Apple Rumors

Apple is announcing the new feature at WWDC 2024 on Monday, according to MacRumors. It would work with built-in apps like Mail, Notes, or Messages, adding another layer of security to the phone in addition to Apple’s Stolen Device Protection setting that rolled out last year.

The Android 15 beta has something similar in “private space,” a lockable section of the app drawer.

I’ve been intrigued by Rabbit’s so-called “large action model” that trains an AI assistant to use your favorite apps on your behalf. That didn’t quite work out with the Rabbit R1, but now Apple’s taking a crack with Siri according to Mark Gurman’s latest scoop.

The new system will allow Siri to take command of all the features within apps for the first time [...] using AI to analyze what people are doing on their devices and automatically enable Siri-controlled features. It will be limited to Apple’s own apps at the beginning, with the company planning to support hundreds of different commands.

So, I guess my colleague Allison Johnson was right, the future of AI gadgets is just phones.

We’re expecting a bunch of AI features at WWDC, but phones can only run limited AI functions on-device. How will Apple square the need to process user data off-device with privacy?

According to The Information, the answer might be a “virtual black box.” By using custom M2 chips, it could claim user data remains just as secure as if it were processed on-device. That’s one way to think different.

The Apple TV app is available in Apple’s ecosystem, Windows, and some smart TV platforms, and that’s about it.

But now Apple is seeking an Android engineer to “help build an application used by millions to watch and discover tv and sports.” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman believes company is preparing to bring Apple TV Plus to Android phones.

A report from ZDNet Korea (via AppleInsider) says Samsung is readying new OLED panels for production in late 2025 and are destined for an all-new 2026 iPad mini.

It’s not the most solid rumor, even after the iPad Pro’s OLED upgrade, but it would be great if Apple updated the iPad mini for the first time since 2021.

Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo posted that the company plans to release the iPhone 16 Pro in “black, white (or silver), grey (I think it’s natural titanium), rose.”

The non-Pro models, he predicts, will come in the same hues as the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, though he notes the colors could “look different,” despite having the same name.

That’s according to Mark Gurman, who writes in his latest Power On newsletter for Bloomberg that the company will release the new version of its item tracker “around the middle of next year” with improvements to its chip and location tracking.

With less than a month to go before Apple details its AI plans at WWDC 2024, the company is “finalizing terms” to let ChatGPT use iOS 18 features, according to Bloomberg.

That would be Apple’s first such deal if it closes before the company sets up similar agreements with Google or Anthropic.

Apple — like Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and everyone else this side of Nvidia — is reportedly working on custom server hardware to power AI models as it prepares to introduce a slew of new features.

Over the past decade, Apple has emerged as a leading player designing chips for iPhones, iPads, Apple Watch and Mac computers. The server project, which is internally code-named Project ACDC—for Apple Chips in Data Center—will bring this talent to bear for the company’s servers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Apple watcher Mark Gurman followed up saying a similar-sounding project was canceled and it doesn’t make sense anyway: it would be too expensive, lack differentiation, and Apple prefers on-device AI.

Update: Added Gurman’s rebuttal.

Majin Bu, who had early pictures purported to be of the iPhone 15’s USB-C port and, more recently, apparent images of vertical camera modules for the iPhone 16, posted these mock-ups that may show the next models’ updated design.

Rumors that Apple would switch to a vertical layout for the cameras go back at least a year.

Apple never did realize its dream of a wireless charger that works no matter where you put your device and also unites Qi charging and the Apple Watch’s proprietary standard (though that second bit lives on in the AirPods Pro 2). Apparently, it had overheating issues.

We later got MagSafe for iPhones, an infinitely better idea. But assuming this is real, Apple Demo shows it off charging an Apple Watch Series 4. He says it gets “quite warm.”

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote in Power On today that Vision Pro development slowed its smart home work but now that the headset is out, it’s focused on that again.

The screen would reportedly turn to face users while on a call and could mimic human gestures by nodding or shaking the screen when the person on the other end of the call does so.

A source tells MacRumors that Apple is working on just that, potentially allowing Vision Pro wearers to use the Pencil with drawing apps like Freeform and Pixelmator. Rumors suggest that Apple is planning to take the wraps off of a new Pencil next month, but there’s no word on whether it will come with visionOS support just yet.

This morning, Mark Gurman wrote for Power On subscribers that the iOS 18 home screen would be “more customizable,” but didn’t say how.

Now, MacRumors’ sources say this means Apple is loosening up its restrictive app icon arrangement in a way that sounds closer to the way things work on Android — that is, with blank spaces allowed between apps.

Rumors have said that the company might partner with OpenAI or Google (or Baidu in China) for iOS chatbot functionality while using its own AI for on-device features. Today, Mark Gurman writes in Power On for Bloomberg that Anthropic’s in the mix too. He speculates that Apple could even let any developer build generative AI “deep into the iPhone.”

In the subscriber edition, he also writes that iOS 18 will get a revamped, more customizable home screen.

WSJ reports Apple’s held talks with Baidu to power AI technology for iPhones in China. That’s not surprising, given China’s strict rules for AI bots covering their output, data used for training, and storage of user data.

So instead of ChatGPT or Google Gemini (like Apple reportedly discussed using everywhere else), Samsung similarly partnered with Baidu to bring its AI chatbot Ernie to the Galaxy S24 in China earlier this year.

Apple’s updated tablets should arrive after “a variant of iPadOS 17.4” is finished around the end of this month or “sometime in April,” Mark Gurman writes in the subscriber version of Power On for Bloomberg today.

He also writes that the new USB-C AirPods — the entry-level model and a mid-tier version with noise-canceling — are expected “around September or October.”