Apple hosted its new hardware event today, releasing its iPhone 17 lineup, along with updates for the Apple Watch and AirPods. For the iPhone 17 models, updates included larger screens and an improved camera system, as well as the introduction of an ultra-thin iPhone Air that replaces the Plus model.
And the company may be announcing more new hardware soon, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reporting that a new iPad Pro, an updated Vision Pro, updated AirTags, a new Apple TV, a new HomePod mini, and updated MacBooks are coming in either 2025 or the first half of 2026.
iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max
Image Credits:Apple
The iPhone 17 received a makeover to align more closely with the Pro models. It features a slightly larger 6.3-inch screen, which is an increase of 0.2 inches compared to the iPhone 16. It also has a 120 Hz display, a substantial upgrade from the current 60 Hz. The phone also has a 48-megapixel ultrawide camera.
It comes in new colors: lavender, mist blue, black, white, and sage.
The Pro’s upgrades are mainly on the back of the phone. The three rear cameras are now arranged in a rectangular bar that extends from one edge of the device to the other. The flash, light sensor, and microphone are positioned far to the right side. Where the MagSafe charger is, the Apple logo is centered for aesthetic reasons.
Notably, the iPhone 17 Pro switched materials, replacing the titanium band around the screen with aluminum.
The iPhone 17 starts at $799 and has a base storage of 256GB. In contrast, the iPhone 16 started at $699 for 128GB. The Pro model costs $1,099, and the Pro Max is $1,199.
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While the event’s primary focus was on the iPhones, Apple announced new phone cases as a bonus. Called “TechWoven” cases, these feature a higher quality woven material compared to the discontinued “FineWoven” line of fabric cases Apple released in 2023.
Missing from the keynote was any mention of an AI-enhanced Siri, which puts Apple way behind Google and its competitors.
iPhone Air
Image Credits:Apple
The biggest announcement at the event was the debut of Apple’s slimmest phone ever, the iPhone Air, which replaces the iPhone Plus.
This device has a profile thickness of 5.6 mm, making it about 0.08 inches thinner than current iPhones. It also features a 6.6-inch screen and a 120 Hz ProMotion display. The device is eSIM only, which helps the product maintain its sleek design.
This move appears to be Apple’s response to the trend of slimmer smartphones, following in the footsteps of other companies like Samsung and Huawei. The iPhone Air could potentially outshine the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, which measures 5.8 mm thick. Additionally, it may pave the way for Apple’s long-rumored foldable phone, predicted to launch in September 2026.
The device is priced at $999 and will be available in black, white, sky blue, and light gold.
Apple Watch Series 11, Ultra 3, and SE 3
Image Credits:Apple
After a two-year wait, Apple announced the Apple Watch Ultra 3, which includes faster charging speeds, 5G support, and satellite connectivity. The watch also features a larger display.
However, one of the most exciting upgrades for both the Ultra 3 and Series 11 is the incorporation of blood pressure-monitoring capabilities. This feature notifies users if their blood pressure levels are too high or too low.
The third-generation Apple Watch SE, meanwhile, didn’t receive major updates, aside from an always-on display, thanks to a faster S10 chip.
Prices for the watches are $249 for the Apple Watch SE 3, $399 for the Series 11, and $799 for the Ultra 3.
AirPods Pro 3
Image Credits:Apple
After the release of the AirPods Pro 2 in 2022, it’s about time for an upgrade. The AirPods Pro 3, priced at $249, features smaller earbuds, improved audio, and a new heart-rate-sensing feature. It also features live translation technology, powered by Apple Intelligence, to help users translate foreign languages in real time.
Buried in an ocean of flashy novelties announced by Apple this week, the tech giant also revealed new security technology for its latest iPhone 17 and iPhone Air devices. This new security technology was made specifically to fight against surveillance vendors and the types of vulnerabilities they rely on the most, according to Apple.
The feature is called Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE) and is designed to help stop memory corruption bugs, which are some of the most common vulnerabilities exploited by spyware developers and makers of phone forensic devices used by law enforcement.
“Known mercenary spyware chains used against iOS share a common denominator with those targeting Windows and Android: they exploit memory safety vulnerabilities, which are interchangeable, powerful, and exist throughout the industry,” Apple wrote in its blog post.
Cybersecurity experts, including people who make hacking tools and exploits for iPhones, tell TechCrunch that this new security technology could make Apple’s newest iPhones some of the most secure devices on the planet. The result is likely to make life harder for the companies that make spyware and zero-day exploits for planting spyware on a target’s phone or extracting data from them.
“The iPhone 17 is probably now the most secure computing environment on the planet that is still connected to the internet,” a security researcher, who has worked on developing and selling zero-days and other cyber capabilities to the U.S. government for years, told TechCrunch.
The researcher told TechCrunch that MIE will raise the cost and time to develop their exploits for the latest iPhones, and consequently up their prices for paying customers.
“This is a huge deal,” said the researcher, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive matters. “It’s not hack proof. But it’s the closest thing we have to hack proof. None of this will ever be 100% perfect. But it raises the stakes the most.”
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Jiska Classen, a professor and researcher who studies iOS at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Germany, agreed that MIE will raise the cost of developing surveillance technologies.
Classen said this is because some of the bugs and exploits that spyware companies and researchers have that currently work will stop working once the new iPhones are out and MIE is implemented.
“I could also imagine that for a certain time window some mercenary spyware vendors don’t have working exploits for the iPhone 17,” said Classen.
“This will make their life arguably infinitely more difficult,” said Patrick Wardle, a researcher who runs a startup that makes cybersecurity products specifically for Apple devices. “Of course that is said with the caveat that it’s always a cat-and-mouse game.”
Wardle said people who are worried about getting hacked with spyware should upgrade to the new iPhones.
The experts TechCrunch spoke to said MIE will reduce the efficacy of both remote hacks, such as those launched with spyware like NSO Group’s Pegasus and Paragon’s Graphite. It will also help to protect against physical device hacks, such as those performed with phone unlocking hardware like Cellebrite or Graykey.
Taking on the “majority of exploits”
Most modern devices, including the majority of iPhones today, run software written in programming languages that are prone to memory-related bugs, often called memory overflow or corruption bugs. When triggered, a memory bug can cause the contents of memory from one app to spill into other areas of a user’s device where it shouldn’t go.
Memory-related bugs can allow malicious hackers to access and control parts of a device’s memory that they shouldn’t be permitted to. The access can be used to plant malicious code that’s capable of gaining broader access to a person’s data stored in the phone’s memory, and exfiltrating it over the phone’s internet connection.
MIE aims to defend against these kinds of broad memory attacks by vastly reducing the attack surface in which memory vulnerabilities can be exploited.
According to Halvar Flake, an expert in offensive cybersecurity, memory corruptions “are the vast majority of exploits.”
MIE is built on a technology called Memory Tagging Extension (MTE), originally developed by chipmaker Arm. In its blog post, Apple said over the past five years it worked with Arm to expand and improve the memory safety features into a product called Enhanced Memory Tagging Extension (EMTE).
MIE is Apple’s implementation of this new security technology, which takes advantage of Apple having complete control of its technology stack, from software to hardware, unlike many of its phone-making competitors.
Google offers MTE for some Android devices; the security-focused GrapheneOS, a custom version of Android, also offers MTE.
But other experts say Apple’s MIE goes a step further. Flake said the Pixel 8 and GrapheneOS are “almost comparable,” but the new iPhones will be “the most secure mainstream” devices.
MIE works by allocating each piece of a newer iPhone’s memory with a secret tag, effectively its own unique password. This means only apps with that secret tag can access the physical memory in the future. If the secret doesn’t match, the security protections kick in and block the request, the app will crash, and the event is logged.
That crash and log is particularly significant since it’s more likely for spyware and zero-days to trigger a crash, making it easier for Apple and security researchers investigating attacks to spot them.
“A wrong step would lead to a crash and a potentially recoverable artifact for a defender,” said Matthias Frielingsdorf, the vice president of research at iVerify, a company that makes an app to protect smartphones from spyware. “Attackers already had an incentive to avoid memory corruption.”
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
MIE will be on by default system wide, which means it will protect apps like Safari and iMessage, which can be entry points for spyware. But third-party apps will have to implement MIE on their own to improve protections for their users. Apple released a version of EMTE for developers to do that.
In other words, MIE is a huge step in the right direction, but it will take some time to see its impact, depending on how many developers implement it and how many people buy new iPhones.
Some attackers will inevitably still find a way.
“MIE is a good thing and it might even be a big deal. It could significantly raise the cost for attackers and even force some of them out of the market,” said Frielingsdorf. “But there are going to be plenty of bad actors that can still find success and sustain their business.”
“As long as there are buyers there will be sellers,” said Frielingsdorf.
Whereas the Apple Watch SE 3, Series 11, and Watch Ultra 3 are pretty much internal spec bumps compared to the previous generations of those respective smartwatches, the AirPods Pro 3 wireless earbuds are actually reengineered inside and out, but you’ll have to look closely to spot the changes. The charging case also ditches its physical pairing button.
After Tuesday’s “Awe Dropping” Apple Event, where Tim Cook and company announced the remarkably thin iPhone Air, feature-stuffed iPhone 17 Pros, and the aforementioned trio of Apple Watches, I had some personal time to experience the AirPods Pro 3. These are the replacements for the AirPods Pro 2 introduced in 2022 (and then upgraded with USB-C in 2023). So we’re talking about a new version for Apple’s three-year-old wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC).
You can read all the techie detail about how Apple reengineered the drivers and acoustics and all that stuff here or on Apple’s product page. We also wrote up a helpful comparison on how the AirPods Pro 3 compare to the AirPods Pro 2. What neither can tell you is what it’s like to wear the AirPods Pro 3 in your ears and try out the new Live Translation feature and the built-in heart rate sensor. That’s my job, so let’s get to it.
As with my other hands-on, these are merely first impressions. I had about 45 minutes to try the AirPods Pro 3 out. At first glance, the AirPods Pro 3 in their charging case don’t look new at all. There were rumors that the case would get smaller, but the case is about the same size as the one for AirPods Pro 2. Flipping the case over to the back, you’ll notice there’s no more pairing button. Apple removed it and replaced it with an invisible touch-sensitive one on the front. Press and hold it for two seconds to put the AirPods Pro 3 into pairing mode, and then press and hold longer to do a factory reset. The charging light LED is still present.
The AirPods Pro 3 earbuds themselves are subtly different and designed for better comfort. First, there’s now an extra size for eartips in the box—XXS—for a total of five. Second, the bowl of the buds is more compact. And third, the eartips fit tighter to the buds. Together, these changes all help situate each bud deeper and more snug inside of your ears. One side effect is that the stems seem to stick out more. I immediately noticed this for some reason. I don’t know; I’m very sensitive to how things stuck inside my ears look. Needless to say, the AirPods Pro 3 fit very comfortably in my ears, and although I’ve never had problems with the AirPods Pro 2 buds falling out, I did shake my head, and the AirPods Pro 3 buds felt quite secure.
Sound-wise, Apple says it’s improved the quality, especially with active noise cancellation performance. I listened to a few songs on Apple Music, including some recent favorites on repeat, like “Dive” by Olivia Dean and “Euphoria” by Keshi, and they sounded very clear with clean and deep bass, and crisp vocals. Apple had four HomePods simulating various environmental noises, like the hum of an airplane and a noisy street. I immediately noticed the stronger ANC in reducing the background noise. Apple says that it’s increased ANC by 2x on AirPods Pro 3 compared to AirPods Pro 2, and by 4x compared to AirPods Pro and AirPods 4 with ANC. That’s impressive, and I look forward to testing how the ANC holds up in the real world. Simulations, after all, aren’t always representative of real life.
Now let’s talk about the live translation and heart rate sensor because, as our senior reporter James Pero said, AirPods Pro 3 is clearly Apple dipping its toes into transforming the wireless earbuds into much more than a gadget for listening to music.
In a demo, Apple had a person on hand to speak Portuguese while the AirPods Pro 3 in my ears translated what he was saying into English. Live Translation is activated by using a Siri shortcut (Apple mapped it to an Action button on an iPhone 17 Pro demo unit) or by pressing and holding the stems of both AirPods Pro 3 buds. ANC kicks into gear to isolate the speaker’s voice, and then the translation begins. You can also pull open your paired iPhone to see the transcribed translations within the Translate app. Now, I don’t speak Portuguese, and neither did any of the other media in my hands-on group, so I can’t say with what accuracy the translations were. But I do have experience using the Translate app on iPhone for Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and French translations. It’s good, but not as accurate as Google Translate, especially for tonal languages like Mandarin. I will say that the live translations were nearly instant; the buds do use beamforming tech to home in on the voice of a person who’s directly in front of you, and some languages may require a few more seconds to get the correct context for a translation, but it seemed to work.
The fine print for AirPods Pro 3 (if you’re getting them for Sept. 19) is that the Live Translation feature is launching in beta and is limited to five languages (English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish) at first. Apple says Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese (simplified) will be available by the end of the year.
On the bright side, Live Translation is not exclusive to the AirPods Pro 3. The feature is also coming to AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with ANC—the requirements being wireless earbuds with an H2 chip and ANC.
Now, let’s talk about the heart rate sensor. This is not the same tech that Beats uses in its Powerbeats Pro 2 fitness buds, but Apple’s own sensor is based on tech from over a decade’s worth of learnings from the Apple Watch’s heart rate sensor. Ripped from Apple’s own press release, AirPods Pro 3 uses a “custom photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that shines invisible infrared light pulsed at 256 times per second to measure light absorption in blood flow.”
I got a brief look at how the heart rate sensor integrates with the Fitness app for workouts. Worth noting, my heart rate in the video below is quite high from having little sleep, getting up at 5 a.m., and hopping in an Uber, and then Caltrain, and then Uber again to get to Apple Park. Oh, and then running around Apple Park for several hours, being extremely caffeinated from too many espresso shots, and Cupertino being extremely warm. That being said, I can’t say how accurate the heart rate sensor in the AirPods Pro 3 is compared to an Apple Watch. I’ll have to compare that when I get a pair of the ANC buds in for review.
Just got to try the AirPods Pro 3 and its new real-time, in-ear heart rate sensor with an outdoor walk workout. Here’s a video of my heart rate being monitored in the Fitness app on iPhone 17 Pro #AppleEventpic.twitter.com/uQcEw8GKeq
At $249, the AirPods Pro 3 seem to be a worthwhile upgrade over the AirPods Pro 2 if everything like the 2x ANC checks out. And if they’re anything like the AirPods Pro 2, Apple will likely support them with new features for several years. I’ll have more to share when I review them soon, but I’m not seeing any steps backward for now.
Apple had a lot of announcements this week, but arguably none was bigger (and paradoxically thinner) than the iPhone Air. For one, there’s the fact that this is Apple’s first-ever phone with “Air” branding, marking a rare new category of iPhone, both present and future. Then, there’s the fact that the iPhone Air is very slim—5.64mm to be exact. Gizmodo’s Senior Editor, Consumer Tech, Raymond Wong, got some hands-on time with the iPhone Air, and he says it feels as thin as it looks—even thinner than Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge, to be exact. Think Ozempic, but for iPhones.
But as exciting as all of that is, it’s not the newness or even the thinness that turned my head—it’s what the iPhone Air says about the future. And to see that, you have to look at what’s going on inside.
This is HIGH signal of the future to come.
For context, the entire computer. Modems, Antennas, everything needed to compute on the iPhone Air fits inside the camera bump.
If you’ve been paying attention to X, you may have seen this picture in your feed. That’s the inside of the iPhone Air you’re looking at, and it’s significant for one reason. You see all of that stuff at the top? That’s basically the whole phone—or all of the computing power, at least. Apple managed to stuff basically everything that makes its iPhone an iPhone (camera and compute) into one tiny section at the top of the chassis. The rest of the phone? One big and very thin battery. It’s a feat of engineering, really, but beyond that, also a template for what Apple could do next.
There are a lot of implications of being able to cram a powerful computer in a space that small, but the one that intrigues me the most is a pair of AR glasses. Why AR glasses, specifically? Well, they’re a perfect case of miniaturization getting in the way of a bright new future. It’s not that we don’t have the tech (in theory) to make AR glasses work—we can put screens in a glasses display, we have apps and UI, and camera sensors are smaller than ever—but it’s doing all of that in a form factor that people are ready and willing to wear on their faces that throws a wrench in things. We need to make things smaller if we’re going to think bigger. Write that down, Apple marketing.
