With less than two months to go before Apple is expected to reveal the iPhone 12 range, we're fully immersed in the apex of the rumor cycle at this very moment. In case you had any doubt, an individual who claims to have been present during the recording of the keynote for Apple's still-unannounced October event has been tweeting a deluge of information about it all week.
The Twitter user in question — @LeaksApplePro — has taken to share a vast array of details from Apple's proceedings, from product announcements to executive Phil Schiller's supposed improved physical fitness in the wake of the quarantine. The highlights (assuming any of this is real, anyway) concern the omission of some highly-anticipated features in the iPhone 12 range, as well as the return of AirPower.
- iPhone 12: Everything you need to know
- The best phones at every price
- Just in: Galaxy Note 20 has a big problem — and Samsung just responded
For starters, LeaksApplePro claims the iPhone 12 Pro will lack a fast refresh-rate screen of any kind — neither 90 nor 120Hz — and also will not include reverse wireless charging, which has been a common feature on Samsung's recent flagship phones. The individual describes Apple's new handsets as the "same iPhones with better camera, RAM and A14" with 'a bit better battery," throwing cold water on many of the highly-anticipated new features and changes concerning the forthcoming iPhones that have been reported up until now.
The tweets go on to claim the iPhone 12 will include a blue option, and the rumored flatter styling will resemble a "mix" of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5, as well as the latest iPhone 11 and 11 Pro devices, while making no changes to the notch. Apple will announce the event on October 1st, LeaksApplePro alleges, with the event itself commencing on Tuesday, October 13 or Wednesday, October 14.
Remember when I said notch will stay the same and you guys said I was lying? Well I’m sorry to tell you this, but I wasn’t.August 19, 2020
Those are the highlights, though there's so, so much more to unpack here. We're told the Apple Watch Series 6 will present a "sh*tty upgrade," whatever that means. At least two ARM-powered Macs will debut. And at the conclusion of the show, Cupertino will unveil its perfected, back-from-the-dead AirPower charging mat.
In subsequent tweets, LeaksApplePro later claims that CEO Tim Cook discovered the event was being leaked onto the internet, and ordered everyone off the premises. That brings us to today, when LeaksApple Pro shared screenshots of what they claimed to be an AirPods Studio TV commercial, but hours later doubled back and informed readers that the video he was sent — one which clearly utilizes a font not at all consistent with Apple's branding — was in fact fake, and he had been duped by someone else into sharing it.
The whole odyssey is very weird, meandering and suspicious. If we take the "leaks" themselves at face value, though, this certainly isn't the first time someone has hinted that the iPhone 12 could lack a fast-refresh screen or a redesigned notch after all, in spite of what earlier rumors may have led us to think. This also isn't first time we've heard Apple's figured out how to make AirPower work and plans to release it soon.
Ultimately, it's hard to know what to make of any of this. Rumors of unreleased products should always be taken with a degree of skepticism, no matter their source. But the particular source of these tidbits is so flagrant, and the twists and turns so numerous, that it almost discredits the content of the rumors themselves — which, ironically, are entirely plausible and have been previously reported in one context or another.
Personally, I cannot wait for October — both because I'm genuinely curious, and because I don't know if I'm mentally equipped to handle another six weeks of rumor drama.
