2024 is over, with the holidays and New Year’s Eve now consigned to memory. It’s been quite a year for Apple, with the company releasing a whole slew of products, updating old favorites such as the iPhone, Apple Watch<!–> and Macs–>, and releasing a brand new product in the form of the Vision Pro<!–>, something that looks like it’s been taking straight from a sci-fi movie.
Before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming, let’s peer into the nearest crystal ball – and consult the rumor mill – and make a few predictions about what 2025 might bring us from the Cupertino tech powerhouse.
Also: I recommend this 15-inch MacBook Air to most people
Vision Pro
Let’s face it, it doesn’t matter how high tech and sci-fi something is, a three and a half thousand dollar price tag is an impossible barrier for most. There had been rumors suggesting that a cheaper unit – with a more modest $2,000 price tag – would land towards the end of this year, but indications now suggest this has been pushed back to 2027.
But the Vision Pro rumors don’t end there, because there are whispers that suggest the Vision Pro will be superseded by the Vision Pro 2, a new headset – sorry, Apple calls it a spatial computer – powered by the M4 chip and Apple Intelligence support.
New iPhone SE
There were plenty of rumors to suggest that the iPhone SE 4 would land last year. Now it’s this coming this year. It’s expected to bring an end to Touch ID and finalize the Face ID roll out to the iPhone line, and be powered by the A18 chip, and, obviously, support Apple Intelligence.
AirTag update
The new AirTags are expected to use a new Ultra Wideband chip, bringing improved range and accuracy, and apparently the speaker is going to be more difficult to disable, a countermeasure to prevent tags being used to stalk people. Given how trivial it is to modify AirTags, and how you can even buy them already modified, this will be a welcomed change.
Hypertension detection for Apple Watch
The Apple Watch can do a lot already, uncovering hidden medical conditions such as atrial fibrillation and sleep apnea, and adding the ability to detect high blood pressure would reinforce its place as a personal, wrist-mounted physician.
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Now let’s look at Apple tech that you might want to wait on.
The ‘Naughty’ list
Give these Apple devices a hard pass:
- The standard iPad: With the iPad Pro, Air, and Mini all being quite fresh, it’s easy to forget the old-school iPad. The current 10th-generation model was released back in October of 2022 and is up there as one of Apple’s oldest products.
- iPhone SE: Apple released this handset in March 2022, and the rumors are all over the place, from an update should have landed last year, a new one is coming later this year, to there won’t be another one. We’ll see. The current iPhone SE might be Apple’s cheapest iPhone, but given its age, at this point I’d suggest grabbing a refurbished or secondhand iPhone that’s newer.
- Mac Studio: The M2-powered Mac Studio is no longer the beast it was, and given that it’s hitting that 18-month-old mark and running on Apple Silicon that’s two generations old, I suggest giving it a miss.
- Apple TV: Last updated in October 2022, this device is due for a refresh. When? Rumors suggest a 4th-gen Apple TV 4K will be announced during the first half of this year.
- HomePod Mini: Released in October 2020, this is officially Apple’s oldest product. While there’s nothing wrong with it technically, it’s hard to recommend dropping full price for a piece of hardware that’s so old.
The ‘Nice’ list
1. Apple iMac
The iMac–>