It just so happens that’s exactly what the iPhone Air does. It crams a powerful computer into a space that formerly felt too confining. And what makes me even more excited about the miniaturization inside the iPhone Air is the fact that Apple has long been rumored to be developing a pair of AR glasses.
In February, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman revised earlier claims that Apple stopped developing AR glasses, reporting instead that it killed a “stopgap product” that would have competed with Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses. To me, that says Apple isn’t disinterested in AR, only that it’s waiting until it has a product that actually moves the needle—perhaps a pair of AR glasses that resemble regular glasses in size and weight but can still run apps and act as secondary screens for messaging, calls, and navigation. You know, the ideal pair of smart glasses. With the miniaturization of iPhones and the computer inside them, it feels like it’s one step closer to that goal, though there are other concerns with making a gadget of that caliber that the iPhone Air doesn’t necessarily address.
One of those hurdles is the battery. Apple did a good job of (at least on paper) making the iPhone Air battery suitable for most people, claiming that it lasts “all day,” which in this case means about 27 hours of offline video playback and 22 hours of streaming playback. That being said, it still bothered to release the iPhone Air alongside a MagSafe Battery pack that extends the phone’s battery. Maybe I’m reading into that too much, but it seems to me that Apple could be getting out ahead of something. That same issue could extend to a pair of AR glasses, too.
Even if Apple could cram a whole computer inside a pair of lightweight glasses, running everything would still need to be very efficient, especially if there’s a screen inside with high brightness, audio capabilities, and the ability to run apps. All of that stuff eats up battery—and fast. That’s all to say that shrinking down a computer is huge, but powering the damn thing is equally important. Even with that piece of the puzzle potentially unsolved, it’s hard not to believe that Apple could make it work… eventually.
Just a few years ago, we would have looked at the idea of an iPhone Air and said, “No way.” It’s not durable enough; there’s not enough battery; Moore’s Law is dead; yadda, yadda. But here it is. An iPhone that’s thin and light and even has Apple’s most powerful A19 Pro chip. If I were a betting man, I’d wager that Apple is already looking at ways to up that ante, improving battery life, cameras, and making its Air just as capable as its base model iPhone. And who am I to bet against them at this point? Call me crazy, but if the iPhone Air is any indication, my money is on a pair of Apple AR glasses that do it all—and maybe sooner than you think.
Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 are here, and with their arrival comes a lot of questions. One of the big questions after Apple’s annual iPhone event is, “Should I buy new AirPods right now?” But before you can answer that, it’s important to know the competition, and the main one is Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2. While both bear the “Pro” moniker in their names, they’re not created equal, and small differences in features could have a big impact on which pair you ought to buy.
If you’re wondering which trigger to pull, here’s a breakdown of which pair of wireless earbuds does what.
While I haven’t gotten to hear Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 for myself yet, these wireless earbuds have a new architecture that Apple says should bring some improvements over the last generation. According to Apple, AirPods Pro 3 have a new “multiport acoustic architecture” that better controls the airflow and the way the sound carries to the ear. How demonstrable that change is remains to be seen, but it should be the best-sounding pair of AirPods yet, if Apple’s messaging is any indication.
Similarly, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 mark a significant boost in sound quality over the original iteration, with 11mm drivers that help augment both high and low ends. Which architecture delivers better sound quality will come down to preference, and we won’t know for sure until we try AirPods Pro 3 for ourselves, but both should be the best-sounding version in their respective product lines. AirPods Pro 3 will have tough competition, though—we thought the Pixel Buds Pro 2 were damn near perfect.
Apple is promising some big improvements gen-over-gen with active noise cancellation (ANC), claiming that its AirPods Pro 3 have 2x the ANC capability as the AirPods Pro 2. Apple generally offers better-than-average ANC (it’s not Bose QuietComfort Ultra, but it’s good), so double the ANC is an enticing offer. Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 also offer double the ANC over the first generation, and as we stated in our review, it is one of the highlights of the buds overall.
One thing that could give AirPods Pro 3 the edge, however, is a redesigned eartip that contains foam inside. That should make a very tight seal in your ear and provide good passive noise cancellation on top of ANC. Again, it’s hard to say without hearing the AirPods Pro 3 for ourselves, but there’s a chance that AirPods Pro 3 could have an X factor here.
One of the biggest AirPods improvements gen-over-gen, according to Apple, is in the battery life department. AirPods Pro 3 now have an 8-hour battery life outside of the case with ANC on, which is two more hours than the AirPods Pro 2. The thing is, we’re comparing to Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2, which also have 8 hours of battery life outside the case, meaning this part of the showdown could be a tie.
That being said, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 do have a better battery life in the case. While AirPods Pro 3 have a 24-hour battery life in the case with ANC on, Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 have 30 hours. Case battery isn’t the biggest metric for success, but more is more when it comes to battery.
Features are where things get interesting and potentially where AirPods Pro 3 pull away. While both wireless earbuds have AI integrations (Google has Gemini, and AirPods Pro have Apple Intelligence), conversation detection, support for head gestures, and adaptive ANC, and even live translation abilities, Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 lean into health sensing as well.
AirPods Pro 3 introduces a heart rate sensor that allows the wireless earbuds to be used for tracking workouts and even calories burned, while Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 have no such health features. Whether that’s a game-changer is entirely up to you, but it’s clear that AirPods Pro 3 just do more in that department. Maybe Google will close the gap with its next pair of wireless earbuds, but for now, Apple has the advantage, especially if you’re using an iPhone.
Apple clearly spent a lot of time redesigning its AirPods Pro 3. Specifically, Apple says that it used “over 10,000 ear scans with more than 100,000 hours of user research” to tweak the fit of AirPods Pro 3. It also changed the “external geometry of the eartip,” which now aligns to the center of the body for more stability. Those changes could very well result in an even more comfortable fit and give AirPods an edge here.
With that said, we gave the Pixel Buds Pro 2 high marks for comfort, so Apple has its work cut out. Apple does objectively now have more eartip sizes than Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2—five instead of Google’s four—but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re more comfortable, even if they do have more fit options. If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Apple in the fit metric, if just because they seem to have exhaustively redesigned the AirPods Pro 3 and focused on the weight and feel.
AirPods Pro 3 vs. Pixel Buds Pro 2: Price
While the AirPods Pro 3 are more expensive than the Pixel Buds Pro 2, they’re also brand new, and the price isn’t drastically different. Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 are $250, while Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 are $230. What’s notable is that Apple didn’t raise the price of its wireless earbuds, making the AirPods Pro 3 feel like a solid deal. Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 are almost exactly a year old at this point, and while $230 isn’t the most expensive starting price for wireless earbuds, it’s not a massive discount. That being said, we’ll be able to tell you which price is worth it once we actually test the AirPods Pro 3 ourselves.
Okay, so I’ve had some sleep to rest up (just a little) from the craziness of yesterday’s Apple Event, but also time to collect some thoughts on the iPhone Air (starting at $999) that I got to try out after the keynote. There’s no doubt in my mind that Apple has captured the same type of attention with the iPhone Air’s super-thin design as it did when Steve Jobs pulled out the original MacBook Air from a manila envelope. The iPhone Air is just so unbelievably thin—I felt like I could easily snap it in half (more on durability later)—and yet I couldn’t resist drooling like the hundreds of other members of the media, creators, and influencers fondling it at the Steve Jobs Theater.
First look at all four iPhone Air colors in hand. And the new $99 MagSafe Battery Pack for it and how it compares to the older Lightning MagSafe battery pack #AppleEventpic.twitter.com/tnaIGbhdgN
I got to get up close and personal with all four colors of the iPhone Air. The “cloud white” and “space black” are my favorite; the latter reminds me of the “jet black” iPhone 7 that I adored. “Light gold” looks good and neutral, too. “Sky blue” is my least favorite; it’s just not my vibe, though it can look white or light gray at certain angles and under different lighting.
