Welcome to our weekly collection of all the Apple news you missed this week, in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.
Have we just seen the iPhone 14 Pro…or not?
Four months ahead of its planned launch this fall, the iPhone 14 Pro made a premature appearance on blogs and news sites this week, when a leaked advert for Apple Pay seemingly confirmed the device’s new hole + pill design. The 15-second spot, posted by Apple Archive Thai, illustrates the simple process of using Apple Pay in a store, but the stylized handset has twin apertures rather than a notch. What a slip! Someone’s going to get fired for this!
Well, maybe. You see, while we say leaked, there’s been considerable debate about the legitimacy of the video. A large proportion of the commenters on a busy Reddit thread, for example, feel it’s probably fake. Anyone who’s been on Reddit will know that pretty much everything is fake according to those guys, but they do raise some fair points.
One is that it wouldn’t have been especially difficult to counterfeit. We can probably agree that the video accurately captures the look and sound of a legit Apple advert, but a glance at some iPhone 14 Pro renders posted this week will show how adept some independent artists have become at mimicking the Cupertino aesthetic. It could even be a modified version of an existing Apple advert, with only the handset detail altered.
So we’re not going to insist that this is Definitely The Real Thing, not least because nobody has yet offered any proof that it is. But let’s think about this logically. If Apple is changing the screen design of the Pro iPhones–and most leakers and analysts agree that it is–then it will need to create new sales materials for every market around the world in time for the launch. That’s a major job, and you can bet that marketing teams would be part of the conversation while the design is still officially secret. It’s at least plausible that something like this would be in the pipeline at this stage.
And if you believe that iPhone 14 Pro marketing materials are starting to appear, you’re left with one question: given Apple’s famous leak problems, would it be more surprising for one of them to leak… or for all of them to remain hidden?
We won’t know the truth until the launch event in September. But if you’d like to see what the fuss is all about, take a look at the ‘leaked’ advert:
Apple Breakfast gets to write about an actual Apple breakfast this week, with news that Tim Cook is really spoiling developers at WWDC 2022. The menu for Apple’s in-person event, which appeared online on Wednesday, includes such delicacies as smoked salmon and caviar, barbecue brisket, Kung Pau tofu, and dark chocolate panna cotta. We’re not sure about micro horseradish (how did Apple find enough tiny horses?) but still wish we could go.
It’s a far cry from catering at developer conferences past, which Cult of Mac recalls as “a couple of notches above Fyre Festival food.” Of course, pandemic conditions mean this will by necessity be a select gathering, so it’s easier to pamper the attendees. And, just maybe, Apple feels it has some making up to do after a few years of iffy relations with its developer partners.
Trending: Top stories of the week
Prepare for disappointment: The enormous stakes and Apple’s innate conservatism mean the iPhone 14 is unlikely to dazzle.
We round up six Apple apps in desperate need of a makeover.
The HomePod can be Apple’s new iPod: Fun, popular, and simple.
Microsoft’s grand plan for the future of Windows is basically an M1 Mac mini.
The Pixel Watch will fail for the same reason every other Apple Watch killer failed.
Why won’t Corsair and Dell just let Apple’s Touch Bar die already?
Podcast of the week
The operating systems for the iPad and Apple Watch are due for updates, which we’ll see at WWDC in June. And in this episode of the Macworld Podcast, we talk about the features we want to see in those OSes.
You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.
Software updates, bugs & other issues
Longtime WhatsApp users might soon need a newer iPhone.
Looking forward to iPadOS 16? These are the new iPad features we hope to see at WWDC.
And here’s everything you need to know about macOS 13.
And with that, we’re done for this week. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters. You can also follow us on Twitter for breaking news stories. See you next Saturday, enjoy your weekend, and stay Appley!