Rene RitchieMarch, 2015. Tim Cook takes the stage to show off the then brand-new 12-inch MacBook. Not Air. Certainly not Pro. Just… MacBook. The first ever Mac to have a USB-C port, the first ever laptop. Just… one USB-C port. A force touch trackpad. And… a butterfly switch keyboard.
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New, higher-end 13-inch MacBook Air. Maybe even a 15-inch MacBook Air. SD card slot coming back to the MacBook Pro but TouchBar… well, that’s just gotta go. And… 5G and Face ID for the Mac… but not just yet.
Yeah, Mark Gurman is continuing his mad Bloomberg rumor bombing rampage across just every upcoming product in Apple’s 2021 lineup.
Here are my reactions!
Apple is working on both a super-expensive, barely a consumer-product, VR headset (virtual reality) and a more reasonable, mass-market pair of AR glasses (augmented reality). That’s according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman who’s just been making it rain rumors this week. MacBook, iMac, Mac Pro, iPhone, flippy iPhone, all of it.
Mark says the focus for VR, will be on gaming, entertainment, and communication, but given Apple’s history with hardcore gaming and the complexity of the technologies involved, you gotta ask — will they ever come out? And if they do, will they even be worth buying?
To help answer, I’ve got former VRHeads boss and tech analyst Russell Holly on the line.
Ok. Just so that we’re 100% crystal clear on this — Apple can call the next iPhone… pretty much anything they want. iPhone 12s. iPhone 13. Sure. iPhone… 20. iPhone 20… 21. Why not? iPhone bakers dozen. Nope. Hard nope. iPhone Extreme. Ok. Fine. iPhone… Mother of Dragons. Come at me.
So the only real question here is… what will they call it?
Now, you know all those videos, the ones where the voice-over says “before I give you the information you actually clicked for, Ima have to pad this out with a bunch of useless background fill first?” And I usually just yell… Not Today, Satan!?
Well, in this case… yeah… actually…today. Because, before I can get into iPhone 12s vs. iPhone 13… I do have to provide just a little bit of background.
See, the original iPhone was just… the iPhone. But it didn’t have 3G and that turned out to be one of the big limiters Apple wanted to fix with the follow up. So much so, they actually put it in the name of the follow up.
This was back when Macs, even iPods didn’t have numbers. They had descriptors, like MacBook Pro and iPod Video. Look, everyone, now the iPod has video.
So, iPhone 3G… Look, everyone, now the iPhone has 3G.
Then it came time to name the third iPhone, and Apple chose not to do what they’d been doing with Macs and iPods, not just stick the year in parens behind it or add the gen number on tech support docs, but to stick another letter on it. iPhone 3GS… In… I dunno, wink, wink, nudge, nudge homage to the Apple IIGs. 3G for the radio, S for speed. Which… was a lot of weird marketing work, but stay with me, because it’s only going to get weirder.
The next iPhone got lost in a bar, became this… whole thing, Steve Jobs made a joke about it, but Apple also decided to switch up the naming. Remember, this was 2010. If they’d stuck to radio names, we’d have only gotten the iPhone 4G in 2012 and the iPhone 5G in… well… 2020.
So, even though there was never a Mac 4, never an iPod 4, it was a major update, and… the 4th new iPhone. So they called it the iPhone 4.
The next version fixed the antenna, improved the camera and chipset, but not much else. So, Apple decided to add the S again. This time just for Siri.
And, that pattern continued. New design, give it a new number. New internals, just give it an S. iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6s.
It continued… until the next iPhone, which didn’t get a new design or an extra new letter. So, either Apple was fresh out — just fresh out of letters — or they still wanted to push it as an all-new iPhone, and so gave it that next number. That lucky number… 7.
But the pattern break didn’t stop there. Because after that, Apple had the next iPhone ready to go, like… they always do.. but, that year, 2017, they also had the next, next iPhone ready to go as well. The one that was getting the redesign.
Now, Apple could have abandoned the numbers — they abandoned them on the iPad after the iPad 2… and then again after the iPad Air 2… but they obviously didn’t want to. And we’ll get to how exactly that all plays out for this year in a hot minute.
