Deciphering Apple’s ‘Awe Dropping’ iPhone 17 Event Invite
The invitations were published Tuesday for the Apple event on September 9, which means that it is time to set up our speculation engines and understand the real messages behind the slogan “AWE Droping” and the Orange, yellow and blue Apple logo that accompanies it.
Why does Apple tease its events like this? Obviously, one of the reasons is to encourage articles like the one you read. But also, in an environment where the details on what is invariably coming to flee in advance, it is a way of stinging the interest and adding a meaning – yes, I will say it – magic. It is not a bomb like Taylor Swift engages, but we can still have fun examining the hidden indices of Apple.
The hottest event of the season
Exactly a year ago, Apple teased its next fall event with “It’s Glowtime” and an Apple logo design that highlighted the new Siri Glow as part of Apple Intelligence. Unfortunately, the actual “Glowtime” was expelled for a few weeks, because AI technology was not ready to ship with the rest of iOS 18 and the iPhone 16 line. And in fact, Apple Intelligence itself turned out to have less radiance and more than one unpleasant aroma because it did not manage to deliver what Apple explained. (To be fair, I found that several Apple intelligence features were useful on a daily basis, but they are not up to the business vision at the time.)
So now we have a design that evokes a heat card, especially when you visualize it animated; Go to Apple.com to see it in action. Not only is that, it is interactive: press a finger (telephone or tablet) or a pointer with the mouse or the trackpad held (on a computer) on the logo to bring up a “hot” bright orange place, then drag it. Also note that the edges of the logo behave as the liquid glass items do in iOS 26, with light flexion as a function of the vitreous shape.
The Apple Fall 2025 event invitation logo is interactive: a heat signature remains where you touch or click and shoot.
What is a thermal card evokes in the context of new Apple products? Heat is the enemy of mobile electronics, which stops when they become too grilled. Perhaps the A19 Pro chip may be so powerful that it is hot, which has led Apple to return a problem in an opportunity: “At Apple, we think that overheating phones are a functionality. It is the evolution of parental commands in screen time, but designed for everyone: when you have been on your phone for too long, it prevents you from forcing you to do something else.”
I particularly liked one of my colleague’s suggestions that the iPhone 17 models will get “Predator Vision”, a sensor that reveals the nearby heat signatures. Surprisingly, it’s not such a bizarre idea. You can buy thermal cameras that connect to a phone and can reveal hot spots that you could otherwise miss, like at home.
Although it is not as visually exciting, the Pixel 8 Pro, the Pixel 9 Pro and the Pixel 10 Pro each include a thermometer in the middle of the camera table which can be used to check the surface temperatures of things like food, kitchen utensils or other phones while playing games on it.
However, I cannot imagine that Apple puts a temperature sensor on the iPhone, and even less that would generate a thermal card of the surrounding area.
Maybe I’m too literal. Could orange and blue colors suggest two possible new colors for the iPhone 17 Pro?
Leave a certain admiration
The slogan is also a curiosity, since the last thing you want to do with a phone is to drop it. The iPhone 17 Pro should have an aluminum shell this time, by supplanting the titanium chassis of the iPhone 16 Pro, so maybe the new models will be more resistant to the daily blows than our phones endure?
Of course, “AWE DOSSING” could simply be a word game of “jaw fall”, since Apple will certainly say that this year’s products are the best and fastest that the company has ever done. Somewhere at Apple Park, there must be a powerful leader who cannot leave a good (or a bad) game of words without sharing. Consider “It’s Glowtime” for the iPhone 16 and Apple Intelligence, “Wonderlust” for the iPhone 15, or “Far Out” for the iPhone 14 – All games worthy of groaning on common sentences.
Apple’s invitations were not always so shy – or puncture. Here is a collection of old invitations ranging from 2008 to 2013 which were simpler but still entertaining.
Like any good puzzle, most of the pleasure tries to understand it. Hopefully what Apple reveals on September 9 will deserve to wait.
Look at this: Apple will soon reveal the iPhone 17. This is what we want