Despite having a 6.5-inch 120Hz “ProMotion” display that’s larger than the 6.3-inch screen that I’m used to on my iPhone 16 Pro, the 5.64mm thinness and 165g (5.82 ounces) made the footprint feel more compact than it objectively is. I brought along a Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge for comparison and the iPhone Air, despite being 0.16mm thinner feels skinnier because of its curved titanium frame that melts into the Ceramic Shield 2 front glass and matte Ceramic Shield backside glass. The S25 Edge’s boxier design and straight rails dig more into your palm and make the device look thicker.
I feel confident the iPhone Air can cut cake like the S25 Edge…
It’s clear that the iPhone Air is Apple’s new premium smartphone, at least in terms of design. Whereas the iPhone 17 and 17 Pros are more function over form than previous generation models, the iPhone Air looks the most jewelry-like with its polished titanium frame. That shiny finish does mean the metal gets covered in fingerprints fast, but it’s also a luxury aesthetic that Apple hasn’t used since the iPhone 14 Pros, which had polished stainless steel frames. Cover the iPhone Air in a case or Apple’s official bumper, and none of this matters. As a case hater, I appreciate the raw feel of the iPhone Air.
In terms of durability, while I did feel like I might snap the iPhone Air and Apple would have an iPhone 6 #bendgate situation all over again, the phone is surprisingly sturdy. I lightly pressed into the screen in the hands-on area, and it didn’t flex. Clearly, Apple made sure the structural design was solid.
I had some concerns that the iPhone Air might be top-heavy with the single 48-megapixel Fusion camera mounted on its new elongated island or plateau, but it isn’t. Apple seems to have worked some magic arranging the internal components so it feels balanced in the hand and doesn’t tip over. I forgot to do a table wobble test like I did with the iPhone 17 Pro, though.
There are many things that I couldn’t test in-depth, like the A19 Pro chip. Without my staple of third-party apps, I can only say that the iPhone Air running iOS 26 with the new Liquid Glass user interface felt fast and smooth. Battery life is another feature that’ll have to wait for review testing. It’s reasonable to believe that the iPhone Air may not have the stamina to get you through a full day unless you plug it in or buy Apple’s official $99 iPhone Air MagSafe Battery, which helps give the thin phone up to 40 hours (of video playback). I did get to check out the MagSafe Battery and can confirm three things: 1) it’s got a larger footprint than the discontinued Lightning one introduced alongside the iPhone 12 series, 2) it only works with the iPhone Air, not any other iPhone 17 models or older iPhones because of the bigger dimensions, and 3) it’s pretty dang thin. Snapped to the back of the iPhone Air, it doesn’t add that much thickness or weight. I still love my OG MagSafe Battery, and I think I’ll probably be okay with this one.
A closer look at the iPhone Air MagSafe Battery Pack and how it compares to the old MagSafe Battery Pack. It’s thinner, larger, and charges with USB-C! $99 to add more battery life to the iPhone Air #AppleEventpic.twitter.com/Ssmbo5wScQ
I’ll need to use an iPhone Air for more than a few minutes overall to really see if everything is up to snuff—the screen, the performance, the battery life, the cameras, and the speakers. But as the new aspirational iPhone, Apple nailed it. I have been an iPhone Pro user since the iPhone 11 Pro. I shoot a lot of photos and video, and want as much battery life and performance as possible without going Pro Max. (I still care about a phone that I can use with one hand and that fits into my pants pockets.) The iPhone Air is stunning to look at and hold, but will any potential compromises be dealbreakers? The only way to find out is to fully test it.
After years of speculation, Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 are finally here, and while we haven’t tried them for ourselves, they look like they were worth the wait. This generation brings new hardware, features, and some impressive improvements on paper over the last generation, which was refreshed in 2023 with USB-C and a few other features. If you’re in the market for new AirPods, you’re probably already wondering whether you should rush out to scoop up Apple’s long-awaited third-gen, but before you do that, you should know what you’re getting into.
Luckily, we’re here to give you a categorical breakdown that shows all of this year’s improvements and what’s the same as the AirPods Pro 2. Have at it, folks.
When it comes to AirPods Pro, ANC is one of the most important categories, and this year’s generation is no different. Apple knows that, which is why it clearly went back to the lab and took a stab at improving noise-canceling gen over gen.
According to Apple, AirPods Pro 3 use “ultra-low noise microphones and advanced computational audio” to help give this generation 2x more ANC than AirPods Pro 2. That equates to 4x more ANC than the original AirPods Pro. It’s not all ANC, though. Apple says that this year’s earbuds should also improve passive noise cancellation, thanks to new ear tips that are filled with foam, creating a better seal in your ears.
Apple doesn’t provide specific numbers for how many dBs are cancelled by its earbuds, but from the sounds of it, AirPods Pro 3 should excel in the ANC department and maybe even give Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (my favorite buds for ANC) a run for their money.
I haven’t gotten to listen to AirPods Pro 3 myself yet, but Apple says its new generation boasts some improvements over the AirPods Pro 2. Behind that is a tweak to the AirPods Pro 3 architecture.
According to Apple, the AirPods Pro 3 have a “multiport acoustic architecture” that better controls the airflow and the way the sound carries to the ear. Apple couples that with a new Adaptive EQ, which is designed to give the AirPods Pro 3 a better bass response and widen the soundstage. Again, this all sounds good in theory, but we’ve yet to hear them for ourselves. On paper, at least, Apple’s AirPods 3 should be the best-sounding AirPods you can buy right now.
AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods Pro 2: Battery
Photo: Andrew Liszewski / Gizmodo
Battery life is one of the biggest metrics of any good pair of wireless earbuds, and, again, AirPods Pro 3 roll the ball forward here. According to Apple, the AirPods Pro 3 now have 8 hours of playback with ANC on as opposed to the 6-hour average of the AirPods Pro 2. If you want to extend the battery life even longer, you can listen to the AirPods Pro 3 with transparency on (ANC off), and you’ll get 10 hours of battery life on a single charge, according to Apple.
There’s really no subjectivity here—more battery is just better—but if you’re curious, the AirPods Pro 3 improve upon the AirPods Pro 2 battery by 33 percent when it comes to ANC playback. On top of that, I’d say that AirPods Pro 3 also beat a lot of its non-Apple competition, which usually averages around 6 hours of battery with ANC on.
If you’re picking up on a trend, it’s that AirPods Pro 3 are pretty much better across the board, but this is where they really start to pull away. There are some things in the third-gen AirPods Pro that the AirPods Pro 2 just can’t do. One of those things is heart rate monitoring. Thanks to new IR sensors in the AirPods Pro 3, which are combined with the preexisting accelerometer, gyroscope, and GPS, these earbuds can track fitness goals, calories burned, and heart rate. According to Apple, AirPods Pro 3 will combine with its suite of fitness tools, allowing Apple Fitness+ users to see real-time performance metrics onscreen. And yes, unlike the PowerBeats Pro 2, you can listen to music while you track your health metrics.
Another exclusive feature with the AirPods Pro 3 is Live Translation, which does exactly what it sounds like—it translates speech in real time. One cool aspect of the AirPods Pro 3 translation feature is that it uses ANC to lower the voice of the person you’re talking to so you can actually hear the translation in your earbuds. While the feature is still in beta, Apple says you can currently use Live Translation for English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, and Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese are on the way.
That’s all to say that you’ll be able to do basically everything you can do with AirPods Pro 2 with the AirPods Pro 3—adaptive ANC, hearing test (though the AirPods Pro 3 is allegedly better at that), transparency, and more—but with two big new features in heart rate tracking and Live Translation. Point goes to AirPods Pro 3 once again.
Comfort is another huge metric for earbuds, especially if you plan to wear them for long periods or while you’re exercising. Once more, Apple seems to have taken strides here with its new generation of AirPods. While both earbuds have ear tips, Apple says that it used “over 10,000 ear scans with more than 100,000 hours of user research” to tweak the fit of AirPods Pro 3.
Specifically, Apple says the “external geometry of the ear tip” now aligns to the center of the body for more stability. AirPods Pro 3 also come with five ear tip sizes as opposed to four. With more sizes and a redesign, it looks like AirPods Pro 3 are poised to outpace the AirPods Pro 2 in comfort, too.
AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods Pro 2: Price
So, there is one thing that’s the same on these two pairs of earbuds, and while that sounds like a point against the AirPods Pro 3, it’s actually a big win for Apple’s newest pair of AirPods. Both pairs debuted at $250, and while you can currently get the AirPods Pro 2 for $200, AirPods Pro 3 still qualify as a static entry price gen over gen. More for the same amount! Nice!
My husband is a gadget enthusiast. He’s already on his second folding smartphone — a Galaxy Z Flip7 — after having a Motorola Razr when it first came out. I’m more of a “convince me” kind of gadget lover. If I see a reason to get excited, I’m in. Otherwise, I’ll stick with what I’ve got until I have a reason to upgrade. I still remember when Apple came out with Touch ID to end password fatigue. I bought one immediately.
I’ve been in the Apple ecosystem for more than a decade because my work computer is a Mac and having my phone and Watch all work together is both practical and helpful. Yes, that’s the definition of the Apple moat. But I wouldn’t consider myself a fangirl. For the record, my personal computer — meaning the one I bought myself for non-job-related uses — is an HP Spectre on Windows. And I love it.
So, I’m still using an iPhone 13. As much as I like how hubby’s phone fits so nicely in a pocket, I prefer practicality over novelty. But my phone’s battery and touchscreen are aging, and it doesn’t have a chip powerful enough to run the promised Apple Intelligence AI future. So it’s time for an upgrade.
Today, I was within a heartbeat of preparing to preorder the new iPhone Air. It looked like the best of all worlds to me: bigger screen yet small enough to fit in my small hand, best chip, and only $200 more than a 17, but still cheaper than a Pro. I’ve never been a Pro user. I don’t film Hollywood-esq movies, have no social media-creator hobbies, so I’ve always opted for the better price.
In the Air’s favor, it has a 6.5-inch screen, compared to the 17’s 6.3-inch, yet is lighter to hold. It also has the A19 Pro chip, rather than A19 chip. But oddly, this isn’t the same Pro chip that’s in the Pro phone. It has a 6-core CPU with a 5-core GPU. That’s similar to the A19 in the 17. (The Pro model has a 6-core CPU and 6-core GPU.)
The 17 beats the Air on battery life, too, promising 30 hours of video playtime versus the Air’s 27 hours, according to Apple. And while another $99 will buy a battery pack for the Air, bringing battery life up to 40 hours, that pack defeats the purpose of a lighter, thinner phone.
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The Air is using a new and interesting computational photography camera, meaning camera features powered by software. This allows a single lens to act like multiple lenses — including a delightful new feature that allows simultaneous front and rear camera shots. That’s good for filming reactions to the world and would be fun to own! But the Air lacks the 48-megapixel Fusion Ultra Wide lens the 17 has.
The Air’s storage options are far better — up to 1TB — but for a price. The 1T option costs $1,400, which makes it only $100 less than a 1T storage on a Pro at $1,500.
All in all, as much as I want to love the larger-screen, lighter Air, if I were to treat myself and get a higher-end phone, I’d just go ahead and buy a Pro.
If the Air becomes Apple’s folding phone, as some suspect, I may ditch my 17 for a stunning folding iPhone at that point. Until then, for regular Joe users like me, the 17 still seems like a better deal.
The iPhone camera has long checked all the boxes for anything that a casual user might need, making a digital camera obsolete for most consumers. But for millions of content creators — an industry encompassing an estimated 200 million potential customers — it has remained necessary to buy handheld video cameras from companies like Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Nikon, and Fujifilm. Some of these camera brands have spun up entire product lines marketed as “vlogging cameras,” featuring pop-out displays to record selfie videos, as well as compatibility with the common dimensions used for social media.
But the iPhone 17 Pro could finally be the device that makes content creators’ other video cameras collect dust.
At a glance, a key difference here is that the new iPhone 17 Pro’s camera sensor is 56% larger than the iPhone 16 Pro’s. The size of a camera sensor impacts most aspects of a camera’s performance, like low-light capabilities, depth of field, and resolution — so, basically, the specs are simply just better on the new device.
But under more scrutiny, the specs remain impressive for a pocketable camera that weighs half a pound. (It still clocks in a tad lighter than the Ricoh GR IIIx, a tiny camera I’ve been eyeing for everyday street photography.) The iPhone 17 Pro’s main, ultra wide, and telephoto lenses are all 48MP fusion cameras, making optical zoom possible at 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 4x, and 8x. The telephoto lens is a huge improvement from the iPhone 16 Pro’s 12 MP lens, while the selfie camera also improves from 12 MP to 18 MP.
“The wider field of view in higher resolution are particularly useful when recording yourself speaking directly to the camera, making our Pro models the absolute best choice for content creators,” said Patrick Carroll, manager of iPhone camera architecture, during Apple’s presentation.
But most important for creators is the phone’s video capabilities — like the previous model, the iPhone 17 Pro supports 4K 120 fps video recording in Dolby Vision, but it’s the new, creator-focused video features that come baked into the phone that make it stand apart.
Though also included in other iPhone 17 models, the dual front and back camera recording is bound to be a hit with creators. The whole product line also supports Center Stage mode on the front camera, which lets users capture both horizontal and vertical orientations without rotating the phone. These features will be better on the Pro, since it improves on the basic device’s video capabilities with ultra-stabilized video at 4k 60 fps, which is a boon for creators on the go.
Image Credits:Apple
When it comes to editing and compatibility with professional film setups — something central to creators’ workflow — the iPhone 17 Pro takes a big leap.
For creators who record videos or livestream in a home studio, the iPhone 17 Pro supports Genlock — a setup that allows multiple cameras to easily work together in sync — with an API available for developers to create custom filming setups.
In conjunction with the release of these new iPhones is Final Cut Camera 2.0, an upgrade to Apple’s free app that makes more professional-level video editing possible on the device. With the updated app, creators can film in Apple’s ProRes RAW format, which Apple says will speed up exports and make files smaller without sacrificing quality.
Final Cut Camera 2.0Image Credits:Apple
“The update also introduces open gate recording, which uses the full camera sensor to capture a wider field of view at resolutions greater than DCI 4K,” Apple said in a press release. “This gives editors ultimate flexibility to reframe shots, stabilize footage, and set final aspect ratios, all without compromising image quality or performance.”
It makes sense that iPhones have historically left a bit to be desired for professionals. The iPhone, unlike other cameras, has to do so much more than just take photos and video — Canon, for example, doesn’t have to dedicate any of its hardware budget to GPUs that run complex AI models on-device.
But the bottom line is, the iPhone 17 Pro is a phone. For many creators, carrying one device in an iPhone, as opposed to a phone and a separate camera, is already appealing enough.
Why spend more than $300 for an Apple Watch? Apple may have its wearables fans asking that question with the new Apple Watch SE. The third-gen update brings a host of upgrades, including a new screen and better performance from a new chip. It may not have all the health tracking features of the mainline wearables, but that may simply make it a better option for most people.
The last SE (2nd-gen) arrived in 2022 alongside the Apple Watch Series 8 and the first Apple Watch Ultra. The revised edition revealed Tuesday at Apple’s “Awe Dropping” event may look closer to the regular Apple Watch Series 11 than the older 2020s-era wearables. The new smartwatch sports an aluminum frame, so it’s closer to the premium feel of the other models. On the other hand, this new SE also supports the same 5G capabilities as the Apple Watch Series 11. The new SE is even closer to replacing a regular Apple Watch with an on-device Siri voice assistant and an always-on display.
With the upgraded chip, Apple promised the new device would be faster than the one from 2022 thanks to last year’s S10 SiP, or system in a package. The device will still have the sleep apnea and sleep score features found on last year’s Apple Watch and the Series 11, respectively. Better yet, it will have fast charging, promising 15 minutes of charging to get 8 hours of battery life. It includes temperature sensing and some of the “wrist flick” gestures for shuffling through apps or music.
You don’t have to worry about a price bump like we saw from the iPhone SE to the iPhone 16e. The device starts at $250 for the 40mm version with GPS and comes in both a “midnight” and silver “starlight” aluminum case.
The Apple Watch SE starts at $250 for the 40mm and will be available for preorder Tuesday. It should start shipping by Sept 19.
Apple announced its new thin iPhone 17 Air on Tuesday at its annual hardware event. The company said that this device will have only eSIM support all across the world.
