By John Moltz
March 28, 2025 2:00 PM PT
This Week in Apple: The work is mysterious and important
Apple makes more executive moves, two rumor mongers go at it and the Watch may go through some changes.
Executives on shuffle
The new hot dance craze that’s sweeping the Apple nation is called the Executive Shuffle and Tim Cook is still cuttin’ a rug.
“Apple Leadership Reshuffle Continues as Company Appoints New Global Head of Stores”
Executive movements like this are not unusual in large companies and it’s usually a good thing when Apple promotes from within. So, congratulations to Apple’s Vanessa Trigub on her new role!
She started out at Apple as an intern around the launch of the original iPhone, and has since held roles in finance, mergers and acquisitions, and retail operations.
And that, dear reader, is when I crumbled to dust. “The iPhone launch?! But that was only… Dammit.”
Rumor rumble
Details of iOS 19 continue to drip out, enough to give some a very strong idea of what the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system will look like. And also enough for others to say they’re all wet. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says YouTuber Jon Prosser is wayyy off base.
“Gurman: Jon Prosser’s iOS 19 Mockups ‘Aren’t Representative’ of Redesign”
As the old adage goes, when two Apple rumor mongers fight, the real winner is the viewing public. Please search for your own “Let them fight” GIF. Do you like the text low and tight? Standard? Dramatically appearing down the left? Dramatically appearing down the left with perspective? So many to choose from.
According to Gurman, the images that are “floating around” are based on “very old builds” or “vague descriptions,” and are lacking key features. Gurman says that we can “expect more from Apple in June.”
Well, where’s the fun in that? “Hey, heyyy, everyone! Let’s just wait and see what Apple announces!” Get out of here with that nonsense. We’ve got wild speculating and flights of rendering fancy to do.
It does seem that iOS 19 will feature at least some substantial changes to interface elements, giving the operating system a new look if not completely overturning, sorry, the apple cart.
How has no one used “The Apple Cart” as the name of a rumor site yet?
The shatter-curious Apple Watch
The rumor mill also turns for the Apple Watch and it brings sad news for fans of plastic (I assume they exist, I’m not checking). According to Gurman, it is looking less likely that Apple will produce a plastic Apple Watch SE because:
The design team doesn’t like the look, and the operations team is finding it difficult to make the casing materially cheaper than the current aluminum chassis…
If you’re lamenting the potential loss of fun, colorful, plastic Apple Watches for the kids, remember that Apple is perfectly capable of making aluminum Watches in cool colors and its current SE offerings are black, silver, and vaguely goldish.
OK, so plastic Apple Watches are off the table. What about ones made entirely of glass? Based, it seems, on an Apple patent filing, a Chinese leaker says the company could be working on a Watch that Jony Ive might love even more than one plated in gold.
Still, don’t hold your breath.
The Chinese leaker provided no evidence to back their claim.
So what else might be coming to Apple Watches? Two words: Ay. Eye.
Apple is exploring the idea of adding cameras and visual intelligence features to its smartwatch…
So, instead of having to take your phone out to point it at something and have Visual Intelligence maybe tell you what it is or why it’s significant, you can just point your wrist at it. There’s some utility to that but, honestly, as far as future Apple offerings so I kind of wish the company would actually sell the Lumon Terminal Pro that it coyly added to the Mac options on its online store.
I have a lot of feelings about numbers.
[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.]