MacRumors

Apple's next media event, where it is rumored to announce updates across three product categories, is tentatively planned for Tuesday, March 15, according to 9to5Mac. The date could change over the next six weeks.

As the scheduled event is still a month-and-a-half away, the date could conceivably still shift or turn into an online announcement. The media event would be Apple’s first since September, and much like the fall event, is planned to touch on three major product categories for the company.

At the media event, its first since September, Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives are expected to introduce the new 4-inch "iPhone 5se" and iPad Air 3, alongside minor Apple Watch updates, including new bands.

Apple's new 4-inch iPhone is rumored to feature an A9 chip with M9 motion coprocessor, 1,624 mAh battery, 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.2, Apple Pay, VoLTE, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and 16GB and 64GB storage models, but 3D Touch appears unlikely.

The so-called "iPhone 5se" will reportedly ship in late March or early April, and will likely replace the iPhone 5s. Apple's smartphone lineup come September is expected to be the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, and iPhone 5se.

Details surrounding the iPad Air 3 are less clear, but leaked design drawings and aftermarket cases suggest the new 9.7-inch tablet could have a rear-facing LED camera flash, Smart Connector, and four speakers like the iPad Pro.

Taiwanese website DigiTimes also said the iPad Air 3 will have a high-resolution 4K display and up to 4GB of RAM, but the report is questionable due to the publication's mixed track record at reporting on Apple's upcoming product plans.

Last, earlier rumors suggested an "Apple Watch 2" could debut around March, but the wrist-worn device will likely only receive minor updates, including new bands and possibly a FaceTime camera, at next month's purported media event.

Update: BuzzFeed's John Paczkowski has confirmed March 15 as the date when Apple will hold its spring event to unveil a smaller iPhone, a new iPad, and new watch bands.

Taiwan-based Largan Technology as well as Japan- and China-based camera lens makers have sent dual-lens camera test samples to Apple for potential inclusion in its next-generation iPhone, according to sources from the upstream supply chain (via DigiTimes).

The same source notes that Largan currently supplies over 60 percent of Apple's smartphone cameras, leading some market analysts to believe Apple is seeking dual-camera products from other makers to lower potential risks.

The report also follows predictions by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that two 5.5-inch versions of the "iPhone 7 Plus" are in development, one with a single iSight rear-facing camera and another boasting a dual-camera design.

The rumored iPhone 7 Plus model with a dual-lens camera system would take advantage of imaging algorithms that Apple acquired through its purchase of Israeli camera technology company LinX Imaging last year.

Google's parent company, Alphabet, is encroaching on Apple's status as the most valuable company in the world, reports CNN. While Apple is currently on top, a surge in Alphabet shares today gave it a market valuation of $533.4 billion, briefly surpassing Apple's valuation of $532.7 billion on a 1 percent stock drop.

Alphabet shares dropped shortly after, leaving Apple at a higher valuation, but the numbers could shift again tomorrow following Alphabet's first financial earnings report this afternoon. Alphabet is expected to announce overall revenue growth of close to 15 percent with a 20 percent increase in earnings per share.

Over the course of the last several months, Apple shares have fallen steadily, dropping its peak valuation of $740 billion to ~$540 billion. Despite record earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2016, with revenue of $75.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $18.4 billion, Apple has not bounced back from rumors that the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s are not selling well and concerns that the company has reached "peak iPhone" with no replacement product on the horizon.

Apple is in for a rough second quarter as the company is expected to announce its first ever decline in iPhone sales and its first year-over-year revenue drop in thirteen years. Currency headwinds caused by a strong U.S. dollar are costing Apple a significant percent of its earnings compared to the year-ago quarter.

Update 1:05 PM: Alphabet is up another 8 percent in after hours trading following a strong earnings report, meaning Alphabet will almost certainly open trading tomorrow at a higher valuation than Apple.

Apple's "spaceship" second campus is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2016, and with 10 months to go, construction is progressing rapidly on both the main ring-shaped building and several auxiliary buildings, including the underground auditorium, the visitor's center, and the Tantau addition, where research and development will take place.

