Apple’s September 9 product event is still several days away, but the ebb and flow of the great Rumor River has brought us many tidings ahead of time. Nothing is ever certain until Apple announces it, but when you get this close to a product reveal, the leaks get more accurate and it gets easier to separate truth from fiction.
The current scuttlebutt is that this event will revolve around three product lines. A routine iPhone bump and a more powerful Apple TV with better software and an App Store are supposedly sure things. That fabled “iPad Pro” could make an appearance, too, but it’s apparently still up in the air. And don’t get your hopes up about new Macs—despite Intel’s new Skylake processors, rumors say we won’t be getting refreshes just yet.
The “iPhone 6S,” “6S Plus,” and the rest of the lineup
Apple is keeping the same basic design for this year’s iPhone refreshes, something that shouldn’t surprise anyone who pays attention to these things. Changes to the body will supposedly be limited to a new “rose gold” color option and the use of 7000-series aluminum, the kind used for the Sport version of the Apple Watch. This will supposedly make the new iPhones infinitesimally thicker but will prevent the bending problems that some people ran into with the originals.
Like all the “S” designs, most of the additions will be on the inside. Rumors point to a new 12MP rear camera capable of recording 4K video as well as a “larger” improved FaceTime camera. A new A9 processor with better CPU and GPU performance is a safe bet, though we don’t actually know much about it. We’re hoping this is the year Apple upgrades the iPhones to 2GB of RAM to help with multitasking and Safari tab reloads. A new Qualcomm modem with faster 300Mbps LTE speeds is also on the docket.
One thing that won’t be getting an upgrade is the internal storage—the 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB storage tiers will reportedly remain, and despite improvements in iOS 9 for devices with less storage space, the 16GB phones are looking increasingly inadequate.
The biggest feature addition will reportedly be the addition of Force Touch to the iPhone, though it may not actually be called that. This pressure-sensitivity debuted in the Apple Watch and in the new trackpad for the Retina MacBook, and it will reportedly be used to provide shortcuts for common tasks like adding songs to playlists or firing up turn-by-turn directions.
As for the cheaper iPhones in the middle and at the low end of the lineup, current rumors say that the current iPhone 6es will stay on at a discounted price and that the iPhone 5S will drop to the entry-level spot. There will not be, as some have speculated, a new “iPhone 6C” or an improved 4-inch iPhone. The 5S’ hardware has aged pretty gracefully, but the two-year-old handset is still your only option if you want a smaller iPhone.
In past years, new iPhones have been available for preorder the Friday after Apple’s product events, and they’ve actually launched the second Friday after the event. Expect preorders on September 11 and for the new phones to be available on September 18. If you’re keeping your old phone and you just want to know when iOS 9 is out, September 16 is the most likely date.
The Apple TV
Apple’s set-top box hasn’t gotten a proper update in three years, and it looks like the new one is going to cover a lot of ground.
The big banner feature for the new Apple TV is a full App Store and SDK for developers, which will go a long way toward opening up Apple’s TV platform—up until now, content providers had to work with Apple directly to get channels added. This should make it easier for third parties and independent content providers to stream their content to Apple’s box. Reports say that gaming will be another big focus for the App Store, building on game controller APIs Apple introduced back into iOS 7.
Powering all of this is substantially upgraded internal hardware. The single-core version of the Apple A5 and its 512MB of RAM will supposedly be replaced by an Apple A8 chip like the one in the iPhone 6 or the sixth-generation iPod Touch. We’d expect the amount of RAM to increase to 1GB, the same amount included in the other A8 devices. Our review of the latest iPod Touch shows just how much faster the A8 is than a dual-core A5—suffice it to say it’s a big jump. 8GB and 16GB storage options are said to be available, and despite the faster hardware, 4K video output still won’t be included.
Bluetooth 4.2 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi will handle wireless connectivity, and the array of ports on the back is supposed to stay about the same (the current model includes HDMI, optical audio, wired Ethernet, and a micro-USB type-B port for diagnostics and support). The physical enclosure is said to be a bit taller but will otherwise look pretty much the same as the current model.
The other hardware-related improvement is the new remote control—rumors about this one have stuck mostly to broad strokes, so we don’t know exactly how it’s going to work. 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman reports that it will be black and will include separate buttons for volume, Home, and Siri, and that it will have an integrated touchpad used for navigation.
On the software side, almost all of the enhancements are things we’ve seen in other iDevices. Siri voice control is a big one, but perhaps the most interesting is the promise of a Spotlight-powered universal search feature that can pull content from multiple sources (for instance, Netflix and iTunes and HBO) using one interface. This is the kind of handy, user-friendly feature that is almost always killed by the companies in the middle that worry about becoming someone else’s dumb pipe.
As of yesterday, the latest BuzzFeed report on pricing says that Apple will sell the new box starting at $149. The old Apple TV will supposedly soldier on at $69, likely with some kind of software update, but it’s not clear at this point how many of the new box’s features will be backported.
The “iPad Pro” and a multitasking Mini
Apple usually introduces iPads at their own event in October, and that may still happen—none of the reports talking about these new iPads actually say that they’re a lock for the September event. In any case, the new features will be the same regardless of when they’re introduced.
On the less exciting end of the spectrum is a new iPad Mini 4, which will reportedly be thinner than the current model and will include a new A8-class chip that supports the full range of iOS 9’s multitasking features (the current model can’t support Split View, the most resource-intensive of the features).
The introduction of the long-rumored “iPad Pro” would (literally) be bigger news. This larger, 12-ish-inch tablet would blur the line between iPad and MacBook, and code found in the iOS 9 betas suggest that it will have a 2732×2048 display resolution, enough space to display two full iOS apps side-by-side in Split View—we’ve got more information on how Split View and the other multitasking modes work here. A Force Touch-compatible stylus will reportedly be included for more accurate input, and stereo speakers on either side of the device will improve the way it sounds.
Otherwise it sounds like the iPad Pro will be exactly what it sounds like: a big iPad. Whether that’s going to be enough to reverse more than a year of sliding sales is anyone’s guess, but at the very least it will be a good showcase for iOS 9.
We’ll be on the ground at Apple’s event next week to cover all the announcements as they happen. Full reviews of any hardware and software will follow in the days and weeks afterward.
Listing image by Andrew Cunningham
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