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Category: iPhone 15

Apple prepping Live Speech, Personal Voice as part of iOS 17 accesibility features, could recreate a user’s voice after 15 minutes of training

This could be pretty amazing.

As part of its preview of forthcoming iOS 17 accessibility updates due later this year, Apple has announced a pair of new features called Live Speech and Personal Voice. Live Speech allows users to type what they want to say and have it be spoken out.

The Personal Voice feature, interestingly enough, allows users who are at risk of losing their ability to speak to create and save a voice that sounds like them. Apple says it’s designed for people at risk of losing their ability to speak, such as those with a recent diagnosis of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

Apple has offered the following description of the Live Speech feature:

With Live Speech on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, users can type what they want to say to have it be spoken out loud during phone and FaceTime calls as well as in-person conversations. Users can also save commonly used phrases to chime in quickly during lively conversation with family, friends, and colleagues. Live Speech has been designed to support millions of people globally who are unable to speak or who have lost their speech over time.

Apple has stated that using the Personal Voice feature, users will be prompted to read along with a randomized set of text prompts to record 15 minutes of audio on iPhone or iPad. Using on-device machine learning, the iPhone or iPad can then create a voice that sounds like them.

The voice feature can then integrate with Live Speech, allowing users to speak using their Personal Voice in FaceTime calls and other conversations.

Apple says that these new accessibility features will start rolling out later this year. In addition to Live Speech and Personal Voice, Apple has announced a number of other new accessibility features as well.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via 9to5Mac

May 18, 2023
Rumor: iPhone 15 Pro Max may be the only iPhone model to feature a periscope lens this year

Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max handset, due later this year, will be the first and only model to feature the rumored periscope lens.

According to noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Kuo stated that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will be the only one to sport the feature in the generation.

The comment supports a previous rumor isolating the periscope lens to the high-end model. Periscope lenses use a prism and a series of lenses to increase the optical zoom capabilities of a device, without greatly impacting the thickness. By angling light 90 degrees, the camera can provide better zoom levels without making an iPhone thicker, for example.

For the iPhone 16 Pro handset, Kuo says the display size will be slightly larger than the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro models, increasing internal space and allowing a periscope camera to be included in both the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max.

Kuo also noted that compact camera module supplier Cowell is likely to see orders for its components for future generations of iPhone camera components as well as expected increases in revenue for the company.

Cowell will also be a big supplier for CCMs in the second-gen headsets, Kuo thinks, with an expected supply ratio of “at least 70-80” percent.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via AppleInsider and Medium

May 17, 2023
Foxconn reports 56 percent profit shortfall for Q1 2023, offers modest financial expectations for the year

The numbers aren’t where Foxconn, Apple’s primary supplier, would like them to be.

Foxconn recently reported a 56 percent decline for its first-quarter net profit, a number that represented its largest quarterly decline in three years, the company falling far short of forecasts.

During the January-March quarter, Foxconn disclosed a decline in net profit to T$12.8 billion ($417.17 million) from T$29.45 billion in the corresponding period last year, which was significantly below the average projection of T$29.18 billion in profit by analysts, according to Reuters.

Foxconn attributed a significant portion of the T$17.3 billion markdown linked to its ownership stake of 34 percent in the Japanese electronics company Sharp Corp.

“Going forward we will work harder on the management of our investment businesses,” Foxconn Chairman Liu Young-way said on an earnings call, pointing to the Sharp loss. However, Liu said visibility on Foxconn’s outlook for the year was limited, and the company maintains a conservative outlook.

During the conference call, Chief Financial Officer David Huang, stated that inventory levels were above the norm, and that the company was adjusting to bring them down to a relatively low level by the end of the current quarter.

Foxconn anticipates a year-over-year decrease in revenue for its primary consumer electronics products in the second quarter, which constitute over half of its total revenue. Additionally, the company revised its forecast for cloud and networking products in 2023, now expecting them to remain flat instead of experiencing significant growth as previously predicted.

While overall revenues for the company are projected to decline in the second quarter, Foxconn maintains its full-year forecast of flat revenues. The Apple supplier is also continuing its efforts to expand outside of China, acquiring land in India and Vietnam for large-scale facilities.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via AppleInsider and Reuters

May 12, 2023
Rumor: Apple developing next-gen iPhone with microLED display

The next generation of iPhone could feature a beauteous microLED display.

According to noted supply chain publication website DigiTimes, Apple plans to release an iPhone with a microLED display in the future. This display technology would allow for higher brightness, decreased power consumption, improved contrast ratio, and other benefits compared to current iPhones with OLED displays.

The article, which is located behind a paywall, claims that a next-gen Apple Watch Ultra will be the first Apple device to switch to microLED, followed by the iPhone and iPad:

Starting with Apple Watch, Apple plans to further introduce microLED display to iPhone and iPad. Some sources from IT industry forecast that Apple Watch Ultra will no longer use existing OLED display by end-2024 or 2025 as it will be replaced by Apple’s self-developed microLED display.

The Apple Watch Ultra with a microLED display might not arrive until 2025, and an iPhone with microLED might still be several years away. All four iPhone 15 models coming later this year are expected to stick with OLED displays.

Apple is still transitioning to OLED displays. The first Apple device with an OLED display was the original Apple Watch, followed by the iPhone X, and the first iPad and Mac models with OLED displays are rumored to launch next year. The transition to microLED will likely follow a similar smaller-to-larger device trajectory.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via MacRumors and DigiTimes

May 11, 2023
Cirrus Logic letter to shareholders suggests iPhone 15 Pro won’t feature solid-state buttons

In a letter to the company’s shareholders, Apple supplier Cirrus Logic has ostensibly confirmed that the iPhone 15 will not feature the much-rumored solid-state buttons.

Since October, Apple analysts have suggested that the mute switch, volume, and power buttons would be replaced by solid-state components in iPhone 15 Pro models. The change, though controversial, would improve the device’s watertight integrity and add new gestures.

However, a letter sent from Cirrus Logic’s management to its shareholders provides a strong argument that the change won’t occur this year.

Per the letter:

“That said, among the HPMS opportunities we have discussed, a new product that we mentioned in previous shareholder letters as being scheduled for introduction this fall is no longer expected to come to market as planned. As we have limited visibility into our customer’s future plans for this product at this time, we are removing the revenue associated with this component from our internal model.”

Cirrus Logic’s high-performance, mixed-signal (HPMS) would have been necessary to provide the haptic drivers required for the solid-state buttons.

The letter goes on to suggest that Apple may bring the new component to market in 2024.

The letter goes on to say that the supplier expects to bring the new component to market in 2024.

Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 15 Pro during an event in September 2023. It could feature a rounded titanium frame with a new periscope telephoto lens.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via AppleInsider and MacRumors

May 8, 2023