Tape It launches an A.I.-powered music recording app for iPhone

Earlier this year, Apple officially discontinued Music Memos, an iPhone app that allowed musicians to quickly record audio and develop new song ideas. Now, a new startup called Tape It is stepping in to fill the void with an app that improves audio recordings by offering a variety of features, including higher-quality sound, automatic instrument detection, support for markers, notes, and images, and more.

The idea for Tape It comes from two friends and musicians, Thomas Walther and Jan Nash.

Walther had previously spent three and a half years at Spotify, following its 2017 acquisition of the audio detection startup Sonalytic, which he had co-founded. Nash, meanwhile, is a classically trained opera singer, who also plays bass and is an engineer.

They’re joined by designer and musician Christian Crusius, previously of the design consultancy Fjord, which was acquired by Accenture.

The founders, who had played in a band together for many years, were inspired to build Tape It because it was something they wanted for themselves, Walther says. After ending his stint at Spotify working in their new Soundtrap division (an online music startup Spotify also bought in 2017), he knew he wanted to work on a project that was more focused on the music-making side of things. But while Soundtrap worked for some, it wasn’t what either Walther or his friends had needed. Instead, they wanted a simple tool that would allow them to record their music with their phone — something that musicians often do today using Apple’s Voice Memos app and, briefly, Music Memos — until its demise.

Image Credits: Tape It

“Regardless of whether you’re an amateur or even like a touring professional…you will record your ideas with your phone, just because that’s what you have with you,” Walther explains. “It’s the exact same thing with cameras — the best camera is the one you have with you. And the best audio recording tool is the one you have with you.”

That is, when you want to record, the easiest thing to do is not to get out your laptop and connect a bunch of cables to it, then load up your studio software — it’s to hit the record button on your iPhone.

The Tape It app allows you to do just that, but adds other features that make it more competitive with its built-in competition, Voice Memos.

When you record using Tape It, the app leverages A.I. to automatically detect the instrument, then annotate the recording with a visual indication to make those recordings easier to find by looking for the colorful icon. Musicians can also add their own markers to the files right when they record them, then add notes and photos to remind themselves of other details. This can be useful when reviewing the recordings later on, Walther says.

Image Credits: Tape It

“If I have a nice guitar sound, I can just take a picture of the settings on my amplifier, and I have them. This is something musicians do all the time,” he notes. “It’s the easiest way to re-create that sound.”

Another novel, but simple, change in Tape It is that breaks longer recordings into multiple lines, similar to a paragraph of text. The team calls this the “Time Paragraph,” and believes it will make listening to longer sessions easier than the default — which is typically a single, horizontally scrollable recording.

Image Credits: Tape It

The app has also been designed so it’s easier to go back to the right part of recordings, thanks to its smart waveforms, in addition to the optional markers and photos. And you can mark recordings as favorites so you can quickly pull up a list of your best ideas and sounds. The app offers full media center integration as well, so you can play back your music whenever you have time.

However, the standout feature is Tape It’s support for “Stereo HD” quality. Here, the app takes advantage of the two microphones on devices like the iPhone XS, XR, and other newer models, then improves the sound using A.I. technology and other noise reduction techniques which it’s developed in-house. This feature is part of its $20 per year premium subscription.

Over time, Tape It intends to broaden its use of A.I. and other IP to improve the sound quality further. It also plans to introduce collaborative features and support for importing and exporting recordings into professional studio software. This could eventually place Tape It into the same market that SoundCloud had initially chased before it shifted its focus to becoming more of a consumer-facing service.

But first, Tape It wants to nail the single-user workflow before adding on more sharing features.

“We decided that it’s so important to make sure it’s useful, even just for you. The stuff that you can collaborate on — if you don’t like using it yourself, you’re not going to use it,” Walther says.

Tape It’s team of three is dually based in both Stockholm and Berlin and is currently bootstrapping.

The app itself is a free download on iOS and will later support desktop users on Mac and Windows. An Android version is not planned.

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Tape It launches an A.I.-powered music recording app for iPhone

Earlier this year, Apple officially discontinued Music Memos, an iPhone app that allowed musicians to quickly record audio and develop new song ideas. Now, a new startup called Tape It is stepping in to fill the void with an app that improves audio recordings by offering a variety of features, including higher-quality sound, automatic instrument detection, support for markers, notes, and images, and more.

