The things Apple might announce next week, ranked by how likely they are

A new iPhone SE? Sure. But what about the M2 chip?

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[SeanJW]

Apple could pull a Roku & make a streaming stick at a low cost

The current apple tv box is big & uses IR & overpriced.

They have managed to shrink their chips & make them fast enough that they could make small sticks / chromecasts with a update remote that can work via IR/RF.

I am thinking of the iPod shuffle stick that came out years ago & this is certainly doable by apple & keep the price at $69 - $129 & it would become an impulse buy for many people

Current Apple TV doesn’t use IR. Mine lives in a cupboard with not mine of sight, it’s Bluetooth. Handy to control an AV receiver via CEC regardless of where the remote is too.
Edit: It *has* IR but that’s to let it control other devices as it’s a kind of learning remote.

Correct.
The IR is for TV & HDMI-CEC

I'd forgotten about the Bluetooth.

Bit of both. Siri Remote and AppleTV both have IR & Bluetooth. The Siri Remote uses Bluetooth but can generate IR signals (and be programmed - it controls my TV volume with +/-). The AppleTV has IR receive, partially to allow programming of the IR on the Siri Remote, and partially to allow legacy remotes to work. Not just Apple legacy IR remotes, though they work fine, but any remote - you can program the AppleTV to respond to whatever remote you currently use. No need for a universal remote.

 

[NetMage]

If they are going to do a demo or preview of an AR or VR product, I think it would be far more likely to do it in June for the developers.

Yeah. Betting on Apple's announcements is always a challenge, but the idea that they'd reveal or ship an entire new category (which would require new APIs and dev hardware) at anything other than WWDC seems vanishingly unlikely. The devs always get access to that stuff first, because there's nothing worse than shipping products with no software.

OTOH, the original iPhone was announced without any third party software support...

 

[jaberg]

If they are going to do a demo or preview of an AR or VR product, I think it would be far more likely to do it in June for the developers.

Yeah. Betting on Apple's announcements is always a challenge, but the idea that they'd reveal or ship an entire new category (which would require new APIs and dev hardware) at anything other than WWDC seems vanishingly unlikely. The devs always get access to that stuff first, because there's nothing worse than shipping products with no software.

OTOH, the original iPhone was announced without any third party software support...

At the time there was no clear intention for iPhone to be a developer supported platform.

 

[samcantrell]

If they are going to do a demo or preview of an AR or VR product, I think it would be far more likely to do it in June for the developers.

Yeah. Betting on Apple's announcements is always a challenge, but the idea that they'd reveal or ship an entire new category (which would require new APIs and dev hardware) at anything other than WWDC seems vanishingly unlikely. The devs always get access to that stuff first, because there's nothing worse than shipping products with no software.

OTOH, the original iPhone was announced without any third party software support...

At the time there was no clear intention for iPhone to be a developer supported platform.

Do we know that Apple intends for their AR glasses to be a developer-supported platform?

Humor me for a minute. We imagine AR glasses as being something where various apps are all competing for our attention, and *of course* there'd be third-party apps available to install.

But maybe Apple looks at that as some kind of dystopian nightmare, where you're walking down the street and Amazon is popping up ads in your line of vision.

Instead, maybe Apple's vision is a more privacy-conscious, minimalist experience, where Apple has full control over the experience and only surfaces specific pieces of information, not a smorgasbord of third-party apps dinging and bubbling and flashing for your attention. This would also jive with their screen health initiatives, and they may feel this would alleviate privacy concerns people had with the original Google Glass.

I'm not saying this is what's going to happen, and we'll find out on Tuesday, but I just don't think we can discount it out of hand.

 

[NetMage]

Yeah. Betting on Apple's announcements is always a challenge, but the idea that they'd reveal or ship an entire new category (which would require new APIs and dev hardware) at anything other than WWDC seems vanishingly unlikely. The devs always get access to that stuff first, because there's nothing worse than shipping products with no software.

OTOH, the original iPhone was announced without any third party software support...

At the time there was no clear intention for iPhone to be a developer supported platform.

Steve spent quite a bit of time discussing the browser, and browser based applications during the launch keynote, and they had customization to allow home screen bookmarks and proprietary html extensions for handling the iPhone.

http://scw.us/iPhone/iDialer/index.html

 

[jaberg]

Do we know that Apple intends for their AR glasses to be a developer-supported platform?

My crystal ball is no better than yours but I’d postulate that the work Apple has put into developing and promoting AR Kit gives us a reasonable expectation that they intend “Glasses” to be a platform.

 

[samcantrell]

Do we know that Apple intends for their AR glasses to be a developer-supported platform?

My crystal ball is no better than yours but I’d postulate that the work Apple has put into developing and promoting AR Kit gives us a reasonable expectation that they intend “Glasses” to be a platform.

And to be fair, you're probably right! I'm probably just projecting what I wish an AR platform would look like.

But really my killer AR feature would be something where if I was coming up to someone I'd met previously it'd remind me their name and some things about them to ask about. I don't want Amazon or Facebook Messenger popping up interrupting my life. I would like AR to literally augment reality, not replace it.

 

[dnelson_1901]

Calculator for iPad?

