Apple Loop: New iPhone Leaks, Curved iPhone Confirmed, MacBook Cancelled, The Wizard Steve Jobs

Taking a look back at another week of news and headlines from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes leaked iPhone specs, details of the new iPhone circuit board, Tim Cook’s smartphone features that will ‘blow us away’, the cancelled MacBook and the updated MacBook Pro, testing FaceID for iCloud access, fixing the secret Zoom server, and why Steve Jobs was a wizard.
Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can find the weekly Android news digest here).
iPhone 11 Circuit Board Leak Reveals Secrets
Thanks to the leaked circuit board of the upcoming iPhone 11, it’s possible to see the changes that Apple will be making to the flagship smartphones. Apart from a slight increase in battery capacity, there’s not much change on offer from 2018’s handsets. Forbes’ Gordon Kelly explains:
At face value, the alteration seems minor: Apple is moving from the L-shaped logic board inside both the iPhone X and iPhone XS, to a more compact, stacked rectangular design. And what the new design enables Apple to do is fit much larger batteries than the iPhone XS (Koroy states 15-20% larger) which will drive the leap from 4G to 5G as well as providing the extra capacity to compensate for reverse wireless charging devices like AirPods.
…Does all this clever circuitry mean you should now buy the iPhone 11? Absolutely not. While it looks set to deliver improved battery life, the real benefits will only be reaped in 2020 when Apple catches up to rivals with 5G. Moreover, don’t expect an iPhone 11 to hold its price when you eventually sell it in a 5G world. That’s why the smart money waits.

Tim Cook opens the Apple's annual product launch, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018, at company headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Digital First Media/The Mercury News via Getty Images)
Tim Cook opens the Apple's annual product launch, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018, at company headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Digital First Media/The Mercury News via Getty Images)
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Where’s The New In The 2019 iPhone?
The big problem Apple has, which the circuit board lead confirms it, is that there’s nothing genuinely new in the 2019 iPhone family. Specs are bumped up to maintain parity with Android, new features (such as reverse wireless charging) finally reach the iPhone, but there’s nothing here that could significantly increase Apple’s revenue, as I noted earlier this week: