When will Apple announce the 2023 version of the iPhone? Apple has previously announced new iPhones on the Wednesday after Labor Day in 2022, 2016, 2015, and 2014. The announcement was the Tuesday of the week after Labor Day in 2021, 2019, 2017, and 2013. In 2018 and 2012, it was the Wednesday of the week after Labor Day. (The 2020 introduction was in October because of delays due to COVID.) Given that history, I would expect Apple to announce the iPhone 15 line on Wednesday, September 6, Tuesday, September 12, or Wednesday, September 13. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, who has a good track record with rumors, tweeted earlier this week that he is hearing that it will likely be on September 12. I mention all of that today because it means that we are likely only a month away from the announcement of a new iPhone. Woo-hoo! So now is the time to start to get excited about what new features will be included in the different models. And now is NOT the time to buy a new iPhone, so try to avoid dropping your phone in the toilet for the next few weeks—and if you do, try these tips before you rush out to buy a replacement. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- I love this article title by Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels: According to Foreca’s Weather Data, Everyone in Memphis is Dead. The issue is that when an app like Carrot Weather uses Foreca as a weather source to estimate the feels like temperature, the Foreca estimates can be crazy high. Because it has been so hot this Summer, I’ve been checking out the feels like temperatures, and because I was also using Foreca, I saw some crazy high numbers in New Orleans too. Don’t get me wrong, it was seriously hot down here, but not THAT hot. After reading that article, I switched my weather source to Apple Weather and I’ll see what I think of it after using it for a while—but so far, so good.
- When you see reports about how popular different apps are, you should always remember that nobody but Apple knows all of the data, and the ways that others come up with estimates are highly questionable. John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote a great analysis of one such company, Sensor Tower, and after reading his article, I doubt you will ever trust these supposed statistics again.
- Zac Hall of 9to5Mac describes some of the new features coming to the AirPods Pro 2 thanks to an upcoming software update that is now in beta.
- The wildfires in Maui have been horrible, and my thoughts are with everyone affected. In any tragedy, it is nice to see any good news, so I was pleased to see Felipe Espósito of 9to5Mac report this week that one family in Maui was rescued thanks to the iPhone Emergency SOS via Satellite feature. The picture of the chat between the people rescued and the conversation via Satellite with emergency services brings the story to life.
- We’ve seen lots of stories of people reclaiming lost luggage after a flight thanks to an AirTag, but this story from Julia Buckley of CNN is particularly interesting. When United Airlines was of no help, the owner took matters into her own hands when she could see that her bag was at baggage claim in Chicago O’Hare: she took a day off of work, booked a ticket to Chicago (using miles), and once there, found her bag in 30 seconds. As the article explains, that someone dramatic solution wasn’t just because the bag had $2,000 in lacrosse equipment, but because it was impossible to get a replacement for her daughter before the next tournament.
- Dawn Gilbertson of the Wall Street Journal recommends five good travel apps you should consider using.
- When you are watching a movie or TV show, do you ever pause so that you can look up an actor or actress to figure out what you know them from? If so, you may do so using the IMDB app, but this week, Casey Liss released a much nicer app called Callsheet (great name) that taps into The Movie Database (a competitor to IMDB). You can try out the app for free, and if you like it after 20 free searches, it costs $9 a year. Not only is the app well-designed, it has some great features. For example, you can avoid spoilers by hiding certain information such as character names, episode counts, episode titles, or episode thumbnails. What a great idea. I didn’t even wait until I had done 20 searches; I paid for the app right away. Jason Snell of Six Colors wrote a positive review, as did John Voorhees of MacStories.
- Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that you can now use an iPhone as a gamepad for games available on Netflix.
- And finally, with new iPhones coming next month, that means that iOS 17 is coming soon too. Marques Brownlee has a good video showing off and explaining some of the top features coming in iOS 17: