Apple plans to release an Apple Watch Series 8 model with a larger battery this year, according to a recent report.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman believes that Apple is working on an "extreme sports" version of the Apple Watch that offers a larger display that is almost two-inches in size, improved impact resistance, and a larger battery. Gurman said that the larger battery could enable longer workout times, while the larger display could show more on-screen fitness metrics at a time.
While Apple Watch enthusiasts have clamoured for longer battery life in recent years, the other two Apple Watch Series 8 models are expected to be akin to the existing 41mm and 45mm Apple Watch Series 7 models, and there have been no rumors of battery size increases for these new devices. Nevertheless, there are reports of a new Low Power Mode for the Apple Watch Series 8 that could help prolong battery life on all of the new models.
The Apple Watch Series 5's internal battery.
It is not yet known how much bigger the high-end Apple Watch's battery will be this year, but all of the current and previous Apple Watch models have boasted an "all-day" 18-hour battery life. A larger battery may also help the new, high-end Apple Watch justify its price point. Gurman claims that it could cost in the range of $900 to $999.
The new sport-focused version of the Apple Watch is expected to be sold alongside the standard Apple Watch Series 8 planned for later this year and the Apple Watch SE, which is also expected to see a refresh in 2022. Aside from a larger body and more durable casing, the Apple Watch sport edition will function the same as other Apple Watches and will get the same new features coming to the Series 8.
Rumors suggest the Apple Watch Series 8 will feature an "S8" chip that's similar to the S7 and the S6 before that, along with new health features that would let users monitor their body temperature. For more on everything coming to the Apple Watch Series 8, see our dedicated Apple Watch Series 8 guide.
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
The Apple Watch Series 5's internal battery.
