Rajesh Pandey - page 16

Hoping to boost sales, Apple could launch its first folding iPhone as soon as 2026, according to The Wall Street Journal. The foldable phone reportedly will follow a super-thin model — which previous rumors called the “iPhone 17 Air” or the “iPhone 17 Slim” — as Apple shakes up its stagnant smartphone lineup.

“It looks like Apple is looking towards hardware innovation to drive user upgrades,” BayStreet Research analyst Cliff Maldonado told the Journal. “The iPhone 16 will be the last of the boring aesthetic phones.”

The iPhone 17 Air price could come in lower than previously rumored. A new report sheds additional light on Apple’s slimmer-than-usual iPhone, which is expected to launch in September 2025.

The device apparently will help Apple revive growth, impressing potential customers with its sleek design.

Apple is planning to revamp the Magic Mouse with hand gestures, voice commands and more. And it may even move the controversial bottom charging port. The current design is over 15 years old, introduced back in 2009.

Since then, the Magic Mouse received minor upgrades, including the switch to an oddly-located Lightning port and, eventually, USB-C.

After ramping up iPhone manufacturing in India in recent years, Apple will begin producing AirPods next year.

Apple’s supplier, Foxconn, will start assembling the wireless earbuds at a new factory near Hyderabad, Telangana, in Q1 2025. Trial production is already underway at the facility. Stay updated with the latest applenews on Apple’s expanding manufacturing footprint.

Apple will reportedly stop selling the iPhone SE (3rd gen) and iPhone 14 in the EU by the end of this year. It will do this to comply with the EU’s directive, which mandates all smartphones to use USB-C for charging.

Apple only switched to USB-C on its smartphone lineup with the iPhone 15’s launch in 2023.

WhatsApp is rolling out some much-needed video and voice calling improvements to improve the experience. These include new video effects, improved video call quality, and more.

Thanks to WhatsApp’s popularity, it is used to make over 2 billion calls daily. So, these improvements should benefit a wide section of users.

Apple will switch to its in-house “Proxima” WI-Fi and Bluetooth chip on its devices starting next year. The chip will debut on the Apple TV and HomePod mini next year.

By 2026, Apple will bring its in-house Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module to the iPad and Mac.

With iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, Apple turned iCloud Keychain into a full-blown password manager with a dedicated Passwords app. While it’s a useful addition, I am not ready to give up on 1Password and switch to the Apple Passwords app yet.

The latter suffers from several limitations that prevent it from becoming a versatile password manager.

Apple is gradually rolling out many of the big iOS 18 features showcased at WWDC24. iOS 18.1 marked the debut of Apple Intelligence, and with iOS 18.2, the company brought more AI features. This slow rollout is supposedly leading to many internal delays in iOS 19 features.

Expect to wait until 2026 for some new iOS 19 additions.

A report suggests Apple shelved plans to build the M4 Extreme Apple silicon chip. The company gave up on the SoC to divert resources to build an AI server chip.

The report points to Apple working with Broadcom to develop this AI chip.

Apple continues its slow Tap to Pay expansion, launching it in the United Arab Emirates. This enables merchants in the region to accept contactless payments through their iPhones.

Apple launched Tap to Pay in 2022 in the US, slowly expanding its availability to more regions since then.

Apple is expanding its retail presence in Saudi Arabia. In the summer of 2025, the company will launch its online Apple Store in the country, followed in 2026 with its first physical stores there.

iOS 18.2 will make searching on Apple Music and Apple TV much easier with natural language support. This means you can use natural language to describe and search for TV shows or music you are looking for.

The revamped Photos app gained support for similar search capabilities with the iOS 18.1 update.

Apple continued its impressive run in its next big growth market, India, shipping more than 9 million iPhones from January to September 2024. This represents 35% year-over-year growth for iPhone shipments in the country.

The company also increased its lead over Samsung, the previous leader in India’s smartphone market.

Apple is making accessing login credentials saved in iCloud Keychain in Firefox easier with a new iCloud Passwords add-on.

The extension will help autofill your saved login details and automatically save new passwords to iCloud Keychain.

The next big iPad Pro refresh will arrive in the second half of 2025 at the earliest, according to a new report. The upgraded M5 iPad Pro reportedly will be the first product to use the next-gen Apple silicon chip.

Apple surprised everyone by launching this year’s iPad Pro refresh with an M4 chip.

Apple uses Amazon Web Services’ custom artificial intelligence chips to power its search services. The company is also evaluating if it can use Amazon’s latest AI chips to pretrain Apple Intelligence models.

Apple’s Benoit Dupin, senior director of machine learning and AI, made these revelations Tuesday in a surprise appearance at Amazon’s annual AWS re:Reinvent conference in Las Vegas.

Apple’s Vision Pro will go on sale in Taiwan on December 17. Pre-orders for the spatial computing headset will start on Thursday, December 5.

Prices for the headset start from NT$119,900, with higher storage models costing extra.

Apple’s AirPods Max are a great pair of wireless headphones. But they are too expensive for what they offer. Plus, they don’t work as well with non-Apple devices. Due to these limitations, I got the Bose QuietComfort headphones earlier this year.

For Cyber Monday, these fantastic Bose headphones are down to their lowest price ever. And you should buy them over any other option you might have in mind. Here’s why.

Amazon has dropped the price of the latest AirPods Pro 2 to just $170, a killer deal for the best wireless earbuds out there. This fantastic early Cyber Monday deal knocks a hefty $79 (32%) off the AirPods Pro 2 (regularly $249).

The deal is currently available at Amazon.

Now that AirPods Pro 2 can act as hearing aids, it’s hard to recommend any other earbuds for your iPhone, Mac or iPad. And yes, this is for the latest model with the USB-C charging case.

The best Cyber Monday deals on Beats headphones and earbuds are now live. You can get many Beats headphones and earbuds at their lowest prices ever. A fresh price drop on Beats’ flagship headphones — the Beats Studio Pro — brings a whopping $190 discount. At just $159.99, they make a great alternative to other premium headphones.

Apple’s annual Black Friday shopping event starts on November 29. The company bundles a gift card worth up to $200 with selected devices.

The offer applies to purchases done through Apple’s retail or online store.

Belkin is recalling its BoostCharge Pro Fast Wireless Charger for Apple Watch + Power Bank 10K due to a potential fire hazard. It is one of the few power banks on the market that can wirelessly fast charge an Apple Watch.

The company will issue a full refund to affected customers, though they must fill out a recall form first.

There’s no better tablet to buy than an iPad. Apple overhauled the iPad Pro lineup this year with a slimmer new design, brighter displays, and a faster M4 chip.

I upgraded to the 11-inch iPad Pro from the M1 version earlier this year and could not be happier. This Black Friday, you should buy one, too, especially since the tablet is available with a big $150 discount.

 Apple could make big design changes to the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max next year. One such change would be the surprising decision to ditch the Pro models’ titanium edges for aluminum.

A new report also suggests the Pro models will switch to an aluminum camera bump, replacing the current 3D glass design. If you’re curious about when will iPhone 17 be released, early reports indicate Apple’s design choices will make this generation stand out.