The idea for Tape It comes from two friends and musicians, Thomas Walther and Jan Nash.

Walther had previously spent three and a half years at Spotify, following its 2017 acquisition of the audio detection startup Sonalytic, which he had co-founded. Nash, meanwhile, is a classically trained opera singer, who also plays bass and is an engineer.

They’re joined by designer and musician Christian Crusius, previously of the design consultancy Fjord, which was acquired by Accenture.

The founders, who had played in a band together for many years, were inspired to build Tape It because it was something they wanted for themselves, Walther says. After ending his stint at Spotify working in their new Soundtrap division (an online music startup Spotify also bought in 2017), he knew he wanted to work on a project that was more focused on the music-making side of things. But while Soundtrap worked for some, it wasn’t what either Walther or his friends had needed. Instead, they wanted a simple tool that would allow them to record their music with their phone — something that musicians often do today using Apple’s Voice Memos app and, briefly, Music Memos — until its demise.

Image Credits: Tape It

“Regardless of whether you’re an amateur or even like a touring professional…you will record your ideas with your phone, just because that’s what you have with you,” Walther explains. “It’s the exact same thing with cameras — the best camera is the one you have with you. And the best audio recording tool is the one you have with you.”

That is, when you want to record, the easiest thing to do is not to get out your laptop and connect a bunch of cables to it, then load up your studio software — it’s to hit the record button on your iPhone.

The Tape It app allows you to do just that, but adds other features that make it more competitive with its built-in competition, Voice Memos.

When you record using Tape It, the app leverages A.I. to automatically detect the instrument, then annotate the recording with a visual indication to make those recordings easier to find by looking for the colorful icon. Musicians can also add their own markers to the files right when they record them, then add notes and photos to remind themselves of other details. This can be useful when reviewing the recordings later on, Walther says.

Image Credits: Tape It

“If I have a nice guitar sound, I can just take a picture of the settings on my amplifier, and I have them. This is something musicians do all the time,” he notes. “It’s the easiest way to re-create that sound.”

Another novel, but simple, change in Tape It is that breaks longer recordings into multiple lines, similar to a paragraph of text. The team calls this the “Time Paragraph,” and believes it will make listening to longer sessions easier than the default — which is typically a single, horizontally scrollable recording.

Image Credits: Tape It

The app has also been designed so it’s easier to go back to the right part of recordings, thanks to its smart waveforms, in addition to the optional markers and photos. And you can mark recordings as favorites so you can quickly pull up a list of your best ideas and sounds. The app offers full media center integration as well, so you can play back your music whenever you have time.

However, the standout feature is Tape It’s support for “Stereo HD” quality. Here, the app takes advantage of the two microphones on devices like the iPhone XS, XR, and other newer models, then improves the sound using A.I. technology and other noise reduction techniques which it’s developed in-house. This feature is part of its $20 per year premium subscription.

Over time, Tape It intends to broaden its use of A.I. and other IP to improve the sound quality further. It also plans to introduce collaborative features and support for importing and exporting recordings into professional studio software. This could eventually place Tape It into the same market that SoundCloud had initially chased before it shifted its focus to becoming more of a consumer-facing service.

But first, Tape It wants to nail the single-user workflow before adding on more sharing features.

“We decided that it’s so important to make sure it’s useful, even just for you. The stuff that you can collaborate on — if you don’t like using it yourself, you’re not going to use it,” Walther says.

Tape It’s team of three is dually based in both Stockholm and Berlin and is currently bootstrapping.

The app itself is a free download on iOS and will later support desktop users on Mac and Windows. An Android version is not planned.

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Tape It launches an A.I.-powered music recording app for iPhone

Earlier this year, Apple officially discontinued Music Memos, an iPhone app that allowed musicians to quickly record audio and develop new song ideas. Now, a new startup called Tape It is stepping in to fill the void with an app that improves audio recordings by offering a variety of features, including higher-quality sound, automatic instrument detection, support for markers, notes, and images, and more.

The idea for Tape It comes from two friends and musicians, Thomas Walther and Jan Nash.

Walther had previously spent three and a half years at Spotify, following its 2017 acquisition of the audio detection startup Sonalytic, which he had co-founded. Nash, meanwhile, is a classically trained opera singer, who also plays bass and is an engineer.

They’re joined by designer and musician Christian Crusius, previously of the design consultancy Fjord, which was acquired by Accenture.

