Okay, today is the day – Apple’s Far Out event will start later today. While there are some sure things get announced today, I wanted to come back in with some theories and guesses. I don’t really think that these will be true, but using what I’ve heard through the grapevine, I’m going to make some predictions and then come back and see if any of them are right.

iPhone 14 Plus

I said in my preview of the iPhone 14 event that there would be a Max or Plus-sized phone, and I really wish I had doubled down on it when I wrote it, but the rumors are saying that the new larger non-pro iPhone 14 will be called the iPhone 14 Plus. While I wrote my article, I doubted that they would call it the Max. I felt like the 14 Plus would help differentiate the line better, but I didn’t go on record saying that. I regret that so much right now.

Well, I got this one right, but I’m not sure I’m going to give myself much credit is I didn’t claim this before the rumors started to surface.

iPhone 14 Mini lives!

Now hear me out. I don’t think the iPhone Mini is dead. Of all companies, Apple can be ruthless when it comes to cutting features and moving toward a future. As they said, they have “courage.”

But if the iPhone 14 is supposed to be nearly the same as the iPhone 13 but with different colors, why wouldn’t they keep making an iPhone 14 Mini? It wouldn’t cost them much to continue making it if they are still selling the smaller phone. They wouldn’t have to retool anything and they could still make money.

So I wouldn’t be shocked if the iPhone 14 Mini got announced later today.

This one, I got a little right and a lot wrong. While the iPhone 14 Mini was not announced, the Mini-style phone still lives. In typical Apple fashion, when it announced the new iPhone 14, it moved the iPhone 13 down a level in price but will keep it around. And they are still offering the iPhone 13 Mini.

The iPhone 14 does have some upgrades – a better camera system, a new Satellite communication system if you are in trouble outside of cell service, and one extra Graphics core on the processor, it isn’t that much better than the iPhone 13. So if you are wanting a new smaller phone, you do still have the option.

iPhone 14 Pricing

The rumor is that the iPhone 14 Pro might get more expensive. I’m going to go against the grain here and say the price of the entire line up is going to change for the better.

The iPhone 14 is unlikely to be getting substantial upgrades. If the Mini hangs around in the line-up like I’m expecting and they add in the Plus, that’s a wide range of phones. If the components haven’t been upgraded and there’s no change to the bodies of these phones, I think Apple could appease potential buyers by lowering the price.

Does this change the Pro lineup price increase that is expected, though? I don’t know, but I have a hard time thinking that Apple would continue to creep that price up there. At a certain point, that price will have to fall… right?… right? If there is a price increase in the pro line, I hope it’s not more than $50 or that they offer more storage for the price. I’m looking at getting the iPhone 14 Pro Max this year, so I have a personal interest in this.

Close, but not close enough. Apple didn’t change any of the pricing structures for the phones this year, which is awesome. The iPhone 14 still starts at $799, the iPhone 14 Plus $899, iPhone 14 Pro $999, and iPhone 14 Pro Max $1099.

AirPods

I think that we will see some updates to AirPod Pros and AirPods Max today. Apple brought Lossless audio to Apple Music a while ago and hasn’t done anything to bring it to their AirPod’s line yet. I don’t think we’ll see much new other than a better audio stream, better battery life, and a new case. The old case already integrates into the Find My system so well, I’m not sure that we will see improvements there, but there is a rumor that the case will get a speaker on it for when you need to find the case.

I know I just talked about how the iPhone line won’t increase in price, and I don’t think that will be true of the AirPods line, but I wouldn’t put it past Apple to bring the AirPods out with a lightning connector this year and then replace just the case with USB-C next year as an upgrade. The move has already been made when Apple brought wireless charging to the second generation AirPods.

I’m not sure that Apple will release a new version of the AirPods Max, though. You can’t just replace the case on those; you’d need a dongle of a brand-new set of headphones. Sure for some people, they will stay on the Lightning connector until they have to upgrade and it won’t matter, but to the tech-savvy group that updates often it would really suck to get AirPods Max 2 announced at the iPhone 14 event, then get updated the next year.

There were new AirPods Pro, but Lossless audio isn’t here yet. No AirPods Max announced either. The updates to the AirPod Pro line are nice, with better noise canceling and sound quality, but the case sees the most updates. It will be interesting to see if Apple releases just the case for AirPod Pro Gen 1 users. It might get me to upgrade just for that. As of now though, I’ll wait for the AirPods Pro to go on sale.

Apple Watch Pro isn’t Pro

There is a lot of hype on this new Apple Watch Pro rumored to come out. I don’t doubt that there’s a new design coming and that this is it, but I don’t think it will be called a Pro watch. I’m not sure what they will call it. Some rumors are saying Apple Watch Extreme. Meh, that feels too 90s for my liking. I think it might just be an off-shoot of the Apple Watch line – like the Nike or Hermes Watches.

What is a Pro watch user? Will Apple bring back the Apple Watch Sport moniker? What about Apple Watch Plus or Max? those would seemingly fit there.

I don’t think most people should buy whatever this ends up being unless you are into rugged sports, or if you just want the largest watch screen so far.

Apple Watch Ultra. I knew it wasn’t going to be Pro, though. It is an interesting watch for those that do these extreme sports. I will be interested to see if anyone used the scuba diving feature that got shown off though. Seems like lots could go wrong there.

Apple Watch Line up

Something has to give at this Apple event with the Apple Watch line-up. Currently, the cheapest watch is the Apple Watch Series 3. That thing is too old for users and developers at this point. In fact, the newest version of watchOS 9 doesn’t even support the Series 3. Jason Snell at Six Colors has always theorized Apple wanted the SE to get to the lowest price point it offered but couldn’t ever get it that low, so they kept the Series 3 around. It’s time to say goodbye.

But does that mean that the SE will drop in price? I would think it should. Something needs to drop the price to get people that don’t use an Apple Watch (are there any of those iPhone users left?) in the door. So I would imagine that Apple will introduce a low-cost Apple Watch, an Apple Watch Series 8, and maybe the Apple Watch Max as the new lineup.

The Apple Watch Series 3 is gone and a new SE got announced. I think I called this one pretty right.

Far Out Theme

The theme of the iPhone 14 event is Far Out with stars in the sky. I’m going to guess that this has to do with improved nighttime/astrological photography more than something like AR or VR. I think the iPhone 14 line will get better night time photos with a bigger sensor, but that might be relegated to the Pro line of iPhones.

I got this one just wrong. No AR/VR, no astrological photography. I’m guessing it was for the better night time photography though.

All for fun

All of this are just guesses. I’m not going to claim anything here as factual, but it is fun to play with and make some guesses outside of the rumors. What do you think will be unveiled at the event today? Do you have any crazy guesses? Let me know in the comments or in our facebook group!

How’d you do? Let me know which predictions you made and what you are most excited for coming up!