Surprise iPhone Cancellation Rumor | Apple’s Alarming Health Feature

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Hi there, and welcome to AppleUnboxed. This week, we’ll be looking at a surprise iPhone cancellation, dive into a recent Apple health feature, and discuss the merits of iPhone unlock mechanisms. Plus, cool links from around the web and a one-minute review. Come on in.

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February 24th, 2021

Front and Center: The Latest Apple News

Is Apple About To Cancel Its Coolest iPhone?

There are rumors just now that Apple’s latest iPhone innovation is about to be short-lived. The iPhone 12 mini, a smartphone designed for smaller hands, launched last October and was in many ways the groundbreaker of the iPhone 12 series. In a chassis not much bigger than the original iPhone from 2007 but with a 5.4-inch OLED screen crammed in, the handset boasts the same blazing-fast A14 processor as the other models in the range.

That display is actually the highest-resolution screen ever on an iPhone, yet the phone, which also sports the super-tough Ceramic Shield on the front and 5G connectivity, manages to be the best-value iPhone 12 model, priced at $699 and up.

So, should Apple give up on a compact flagship like this one? I’d say not. While it’s true that there was one noticeable flaw in the current mini - the battery life didn’t match others in the range—it was still enough to get most users through a day.

Actually, in my review, the only thing that put me off was getting used to typing on the relatively small keyboard. And it is certainly the best choice for those wanting a compact handset – from any brand.

It’s true that the size is so different from every other phone on the market that at first it looks like a dinky little toy. But oh, how your hand thanks you for not being stretched when you hold it for any length of time, and the edge-to-edge screen is easily big enough, if not quite as magisterial as the 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max.

But the lightness! The lack of pocket-stretch! The sheer cuteness of it! All help the iPhone 12 mini stand out. If sales weren’t quite as stellar as those of other iPhones, well, quality counts as well as quantity, doesn’t it?

And if it doesn’t match sales of the Pro Max, may I remind you that size isn’t everything?

All is not lost, not yet at least. There are also persistent rumors that this Fall Apple will launch four new iPhones, just as it did in 2020. If so, I’d bet that one of them will be a mini version of some kind.

A gentle pivot for the MacBook Pro may be on the way

The latest rumor for Apple’s most advanced laptop suggests something’s about to happen that will please those who feel there’s not enough connectivity on the MacBook Pro.

Currently, you can have any connection as long as it’s USB-C (or a 3.5mm headphone jack). But it looks like the next model, if the reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from TF International Securities is right, will include an HDMI socket and see the return of the SD card slot.

This slot, which used to allow camera memory cards transfer photos and video at speed, was removed in late 2016. At the time, Apple’s Philip Schiller,then-SVP of Worldwide Marketing, said this, when I asked why it had been removed. “Because of a couple of things. One, it’s a bit of a cumbersome slot. You've got this thing sticking halfway out. Then there are very fine and fast USB card readers, and then you can use CompactFlash as well as SD. So, we could never really resolve this—we picked SD because more consumer cameras have SD but you can only pick one. So, that was a bit of a trade-off. And then more and more cameras are starting to build wireless transfer into the camera. That’s proving very useful. We think there’s a path forward where you can use a physical adaptor if you want, or do wireless transfer.”

This change of heart will be seen as a U-turn by some, but most will cheer the return of the SD card slot, cumbersome or not.

Previous rumors have also told us that the next MacBook Pro will also lose the Touch Bar, that touch-sensitive strip sitting where the function keys usually do. Personally, I love the Touch Bar, but I know it’s not to everyone’s taste.

Thoughts on these matters? Drop me a line: appleunboxed@forbes.com.

This Changes Everything: An In-Depth Look at Apple’s innovations

Apple’s latest Health feature is better than it looks—but there’s one thing to watch out for

One of the latest new health and fitness extras for the Apple Watch and iPhone arrived in December, but it might have slipped underneath your radar.

That’s because it landed at the exact same time as the headline-grabbing Apple Fitness+, the classy subscription service with strength, core, yoga and dance classes.

The other new element is Cardio Fitness. It’s available on Apple Watch Series 3, 4, 5, 6 and Apple Watch SE, running watch OS 7.2 and later.

It’s really a measure of something called VO2 Max – that’s the maximum volume of oxygen your body can use. It’s a cardiovascular measurement and is widely thought to be a pretty good indicator of overall physical health. The Apple Watch measures it when you’re walking, running or hiking and can predict your VO2 Max level in minutes.

Of course, this being Apple, you don’t need to know any of that to get the most out of this feature. But you do need to go to the Health app on your iPhone to check out how you’re doing. And that’s where we get to two things, one cool, the other alarming.

The cool thing is that the Apple Watch has been able to record VO2 Max levels for years, but it’s only just now that Apple has put it front-and-center in the Health app. This means that if you’ve been a Watch user for some time, you can scroll back to compare your cardio health then and now. I’ve gone back as far as November 2017.

To see the data, you launch the Health app, where you’ll see a Summary of different metrics, headed up by your chosen Favorites. If Cardio Fitness doesn’t appear, just tap Edit and tap the star next to Cardio Fitness in the list that shows up.

The other thing, the alarming one, has to do with the layout of the app. Imagine, if you will, the panic that swept through me the first time I opened the app and saw a chart of red lines on a red background with the word “High” in big letters. “Oh no,” I thought, “my reading is high—that doesn’t look good.” Of course, it turns out that high cardio fitness is absolutely desirable, as I realized when I compared it to earlier readings which had been Above Average. It’s just something about the color red in this context that was momentarily confusing—couldn’t Apple have chosen a more encouraging color—green, perhaps—to reassure me?