The founders, who had played in a band together for many years, were inspired to build Tape It because it was something they wanted for themselves, Walther says. After ending his stint at Spotify working in their new Soundtrap division (an online music startup Spotify also bought in 2017), he knew he wanted to work on a project that was more focused on the music-making side of things. But while Soundtrap worked for some, it wasn’t what either Walther or his friends had needed. Instead, they wanted a simple tool that would allow them to record their music with their phone — something that musicians often do today using Apple’s Voice Memos app and, briefly, Music Memos — until its demise.

Image Credits: Tape It

“Regardless of whether you’re an amateur or even like a touring professional…you will record your ideas with your phone, just because that’s what you have with you,” Walther explains. “It’s the exact same thing with cameras — the best camera is the one you have with you. And the best audio recording tool is the one you have with you.”

That is, when you want to record, the easiest thing to do is not to get out your laptop and connect a bunch of cables to it, then load up your studio software — it’s to hit the record button on your iPhone.

The Tape It app allows you to do just that, but adds other features that make it more competitive with its built-in competition, Voice Memos.

When you record using Tape It, the app leverages A.I. to automatically detect the instrument, then annotate the recording with a visual indication to make those recordings easier to find by looking for the colorful icon. Musicians can also add their own markers to the files right when they record them, then add notes and photos to remind themselves of other details. This can be useful when reviewing the recordings later on, Walther says.

Image Credits: Tape It

“If I have a nice guitar sound, I can just take a picture of the settings on my amplifier, and I have them. This is something musicians do all the time,” he notes. “It’s the easiest way to re-create that sound.”

Another novel, but simple, change in Tape It is that breaks longer recordings into multiple lines, similar to a paragraph of text. The team calls this the “Time Paragraph,” and believes it will make listening to longer sessions easier than the default — which is typically a single, horizontally scrollable recording.

Image Credits: Tape It

The app has also been designed so it’s easier to go back to the right part of recordings, thanks to its smart waveforms, in addition to the optional markers and photos. And you can mark recordings as favorites so you can quickly pull up a list of your best ideas and sounds. The app offers full media center integration as well, so you can play back your music whenever you have time.

However, the standout feature is Tape It’s support for “Stereo HD” quality. Here, the app takes advantage of the two microphones on devices like the iPhone XS, XR, and other newer models, then improves the sound using A.I. technology and other noise reduction techniques which it’s developed in-house. This feature is part of its $20 per year premium subscription.

Over time, Tape It intends to broaden its use of A.I. and other IP to improve the sound quality further. It also plans to introduce collaborative features and support for importing and exporting recordings into professional studio software. This could eventually place Tape It into the same market that SoundCloud had initially chased before it shifted its focus to becoming more of a consumer-facing service.

But first, Tape It wants to nail the single-user workflow before adding on more sharing features.

“We decided that it’s so important to make sure it’s useful, even just for you. The stuff that you can collaborate on — if you don’t like using it yourself, you’re not going to use it,” Walther says.

Tape It’s team of three is dually based in both Stockholm and Berlin and is currently bootstrapping.

The app itself is a free download on iOS and will later support desktop users on Mac and Windows. An Android version is not planned.

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UK offers cash for CSAM detection tech targeted at e2e encryption

The UK government is preparing to spend over half a million dollars to encourage the development of detection technologies for child sexual exploitation material (CSAM) that can be bolted on to end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms to scan for the illegal material, as part of its ongoing policy push around Internet and child safety.

In a joint initiative today, the Home Office and the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) announced a “Tech Safety Challenge Fund” — which will distribute up to £425,000 (~$584k) to five organizations (£85k/$117k each) to develop “innovative technology to keep children safe in environments such as online messaging platforms with end-to-end encryption”.

A Challenge statement for applicants to the program adds that the focus is on solutions that can be deployed within e2e encrypted environments “without compromising user privacy”.

“The problem that we’re trying to fix is essentially the blindfolding of law enforcement agencies,” a Home Office spokeswoman told us, arguing that if tech platforms go ahead with their “full end-to-end encryption plans, as they currently are… we will be completely hindered in being able to protect our children online”.

While the announcement does not name any specific platforms of concern, Home Secretary Priti Patel has previously attacked Facebook’s plans to expand its use of e2e encryption — warning in April that the move could jeopardize law enforcement’s ability to investigate child abuse crime.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp also already uses e2e encryption so that platform is already a clear target for whatever ‘safety’ technologies might result from this taxpayer-funded challenge.

Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime are among other existing mainstream messaging tools which use e2e encryption.

So there is potential for very widespread application of any ‘child safety tech’ developed through this government-backed challenge. (Per the Home Office, technologies submitted to the Challenge will be evaluated by “independent academic experts”. The department was unable to provide details of who exactly will assess the projects.)

Patel, meanwhile, is continuing to apply high level pressure on the tech sector on this issue — including aiming to drum up support from G7 counterparts.

Writing in paywalled op-ed in Tory-friendly newspaper, The Telegraph, she trails a meeting she’ll be chairing today where she says she’ll push the G7 to collectively pressure social media companies to do more to address “harmful content on their platforms”.

“The introduction of end-to-end encryption must not open the door to even greater levels of child sexual abuse. Hyperbolic accusations from some quarters that this is really about governments wanting to snoop and spy on innocent citizens are simply untrue. It is about keeping the most vulnerable among us safe and preventing truly evil crimes,” she adds.

“I am calling on our international partners to back the UK’s approach of holding technology companies to account. They must not let harmful content continue to be posted on their platforms or neglect public safety when designing their products. We believe there are alternative solutions, and I know our law enforcement colleagues agree with us.”

Today I am leading discussions with my G7 counterparts on how to keep our children safe online.

I’m calling on them to back the UK’s approach of asking social media companies to put safety before profits.

Read more at https://t.co/FZczZBwPgl pic.twitter.com/4PzcLvME1O

— Priti Patel (@pritipatel) September 8, 2021

In the op-ed, the Home Secretary singles out Apple’s recent move to add a CSAM detection tool to iOS and macOS to scan content on user’s devices before it’s uploaded to iCloud — welcoming the development as a “first step”.

“Apple state their child sexual abuse filtering technology has a false positive rate of 1 in a trillion, meaning the privacy of legitimate users is protected whilst those building huge collections of extreme child sexual abuse material are caught out. They need to see th[r]ough that project,” she writes, urging Apple to press ahead with the (currently delayed) rollout.

Last week the iPhone maker said it would delay implementing the CSAM detection system — following a backlash led by security experts and privacy advocates who raised concerns about vulnerabilities in its approach, as well as the contradiction of a ‘privacy-focused’ company carrying out on-device scanning of customer data. They also flagged the wider risk of the scanning infrastructure being seized upon by governments and states who might order Apple to scan for other types of content, not just CSAM.

Patel’s description of Apple’s move as just a “first step” is unlikely to do anything to assuage concerns that once such scanning infrastructure is baked into e2e encrypted systems it will become a target for governments to widen the scope of what commercial platforms must legally scan for.

However the Home Office’s spokeswoman told us that Patel’s comments on Apple’s CSAM tech were only intended to welcome its decision to take action in the area of child safety — rather than being an endorsement of any specific technology or approach. (And Patel does also write: “But that is just one solution, by one company. Greater investment is essential.”)

The Home Office spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on which types of technologies the government is aiming to support via the Challenge fund, either, saying only that they’re looking for a range of solutions.

She told us the overarching goal is to support ‘middleground’ solutions — denying the government is trying to encourage technologists to come up with ways to backdoor e2e encryption.

In recent years in the UK GCHQ has also floated the controversial idea of a so-called ‘ghost protocol’ — that would allow for state intelligence or law enforcement agencies to be invisibly CC’d by service providers into encrypted communications on a targeted basis. That proposal was met with widespread criticism, including from the tech industry, which warned it would undermine trust and security and threaten fundamental rights.

It’s not clear if the government has such an approach — albeit with a CSAM focus — in mind here now as it tries to encourage the development of ‘middleground’ technologies that are able to scan e2e encrypted content for specifically illegal stuff.

In another concerning development, earlier this summer, guidance put out by DCMS for messaging platforms recommended that they “prevent” the use of e2e encryption for child accounts altogether.

Asked about that, the Home Office spokeswoman told us the tech fund is “not too different” and “is trying to find the solution in between”.

“Working together and bringing academics and NGOs into the field so that we can find a solution that works for both what social media companies want to achieve and also make sure that we’re able to protect children,” said said, adding: “We need everybody to come together and look at what they can do.”

