Apple Presentation Rumour Recap ⇥ macrumors.com
Apple launched a lineup of new iPhones, AirPods, and Apple Watches today, and many of the announcements seemed to have been leaked. This is typical of the September launches as the scale of the iPhone’s success means more of Apple’s resources are dedicated to its annual release cycle, which means there are more opportunities for leaks, and more incentive for publications to seize upon any tidbit of information. Sometimes, they get it wrong.
Juli Clover, in a pre-presentation rumour roundup for MacRumors:
There have been multiple rumors suggesting that the iPhone 17 Air won’t have the space for a SIM tray, which would prevent it from launching in China. iPhones sold in China are required to have a physical SIM tray, and carriers in the country do not support eSIM technology for smartphones.
The recent battery database leak mentions a variant of the iPhone 17 Air with a SIM tray, so it looks like information suggesting that the iPhone 17 Air won’t be available in China could be inaccurate.
It turns out the iPhone Air is available in China, and it is eSIM-only. In a piece following the presentation, Clover confirmed as much, explaining “China has a requirement that links a user’s ID to their cellular phone, something that’s harder to do with an eSIM over a physical SIM”. This is not, it turns out, synonymous with phones being “required to have a physical SIM tray”.
Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:
A last-minute leak from an anonymous account on X has led some iPad users to speculate that Apple might have a surprise in store for this week. A new M5 iPad Pro has been rumored to launch this year, but our expectation was that we wouldn’t see it until October or November. Now, however, it looks like we can’t rule out an announcement tomorrow alongside the iPhone 17.
The speculation in question comes from a fellow 9to5Mac writer who noticed it was the tenth anniversary of the iPad Pro’s introduction. That, combined with the details apparently shared by an anonymous account — but which were neither quoted nor summarized, nor even sourced — led Ryan Christoffel to connect some imaginary dots.
MacRumors was tipped-off in early July to some iPhone information by someone familiar with the details of an ad being created. Joe Rossignol:
The tipster revealed three alleged iPhone 17 Pro features that have not been rumored previously:
An upgraded Telephoto lens with up to 8× optical zoom, compared to up to 5× optical zoom on the iPhone 16 Pro models. The lens can apparently move, allowing for continuous optical zoom at various focal lengths.
An all-new pro camera app from Apple for both photos and videos. This app would compete with the likes of Halide, Kino, and Filmic Pro. It is unclear if the app would be exclusive to the iPhone 17 Pro models.
An additional Camera Control button on the top edge of the devices, for quickly accessing the camera and related settings. This would complement the Camera Control button on the bottom-right edge of all iPhone 16 models.
For the pro camera app, the tipster warned there is a chance Apple is planning a major update to its existing Final Cut Camera app instead of an all-new app.
This tipster was remarkably on-the-money for two of these three claims. Neither was rumoured prior and, though it barely made the presentation, Apple did update Final Cut Camera just as they claimed. Given that clear foreknowledge, I have to wonder what their observation of an “additional Camera Control button” is all about. It is not on these iPhones. Perhaps they got confused by the Action Button that has been present for a few years? I can only guess.
One final thing that only barely made the cut for advanced rumours and turned out to be entirely accurate. Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:
Just hours ahead of the official announcement, a leaker has suggested that the iPhone 17 Air may instead simply be named the iPhone Air.
Mark Gurman called it the “iPhone Air” in an article a couple of weeks ago.
Models across the rest of the lineup are named variations of “iPhone 17”, so the number-less branding of this model is conspicuous. Perhaps Apple intends for it to only stick around a single year, or perhaps the entire line will lose version numbers.