Apple Loop: iPhone 14’s Missing Feature, Apple Music’s Ambitious Goals, iPhone 13 Call Problems

Taking a look back at another week of news and headlines from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes a shock iPhone decision, a missing iPhone feature, the latest iMac specs, Apple’s record market cap, clues to Apple’s AR ambitions, developers fighting the App Store process, and Apple Music’s lossless challenge.

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 read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes.

Apple’s design changes to the iPhone tend to be considered over a long period and slowly implemented. So the inclusion of dual-SIM support in models over the last few years, but with the second SIM being an eSIM, can be seen as leading up to a big iPhone change… the removal of support for your physical SIM card:

SIM cards have gotten ever-smaller through necessity see above, with Apple one of the first to adopt the Nano-SIM back with the iPhone way back in . But Nano-SIMs are unpopular due to their tiny, easily-lost size. In fact, the hassle of ordering and swapping Nano-SIMs can be enough to discourage users from switching mobile networks. With eSIM-only that all changes and switching networks or adding additional contracts is only a few taps away.

OMOTESANDO, TOKYO, JAN – : An iPhone Pro Max smartphone seen displayed inside an … + Apple Store in Omotesando, Tokyo. Photo by Stanislav KogikuSO ImagesLightRocket via Images

Meanwhile, iPhone users are looking at the list of features they expected to arrive with their smartphones, and wondering why they are still waiting for noise cancellation during their phone calls to be returned. This is a feature that has been present on the iPhone family and in previous handsets:

The problem is this discussion goes all the way back to October , which is almost two months old. Apple has recently released iOS ., which didn’t solve this issue, and even with iOS . beta, the problem still persists… As of now, the only workaround available would be activating the Voice Isolation feature on a call in the Control Center.

Following the debut of Apple Silicon powered iMac with a -inch model, those looking for a larger and more powerful iMac are set to have their wishes granted in early with the -inch model set to move to the new chipset. Not only that, but new owners will have a difficult choice to make… what color?

For those looking at upgrading the office iMac, the neutral silver tone is expected to remain, but the return of color to the iMac range that started last year is going to continue. Notably last year the entry-level iMac was had a limited palette, with only blue, green, and pink offered as alternatives to silver. For the full spectrum you needed to step up rung in the portfolio.

It would not surprise me to see the same again – with the run of the mill base -inch iMac in silver, and the additional artistic touches only available at higher specs.

Depending on when you read this, Apple is either approaching a market cap of $ trillion, or has just passed the landmark valuation. Given this historically huge size, has Apple stock reached its peak or is it still worth buying?

Apple has a huge customer base. Many of them are deeply integrated into its product and service ecosystem. That makes them less likely to switch to other brands because of the time and effort it would require. The company has massive economies of scale. Its iconic brand continues to give it pricing power, which I expect to endure. Its price-to-earnings ratio of is not cheap. But I don’t think it’s expensive given my confidence that Apple can keep increasing its earnings in coming years.

While Apple watchers continue to predict AR hardware from Cupertino “in the near future”, many point to corporate hires as evidence that something is clearly happening. The latest is Andrea Schubert, currently working for Meta nee on its AR projects.

Apple has reportedly hire away Meta s AR public relations head Andrea Schubert… Schubert has been Communications Director with Meta s Reality labs and comms lead for Oculus with Meta since March , according to her LinkedIn page. Prior to that, she was director of the PR agency OutCast that counted and Oculus as clients.

Apple s top engineering talents are being offered significant stock bonuses worth up to $, to prevent defection to Meta and others. An employee poaching war is seemingly underway between Apple and Meta, the company formerly known as . Compensation raises and bonuses are being used to convince top talent to stick around or jump ship by both companies.

Having previously worked on Tumblr’s iOS app, developer Sreegs has discussed his experiences in a post on the aforementioned Tumblr; which is having significant issues in having its app “cleared” by Apple because of the adult content from the community:

Let me be clear about this from the get-go: I think Apple’s censorship policies are wrong and they have no grounds to be policing adult content within apps on the app store. Apple’s power to set content policy over apps is absolutely fueled first and foremost by internal policy that goes back to Steve Jobs. After that, they’re beholden to payment processors wanting to distance themselves from porn. Finally, there’s lawmakers and policy that influence them as well. I think these are the things that shape their policy decisions, in order.

Sneaking in under the self-imposed deadline of the end of , Apple Music looks to have its entire catalogue offering available as lossless audio. While nothing has been confirmed officially, the evidence is pretty conclusive:

While you may have songs in your library with only the Apple Digital Master label, it’s likely that it’s reminiscent of an iTunes purchase, since the company announced that none of the audio content bought on iTunes would feature Lossless or Spatial Audio support.

Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here, or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.