And sure, they could have gone with iPhone 7s… but that special next, next iPhone wasn’t going to be ready just quite on time, so they really, really wanted to push the regular next iPhone in the meantime. And they figured they could best do that by again going with the full on new number. So, iPhone 8 it was.
And for the next, next one. Well, iPhone 9 it wasn’t. Because Apple skipped that number entirely. Much like Microsoft skipped it for Windows. Now, some have conspiritized that in both cases it’s because of nine meaning NO in German, but that’s… about as likely as Nine Nine meaning best comedy of the decade in Brooklyn.
I mean, 4 is the same sound as the character for death in major Chinese dialects, and that didn’t stop Apple back in the day…
But, it would be the 10th anniversary iPhone, so Apple went with… 10. iPhone 10.
But, wrote it X. Because if there’s one thing Apple’s famous for, well… it’s relentlessly mainstreaming computing technology. But if there’s a second thing.. it’s utterly confusing people about just how exactly the X character should be pronounced. Mac OS TEN, but Xcode. iPhone TEN, but the A12 EX processor. Trillion dollar company. Can’t even buy some consistency…
Also S, because just when you thought it was out, Apple pulled it back in… Sorta. See, the fancy modern iPhone TEN was replaced with the iPhone XS. Which is, yeah, pronounced like tennis, not like excess. But the regular old iPhone 8 wasn’t replaced with a regular new iPhone 8s… or even a late, unlamented iPhone 9. No. It was replaced with a slightly less fancy, almost as modern iPhone XR. Where the EX was 10 but the R was… I dunno. Race cars. I give up. Learned Apple nomenclature helplessness.
And I wasn’t alone. The market didn’t appreciate it… like at all.. either. So, Apple didn’t even try to go to the iPhone TEN-EYE. They reverted back to decimals. Hard. And they didn’t just revert — they also reset.
So, the iPhone XR was replaced with the iPhone 11 and the iPhone XS with the iPhone TEN 2. Kidding. With the iPhone 11 Pro, which once again lent on the same kind of marketing descriptors Apple had been using with the Mac and, by then,the iPad as well. Because, when you come down to it, it’s all marketing. That’s the only thing any of this ever is. Just marketing. Just all the way down.
But they didn’t reset fully. Not fully. Because just this last year we didn’t get an iPhone 11s. No, we got another redesign, and another new number. iPhone 12.
And that brings us to now, today, and the next next iPhone. Again. And debates around whether Apple’s going to call it — going to position it — as the iPhone 13 or quote-unquote just the iPhone 12s.
And I say debates plural, because some people believe Apple will honor the superstition and just never name any iPhone 13. Like many buildings just don’t have 13th floors.
Others, that Apple will once again want to use the S to properly set expectations for a phone with the same design but better internals, including a better version of a new radio technology and the introduction of a new biometric fingerprint identity scanner. Just like they did almost a decade ago with the iPhone… 5s.
And I’ve got a whole video explaining how and why Touch ID is coming back, link in the description.
So, iPhone 12s. Or, rather, iPhone 12s, iPhone 12s mini, iPhone 12s Pro, and iPhone 12s Pro Max… which is actually getting more cumbersome than iPhone mother of dragons… I’m just saying.
Yep, we’re doing this! We’re talking about the flipping iPhone again. Seriously. Flipping and folding and hinge… ing. Just all the transformables that made all the headlines over the last few days via Front Page Tech’s John Prosser and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
But we’re adding a twist. No, not an iPhone twit. Jobs forbid. But a plot twist. Because here’s what they said…
Just not as limited as the Surface Duo because… well, I’ll get to that in a hot minute.
Because, I’ve been hearing about these prototypes since… around… 2010 or 2011. About the same time I heard about Apple working on larger versions of the iPhone 4 series. Of course, Apple never released larger versions of the iPhone 4 because they thought the early big screen technologies… just sucked. Like OLED back when Pentile was so big and un-aliased the sub-pixels looked like tiles.
So, Apple waited to go taller with the iPhone 5 series but only went bigger with the iPhone 6 some 4 years later, and only went OLED with the iPhone X some 7 years later.