Apple managed to cram a lot of tech into a 5.5 mm-thick design, but at the expense of a physical SIM tray.
“We pioneered eSIM years ago, and now it’s an industry standard, and compared to that, decades-old piece of plastic, eSIM is so much easier to use, has better security, and saves precious space inside the iPhone; eSIM is also great for travel,” Apple said during the keynote.
Apple launched the iPhone 17 series today at its “awe-dropping” event, with the base model getting an upgraded display.
The iPhone 17 has a slightly bigger screen at 6.3 inches as compared to the 6.1-inch screen of the iPhone 16. The display is getting an upgrade with ProMotion, which is being used in the base model for the first time.
It supports a 120 Hz refresh rate and dynamically switches to different refresh rates using the LTPO (low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) tech. This display also has a peak brightness of 3,000 nits for better outside legibility. This display is now protected by Ceramic Shield 2 with better scratch resistance.
The phone is powered by a 3 nm A19 processor with a new display engine to power the display update.
The iPhone 17 gets a new 48-megapixel ultrawide camera. The phone’s camera system also powers 2x optical telephoto and better macro photos.
The company updated the front camera with a new 18-megapixel square sensor. Apple said this allows you to take selfies in different formats without switching orientation. Plus, it also said that the new selfie center will let you capture more stable videos. The new iPhone 17 front camera also supports Center Stage for calls.
This phone will be available in lavender, mist blue, black, white, and sage colors. The iPhone 17 will start at $799 with base storage of 256GB. The iPhone 16 started at $699 for 128GB. In essence, the pricing for a comparable model is the same, but you don’t get to choose a 128GB model.
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The iPhone preorders start Friday and the phones will be available starting September 19.
Apple debuted the third-generation AirPods Pro at the “Awe-dropping” event on Tuesday, featuring heart-rate tracking, improved audio, and a smaller, more interactive charging case.
It’s been three years since Apple refreshed the AirPods Pro line, releasing the Pro 2 model in 2022. The new AirPods Pro are available for preorder today at a cost of $249. The headphones will arrive in stores on September 19.
Image Credits:Apple
One of the standout features of the AirPods Pro 3 is its heart-rate sensing capability, a first for the AirPods line. This addition will operate similarly to the Powerbeats Pro 2, using LED sensors to provide precise measurements. The collected data will sync with Apple’s Fitness app.
The active noise cancellation, which reduces external noise, has been significantly improved. Apple says it removes twice the noise compared to Pro 2.
A noteworthy upcoming feature is a live translation capability, thanks to Apple’s iOS 26 software update. This lets you have conversations in different languages, using your iPhone to translate while the phone plays one language and the AirPods handle the other.
Other notable updates include smaller, more comfortable earbuds. Apple now offers foam ear tips in five different sizes, and the company claims it’s “the best-fitting AirPods.”
Although the current model represents a solid improvement, considerable speculation has circulated before the event about the potential release of a second version of the AirPods Pro 3.
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This rumored high-end variant is expected to have a higher price point than the other version, with the significant hardware upgrade being an infrared camera capable of detecting hand gestures and delivering an improved spatial audio experience when used with Apple’s Vision Pro headset.
The second version of the Pro 3 model is predicted to launch in 2026.
Apple is hosting its “Awe dropping” hardware event tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT. The company is expected to announce its iPhone 17 lineup, which could include a slimmer version, as well as updates for the Apple Watch and AirPods.
The keynote will take place at Apple Park in Cupertino. Viewers can tune in to the livestream here or watch it on Apple’s website. As usual, TechCrunch will be covering the event, so stay tuned for news.
There have been numerous rumors surrounding the upcoming iPhone lineup. Taking center stage is the rumored iPhone 17 Air, which could replace the Plus model and would be thinner than any previous iPhone model.
Additionally, the iPhone 17 is expected to feature a slightly larger 6.3-inch screen and a 120Hz display, a big boost from the existing 60Hz. It’s also speculated to include a 24-megapixel front camera.
The Pro model may receive a significant redesign on the back of the device, too. Instead of a square-shaped camera bump on the left, there could be a rectangular camera bar extending across the width of the iPhone, with the flash and lidar sensor on the right.
Other product announcements include third-generations of Apple Watch Ultra and SE, the Apple Watch Series 11, and enhanced active noise cancellation coming to the AirPods Pro 3.
Apple may also provide more details about the public release of iOS 26, which introduces a Liquid Glass interface that offers a more transparent look.
There will be no foldable iPhone on Tuesday, Sept. 9—that’s supposedly not coming until next year—but there will be four new iPhone 17 phones announced at Apple’s “Awe Dropping” event. Gizmodo’s own Senior Editor of Consumer Tech, Raymond Wong, and our amazing Social Media Editor, Adriano Contreras, will be parachuting into the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park to play with the anticipated iPhone 17, 17 Air, and 17 Pros (especially the orange one).
New iPhones won’t be the only thing they’ll be getting their hands on. They’ll be among the first to also check out the new Apple Watches (Series 11 and Ultra 3), as well as any new AirPods (Pro 3?). Tim Cook could also pull a “one more thing…” if he wants. He’s CEO; he can do whatever he so desires. Wall Street would go wild if he invoked Steve Jobs’ favorite phrase.
The keynote starts at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT, but we’ll have started long before that. So grab your favorite beverage and get down in the comments section to let us know what you’re most excited to see Apple announce. Or, you know, what really grinds your gears. Millions of people love new iPhones—they stop their whole lives to see what’s new—but also, Android is doing some interesting stuff. Have you seen Samsung’s gorgeous, folding Galaxy Z Fold 7? How about Google’s AI-stuffed Pixel 10 phones? At the end of the day, the only person who should care about your phone choice is yourself. Don’t let others bully you into any ecosystem.
Got up super early—poor me, I didn’t get a wink of sleep—to board a flight from New York to California for the iPhone 17 reveal on Tuesday. Our social media editor, Adriano Contreras, is also coming along to capture photos and videos of not only the new iPhone 17 devices, but all the other products expected to drop. Make sure to follow Gizmodo on our Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube channel. We’ll be dropping a bunch of fun videos on everything. —Raymond Wong
Apple is hosting its “Awe dropping” hardware event on Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT. The company is expected to announce its iPhone 17 lineup, which could include a slimmer version, as well as updates for the Apple Watch and AirPods.
The keynote will take place at Apple Park in Cupertino. Viewers can tune in to the livestream here or watch it on Apple’s website. As usual, TechCrunch will be covering the event, so stay tuned for news.
There have been numerous rumors surrounding the upcoming iPhone lineup. Taking center stage is the rumored iPhone 17 Air, which could replace the Plus model and would be notably thinner than any previous iPhone model.
Additionally, the iPhone 17 is expected to feature a slightly larger 6.3-inch screen and a 120Hz display, a big boost from the existing 60Hz. It’s also speculated to include a 24-megapixel front camera.
The Pro model may receive a significant redesign on the back of the device, too. Instead of a square-shaped camera bump on the left, there could be a rectangular camera bar extending across the width of the iPhone, with the flash and lidar sensor on the right.
Apple may also provide more details about the public release of iOS 26, which introduces a Liquid Glass interface that offers a more transparent look.
Apple said today that it is holding its event for the iPhone 17 on Tuesday, September 9 — just like last year. The company has started sending invites for the event, which will be held at the Steve Jobs theatre in Cupertino and will start at 10 a.m. PT/ 1 p.m. ET.
While the company is expected to release one regular and two Pro phones, it could replace the Plus with a new and slim iPhone 17 Air model. The device could reportedly have a thickness of 5.5 mm with a 6.6-inch screen. This would make the new iPhone 17 Air 0.08 inches thinner than the current gen models.
The base iPhone 17 is reported to have a new and bigger 6.3-inch screen with a 120Hz refresh rate instead of 60Hz in previous years.
Along with the iPhones, Apple will likely have updated the Apple Watch Series 11, Ultra 3, and SE 3. The Apple Watch Ultra 3 would be a notable update amid the trio, with a bigger screen and faster charging support.
For Apple devotees, the biggest tech day of the year is finally almost here: The Apple iPhone 16 launch event. It’ll take place tomorrow, September 9, at 1PM ET in Cupertino, CA, and you can stream it live on YouTube or the company’s website. We’ll also be live-blogging the news and hopefully will get a chance to check out the new iPhone after the event.
