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The big rumours ahead of Wednesday’s Apple event
Shane DingmanReal Estate Reporter

This article was published more than 10 years ago. Some information may no longer be current.

It’s time for another Apple Inc. press event. There are usually two a year; in a hot year there could be three or four.

This is the third of 2015: The Apple Watch reintroduction in March, the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June and, this fall, the iPhone event.

Lately, the rumour sites have been cracking Apple’s cone of silence and prereleasing a lot of details. We knew all about the Watch before we ever saw it in 2014, and we also knew the company would have a bigger iPhone (we didn’t know there’d be two bigger iPhones).

So, here’s a handy scorecard: If you see any of these devices Wednesday, mark it down and raise a glass to the supply-channel spies, confidence betrayers and all the other Apple Whisperers out there dedicated to predicting one company’s products.




Bigger “pro” iPad

Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac referred to the new 12.9-inch screen (diagonal measure) as a “monster” that will allow the new iPad to run two apps side by side in landscape mode.

This would mark a bit of a revolution for Apple, the “full-screen” app view pioneered on the iPhone and original iPad have become industry standard for mobile (although Microsoft has allowed “snapped” multi-app screens since Windows 8).

Allegedly, there will also be a stylus and a keyboard for those pros.

Remember what Steve Jobs said about the stylus back in 2007? “You have to get ’em, and put ’em away and you lose ’em, yuck. Nobody wants a stylus.”




iPhone 6s

The “s” iPhones have come to be associated with disappointing technological incrementalism: The 3Gs was basically just a faster 3G, the 4s introduced Siri and the 5s featured Apple’s first fingerprint sensor. The alleged 6s is supposed to introduce “force touch” to the iPhone, although it is allegedly to be called “3D Touch Display.”

This is the pressure-sensitive tech that allows Apple to offer an additional layer of user experience – tap or press hard to execute a command – on its Watch and some MacBooks. Currently, Apple’s iOS supports single or multifinger swiping to cycle through different controls; the risk is these extra interface options could increase the learning curve for new and old iOS users. Also, it may have a new on-board camera that can shoot video in 4K resolution.



(Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail)

Apple TV

There have been so many rumours for so many years that Apple was poised to come in and truly disrupt the smart TV, that we would not be surprised if there was nothing new on this front.

But if the rumours on BuzzFeed come true, Apple is planning on a three-pronged update to the puck-shaped Apple TV box: new controller with touch controls (and possibly a microphone so you can use Siri to search), new support for third-party apps on your TV (like games!) and maybe signs of a streaming media service. There have been rumours that Apple is looking to produce its own original TV content, but there have been counter rumours that it won’t announce that this year.



(Kin Cheung/AP)

The rest

Supposedly a thinner iPad mini, supposedly some new Apple Watch bands and a very slim chance of an updated MacBook Air. If any of those hit the stage, give yourself a point.

Things get going at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT and you can watch a livestream on your Apple device at this link: www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2015/.