That is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac providing a fast rundown of the newest Apple product rumors, with evaluation and commentary. At this time: a leaked Apple Intelligence-related memo, and iPhone 17 Professional Max and SE 4 stories. Listed below are this week’s Apple rumors.
Leaked Apple memo reveals AI shakeups
Mark Gurman reported final week for Bloomberg a few leaked inner memo from Apple’s AI head John Giannandrea. The memo revealed that Apple veteran Kim Vorrath would take a high-ranking function on the AI crew. Her job, per Gurman, might be “whipping synthetic intelligence and Siri into form.”
Additionally within the memo, Giannandrea said two foremost firm priorities for Apple Intelligence this yr:
- Rebuilding the core tech behind Siri, and
- Improving present AI fashions
My takeaways
Apple sending an skilled fixer to the AI division is each encouraging and slightly worrying.
On one hand, Vorrath’s involvement bodes effectively for the way forward for AI on the firm. However after all, it additionally displays how mismanagement has been a problem amongst Giannandrea’s crew.
The corporate’s two priorities for the yr make a number of sense, however in addition they come off as a bit predictable. I perhaps shouldn’t learn an excessive amount of into the memo, because it wasn’t precisely a top-secret doc. I think about, although, that corporations like OpenAI have inner priorities which might be much more formidable and on the innovative. LLM Siri might be considered as a dangerous shift, however in any other case these strikes appear to comply with the standard Apple sample of iteration.
Finally although, I think Apple has lots extra thrilling AI developments within the works than the memo lets on.
One much less benefit for iPhone 17 Professional Max
Apple’s largest new iPhone this yr, the iPhone 17 Professional Max, has lengthy been rumored to characteristic a ‘a lot narrowed’ Dynamic Island.
This transformation got here as no shock, since simply as Apple shrunk the notch into the present Dynamic Island, it’s been broadly assumed that ultimately the middle cutout would proceed shrinking.
However per Ming-Chi Kuo, it seems like that Professional Max unique received’t be coming this yr in spite of everything. He stated: “I count on the Dynamic Island dimension to stay largely unchanged throughout the 2H25 iPhone 17 collection.”
‘Largely unchanged’ nonetheless leaves slightly wiggle room for potential change, however Kuo does seem like deliberately refuting the earlier rumor.
My takeaways
Some years, Apple provides its Professional Max fashions particular benefits, whereas different years, it’s mainly equivalent to the smaller Professional choice. As somebody who sometimes buys the smaller Professional, I’m barely relieved to not have any Professional Max envy this yr.
The present Dynamic Island dimension doesn’t hassle me in any respect, however this rumor does make me surprise if Apple’s content material conserving the prevailing design for some time to return.
iPhone SE 4’s notch confusion clears up
There’s been a number of forwards and backwards between totally different sources concerning the upcoming iPhone SE 4. Particularly, conflicting stories encompass whether or not the machine could have a notch or a Dynamic Island.
Show analyst Ross Younger weighed on this week, saying the brand new iPhone SE will have a notch—similar to the iPhone 14.
My takeaways
Younger has a powerful repute with regards to provide chain rumors, significantly with shows. In consequence, I take his phrase as authoritative affirmation of what Apple’s new iPhone SE has in retailer.
The Dynamic Island all the time felt like a step too far for Apple’s funds iPhone. It’s already going to have so many iPhone 16-class options. Apple wants to present prospects sufficient causes to splurge for the flagship mannequin. Giving the brand new SE a notch is a very comprehensible trade-off.
What are your takeaways from this week’s Apple rumors? Tell us within the feedback.
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