The biggest news we’re expecting from Apple’s It’s Glowtime event is the iPhone 16 lineup. Following past events, we’re also anticipating a new Apple Watch or two — maybe even three, if Apple showcases a new SE.
Beyond that, rumors have been swirling about a refresh of the standard AirPod earbuds. And what about new M4 Macs, HomePods, iPad mini or even the baseline iPhone SE? Some of those may hit later this year, while others probably won’t see the light of day until 2025 or beyond. But until Tim Cook takes the (virtual) stage, however, everything is pure speculation. With that said, let’s get into the most likely leaks and rumors ahead of the Apple event.
iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro
No matter what else happens, these new handsets will take center stage during the Apple event. That’s good news for people ready for an upgrade. The bad (ish) news? The vast majority of leaks and rumors indicate that this will be another year of iterative improvements, so don’t expect a game-changing new hardware feature.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
There’s likely to be four new models announced at the event, which is similar to what Apple did last year. The new phones will allegedly be called the iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, according to industry analyst Mark Gurman. This is the exact same naming convention as last year’s iPhone 15 reveal, so the rumors of Apple adopting an “iPhone Ultra” moniker seem to have been greatly exaggerated.
Even if Apple doesn’t use the Ultra naming, the Pro models might be getting slightly larger screens, which is always nice (if you like big phones, that is). The regular Pro is likely to move to 6.3 inches from 6.1 inches, while the Pro Max should hit 6.9 inches, an increase from 6.7 inches. Finally, there will likely be a new color or two, as always. Bloomberg’s Gurman suggests that Apple is ready to ditch the blue model in favor of the return of rose gold. Separately, 9to5Mac has reported on a new “gold-colored titanium” hue for the iPhone 16 Pro model. Based on a source who apparently nailed last year’s gray titanium color, they are showing off what appears to be more of a dusky sand hue than gold.
On the hardware side of things, look for a new chipset that takes advantage of the company’s recent push toward AI, also known as Apple Intelligence. Beyond that, the upgraded A18 chip will be an iterative improvement, specs-wise. As is typical, the Pro and Pro Max will likely get a more powerful chip than the standard models. It looks like the base amount of RAM here will be 8GB, so as to handle those aforementioned AI tasks.
It’s also been rumored that the standard iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will get the Action Button, a feature introduced last year for the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. This multi-purpose button is a direct replacement for the mute switch, by default, but can be adjusted to control a bunch of different things. The Action Button can be used to to change ringer settings, turn on the flashlight, launch the camera and more.
Cherlynn Low/Engadget
There’s also talk of another new button, this one on the right side of the phone. This will control camera features, operating like a button on a DSLR. Reporting indicates that a soft press will trigger autofocus and a harder press will take a photo. Consumers may also be able to swipe along the button to zoom in and out while shooting photos or taking videos. It’s been reported that this camera button will only come with the Pro and Pro Max, which makes sense since the high-end models typically offer a more robust camera experience.
To that end, new iPhones always get a camera spec bump, but we don’t know exactly what that will look like this time. It’s been reported, however, that the iPhone 16’s camera module could be getting a design refresh. Apple might be ditching the square and going with a vertical orientation. This might only apply to the base iPhone 16 and maybe the Plus, as the Pro and Pro Max phones tend to place a much higher emphasis on photos and videos.
Apple
We already know what’s coming on the software side of things, thanks to the recent WWDC event. Based on previous years, iOS 18 should be available within the week following the event. The software update features a more customizable Control Center and Home Screen. It’ll also finally bring RCS support to iPhones.
As for Apple Intelligence, you’ll have to wait a bit. It was announced as part of iOS 18, but it’s been delayed until iOS 18.1. This isn’t a huge deal, as that OS refresh is expected in October, but does mean that early adopters of the iPhone 16 won’t be able to fool around with AI right away.
The new iPhone drop may also spell the end of Apple’s widely panned FineWoven case, which was just introduced last year as an alternative to leather but has been criticized for durability issues. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman recently reported that FineWoven inventory is getting low, suggesting the company is either phasing it out or planning a refresh. One leaker on the Saturday ahead of the event shared a look at an array of iPhone cases in neutral colors, claiming these may be coming out in a new material to replace FineWoven.
Apple Watch Series 10 and Apple Watch Ultra 3
Ever since 2016, iPhone events have also included a deep dive on the latest Apple Watch. This year looks to be no different. As a matter of fact, this is a big year for the Apple Watch. We are coming up on the gadget’s tenth birthday, so there are conflicting rumors as to whether the next entry will be called the Apple Watch Series 10 or the Series X.
No matter what it ends up being called, Apple’s next standard smartwatch is reported to have a bigger screen that’s more in line with the Ultra. It’s expected that the company will ditch the 41mm form factor and introduce a 49mm design.
Rumors have also suggested that Apple has completely redesigned the band system and added new connectors. This will likely make these straps easier to adjust, but there’s a downside. This move could make it so all of those old bands no longer work.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Of course, there’s going to be a new chip to power these watches, but we don’t have any specifics. It’s been suggested that these chips have been designed to accommodate Apple’s recent foray into AI, but that integration is likely to happen later on. For now, Apple Intelligence will be tethered to iPhone, iPad and Mac.
There are likely to be two watches revealed at the event, which are codenamed N217 and N218. It’s possible one of these will be the Apple Watch Ultra 3, though Mark Gurman at Bloomberg says the high-end smartwatch won’t get a major redesign this time out. It’ll likely be an iterative refresh.
On the software front, it looks like Apple has run into some snags while developing long-anticipated health tracking tools. Health monitoring is one of the key features of the Apple Watch, so the company has been working on new sensors to detect high blood pressure and sleep apnea. However, the tech will likely not be ready for this year’s smartwatch. Apple’s also been developing a glucose sensor for almost a decade so, who knows, maybe it’ll finally show up with the Series X.
Finally, it’s highly possible that Apple announces a new version of the budget-friendly Watch SE. This was last updated in 2022, so a refresh is overdue. There has been some reporting that Apple will be swapping out the aluminum exterior with a rigid plastic shell. This should help get costs down even further. As it stands, the Apple Watch SE is $250, but Samsung’s cheapest wearable is the $200 Galaxy Watch FE. Apple may want to compete closer to that price range.
Two new sets of AirPods
Billy Steele/Engadget
It’s been reported that Apple’s prepping two new variants of its standard earbuds. According to a Bloomberg roundup that was published on September 6, Apple will introduce an entry-level model and a mid-tier version, which would effectively replace AirPods 2 and AirPods 3.
The big news here is that both new AirPods versions are likely to transition to a USB-C case to keep pace with the iPhone and the second-gen AirPods Pro. It’s been suggested that the cheaper of the two forthcoming models would lack wireless charging, but that the mid-tier version would support this technology. This is the same strategy Apple followed with previous generations, so it makes sense. The case for the more expensive AirPods may also include a speaker, which would make it easier to find with Apple’s Find My feature.
Both versions should feature similar designs, though the mid-tier variant is likely to support active noise cancellation like the Pro model. If that’s the case, it’s not really clear what’s left to differentiate those earbuds from the AirPods Pro, but we’ll find out soon enough.
As for the AirPods Max, there will likely be no refresh of Apple’s high-end Pro earbuds at this event. It’s been four whole years since these premium cans hit store shelves (and they’re still stuck using a Lightning port for charging), so a refresh is long overdue. Mark Gurman says they’ll get USB-C and new colors eventually but the timing remains unclear.
One more thing
The iPhone event doesn’t typically have a “one more thing” moment, but there’s one piece of hardware that could get a surprise shout out. It’s been rumored that Apple is preparing a massive redesign of the Mac mini, which would include ditching the USB-A port, according to Gurman. Analysts have suggested that this will be the company’s smallest ever desktop computer and could be around the same size of an Apple TV streaming box.
There will reportedly be two versions of the upcoming Mac Mini, one with the standard M4 chip and another with the more powerful M4 Pro chip. The base model is rumored to start shipping from suppliers this month, so it’s possible Apple will spend a few minutes on the computer at the iPhone event. However, don’t count on it. This is an event for iPhones and smartwatches and a miniaturized desktop could feel out of place. And, just like it did last fall, Apple could easily hold a Mac-specific event later this year.
