Affordable Apple Watch, Apple game controller coming says prolific leaker

AppleInsider · August 20, 2020 4:17PM

Apple wants to build its own game controller and may release a cheaper Apple Watch soon, according to avid leaker Jon Prosser.

The upcoming "iPhone 12" line

The public Twitter Q&A took place on Thursday morning, and the conversation with Prosser spanned a large swath of Apple's product line.

Apple Watch

There may be a more affordable Apple Watch coming soon. Rumors have suggested that Apple has been experimenting with plastic as an Apple Watch material, which would reduce the cost versus an aluminum or titanium enclosure.

A separate rumor says that a new "kid mode" could be coming to watchOS, which would fit in well with a cheaper Apple Watch.

The "Apple Watch Series 6" won't be a big update, but not a small one either. Rumored features for the next Watch include an improved ECG function and an enabled blood-oxygen sensor.

Apple TV

The Apple TV could become a more powerful gaming platform with new hardware updates and a new controller. Prosser says that Apple is building a gaming controller to compete with the current selection of Playstation and Xbox controllers.

The "Apple TV 6" is ready and has been waiting to ship for months. It is expected to have the latest A12Z processor for better gaming experiences. Prosser says he has photos of the product, but will not share them publicly.

iPad

Apple may be releasing an updated iPad in September. Prosser did not confirm which iPad, but rumors suggest it will be a refreshed base-model iPad or an "iPad Air 4."

"iPhone 12"

The rumors suggesting that the "iPhone 12" will have a 120Hz display are not looking great. Prosser says that the display isn't dead, but the chances it will be included in the 2020 iPhone is slim. Mass production of the "iPhone 12" will start in September.

Other Mentions

AirPower has improved power management in the current prototypes. It has not entered mass production and nothing indicates this will ever be a shipping product.

AirPods Studio are still coming, but no release date has been confirmed.

Prosser still stands by all the information he shared about Apple Glass and trusts that source. No new information about Apple Glass has come up.

There is no further information about AirTags.

There are rumors that the "iPad Air 4" and "Apple Watch Series 6" could launch via press release in September followed by an "iPhone 12" event in October. The "iPhone 12 Pro" and "iPhone 12 Pro Max" are expected to release later in November.

Jon Prosser is relatively new to the Apple leaking scene, but has been mostly accurate so far. He managed to pinpoint release dates for the iPhone SE and new Powerbeats, and even beat Apple out of the door on the recent iMac refresh. He was also responsible for one of the biggest information dumps on the unreleased "iPhone 12" and provided insight into the long-rumored "Apple Glass."

DAalseth · August 20, 2020 5:12PM

Cost has been the primary reason we don't have Apple Watches. I do hope this one turns out to be true.

foregoneconclusion · August 20, 2020 5:21PM

IMO, an A14 design seems a more likely reason for Apple to wait until the fall to release the ATV 6.

mike1 · August 20, 2020 5:25PM

The "Apple TV 6" is ready and has been waiting to ship for months. It is expected to have the latest A12Z processor for better gaming experiences. Prosser says he has photos of the product, but will not share them publicly.

I strongly doubt that Apple has kept a product on the shelves "for months" before deciding to ship. This is not a new category for them.

cornchip · August 20, 2020 5:27PM

mike1 said:

The "Apple TV 6" is ready and has been waiting to ship for months. It is expected to have the latest A12Z processor for better gaming experiences. Prosser says he has photos of the product, but will not share them publicly.

I strongly doubt that Apple has kept a product on the shelves "for months" before deciding to ship. This is not a new category for them.

Timing is everything.

aderutter · August 20, 2020 6:04PM

If the ATV has been ready, they may have been waiting for the game controller?
I too think it would have an A12Z not A14. A12Z would still be a big jump from A10X.

Cheaper kids AW is a cool idea, would need parental control to allow use in school though.
Wouldn’t need all the sensors me thinks.
i.e. would need to be a time telling device only at certain times, otherwise won’t be allowed in schools.

The new iPad will replace the base iPad and iPad Air imho

I want my AirPods Studio!

SpamSandwich · August 20, 2020 6:09PM

Getting more Watches onto more wrists would be fantastic (especially since Apple stopped making the best iPod available for athletic activities, the clip-on Shuffle).

