Apple last week debuted new Smart Battery Cases designed for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, with each case adding 50 percent additional battery life to its respective iPhone.
Noted repair site iFixit and Creative Electron today did an x-ray teardown of the new battery cases to take a quick glimpse at what's inside and how the near camera button feature works.
Compared to last year's battery cases, the new cases have a camera button on the right side that's designed to open the camera when it's pressed. With the Camera app open, pressing the button takes a photo, and holding it down takes a QuickTake video.
According to iFixit's x-rays, the camera button works though a little circuit board in the case, which has a thin, flexible circuit that runs to the photo button. The circuit board is designed to connect to the camera button through the Lightning port at the bottom of the case.
The button is designed to be just a bit recessed to prevent it from activating in a pocket or a bag, and you do need to hold it down for just a bit to open the camera app to begin with. All in all, it's a useful little feature that adds some nice utility to the Smart Battery Case.
There's little else of interest in the x-ray, but the inductive charging coil is visible, as is the 10.9v battery and other internal circuitry that makes the case functional.
For more on Apple's Smart Battery Cases for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, make sure to check out our guide.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman expects Apple to release new AirPods Pro this year, and he said the earbuds will have a key new feature: heart rate monitoring.
From his Power On newsletter today, with emphasis added:As for Apple's other devices, there's a lot in the fall pipeline — though many of the new products are only incremental upgrades.
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Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models:
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Apple will offer the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max in a new orange color, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
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Given that the iPhone 17 Air is expected to have ...
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Apple will hold its annual iPhone-centric event on Tuesday, September 9 at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, according to an announcement that went out today. The event will start at 10:00 a.m., with select members of the media invited to attend.
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By the time the Ultra 3 is unveiled, it will have been two years since the previous model arrived. The intervening period has left plenty of room for enhancements,...
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Apple today announced its "Awe Dropping" iPhone-centric event, which is set to take place on Tuesday, September 9 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. There are a long list of products that are coming, but we thought we'd pull out five feature highlights to look forward to.
That Super Thin iPhone - Apple's September 9 event will see the unveiling of the first redesigned iPhone we've had in years, ...
Tuesday August 26, 2025 4:05 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple hasn't updated the AirPods Pro since 2022 other than a shift from Lightning to USB-C, and the earbuds are due for a refresh. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple will launch AirPods Pro 3 later this year, and apart from new features like heart rate monitoring, we're also expecting a few design changes.
The fourth‑generation AirPods offer useful clues to Apple's design cues for ...
They should keep the entire back at the same thickness level and put in another battery in an L shape above the two batteries that are in the case right now.
That would break their hinged method of getting the case on and off easily.
They should keep the entire back at the same thickness level and put in another battery in an L shape above the two batteries that are in the case right now.
Too bad Apple didn't keep going and add a headphone jack and SD card slot for external store capability added to iOS 13 and USB C fast charge and transfer port and they would have sold them like gangbusters. Also they should release an updated version with the camera button for their older devices.
I still think the iPhone 12 should come without a battery at all and be super thin and allow the user to buy a thin, thick, massive or power cell battery case.
Keeping with the same theme, they should drop storage to 1gb, because the cloud. Who needs all that old fashioned local storage when there is a giant cloud in the sky so hungry to soak up all our data???
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
