Apple Loop: Mysterious New iPhone Spotted, Deleted Russian Apps Return, More iPhone 14 Pro Troubles

A look back at another week of news and headlines from Cupertino: This week’s Apple Loop includes a surprise new iPhone, iPhone 14 Plus production issues, iPhone 14 Pro SIM card issues, brand new iPads, iPad Pros and Apple TVs that will be missed MacBook Pro launch, macOS and iPadOS updates, iPad Mini price hikes, and Russian social media returning to the App Store.

Apple Loop is here to remind you of some of the very large amount of discussion that has taken place around Apple over the past seven days (and you can read my weekly roundup of Android news here on Forbes).

iPhone SE 4 suddenly appears

The iPhone 15 might not be the only new iPhone coming in 2023. The iPhone SE, which appears to have settled into a two-year update cycle, is being geared up not only for an early release in Q2, but also for an overhaul that will move it towards the current iPhone design ethos with a full Frontal display:

“… we can assume that the iPhone SE 4 will have a 6.1-inch display WITH a notch and will be available in three colors: Midnight, Starlight and Product RED. If you’ve got eyes, you might also have noticed that the new iPhone SE looks eerily similar to the iPhone XR… yes, that’s the point. Apple tends to copy the previous generation iPhone design for their SE updates, and that’s exactly the case here.”

(FrontPage Tech).

iPhone 14 Plus production stopped

Apple dropped the idea of ​​an iPhone 14 Mini, instead moving in the other direction, returning to the iPhone Plus design of a larger-screen model. It’s looking good on paper, but sales aren’t there…so much so that production is reportedly being halted and more effort being put into the “only marginally more expensive” iPhone 14 Pro:

“Possible factors at play here include the rising cost of daily living due to inflation and a weaker than average global economy for a number of factors. Apple also positioned the iPhone 14 Plus at a logical but harsh price point; and has a fairly large display. The $899 iPhone 14 Plus has an even larger display, but no other differences. Compared to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, which are $999 and $1099, respectively cost and more advanced camera systems and a redesigned sensor layout.”

(9to5Mac).

New iPhone 14 owners have massive problems with the SIM card

Users of the new iPhone 14 family of phones report problems with their SIM cards, which are suddenly reported as “Not Supported”; Although hard resets fix the problem, this is not a recommended approach. A possible cause of this could be the move to only support iPhones with eSIM, but so far we only know that Apple is aware of the issue, but there is no indication of a timeline for the fix:

“In a memo sent to authorized retailers, first seen by MacRumors and which I subsequently saw and verified through an Apple partner, Apple has confirmed a widespread bug with SIMs. Affected iPhone 14 models are showing an error message “SIM not supported” then the phones will freeze and render them unusable until hard reset.”

(Forbes).

New iPads for many

The big news from Apple this week was a spate of press releases announcing new hardware, particularly the new tablets. First up is the iPad Pro, and Apple’s push to offer the professional tablet as the equivalent of a laptop… after all, it shares the same M2 chipset as the new MacBook Air!

“The iPad Pro has also received a makeover today, with both the 11-inch and 12.9-inch models transitioning to the new M2 processor, which includes hardware-accelerated ProRes encoding and decoding. They also offer support for the faster Wi-Fi 6E protocol and Bluetooth 5.3, as well as a new “Apple Pencil Hover” mode that can detect the height of the Pencil up to 12mm above the display and allow the iPad to adjust accordingly react.”

(Six colors).

An update for the regular iPad has also been launched. As with other iPads, the model used USB-C for connectivity (instead of Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector) and upped the camera to 4K resolution along with the screen resolution. In terms of processor, however, it lags behind the iPhone Pro’s A16 chipset, rolling out 2020’s A14 instead. Good enough, but don’t expect miracles:

“At 10.9 inches, the iPad (10th generation) has the largest screen Apple has ever put on a standard iPad. It’s the first time Apple has updated the screen size in three generations – the 7th, 8th and 9th generations each came out at 10.2 inches. This is also the first standard iPad with a Liquid Retina display instead of a regular Retina display. That means higher resolutions and it will be almost impossible to see the separation between the pixels on your screen.

(Insider).

Apple TV has a new resolution

Also in the mix is ​​a new edition of the Apple TV. Offering 4K, it provides access to Apple’s closed products, including Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+, Apple TV, and broader offerings like Apple Music and several third-party online services:

“The new Apple TV 4K is available in two configurations: the Apple TV 4K with Wi-Fi, which offers 64GB of storage and retails for $129, and the Apple TV 4K with Wi-Fi + Ethernet, which It offers 128GB of storage and retails for $149. You can order both now on Apple’s website, with availability beginning Friday, November 4th.

(ZDNet).

One of our MacBooks is missing

A more interesting question about Apple’s “Launch by Press Release” tag is what hasn’t been released. The expected update for the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops has not been shown. They’ll likely be pushed elsewhere to give the iPad Pro, which is powered by the desktop-class M2, time in the spotlight. But where is the history of these powerful macOS machines?

“It’s Apple’s story to tell, and no doubt the geekerati will see the press releases when they show up in the Apple Newsroom. Still, I can’t help but feel that “delivering the best high-performance laptop in a way only Apple can” is a story that needs to be told far and wide, complementing rather than hiding the Mac Pro end to allow the Mac Pro to offer a quiet and niche resolution.”

(Forbes).

New macOS and iPadOS versions are coming

The new builds of the operating systems are expected on October 24th. Given the non-appearance of the MacBook Pro, maybe the hardware for the new software will come at the same time?

“The iPadOS 16 update runs on all iPad Pros, iPad 5th generation and later, iPad mini 5th generation and later and iPad Air 3rd generation and later, adding support for the venerable iPad Air 2 and a handful of other models will be discontinued (it will also ship on all of the new iPads Apple announced today). The macOS Ventura update generally requires a Mac released in 2017 or later, dropping support for various models released between 2013 and 2016.

(Ars Technica).

The price of the iPad Mini is increasing

Its American base may not notice, but Apple has raised iPad Mini prices around the world – in the UK the 64GB model moves from £479 to £569, an increase of almost twenty per cent. What’s happening? Officially we don’t know:

“Apple didn’t give a reason for the price increases outside of the US, but they could be linked to the strong dollar coupled with rising inflation and rising costs, although the prices of most other latest-generation devices in Apple’s hardware lineup have remained flat are.”

(MacRumors).

And finally…

Earlier, Apple removed social networking apps from a number of major Russian networks. The Gmail and Facebook equivalents disappeared three weeks ago, citing British sanctions as the reason. Now the apps are back with little explanation.

“It wasn’t immediately clear why Apple restored the apps, as ownership of VKontake and Mail.ru hasn’t changed since the apps were removed, and the leadership of Gazprombank and Sberbank continues to be sanctioned by the UK government. However, it’s possible that Apple’s decision was related to activists’ use of both services.”

(MacRumors).

Apple Loop brings you seven days’ worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any future coverage. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here, or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.