I do my bills on my iPad. A calculator would be great.

Take a look at PCalc ($10), or if you're cheap, PCalc Lite (free). Its subtitle on the App store is "The Best Calculator", and they're not wrong.

 

[TenThousandThings]

… TLDR: Looking forward to some new MacBook designs. Last year it was speculated they might come out in 2022. Maybe at this event? ... The M1 chips are great chips - they deserve a new MacBook design, maybe modeled after the new iMac design. ...

Look for a completely redesigned MacBook Air in the current iMac colors when the M2 is released. Maybe June, otherwise in the Fall. Right now, the only completed fully Apple Silicon Macs are the iMac and the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. The Air and the Mini are still transitional. It looks like maybe the Mini is going away and becoming the “Mac Studio” in a few days, on March 8. So then the next big deal for the consumer is the Air, which will get the colors. It’s a flagship, like the iMac. So when the M2 launches, it will be in the Air and the iMac. IMHO, it doesn’t make sense for Apple to continue having the Mini in that role, if developers need it they can buy an Air or an iMac to test on.

 

[zogus]

My 2017 iPhone X isn't clamoring for an upgrade, but my 2017 13" MacBook Pro is. I wasn't expecting to replace my PC faster than my smartphone for another decade or so, but here we are.

 

[maxoakland]

Having never had an Apple product, i'm looking to dip my toe in on my next phone refresh...a 199$ SE with a fingerprint reader would seal the deal.

What has made you start looking at Apple now?

 

[TheArsTrev]

Having never had an Apple product, i'm looking to dip my toe in on my next phone refresh...a 199$ SE with a fingerprint reader would seal the deal.

What has made you start looking at Apple now?

Having to buy a new phone every 2 to 3 years because Qualcomm and Google can't be bothered to keep thier products up to date. There is zero reason my 3XL shouldn't be getting security updates at a minimum.

 

[bfortin]

Calculator for iPad?

I do my bills on my iPad. A calculator would be great.

Take a look at PCalc ($10), or if you're cheap, PCalc Lite (free). Its subtitle on the App store is "The Best Calculator", and they're not wrong.

I’m also a fan of Numerical².

 

[Cloudgazer]

Do we know that Apple intends for their AR glasses to be a developer-supported platform?

My crystal ball is no better than yours but I’d postulate that the work Apple has put into developing and promoting AR Kit gives us a reasonable expectation that they intend “Glasses” to be a platform.

And to be fair, you're probably right! I'm probably just projecting what I wish an AR platform would look like.

But really my killer AR feature would be something where if I was coming up to someone I'd met previously it'd remind me their name and some things about them to ask about. I don't want Amazon or Facebook Messenger popping up interrupting my life. I would like AR to literally augment reality, not replace it.

I think it's safe to bet that it will be a much more tightly constrained platform even than the iPhone, after all look at the limits they put on the Watch.

 

[BongoBongo]

There won't be a Mac Mini with a Pro CPU in. Apple don't do it.
The Mac Mini is an entry level machine, it's for people switching from wintel, plus they would never let it canniblise the sales of the base level Mac Pro that's coming.
The M1 processor works fine in the small Mac Mini case, it actually has more dissipation than it needs, not so sure that would still stand up with the bigger CPUs, Apple want that fan silent at all times.

The idiot predictors (you know who they are) have been getting this wrong for over a year, yet they never get called out on it and they keep repeating it.

The real big question for the Mac Pro lineup is expandability, there almost certainly won't be any form of PCI, maybe some way of slipping in new Apple Silicon CPU's on a card ?!?!?
Or maybe they'll just depend on Thunderbolt for everything now ?

 

[Behinder]

And yet another article that base its content from prediction of self acclaimed Apple expert from China

 

[SeanJW]

There won't be a Mac Mini with a Pro CPU in. Apple don't do it.
The Mac Mini is an entry level machine, it's for people switching from wintel, plus they would never let it canniblise the sales of the base level Mac Pro that's coming.
The M1 processor works fine in the small Mac Mini case, it actually has more dissipation than it needs, not so sure that would still stand up with the bigger CPUs, Apple want that fan silent at all times.

The idiot predictors (you know who they are) have been getting this wrong for over a year, yet they never get called out on it and they keep repeating it.

The real big question for the Mac Pro lineup is expandability, there almost certainly won't be any form of PCI, maybe some way of slipping in new Apple Silicon CPU's on a card ?!?!?
Or maybe they'll just depend on Thunderbolt for everything now ?

Just to help you catch up with a few years ago (there were older models, but this is the one currently for sale)

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP782

Apple Mac Mini, i7 6 core up to 64G of memory. The one that would require an M1Max in it to be replaced, which is what everyone is actually talking about.

 

[artvandelayIIII]

My only hope for the iPhone SE 2022 is hyper-specific to me: I want it to include MagSafe charging because my wife will probably be updating her phone to "the cheapest iPhone" and I want to be able to use a MagSafe-compatible phone mount in our car. That's all I ask.

Is MagSafe actually strong enough for a car mount? I've looked into a few and there are enough complaints of phones falling off that I haven't tried it out yet.

Yeah it’s great. The mount itself has magnets which strengthen the connection.