Mossberg: Apple, the king of tech taste and daring, takes a breather

Welcome to Mossberg, a weekly commentary and reviews column on The Verge andRecode by veteran tech journalist Walt Mossberg, now an Executive Editor at The Verge and Editor at Large of Recode.
At this week’s annual Apple iPhone intro event, the hall was packed, as usual. As always, the program featured gorgeous photos and videos, impressive charts, a few demos, surprise guests, and dramatic claims of improved product performance and capability.
What it didn’t feature was a new desig