Mobile Devices - Page 9

Apple is expected to be making some pretty big changes this years iPhone line-up, with rumors been flying for some months now about physical design changes, a different aesthetic, and now a color change.

It has been rumored for quite some time that Apple will be releasing an iPhone 17 Air, which is slated to replace the current iPhone Plus model. This new Air model is much more than just a name change as the device will be much thinner, feature fewer cameras, but ultimately retain some of the best features in the Pro model iPhones: 120Hz 6.6-inch display, battery life, USB-C charging - for about $900. This significant change in design represents Apple testing the waters, and if proven popular, the company will pivot future iPhone designs toward thinness.

Another big rumor for the iPhone 17 line up is the following devices will feature horizontal camera modules that are reminiscent of the Google Pixel phones. Those models are: the iPhone 17 Air, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max. Another rumor is the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max will arrive in a two-tone rear panel, which will be made of glass and metal. If this becomes true it would be a first for iPhone.

As announced in a recent press release, Samsung will be rolling out its One UI 7 update from April 7, introducing a range of features to older devices-previously only available on the Galaxy S25 series.

Among the new features is a refreshed design and layout. With what Samsung describes as a "streamlined, emotive" design, users will see an updated home screen, lock screen, and redesigned One UI widgets, bringing a fresh look to older Galaxy devices.

Now Bar, one of the AI-powered features introduced with the S25, will also be made available on select devices - allowing users to get real-time updates on the lock screen for select apps. Galaxy AI features will also receive an expansion, bringing tools like AI Select, Writing Assist, and Audio Eraser. AI Select can recognize on-screen content and suggest actions, while Writing Assist can summarize or auto-format text. Audio Eraser, meanwhile, allows users to remove unwanted background noise from videos by isolating different sound types.

Amazon Devices boss Panos Panay will be adding a new premium tier to the next-generation Alexa gadgets, centered around its new AI-powered Alexa+.

In a new report from Bloomberg, we're learning that the higher-end Alexa+ products will better compete against Apple products, with Panay pledging to reengineer Amazon's hardware from the silicon insides, to the design and materials on the outside. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman writes that whether they fall into the "entry, core or signature" he said that they will get the same love and attention.

Panay says that the higher-tier Alexa+ devices will have better audio, battery life, and security. He added: "I want perfection in every single product that we ship - period. There won't be a corner cut. It won't matter if we tried it before.It won't matter what you thought it used to be".

We keep hearing more about the foldable iPhone that's theoretically destined to launch next year, and now we've caught wind of the price - though we wish we hadn't.

Did you ever think that an iPhone with a foldable screen would be cheap, though? Of course not, but according to one analyst, the device might start at around $2,300 in the US when (or if) Apple debuts it.

The analyst in question is Tim Long, who works for a British bank (Barclays), and imparted the info on this weighty price tag in an investor note.

Google has finally confirmed what most people were thinking: Google Assistant is being replaced by artificial intelligence.

The company has confirmed via a new blog post that over the coming months, Android users on mobile devices will begin getting upgraded to the new and improved version of Google Assistant, Gemini.

The classic Google Assistant will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices nor be downloadable from mobile app stores. The change is scheduled to take place before the end of the year, and devices will need to meet the minimum requirements for the Gemini upgrade, which is at least 2GB of RAM and at least Android 10.

Apple has been rumored to be cooking an ultra-thin iPhone for the 17th generation of the famous smartphone, and according to an industry insider, we have an approximate price for this mysterious device.

The price comes from Apple analyst and Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, who wrote in his latest Power On newsletter that the iPhone 17 Air could start at approximately $899, which would make it as much as the iPhone 16 Plus. The iPhone 17 Air has been rumored for quite some time, with Gurman writing that Apple will be testing the waters with this thinner and lighter iPhone model, and if proven successful, future generations of iPhone will begin to adopt the slimmer design. The Bloomberg report describes the iPhone 17 Air as much more than just another stream of revenue for Apple, instead, "it's really a new beginning for the iPhone."

