Apple is almost certain to unveil the iPhone 15 range at its Wonderlust event on September 12, but we’re hoping there are some surprises in store for the big keynote.
Over the years, the company has often gone beyond the expected line-up of iPhone and Apple Watch launches to deliver unexpected tech products. There was a time when the surprise “one more thing” announcement came to be expected from the company during these launch events. And thus stopped being a surprise.
However, some of the biggest products in the company’s illustrious history arrived in this manner. We still remember Steve Jobs pulling the iPod nano out of the little jeans pocket.
The first public FaceTime call between Steve Jobs and Jony Ive was a cool moment, as was the MacBook Air coming out of the manilla envelope back in 2008, and the Apple Watch launching in 2014. More recently, Apple announced the switch to M-Series processors and the Vision Pro headset in this signature fashion.
We’re hoping for a similar surprise this year….
Apple HomePad smart display
Apple refreshed the full-sized HomePod speaker a year ago, and the HomePod mini is still going great guns despite being nearly three years old. Rumours persist Apple could launch a smart speaker with an integrated display, similar to the Echo Show and Google Nest Hub. We’d love to see this iPad and HomePod team up for a counter top device with great sound, access to Siri and a version of tvOS on a smart display.
iPhone, iPad or MacBook Fold
File this one under ‘maybe, but not yet’ but we’ve love to see Apple finally enter the foldable realm and give iOS users a chance to experience the benefits of a flexible display.
Recent reports suggest Apple might have larger ambitions than an iPhone Fold and the company’s first ever foldable could be a MacBook / iPad hybrid.
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AirPods Max 2
Apple’s AirPods Max headphones arrived in late 2020, which came too soon for the company’s push into Apple Music Lossless audio the following year. They are both incompatible with full lossless music both with wired and wireless connections, at least without a proper DAC.
It’s a shame because sonically, the earphones are among our favourites and the product has the excellent Spatial Audio tech and the signature seamless connection with Apple devices.
Considering there’s rumours of an upgrade to USB-C in the works, across the entire AirPods line, could Apple surprise us with a true second generation version of its over-ear headphones?
Dynamic Island comes into its own
As our editor Max Parker pointed out in an opinion piece today, Apple has yet to provide an essential use case for the Dynamic Island feature, which replaced the notch on the iPhone 14 Pro models and is rumoured to be present in all iPhone 15 models.
“If the iPhone 15 does indeed inherit the Dynamic Island then Apple needs to try and sell the reason for its existence better,” he writes. “Whether that’s by bringing developers up on stage to show how it can be utilised or by finding interesting ways of building it into native apps, it needs to feel more integral to the phone.”
Max reckons the Dynamic Island could be a stopgap for an iPhone with no notch at all. Now that would be the ultimate surprise!
