Author: Joe Rossignol
Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn plans to begin assembling AirPods at its factory in Hyderabad, India in April, the Press Trust of India said today. The report cited an industry source. The report did not indicate which AirPods models will be manufactured in India, but it did say that all units produced will be exported to other countries. In 2023, Foxconn agreed to start assembling AirPods in India, and it is now ready to start. AirPods production in India will further diversify Apple’s supply chain. The company and its manufacturing partners have been gradually assembling more products in countries such as…
Apple’s first two foldable devices recently entered the New Product Introduction (NPI) phase at Foxconn, according to analyst Jeff Pu. In a research note today with GF Securities, Pu said mass production of the foldable devices is slated to begin in the second half of 2026. The analyst believes the foldable devices will enter an early prototyping stage this April. Pu did not provide any specific details about the two foldable devices. He is likely referring to Apple’s first foldable iPhone, which is rumored to have up to an 8-inch inner display, along with a foldable iPad with up to…
Apple is rumored to be planning a second-generation Studio Display with mini-LED backlighting for release later this year, or early next year. That monitor is codenamed J427 within Apple, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said that Apple seemingly has even bigger plans in regards to external displays. Specifically, he said that Apple is working on an additional monitor, codenamed J527. However, he is not sure what this additional monitor will end up being, so it is a mystery for now. He speculated that Apple could be developing two different second-generation Studio Display models,…
Apple has not confirmed if its delayed personalized Siri features were anything more than conceptual when they were announced during the WWDC 2024 keynote last year, but they reportedly exist internally in at least a semi-usable way by now. Apple’s senior director of Siri, Robby Walker, demonstrated at least some of the personalized Siri features in a “working” state during a recent all-hands meeting with the Siri team, according to a report yesterday from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman: He showed examples during the meeting of the technology working: It was able to locate his driver’s license number on command and find…
While the so-called “iPhone 17 Air” is not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the ultra-thin device. Overall, the “iPhone 17 Air” sounds like a mixed bag. While the device is expected to have an impressively thin and light design, rumors indicate it will have some compromises compared to iPhone 17 Pro models, including only a single rear camera, a single speaker, and an A19 chip instead of a more powerful A19 Pro chip. While there have been some concerns that the iPhone 17 Air’s thin design could result in limited battery life, the…
Apple this week said that it plans to add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to the Messages app in future iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS software updates, and that news actually has some additional implications. As noted by 9to5Mac’s Michael Burkhardt, Apple has indirectly confirmed that it will be adopting the RCS Universal Profile 3.0 specification, which includes not only end-to-end encryption, but also several other iMessage-like enhancements that were originally introduced in version 2.7 of the specification. iOS 18 supports RCS Universal Profile 2.4. Here are five new capabilities to expect for RCS conversations: End-to-end encryption, which will…
Apple Music Classical is now available on the web at classical.music.apple.com. Apple Music Classical launched in most countries in March 2023, allowing users with a standard Apple Music subscription to stream more than five million classical music tracks, at no additional cost. Apple Music Classical is based on Primephonic, a classical music streaming service that was acquired by Apple in 2021. To celebrate Apple Music Classical becoming available on the web, an Apple spokesperson said a new recording of Julius Eastman’s Symphony No. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 from conductor Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra will be available…
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber today shared some strongly-worded comments about Apple’s delayed personalized Siri features. Gruber is a well-known Apple pundit who has been writing about the company for more than two decades. In a blog post titled “Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino,” Gruber said Apple’s credibility has been “damaged” by the delay: Keynote by keynote, product by product, feature by feature, year after year after year, Apple went from a company that you couldn’t believe would even remain solvent, to, by far, the most credible company in tech. Apple remains at no risk of financial bankruptcy…
Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today reiterated his belief that a new HomePod with a screen will enter mass production in the third quarter of 2025. Kuo is likely referring to Apple’s rumored smart home hub, which is expected to have a square iPad-like screen that can be attached to a HomePod-like speaker base, or mounted on a wall. If his timeframe is accurate, it means that the device would enter mass production after Apple’s annual developers conference WWDC in June. Kuo originally predicted that the HomePod with a screen would enter mass production in the first quarter of…