So, how will the iPhone 17 Air differentiate itself from the other models? According to Gurman, the rumored device will feature a mix of both pro-level and low-end functions while also taking on a new physical design approach. More specifically, the iPhone 17 Air will feature a 6.6-inch display, have thin borders like the iPhone 16 Pro line, a ProMotion display, and a Dynamic Island interface. Moreover, it will have a Camera Control button, and despite its reduction in thickness, its battery will be on par with current generation iPhones.

Samsung Display has been awarded a new design patent for a display device, with the patent originally filed back on January 10, 2022, now registered with the US Designs IP Portal, for a repositionable camera system.

The refreshed patent teases an improved camera placement within the display, which could land in smartphones, tablets, and other devices. A moveable camera system on a Samsung smartphone would make a lot of sense, similar to the 2019 release from Samsung and its Galaxy A80 smartphone with a single camera system that popped up and featured a rotating mechanism for selfies.

There is a high R&D cost associated with a rotating camera system on a smartphone, and the larger commercial success might not be worth it in the long run. It could be a gimmick and people would use it, but just how popular would it be? I'm sure we'll see it on a future foldable smartphone from Samsung in the years to come.

Apple's failure to roll out Apple Intelligence on time is reminiscent of Antennagate, a controversy Apple founder Steve Jobs tackled in 2010 with the iPhone 4. Perhaps current Apple CEO Tim Cook should take a page out of Jobs' book on how to manage a company crisis effectively.

For those who don't know, Apple announced Apple Intelligence at WWDC in June 2024, with the company going on to tell consumers its implementation of AI would be coming to its latest generation of products. Apple showed Apple Intelligence working in a variety of different ways through advertisements (some now hidden) that showed new ways to interact with its AI that would benefit the user. Unfortunately, the most impressive features of Apple Intelligence, such as Siri's deep iOS integration upgrade, would bring it up to a similar level of performance as other AI services, such as ChatGPT.

However, those features are yet to be released, and now we have learned Apple is so far behind in development that Apple Intelligence won't arrive in its entirety until sometime next year. The problem? Apple marketed its latest generation of devices with the promise of Apple Intelligence features, and while some have been released, the biggest sellers, such as the Siri upgrade, are not present, nor will they be until the iPhone 17 lineup has already been launched. To many, this seems like a bait-and-switch tactic, or perhaps more accurately, Apple overpromising on features and then severely underdelivering.

We all know Apple is working on a foldable iPhone, but what we don't know right now is what will the company call it. In a new interview, Bloomberg insider Mark Gurman said he thinks it will be called the iPhone Ultra.

Apple calling its new iPhone Ultra makes sense when you think that the company has its Apple Watch series of smartwatches, with the flagship model called the Apple Watch Ultra.

We've also got the M series processors that Apple designs in-house and fabs at TSMC, with its flagship chips also using the Ultra monitor: M3 Ultra was just released inside of the Mac Studio for example.

Apple is expected to release something new in the iPhone world later this year, with the introduction of the ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air rolling in at just 5.5mm thick... but 9.5mm including the camera bump.

In a new report from The Information, we're hearing the new iPhone 17 Air will be around 6mm thin which makes it a little bit thicker than the iPhone 6 which was released 10 years ago, coming in at 5.9mm thin. In a new post on Chinese social media site Weibo, leaker Ice Universe says that the camera bump on the iPhone 17 Air will be 4mm thick, meaning that we should have a total thickness of 9.5mm, not so ultra-thin, eh?

Apple's new iPhone 17 Air smartphone will feature a new camera bar on the back, housing all of the required components that you find on the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max handsets. This means we can expect a single-lens camera sensor on the left side of the camera bar, with a mic and LED flash placed on the right.

The latest rumor about Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 line-up points at the inclusion of a new advanced cooling system that will designed to reduce the temperature of internal components, in particular, the upcoming A19 Pro chip.

