End of the year draws closer.

As the end of the year draws closer the big players in silicon valley prepare to launch the last product updates out to the market. Google has a launch event for 6 October which includes the Pixel phone along with the Pixel watch. I really hope that Google will bring the Pixel phone to New Zealand but something tells me that Google are going to put minimal effort into developing their hardware portfolio beyond catering for 14 countries but with that being said, Samsung next year will be launching their S23 so it’ll be interesting to see what happens with their implementation of Android 13. I really wonder at this stage whether an gentleman’s agreement was made between Samsung and Google, that Samsung with embrace WearOS, Google would make Android easier to customise, Samsung would recommit to Android development on the phone and Google to promise not to go beyond the 14 countries they’re currently shipping their products to which directly compete with Samsung.

Apple is still working on macOS 13 Ventura but based on the latest beta 9 release notes (link) there is still a decent amount of work needing to be done particularly when you consider that iPadOS 16.x has been delayed due to a shared feature, Stage Manager, not being ready to ship. Although there has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth online, I would sooner Apple hold back releasing a product if they feel that it isn’t up to standard. There is a rumour at the moment regarding iOS 16.0.3 to tidy up some lose ends but I would say that iOS/iPadOS 16.1 and macOS Ventura 13 will probably have the release date announced soon – maybe at the rumoured Apple event but according to Mark German (link) it is highly unlikely that there will be an October event but then again we’re just going to have to wait to see what happens. One thing to keep in mind is the schedule for the Intel to Apple Silicon transition was two years and there is one more Mac to transition which is the Mac Pro so it would make sense for there to be an event so it is possible for that event maybe towards the end of October/beginning of November given that in the past Apple have released macOS as late as November such as ‘Big Sur’ which wasn’t released until 12 November 2020 or late October such as ‘Monterey’ which was released 25 October 2021.