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.

We may see the M4 MacBook Air as soon as March. In the PowerOn newsletter this weekend, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is readying itself for the launch of the upgraded laptop next month, Engadget reported. 

The company is “preparing its marketing, sales and retail teams for the debut,” according to Gurman’s sources, and it’s letting inventory of the existing models wind down. The M4 MacBook Air is expected to come in two sizes, 13-inch and 15-inch, like the previous model.

Apple introduced the M3 MacBook Air last March, and unveiled its new M4 chip a few months later, bringing that first to the iPad Pro. In October, it refreshed the iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pros with the M4 family of chips. The MacBook Air is now due for its turn.

While it didn’t get the M4 chip in the fall, Apple did announce a long-awaited memory boost for the lineup at that time, with the M2 and M3 now starting at 16GB of RAM.

Cult of Mac reported: Apple’s M4-powered MacBook Air lineup will reportedly debut in March. The company is gearing up with the necessary marketing and sales preparations for the launch.

Stocks of the current M3 models are already dwindling ,with limited inventory at most stores.

Apple unveiled the M4 chip with its 2024 iPad Pro lineup in May 2024. Fabricated on TSMC’s newest 3nm node, the chip brings a massive uplift in performance and efficiency over previous M-series SoCs. This was followed by the M4 chips making their way into the MacBook Pros, iMac, and the refreshed Mac mini in late October.

Now, Apple is preparing to bring its newest M-series chip to the slimmest and lightest laptop lineup yet. Rumors that the M4 MacBook Air will launch in early 2025 have been circulating for a few months.

Inventory of the existing M3 MacBook Air is already running low on retail channels. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports in his lates Power On newsletter that Apple “has started preparing its marketing, sales and retail teams for the debut.”

Like the iPhone 16e, Apple will likely announce the M4 MacBook Air through a press release.

AppleInsider reported: The M4 MacBook Air has long been expected to release in early 2025, and a March date would make it a year since the last version was launched. Now Bloomberg says that Apple Stores and presumably the online Apple Store, are letting their inventory of the current model run down.

At present in AppleInsider Research, there are signs of availability changing. Base configurations are still showing a two-day shipping time, at least in major US cities. 

However, configurations with greater SSD storage or RAM are now showing a delivery date between March 7 and March 11.

Apple is planning to add Apple Intelligence to its Vision Pro headset in an update that could come as early as April, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, TechCrunch reported.

Just a couple weeks after Apple Intelligence was first announced in June 2024, Gurman reported that Apple was looking to bring its suite of AI tools to the Vision Pro, though there were questions to answer about how those tools would be reimagined for a mixed reality experience.

Now Apple is reportedly aiming to include Apple Intelligence (including Writing Tools, Genmoji, and an Image Playground) in its visionOS 2.4 software update, with a version available to developers as soon as this week.

The Vision Pro’s first Apple Intelligence offerings reportedly won’t include an upgraded Siri. In fact, Gurman also said a long-promised upgrade to Siri more broadly could be delayed due to engineering problems and bugs.

9To5Mac reported: Apple Vision Pro only just turned a year old, and it may be about to get its biggest update yet — no new hardware required.

That’s because Apple Intelligence is finally rumored to be coming to Apple Vision Pro. When Apple announced its suite of AI features last June, it only promised support on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

So far, Apple Intelligence is offered on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, and iPhone 16 Pro; M-series iPad Pro and iPad Air; the latest iPad mini; and M-series Macs.

Apple never guaranteed that Apple Intelligence would come to Vision Pro in a future update. 

However, a new rumor from Mark Gruman, at Bloomberg suggests, for the first time, that the existing Apple Vision Pro will indeed receive Apple’s AI features. If true, this will be a welcome surprise for customers of the $3500 headset.

A few days ago, Zac Hall reported: “The biggest opportunity for Apple Vision Pro, aside from price and weight, is that it runs on Apple’s second generation M-Series processor and doesn’t support Apple Intelligence.

It’s possible, however, that Apple could bring Apple Intelligence to the existing Apple Vision Pro without refreshing the hardware. The hardware only just turned a year old in the United States, and it has been arriving in markets over the last 12 months.”

Daily Guardian reported: The Vision Pro is Apple’s Newest computing platform, and that means we’re going to see a whole bunch of new apps. 

Apple pitches apps built for the Vision Pro as “spacial” experiences, and even after our initial review experience, we’ll have to see how those differ from or improve upon the virtual reality and mixed reality experiences we’ve seen on other platforms. Of course, the Vision Pro can run iPhone and iPad apps, too, and the display screen of your nearby Mac laptop or desktop.

Apple says that the Vision Pro’s 600-plus apps available at launch will bring 3D movies from Disney Plus, support from apps like Max and Amazon Prime video. But the walled gardens of today’s tech world in both directions, and there are some notable day-one omissions.

In my opinion, there will be some Apple users would like to use Apple Intelligence for the Vision Pro.

Apple has resumed advertising on X for the first time since pausing ads more than a year ago. The company was one of many to halt advertisements over concerns for brand safety following Elon Musk’s purchase of the social network.

While Xs approach to content moderation has changed little since then, Big Tech’s relationship with Musk has shifted since President Donald Trump took office, The Verge reported.

Apple was among several major advertisers, including Amazon, Disney, Comcast, Warner Bros., Discovery, and IBM, to pull out of the platform in November 2023 over concerns regarding controversial remarks about antisemitic conspiracy theories and white pride made by X owner Elon Musk.

X’s approach to moderation since Musk acquired the platform in 2022 has been widely criticized for failing to remove illegal or harmful content, including posts regarding misinformation, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other hate speech. 

Musk himself has also repeatedly engaged in such behavior, and gained more influence since befriending President Donald Trump and being handed his DOGE leadership position. The European Union is currently investigating the platform’s content moderation efforts, having already found that it violates the bloc’s rules around advertising transparency.

Mashable reported: Over a year ago, Apple removed its ads from X after Elon Musk backed a series of antisemitic posts from far-right users on the social media platform. Around the same time, a new report found that ads from companies such as Apple were being served on pro-Nazi content on X.

However, since November 2023, when Apple stopped advertising on Musk’s X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, a lot has happened. Namely, Donald Trump was elected president once again, and this time, Musk is essentially operating as his right-hand man.

Now, roughly 15 months after Apple halted its ad spend on X, Apple has returned to advertising on the platform.

While Apple has resumed ads on X, it’s unclear how big their current ad campaigns are. The Safari ad, for example, has just over 600,000 impressions as of publishing on Feb. 13. It was originally posted on Feb. 10. Other advertisers who previously left have returned at various points but with a significantly reduced marketing budget for ad spend on X.

MacRumors reported: Apple this month started advertising on X for the first time in more than a year. The company had stopped advertising on the social media platform in November 2023 following controversial remarks made by its owner Elon Musk.

A report last month indicated that Apple was considering advertising on X again, and evidently it has decided to do so, at least for now.

Apple is one of many brands that have paused advertising on X at least once, with other  companies including Disney, Coca-Cola, Sony, IBM, Comcast, and more. Disney and many other brands have cautiously returned to advertising on the platform since.

In my opinion, I think it would be hard for various large companies to choose to post their advertisements on X, especially if their ads are posted next to unsavory content.