A while back, Jon said more recent prototypes have been similar to current iPhones, but with a forehead rather than notch, and they look fairly seamless when open. But that things there may just be changing as well…
Apple’s been looking at this since flexible OLED became a thing. They just didn’t think it was durable enough for primetime. So, back in 2017, they folded it inside the iPhone X casing instead, so they could create that corner-to-curved-corner display.
Mark said they haven’t prototyped a full folding handset yet, just worked on the display tech in the labs.
And Jon says it’s Samsung panels they’re working on, like the ones used for the Galaxy Fold. But, another twist on that in a minute as well.
Because, basically, same as bigger iPhones in 2010, Apple’s not like Samsung, not just super eager to always yell first in the comments section of major markets. They’re happy to wait, to watch, to see how products like Samsung’s are received, see what problems people still have with them, and then figure out an Apple-style solution.
That’s why, for customers like us, having both Apple and Samsung, and everyone else using different go-to-market strategies is so great. We can try out the Galaxy Fold while Apple is still working on the iPhone fold.
Look, Apple has billions of dollars. Screw that. Their billions of dollars have billions of dollars. They can not only easily afford to explore, even prototype everything every competitor is shipping, but anything any blogger, podcaster, or creator can imagine.
Proof positive is just how many flipping folding patents are already in Apple’s portfolio. It’s redonkulous.
Mark said Apple has at least discussed a phone that unfolds to the same size as the current 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max.
And Apple doesn’t just use Samsung’s OLED process as is, either. They provide their own design specs, sometimes their own material specs, and implement them often very differently as well.
For example, Jon said Apple’s wouldn’t use Samsung’s protective coating but a version of their and Corning’s Ceramic Shield instead.
Well, Apple kind of looks at new and emerging tech foldables in stages of maturity. Like kindergarten level… primary level… eventually graduate level. Ready for prime time. And with very few exceptions, they keep all the early experiments strictly internal. Their… Galaxy Fold or flip 1 will just always and only ever exist in the labs, never on the shelves.
When they say there are a thousand no’s for every yes, it’s because they literally make tons of products they never ship… for every one they do.
But I’m still super bullish on this. Unlike Android, which Google is working on with companies like Microsoft, Samsung, and Moto to adapt to foldables, iOS has had auto-layout and size classes for years. There are already watch interfaces and apps on the ultra-compact side and iPadOS and the biggest catalog of tablet apps in the world on the expansive side. Except for Instagram, because 2021 and still no damn iPad version, seriously?
And with newer technologies like SwiftUI, which is what Apple used to scale the new widget system from the Apple Watch through the iPhone to the Mac, it’s not hard to imagine all the software heavy lifting is all mostly done already.
And let’s face it, humans just love to fold stuff. Books, wallets, tacos, pizza — if you’re not an animal — clothing, glasses, everything. But AirPods Max. And I’m sure foldables, transformables of all kinds, are, at the very least, will be part of the near-future of consumer tech as well.
New iMacs with an all-new, bezel thin and no chin design, and new Mac Pros with both M1… and M1 inside? That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who says Apple might be ready to give their desktops… well, the biggest upgrade in a decade.
Which is pretty much what I’ve been using in my mockups since 0.3 seconds after Apple announced the Pro Display. Because, recent lack of updates aside, Apple kept their iMacs and LED and Thunderbolt designs pretty much in lockstep while they lasted.
And the iMac is really the only big battleground left in the rapidly ending war on bezels. Plus, getting rid of the bulge on the back and going finally, full flat, will just fit right in to Apple current design language. The one that kicked off with the iPad Pro almost 3 years ago.
Since part of the iMac’s allure as always been how good it looks in the living room, on the desk, and in front-of-house setups. Or at least it will be gain when the world stops ending. And when it goes all modern and boxy, it’ll look the part again.
Mark doesn’t specify if the displays will remain the same size, with Apple shrinking down the bezels like they did with the 12.9 inch iPad Pro, or if they’re going to increase the size of the display instead, like they did with the 11-inch iPad Pro.
There have also been several reports of a third option — all new display sizes: 24-inches and 32-inches. Which…. Yeah, could be too big for some desks and some users. But for others, could finally be big enough.
Count me in that camp. From IPS to 5K to P3 to nano-texture, the iMac has always been about that display. So, while, we may still be a year or few out from Mini LED at that scale, I think Apple’s going to go all out on everything else.
