By John Moltz
March 7, 2025 2:00 PM PT
This Week in Apple: Talk to ya later
Big week as Apple releases new hardware and takes on the UK government. Meanwhile, if you were holding your breath for new Siri, well, you’re probably dead already so…
Blue-ish
We once again gather together to celebrate the announcement of new Apple hardware! Mazel tov!
The iPad Air just looks like you. The Mac Studio has your nose. Please feel free to add your own birth-related jokes.
Yes, Apple made a host of announcements this week, starting with new iPads and iPad Airs. Turns out Tim Cook was right, there was something in the air. Also probably something in the water, thanks to the gutting of the EPA.
Ha-ha!
Uhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
And that was just Tuesday. On Wednesday Apple announced new M4-based MacBook Airs (don’t mind if I do) and new M4 Max and—am I reading this right?—M3 Ultra-based Mac Studios.
Naturally, being the spoiled Apple customers we are, we questioned everything. New iPad Airs? Already? No Apple Intelligence for the base iPad? Why do they get so lucky? Why is there an M3 Ultra-based Mac Studio? What’s up with that? Where’s my MacBook Air with a C1 modem? You call that blue?
We must be exhausting to deal with.
One thing no one complained about was that, in a very much precedented move, Apple lowered the starting price of the MacBook Air, putting it once again just one dollar shy of a grand. Yes, in this economy.
While the MacBook Air colors are more like someone implied the existence of a particular color to you from across the room, the new iPads, iPhone cases and Watch bands are in actual colors that you can easily identify with standard-issue human eyes instead of those of a bee or butterfly.
Apple is always trying to increase the amount of its own dog food that it eats (gross), but it turns out that the modem in iPad is not the C1 but is instead from their old friends Qualcomm. Expect, however, that the C1 will be used in more and more devices, as Apple continues to pour water on its dog food to make its own gravy.
It’s a weird but fun analogy.
Across the pond
OK, you didn’t hear this from me, buuut Apple is reportedly fighting the alleged demand from the UK government for a backdoor to iCloud, the existence of which we are not legally allowed to confirm without killing you.
The request, not iCloud. You can know about iCloud.
For now.
“Apple drags UK government to court over ‘backdoor’ order”
The Home Office refused to either confirm or deny the existence of the notice…
Well, the one bit of news out of the UK that we can talk about is that our long wait is over.
“King Charles Releasing His Own Apple Music Playlist”
That’s “King Charles III”. Just “King Charles” if you’re nasty. The artist formerly known as the Prince of Wales.
In Apple’s press release, his Royal Badness is quoted as saying:
Throughout my life, music has meant a great deal to me. I know that is also the case for so many others.
Indeed. Hear, hear. Quite so. Yes.
Conversation delayed
Last but not least, Apple has officially confirmed that conversational Siri is going to take a bit longer than it had expected. But not necessarily longer than the rest of us expected.
While the rumor had been swirling around for weeks, John Gruber was able to extract a statement from Apple PR that, after talking about how everyone loves Siri, says:
It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.
Bad news on a Friday? And here I thought it was Thursday’s child that has far to go.
[John Moltz is a Six Colors contributor. You can find him on Mastodon at Mastodon.social/@moltz and he sells items with references you might get on Cotton Bureau.]