Tim Cook teases Feb. 19 launch of what is probably the new iPhone SE
In a post on X on Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook says that Wednesday, February 19 is the debut of "the newest member of the family" which is likely the iPhone SE.
Apple logo, animated in Tim Cook's post on X
Cook sometimes teases events like WWDC or the like in X, but it's not often that a posting from the man is the first indication of a release date. The post is simple, and included below.
Get ready to meet the newest member of the family.
Wednesday, February 19. #AppleLaunch pic.twitter.com/0ML0NfMedu-- Tim Cook (@tim_cook)
The post has some very basic music associated with it, and doesn't really mean anything. Expect to hear it in an ad, though.
For the past two iterations, Apple's iPhone SE has maintained a dated look, with thick bezels and a Touch ID Home button that make it virtually indistinguishable from an iPhone 8. All of that is set to change quite soon, as the budget-friendly iPhone SE is going to receive its first major redesign in years.
We've already gotten into what you should expect from the iPhone SE when it's released. Given that the device is largely based on the existing, base model iPhone 14, the fourth-gen iPhone SE will gain an OLED panel and support for Face ID, both of which have never been available on the iPhone SE until now.
Some pre-production prototypes also featured an Action button in place of the mute switch, though it is unclear if the final mass production units feature this change, as Apple tests multiple hardware configurations.
The device is expected to include a 48 MP image sensor, developed under the codename Project Portland. Multiple different reports have indicated that the new-and-improved iPhone SE will feature a 48 MP rear camera.
Pricing isn't clear, with some rumors suggesting a higher price than the third generation iPhone SE.
Regardless of the rumors, the full tale will be told on Wednesday, February 19.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
If it's not a new iPhone at an attractive price, it should be something more impressive.
That “E” rumor seems a little silly to me (why bother attaching the “16” to the name?), but the rumor keeps on popping-up from various sources. So… maybe that’s what Tim Apple means (or the social media manager who wrote Tim Apple’s tweet). Or it’ll just be called “SE” and it’s a new family member because it’s simply a new version of the SE. That’s also likely (/probable). We’re probably thinking too hard about a one sentence tweet, lol
But seriously (or not so) the gloss of this thing tells us that Apple has one more thing planned for next week: Apple Polishing Cloth Pro™. Jony Ive returned to do the voice-over.
The Airpods would have an iPhone chip inside, roughly 10Wh battery and storage + RAM. This allows them to store music (including lossless audio) internally. A glasses attachment would have the lenses and sensors and should weigh 150g or less.
These parts can be sold separately so Airpods Ultra can be $999-1299 and the Vision attachment for Airpods Ultra would be $799-999. Someone might get the Airpods as a gift and buy the Vision attachment later, even a second-hand version.
The Vision attachment can have different styles like mirrored finish or black tint and could be upgraded to newer models.
To get the price down for the Vision part, they can use hardware foveated displays that reduce resolution away from the middle. Peripheral vision is blurry anyway so no point in wasting pixels and this lowers both the compute requirements and the display power usage by roughly half. AVP has 2-3 hour battery life with a 36Wh battery, this should get the same with 18Wh.
Putting around 10Wh inside would give around 1.5 hours of AR and an extra battery can be plugged into the USB-C port, which would make it look like normal wired headphones. This way the unit doesn't have to power down to switch battery.
The weight of the main headphones should be under 700g. Maybe they can switch to electrostatic drivers instead of magnets or find some way to get Airpods Pro into the design. Airpods Pro delivers the same quality of sound in just 10g of weight.
The Vision attachment would clip into the holes and be suspended in front of the eyes, which allows skipping the light seal. The light seal would still be needed at times but would only need to be very thin and light and adding it would need removing the headphones, clipping it in and putting them on. They would be able to tilt up and down to quickly move them out the way.
There would be either a release button or pressure clip to remove the Vision attachment, the legs folded up and it can be stored in a hard case.
This lets them build a sizeable platform for AR and eventually the whole unit can scale down over a decade.