Drone pilot Duncan Sinfield has shared a February campus update with MacRumors, giving us one of our closest looks yet at the ongoing construction and progress that's been made since our last update in January. Starting last month, the window panels that make up the unique curved glass exterior began going up, and with additional panels added this month, there's a clear look at what the completed building will look like.

When finished, Apple's second campus will include the 2.8 million square foot ring-shaped main building, several parking structures, a 100,000 square foot fitness center, a 120,000 square foot auditorium, and a dedicated visitor's center, all surrounded by lush green landscaping.

Construction on the campus is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2016.

A new drawing of the unannounced iPad Air 3 highlights the dimensions of the device, with the potential for the third generation iPad Air to have similar dimensions as the iPad Air 2 (via Engadget). According to the image, the iPad Air 3 will be 6.15 mm thick and 169.6 mm wide, meaning the new tablet would end up about 0.05 mm thicker and 0.1 mm wider than the iPad Air 2.

Since the dimensions are so close to one another, and factoring in the possibility for rounding and measurement errors, it's a good possibility that the iPad Air 3 will be around the same size as the second generation iPad Air tablet.

The sketch also supports the rumored addition of a rear-facing LED flash onto the iPad line, which would make the iPad Air 3 the first of Apple's tablets to get the feature.

At the company's September event last year, only the iPad mini received a refresh, along with the debut of the iPad Pro. Due to its elongated lifespan, the iPad Air has been rumored to get its own update during the first half of 2016, potentially at a March media event.

The latest numbers from market research firm IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker show that Apple remains the largest vendor in a declining tablet market, shipping 16.1 million iPads in the fourth calendar quarter of 2015. While the iPad continues to be the best-selling tablet, its worldwide market share remains only 24.5 percent despite the all-new iPad Pro launching in early November.

iPad shipments declined 24.8 percent compared to the year-ago quarter, when they totaled 21.4 million for 28.1 percent market share. The stagnant iPad sales during the holiday shopping season may be more attributable to the lack of an iPad Air refresh in 2015, however, as the iPad Pro outsold Microsoft Surface tablets in its debut quarter in what IDC describes as a "successful" launch.

"Despite lukewarm reviews, the iPad Pro was the clear winner this season as it was the top selling detachable, surpassing notable entries from Microsoft and other PC vendors," said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst with IDC. "It's also important to note that the transition towards detachable tablets has presented positive opportunities for both Apple and Microsoft. However, Google's recent foray into this space has been rather lackluster as the Android platform will require a lot more refinement to achieve any measurable success.

Samsung continued to be the second largest tablet vendor with 9 million tablets shipped in the fourth quarter for 13.7 percent market share, an 18.1 percent year-over-year unit decline. Amazon, Lenovo, and Huawei rounded off the top five, with 5.2 million, 3.2 million, and 2.2 million global tablet shipments in the fourth quarter respectively. All other tablet vendors had a combined 45.8 percent market share.

iPad sales have declined for eight consecutive quarters year-over-year due to, among other reasons, longer tablet refresh cycles compared to smartphones. Apple is rumored to introduce a new iPad Air 3 at a March media event, which could help combat the decline alongside the iPad Pro and iPad mini 4, but most of those sales will fall within the second calendar quarter of 2016.

Overall tablet shipments in 2015 totaled 206.8 million, down 10.1 percent from 230.1 million in 2014.

Apple yesterday relaunched its "Shot on iPhone" advertising campaign, showcasing a selection of impressive still photos taken using its iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus handsets.

According to TIME, the new ad campaign comprises 53 images from 41 amateur and professional photographers from around the world. Each photo shot on Apple's flagship phones is set to appear on billboards across 85 cities in 26 countries.

While the 2015 ads featured a range of photographic subjects from landscapes to extreme close-ups, this year Apple has chosen to focus on portraits.

One of the photographers featured in the latest campaign is Erin Brooks, whose portrait of her three-year-old daughter (above) shot on an iPhone 6s Plus was posted on Instagram and picked by Apple. Brooks told TIME:

I honestly couldn’t believe that they contacted me. Photography for me, has been a huge creative outlet. It has taught me so many things about telling a story with an image, capturing someone’s personality, and it helped me move out of my postpartum depression… Taking photos of my daughters, and their blossoming connection of sisterhood, helped me get well. I started to notice the pure beauty of my life, and connect with it, and with them, on an even deeper level.

