

I think it’s more likely we’ll see updates to the iPad and Mac at a separate October or November event. Apple likes to prolong its press exposure and it’ll serve as a healthy distraction from some of the less desirable headlines of late such as its child protection measures.

What new products do you hope to see? Is there a feature you’re most excited about? Let me know in the comments!