Apple is well-known for being secretive about its future plans. Thus, nobody is surprised when we learn that Apple has sued a former employee who disclosed confidential information. For example, just last month, Joel Rosenblatt of Bloomberg reported on a lawsuit Apple filed against long-time employee Simon Lancaster after he allegedly disclosed secrets to a reporter. But it appears that the latest leaker at Apple is none other than Siri.
Sami Fathi of MacRumors reported early yesterday, just after midnight Pacific time, that on some devices, and in certain instances, if you asked Siri “When is the next Apple Event,” Siri responded with: “The special event is on Tuesday, April 20, at Apple Park in Cupertino, CA. You can get all the details on Apple.com.” John Gruber of Daring Fireball tweeted a video to show that he got the same response when he asked the question of Siri on a HomePod mini. About nine hours after Siri let the cat out of the bag, Apple itself announced that it was holding a special event on April 20th at 10 Pacific / 1 Eastern.
In an email Apple sent out yesterday, Apple used the tagline “Spring loaded” to tease the event:
Apple is having some fun with the logo for this event. If you want to see a fun AR version of the invitation logo, go to this page of the Apple website on your iPhone or iPad and then tap on the picture. Or if you want to see something similar, look at what Apple’s Greg Joswiak tweeted in this video. Also, if you send a tweet and use the hashtag #AppleEvent, you will now see that logo as a custom hashtag graphic.
So what will Apple be announcing next week? Only Apple knows for sure. (Well, maybe Siri does too, but she isn’t spilling the beans … yet.) Nevertheless, there are lots of rumors about what might be coming. Listed in the order that I consider most likely to least likely, here are the rumors that seem to be getting the most attention right now:
New iPad Pro
This one seems very likely to me because the last major revision to the iPad Pro was in 2018. Apple provided a very minor update a year ago, and the 2018 version of the iPad Pro is a fantastic device so it has been fine to keep it around for so long, but it seems like the time is right for something new.
Of course, I expect the next iPad Pro to be faster. There is also a rumor that the larger version of the iPad Pro will use a new display technology called mini-LED, resulting in a brighter screen that uses less battery power. And the new iPad Pro could feature a Thunderbolt connector, which would let you connect an iPad Pro to even more devices with greater speeds.
I love the second-generation Apple Pencil and I’m not sure what Apple might do to improve it further, but there are also rumors that Apple will release an updated version of the Apple Pencil to go with the new iPad Pro.
AirTags
As I noted a few days ago, Apple recently announced that its Find My feature would work with third-party devices, and there have been strong rumors that Apple has been working on a first-party device called AirTags. The idea is that you attach a small AirTags device to something like a briefcase or purse or your keys, and then if you cannot locate that item, the Find My app can help you to find it again.
I actually thought that Apple would have released this product a year ago, but with all of us forced to stay at home for large amounts of time during the pandemic, the risk of losing items went down substantially. Now that we seem close to the end of that, it seems like the right time for a new product like this.
Apple TV
Apple has been doing great things to improve its Apple TV+ streaming video service. But for folks who want to watch that service on an Apple device connected to a television, it is getting increasingly difficult to recommend the purchase of an Apple TV considering that the product has not been updated since 2017. It seems like it is definitely time for Apple to release a new version of the Apple TV. And if so, I hope that it comes with a better remote control.
iPad mini
Apple last updated the iPad mini in 2019, so it might be a candidate for a refresh.
New AirPods
There is a rumor that Apple is developing a new version of AirPods that look similar to AirPods Pro, although they won’t offer noise reduction. If true, this seems like more of a Fall announcement to me, shortly before the holiday season.
New Macs
I suspect that Apple will soon release a new version of the iMac that works with Apple’s new M1 processor, but I’m not sure that we will see that next week. I think it is more likely to see this announced at Apple’s upcoming WWDC conference scheduled for June 7.
Apple Watch bands
Apple loves to come out with new band designs for a new season. However, I don’t think that new bands for the Apple Watch are important enough to receive any attention during an Apple event — not unless they somehow add a new feature to the Apple Watch. If we do see new bands this month, I think it is more likely that they will be announced in a press release, or perhaps they will just show up in the Apple Store without any fanfare.