This past week we’ve been fully focused on the new iPad Pro and iPad Air slates launched by Apple, but as the year goes on we’ll be turning our attention to the 2024 iPhones: and a key detail of the iPhone 16 Pro has just leaked.
According to well-known tipster Instant Digital on Chinese social media site Weibo (via MacRumors), the iPhone 16 Pro is set to come with a typical SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) brightness of 1,200 nits, up from 1,000 nits on the iPhone 15 Pro.
Maximum HDR (High Dynamic Range) brightness, meanwhile, will stay the same at 1,600 nits. That’s according to “current laboratory data”, if Google Translate is to be believed. There’s no word on whether or not the iPhone 16 Pro Max will see the same jump.
That standard SDR brightness has actually remained unchanged on the more expensive iPhone models since the iPhone 13 Pro launched in 2021. If it does come to pass, it should mean a noticeably brighter screen in everyday use.
The rumors so far
WWDC 2024 is getting closer (Image credit: Apple)
We haven’t been short of iPhone 16 leaks and rumors over the last few months, even though the handsets aren’t thought to be launching until September 2024 – assuming Apple sticks to its usual schedule for these devices.
We’ve recently heard that the iPhone 16 smartphones may miss out on the tandem OLED technology featuring in the top-end iPad Pros for 2024. However, the Pro and Pro Max may well come with a new polished titanium finish.
Other upgrades that are being talked about concern the cameras: a new camera lens coating for the Pro and Pro Max models to improve photo and video quality, and a new vertically aligned camera layout for the standard iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus.
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The next big date on the Apple calendar is its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) for 2024, which gets underway on June 10. Expect to hear a whole lot about iOS 18, and a bunch of artificial intelligence updates that are in the pipeline.
Android 15 looks set to bring in improved video stabilization for third-party camera apps, and could be the key to making some of the best Android phones true video competitors to the best iPhones.
Android Authority code-diver Mishaal Rahman found that Android 15 looks set to get a new ‘Eyes Free’ feature added to the Android’s existing Camera2 API that allows third-party camera apps to access extensions phone makers have implemented into their devices. In the case of Eyes Free, that means bringing in the first Android camera extension that can be used in video capture. According to the description of Eyes Free, it “aims to lock and stabilize a given region or object of interest”.
So from that and Rahman’s report we can glean that Eyes Free will bring the video stabilization found in the likes of the Google Pixel 8 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra to video-centric third-party apps such as Snapchat and Instagram.
So this would mean that alongside video stabilization, third-party apps could tap into the auto detection, bokeh, Face retouch, HDR and Night modes facilitated by the Camera2 extension.
Such features mean that users can harness the camera and recording options in third-party apps without seeing a big dip in quality; absent this, in order to get the best photos and videos, users would need to capture them in their phone’s native camera app, and then go through the process of uploading to a third-party app, rather than shooting directly in that app.
It’s worth noting that phone makers can implement their own camera pipelines for third-party apps. But having the Eyes Free feature could help boost some videography on Android phones in general, and bring it more in line with what the likes of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro can offer in terms of video capture through non-native apps.
While this isn’t the biggest potential upgrade Android 15 looks set to bring in, it’s an indication that we could see video capture get a shot in the arm for Android phones. In general, iPhones tend to be seen as the leader in smartphone videography, with Google and Samsung phones not quite delivering the same image quality and ease of use.
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We expect to hear a lot more about Android 15 at Google I/O on May 14, so stay tuned for all the news out of that software-heavy event.
Big things could be coming to Apple’s Safari web browser, as a new report claims it’s in line for a serious overhaul that could transform it into the best web browser around.
It’s just the latest in a long list of other Apple apps expected to see new artificial intelligence (AI) features in iOS 18 and macOS 15, both of which are expected to debut this summer at WWDC 2024.
According to AppleInsider, Safari is going to be revamped in several key ways. That includes changes to the user interface, “advanced content blocking features,” plus a new tool called Intelligent Search that uses AI to level up your browsing experience.
The latter feature looks to be a headline grabber. It appears to use Apple’s in-house on-device AI – dubbed Ajax – to find key topics on a web page and condense them down into a handy readable summary. That could be a nifty tool for quickly getting the gist of a page when you’re in a hurry.
Elsewhere, there’s apparently a new feature called Web Eraser that lets you select specific parts of a web page and easily remove them. For instance, you might want to erase a banner ad or an image without breaking the rest of the page. Safari will remember your changes and keep them in place when you next visit the page, although there could be an option to revert them if you want.
