Mobile World Congress took place this week, and if you’re an Apple fan, there are a lot of fun stories you’ve been missing out on. MWC is basically an Android program, but there are still some releases and announcements that will be of interest to iPhone users. We’ve rounded up a week’s worth of five announcements that Apple fans should know:
Reality Pro is already replacing AR
One of the biggest surprises of the show happened on the first day. Android phone maker Xiaomi has released a prototype A pair of smart augmented reality glasses Hand gestures, “retina-level” displays, and a completely wireless design. If it sounds like Apple’s Reality Pro AR headset, you’re right. The design is definitely an acquired taste and while it’s only a prototype, it’s clear that Apple’s headset is already influencing the augmented reality scene – and it’s yet to come.
MagSafe is about to get better
After announcing at CES that the Q12 standard is based on Apple’s “Magnetic Energy Profile,” the Wireless Energy Consortium showed off its first Qi2 magnetic chargers for Android phones at MWC, and lo and behold, they look like MagSafe. So they work with iPhones out of the box. Apple has been letting MagSafe fall through the past couple of years, so there are finally some great third-party accessories available.
Apple abandons Qualcomm
You’d be hard-pressed to find an iPhone on the floor of MWC, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t talking about it. And Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon had a lot to say about the modem being developed for the iPhone: “My planning assumption is that we don’t make any plans for 2024, we don’t deliver. [Apple] modem at 24, but that’s their decision. Therefore, it appears that the upcoming iPhone 15 will be the last to use a Qualcomm modem, which is the same 5G modem that Android phones have been using for years. It may not matter much to users, but it is another part of the iPhone that Apple controls.
Nothing has arrived for the iPhone
Nothing Phone is one of the most popular Android phones in 2022, which has unique lighting, powerful specifications, and competitive pricing. The only catch is that when US CEO Carl Pai announced at MWC, Nothing Phone 2 will not be coming this year and will only be available in the US. Pei has previously spoken in depth about his desire to win Apple’s dominance, so the iPhone 15 will have a little more competition this year – not that it matters too much.
Nothing Phone 2 will launch in the US this year.
foundry
iSIM is the next eSIM
Apple surprised us last year by making the iPhone 14 eSIM entirely in the US, and after some initial headaches, it turned out great for everyone — and several Android phones have followed suit. The next generation of SIM is already here: iSIM. Qualcomm has integrated a modified version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset directly into the SIM card of its high-end Android phones, making it smaller and more powerful than an eSIM. We haven’t heard any rumors about Apple using an iSIM with the new A17 chip, but it sure looks like Apple is making some kind of technological breakthrough.