kendog52404

I'm kinda hoping that somebody, either Apple, or more likely an accessory maker, will make iPhone Cases for the previous, but still selling generations of the iPhone, such as the iPhone 11 series, that includes Mag Safe.  If there is, I hope it includes charging, albeit probably through the Lightning Port on the older iPhones.

Firstly, in regards to PCIE 4.0 support and Thunderbolt, since it appears Intel is still a driving influence in the spec, it probably won't support PCIE 4.0 until Intel's Chipsets and CPUs do.  I've heard previously, that they will probably be moving off of PCIE 3.0 in the next few chipsets, but I've heard conflicting things, like they could skip PCIE 4.0 in favor of 5.0, and things like that.  Do I believe they would do that, not really, but it's probably going to still be a year+ until Intel has native support for PCIE 4.0, then add another year or two to bring it to the "Thunderbolt Spec".

Now, in regards to Apple's products, and Thunderbolt, I imagine that all of the Macs will have Thunderbolt, natively, and for a very long time to come.  The question would come in with the "smaller devices", such as iPad and iPhone.  I imagine that the iPad Pro will be eventually getting Thunderbolt.  It may not be making much sense, currently, for a tablet, but they've been positioning the iPad Pro as a laptop replacement, so I could easily see them adopting it. 

However, I imagine the more consumer focused iPads (iPad Air and iPad whatever generation), along with the more "higher end" iPhones, such as the iPhone Pro, and the XL/XR(?) would get USB4, with the "higher data transfer speed", but with the more advanced USB PD spec. 

The "low end iPhone", the iPhone 11, it's replacement, the iPhone 12, that segment of the iPhone lineup, would probably, eventually, go with USB-C for the port, and USB PD for the power charging, but the data transfer rate could stay at one of the USB 3 specs.  The real question would be the iPhone SE, or at least it's next gen, would it stay as the only model with the Lightening Connector, or would it do the same as the "low end iPhone", and the USB-C and maybe USB PD for charging.

A couple of other things, firstly, I could see Apple maybe eventually "retiring" the Macbook Air, or their other, lowest end laptops, in favor of the higher end iPads.  That being said, while I doubt they would ever actually make it, something I could see them doing, with the switch over to Apple Silicon is making a "hybrid device".  That is, the screen is essentially a version of an iPad, running iPadOS, but it "plugs into" the base, probably using that "smart port" thing recent iPad models have had, which enables/switches it over to run MacOS, probably disabling the touchscreen, but then enabling it to function as a laptop. 

Presumably, outside any needed functionality which a laptop would need, and an iPad wouldn't, most of the base would probably have a battery, giving the device a "very long" battery life.  I can't recall the name, but I'm sure many of you remember when Microsoft initially released a "Surface Book", they used that hybrid device design, with the detachable screen.  I'm assuming Apple could do better.  That being said, I freely re-acknowledge that it's highly unlike Apple would ever do this, but I can dream, I suppose.

Mike Wuerthele said:

kendog52404 said:

What about the actual video files themselves?  That is, are they still in H.264, or are they being updated to H.265?  If it hasn't been switched over, might they be waiting for the new release of MacOS, next week?

4K from Apple is H.265 now. 

Sorry, I meant the SD, HD, and the HD1080 copies.

What about the actual video files themselves?  That is, are they still in H.264, or are they being updated to H.265?  If it hasn't been switched over, might they be waiting for the new release of MacOS, next week?

Something to consider is if this is effectively a shadow announcement of a new 4K ATV, or at least one which supports HEVC.  The reason I'm saying that is Amazon apparently announced a while ago, that they were switching the HEVC for all of their video streams, not just the 4K, but the SD and HD ones as well, whether it's Amazon Prime Video or not.  While I haven't heard anything since then, and don't have a link in front of me, it does cause me at least, to wonder.