This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: a leaked Apple Intelligence-related memo, and iPhone 17 Pro Max and SE 4 reports. Here are this week’s Apple rumors.
Leaked Apple memo reveals AI shakeups
Mark Gurman reported last week for Bloomberg about a leaked internal memo from Apple’s AI head John Giannandrea. The memo revealed that Apple veteran Kim Vorrath would take a high-ranking role on the AI team. Her job, per Gurman, will be “whipping artificial intelligence and Siri into shape.”
Also in the memo, Giannandrea stated two main company priorities for Apple Intelligence this year:
- Rebuilding the core tech behind Siri, and
- Making improvements to existing AI models
My takeaways
Apple sending an experienced fixer to the AI department is both encouraging and a little worrying.
On one hand, Vorrath’s involvement bodes well for the future of AI at the company. But of course, it also reflects how mismanagement has been an issue among Giannandrea’s team.
The company’s two priorities for the year make a lot of sense, but they also come off as a bit predictable. I maybe shouldn’t read too much into the memo, since it wasn’t exactly a top-secret document. I imagine, though, that companies like OpenAI have internal priorities that are a lot more ambitious and on the cutting edge. LLM Siri could be viewed as a risky shift, but otherwise these moves seem to follow the typical Apple pattern of iteration.
Ultimately though, I suspect Apple has plenty more exciting AI developments in the works than the memo lets on.
One less advantage for iPhone 17 Pro Max
Apple’s largest new iPhone this year, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, has long been rumored to feature a ‘much narrowed’ Dynamic Island.
This change came as no surprise, since just as Apple shrunk the notch into the current Dynamic Island, it’s been widely assumed that eventually the center cutout would continue shrinking.
But per Ming-Chi Kuo, it sounds like that Pro Max exclusive won’t be coming this year after all. He said: “I expect the Dynamic Island size to remain largely unchanged across the 2H25 iPhone 17 series.”
‘Largely unchanged’ still leaves a little wiggle room for possible change, but Kuo does appear to be intentionally refuting the previous rumor.
My takeaways
Some years, Apple gives its Pro Max models special advantages, while other years, it’s basically identical to the smaller Pro option. As someone who typically buys the smaller Pro, I’m slightly relieved to not have any Pro Max envy this year.
The current Dynamic Island size doesn’t bother me at all, but this rumor does make me wonder if Apple’s content keeping the existing design for a while to come.
iPhone SE 4’s notch confusion clears up
There’s been a lot of back and forth between different sources about the upcoming iPhone SE 4. Specifically, conflicting reports surround whether the device will have a notch or a Dynamic Island.
Display analyst Ross Young weighed in this week, saying the new iPhone SE will have a notch—just like the iPhone 14.
My takeaways
Young has a strong reputation when it comes to supply chain rumors, particularly with displays. As a result, I take his word as authoritative confirmation of what Apple’s new iPhone SE has in store.
The Dynamic Island always felt like a step too far for Apple’s budget iPhone. It’s already going to have so many iPhone 16-class features. Apple needs to give customers enough reasons to splurge for the flagship model. Giving the new SE a notch is a totally understandable trade-off.
What are your takeaways from this week’s Apple rumors? Let us know in the comments.
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