A total AI overhaul
(Image credit: Apple)
There’s one more piece to the puzzle: AppleInsider believes that Apple will consolidate a bunch of settings from different Safari menus and group them together behind a single button in the app’s address bar. This could include the new AI and Web Eraser tools, as well as options for controlling zoom levels, privacy settings, extension shortcuts and more.
These changes are all expected to debut in Safari 18, which will come to iOS 18 and macOS 15 and should make an appearance later in the year. They could be one of many AI-inspired alterations coming to Apple’s apps this June, with WWDC set to be packed full of AI announcements and new software features.
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Beyond this summer, AppleInsider says that Apple is working on another AI-enhanced feature called Visual Search that would let you look up consumer products in images. Like the existing Visual Lookup feature, it might be implemented system-wide, which could see it loaded into Safari, the Photos app, and more. However, it’s not expected to launch until 2025.
This year, though, could be a massive one for Apple’s apps and software. On the iPhone, iOS 18 is expected to be one of the largest overhauls in the operating system’s history, and macOS 15 might not be far behind. We’ve rounded up everything you need to know about what’s coming to WWDC 2024, and with the show just a few weeks away, there’s a lot to look forward to.
And while we won’t know anything for sure about iOS 18 until it’s unveiled – likely at WWDC 2024 on June 10 – we have a good idea of some possible features.
Below then, you’ll find the five best features tipped for iOS 18. These are things we’ve heard in leaks and rumors, so there’s a chance they won’t all happen, but it’s likely that many will.
1. An AI upgrade for Siri
Siri might get better with iOS 18 (Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
Whether you’re using iOS or Android, you’re likely to get a big taste of AI this year, and when it comes to iOS 18 specifically we’ve heard that Apple might be planning a major, AI-powered overhaul for Siri.
A leaker claims that this will turn it into the “ultimate virtual assistant,” but that this upgrade might only work on the upcoming iPhone 16 line and beyond, due to it needing dedicated hardware. So sadly, simply downloading iOS 18 on to your existing phone might not be enough.
The upgrades to Siri might include more natural conversation abilities and increased user personalization, according to leaker yeux1122 (via MacRumors). So it could turn a currently rather lacking digital assistant into one of the best.
2. An AI App Store
The App Store (Image credit: Apple)
Many – or perhaps all – of iOS 18’s native AI features will be handled on device according to leaks, which could improve the speed and privacy of these features, but might also limit their capabilities, as they can’t tap into the cloud.
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If this happens, then it’s likely we’ll see a large number of AI apps created for iOS 18 too, since they’ll be able to make use of this dedicated store.
3. Better home screen customization
The iPhone 15 (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
More specifically, users will apparently be able to “arrange icons more freely on iOS 18” according to MacRumors, and will have “the ability to create blank spaces, rows, and columns between app icons.”
This should allow for far more interesting and personalized home screen layouts, and we hope it will also come with some tweaks to the way apps are added to folders, so that you won’t accidentally move the folder half the time instead.
Either way, this should be the biggest change we’ve seen to the iPhone’s home screen in years.
Still, some aspects of the visionOS design may be incorporated, and while we’re not clear on exactly how iOS 18 will look, it’s sounding like it could really freshen up the interface, making it feel new in a way that other recent iOS releases haven’t.
5. Improved accessibility
(Image credit: Apple)
Making tech accessible to as many people as possible is vital, and iOS 18 could be making big strides in that area, thanks to some new and improved accessibility features.
Live Speech (which allows you to type a phrase and have your phone read it aloud) is also apparently being improved, with a new ‘categories’ section that lets you organize saved phrases into categories. You can already save commonly used phrases (so in future you just need to tap on them rather than type them), but with the categories system you should be able to more quickly find them.
US basketball star LeBron James has long been part of Beats’ history, during which time he’s also been known to leak upcoming products – and it looks like he may have done it again. The NBA legend was captured with what appears to be a brand new and unreleased Bluetooth speaker in a reel posted to Instagram (see below) by the LA Lakers. In it, you can clearly see the Pill-shaped speaker has a Beats logo – and it’s on a lanyard, which is something the most recent Beats Pill speaker didn’t have.
The Beats Pill Plus was killed off in January 2022, but it wouldn’t be up for consideration as one of the best Bluetooth speakers if it were still being sold today. It dated back to Apple‘s acquisition of Beats – it was the first Beats speaker to come with a Lightning port, which was Apple’s connector of choice at the time – and was considered by many to be overpriced at launch in 2015, never mind years later when Apple finally stopped selling it.
