The invitations have gone out. The website is live. The YouTube stream is ready. And the 2020 iPhone event is on.
But… since it’s 2020, it can’t possibly be just a normal event, right?
Nope. Hard nope. It’s virtual, to be sure. And this is clearly October, not September like most year. No, this year, in September what we got was… Apple Watch and iPad.
So, now, October. Next week. What are we going to get?
Hi, Speed
Ok, so, here’s what the Apple Event invitation says:
Hi, speed. Please join us for a special Apple Event from Apple Park. Watch it online at apple.com
October 13, 2020, at 10 a.m. PDT.
And, I know what you’re thinking. If you tap the logo, does it open up in augmented reality on ARKit enabled devices?
You bet it does. In full-on 3D glory. From Apple Logo to date stamp in one hot twisted moment flat. Again.
Alas, this time there’s no Greg Joswiack, no Joz, no Senior VP of worldwide marketing wicked flex tweet to show off the animation like from the roof of Apple Park or anything.
No, Joz tweeted out an iOS 14 home screen photo instead. And… I have so many questions.
Yes, the notch is normal sized, same with the bezels. Stop it. Just stop it. Joz doesn’t self-leak. But News and Home… Gotta be the second home screen, right?
Any way, let’s turn our Zapruder-mode camera from Twitter to the invites…
Tea Leaves
Now, as usual, as soon as people saw the event logo, there was insta-speculation as to what it could all mean.
And you know we go through that every year. Just all the tea leaf reading.
The way it works is that Apple marketing communications, marcomms, hands off a spec to the graphic design team, GD, who then come up with the art.
In other words, the actual people making the art don’t have any inside info when making the actual design. It’s just based on what they’re told by the people who do. So, think big themes rather than specific Easter eggs.
Last time, it was a nice sky blue and lo and behold, one of the new iPad Air colors was sky blue. This time, we have a dark blue and orange, tinted by teal and yellow. Classic cinema grading colors, exactly like I use for these videos. But maybe also a nod to the rumored new dark blue iPhone 12 Pro and… perhaps something, maybe a regular iPhone orange?
I’d love both those options.
The circles, well… the circles… especially the circle with the Apple logo right in the center… A lot of people are already hoping they represent AirTags. Apple’s U1 ultra-broadband spatial positioning chip-enabled tokens that you can attach to anything, wallets, keys, bags, pets, kids, and use the Find My network to precisely locate them if and when you need to. That would be all those other circles. The other devices locating the AirTags. And the AR, a nod to the ARKit interface, coming soon.
Other theories include the circles representing the new quad-camera system. With telephoto, wide-angle, ultra-wide angle, and LiDAR, which works like the FaceID TrueDepth camera on the front, but on the back, less density but greater range, so you can scan the environment around you for everything from faster focus to better bokeh to full-on 3D ingestion and AR scene building. Yeah, more AR. It’s coming. And fast.
There were a lot of LiDAR and AR hopes and dreams back before the September event as well. But, obviously in hindsight, that’s just all they were.
This time, we’ll have to wait and see. But, certainly, if you have any other ideas, let me know in the comments below.
Next up is the tag line. The teaser.
Hi, Speed.
Get it? Hello speed as in welcoming new speed, and high speed, as in the speed is increasing. Clever marcomms.
And, yeah, there are a few things that could apply to. 5G, of course. Carriers are pushing that hot and heavy around the world. Building out the networks is costing them a fortune and the capacity is there now to withstand an iPhone scale deployment, so the faster they can start getting some ROI off of all of us, the better for them.
Of course, you may or may not have usable 5G, either FR1 low to mid band, or FR2 high band, in your area, but either way, even the LTE on the new Qualcomm modems should be an improvement, especially for people who’ve struggled with signal in the past.
A14 Bionic, Apple’s next-generation system-on-a-chip, or SoC, is also going to be fast. Like Barry Allen breaking the speed force fast. We’ve already seen some alleged benchmarks with legit impressive gains in single core, multi-core, and metal performance, and I’ve already done a whole video on what the new 5mm process and IP generation means for the iPhone 12, so hit up that link in the description. But, yeah, basically, Apple’s still leading the industry there.
Beyond FindMy, Apple’s U1 chip could also be a speed boost for things like AirDrop. I’m just… I mean… did they really think through that branding… because the minute they hit the next generation on that silicon, just what are they going to do… call it U2?
Topic for another video. Seriously, make sure you’re subscribed with the bell on so we can hangout and chat in the comments when new videos go live.
Then, of course, there’s the big hope we’ll get to see the first Apple Silicon Mac at the event.
And this one… I just don’t know yet. Apple could certainly do it. Have Tim Cook come out in 2020 holding the new ASi MacBook like he did the original 12-inch back in 2015. And then just dive into it like it’s One More Thing.
But they could also let the iPhone 12 own this event and come back in November for One More Event. Give the first Apple Silicon Mac and it’s macOS Big Sur variant some solo time to shine.
I know everyone wants everyone immediately, but with the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, AirTags, AirPods Studio, yeah, the over-the-ears ones, maybe an updated AirPower, it’s just a lot already.
To fit into one event, sure, but also to fit into our budgets.