This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary.Today: iPhone 17 and 18 AI upgrades, ‘Apple Vision Air’ release timing, and iOS 18.5’s upcoming hidden features.Here are this week’s Apple rumors.
iPhone 17 and 18 memory upgrades for AI Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station posted a pair of updates this week related to Apple’s next two iPhone cycles.He writes that the full iPhone 17 line will get 12GB of RAM, an upgrade previously thought exclusive to the Pro models.This is believed to be Apple Intelligence-related.
Additionally, next year’s iPhone 18 series will reportedly use a new LPDDR5X technology for its memory, which would bring speed increases, greater reliability, and reduced power consumption.My takeaways Memory upgrades aren’t at all a surprise for Apple’s future iPhones.We’ve seen the company make similar moves across other products, including the lower-cost iPhone 16e and base iPhone 16.
I’m especially eager to see what kind of Apple Intelligence upgrades are coming in iOS 19 and 20 that will justify beefing up the iPhone’s RAM.Apple Vision Air could launch this year Recently several leaks pointed to Apple developing a new ‘Vision Air’ product as a lighter, cheaper follow-up to the Vision Pro.This week, Mark Gurman affirmed Apple’s ongoing work on the device, and shared new details around timing: he expects it to launch “between the end of this year and the first half of 2026.” My takeaways It’s wild to me that Gurman thinks Vision Air could launch this year, when until recently he seemed to paint Apple’s Vision products team as being aimless and unsure which product to build next.
I also have a hard time believing the product could be ready so soon solve two of Vision Pro’s biggest problems: weight and price.Perhaps prior reporting on future Vision products has been off the mark, and Apple has been quietly preparing the Vision Air for a while now.iOS 18.5 upcoming features iOS 18.5 is getting close to a public launch, and so far new features have remained very hard to find in the betas.
However, based on reporting from Mark Gurman and Aaron Perris, we may see several additions arrive just in time for the launch: Apple Intelligence support in China New Pride wallpapers and possibly some other new wallpapers My takeaways Apple needs something to headline the iOS 18.5 release notes when the update ships, and these additions could be solid candidates.As much as I’d love to see a bigger crop of new features, with iOS 19 right around the corner, it’s no surprise that we’re in store for a smaller release with 18.5.What are your takeaways from this week’s Apple rumors? Let us know in the comments.
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