Apple is set to stave off a possible fine and an EU order over its browser options on iPhones after it made changes to comply with landmark EU rules aimed at reigning in Big Tech, people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The European Commission, which launched an investigation in March last year under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), is expected to close its investigation early next week, the people said.

It had been concerned that Apple’s design of the web browser screen on its iPhones may hinder users from switching to a rival browser or search engine. 

The EU decision will come with tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump who has threatened to slap tariffs against countries that levy fines against U.S. companies. The EU competition enforcer declined to comment.

The DMA sets out a list of dos and don’ts for Big Tech, aiming to make it easier for people to move between competing online services like social media platforms, internet browsers and app stores and open up space for smaller rivals to compete. 

Companies risk fines as much as 10% of their global annual sales for DMA breaches.

MacRumors reported: The European Commission is set to close its year-long investigation into Apple’s default browser choice screen on iPhones in the EU after the company made change to comply with requirements in the Digital Markets Act.

The Commission launched a non-compliance investigation in March last year, under the DMA, concerned that Apple’s design of the web browser choice screen could be preventing users from properly exercising their choice of alternative default apps to Safari.

With iOS 17.4. Apple made it so that users in the EU who open Safari for the first time are presented with a choice screen that allows them to opt for a new default browser from a list of popular alternatives in their country. However, browser companies have been openly critical of the way Apple originally designed the screen, and the Commission’s probe was conducted in consultation with those companies.

Apple is still under non-compliance investigation by the Commission for anti-steering rules. The probe is looking at whether the company allows developers to “steer” users away from its App Store and link to alternative payment methods.

Apple Insider reported: The European Union appears to be ruling that the alternative browser selection on iPhone is inadequate, and Apple may not be fined under the Digital Markets Act.

The investigation into browser choice on iPhone and iPad that started in March 2024 may be coming to a close soon. According to a report by Reuters on Tuesday morning, the investigation is expected to close the week of March 31, with Apple not being fined.

Developers of alternative browsers still found reasons to complain.

Apple is working on adding cameras to the Apple Watch in order to enable AI features like Visual Intelligence within the next two years, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On Newsletter, The Verge reported.

The cameras will be “inside the display” for the standard Series Watch, while the Apple Watch Ultra would feature it on the side, next to the digital crown and button, according to Gurman. With them, the Apple Watch would be able to “see the outside world and use AI to deliver relevant information,” which he says is also the plan for the camera-equipped AirPods Apple is rumored to be working on.

The Visual Intelligence features that these devices would use debuted on the iPhone 16, where it works with the phone’s camera to do things like add details from an event flyer to your calendar, or look up information about a restaurant.  

It’s underpinned by AI models from other companies, but Gurman writes that Apple hopes to power the feature with it’s own in-house models by 2027, when he says the company plans to release these new Apple Watches and AirPods.

Apple is working on adding cameras to future Apple Watch models in order to make them function more like AI wearables, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman on the Power On newsletter, Engadget reported.

Gurman reports that the company “is considering adding cameras to both its standard Series watches and Ultra models,” with plans for a 2027 launch. The move would also the Apple Watch to support AI features like Visual Intelligence, which can provide on-the-spot information about whatever the user points the camera at.

Gurman previously reported that Apple is developing AirPods with a built-in camera for the same purpose, and he notes this week that these are expected to launch around the same time as the camera-equipped Apple Watches. Camera placement would likely vary among the different watch models. According to Gurman, the Series watches could get a camera in the display, while the camera in the Ultra would be on the side of the device.

Gizmodo reported: Despite the general failure of wearable AI devices to win over consumers, and Apple’s own inability to convince people to use its AI tools, the company is apparently going to try to kill two birds with one stone by turning the Apple Watch into an AI-infused wearable.

According to Bloomberg, Apple is workin on a version of its smartwatch that will be equipped with cameras that will facilitate the expansion of the company’s “visual intelligence” features the are currently only available on the latest model of iPhone.

Per Bloomberg, the company is working to shoehorn the lenses into both Series and Ultra models of the Apple Watch, with the Series expected to have a camera inside its display while the Ultra would have a camera on the side of the watch.

Mike Rockwell, the Apple Vision Pro chief, has replaced John Giannandrea as the executive in charge of Siri, in an executive shakeup to try and rescue Apple’s flailing AI efforts, AppleInsider reported.

The glacial rollout of Apple Intelligence and the lack of progress on Siri has not been a good look for Apple over the last year. Now, Apple is making a big change to get things back on track.

