New iPhone 16 Features Confirmed, MacBook Pro Delayed, iPhone AAA Games Bombed

Take a look at this week’s Apple news and headlines, including new iPhone 16 features, iPhone 16 design leaks, a long wait for the M4 MacBook, the arrival of the iPhone’s Mac mirror, iPad Pro sales success, EU challenges to the App Store, and the iPhone’s AAA games failure.

Apple Loop is here to remind you of some of the many discussions surrounding Apple over the past seven days. You can also read my weekly Android news roundup here on Forbes.

Apple confirms new iPhone features

In a white paper released this week, Apple discussed several new approaches to promoting device repairability and increasing battery longevity. The True Tone and Battery Meter features will now be accessible to third-party components installed on an iPhone and will be part of the iOS 18 update:

“Currently, battery health indicators, such as maximum capacity and cycle count, are not presented to consumers whose devices are equipped with third-party batteries because the accuracy of these indicators cannot be verified by Apple… In an effort to improve support for third-party batteries, starting in late 2024, Apple will display battery health indicators with a notification that Apple cannot verify the information presented.”

(MacRumors).

New iPhone, new cases, new clues

Thanks to a leak of the latest iPhone 16 cases, we have confirmation of the three key features Apple will bring to the base iPhone in 2024. Two new buttons are being added – the action button and the camera button – but the changes to the camera to support Apple’s AR headset show the interoperability Apple is pushing:

“These lenses have moved from the iPhone 15’s diagonal layout on a square camera island to a vertical layout on a diamond-shaped island. This shouldn’t impact regular photos and videos taken on the iPhone, but the lens arrangement will allow lenses to be used side-by-side when recording in landscape mode. This is the orientation you would need to take stereoscopic videos that would allow 3D playback on the Apple Vision Pro headset. »

(Forbes).

A long wait for the Mac M4

Apple launched the M4 chipset on the iPad Pro last month. Apple Silicon’s M series has already appeared in the iPad Pro, but is primarily considered a Mac chip. And the Mac community will have to wait almost six months before the M4 starts appearing on its Macs, MacBooks and iMacs:

“The entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro is expected to get an M4 chip, while the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will be updated with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. The ‌Mac mini‌ will get M4 and M4 Pro chips. The MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro models won’t be updated with M4 chips until 2025, and it’s not yet clear when the iMac might get an update with the updated chip technology.”

(MacRumors).

iPhone meets Mac

Apple’s new implementation of mirroring the iPhone to the Mac screen is now available via the iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia developer betas that were released at WWDC last month. The full public release is expected in early October. In addition to sharing controls and digital real estate, mirroring brings the devices’ file systems a little closer together.

“Among the ‘pluses’ is a really cool feature that lets you drag and drop files from your Mac to your iPhone, which is the ultimate in convenience. The connected Mac will display notifications from the iPhone on the Mac’s screen, and when you click on the Mac’s screen, they’ll open on the screen.”

(Forbes).

Apple finds success in retail

The latest report from Canalys looks at laptop and tablet sales over the past quarter, and Apple will be happy with the positioning of both formats in the market:

“That means Apple held 14.2% of the desktop and notebook market in the quarter. It shipped about 2,102,000 Macs, compared to 1,723,000 in the first quarter of 2023… In total, Apple shipped 4,928,000 iPads in the quarter, compared to 5,404,000 a year earlier. Still, the iPad remains dominant with 50.8% of the market.”

(Apple Insider).

Recent EU App Store Issues

EU regulators have challenged Apple’s decision regarding the implementation of third-party app stores and developers’ ability to inform consumers about alternatives to Apple’s own store:

“The tech giant has had a chance to review the preliminary findings of the investigation, and it can avoid a hefty fine if it comes back with a proposal that satisfies the EU. The European Commission says developers should be able to freely inform customers when there are cheaper app stores besides the one run by Apple.”

(BBC News).

And finally…

Apple’s push into AAA games saw a handful of notable names come to the iPhone last year. Unfortunately, financial success did not follow their releases, as research suggests that these titles “bombed”:

“Assassin’s Creed Mirage has been downloaded about 123,000 times since June 6, according to Appfigures. However, the game has only generated $138,000 in gross revenue. The report estimates that the revenue level indicates that fewer than 3,000 people were willing to unlock the full game at $49.99.”

(MobileGamer.biz via Apple Insider).

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