The iPhone marketing push comes just weeks after Apple reintroduced its global "Start Something New" campaign, which features an online gallery of creative work made by artists using Apple products and apps.

Last week, a design drawing surfaced claiming to show an iPad Air 3 with a few differences compared to the current iPad Air 2, most notably a stereo four-speaker design similar to the iPad Pro and an apparent LED flash located below the rear camera.

The design drawing likely came from a third-party manufacturer, and these companies apparently now feel comfortable enough to begin producing cases based on the design, as seen through Chinese site Alibaba's 1688.com business portal (via Nowhereelse.fr).

The new low-cost cases currently selling at around $3–4 each in quantities of 500 or more and even cheaper for greater quantities match the earlier design drawing, including two slots on each of the top and bottom edges to accommodate the device's speakers, and a teardrop cutout on the rear to fit the camera with an LED flash below.

At least one of the cases appears to have a cutout along the left side that matches the shape and location of the Smart Connector used to dock and power accessories such as keyboards on the iPad Pro. A Smart Connector was not observed in the design drawing from last week and does not appear to be included on the other case being offered for sale.

Other features appear identical to the iPad Air 2, including a decently large cutout high on the right edge of the device for the volume buttons, and small holes on the right edge and next to the rear camera for microphones. Additional cutouts for the headphone jack and power button on top and the Lightning port on the bottom are also present.

Apple opted not to update the iPad Air lineup last September when it debuted the iPad mini 4 and iPad Pro, and a new iPad Air 3 has been rumored for release during the first half of this year, most likely at a March media event.

Apple has expanded its research efforts in virtual and augmented reality, building out a large team that is experimenting with headsets and other technologies, reports Financial Times in a detailed post on the company's virtual reality work that covers recent hires and acquisitions.

Hundreds of employees are part of a "secret research unit" exploring AR and VR, with the team consisting of experts hired through acquisitions and poached from Microsoft and Lytro, the company that developed the Immerge, a Light Field power camera able to blend live action and computer graphics for a live action VR experience. Apple has also hired Doug Bowman, said to be one of the leading virtual reality experts in the United States.

In addition to recent AR/VR-related acquisitions Metaio, Faceshift, and Emotient, Apple has also just purchased Flyby Media, a startup that worked on augmented reality technologies. Flyby Media created an app that worked with Google's "Project Tango" smartphone with 3D sensors, allowing messages to be attached to real world objects that were then viewable by one of Google's devices.

Most notably, Apple's AR/VR team is said to have built prototype virtual reality headsets that are similar to the Oculus Rift and the Hololens from Microsoft. Multiple prototypes of "possible headset configurations" have been created in recent months, with Apple's interest reportedly inspired by the Oculus Rift.

It is not clear if and when Apple's work on a headset prototype will make it past the development stage into an actual product, and the company often secretly works on technologies that never see the light of day. The scope of what Apple is building is also unknown, but Financial Times says that the company's work could potentially be useful for the Apple Car project.

Apple has had a team working on virtual and augmented reality technologies since at least early 2015, when rumors suggested there were a small number of employees investigating how Apple could incorporate the technologies into its products. Apple's interest in virtual reality dates back much further, however, and Apple has filed multiple patents over the years, for products like video goggles, motion-sensing 3D virtual interfaces for iOS devices, and 3D "hyper reality" displays.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was recently questioned on whether he believed virtual reality could go mainstream. He explained that he does not see virtual reality as a niche product, describing it as "really cool" with "some interesting applications."

Apple has met with TV producers and Hollywood studios about developing original TV shows to offer exclusively to its iTunes customers, according to TheStreet. The article comes by way of independent contributor Ronald Grover, a longtime entertainment business journalist who has previously covered the media and entertainment industry for Reuters and Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

The original content could spearhead Apple's plans to launch its oft-rumored streaming TV service, which has reportedly been placed on hold due to the iPhone maker's difficulties in securing content deals with owners like CBS, ABC, Fox, Disney, and Viacom. The report, citing sources with knowledge of the matter, claims Apple could announce a cable-like offering alongside the iPhone 7 in September.

