iPhone 16 Pro Release Date, Apple Intelligence Delay, Phone Air Leaks

Let’s take a look at this week’s news and headlines from Apple, including the iPhone 16 Pro release date, the larger iPhone 16 battery, a surprise iOS update, Apple Intelligence delay, iPhone Air plans, new Macs for 2024, and why Bing isn’t available on your iPhone.

Apple Loop is here to remind you of some of the many discussions surrounding Apple over the past seven days. You can also read my weekly Android news digest here on Forbes.

iPhone 16 Pro Release Date Hints

This could happen around the second Tuesday in September every year. Still, until Apple announces a date, speculation about the iPhone 16 family release date will continue. Everything points to the 10th, though, including a rapidly accelerating production chain stockpiling supplies for the big day:

“..(which) suggests that iPhone production is on track, i.e. no delays are expected at this stage. If true, it means the likelihood of the iPhone 16 series going on sale in September is very high. More specifically, it leaves a possible date for the keynote where the hardware will be unveiled — alongside the Apple Watch Series 10 and possibly new AirPods — as Tuesday, September 10.”

(Forbes).

There is a bigger battery in the city

Apple is set to increase the iPhone battery by one of the biggest gains in recent years. This isn’t the first time Apple has increased the size of the iPhone battery. The question is what will it do with it, will it offer more endurance to consumers or will it offer more power to software?

“The change in capacity of the iPhone 16 Pro compared to the previous Pro model shows the most pronounced difference, with a more than 9% increase (303mAh). Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro Max, while not as dramatic as its smaller sibling, gains a more than 5% increase (254mAh). Combined with the efficiency improvements, these increases should make both devices offer more stable real-world use on a single charge.”

(MacRumors rumors).

Rush iOS Update

This week saw the release of iOS. Instead of a planned update with more features, it appears to be a security patch to improve encryption in iCloud services:

“Apple doesn’t mention any new features, but the main element is a fix for a problem. The company describes it this way: “This update includes important bug fixes and resolves an issue that prevents you from enabling or disabling Advanced Data Protection.”

(Forbes).

iOS AI Latency

Speaking of iOS, the big software update for the coming year will be all about generative AI and the awkwardly named backronym Apple Intelligence. While Android is preparing to unveil its second generation of AI, Apple will delay the launch of the core implementation until a month after the new phones launch, before the key software arrives in late Q1 2025:

“This means that early iPhone 16 purchases may not have access to some of Apple’s latest AI features that the company announced last month at WWDC, including Rewrite, Image Playground, Genmoji, audio transcription, web summaries, and an improved Siri.”

(Forbes).

The air around the iPhone

Looking further ahead, the iPhone 17 family is set to welcome a new member. The sleek iPhone has been teased at length over the past year, but now we have a name. iPhone AIr.

“It’s a name that makes sense, since Apple already has the iPad Air line, which sits between the entry-level iPads and the Pro models, and which was once positioned as a slim option (although the latest model isn’t as slim as the latest iPad Pro). The MacBook Air is similarly positioned as a slim device.”

(Press release)

New Macs coming this year

Apple may refocus on its Mac lineup later this year, but don’t expect too much. While the Apple Silicon M4’s specs will be higher as usual, everything else is more or less “the same again” aside from the processor and the standardization of desktop I/O ports:

“With the new update for these models coming this fall, Gurman doesn’t expect anything other than the introduction of new M4 chips. The M4 chip first debuted in the iPad Pro in May, and no Mac model has received the new chip yet. Since the iMac continues to use Lightning accessories, I also suspect we’ll see USB-C accessories in the box of the 24-inch iMac model with M4 later this year.”

(9to5Mac).

And finally…

Documents from Google’s antitrust case continue to reveal the inner workings and thoughts of those at Apple, including whether Apple should switch to Microsoft’s Bing as its default search engine… or not:

“Google pays Apple billions of dollars a year to be the default search engine in Safari. But there is no other viable alternative, according to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services. He told the court that there was “no price Microsoft would ever offer” to Apple for the company to preload Bing on Safari.

(The Verge).

Apple Loop brings you seven days of top stories every weekend right here on Forbes. Be sure to follow me so you don’t miss any future coverage. You can read last week’s Apple Loop here , and this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit , is also available on Forbes .