receive to our hebdomadal Apple Breakfast column , which include all the Apple news you missed last week in a ready to hand pungency - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of deep brown or afternoon tea , but it ’s cool if you need to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too .
Apples are not the only fruit
It ’s been an funny and rather underwhelming fall for Apple watchers ( and watches ) . Normally the hottest time of year at Cupertino , this September and October get a line a conservative set of iPhone update , an even more conservative set of Apple Watch updates , and one of the briefest andleast dramatic Mac unveilsin days . These are all high-pitched - timber products , but they be exceedingly pocket-size betterment on the one already available from Apple ’s store . Tricks have outnumbered goody , and fireworks have been in brusque provision .
Given that the speech sound and watches have been on sale for just a few calendar week and the Macs are still at the pre - order stage , it remains to be seen how the marketplace will reply to these less - than - globe - shattering announcement . perhaps , as Apple presumptively desire , customers will feel that an iMac with a new central processing unit and precisely zero other upgrades on the 2021 model is exactly what they ’re look for , that danger - devoid , glacially iterated smartphones are just the just the ticket , that smartwatches which make the most fractional improvements on their forerunner are just what the doctor ordered . Maybe , to those who are make up - up inhabitants of the Apple ecosystem , there simply are n’t any appealing alternative from the worlds of Windows , Android , and WearOS . But I distrust that exuberance will begin to wane .
Indeed , there is grounds that even before these announcement ebullience was show a finite resource . Near the end of last workweek , Apple reportedanother quarterly dip , with iPhone receipts slightly up but almost every other section trending crisply down . late Mac sales , by Apple ’s high standards , make ugly recitation , down a whopping 34 pct on the same menses last twelvemonth .
The truth is that Apple has been testing customers ’ patience for a while now , and these sorts of numbers should n’t come as a immense surprise to anyone . This spring there was no insistency event at all , not because the company require to play it coolheaded but because there was genuinely nothing of interest to talk about . Last year ’s Apple Watch Ultra was an interesting enough launch but was clearly doom for ecological niche solicitation , while the Series 8 was the sort of leaden , by - the - numbers game iteration we ’ve grown to expect . The iPhone department has n’t crusade itself in years , the iPad has been phoning it in for some time , and as for the Mac … I was arguing back in January that the rush of Apple siliconwas already gone . But perhaps more importantly , Apple has at the same time beenpushing up priceswherever it can , at a time of widespread financial anxiety .
The company has been carry , in other tidings , like the self-satisfied knight possessor in a one - gymnastic horse town . And now it ’s acting surprised that some formerly loyal customers have go out and bought mules .
The clannish and mutually incompatible nature of a lot of forward-looking technology leads to inertia when switching from one political program or provider to another . If you own a Mac and an iPhone , it takes a lot to push you into buying a Samsung smartwatch . And Apple knows and understand this phenomenon better than anyone ; hence the celebrated walled garden .
But the downside of that walled - garden impression is that you do n’t really do it how unpopular your announcements are until too late . When Apple is reported asmistreating its employee , the PR result are n’t going to immediately show up on a balance canvass , but that does n’t mean they do n’t subsist . The same is reliable when a hemipteran causes iPhones to arbitrarily shut down , an expensive leather - substitute case proves to be woefully substandard , oryet another stupid donglecomes along demanding our money . Dozens of low irritations , medium - sized embarrassments , major missteps , all ignore at the meter because they did n’t seem to weigh … until finally when the snowflakes have combined into an avalanche , you discover that your receipts is through the storey and it ’s too recent to change course .
Everything , of class , is relative . Other companies would kill for Apple ’s “ disappointing ” revenue numbers , and there was some unspoiled news in the latest composition : the Services section is thrive , which augurs well for life after the iPhone . What ’s more , a lot of the company ’s developmental unease can be traced to the resources being funnel into Vision Pro , which should bring fireworks of sorting – albeit in very minor numbers at first – when it lands next year . Apple is not doomed . But it would do well to remember that customer loyalty can not be take for granted . And that the horse looked irreplaceable until someone manufacture the motorcar .
Foundry
There weremore conjuration than treatsat Apple’sScary Mac consequence .
Dan Moren has uneartheda few ‘ Fast ’ factsAppledidn’t want to tell us .
The iMac finally got itsM3 update . Itdeserved well .
Jason Cross dig out upsix hidden iPhone 15 featuresyou ask todiscover decent now .
TheTouch Barisfinally dead .
Michael Simon explain why youshould ( or should n’t ) upgradeto thenew M3 MacBook Pro .
The only Apple devices thatshould have USB - Cstill do n’t .
Podcast of the week
Apple held itsScary quick eventand on this installment of the Macworld Podcast , we talk about the treats it just handed out ! M3 MacBook Pros , a new iMac , and more ! It ’s all on this show !
you’re able to view every sequence of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own site .
Reviews corner
The rumor mill
Breakthrough wellness featuresare tipped to arrive in theApple Watch Series 10 .
The Mac case is over but the‘Scary ’ releaseswillkeep coming in November .
Software updates, bugs, and problems
Linux developer have stumbled on amacOS bugthat makesMacBooks ‘ unbootable ’ .
Apple has amystery AirTag update — but you probablywon’t get it for a while .
iOS 17.1.1has beenspotted in the wild(by which we intend “ visiting Macworld ” ) , as its release look to be imminent .
