Welcome back! 🍎
Here’s the latest with Apple.

• iPhone 17 Pro exposed in public

• Apple’s Plans for U.S. Manufacturing

• Apple’s New AI Team

• & more!

📊 Poll

Last week, we asked: Do you purchase AppleCare for your Apple products?

Here were my favorite replies:

This week: Do you want a ChatGPT-like chatbot from Apple? More on this later.

🗞️ The Latest

😳 Apple Employee Exposes iPhone 17 Pro

An Apple employee was spotted out in San Francisco using a pre-release iPhone 17 Pro, and the internet lost its mind! Here’s what happened.

• A random user on X posted a pair of photos claiming to have seen a pre-release iPhone 17 Pro out in the wild.

• And the images looked legit from the jump, despite many instantly writing them off as AI-generated or staged.

• If you look closely, you’ll notice that the position of the flash and LiDAR scanner looks exactly like the leaks/renders we’ve been seeing for months.

• In a separate image, the user shows the screen of the iPhone 17 Pro and it appears to have a privacy screen protector on it to avoid anything else getting out there.

My take: We haven’t seen a pre-release iPhone in the wild since the iPhone 4 fiasco back in 2010! And while this is a rare event, it’s not totally unbelievable.

I also don’t think this employee will get fired or punished because he was simply out in the real world testing the new phone, exactly what he was instructed to do.

The phone is concealed with a thick case and a protective screen protector for a reason: Apple knew that it would be seen by random people.

It’s no different than pre-release cars that drive on public roads with a wrap on the car to conceal the details. Real-world testing is a critical part of the testing process for any consumer tech product, especially something like an iPhone.

I just think it’s cool that we got confirmation that all of the leaks from the past few months have been accurate!

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🍏 Apple’s Secret New Team

Apple has formed a secret “Answers” team to create a stripped-down ChatGPT rival. Here’s what to know.

• Apple is reversing course on its “no-chatbot” stance, forming a new Answers, Knowledge, and Information (AKI) team to build a ChatGPT-like search experience.

• The group is led by Robby Walker (the former head of Siri), and they’re developing an “answer engine” that can crawl the web and respond to general-knowledge questions.

• A standalone app is being explored, along with new infrastructure to bring AI-powered search to Siri, Spotlight, and Safari.

• Job listings show that Apple is also hiring engineers with search algorithm expertise, signaling that the project is still early but moving forward.

• Apple’s AI search product will compete with ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity.

• Meanwhile, Apple’s more conversational Siri is still delayed until at least iOS 27. So maybe not even in iOS 27.0.

My take: It’s refreshing to see Apple go back on its word for something that we all knew they were wrong about at the time. People DO want chatbots. They DO want AI browsers. And now Apple will finally deliver its own, eventually.

If you’ve never used an AI Browser, I highly recommend you do so. They’re amazing, and they have almost replaced Safari for me. Dia, specifically.

 🇺🇸 Apple Goes American (Again)

This week, Apple announced its biggest investment ever: a $600 billion pledge to U.S. manufacturing over the next four years. But, this isn’t the first time.

• Apple is boosting its U.S. manufacturing investment to $600B, adding $100B to the $500B pledge it made earlier this year.

• The new American Manufacturing Program (AMP) will focus on advanced manufacturing in the U.S., partnering with 10 major companies like Corning, Texas Instruments, Samsung, GlobalFoundries, and Broadcom.

• $2.5B will go to Corning to build the world’s largest smartphone glass production line in Kentucky.

• Soon, 100% of iPhone and Apple Watch cover glass will be made in the U.S.

• Apple and Corning will also open an Apple-Corning Innovation Center for advanced materials and next-gen manufacturing.

• Tim Cook even gave Donald Trump a gift from Apple before announcing the $2.5 billion Kentucky investment.

My take: If you feel like you’ve heard this before, it’s because you have. And keep in mind: iPhone and Apple Watch glass has been made in Corning’s U.S. factories for years, so this is basically just Apple doubling down on the initiative.

We all know that these big U.S. investments win favor with the government, and that gives Apple leverage in trade negotiations and regulatory battles. Also, a big part of this play is to avoid future tariffs, which is important for Apple.

And as much as Trump might want it, I don’t see the iPhone ever being fully manufactured in the U.S. because it would be far too expensive. Components, yes. Full device, no.

What are the odds that all of these “plans” take place before Trump leaves office? It’s anyone’s guess!

📰 Quick Bites

• 28 Years Later Director Danny Boyle Innovates with iPhone [Video]

• Apple iPhone 17 Event Set for September 9, German Carrier Sources Claim

• MacBook Pro With OLED Display to Launch Late Next Year

• iPhone 17 Air Battery Allegedly 2.49mm – Half the Thickness of 17 Pro's

• Apple Reportedly Developing Its Own Custom Image Sensor for iPhone

• Employees Arrested Over Alleged Theft of Chip Tech for Apple A20 Chip

• Apple set to purchase another Silicon Valley campus for $365 million

• Introducing Chat GPT-5

• Photoshop Gets New AI Editing Tools

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