What To Expect at Today’s Apple Event

An Apple event on a Monday is fairly unusual. California’s shiniest tech company usually holds its annual September iPhone-announcement event on a Tuesday, but this year, it moved its slot one day early to avoid overlapping with the presidential debate. Oh, and by unveiling all their shiny new products today, Apple also swamps the news cycle, just before the European Commission announces tomorrow whether the company has to hand over $14 billion in back taxes. The event will start at 1 P.M. E.D.T. and be livestreamed on YouTube, Apple TV, and Apple’s website.The event’s title is “It’s Glowtime” — a rather painful reference to the new look of the interface for Apple’s now AI-enabled smart assistant, Siri. Expect “AI” and “Apple Intelligence” to be thrown about with great abandon to hype up investors, with many new features announced; though it will be a while before Apple users start testing the updates.At the core of the event will be the new iPhone 16 line. Unsurprisingly, the updates will be fairly unremarkable. The iPhone 16 will come in four models — iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max — and the only meaningful change to the lower-end models will be the addition of an “Action” button, like the Pro models, and vertically aligned rear cameras. The Pro phones will get small upgrades to the zoom and ultrawide cameras, bigger screens with smaller bezels, and a capacitive touch-sensitive shutter button on the right side, letting you shoot like a DSLR camera. Otherwise, they will have slightly faster chips, some new colors, and the same price tags.With the smartphone market saturated and Apple still some years away from releasing a folding phone, this event will also focus heavily on wearables and accessories, with upgrades to their underperforming Apple Watch and AirPods lines. Expect a new version of the AirPods Max headphones, now with a USB-C connection rather than Lightning, along with tweaks to their noise-canceling capabilities. There will also be two new AirPods: a base model, AirPods 4, and a mid-range version, sitting between the base and the AirPods Pro. Both will resemble the AirPods Pro and come with USB-C charging cases, but the mid-range version will feature some noise-canceling capabilities and a speaker in the case, allowing it to play a sound through the Find My system, when you can’t find it.The Series 10 Apple Watch will feature more screen size options, smaller bezels, and sleep apnea tracking. We’re also expected to see a new version of the entry-level Apple Watch SE, though details are scarce, and unless there’s a big change, I remain skeptical about recommending it. Yes, it’ll be cheaper than a new Series 10, but why not buy a refurbished Series 9 or 8 and save yourself a lot of money for a better watch? There likely won’t be a new version of the Apple Watch Ultra, though a black version of the Ultra 2 may be offered.None of these watches are expected to have blood-oxygen sensing though. Earlier this year, Apple was forced to remove this from all new watches after a lawsuit from Masimo Corporation, and this won’t come back for a while. If you value that feature and already have a watch with it, perhaps hold off on upgrading.What won’t we see? Though a new iPhone SE, AirTag, and Apple TV box are in active development, don’t expect them until 2025. New Macs and iPads are coming soon, but will get their own event in October. And while Apple’s Vision Pro still exists, aside from a few tie-in features, don’t expect anything new from that division for a while.

What To Expect at Today’s Apple Event

What To Expect at Today’s Apple Event

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