People love to examine Apple’s event invites looking for hints of what will be unveiled. The starry invitation to the September 7 Far Out event that went out Wednesday might drop a clue to one or more long-rumored features finally coming to the iPhone 14.
And, of course, we’ve seen some deliberately silly suggestions for what the image and theme are hinting at.
Or the Apple logo made out of stars could be simply a cool-looking image. (There are new wallpapers for those who think so.)
Is this a hint? Maybe.
Apple certainly doesn’t have to use its event invites to drop hints. There have been plenty of times the iPhone-maker didn’t do any such thing.
But that’s not always the case. The iPhone 12 was the first iOS device with super-fast 5G wireless and it’s no coincidence it was unveiled at an event with a “Hi, Speed” theme. And the multicolored logo used for the April 2021 event pointed to the many iMac colors announced that day. The theme for the March 2022 event was “peek performance,” and it brought the M1 Ultra, the fastest Apple processor ever.
Reading the stars?
The iPhone 14 is almost certainly on the agenda for the September event, and it doesn’t take a big leap to guess an Apple logo made of stars is a clue that the upcoming handset’s camera will have an astrophotography mode.
There’ve been rumors and speculation for years of iPhone getting a dedicated mode for taking pictures of the moon and stars. Especially as Google Pixel models already benefit from this feature.
Photographing celestial objects with an iPhone is possible, but it’s not for amateurs. An astrophotography mode in the iPhone 14 (or iPhone 14 Pro) camera would likely make this something anyone could do.
Talking to satellites?
The theme of Apple’s September 7 event is “far out.” Add in the starry logo, and some guessed that this is a hint that the iPhone 14 will offer direct satellite communication.
Reliable sources said in 2021 that future Apple handsets will be able to exchange texts and possibly phone calls with satellites. This would allow users to reach out for emergency help in places with no cellular service.
Less-serious suggestions
Images: Nasa/D. Griffin Jones
From the not-meant-to-be-taken-seriously pile, we have a suggestion from Cult of Mac‘s own Leander Kahney that the logo “shows an Apple-shaped black hole for all your money!” Our writer D. Griffin Jones then couldn’t resist showing what an actual Apple-shaped black hole would look like. (See above.)
Twitter made its own version, too. Tag a tweet with #AppleEvent and a small Apple logo filled with stars will be automatically appended.
Screenshot: Twitter
Mark Gurman from Bloomberg suggested a possible reason for the “far out” theme via Twitter: “This is the *farthest out* Apple has announced an event that I can recall.” Apple announced the September 7 event a full two weeks before it’s scheduled to start.
Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber was definitely reaching with his guess about what the event invite might mean,
“One possible reading of the ‘Far Out’ theme is that they’ll be previewing a product — the AR/VR headset — that isn’t coming until next year, like when they pre-announced Apple Watch in September 2014,” he wrote.
Get your Far Out event wallpapers
For those in the “it’s just a pretty picture” group, Basic Apple Guy quickly put together iPhone, Mac and iPad wallpapers featuring the starry Apple logo. You can download them now for free.
Apple Far Out Wallpapers #AppleEventhttps://t.co/CtLPf91KT1 pic.twitter.com/qt1yfULurW
— Basic Apple Guy (@BasicAppleGuy) August 24, 2022
