What does Apple have in store for us in 2017? | MacGeneration

Of what awaits us as new this year, Apple has obviously piped a word or almost. At most, Tim Cook promised that the Mac branch was not going to be abandoned this year. A statement made in defensive mode. For the rest, it is necessary to return to the rumors which have not failed in recent months, but which have mainly been concentrated in the direction of the iOS planet.

iPads

The iPads today are three screen sizes and three families: Pro, Air and mini. 2017 might add a bit of complexity to the deal with the hoped-for refresh around March.

Since last summer, a brand new 10.5 "Pro model (or 10.1" or even 10.9 "according to rumors) has been mentioned, with the business and education markets as primary targets.

It would like to be more convenient to use and above all less expensive than the large 12.9" model, while being more comfortable than the 9.7". Because this more spacious diagonal would fit into the historic 9.7" format, thanks to a plane on one of the edges of the screen. To the point that the Home button would disappear. We lend this desire to erase this button from many competing manufacturers.

Apple would also use screens capable of refreshing their image more quickly to further improve the fluidity of movements when zooming, scrolling and panning.

Finally, the 7.9 "mini format would remain in the catalog but beefed up with certain attributes of the iPad Pro: the Smart Connector (which has given rise to almost no third-party accessories for over a year!), four speakers , a 12 mpx iSight camera, a flash and a True Tone display as well as the P3 screen which is gradually becoming more widespread.

As for the jack, it would still be there in 2017, according to rumors from last October.

iOS 10.3 and 11

As soon as iOS 10 was released, the course was set for iOS 10.3 which should be a big mid-season update, as was iOS 9.3. However, the indiscretions about him are still meager.

One of the few rumors was on Christmas Eve about a "Cinema Mode", with its icon in Control Center shaped like a popcorn (unless it's a temporary icon ?). Some have imagined that this would activate a dark theme for the interface of iOS 10.3.

This summer, we heard about the Pencil which would see its possibilities extended in iOS to allow annotations everywhere in apps, including Mail and Safari (heralding sign, Messages has a handwritten input interface in iOS 10). Will this happen in iOS 10.3 with these new iPads or in the baggage of iOS 11? Mystery, because when it comes to the next major annual iOS review, nothing has leaked yet. For iOS 10.3 we will quickly be determined… if the rumor of a first beta on January 10 is true. But why not, iOS 9.3 arrived in beta on January 11th.

iPhones

Rumors about the next iPhone have been quite difficult to follow in recent months, as they have given the impression of going in several directions and sometimes contradicting each other. It's not surprising either. Even if Apple can decide very early on the main directions of a future range, the technologies, components and production capacities of its subcontractors must be ready to put them to music in volumes counting in the millions. of units. Several avenues are explored in parallel before being reduced and frozen in stone.

What has hardly changed since the first rumors is a range articulated around three models. Two models that evolve and a third that starts a new cycle.

The latest news, we would have two iPhone "7s" with the existing diagonals of 4.7" and 5.5" and a design based on what we already know. Then, an unprecedented "iPhone 8" - code name "Ferrari" they say - with a chassis smaller than those of the "Plus" models despite a larger 5.8" screen. The trick, already proven elsewhere, being to overflow the screen on the edges (two edges, even three).

Some additional details have sometimes been mentioned for this model: the return to glass for the chassis (in particular to facilitate charging by induction); a red color in addition to the others; a Home button integrated under the screen.

Macintoshes

In September, Tim Cook sent an email to a customer asking him to "stay tuned" when it comes to new Macs. Word kept a few days later with the MacBook Pro which caused a lot of talk, but in a way that Apple had perhaps not considered…

Three months later, it is for his teams that Tim Cook declares that desktop computers remain a “strategic” element at Apple, because of their own specificities in the face of portable solutions. And to promise that Apple has “great desktop computers in [its] roadmap”. A statement addressed internally but to customers and journalists who are surprised, worried or critical of a range of desktop Macs covered in dust.

No one doubts that the iMacs will be updated, if only on their connectors which must now switch to Thunderbolt 3. In August, Bloomberg described the upcoming MacBook Pro Touch Bar, the future 5K screen developed with LG, but did not say just two words about 5K iMacs. To say that the monoblock would only gain a new graphics card from AMD. In November and December, Intel's Kaby Lake processor catalog was filled with references adapted to this range, while macOS 10.12.2 contained more or less clear indications for AMD cards, again and again.

The big question that remains unanswered or rumored is the future of Mac Pro and Mac mini. The first has passed the 1,000 day mark without an ounce of hardware revision since the day of their launch, a real Hibernatus.

The second is equally ignored by its manufacturer. The last update of 2014 for the Mac mini was purely cosmetic: a change in processor line and an updated graphics chip. Still, it's selling like hotcakes on the refurb where it never stays on the shelves for long. But does Apple still need a machine of this nature in its range? A Mac originally imagined for PC users tempted to switch.

The Mac's menu for 2017 is all the more muddled as Tim Cook's talk about these upcoming "great desktops" only reassured for a few hours. Just after, the always well-informed Mark Gurman at Bloomberg published an article describing a Mac platform, hardware and software, melted into a whole where the priority goes to efforts towards iOS and its devices. Normal after all, it is primarily the iPhones that pay the bills at Apple.

Result, where Tim Cook lets hope for nice surprises, the sources of Bloomberg temper by speaking of small hardware updates for the iMac and speed bump for the portables. And again, a great silence around the Mac Pro and Mac mini.

If we want to remain optimistic, we will remember that the Mac Pro of 2013, a big slap, arrived without having been preceded by notable indiscretions. Maybe Apple still knows how to keep some of its secrets...

And why not too

And then there's everything the rumors haven't talked about but some customers might like to see happen:

An iPhone SE updated on its processor and its camera to stay in the race, and satisfy those who still want a smartphone on a human scale.

A Siri assistant for the home like Amazon has with Echo and Google with Home.

A Magic Keyboard with Touch Bar. Except that the simple model already costing 119 €, we can worry about the price of a keyboard with an OLED touch bar. There was the other hypothesis of a keyboard with e-ink keys but it remained speculative (read The E-Ink keyboard in MacBooks from 2018?).

A 4K-capable Apple TV. However, the programs in this format are perhaps not yet numerous enough to already justify such an update.

A slimmer third-generation Apple Watch.

A brand new iPod touch. But just for fun. Because if it has aged very technically and perhaps no longer has much commercial interest, it remains the most beautiful player on the market. Much more than the nano and the shuffle, still on sale too.

A version of macOS on ARM, distributed to developers during WWDC 2017, with the demonstration of two prototypes of MacBook and Mac mini without Intel processors.