I did some traveling this week and that gave me an opportunity to observe a lot of people making their way through airports. Travel is just one more thing that has been revolutionized by the iPhone. When Apple released a touch screen computer that fits in your pocket, they changed the world.

I think a bit of this story that people miss is that it really took Apple to make this work. Apple’s engineering talent and user interface designers built a transformative bit of electronic gadgetry that I don’t think anyone else could have made and changed … well … everything.

I went back and read my comically bad review of the original iPhone from 2007. Most interesting for me was that I’d forgotten about several of my problems with the original iPhone. The device was limited and missing a lot of the features in phones of the day. I think the reason I didn’t remember so many of those original problems is because the iPhone was so good at the limited features it had. I vividly remember sliding to unlock, sending emails and viewing attachments on that screen, looking at maps on my phone, and … best of all … using Safari. If you’d ever attempted to access the Internet with any mobile phone made before the iPhone, you’d understand exactly how special the original iPhone was.

I don’t know if Apple will ever have another world-changing product like the iPhone. Indeed, I don’t know if any consumer electronic company will make something that changes the wold as much as the iPhone did. 10 years can feel like a lot of time. It also can feel like the blink of an eye. The iPhone has come so far in the past 10 years. Can you imagine what it will be like 10 years from now?

Later this year we’re going to get the next iPhone. There’s been a lot of rumors about this new one with talk of an edge-to-edge (possibly OLED) screen, embedded touch IT, and even maybe wireless charging. Chance Miller at 9to5 Mac did a nice job pulling together the current rumors. Personally, I’d be surprised if the next iPhone has all of the rumored features. The iPhone is nearly the whole story when it comes to Apple revenue and for every new iPhone they have to build millions of the things reliably and quickly. Too many big changes in one generation increases the possibility of delays for specific parts or, worse yet, defects in the phone. If I had to pick just one feature I’d like in a new iPhone, it would be that edge-to-edge screen. It looks pretty great in 9to5 Mac’s mock up photos in the above linked article.

Happy iPhone day to everyone getting their new handset. (Mine is still about a week away.) Today YouTube is lit up with people doing things like dunking their iPhone 7 in coffee and taking it in the pool (3.5 feet deep!) and the phones are still working. My favorite is the iFixit ongoing stress test. As I write this, iFixit’s iPhone has been underwater for 4 hours and is still working fine. This doesn’t mean the new phone is an underwater camera so much as the next time you fall in the pool or drop it in water, you’re probably fine.

I always enjoy John Gruber’s insight (and brevity) when it comes to reviewing Apple products. Today he released his review of the iPhones 7 and doesn’t disappoint. One of the most interesting tidbits is that the “zoom” lens on the iPhone 7 Plus has a smaller aperture than the standard lens. That means you’ll want to take your indoor and low-light photography with the standard lens, not the zoom.

As expected, the iPhone 7 removed the headphone port. I thought the explanation on stage yesterday was pretty good about why they did it. Although I wouldn’t have called it “courageous”. People at Apple have done courageous things. Removing the headphone port, however, does not raise to that level.

BuzzFeed got an exclusive interview with the Apple team where they address the removal of the headphone port more thoroughly and, in my mind, better.

If you want to understand Apple’s argument (and spin) on this issue, I’d read the entire article. I do think including the adapter in the box was smart. It doesn’t solve all the problems (you still can’t simultaneously charge and listen to wired headphones) but it solves most of them. I’m starting to think the removal of the headphone port isn’t going to turn into the public blood-bath I originally thought it would.

Next week, on September 7, Apple is having its fall event where it announces, among other things, the new iPhone. That makes it silly season right now in the Apple-rumor business. If you want to impress your friends with your “inside” knowledge, I’d recommend MacRumors iPhone 7 rumor round-up.

As a result of the sheer volume of phones Apple has to build every year, I suspect there will be very few hardware related surprises next week. I’ve got a few pre-announcement thoughts on some of the new features.

Farewell 16GB?

According to the rumor mill, this year will see the long-overdue death of the 16 GB iPhone in favor of 32GB for the entry model. I sure hope that’s true.

The Dual Lens Camera

I am really looking forward to seeing how well the dual lens camera system works. There’s a lot of ways to implement a dual lens camera system and while the hardware manufacturing business is leaky, Apple’s software team is not. At this point, I don’t think anyone outside Apple has any idea what they’re going do with those two lenses and I can’t wait to find out. While I’ll most likely be a fan of the dual lens camara, I don’t like the bulging metal around the lip of the camera lenses in the leaked photos. Unfortunately, even Apple must obey the laws of physics.

Sans Headphone Port

The other big news will be the removal of the headphone jack. Apple is going to take a ton of heat over this. The fact that the headphone jack is being removed is well known enough at this point that everyone who wants to write go after Apple on this has been sharpening their knives for weeks.

As for me, I think the removal of the headphone port is a bad idea unless they can demonstrate a really good reason for doing so. Just last night I walked into my daughter’s room and saw her listening to her iPhone with the headphones plugged in while the lightning port was being used to charge the phone. I know I sound like a grumpy old man but it seems like everyone in my life under the age of 20 prefers to keep their phone constantly at 15% charge. For those people, the ability to simultaneously charge and listen to music through headphones is something they do every day and removal of the headphone port makes that harder.

Also, my wife uses the auxiliary port in her car to plug into her iPhone, which means we’ll probably have to buy several of the inevitably required Lightning-to-headphone adapters. Like I said, I hope they’ve got a good reason. (Water resistance is my guess.)

All that said, I got on the Bluetooth bandwagon a few years ago and rarely plug headphones into my iPhone so other than helping my family cope, it won’t bother me with respect to my own phone.

Part of me is just curious on an intellectual level as to how Apple will go about justifying the removal of the headphone port and how their public relations department will handle the inevitable backlash. Strap in, gang.

We’ll be recording a Mac Power Users episode immediately following the September 7 event so expect more on this topic.

It seems like there is enough smoke in the air to think the hypothetical dual-camera system in the iPhone 7 plus may be a real thing. Most recently Mac Rumors released drawings from an alleged Apple casing subcontractor.  If true, the 5.5 inch phone is getting a dual-lens camera system.

This could mean that the camera in the iPhone 7 Plus is significantly better than the camera in the iPhone 7. It looks like the iPhone 7 Plus may also exclusively get a smart connector. 

If the rumors are true and they end up removing the headphone jacks and increasing the disparity between the normal and plus sized iPhones, people are going to go nuts when they announce these in September. Buckle in.