Why Insiders Believe Apple Is Planning to Release Its Biggest iPhone Ever in 2018

As we kick off 2018, it’s perhaps no surprise that some of the biggest Apple news items centered on the iPhone.

The week kicked off in a big way with reports that Apple has signed deals with manufacturing partners to build the company a 6.5-inch iPhone that could be released later this year. It was flanked by reports of Apple clarifying which iPhone models will qualify for the company’s $29 battery replacement and which models will not.

Apple watchers were also surprised this week to learn of Apple Music chief Jimmy Iovine’s plans to leave the company this year, and were likely not too pleased to learn a processor flaw has left their Macs, iPhones, and iPads at risk.
This is Fortune’s latest weekly roundup of the biggest Apple news. Here’s last week’s roundup.

Apple is said to have signed a deal with Korean screen maker LG Display to supply 6.5-inch displays for an iPhone planned for later this year. That iPhone, the biggest Apple has ever released, could be known as the iPhone X Plus, according to reports. An update to last year’s iPhone X, which comes with a 5.8-inch display, is also reportedly on tap. That update will keep the 5.8-inch screen.
After an iPhone battery kerfuffle late last year forced Apple to apologize and offer iPhone users $29 upgrades on poorly performing batteries, the company this week clarified which devices qualify for the replacement. According to Apple’s site, the iPhone 6 and newer, including the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, are all eligible for a $29 battery replacement. Those looking for a new battery need to bring a working iPhone into an Apple Store and the tech giant will replace the battery.
Jimmy Iovine, the head of Apple Music and a longtime music industry titan, will leave the company in August. It’s believed Iovine’s departure coincides with the timing of his shares in Apple fully vesting follow a $3 billion 2014 buyout of the Beats music company he co-founded with Dr. Dre.
Apple’s Macs, iPhones, and iPads are all vulnerable to chip flaws revealed this week. Those flaws, called Meltdown and Spectre, could allow malicious hackers to take advantage and hack remote machines. In a statement this week, Apple said that it’s working on a fix to the flaws and will release the patch soon, so hackers won’t be able to exploit its hardware and steal user information.
Apple this week acquired a Canadian software company named Buddybuild. The startup specialized in the development of coding tools for application developers. The Buddybuild team will now work in Apple’s Xcode engineering group, where they’ll be tasked with improving the tech giant’s suite of Xcode software development tools.
One more thing…CES, the technology industry’s biggest confab, is kicking off in Las Vegas on Sunday. As in years past, Apple won’t be at the show. But look for the company to feature prominently in a variety of announcements by third-party accessory makers hoping Mac, iPhone, and iPad owners use their products.