Apple introduces its flagship iPhone models every year in September. Additionally, Apple announces a new version of the iPhone SE every few years in the Spring. The original iPhone SE was announced on March 21, 2016. Four years later, the second generation was announced on April 15, 2020. Two years later, the third generation was announced on March 8, 2022. It has now been three years since the last generation of the iPhone SE was released, and there have been rumors for many months that a fourth generation would be announced in Spring 2025. Well, as reported by John Voorhees of MacStories and countless others, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed yesterday that Apple would reveal “the newest member of the family” on Wednesday, February 19. I suppose that could be anything, but it is widely expected that this will be the announcement of the fourth generation of the iPhone SE. The first two SE models started at $399, the third one started at $429, so the iPhone SE has always cost about half of what the flagship models cost. With that lower cost, you get fewer features, but even so, the iPhone SE has always been a nice iPhone, especially if you get one during the first year of its release. Until now, the iPhone SE has also been the only way to get an iPhone with a button at the bottom—a feature that was an iconic part of the iPhone for its first decade until the iPhone X introduced Face ID in 2017. However, there are rumors that the button will disappear in the fourth generation of the iPhone SE. It will be interesting to see what Apple announces in a few days. And now, the other news of note from the past week:
- Apple released iOS 18.3.1 and related updates this week, and Malcolm Owen of AppleInsider reports that the updates fix some bugs and provide security updates.
- Apple cannot improve the security of the iPhone if a government orders it to break encryption. But last week, the Washington Post reported that the UK issued a secret order that Apple must break the security of its end-to-end encryption for all users worldwide (not just UK citizens) by creating a backdoor and also prohibited Apple from talking about it. This is shortsighted. Once a backdoor is created for one government, Apple will have to give it to every government, plus the backdoor will inevitably end up in the hands of the bad guys. At that point, the only people who will have secure communications are the criminals who use programs that continue to utilize encryption, notwithstanding any government prohibitions. As Dan Moren of Six Colors says: This is red alert, five-alarm-fire kind of stuff. Tim Hardwick of MacRumors notes that members of key U.S. congressional oversight committees are seeking to get the UK government to back down from its demand.
- Apple released the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 this week. They are the same cost as and a worthy competitor to the AirPods Pro 2, especially for people who like the way that Beats products traditionally sound. One big advantage of Powerbeats is that they wrap around your ear, so you don’t have to worry about an AirPod falling out of your ear. That’s why my daughter prefers her first-generation Powerbeats Pro to AirPods. As Malcolm Owen of AppleInsider notes, the second generation has active noise cancellation and many of the other features of the AirPods Pro 2. You don’t get the hearing aid features, but you do get heart rate monitoring—although you already have rate monitoring if you wear an Apple Watch.
- Chance Miller of 9to5Mac has been using the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 for the past two weeks, and he posted this review. He says that they are especially great for fitness enthusiasts.
- As I noted in my recent review of the Kodak Slide N Scan Digital Film Scanner, I’m a big fan of the Photomator app for the iPad. Apple announced last November that it had purchased Pixelmator, the company that makes that app, and as William Gallagher of AppleInsider notes, the first sign of that acquisition is a new splash screen when you open the app. I’ll be interested to see what substantive changes come next, including whether Apple renames the app and/or does something to better integrate it with the Photos app.
- If you have a new iPhone and you are in an emergency situation outside of the range of a cellular network, you can communicate with a satellite to get help. T-Mobile partnered with Starlink (the Elon Musk company) so that you can also use satellites for text messages (and, in the future, picture messages, data, and voice calls). And as Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports, you don’t have to be a T-Mobile customer to use the service, and it is free for now before the official launch in July, at which time it will cost $15/month (or $20/month if you don’t use T-Mobile for your cellphone service). If you frequently use your iPhone when you are off of the grid, this might appeal to you.
- If you want to help advance medical research, the Research app from Apple on the iPhone lets you participate in select research studies. As reported by Dan Moren of Six Colors, Apple announced a new one this week, and it is a big one. It is called the Apple Health Study, and Apple says that this study is being done in collaboration with Brigham and Women’s Hospital and it “aims to further understand how technology—including iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods—can play a role in advancing and improving physical health, mental health, and overall wellbeing.” So, by participating in this study, you should help Apple and the medical community better understand how products from companies like Apple can be used to help you. That sounds good to me, so I signed up.
- If you have been an Apple customer for a long time, you may have two Apple accounts, one that you created back when iTunes was first introduced and another one that you use for things like iCloud. This week, Apple introduced a way to migrate all of your purchases from one account to the other one so that you can just use a single account for everything. That’s great news (and long overdue), but I’ve heard about a few hiccups from people who tried it out this week, and I don’t want to do anything that might mess up my Apple Account that I share with my family members for things like app purchases. So I’m going to wait a while before I try this myself.
- I paid $129 for my Apple Pencil 2, which I love and use daily, but you can get one on Amazon right now for only $99.00.
- I have been a big fan of the Milanese Loop band for the Apple Watch since I first purchased one ten years ago. Last Fall, Apple released a new version of that band, the Titanium Milanese Loop. The color better matches the Apple Watch Ultra, but you can use it with any of the larger Apple Watch models, including the Apple Watch Series 10. It also has a different type of clasp. Andrew O’Hara of AppleInsider wrote a review of the Titanium Milanese Loop.
- It has never occurred to me to put that Milanese Loop band on anything other than my wrist, but Scott Cacciola of the New York Times reports that, apparently, some people are wearing an Apple Watch on an ankle. (Gift link)
- Bogdan Popa of AutoEvolution describes new features in the Waze app for CarPlay, including the ability to navigate to home or work with the press of one button.
- One of the best features of the Apple Vision Pro is the ability to watch immersive videos created by Apple. They are so lifelike that you feel like you are really there, and for the past year, nobody else has released immersive content as good as what Apple has released. That changed this week with the release of the Prima Immersive app for the Vision Pro, created by Immersive Company. The first video available for that app is the first episode of a series called Sessions, produced by a company called The Spatialists. This episode gives you a front-row seat for an intimate performance by the bluegrass group AJ Lee and Blue Summit. The quality of this streaming video is excellent. The sound is also fantastic, although I did hear a tiny bit of distortion. The sound is good if you just wear the Vision Pro; the sound is better if you put on your AirPods Pro, especially for the sound coming from the upright bass. (The built-in speakers for the Vision Pro are only so-so for low bass sounds.) Between this app and the upcoming Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive camera, I expect that we will see a lot more immersive content for the Vision Pro in 2025.
- By the way, I had never heard of AJ Lee and the Blue Summit before I downloaded that app this week, but they are really good. I particularly like their song City of Glass (Apple Music link).
- If you have $50,000, you can bid on a Steve Jobs business card signed by Steve Jobs, as reported by Joe Rossignol of MacRumors. If you have $0.50, I’m happy to mail you one of my business cards, and I’ll sign any name that you want on it.
- Apple TV+ may have fewer subscribers than other services, but the show Severance is such a hit that it managed to reach #4 on the Nielsen streaming charts, as reported by Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac.
- And finally, Apple continues to expand the reach of Apple TV+, and this week released an app for the Android platform. I’m sure that iPhone J.D. readers use the iPhone, not Android, but this news is still relevant for us because as the number of Apple TV+ subscribers increases, Apple will have even more incentive to release new great content. So welcome to the party, Android users. We’re glad that you are here. Here is a fun video released by Apple to announce the new Android app: