Taking a look back at another week of news and headlines from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes iPhone 13 production grows, new Wi-Fi 6E features, hiding the iPhone notch, MacBook Pro launch dates, new Magic Keyboard, powerful GPUs for the Mac Pro, and iPad Mini survey, and the promise of a thinner iPhone.

Apple Will Scan For CSAM Images On Your iPhone 

Apple has announced the inclusion of "expanded protections for children” to most of its platforms (iOS, iPadOS,macoS, and watchOS). There’s a lot of discussion starting to take place, looking at issues from scanning of private images, wider privacy concerns on how this feature may be extended by governments around the world, Apple’s image as a privacy focused company, the pressure this will put on other manufacturers to include this system “because Apple does it”:

Apple intends to install software on American iPhones to scan for child abuse imagery, according to people briefed on its plans, raising alarm among security researchers who warn that it could open the door to surveillance of millions of people’s personal devices… The automated system would proactively alert a team of human reviewers if it believes illegal imagery is detected, who would then contact law enforcement if the material can be verified. The scheme will initially roll out only in the US.

Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes).

No single link here, this is a pretty wide ranging topic, so I’d start with Apple’s own statement followed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s discussion on the implications of “…a backdoor into its data storage system and its messaging system”, The Register’s highlighting why “this tech has mission creep all over it."

With the iPhone 13 launch around five weeks away, Apple has started to build up supplies of the handsets ahead of a retail release nearer the end of September. It has also brought a new manufacturer into the process to assemble the new handsets. Given Apple has upped the order book on the iPhone, this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise… assuming Tim Cook and his team have got the sales predictions right:

"Chinese electronics maker Luxshare Precision Industry will build up to 3% of the upcoming iPhone 13 series, winning orders away from Taiwanese rivals Foxconn and Pegatron… Luxshare will start building the iPhone 13 Pro — as the premium model is expected to be called — this month, according to sources, a major breakthrough for a company that has never produced iPhones on its own.

Improved Wi-Fi For iPhone 13

Last year saw the iPhone finally pick up 5G to improve the smartphone’s connectivity to the rest of the world.This year, the focus will be on closer connections, with the inclusion off Wi-Fi 6E - which should offer a more consistent experience. MacRumors’ Sam Fathi has an interview with the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Kevin Robinson to find out more:

"Released in 2019, it promises to offer users a more consistent, robust, and reliable Wi-Fi experience that works across a range of devices. Wi-Fi 6E, which on the surface is simply Wi-Fi 6 expanded into the 6-GHz range, was announced more recently in January of 2020."