Surprise iPhone 17 Pro Price Decision, Final iPhone 17 Leaks, Apple’s iPhone Warning

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, visits an Apple store where third grade children are learning how to code through Apple’s “Hour of Code” workshop (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

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Taking a look back at this week’s news and headlines from across the Apple world, including iPhone 17 price rises, iPhone 17 Pro upgrade leaks, Apple calls in Google AI, iPhone’s memory upgrade, malicious texts warning, and place your bets for One More Thing.

Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the many discussions around Apple in the last seven days. You can also read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes.

Final iPhone 17 Pro Details Leak

Not only will the display be moving up to a potential 2,000 nits burst of brightness when outdoors, but the displays on the 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are going to offer games and high-end media fans something a little special in terms of resolution and refresh:

“…the frame rate of intense games will be more stable thanks to the device’s redesigned thermal architecture. Frame-drops and lag will occur much less frequently. Similarly, performance when shooting 4K video at 60 frames-per-second in warm outdoor conditions, such as under direct sunlight in the summer, will be improved.

(MacRumors).

Prices Rise For iPhone 17 Pro

There’s still debate over the final price of the iPhone 17 family. Apple looks to have decided to bump up the storage and make 256 GB the entry-level specification for the iPhone 17 Pro, while the 17 and 17 Air stick with 128 GB. As for the sticker price, JP Morgan believes the vanilla iPhone 17 will stay steady at $799, but the popular Pro will see a bump of $100:

“The biggest question mark, then, is the iPhone 17 Air. While it’s technically replacing the Plus model in the lineup, it’s a brand new form factor that could justify a slightly higher price. Starting the iPhone 17 Air at $899 could certainly help make up for what it lacks in cameras and battery life. But $949 also doesn’t seem out of the question for the new ultra-thin form factor.”

(9to5Mac).

Apple Hands AI Search To Google

Will Apple finally move into the search engine business? While the internal label of ‘Answer Engine’ pushes the semantics around, it’s notable that this new service for Siri relies not only on a partnership with Google, but also an external LLM developed by Google:

“The company is working on a new system — dubbed internally as World Knowledge Answers — that will be integrated into the Siri voice assistant, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Apple has discussed also eventually adding the technology to its Safari web browser and Spotlight, which is used to search from the iPhone home screen.”

(Bloomberg).

More Memory Will Be Welcomed

With artificial intelligence routines’ demand on RAM, and Apple’s preference to do as much processing “on-device” as possible, news that the RAM on three of the four iPhone models will be bumped up is welcome. It should make a difference across the rest of the platform as well:

“The all-new iPhone 17 Air, the iPhone 17 Pro, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max will each be equipped with 12GB of RAM, according to Taiwanese market intelligence firm TrendForce, which cited “current market information and analyst projections.” The base model iPhone 17 will have 8GB of RAM, matching the amount included in all iPhone 16 models, according to TrendForce.”

(MacRumors).

Hold On, What’s This And Where Was It Hiding?

What will Apple’s “One More Thing” be at the end of next week’s launch event? While there are some products on the roadmap that could arrive (such as an Apple Vision Air headset or the M5 chipset debut in the iPad Pro), the chances are that something smaller will be found… the AirTag 2:

“All signs point to AirTag 2 being imminent, and it makes a lot of sense for the September event because Apple largely markets AirTag as an iPhone accessory. September events are always primarily about the newest iPhones, but Apple tends to also launch products that fit that ‘iPhone accessory’ description—such as Apple Watch and AirPods. That makes AirTag 2 highly likely to make an appearance next week.”

(9to5Mac).

Apple’s Malicious Text iOS 26

Apple, via iOS 26, is warning users of the dangers of malicious text messages—a phising method that is rapidly on the rise. As well as blocking links in messages sent to the spam folder, the latest version of iOS 26 will prevent users from replying to any spam:

“Users can’t reply to messages in the Spam folder, which makes it harder to engage with a potential scammer. And while it’s easy to move a message from ‘Spam’ back to the main Messages view, that small bit of friction can go a long way in helping users avoid accidentally falling for a phishing attempt.

(9to5Mac via Forbes)

And Finally…

It’s taken fifteen years, but Meta has finally released a dedicated iPadOS app for Instagram. And it may be that the reason the release is happening now is down to commercial pressure:

“Most significantly, the iPad app will open directly to a feed of Reels, the company’s TikTok competitor — perhaps a sign of the short-form-video times… For years, Instagram for iPad was something to tackle “at some point” — until its biggest competitor was facing what would effectively be a ban in the US. From this perspective, opening the app straight to Reels makes perfect sense.”

(The Verge).

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.