There is not much more clarity in the Home Office guidance to suppliers applying for the chance to bag a tranche of funding.

There it writes that proposals must “make innovative use of technology to enable more effective detection and/or prevention of sexually explicit images or videos of children”.

“Within scope are tools which can identify, block or report either new or previously known child sexual abuse material, based on AI, hash-based detection or other techniques,” it goes on, further noting that proposals need to address “the specific challenges posed by e2ee environments, considering the opportunities to respond at different levels of the technical stack (including client-side and server-side).”

General information about the Challenge — which is open to applicants based anywhere, not just in the UK — can be found on the Safety Tech Network website.

The deadline for applications is October 6.

Selected applicants will have five months, between November 2021 and March 2022 to deliver their projects.

When exactly any of the tech might be pushed at the commercial sector isn’t clear — but the government may be hoping that by keeping up the pressure on the tech sector platform giants will develop this stuff themselves, as Apple has been.

The Challenge is just the latest UK government initiative to bring platforms in line with its policy priorities — back in 2017, for example, it was pushing them to build tools to block terrorist content — and you could argue it’s a form of progress that ministers are not simply calling for e2e encryption to be outlawed, as they frequently have in the past.

That said, talk of ‘preventing’ the use of e2e encryption — or even fuzzy suggestions of “in between” solutions — may not end up being so very different.

What is different is the sustained focus on child safety as the political cudgel to make platforms comply. That seems to be getting results.

Wider government plans to regulate platforms — set out in a draft Online Safety bill, published earlier this year — have yet to go through parliamentary scrutiny. But in one already baked in change, the country’s data protection watchdog is now enforcing a children’s design code which stipulates that platforms need to prioritize kids’ privacy by default, among other recommended standards.

The Age Appropriate Design Code was appended to the UK’s data protection bill as an amendment — meaning it sits under wider legislation that transposed Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) into law, which brought in supersized penalties for violations like data breaches. And in recent months a number of social media giants have announced changes to how they handle children’s accounts and data — which the ICO has credited to the code.

So the government may be feeling confident that it has finally found a blueprint for bringing tech giants to heel.

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Ford hires Apple executive who led its secret car project

Ford Motor has hired Doug Field, the engineering executive who was leading Apple’s special projects team, as the automaker seeks to gain an edge in software and other advanced technology.

Field, who previously was senior vice president of engineering at Tesla, was named Tuesday as Ford’s chief advanced technology and embedded systems officer. Field was most recently vp of Apple Special Projects, a team that was also working on its so-called Titan car project.

In this new position, Field will report directly to Ford President and CEO Jim Farley and oversee the company’s embedded software and hardware organization, which today consists of vehicle controls, enterprise connectivity, features, integration and validation, architecture and platform, driver assistance technology and digital engineering tools. This means Field will be responsible for the design, development and implementation of the entire tech stack used in Ford and Lincoln branded vehicles, including infotainment, navigation, driver-assist technology, connected services and vehicle cybersecurity.

The hire could be a boon for Ford, which wants to show customers and investors that it can offer cars, trucks and SUVs with a level of embedded technology that competes with the likes of Tesla and other newer entrants. Field’s experience at Tesla, specifically with the Model 3, could also prove critical for Ford as it develops and rolls out new electric vehicles.

Ford said that Field will work closely with Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s chief product platform and operations officer, to create the next generation of Ford’s connected products and experiences. Thai-Tang will continue to oversee product development, purchasing, design, research and advanced engineering, EPLM / D-Ford, advanced manufacturing and Ford Ion Park.

The job marks a return for Field who began his career at Ford as a development engineer from 1987 to 1993.

“I’ve always felt a deep connection to Ford. Ford products have been in my life as long as I can remember — F-150s on my dad’s farm, a ’65 Continental picking us up at my wedding and my thrill when I discovered the brilliant elegance in the design of the Model T,” Field said in a statement. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to help the team build the next generation of iconic Ford vehicles and prepare Ford for the next hundred years.”

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Microsoft launches a personalized news service, Microsoft Start

Microsoft today is introducing its own personalized news reading experience called Microsoft Start, available as both a website and mobile app, in addition to being integrated with other Microsoft products, including Windows 10 and 11 and its Microsoft Edge web browser. The feed will combine content from news publishers, but in a way that’s tailored to users’ individual interests, the company says — a customization system that could help Microsoft to better compete with the news reading experiences offered by rivals like Apple or Google, as well as popular third-party apps like Flipboard or SmartNews.