The Cupertino-based tech giant began sounding out Hollywood's creative community late last year, but has yet to sign any agreements, according to two people with knowledge of the overtures. One plan is to have deals in place so Apple can announce exclusive content as part of a cable-like offering in September, when it is expected to unveil its iPhone 7, said one of the people.

The original TV shows would presumably be available for rent or purchase on iTunes, and/or through a subscription-based service like Netflix that would provide on-demand access to unlimited programming for a set monthly cost. Apple's streaming TV service has been rumored to cost between $30 and $40 per month, but that price was contingent upon a "skinny bundle" of TV channels rather than original programming.

Apple's discussions with Hollywood executives are being led by iTunes chief Eddy Cue, and Robert Kondrk, vice-president of iTunes content, according to the report. In a recent interview, Cue said customers should be "able to buy whatever they want, however they want," and he used the App Store as an example of how Apple provides users with multiple ways to purchase content.

Netflix, which collaborates with Hollywood on exclusive TV shows like Daredevil, House of Cards, Jessica Jones, and Orange is the New Black, has proven that original programming can be highly popular among consumers. Apple adopting a similar strategy could help bolster its own streaming TV service, which may be accessible on the web and devices like the Apple TV, Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

Apple today officially ended free streaming of its iTunes Radio channels worldwide, incorporating the catalogue of stations into its subscription-based Apple Music service.

The change follows Apple's announcement earlier this month that its free radio-listening feature would be discontinued at the end of January but would remain available to Apple Music subscribers.

As of this morning, iOS Music app users who tap on a radio station are bounced to a screen prompting them to join Apple's premium streaming music service.

Likewise, iTunes users on a Mac who attempt to access the stations or create their own are met with a dialog window asking them to "Get on Our Wavelength" and join Apple Music.

Users with an iTunes Match subscription are also no longer able to access the stations. However, Apple's Beats 1 radio channel remains available to iTunes users worldwide as a free listening option.

Apple had quietly continued to offer ad-supported iTunes Radio stations in the United States and Australia even after the launch of Apple Music on June 30, 2015. However, after the company's decision to wind down its mobile iAd platform, the feature was already being limited in other regions to those who pay for Apple's streaming music service.

iTunes Radio was originally released with iTunes 11.1 and iOS 7 as a free ad-supported service, offering music discovery through featured and genre stations provided by Apple or through the creation of new stations based on a specific artist or song.

Apple is reportedly developing a wirelessly-charged iPhone for as soon as 2017, according to Bloomberg. The company is working with its partners in both the U.S. and Asia to create the technology.

Apple is exploring cutting-edge technologies that would allow iPhones and iPads to be powered from further away than the charging mats used with current smartphones, the people said, asking not to be identified as the details are private. The iPhone maker is looking to overcome technical barriers including loss of power over distance with a decision on implementing the technology still being assessed, they said.

Current wirelessly-charged devices require users to place their phones or other devices on charging mats. In September 2012, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said that the company wasn't sure of how convenient wireless charging is as most wireless charging systems still have to be plugged into a wall.

In early January, it was reported that Apple was working on wireless charging for the iPhone 7. However, that report warned that the feature could be pulled from the iPhone 7 for a future iteration of the device as Apple is working on the technology currently.

Apple has held an interest in wireless charging since the first iPhone, gaining patents for wireless charging stations and wireless charging through a near field magnetic resonance, which wirelessly charges a device within a certain region. The Cupertino company has also shown an interest in WiTricity's wireless charging technology, which uses "hidden charging" technology that allows magnetic fields to wrap around barriers. This allows users to place their charging pads wherever they want.

Last November it was reported that the iPhone 7 would see the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack for an all-in-one Lightning connector that allows users to both power their device and plug in headphones. While the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack would mean that Apple would be able to make the iPhone thinner, it would not allow users to listen to headphones and charge their phone at the same time. A proprietary wireless charging solution from Apple in future iPhones with all-in-one Lightning connectors would likely allow for that.