In an announcement to Apple employees due this week, AI lead John Giannandrea is being shifted out of his position, reports Bloomberg on Thursday. CEO Tim Cook has apparently lost confidence in Giannandrea’s ability to execute on Siri’s product development, so he is being replaced. 

That replacement will be Mike Rockwell, who his known as the head of the Apple Vision Pro project. In his new role, he will be reporting software chief Craig Federighi, with Giannandrea not having anything to do with Siri anymore.

MacRumors reported: Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman today said that Vision Pro chief Mike Rockwell will be taking over the Siri team at Apple, which until now was led by Apple’s artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea. Apple CEO Tim Cook has apparently “lost confidence” in Giannandrea’s ability to “execute on product development,” but he will remain at the company for now to oversee artificial intelligence research and development in general.

Vision Pro hardware engineer Paul Meade will be succeeding Rockwell as the head of Apple’s spatial computing efforts, allowing Rockwell to focus entirely on Siri, according to the report. In his new role overseeing the Siri team, Rockwell will report to Apple’s software engineering chief Craig Federighi, the report added.

Apple has been facing a lot of criticism after delaying its more personalized version of Siri, with some people upset that the company chose to preview new features that were merely conceptual, rather than fully functional. It is a widely held belief that Apple is lagging behind competitors like OpenAI in the generative artificial intelligence space, and it looks like Apple is attempting to right the ship with this executive shakeup.

TechCrunch reported: As Apple’s Siri comes under attack for failing at the most basic queries, the company is shaking up leadership in charge of Apple’s AI features for Siri. According to Bloomberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook is installing Mike Rockwell, the current VP of the Vision Products Group (the team behind the Vision Pro), to head up the Siri team.

Siri hasn’t been able to hold up against modern-day AI, leaving Apple to integrate third-party AI services like ChatGPT, into its software just to keep up with AI’s rapid development and consumer expectations.

In recent tests, Siri users pointed out that Apple Intelligence-powered Siri couldn’t answer simple questions like “who won the Super Bowl?”correctly. This month, Apple also announced it was delaying the rollout of the more “personalized” Siri until sometime next year.

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.

Late last week, Apple delayed its big Siri AI upgrade, and it seems that will take the company’s rumored smart display with it. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter, Apple has postponed the device because it at least partially “relies on the delayed Siri capabilities.”  The Verge reported.

It’s been rumored for months now that Apple was planning to release a device early this year that would serve as a smart home hub with a display, similar to devices that its main smart home competitors, Amazon and Google, have both offered for years. The device is expected to be the first Apple smart home hub with support for Apple Intelligence.

Apple said last week that its upgraded smart assistant is taking “longer then we thought” and will be released in the “coming year,” hinting that it may not be an iOS 18 feature as originally  promised. The version of Apple Intelligence that we have now doesn’t really offer any smart home features so Apple releasing a smart display that’s wrapped up in the Siri AI wouldn’t make much sense right now.

Engadget reported: It may be a while still before we see the smart home hub Apple is rumored to be working on. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company has postponed the announcement of the upcoming product due to the issues it’s run into developing its “smarter” Siri.

Gurman reported last month that the release of Apple’s upgraded Siri may be delayed, and Apple confirmed as much in a statement to Daring Fireball last week, saying it it expects to roll out Siri’s more personalized features “in the coming year.” The smart home hub, according to Gurman, “to an extent, relies on the delayed Siri capabilities.”

AppleInsider reported: Apple’s long-rumored Home Hub peripheral is now rumored to be debuting in the second half of 2025, and is allegedly being taken home by select Apple employees for real-world-testing.

Various rumors have suggested that Apple will be making a big push into smart home accessories across the second half of 2025, including the existing Home Key feature for a future smart doorbell. Apple is also working with other manufacturers of smart home accessories to ensure HomeKit compatibility.

A new report from Bloomberg reiterates earlier claims that Apple intended to tie the rise of HomeKit accessories into a smart Home Hub, now with a device code name: J490.

The long-rumored accessory is now likely to wait for its debut until the June WWDC developer conference or later to be officially announced. This may coincide with the existing tvOS changing to become the basis of a future homeOS.

In part, this could explain why due to recently-delay in Siri development — now expected to be a bigger part of iOS and iPadOS 19 along with the next version of macOS, rather than later in the iOS 18 cycle as previously expected.