Microsoft says the product builds on the company’s legacy with online and mobile consumer services like MSN and Microsoft News. However, it won’t replace MSN. That service will remain available, despite the launch of this new, in-house competitor.

To use Microsoft Start, consumers can visit the standalone website MicrosoftStart.com, which works on both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge (but not Safari), or they can download the Microsoft Start mobile app for iOS or Android.

The service will also power the News and Interests experience on the Windows 10 taskbar and the Widgets experience on Windows 11. In Microsoft Edge, it will be available from the New Tab page, too.

Image Credits: Microsoft

At first glance, the Microsoft Start website it very much like any other online portal offering a collection of news from a variety of publishers, alongside widgets for things like weather, stocks, sports scores and traffic. When you click to read an article, you’re taken to a syndicated version hosted on Microsoft’s domain, which includes the Microsoft Start top navigation bar at the top and emoji reaction buttons below the headline.

Users can also react to stories with emojis while browsing the home page itself.

This emoji set is similar to the one being offered today by Facebook, except that Microsoft has replaced Facebook’s controversial laughing face emoji with a thinking face. (It’s worth noting that the Facebook laughing face has been increasingly criticized for being used to openly ridicule posts and mock people  — even on stories depicting tragic events, like Covid deaths, for instance.)

Microsoft has made another change with its emoji, as well: after you react to a story with an emoji, you only see your emoji instead of the top three and total reaction count. 

Image Credits: Microsoft

But while online web portals tend to be static aggregators of news content, Microsoft Start’s feed will adjust to users’ interests in several different ways.

Users can click a “Personalize” button to be taken to a page where they can manually add and remove interests from across a number of high-level categories like news, entertainment, sports, technology, money, finance, travel, health, shopping, and more. Or they can search for categories and interests that could be more specific or more niche. (Instead of “parenting,” for instance, “parenting teenagers.”)  This recalls the recent update Flipboard made to its own main page, the For You feed, which lets users make similar choices.

As users then begin to browse their Microsoft Start feed, they can also click a button to thumbs up or thumbs down an article to better adjust the feed to their preferences. Over time, the more the user engages with the content, the better refined the feed becomes, says Microsoft. This customization will leverage A.I. and machine learning, as well as human moderation, the company notes.

The feed, like other online portals, is supported by advertising. As you scroll down, you’ll notice every few rows will feature one ad unit, where the URL is flagged with a green “Ad” badge. Initially, these mostly appear to be product ads, making them distinct from the news content. Since Microsoft isn’t shutting down MSN and is integrating this news service into a number of other products, it’s expanding the available advertising real estate it can offer with this launch.

The website, app and integrations are rolling out starting today. (If you aren’t able to find the app yet, you can try scanning the QR code from your mobile device.)

 

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Apple’s next event is September 14

Invites just went for Apple’s next big event, scheduled for 10AM PT/1PM ET on September 14. The invite doesn’t offer a lot in the way of what’s to come — it’s a neon logo set against a lovely sierras backdrop and an apparent The Mamas & the Papas reference in the form of “California Streaming.” Beats CaliforniPhoneication, I suppose.

The company’s reportedly got a lot of hardware waiting in the wings ahead of the holidays, but the timing in certainly right on this one for the iPhone 13. Last year marked a rare delay for the company, owing to larger issues with the supply chain that hamstrung most of the industry.

Per usual, there’s been a lot of speculation around the upcoming handset’s release. Last year’s long-awaited arrival of 5G marked a big windfall for the company, as the overall industry was flagging. It was a massive few quarters for the iPhone, as those holding off on upcoming finally pulled the trigger.

So, what surprises does Apple have up its sleeve for the next version of the handset? Recent leaks point to a feature called Emergency Message via Satellite, which offers short satellite calls for phones temporarily unable to access their cellular networks. Honestly, though, the information around this is currently murky, at best.

Other expected updates include a 120Hz display – many expected the update to arrive on iPhone 12, but all versions of the handset still sported a 60Hz refresh rate. It’s expected to pack the new A15 chip, improved sensors and a larger battery.

The Apple Watch 7 and AirPods 3 are also set for release sooner, than later. Though Apple certainly hasn’t been above splitting things up a bit in the virtual event era.

As ever, we’ll be there (virtually) to bring it to you, live.

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