Beats · August 20, 2020 6:12PM

"The "Apple TV 6" is ready and has been waiting to ship for months. It is expected to have the latest A12Z processor for better gaming experiences. Prosser says he has photos of the product, but will not share them publicly."

GARBAGE. Why can't Apple treat the Apple TV like a real game changing product instead of a lazy afterthought. I hope this isn't true.

If I were Apple I would go all the way and install a Apple Silicon Mac chip in it. Compete with the big console makers.

mike1 said:

The "Apple TV 6" is ready and has been waiting to ship for months. It is expected to have the latest A12Z processor for better gaming experiences. Prosser says he has photos of the product, but will not share them publicly.

I strongly doubt that Apple has kept a product on the shelves "for months" before deciding to ship. This is not a new category for them.

Apple doesn't give a sh** about Apple TV. Unless they've changed(which I hope) then it wouldn't surprise me.

aderutter said:

If the ATV has been ready, they may have been waiting for the game controller?
I too think it would have an A12Z not A14. A12Z would still be a big jump from A10X.

So?

canukstorm · August 20, 2020 6:59PM

Beats said:

"The "Apple TV 6" is ready and has been waiting to ship for months. It is expected to have the latest A12Z processor for better gaming experiences. Prosser says he has photos of the product, but will not share them publicly."

GARBAGE. Why can't Apple treat the Apple TV like a real game changing product instead of a lazy afterthought. I hope this isn't true.

If I were Apple I would go all the way and install a Apple Silicon Mac chip in it. Compete with the big console makers.

mike1 said:

The "Apple TV 6" is ready and has been waiting to ship for months. It is expected to have the latest A12Z processor for better gaming experiences. Prosser says he has photos of the product, but will not share them publicly.

I strongly doubt that Apple has kept a product on the shelves "for months" before deciding to ship. This is not a new category for them.

Apple doesn't give a sh** about Apple TV. Unless they've changed(which I hope) then it wouldn't surprise me.

aderutter said:

If the ATV has been ready, they may have been waiting for the game controller?
I too think it would have an A12Z not A14. A12Z would still be a big jump from A10X.

So?

"If I were Apple I would go all the way and install a Apple Silicon Mac chip in it. Compete with the big console makers."

That would be awesome.

foregoneconclusion · August 20, 2020 7:03PM

aderutter said:

If the ATV has been ready, they may have been waiting for the game controller?

What if the game controller is also an ATV, i.e., an all-in-one design? You wouldn't even need a bundle. That might also explain why Prosser won't release the photos he claims to have.

entropys · August 20, 2020 8:34PM

foregoneconclusion said:

aderutter said:

If the ATV has been ready, they may have been waiting for the game controller?

What if the game controller is also an ATV, i.e., an all-in-one design? You wouldn't even need a bundle. That might also explain why Prosser won't release the photos he claims to have.

Great idea, but it would quickly become price prohibitive, need charging mats, a base station and modt importantly the cost of every controller itself.

Apple TV would be around current price, whether it was a console or a controller. controller needs to be down around $50 so you could buy more than one.

StrangeDays · August 20, 2020 9:42PM

cornchip said:

mike1 said:

The "Apple TV 6" is ready and has been waiting to ship for months. It is expected to have the latest A12Z processor for better gaming experiences. Prosser says he has photos of the product, but will not share them publicly.

I strongly doubt that Apple has kept a product on the shelves "for months" before deciding to ship. This is not a new category for them.

Timing is everything.

Apple is famous for its JIT inventory, they don’t rent warehouses to mass piles of inventory in. It doesn’t match their known operations.

StrangeDays · August 20, 2020 9:46PM

Beats said:

If I were Apple I would go all the way and install a Apple Silicon Mac chip in it. Compete with the big console makers.

I don’t think that will ever happen. Console gaming is a niche market with its own dominant players, I don’t see why Apple would enter it. Same reason they don’t do printers, scanners, or routers anymore. A thousand no’s for every yes.

Beats · August 20, 2020 9:59PM

StrangeDays said:

Beats said:

If I were Apple I would go all the way and install a Apple Silicon Mac chip in it. Compete with the big console makers.

