• by Thom Forbes  @tforbes, September 6, 2016

Unless the Apple fan boy network has been steered terribly wrong by supply-chain leaks and peeks at prototypes, Apple’s big announcements tomorrow will be its biannual iPhone upgrade, a second-generation Watch and new versions of various operating systems. And what is likely to be the iPhone 7’s most radical innovation at the reveal has been a contentious one since word started leaking out about it many months ago. 

“Anyone who cares enough about the iPhone to know that a new model is being released this month already knows what it is supposed to be like: a little thinner, a little faster and equipped with superior cameras on the Plus model,” writes David Streitfeld for the New York Times. “By far the most controversial feature, however, is the one that will be missing: a headphone jack. A standard element of technology that can be traced back to 1878 and the invention of the manual telephone exchange, the jack is apparently going the way of the floppy disk and the folding map. The future will be wireless.”

What exactly will that look like? Nobody’s exactly sure. 

“Apple is said to be abandoning the port in favor of a second speaker or microphone at the bottom of the phone. The duties of the standard 3.5mm headphone jack will be handled by either the Lightning port, Bluetooth, or both,” reports Andrew Cunningham for Ars Technica. “None of the rumors can agree on what Apple will ship with the iPhone instead of those 3.5mm earbuds, but it will be one of those two options.” 

Cunningham says that the party line is that the disappearance of the jack is akin to the removal of floppy drives from the Mac but he’s not necessarily buying it, so to speak, and no doubt he isn’t alone in feeling that way. “It’s on Apple to communicate why the removal of the headphone jack is progress and not just change-for-the-sake-of-change,” he writes.

In addition to a lack of “must-have” new features, the new iPhone is launching in a different reality than it predecessors.

“In recent years, wireless carriers have moved away from plans that offer discounted smartphones for customers that signed a two-year contract. Now, carriers primarily offer service plans that cost less each month but require customers to pay full price for their devices,” point out Ryan Knutson and Thomas Gryta for the Wall Street Journal.

And they’re not cheap — $500 to $700 a pop, which adds incentive to hold on to them as long as they’re functional and not as lame as rotary dial in another era.

Another rumor is that the iPhone 7 will be waterproof, Jeff Parsons and Sophie Curtis tell us in the Mirror. “If true, it could herald an end to the misery that results from dropping your iPhone down the toilet, plonking it into your pint glass, or forgetting to take it out of your pocket before diving into the swimming pool.” 

CNET’s Luke Lancaster has a rundown of the software advances Apple has already announced for iOS 10 and Watch OS3 here. Among them: Siri will be available for third-party apps, the iPhone lockscreen will become a hub you can launch apps from and Apple Maps will be better.

The rather work-a-day advances — barring a surprise — are indicative of Apple under CEO Tim Cook’s reign these past five years, some observers feel.

“Fading is the Steve Jobs-led innovation machine pumping out ‘insanely great’ must-have gadgets that other companies couldn't match,” write Jon Swartz and Marco della Cava for USA Today. “In its stead is a Cook-helmed corporate juggernaut offering incremental upgrades on existing products while rivals pump out new devices that wow consumers and critics.”

“Maybe it’s time for Apple to be less guarded. If you swing for the fences, it’s OK to strike out sometime. Their reputation can take it,” David Hsu, professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, tells them.