This is Technology Bytes, episode 79 for September 8th, 2024.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go.
So today is September 8th and tomorrow is an Apple event.
And so I am going to take advantage of being ahead of that.
And then also next week, I’ll talk about what happened at the event.
So this is kind of a look at it’s glow time before it actually happens.
And just my thoughts on what might happen and what I expect and what I wish and those kinds of things.
So a setup real quickly.
So you know that I’ve been using the beta of all the software that Apple has released, including the 0.1 releases, which have some of the Apple intelligence available.
And so that’s just a idea of where I’m at.
So some of the announcements that will happen tomorrow are going to not impact me as much because I’m aware of those things in the software world because I’ve been using them.
But in general, WWDC is the software event, and this event is a hardware event.
Not obviously they go hand in hand and Apple will talk about the software, but they are more interested in the hardware and how it interacts with the software.
And let’s not fool ourselves.
This event that’s going to happen, this glow time event is an iPhone event.
There will be much talk of Apple intelligence.
I’ll talk a little bit about that in a while, but this is an iPhone event.
This is the event that carries the most weight for Apple’s pocketbook of anything that they do, because the iPhone continues to command the largest part of Apple’s income.
So with that, the expectation is very, very much known.
I guess that the star of the show will be the iPhone 16 and all of its variations, probably some kind of iPhone 16, 16 plus a 16 pro 16 pro max, those kinds of things.
And that will be the big time star of the show that happens on Monday.
The other things that will come out in support of that, they will release the Apple watch 10, maybe another ultra three Apple watch ultra three.
Um, probably that will be announced.
Um, but those are the main things.
There’s probably some accessory things that will go with that.
Maybe a new, um, AirPods pro that will be released with some tie into the new software and advances that are being made there, but those are probably the main hardware things that you will see in the it’s glow time event.
Now there could be other things that show up in that event.
Um, it’s probably time for an iPad mini refresh.
And so we might see something along those lines.
I don’t expect to see anything new from Apple at this event, from a hardware perspective, because that would take away from the iPhone and they don’t generally like to do that, but they may announce some M four type products right now, the only thing that has an M four chip in it is the latest iPad pro.
And so they might announce that the M four is going to go into, uh, you know, Mac mini, uh, um, Mac book pro Mac book air, those kinds of things.
So we may see some announcements along those lines, but, um, yeah, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I think they don’t want to detract from the iPhone and what it can do.
And then the accessories that go along with it, because the, the most used accessory along with your iPhone is your Apple watch.
And so that is a normal thing to cover with the iPhone.
They may talk a little bit about an iPad, but they’ve already released the latest and greatest of those.
So really iPhone 16, Apple watch 10.
I think those are the main players of the game at the event on Monday.
So one of the other things is that they are going to, at the same time, release iOS 18, um, Sequoia, um, Mac OS Sequoia and TVOS and watch OS and all of the OSs that support the hardware.
So we know what’s coming in those things because of WWDC in June.
So they will harden that.
They will make announcements of this is what’s coming, the capabilities of the software with the new hardware.
And Apple intelligence is something they will talk about, but that is going to be a future conversation because even though we have the beta of 18.1, I would not expect that to be released at the same time that 18.0 is released with the latest iPhone 16 hardware.
I think that’s going to come in a month or more after that.
And then even then all the things they announced about Apple intelligence at WWDC will not be released in its entirety in the next few months, not even in this year.
That is something that will come with time.
Um, I heard a, a pundit say, well, you know, Apple’s behind and artificial intelligence, or this company needs to get their act together artificial intelligence because it’s not fully baked.
And the response of the pundit was Apple and artificial intelligence, including Apple intelligence will never be fully baked.
What you have today is what you have today and Apple intelligence and artificial intelligence are things that will grow with more capability over time.
And you know, who knows how much time and how fast and who’s going to get their first, those kinds of things.
But because of the nature of artificial intelligence, it is just a never ending growth potential for many companies, including Apple.
It’s, it’s much like saying, well, iOS is not fully baked.
Well, you’re right.
That’s why you get iOS 17 when the new hardware was released last year, you’ll get iOS 18 when new hardware is released this year, but then you’ll get 18.1 and then you’ll get 18.2 and so on and so forth because the software continues to grow no matter what happens on the hardware and the hardware stagnant only for a little while, because then next year you’ll get the iPhone 17 or whatever Apple chooses to release.
So while the hardware grows in steps, generally the software grows in almost a continual line up, hopefully if they do things correctly.
And so through the steps of hardware, your software gets a little jump maybe at those points.
So you’ll see iOS 18 will take a little jump because the hardware gets to take a jump and perform better than last year’s hardware.
But in general, the Apple intelligence will never be fully baked.
It will give you what it gives you.
And then the cool thing, that’s my opinion, because it’s something to look forward to is that every, I don’t know, month, every couple of months, you’ll get something different that gets to be put on your current hardware that allows it to do more than it did before.
It is a little bit of a heartache in that the only thing that Apple intelligence runs on is the iPhone 15 pro the pro max.
So you’re really not going back very far.
That may drive a super cycle on the iPhone 16.
If people are that interested in Apple intelligence and how it interacts with artificial intelligence, those kinds of things.
And so we’ll just have to wait and find out how that works.
So overall, that’s kind of my thoughts about what’s coming.
I’m interested to watch.
I’m at work during the event.
I always think I might be able to carve out an hour at work and just watch it, but that almost never happens.
So I am looking forward to watching it in full when I get home from work and try to not pay attention to news until that time.
And always interested to see what is announced.
Well, that is all I have for today.
If you have comments, suggestion, or questions, you can send them to technologybitesatmerigfamily.com as always.
I want to thank you for listening to the technology bites microcast, and I look forward to the next time we are together taking another bite of technology.