Ok, so, if next-generation really means next-generation, as in next-generation silicon IP, then we’d be looking at something in the M2 lineup. In other words, based on the same architecture as the A15 chipset expected to come with 2021 iPhone. And with something like the usual single core performance increase, and multicore multiplier, that’d come with it.
If not, if next-generation means actually means next version, then we’d be looking at something like the M1 but with just a plethora of addition performance and graphics cores. 12, 16, 32, 64, more? It’d be similar if not the same single core perf as the M1, depending on how hot and fast they let it run, but the multicore would be ridiculous.
Which, I think… I mean, I don’t know. My guess is Apple has given themselves 2 years to transition the entire Mac lineup to their own silicon and the Mac Pro, like last time, just has to be last on that list.
But, giving the current Intel version one final update before then, to give people who want or need to remain on the Intel platform as long as possible because of software compatibility and M-series maturity, the best version possible to remain on, just makes the kind of sense that does. And is exactly what Apple did with the iMac last year.
So, just pulling out all that massive, hot, power hungry Intel Xeon and AMD Navi silicon could let Apple scale the casing down quite a bit. If Apple really wants to make the fevered dreams of every Mac nerd finally come true, though, then finally making the hitherto mythical xMac, or mini tower, a reality, especially by folding in some more retro future chic design, would be one hell of a way to do it.
And, yeah, talk about making dreams come true. When Apple canceled their displays a few years ago and went in with LG to produce the same panels as the iMac but with nothing approach Apple’s fit, finish, or design flair… it was super depressing for everyone who wanted an all-Mac setup.
Then the Pro Display came out, basically $6K for 6K and it was just beyond the needs and budget of anyone outside indie studio or wicked YouTube flex work.
A proper iMac-level panel in a properly priced Apple Display, though, and that just sells itself.
No more Touch Bar, the return of MagSafe, and the end of dongle life? New iMacs with an all-new, bezel thin and no chin design, and new Mac Pros with both M1… and M1 inside? That's right, according to supply chain extractor extraordinaire, Kuo Ming-Chi and Bloomberg's own Mark Gurman, Apple might just be getting ready to fix everything about the current era of MacBooks Pro that made so many pros just so beyond salty for just so long, and then take their desktop Macs to the next level... and beyond.
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The Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and Galaxy S21 Ultra have all just been announced and to tell us all about them — including how they compare to the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max, is Android Central’s managing editor, Daniel Bader.
We're talking 5G, Apple A14 vs. Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, refesh rates, design, camera systems — including zoom! — lack of accessories in the box from both companies, and OneUI vs. iOS.
Daniel Bader on Twitter: https://twitter.com/journeydan
Android Central: https://www.androidcentral.com
Apple, like Google and Amazon, has removed the social networking app Parler.
Before that happened, there were some people who said Apple shouldn’t be hosting a platform used for planning violence and inciting sedition. Since it’s happened, some people have said Apple shouldn’t be censoring platforms or infringing on the first amendment and freedom of speech.
Some are upset because they’re absolutists and think Apple, and Twitter, and Facebook, and the rest of Big Tech, should always or never moderate apps on the store. Others only seem to care one way or another when it affects their particular issue or team.
Either way, since most of us aren’t using any of these terms consistently or with much if any context, and since I’m not a lawyer, I figured I’ll call in someone who is. Host of the Legal Eagle channel, YouTube’s lawyer, Devin Stone.
Legal Eagle on YouTube: https://youtube.com/legaleagle
It's a brand new year — kind of! — and that means a brand new set of Apple products coming our way. The one I'm most looking forward to this year is the updated 16-inch MacBook Pro. M1X system-on-a-chip, Mini LED display, USB4 ports on both sides, maybe even a new design with Face ID.
I live in Final Cut Pro. (Yeah, Apple dropped the X a couple of months ago, so it's just Final Cut Pro now.) Even though I'm not traveling between coasts these days, I am traveling between my studio and my living room. So, even now, having a powerful editing machine with a big display, a mobile Mac workstation just makes the kind of sense that does.
And here's why I'm more excited than ever about the 16-inch MacBook Pro getting its M-series on.
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