Back in the middle of last month, Twitter tipster “L0vetodream” passed along the exciting word that Apple was set to pass along a holiday surprise, perfect for winter. If you’re hoping that this gift is an iPhone 12 Pro Max, you deserve a medal for wishful thinking. Besides, where does the winter fit in here unless you think that a hot phone will keep you warm. Others joke about Apple mailing iPhone 12 series buyers a battery charger. We know that this suggestion is coming from the wanna-be stand-ups in our audience. How? Because they wouldn’t-they couldn’t-be serious about Apple making a big hullabaloo about cleaning up the environment by not putting power adapters and EarPods in the box with new iPhones only to send them out as a gift.
Is Apple about to unveil new hardware in less than a week?
But there could be some new product(s) to be announced by Apple soon. By soon, we mean soon. MacRumors reports that it has obtained from a reasonable source an internal AppleCare document that mentions that a change is coming. The document tells Apple service providers including technicians to be ready for a change to take place on December 8th at 8:30 am ET (bonus points if you remember what horrible event took place on that date an astounding 40 years ago). Apple says that it will be issuing new SKUs, new/updated product descriptions, and new/updated product pricing. A white piano shouldn’t have to fall on your head for you to imagine that a new Apple product is coming your way. Before the iPhone 12 unveiling took place on October 13th, Apple sent out a very similar memo to technicians telling them to be prepared for AppleCare related changes on that date at approximately 10:00 am PT.
So what could it be? Considering the document mentions a time of 8:30 am ET, that pretty much rules out a major device worthy of a virtual event. Remember, 8:30 am on the east coast is 5:30 am on the west coast where such an event would be held; we know of many who work in the tech industry that aren’t even done throwing up at that hour. So let’s 86 the low hanging fruit. Don’t expect Apple Glass to be unveiled, in other words. Nor should you expect to see a foldable iPhone. And even though we could see iOS 14.3 and the new Apple Fitness+ service become press release subjects on December 8th, neither would have any relationship to AppleCare; the latter, after all, provides insurance on Apple devices.
We might see the item tracking Apple Tags accessory although we don’t see a winter connection. Well, how about the rumored over-ear AirPods Studio headphones with Active Noise Cancellation? After all, they will keep your ears warmer in the winter.