What we’d like to see in a new Beats Pill speaker
The Beats Pill Plus had a decent 12-hour battery life, but modern models go much better. One of our current picks, the Tribit Stormbox Flow, is good for 30 hours. But that’s not the biggest bit of the Beats speaker we’d expect to be upgraded. The Bluetooth of 2015 wasn’t a patch on the Bluetooth of today, and the best such speakers now deliver vastly improved sound quality through the use of newer, better codecs.
One of the best illustrations of how Bluetooth speakers have changed is when you compare our current favorite, the Sonos Roam, with the most recent Beats. The price is the same, because Sonos is another more premium brand. But that has up-to-date Bluetooth, Wi-Fi for even better streaming, multi-room audio support, Google Assistant and Alexa. It automatically switches between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, it has automatic room tuning and it sounds fantastic.
And that’s a model that’s about to be replaced: we’re expecting to see the Sonos Roam 2 this summer with even better Bluetooth and improved voice control. That’s likely to arrive this June – so for a new Beats to be a Sonos killer it needs to be something as awe-inspiring the legend currently carrying it. We’ll find out soon enough, because if this is indeed a bit of celebrity product placement then the actual product launch can’t be too far away.
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It’s fair to say the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra‘s cameras haven’t had the smoothest of launches since the phone came out – but it sounds as though a fix is on the way to deal with the final three outstanding problems.
As per serial tipster @UniverseIce (via SamMobile), Samsung‘s engineers are on the case with solutions for below-par telephoto image quality, inaccurate white balance problems, and issues with abnormal red coloring in some situations.
While we’ve not heard a huge number of complaints about these problems specifically, they are out there. However, it’s worth noting that no timeframe has been given for this next update.
In our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review, we were very impressed with the performance of the camera modules, as well as the handset overall. While we didn’t notice any major issues like the ones this rumored update will address, other users clearly have.
Third time lucky
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will improve many camera problems in the next “camera firmware update”, Including telephoto image quality, inaccurate white balance and abnormal red color.but they have not given an accurate timetable.I hope they can solve it in AprilApril 7, 2024
See more
You could say this is a case of third time lucky for Samsung and software updates for the Galaxy S24 camera: the first update in February improved shutter speed, video clarity, and automatic exposure and color selections.
Then we had a second update at the end of March, which included more improvements to camera quality and usability. One of those improvements was apparently to white balance – although this still seems to be a problem for some.
With so much image processing now done by smartphones after a photo is taken, there can be a wide variety of end results in terms of colors, brightness, white balance, and exposure. To some extent, it’s down to personal preference in how you want these settings managed – making it difficult for phone makers to please everyone simultaneously.
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However, for it to take months for a flagship phone’s camera to get up to its full potential isn’t ideal, and Samsung will be well aware of that. What’s more, the camera isn’t the only component that problems have been reported with.
Apple could finally launch new iPads in May, bringing in OLED panels and a brand-new iPad Air model.
Apple tipster and Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman said that his sources with insider knowledge of Apple’s plans note that “early May” is slated as a launch period for next-generation iPads.
It was previously thought new iPads would arrive in March or April, but Gurman reported that complications in OLED display manufacturing and getting the software ready for the new tablets led to delays in shipping.
As has been previously rumored, Apple is once again expected to launch new iPad Pro models that’ll sport OLED displays, while the so-called iPad Air 6 is tipped to get a refresh and a new 12.9-inch model that’ll offer a big-screened iPadOS experience without the need to splash the cash on the expensive 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
More power, slicker accessories
Gurman said the iPad Pros will be codenamed J717, J718, J720 and J721 and will make use of the Apple M3 chip – as seen in the latest MacBook Air 13-inch.
These next-gen iPad Pros are also expected to have a redesigned Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil. But exactly what form these tweaks will take wasn’t mentioned in Gurman’s latest report. One could posit new keyboard mechanisms and more flexibility in the keyboard’s positioning, and likely better sensitivity and precision with the Apple Pen.
The iPad Air upgrades are likely to be more on the chip side, potentially going for a M3, which would be a notable upgrade on the M1 chip the current iPad Air has. But an iPad Air with a larger display could be one way to give iPads a shot in the arm; as smartphones get bigger and foldable phones come to the fore, there’s arguably no need for 10.9-inch tablets, but one with a screen that’s nearly 13 inches could be a lot more appealing.
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If Apple does indeed launch new iPads in May, it would come a stone’s throw away from WWDC 2024, which will take place June 10 this year.
