The so-called iPhone 17 Air, which is rumored to be coming this fall, is said to be Apple’s thinnest iPhone ever. But, if the company had gone through some of its earlier plans for the device, slimness may not have been the most talked-about element, Engadget reported.

In the Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes that Apple at one time planned to ditch the USB-C port “to make the air device Apple’s first completely port free iPhone.”

The company reportedly shelved the idea to avoid sparking fresh problems with EU regulators. According to Gurman, however, Apple is still holding onto it for future slim iPhones depending on the success of the iPhone 17 Air.  

Apple is expected to release four iPhones this year, in line with its strategy on the success of the iPhone 17 Air. Apple is expected to release four iPhones this year, in line with its strategy of the last few years, with the one currently named the iPhone 17 Air being roughy 2 millimeters thinner than the rest.

The Verge reported: A set of iPhone 17 dummies appeared last night in a new leak from Sonny Dickson, who has a long history of reliability leaking the nonfunctional versions of iPhones that case and accessory makers use to prepare for the next year’s crop of handsets. 

The images look very much like the render’s we’ve seen in recent weeks, down to the phone-spanning camera bump that Apple is expected to add to all but the standard iPhone 17.

The dummies appear to back up rumors that the iPhone 17 Air will be a 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Pro and 6.9-inch phone, positioning it in between the 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Pro and 6.9-inch 16 Pro Max of this year.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reiterates the it’s going to have a 6.6-inch screen in today’s Power On newsletter. Apple had considered making it 6.9 inches, he writes, but “pulled the plug on that over fears that a thin device with a giant screen would be susceptible to bending.” 

The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be as thin as 5.5mm, with a single camera on the back like the iPhone16E. Gurman writes that the phone will get a mix of high-end features, like a 120Hz ProMotion display and low-end ones, like an Apple A19 chip instead of an A19 Pro. 

Apple Insider reported: Apple had originally planned to make the iPhone 17 Air the first completely wireless model, but has apparently changed its mind on that front.

A new report claims that Apple considered making one of it future iPhones completely port free. The thinner model, for now called the iPhone 17 Air, could have gone without a USB-C port— but Apple has since backed off the idea.

Ultimately, Apple is said to have decided to include a USB-C port for charging after all. This is said to have been done to appease potential concerns from European Union regulators.

In recent weeks, Apple has been unable to escape headlines about its slow progress with everything having to do with Siri and artificial intelligence. The company has officially delayed features first promised last June intended to modernize Siri and give Apple a much-needed boost in the AI race.

We still don’t know when those Apple Intelligence capabilities will arrive, and if a recent all-hands meeting is anything to go by, neither does Apple itself, The Verge reported.

Bloomberg has the full scoop on what happened at a Siri team meeting led by senior director Robby Walker, who oversees the division. He called the delay an “ugly” situation and sympathized with employees who might be feeling burned out or frustrated by Apple’s decisions and Siri’s still-lackluster reputation.  

He also said it’s not a given that the missing Siri features will make it into iOS 19 this year; that’s the company’s current target, but it “doesn’t mean that we’re shipping then,” he told employees.

AppleInsider reported: Apple has been facing significant challenges in deploying one of its most highly advertised Apple Intelligence features; an enhanced, personalized Siri.

The company had heavily promoted it at both WWDC and the September iPhone event. And it still airs most of the commercials that reference it. However, it did not show up at launch.

But, as we’ve learned, the feature is facing some serious hang-ups. While it was initially expected to roll out in iOS 18.4, it looks like it may not be coming until iOS 18. If it even shows up then.

While Apple’s been slammed by the media for the delay, the company isn’t exactly going easy on itself either. Robby Walker, Apple’s senior director of Siri and Information Intelligence, called an all-hands-on-deck meeting to address the issue, as sources told Bloomberg.

“We have other commitments across Apple to other projects,” Walker reportedly said, citing new software an hardware initiatives. “We want to keep our commitment to those, and we understand those are not potentially more timeline-urgent than the features that have been deferred.”

MacRumors reported: In a Siri meeting, Apple senior director Robby Walker acknowledged that employees might be feeling “angry, disappointed, burned out and embarrassed” following the Siri delay, but he praised the hard work of employees and the “incredibly impressive” features they developed, saying that Apple would continue to work to “ship the world’s greatest virtual assistant” to Apple users. 

The situation was described as “ugly” because the Siri features were shown off in public with marketing campaigns and TV commercials before there was fully functioning product. Siri’s new functionality was also tied to the iPhone 16 launch in advertising, and it was a feature that Apple used to promote its iPhone 16 models.

Apple decided to delay the functionality because of quality issues, with Walker telling employees that Siri’s new features were working properly 60 to 80 percent of the time.