According to Chinese tech news site MyDrivers, and a separate post on Weibo, Apple is planning on adopting vapor chamber technology into its iPhone 17 line-up. Notably, this cooling technology isn't totally new as it has been present in many Android smartphones for quite some time, but if this rumor is true, it would mark the first time Apple has implemented it into its iPhone line-up.

Reports from MacRumors indicate the new cooling tech could be headed to all iPhone 17 models, which would include the standard iPhone 17, Pro, Air, and Pro Max.

Apple's first foray into the foldable market will be a foldable iPhone, but after that we'll be introduced to the foldable iPad Pro which is expected in 2028 according to the latest rumors.

Insider @Jukanlosreve on X has posted an Apple OLED transition roadmap update from Meritz Securities, which points to the fat that there is "continued weak demand" for Apple's higher-end OLED iPad Pros, first launched in 2024 with multiple new technologies including tandem displays and hybrid OLED structure.

Apple is expected to unveil the OLED iPad mini as "originally planned" in 2026, while the OLED iPad Air will be "advanced" from 2028 to 2027, a year earlier. However, the upgrade for the OLED iPad Pro is delayed from 2027 to 2028. The upcoming OLED iPad mini and iPad Air will use hybrid OLED structure, a single-stack approach is expected to be used for reducing the cost.

We are only six months away from Apple unveiling the new iPhone 17 line, but if you have been keeping up with the rumors there is plenty already out there about these new smartphones, with the main highlight being the long-awaited physical redesign.

For quite some time, rumors have been indicating that Apple is changing things up with the iPhone 17 line-up, and now we have our first look at three models of the new generation in the form of dummy units - the iPhone 17 standard, the iPhone 17 Air, and iPhone 17 Pro. The dummy units were created based on "internal documents" according to iDeviceHelp and are representative of the latest rumors on each of the devices, including dimensions, camera placements, and features.

The iPhone 17 Pro is likely the most eye-catching in terms of a redesign, as Apple has reportedly opted for a camera bar over the traditional stove-top look that has been present across its entire line of iPhones for many years now. The iPhone 17 Pro has been rumored for quite some time to be getting this redesign, along with the iPhone 17 Air being in the works and the device slated to replace the iPhone 16 Plus. The iPhone 17 Air is rumored to be focused on aesthetics, with the inclusion of a similar camera bar, but thinner and a reduction in thickness versus the iPhone 17 standard.

Apple has been rumored for quite some time to be working on a thin iPhone, and now, according to a new leaker, the company is planning on making its Pro Max model slated to be announced this year -- thicker.

The rumors come from Chinese leaker Ice Universe that Apple is planning to increase the thickness of the iPhone 17 Pro Max from 8.25mm to 8.725mm, with the leaker believing the thickness increase is related to Apple wanting to increase the battery capacity for the upcoming iPhone. As for other aspects of the rumored iPhone 17 Pro Max, Ice Universe states Apple will be sticking with the 6.9-inch display.

In conjunction with 17 Pro Max, Apple might release the iPhone 17 Air, a new smartphone designed to replace the iPhone Plus and be between 5.5 mm and 6.5 mm thick, making it the thinnest iPhone Apple has ever released. Additional rumors regarding the upcoming iPhone 17 lineup: Apple is reportedly going to have major design changes to the back of the smartphone, or at least for the standard iPhone and Air models.

Apple's first-gen foldable iPhone is in the headlines again, with reports that it'll be a "true AI-driven iPhone" that will be a "top-tier iPhone" with the first foldable iPhone expected to be priced at between $2000 and $2500 when it launches in late-2026.

In a new post on Medium, insider Ming-Chi Kuo predicts what we'll see with Apple's first foldable iPhone. The insider says it'll be a true AI-driven iPhone -- hopefully, as Apple has well and truly fumbled AI with Siri and Apple Intelligence failures -- with multimodal functionality and cross-app integration being the trends in AI device use cases.

The larger screen enhances the AI experience says Kuo, enabling scenarios like chatting with a chatbot about travel plans while viewing a full map app at the same time. Apple's first foldable will be a "top-tier iPhone" that will leverage the iPhone's status as a must-have device and Apple's loyal fanbase, are expected to generate strong replacement demand -- no matter the price -- provided that Apple meets quality standards.

