Taking a look back at another week of news and headlines from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes a massive iPhone 15 Pro delay, new iPhone and iPad problems confirmed, the next iPad Mini, third-party repair issues, Elon Musk’s mysterious App Store trick, and the history of charging your iPhone.
Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes).
Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Delay
Apple’s iPhone 15 launch may go ahead in early September, but the availability of the handsets may be delayed. Apple sources its iPhone screens from a number of manufacturers, not all of them have been signed off as meeting Apple’s quality threshold:
“The cause of the issues is said to be the record-breaking new slim bezels for both the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, with supply for the latter’s exclusive new periscope camera also compounding the situation. There are also production issues with the new 48-megapixel cameras on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. Both LG Display and BOE are struggling to add Dynamic Island cutouts to the displays, while Sony and LG Innotek have suffered yield issues producing the 48MP and periscope cameras, respectively.”
(Forbes).
Apple Starts iPhone Production Lines
Meanwhile, Apple has notified its suppliers to get the production lines rolling on the iPhone 15. Samsung Display is one of the biggest, and The Elec reports Cupertino has given the green light to Seoul.
“…Samsung Display was granted approval on August 1, ahead of rivals LG Display and BOE. LG Display, which is supplying OLED panels for both iPhone 15 Pro models, has received conditional approval for the smaller iPhone 15 Pro, with formal approval for the iPhone 15 Pro Max expected in a month or two. BOE, which is supplying OLED displays for the standard iPhone 15 and larger iPhone 15 Plus, is still awaiting conditional approval from Apple.”
(The Elec via MacRumors).
Apple Confirms iPhone And iPad Problems
The latest updates to iOS and iPadOS have had some unexpected problems. Apple’s Screen Time utility – which records time spent in each app – can be tied into parental controls that can limit access by children by duration of use. That can now reset or not sync through a Family Sharing group:
“Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Apple acknowledged an ongoing bug that affects its Screen Time feature, a parental control tool on iPhones and iPads, which allows children to bypass time limits and access potentially unsafe content without their knowledge.”
(Forbes).
Details On Upcoming iPad Refresh
A handful of details on the next iPad Mini were leaked this week via ShrimpApplePro. As well as noting the upcoming Apple Watch 9 and Apple Watch Ultra, an iPad Mini was highlighted as coming out shortly… this likely means at the iPhone 15 launch event in early September.
“Like the 11th-generation iPad , a chip upgrade may be the most likely feature coming to the next iPad mini – an aspect supported by other reports. The iPad mini currently contains the A15 Bionic chip. By early 2024, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro are expected to be on sale touting the A16 Bionic and A17 Bionic, respectively, meaning that the iPad mini may be most likely to get one of these processors.”
(ShrimpApplePro via MacRumors).
Calibrating The Spares
Lots of discussions this week over the Apple Pencil and problems with accuracy when used with screens replaced or repaired by repair centers not authorized by Apple. The culprit appears to be the lack of calibration tools; Apple does not supply these to third-party repair centers. Without that calibration, various elements of Apple’s hardware are degraded:
“At the least, the company seems to believe that only Apple Genuine Replacement Parts should be used by licensed technicians or—with a suitcase full of tools—individuals. Every other kind of repair is subject to complications by Apple’s tying of parts to individual devices, known as serialization. Batteries, screens, and Touch ID sensors are all subject to display warnings to users or lose some functionality when transplanted outside of Apple’s repair network.”
(Ars Technica).
How Did He Do That?
Apple developers worldwide will be wondering what sort of witchcraft the owner of X (neé Twitter) managed to cast over the App Store this week. Even though single-letter app names are strictly forbidden, the X App (neé Twitter app) is listed as “X”:
“As developers pointed out, this is because the App Store Connect — the portal that lets developers manage their apps — shows an error when developers try to use just one character as the app name. Despite that, today Apple seems finally to have granted Elon Musk’s X Corp. — the official owner of Twitter — an exception to have a single-letter app name. We have reached out to Apple for a comment, and we’ll update the story if we hear back.”
(TechCrunch).
And Finally…
With Apple set to finally offer USB-C ports for charging on the next iPhone models, Zac Hall takes a look back at the history of the iOS smartphones’ port, starting with the super-sized 30-pin:
“Apple only ever shipped this charging port on the iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S. Still, the public reaction when the iPhone 5 switched to the current Lightning port was not exactly positive in 2012. That’s largely because 30-pin connector adoption had a head start due to the popularity of the iPod. It didn’t help that Apple’s 30-pin to Lightning adapter was in short supply when the iPhone 5 launched.”
(9to5Mac).
Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here, or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.
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