I don’t think that will ever happen. Console gaming is a niche market with its own dominant players, I don’t see why Apple would enter it. Same reason they don’t do printers, scanners, or routers anymore. A thousand no’s for every yes.

Apple TV does support gaming and it's not niche like scanners. I mean the iPhone and iPad also support gaming. It's a huge multi-billion dollar marker.

foregoneconclusion said:

aderutter said:

If the ATV has been ready, they may have been waiting for the game controller?

What if the game controller is also an ATV, i.e., an all-in-one design? You wouldn't even need a bundle. That might also explain why Prosser won't release the photos he claims to have.

Cool idea but it does sound expensive. I think they can have the "console" controller and cheaper extra controllers.

laytech · August 20, 2020 10:43PM

A new Apple TV with better more reliable remote and with photos that you can actually use. Photos is so slow, loading is ordinary even though I have ultra fast broadband and you can't zoom into your images.

Apple TV needs work so I am hoping for more with Apple TV v6. I don't need a game controller, I just want a remote that reliable works, and allows me to zoom into my images.

AirTags, nice idea but suspect its going through legal assessment. Great idea but I can see something like this becoming a major problem in terms of privacy and let alone unauthorised tracking but on the flip side, thieves will soon have to think again what they steal.

So looking forward to the AirPod Pro software update with the new surround sound feature.

chasm · August 21, 2020 12:02AM

If there's going to be a lower-cost Apple Watch made with plastic, I guarantee you it will be aimed at young people from teens to primary-school children, probably akin to the Series 3 in terms of functionality but likely taking advantage of any new battery/watchOS improvements. Functional working adults can easily afford a Series 3 or 4 right now, as they are on sale for extremely modest prices, and the current series 5 isn't unreasonable unless you compare it to barely-functional toys like the Fitbit. The Series 6 will be aimed at the same audience the 5 is aimed at.

I can only speak to my Apple TV 4K, but I can't think of anything it "needs" other than a slightly redesigned remote. It does everything I ask it to do very capably -- if there's a new model coming, I can only speculate that the focus of improvements would be oriented around the games aspect which I don't use much, so thus far it's not of much interest to me (obviously, we'll see what happens when it actually ships).

tht · August 21, 2020 12:51AM

If Apple is making a game controller for the Apple TV, I can see them waiting for games to be ready before releasing a new Apple TV. It really needs game controller optimized games, preferably good exclusive games. Doesn’t matter to me much though. I don’t play games.

I’ve been waiting and waiting to replace my 3rd gen Apple TV. Don’t even know what tvOS is like.

Xed · August 21, 2020 5:15AM

foregoneconclusion said:

aderutter said:

If the ATV has been ready, they may have been waiting for the game controller?

What if the game controller is also an ATV, i.e., an all-in-one design? You wouldn't even need a bundle. That might also explain why Prosser won't release the photos he claims to have.

How would that work? You have an extra long HDMI cable or a wireless adapter for an HDMI port on your TV so you can steam in 4K. I don't think either is feasible for a litany of reasons.

Xed · August 21, 2020 5:16AM

DAalseth said:

Cost has been the primary reason we don't have Apple Watches. I do hope this one turns out to be true.

To each their own, but Apple sells older versions of the Apple Watch at lower prices that seem quite reasonable for what they offer.

Xed · August 21, 2020 5:17AM

A quality game controller might be nice along with Si in a new Apple TV with a higher focus on gaming, but I'd also like the Nintendo Switch controller to be an option for Apple TV gaming like the PS4 and Xbox One controllers currently are.

foregoneconclusion · August 21, 2020 10:22AM

Beats said

foregoneconclusion said:

aderutter said:

If the ATV has been ready, they may have been waiting for the game controller?

What if the game controller is also an ATV, i.e., an all-in-one design? You wouldn't even need a bundle. That might also explain why Prosser won't release the photos he claims to have.

Cool idea but it does sound expensive. I think they can have the "console" controller and cheaper extra controllers.

I'm just trying to think of a reason for Apple to design their own controller when they already support some very good ones. It would need to have something unique vs the competitors in terms of technology in order for Apple to be interested in producing it.

Affordable Apple Watch, Apple game controller coming says prolific leaker

Apple Watch

Apple TV

iPad

"iPhone 12"

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