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It’s Apple day, and the company’s Glowtime event has just dimmed its lights. A bunch of new hardware was announced today: a line of new iPhones, a new Apple Watch and some enhancements to the current models, and some fresh AirPods with new features. There was also more talk about the company's upcoming Apple Intelligence features coming to iOS 18.
Here’s everything Apple showed off today.
The iPhone 16 Gets New Buttons, Larger Sizes
The iPhone 16 isn’t going to feel dramatically different from last year’s models. The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus now have a vertically aligned camera module (as opposed to a diagonal), and they now feature Apple’s Action Button, which debuted on the iPhone 15 Pro. This button replaces the long-lived Mute switch, and while you can program the customizable Action Button to replicate that functionality, you can (more helpfully) configure the button to execute various tasks, like toggling on a flashlight or launching the camera.
Also new to all the iPhone 16 models is a Camera Control button. Much like the shutter button on a full-size camera, it reacts to different levels of pressure. A light press will track focus on the iPhone 16 Pro models, or you can slide your finger to swipe through zoom levels. A harder press will snap a photo, and a longer press will take a video.
As for the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max models, they’re slightly bigger! Apple has shaved down the bezels around the display to enable larger screens: 6.3 and 6.9 inches (up from 6.1 and 6.7). There are a host of other small upgrades to these phones, including the fact that the 5X optical zoom is now available in the smaller iPhone 16 Pro. You can read more about the iPhone 16 range in our detailed overview of these new iPhones.
Preorders start September 13. The iPhone 16 is $799, the iPhone 16 Plus is $899, the iPhone 16 Pro is $999, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max is $1,199. They all go on sale September 20. —Julian Chokkattu
A Whole New Look to the Apple Watch
This is the 10th anniversary of the original Apple Watch, and in celebration of this landmark event, Apple has redesigned the newest addition to the lineup, the Watch Series 10. First off, it's much lighter and thinner than its predecessor, the Series 9. It has the biggest display ever on an Apple Watch, with 30 percent more screen area that makes its display even bigger than the huge Apple Watch Ultra series. This new display has edges that are more rounded, and a wider-angle OLED display so it can be seen better when you're not looking straight at the screen.
The new watch is available in a positively mouthwatering sleek jet black version that has been polished with silicon nanoparticles, making it reflective. Among other rejiggerings to make it thinner, the speaker system has been redesigned so that you can play podcasts directly through the Apple Watch’s speakers. There’s also a more efficient charging coil that helps the watch charge up to reach 80 percent battery in 30 minutes. (No word on how much better the battery life is, if at all.)
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This year, the standout health feature coming to watchOS is sleep apnea detection, which detects breathing activity that stops and starts again while you sleep. The tracking happens through the watch’s accelerometer. While it was expected that Apple would add blood pressure tracking on the watches this year, the company did not do this. The decision was likely related to recent legal action that forced Apple to remove blood-oxygen sensing from the new watches earlier this year after a patent dispute was brought by the company Masimo.
Apple Intelligence is available on the Watch, mostly via new updates to the Health app that came via WatchOS 11 earlier this year. A whole new slew of water-related fitness features includes some new maritime watch faces for when you spontaneously decide to go sailing or kayaking.
The Watch Ultra 2 didn't get any big updates, but it did get a new black finish, with a Milanese loop designed specifically for water sports.
The Series 10 is available for preorder today for $399 and will ship on September 20. The refreshed Watch Ultra 2 is also available for preorder today at $799 and is available on September 20. —Adrienne So
New AirPods
Apple has added a few new options for its AirPods. For the first time, Apple has made active noise canceling available in regular AirPods—albeit in a more expensive version than the base model. There are new AirPods 4 that cost $129 without active noise canceling, and a version of AirPods 4 that cost $179 and do have active noise canceling.
Personalized spatial audio is also coming to AirPods 4, along with the ability to interact with Siri with gestures like nodding your head to accept a call. There's a new charging case that gives you a total battery life of 30 hours and can be charged with either USB-C or, if you have the ANC version, wireless charging. Both variants of the new AirPods 4 are available for preorder now and will be released September 20.
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Apple also revealed some new colors for the over-ear AirPods Max headphones, which now charge over USB-C instead of Lightning. The new colors include midnight, blue, orange, purple, and starlight. Apple released its first AirPods Max in 2020. They were very nice—and also very expensive—so it seems like not much will be changing on that front. The new AirPods Max hold steady at the same price, $549, and will also be available September 20.
Apple isn’t making a new set of AirPods Pro, but it is enhancing its hearing protection technology for the AirPods Pro 2. One feature reduces the decibels coming into your ears in loud environments, so you can wear them like earplugs. (It'll be fun to go to a concert and see everyone wearing AirPods while the band is playing.) In the Pro 2 models, Apple is also offering a clinical hearing test to gauge your hearing loss, as well as over-the-counter hearing aid certification that let the AirPods double as true hearing aids. This is sure to be disruptive to the growing OTC hearing aid market. —Boone Ashworth
Siri and Apple Intelligence
The newly revamped Siri and Apple Intelligence features will not be available at the launch of iOS 18 nor the release of the iPhone 16. They’ll arrive via an iOS 18.1 software update in the coming weeks. We’ve gone into more detail about these features in our iOS 18 feature roundup, but to summarize (as AI likes to do), these new additions help bring artificial intelligence features to the forefront on the iPhone.
One new feature Apple showed off today is the ability to point your iPhone's camera at a restaurant, place of business, a flyer, or other informational sign, and ask Siri to tell you more about it. Point it at a restaurant and you'll get photos, menus, hours, reservation links, and the like. Point it at a flyer for an event and you'll be prompted to add the event to your calendar. Yep, that's a lot like Google Lens, and it shows the types of productivity and search features Apple is targeting with its AI strategy.
New iOS 18 Updates
iOS 18 now has a release date. It will be available on compatible iPhones on September 16. This new OS is arguably what will make your iPhone feel new. There are a lot of personalization options that let you change the look of the home screen and Control Center—you can finally move apps around wherever you want! You can even hide and lock apps behind authentication, so Face ID will be required to read your Slacks or see your photo roll.
One big addition is support for Rich Communication Services, which brings the modern texting standard to iPhones—that means texting with friends on Android won’t be as painful as before. Read our iOS 18 features guide to dive deeper into what’s new.
