You hump how it is : you ’ve got all year to do your Christmas shopping , but you always end up leaving it so latterly that you have to pay for premium delivery . Despite our unspoilt intentions to get things done early , we always do them at the last minute . Work expandsto fill the time available for its completion .
This , I take on , is what ’s been going on at Apple Park , whose residents seem bizarrely unprepared for the looming EU Bachelor of Arts in Nursing on the usance of Lightning ports to charge smartphones . The company officially had two years to get quick for the newfangled regulations , and it ’s been on the cardsa set longer than that ; yet Apple still happen itself having to just halt the sale of three of its handsets in Europe with no obvious switch .
Obviously Apple has take step to get quick for the alteration , namely launching two generations of flagship iPhones with USB - C ports in the fall of 2023 and 2024 . The 15- and 16 - series iPhones comply fully with the practice of law and will continue to be sell . But grant to the French - language siteiGeneration , the iPhone 14 , the iPhone 14 Plus , and crucially the 3rd - gen iPhone SE violate the regulating and as of January 2025 will no longer be useable to buy in EU countries .
This strikes me , honestly , as a sub - optimal response to anextremelypredictable state of affairs . Apple ’s scheme is to sell late iPhones at a premium price but to target budget buyers with onetime models . With the iPhone 13 only recently drop from sale and the 14 , 14 Plus , and SE soon to follow it , the chain of mountains will be go out with no cheap option ; instead of start at $ 429 , it will go at $ 699 . ( Or 17 eggs in our quaint European currentness . )
This wo n’t be a trouble for long , avowedly . A few months after the ban amount into effect Apple will launch the4th - gen iPhone SE , and by next capitulation the iPhone 17 will come out , dropping the iPhone 15 into the $ 599 slot currently occupied by the 14 , and we ’ll be back to normal . But the iPhone is Apple ’s most lucrative mathematical product ancestry in account , and I fear to conceive how many eggs Apple will be leaving on the board by move nine months without its full range in a major market . imagine of how many Europeans will potentially be agitate into the arms of Google ’s lower - cost Android empire .
What ’s extra odd is that Apple could have fixed the situation quite easily . The last iPhone SE launch was way back in spring 2022 and the company could have arranged matters so that the quaternary - gen framework came out before the ban began . Or – and forgive me for being so radical here – it could even have switched from Lightning to USB - Cbeforebeing forced to when it was a customer - friendly matter to do rather than a legal essential . If the iPhone 14 was the first post - Lighting iPhone , or if it wasretroactively upgradedto support USB - C , thing would now be a lot simpler .
But this was always going to be difficult , because it was in Apple ’s pastime to fight against the modulation for as long as humanly possible . Cupertino left its Christmas shopping to the last minute of arc because it never wanted to bribe any presents in the first place and still believe it should n’t have to . But the sad fact is that Christmas is coming , whether we like it or not .
Foundry
Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast chromatography column , which let in all the Apple tidings you missed last week in a ready to hand pungency - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes corking with a Monday morn cup of burnt umber or tea leaf , but it ’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too .
These arethe Apple storiesthat werebigger than the iPhonein 2024 .
Jason Cross lists six waysApple Intelligence levels upwithiOS 18.2and macOS 15.2 .
Thereal Apple Intelligenceis the AI wemet along the way .
Thebest releases of 2024all have Apple in abold new direction .
The Apple Car is deadened . Where does that leaveApple ’s auto ambitiousness ?
Here arefive exciting Apple productstolook ahead tothis spring .
HowApple Intelligencecan turn anyoneinto a star student(without cheating ) .
Turn your iPhone into an iPodbeforeApple wo n’t lease youanymore .
Podcast of the week
In the belated episode of the Macworld Podcast , we ’re pick out a look at the twelvemonth in review for Apple . What were the expectant products , events , and natural event that were watershed in 2024 for the caller ?
you’re able to take in every episode of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own land site .
Reviews corner
The rumor mill
story : TheOLED MacBook Prowill dump the notchfor a photographic camera ‘ hole ’ .
Leaked iPhone 17 frameshows wide , Pixel - style camera blow .
The‘MacBook with a modem’dream mayfinally come rightful .
MacBook Airlikely to get anupgraded Center Stage camerain 2025 .
Satellite connectivitymay be the nextApple Watch Ultrakiller feature .
Applehopes to save Vision Prowith afresh gaming strategy .
Software updates, bugs, and problems
Apple just gave usa few dozen reasonstoupdate our devicesright now .
WhyiOS 18.2is amust - have updateeven if you do n’t run Apple Intelligence .
Jamf detailsscary iCloud flawthat wasexploitableuntil this fall .
detest the newiOS 18 Photos app ? Here’show to touch on it .
