Apple confirms Oct 13th event to announce new 'iPhone 12' family
Apple has revealed it will be holding its second fall special event on October 13, one that is anticipated to feature the launch of the "iPhone 12" generation, as well as other products like "AirTags."
Apple's "iPhone 12" event is on October 13
Following the same pattern as the earlier "Time Flies" announcement, Apple said on Tuesday that it will be holding a second special event on October 13 at 10 A.M. Pacific time. As with the first event and WWDC, it will be a virtual affair that takes place over a video stream.
After the success of Apple's WWDC keynote and the "Time Flies" presentation, it is highly likely the upcoming event will follow a similar heavily-produced style, a video made in advance by Apple. Normally iPhone events occur on stage with a large live audience, but the issues of COVID-19 social distancing makes such an event difficult to adequately produce.
AppleInsider will be covering the event live, providing full analysis during and after the event, and will include details of all of Apple's product launches.
What to expect at the event
As the Time Flies event handled the iPad Air 4, an updated 10.2-inch iPad, the Apple Watch Series 6, and the Apple Watch SE, this new event will almost certainly center around the iPhone.
The "iPhone 12" generation is rumored to be made up of the 5.4-inch "iPhone 12," the 6.1-inch "iPhone 12 Max," the 6.1-inch "iPhone 12 Pro," and the 6.7-inch "iPhone 12 Pro Max." Aside from the name, the Pro models are expected to have better displays, supporting 120Hz ProMotion and 10-bit color.
Physical mock-ups of three 'iPhone 12' models
On the back, the standard models will probably use 12-megapixel ultra-wide and wide-angle cameras, while the Pro adds on a telephoto lens. There have also been rumors of the inclusion of a LiDAR sensor on the back of the Pro models, giving it similar depth mapping capabilities as the iPad Pro.
Video capabilities across the board are expected to be improved to include 4K slo-mo at up to 240fps, as well as discussions of an "Enhanced Night Mode" and "Advanced Noise Reduction."
Powering the models will probably be the "A14" SoC, which may have double the transistors of the A13, and supported by either 4GB or 6GB of memory. Storage on the non-Pro units is anticipated to be 128GB and 256GB, rising to 512GB on the Pro models.
The addition of 5G connectivity is widely expected, though there are questions as to how it will be implemented. There is the possibility all will include support for sub-6GHz bands, but only some models may offer the high-speed mmWave support.
Along with the new iPhone, Apple is still expected to reveal "AirTags," its object tracking accessory. Taking advantage of Ultra Wideband and Bluetooth, the accessory could attach to keys or other objects, and could be found via the user's Find My app, by using the existing network of iPhones in the world to help locate the tag.
There have been rumors the "Find My" app may work with "AirTags" in an unusual way, with some speculation it could be more direct in advising where the tag is by using AR on a real-world camera view.
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Comments
Also, I just discovered that “AirTags” is now a keyboard suggestion that I never noticed before. Has anyone else?
I was under the impression that the names were expected to be iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max? I know that Apple marketing has had some questionable moves in the past, but I don't recall them ever doing anything as dumb as having two different sized models with the same name - there's no way they're going to have a 6.1" phone and a 6.7" phone both called "Max".
Another guess of mine is that the backside of an AirTag has a recess so you can loop a string through it to tie it to something.
Their naming has been terrible already, so it wouldn't be a surprise. The Plus versions being formally the Max versions, and the iPhone 11 Pro being the successor to the iPhone 10S and 11 being successor of the XR. Although I can't imagine them downgrading the flagship name model again, so you're probably right that there will the equivalent of a max and mini version.
Proof: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2020/10114/ says: "Apple Silicon Macs can run many iPad and iPhone apps as-is"
Anyway my prediction for a branding change is at Apple's discretion but it's perfectly plausible, and it's based on your requirement that the new Macs can run apps from iOS.
But you got me thinking... if the word "Mac" is out of favour, then "macOS" would likely also have to be rebranded as "AppleOS."
I love seeing all the wild predictions based on the invites.
Unless of course, it is about AirTags. It would be hard to get more boring than that.
I hope the "red balloon icon" reportedly being used in the Find My app is customizable with a bunch of different icons/colours to choose from, like a car icon, a key ring icon, and so on.