There’s also a lot of noise online about an upcoming iPad mini refresh. Apple’s smallest iPad hasn’t had an update since 2021, and is currently “considered ‘constrained’ internally,” according to Gurman. While a new model is likely to come soon, it’s not common for Apple to announce iPads during its iPhone event.
Beyond that, a whole bunch of software updates are about to drop. There’s iOS 18, which we’ve written about extensively, and iPadOS 18. As for smartwatches, watchOS 11 is also coming out sometime this fall. Apple already detailed all three operating systems at WWDC, but the upcoming iPhone event would be a good time to announce official release dates.
One… early thing?
Here’s something we know for sure: Apple has a updated Beats Powerbeats Pro update coming next year. Beats teased an update to the earbuds on its Instagram account on September 4 with a short Reel. In the clip, Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani swings a bat while wearing the upcoming earbuds, before a “Powerbeats Pro 2” wordmark and “Coming 2025” flash up on screen.
That’s it — there’s no mention of specs, pricing, or a tighter release window, but we do at least see a tweaked design. You can read senior reporter Billy Steele’s analysis of this glimpse here. Chances are we won’t hear about this new set of buds at the iPhone event, but expect to see them adorning many more athlete and celebrity ears before long.
The Engadget Podcast with special guest Mark Gurman
In preparation for Apple’s September 9 event, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman joined Engadget Podcast hosts Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar to talk all things Apple. The trio talked at length about the latest Apple rumors, including the new camera button for iPhone, tweaks to screen sizes, the new AirPods lineup and what to expect from the latest Apple Watch models. There’s also a little more detail on the future of Apple, from next year’s “super slim” iPhone redesign through to the company’s burgeoning ambitions in home robotics. You can listen to the episode above, and a full transcript is available here.
Update, September 6 2024, 9:30AM ET: This story has been updated multiple times since its original publishing. The updates were as follows, in chronological order:
Added the time and date of the Apple event.
Added some details on the iPad mini being stock-restrained.
Added a recap of the Engadget Podcast with Mark Gurman.
Added a link to 9to5Mac‘s reporting on a new color for the iPhone 16 Pro.
Added a link to Mark Gurman’s reporting on the Mac mini.
Added a section on the surprise announcement of the Powerbeats Pro 2.
Added more details about the two new sets of AirPods.
Apple has scheduled its next product showcase for May 7, a few weeks before the Worldwide Developers Conference gets under way. While the company is, as usual, being a bit coy about what’s on deck, the signs are all there. It had been rumored for months that Apple would refresh its iPad lineup in May. Sure enough, the image on the announcement for this “Let Loose” event includes an illustration of a hand holding an Apple Pencil.
Various reports over recent months have offered some insight as to what Apple has up its sleeves. So, with that in mind, here’s what to expect from the upcoming iPad event:
M3 iPad Pro
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
It’s been about 18 months since Apple updated any of its iPads, so its tablet lineup is due for a refresh. It won’t exactly come as a surprise to see Apple slot M3 chips into the latest iPad Pro models, since the most recent versions run on M2 chipsets.
Otherwise, the biggest update is expected to come in the form of OLED displays, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. That should bring richer colors and deeper blacks to the iPad Pro.
Since OLED panels are thinner than LCD panels, that should allow Apple to reduce the thickness of the iPad Pro. According to 9to5 Mac, the 11-inch iPad Pro will be 0.8 mm thinner at 5.1 mm, while the 12.9-inch model will be more noticeably slender, as the thickness is expected to drop by 1.5 mm to 5 mm. A leaker has suggested that the bezels could be up to 15 percent thinner than previous models as well.
Rumors have been swirling for a while that Apple may offer a glass-backed iPad Pro this year to enable MagSafe charging. Meanwhile, there have been hints that Apple will solve one of our biggest iPad bugbears and move the front-facing camera to the landscape edge of the Pro, as it did with the entry-level iPad in late 2022. That means the camera will be more optimally placed for those who use a Magic Keyboard or folks who simply prefer a landscape orientation.
M2 iPad Air
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
As for the iPad Air, which Apple has left in stasis for over two years, that’s expected to get an upgrade to M2 chips from the M1 that the tablets currently use. There are rumblings that Apple will go with the older chip in the iPad Air to differentiate it from Pro models and ensure that the latter devices clearly remain its highest-end tablets. Reports suggest that the iPad Air’s front-facing camera is also blessedly moving to the landscape edge.
There is one other big change we’re expecting for the iPad Air, and I mean that in the most literal sense. Apple is rumored to be prepping the first 12.9-inch iPad Air. It’s likely to be the least expensive option for a large-screen iPad, even though that would run somewhat against the “Air” part of the name.
Display analyst Ross Young previously suggested that the 12.9-inch iPad Air screen would have a mini-LED display, but that no longer appears to be happening — at least for now. However, Young says that Apple may release an iPad Air with such a display later this year. Meanwhile, the new iPad Air models may have a larger camera bump, perhaps so Apple can add a flash.
New Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil
Engadget
Gurman reported last year that Apple was working on a revamped Magic Keyboard, but only for the iPad Pro, not the Air lineup. The updated keyboard is said to make the iPad Pro look more like a laptop, with a larger trackpad. It’s said to be made of aluminum to make it sturdier than previous models, though “the exterior shell of the Magic Keyboard will retain the cover material of the current model,” Gurman says.
In addition, Apple is expected to unveil a new Apple Pencil to replace the second-gen model. Dataminers have suggested that an updated peripheral could include a squeeze gesture to carry out certain actions and have Find My support. Some reports have indicated the next Apple Pencil could work with Vision Pro drawing apps too.
What not to expect: A new iPad or iPad mini
Even though the iPad mini in particular is getting very long in the tooth — the most recent model arrived in September 2021 — you probably shouldn’t expect a new model to show up at the Let Loose event. Not are we expecting to see a new base iPad. Reportssuggest an 11th-gen iPad and an updated iPad mini may arrive later this year, but maybe don’t hold your breath for them.
Apple has a new range of updated MacBook Pro notebooks, and while they get a pretty nice internal upgrade courtesy mostly of the new M3 processor lineup, the big news for aesthetes is on the outside – in addition to the existing silver and space gray colors, there’s a new space black that is just 🧑🍳💋.
This is a return to form for a company whose best-looking Mac is obviously still the famous “BlackBook” MacBook introduced in 2006 – the original MacBook that took over from the iBook and that brought in a lot of the design language that continues on Mac notebooks to this day. The black MacBook was a matte polycarbonate, however, and this new MacBook Pro is that same aircraft-grade aluminum that we’ve seen on the past few models, but now in a darker tone that’s still probably more very dark grey than black, but a lot closer than anything we’ve been able to get in a Mac for years.
This is notable not just because I’m a depressing grayscale boy who loves to get my accessories in the darkest shade of black I can manage, but also because Apple has stayed away from using black in the mix for many of its products and accessories for at least the past few seasons now. It switches over to a ‘Midnight’ tone in the aluminum Apple Watches and the Watch accessory line a couple generations ago, and it offers a a ‘Midnight’ version of the MacBook Air, too. These are nice – but as the name implies, they’re also not actually black: They appear that way in certain lighting conditions, but in actuality there’s some blue in the mix. Also, those pick up fingerprints like crazy, and Apple went out of its way to say the new one has a special treatment that won’t make it a fingerprint magnet.
Now, I’m not saying that the ‘midnight’ stuff doesn’t look good: It does. But I’m a professional, and as a professional I need some way to convey that with the outer shell of my MacBook. I realize this sounds like I’m joking but I’m actually seriously very excited about having an actual black (or very very dark gray) metal computer to convey my seriousness and competence.
Some might say ‘space gray was enough!’ but it really was more of a placeholder – an acknowledgement that I wasn’t to be taken as lightly as someone who carries around a silver computer – but it just doesn’t have the same gravity.
I’m hoping this means Apple’s extended vacation from black is over and we can stop with the blueshit and get on with our lives. All I know is I ordered one of these instantly to replace my 14-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro and it has nothing to do with needing a more powerful processor.
