iPhone 16 rumours sound like the phone of the future

The iPhone 15 range has introduced a number of new innovations to Apple's smartphone offering, most noticeably the incredible Tetra-Prism lens on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but as an insatiable bunch, we're already thinking about next year's model. 

The iPhone 16 (as it will almost certainly be called) has already had plenty of speculation around it, including a potential big redesign to improve overheating performance. New rumours however from a renowned leaker sound slightly more futuristic. 

Tipster Min Chi Kuo has suggested that the iPhone 16 will feature a "substantial upgrade in microphone specifications" which could be to assist with another rumoured change, a significant focus on AI integration. Increased use of AI in the form of a super-powered Siri would need increased precision if it's one of the main ways to interact with the phone so this mic upgrade makes sense. Many are expecting something a bit similar to ChatGPT or Google Bard with a belief that Apple is working on its own LLM (Large language model) to improve its AI. 

The likes of Google have been embracing AI with their Pixel phones, which has produced some incredible results. We love the Pixel's image processing for example and would love to see something similar on the iPhone. 

With this in mind, expect iOS 18 to bring significant changes to accommodate AI features. We've already seen some accommodations made for AI on Mac with Apple launching its MLX framework which is "designed for efficient and flexible machine learning on Apple silicon." 

As the first iPhone to launch after the Apple Vision Pro, we are also anticipating a bunch of new features to accommodate the rather nifty, and potentially revolutionary, headset beyond the likes of spatial images and video. 

However you feel about AI, it looks like a mainstay in our tech for years to come, but on the simplest level, a suped-up Siri can only be a good thing.