The Top 3 Things that Excite Me Most #
- Orange! My favorite color. On an the flagship iPhone. And it’s not a muted, bastardized version of orange. It’s ORANGE! When the rumors started I was very skeptical. I assumed the rumor mill got it wrong and iPhone 17 would be orange, but it’s real! I can’t wait to see it in person!
- The Live Translate feature seems like a game changer, and the fact that it is coming to AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 is killer. If this is truly as they demoed and one of those Apple features that “just works,” especially for two people having a conversation in different languages, this will be amazing. This also feels like one of those marquee features that they could have locked to AirPods Pro 4. I do wish there were more languages available (let’s hear it for Dutch!) but I suspect those will come soon enough.
- I was really glad to see Satellite connectivity on Apple Watch Ultra. This just makes sense for the Ultra. As an Ultra convert and someone who enjoys hiking in places without reception, I love to see it. I do hope to see more Satellite features come out in the future, particularly to iPhone, but with all the investment Apple has made in AST, I can only imagine it’s a matter of time. It is interesting that Apple restricts Messaging and Find My updates to watches with cellular plans. I suspect it’s a way to control/limit satellite bandwidth.
Other Noteworthy Items #
This may feel more like a list of rants, but here we go.
- The Battery Life of iPhone Air didn’t surprise me, and the fact that they choose to call it “remarkable” is interesting and I feel like it will be remarkable, but not in the way they hope. The fact that they only wanted to quantify it inclusive of the battery pack is telling. Don’t get me wrong, iPhone Air looks amazing. I can’t wait to see it, but let’s be realistic about what we’re talking about.
- I was glad to see that eSIM-only phones will have longer battery life and that space will no longer go to waste.
- I found it interesting that the C1X Apple Cell modem is not in iPhone 17 or iPhone 17 Pro. I suspect this is two-fold: they want to get the modem into more devices without taking it to the flagship phone incase of wide-spread issues, otherwise known as controlling the blast radius. And second, they either can’t figure out how to get the C1 series to have mmWave or they don’t want to pay for the patents.
- I wish they would quit it with the extension of Satellite services for iPhone. We get it - you don’t (and shouldn’t) charge for Emergency Services. But just say that it’s free forever and be done. Though I do suspect when they finally do this, we will see it coincide with the launch of additional satellite features behind a paywall along with Messaging and Find My updates.
- With no fanfare Thunderbolt on iPhone Pro was dropped, now it’s only USB 3.0 support.
- Tim Cook’s pricing strategy strikes again! iPhone Pro has a higher starting price, but there’s still a nice ladder with iPhone Air and because of the change in minimum storage, marketing can still say it’s the same price as last year.
- Hermes is fucking expensive. It’s insane how much Apple+Hermes is charging just for some cloth! 🤯
What I’m Buying #
So the question I’ve been asked… what will I be ordering?
- iPhone Pro in Orange, of course. 512 GB
- A 3rd party clear case to show off that VERY sexy orange color
- Apple Watch Ultra 3 in natural with the Anchor Blue Ocean Band
No new AirPods Pro for me - mine are working just fine.