Things Nobody Told You

#1 Apple Fitness+ is about healthier as well as fitter—according to the director in charge

Apple’s latest addition to Apple Fitness+ is Time to Walk, which encourages Apple Watch users to go out for a walk in the virtual company of a special guest who talks a little about their life and shares some favorite tracks. Shawn Mendes and Dolly Parton are among the first guests and there’s something especially intimate about going for a walk while listening to them doing the same thing.

Before the service launched, I had an exclusive chat with Jay Blahnik, Apple’s director of Fitness and Health technologies, who told me about the concept of Apple Fitness+: “It's great when fitness makes you a faster runner, but we've always felt that what fitness can do best of all is help you live longer, help you live a better day, help you be healthier. It really contributes to that broader goal for us: Our health efforts are in service of a healthier life, not just a fitter life.”

What’s Next? The hottest Apple rumors

Apple never reveals what’s coming next until it actually announces it, but it looks like there could be an Apple Special Event this Spring. If so, and it’ll doubtless be virtual this time around, it will likely fall in Apple’s preferred time slot of late March.

There have already been rumors of a March 16 event, though the date has since been pooh-poohed. However, check the denial carefully: It only rules out that one date, not the whole month, so, keep the faith.

What would be on the agenda for such an event? Well, there are strong rumors of a new iPad Pro with a completely fresh kind of tech in the display: miniLED. Various supply chain rumors have hinted that the in-ear headphones, AirPods and AirPods Pro, are going to be updated in the coming months, so one of those could be alongside a new iPad Pro.

Oh, and there’s a chance March might finally see the announcement of the highly anticipated AirTags – tiny location trackers to help you find your stuff. I’ll be covering all these items before they’re finally revealed, here and at forbes.com.

The 1-minute review

Just in case the iPhone 12 mini isn’t being renewed this fall—though my guess is it will be—here’s a 60-second review of the powerful compact.

Smartphones keep getting bigger and bigger. Trouble is, our hands are staying the same size—human evolution isn’t quite as speedy as phone evolution. Smartphone manufacturers tend to save the most cutting-edge features for their biggest and priciest handsets.

Which is where the iPhone 12 mini is unusual. The phone, which is smaller than the iPhone SE and not that much bigger than the original iPhone from 2007, has the identical super-fast processor found in other iPhone 12 models. It matches the cameras on the iPhone 12 and it has the same drop-resistant Ceramic Shield instead of display glass. It even beats other iPhone 12 models in terms of screen resolution – this phone has the highest pixel density of any iPhone, ever. Oh, and it has 5G connectivity.

Are there any downsides? Well, the battery life is adequate rather than exceptional though it should get you through the day, and if you’re used to big screens then typing on the 5.4inch display here is a bit of a re-learning curve.

But it feels great in even the smallest hand and it’s more affordable than the rest of the iPhone 12 range, starting at $699.

Don't Miss This: Cool Stuff from Forbes and beyond

The Most Timely iPhone Update Yet: Unlocking your iPhone with Face ID while wearing a mask is tricky. Now, Apple has devised a super-fast way to do it… if you also have an Apple Watch.

PS5 scalpers: If you’ve been wanting to buy a Sony PlayStation 5 but found it out of stock or your price range, maybe it’s down to scalpers. This is a great analysis of the situation by Forbes’ excellent Janhoi McGregor.

Folding phones head-to-head: The brilliant Britta O’Boyle compares the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 to the
just-revealed Huawei Mate X2, here at Pocket-lint.

Well, this is useful: Twitter has just relaunched its experimental feature designed to save your blushes. If it detects the tweet you’re about to send could be harmful or offensive, it’ll invite you to revise before sending. Details here.

Apple overtaken: While it’s true that the Apple Watch is in the vanguard for health metrics, it seems Samsung has just leap-frogged it by adding blood pressure monitoring to two recent Galaxy Watch models.

One More Thing

Which is better: Face ID or Touch ID? Maybe we can have both.

If you have an iPhone with Face ID, chances are you’ll think nostalgically about the days when you could open your phone with your thumb. You may especially think of this if you’re wearing a mask – although Apple is about to release a brilliant solution to this, if you’re also an Apple Watch user.

So, how about both? After all, every current iPhone apart from the SE has Face ID, and we know from the latest iPad Air that Apple has the skills to build Touch ID into a power button. Not to mention the range of rumors that Apple will introduce an underscreen fingerprint sensor soon, something rivals have had for several years.

Mask-wearing apart, do we really need both technologies at the same time?

Well, Touch ID was always better for that furtive peep at your emails under the desk at a meeting. Or for when the phone is on the desk but just beyond Face ID’s recognition zone. Tapping the Touch ID button is quicker than picking the phone up. Plus, the iPad Air can be set so resting your finger on the Touch ID button is the most seamless interaction of any Apple device, taking you not just to the Lock screen but beyond it to your last app.

So, yes please, Apple—I don’t mean to be greedy but both would be my favorite.

Comments, questions or complaints? All are welcome. Well, maybe the complaints not so much, but try me. Drop me a line at appleunboxed@forbes.com.

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Surprise iPhone Cancellation Rumor | Apple’s Alarming Health Feature | Face ID vs Touch ID

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