This past Tuesday, Apple Inc. introduced its latest line of iPhones in a special pre-recorded event that showcased iPhone 17 and an extra thin iPhone Air.
Along with showcasing the latest Apple Watches and Airpods, the event lasted just over an hour. It included introductions from Apple CEO Tim Cook plus key Apple staff, as well as customer testimonials, music and ads to showcase it all. You can watch it here.
Unfortunately for me, I knew in advance almost every product that was introduced, down to the new iPhone Air.
Thanks for spoiling it, Mark Gurman.
Gurman is a tech writer for Bloomberg News who covers everything Apple like Helen Thomas covered the White House once upon a time. The author of the Power On newsletter, Gurman had already detailed almost everything Apple debuted, down to the specs of the iPhone Air and cameras in the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
I didn’t want to know any of that before I watched the Apple event. I long for the days of the “One More Thing” that the late Steve Jobs would surprise the audience at Apple product events. I was just as surprised and awed as everyone else when he pulled the first iPod out of the pocket of his Levi’s in 2001.
Watch Jobs make some “one more thing” introductions in the video below.
I’m not sure how Gurman gets his info, but I assume it must come with Apple’s cooperation or willfully ignoring his insider scoops. Reporters and podcasters that I follow seem happy with the situation because Gurman’s reporting gives them something to discuss on an ongoing basis from week-to-week.
I realize that all of this doesn’t matter to about 99.9% of the public, but as a long-time Apple Fanboy, it’s a big deal. There was time that Jobs was so obsessed over keeping future products secret that he took steps like issuing memos with slight alterations sent to different employees to catch leakers.
Just as it should be.
Oh, and one more thing. I long for the pre-COVID years when Apple’s product events were all performed live in front of an audience and streamed to the rest of us. It was way more fun when new Macs or iPads or software were introduced by Jobs or Phil Schiller or Craig Federighi, and demoed right on the stage.
That was live theater, and I loved it.
But here we are in 2025, and we all can predict virtually every new product in advance as a pre-recorded Tim Cook introduces it as Apple’s “best ever.”
No suspense. No surprise. No one more thing.
Get off my lawn.
UPDATE:
Here is what Jason Snell, former editor of Macworld magazine who has covered Apple for decades, had to say about new product developments that are leaked to the public.
Jim Stafford's BlogOKC 