Rumor Replay: Apple’s M5 chip is coming, iPhone roadmap tease, and extra

This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: Apple’s M5 chip is coming with AI enhancements, Tim Cook teases the iPhone roadmap, and Vision Pro’s expanding game support. Here are this week’s Apple rumors.

Apple’s M5 chip enters mass production with AI upgrade

We’re still waiting for the M4 MacBook Air to drop any day now. But already, it seems, Apple has started mass production of its forthcoming M5. The Etnews report says Apple is using “new process technology to enhance artificial intelligence (AI) performance.”

My takeaways

I haven’t kept a close eye on past years’ patterns, but starting M5 mass production already seems especially curious.

Apple isn’t expected to ship its first M5 products until the fall, when new iPad Pro and MacBook Pro models are rumored to arrive.

Last year Apple shocked everyone by debuting its M4 chip in the iPad Pro in May. If Apple plans to launch the first M5 product some time this spring, it would be similarly surprising, but there’s no current indication that’s going to happen.

Apple surprised us last year, so maybe it will do the same thing again with the M5’s debut.

Playstation VR2 controller support likely coming in visionOS 3

Mark Gurman had previously reported that Apple was working with Sony to bring Playstation VR 2 controller support to Vision Pro. This week, he confirmed the project was still in development but likely won’t arrive until “a software update later this year.”

My takeaways

Gurman’s last report made it sound like an Apple-Playstation announcement could be imminent. Now, it seems we’ll have to wait a bit longer.

The new report doesn’t specify visionOS 3 is the launch target, so it’s always possible that visionOS 2.4 could bring the new controller support. But ‘later this year’ sounds to me like a visionOS 3 prediction.

Tim Cook on the iPhone’s roadmap

It was a fairly light week for Apple rumors, but one interesting tidbit came straight from CEO Tim Cook.

On Apple’s recent earnings call, Cook hinted at exciting things on the iPhone roadmap. He said, “There’s a lot more to come and I could not feel more optimistic about our product pipeline…there’s a lot of innovation left on the smartphone.”

My takeaways

In isolation, Cook’s quote could easily be interpreted as empty rhetoric, an attempt to give investors confidence in Apple’s flagship product.

But as I explain here, we have an abundance of other reporting to suggest that some big changes are coming to the iPhone soon. This fall’s iPhone 17 Air will offer a radically thin new form factor, while next year’s foldable model (iPhone 18 Fold?) will pack an even more novel design for Apple.

iPhones have looked largely the same for many years now, but it sounds like change is finally coming.

What are your takeaways from this week’s Apple rumors? Let us know in the comments.