Apple's latest iPhone offering, the "budget-friendly" iPhone 16e, has been put under the razer blade and screwdrivers by the folks over at iFixit, and what they found was quite interesting. The iPhone 16e gained a higher repairability score than the other iPhone 16 devices, but, of course, with a few caveats.

For those who don't know the difference between the iPhone 16e and the rest of the iPhone 16 line-up, here's a quick buying guide if you are considering purchasing the standard iPhone or the iPhone 16e. However, in a nutshell, Apple has removed some key features from the iPhone 16e to reduce its cost. Notable features that have been removed are as follows: no MagSafe charging, no camera control interface, no macro photography, no dynamic island, fewer graphics cores, no Cinematic mode or Action mode, and a dimmer display.

The main hit for the iPhone 16e versus the standard iPhone is definitely in the camera department, but there are some improvements with the 16e versus the standard, and they come in the form of battery life, Apple's new C1 modem, and repairability. According to iFixit, the iPhone 16e automatically gets extra points for Apple including a repair manual in the box for the charging ports, one of the most replaced components in a smartphone.

Apple has revealed a new M3-powered iPad Air partnered with a new Magic Keyboard.

The introduction was made in the lowkey manner Apple sometimes employs where the firm simply pushes out a press release.

The new iPad Air 11-inch and 13-inch tablets don't run with the latest M4 silicon, but Apple's still given its device considerably more pep with that M3 CPU.

Apple will be announcing its new M4 MacBook Air laptops, powered by its new in-house M4 processor... any day this week according to the latest reports, as well as the new M4 iPad Air.

In his latest PowerOn newsletter, Bloomberg writer Mark Gurman reports that Apple plans to launch the new M4 MacBook Air models as soon as this week, with the new M4 iPad Air and iPad 11 "probably won't come in the next few days". We should expect the new M4 MacBook Air announcement on its own, like the iPhone 16e had.

Apple is beginning to wind down inventory of its current-gen iPad Air at its retail stores, a trend Gurman writes is similar to the now-discontinued iPhone SE and existing MacBook Air. This is paving the way for the soon-to-be-announced M4 iPad Air and M4 MacBook Air.

Apple is slated to unveil the next generation of iPhone later this year, and according to a recent leak, we can expect some major design changes.

It has been rumored for quite some time the iPhone 17 generation will introduce some major design changes, which will be a breathe of fresh air for Apple fans that have been enduring the same aesthetics for many generations with incremental upgrades in performance. According to new iPhone 17 CAD renders that have been leaked from Sonny Dickson, the iPhone 17 standard won't look much different compared to the iPhone 16, but the Pro models, the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, will look different.

Reports indicate the standard iPhone 17 will get the Always-On display and ProMotion features, instead of the design update. As for the Pro Models, the CAD renders show a camera bar but with the lenses being in the same orientation as what we are used to on previous generations. However, the flash, microphone, and LiDAR scanner have been moved to the opposite side of the device instead of being placed above and below the innermost camera lens, as we have seen in previous generations.

Apple only just launched its new iPhone 16e with is first in-house 5G modem, and it seems like the "e" series iPhones will continue with the iPhone 17e in 2026 with a next-gen C3 modem.

Apple isn't the type of company to have a one-time release like the iPhone 16e, spend the millions in marketing it, debut it as the first iPhone with its new in-house C1 modem... to never have a successor. It looks like Apple will have the next-gen iPhone 17e released at the same time of 2026, with the iPhone 16e announced last week, we don't even have a year to wait.

In a new report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, or CIRP, thinks we'll see the iPhone 17e happen sooner, rather than later: "It appears that "e" phones may be part of the program going forward. Following the core iPhone 17 model launches in September, we expect Apple to announce an iPhone 17e around this time next year. That would mimic Google's introduction of "a" models in its Pixel line months after the annual Spring launch of their flagship and Pro models in recent years".