Turns out the rumour mill got some things spot on. Yes, there is a new shutter button on all the phones in the iPhone 16 lineup; Yes, the action button too makes its way to the non-Pro models; and Yes, there are now two regular AirPods, with and without active noise cancellation. But Apple still had a few surprises up its sleeve at Apple’s annual iPhone launch event this year.
Titled ‘Glowtime’ a lot of what Apple announced at the event was focused on integrating AI into its devices. Apple made a big announcement earlier this year when it introduced Apple Intelligence to us, but details were still scarce. That has now begun to change. Apple listed a number of ways how Apple Intelligence will make its way to the Apple ecosystem, and quite a lot of it is pretty interesting. Take for instance its ability to summarize notifications, messages and emails to make it easier for you. Apple Intelligence also seems to be able to prioritize certain notifications and seems to have a degree of contextual awareness of what’s happening on the screen. A lot of what Apple mentioned about Apple Intelligence could be very useful, but sadly, there’s no timeline for when it will be available in India. It will be available in Beta form in a number of regions in the ‘coming months’ but India is not on the list.
Glowtime platformed Apple Intelligence to millions of people watching the live stream and potentially billions who’d catch up on all the announcements that Apple made over the next day or so. But crucially, there are no rigid timelines as to when Apple Intelligence will be available to regular users. Let’s move on to everything else Apple announced at the event then, and there is a lot.
iPhone 16 and 16 Plus
First and foremost, the cameras are now vertically oriented. This, more than anything else, is to help better capture spatial video for the Vision Pro. The action button’s here and so is what Apple calls ‘camera control’. You can use the camera control purely as a shutter button, but beyond being a physical button, it has capacitive touch which means you can slide your finger on it to adjust modes, zoom and more. Screen sizes stay the same, 6.1-inch for the 16 and 6.7-inch for the 16 Plus, but there are now fresher colours like teal and pink to go along with the black and white. Unlike last year where the non-Pro models had to make do with the preceding year’s processor, the 16 and 16 Plus get the new A18 which is supposedly 30 percent more powerful than last year’s model. Pricing stays the same, starting at Rs. 79,990 or $799 depending on where you are.
iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max
This year there isn’t as much of a physical differentiation between the Pro and non-Pro models apart from the camera bump. So, what’s really different then? The iPhone 16 Pro has a 48MP “Fusion camera,” a new 48MP ultrawide, and a 12MP 5x telephoto camera and this time around the camera hardware stays the same on the Pro and Pro Max. The iPhone 16 Pro will also be able to capture 4K video at 120fps. Apple also claimed that there are now four “studio quality” mics in the Pro models. That aside, the screens have grown in size, 6.3-inch for the Pro and 6.9-inch for the Pro Max, while the phones themselves have only grown negligibly. Thinner bezels are to thank for that.
Both feature the A18 Pro chip, with a 16-core neural engine that Apple claims has 15 percent faster performance than last gen’s Pro. It also has a six-core GPU that’s supposedly 20 percent faster than the iPhone 15 Pro’s A17 Pro. Prices start at $999 for the Pro, and $1199 for the Pro Max in the US. There has been a price correction in India and the 16 Pro starts at Rs. 119,990 for the Pro and Rs. 144,990 for the Pro Max.
AirPods 4
News is Apple’s AirPods 3 didn’t do so well, so Apple wanted to make some changes. The AirPods 4 now offers a bit of choice, you can opt for one without noise cancellation and one with noise cancellation. The difference in price is $50 for those of you in the US and Rs. 5000 in India. The case is now smaller and lighter than before and the one with ANC gets wireless charging support and includes a speaker for Find My support. Apple claims to have worked on the sound quality and the AirPods now get larger drivers, and software features like adaptive audio, transparency mode, and conversation awareness thanks to the H2 chip that’s in them.
Price start at $129 and Rs. 12900 in the US and India respectively.
Apple AirPods Pro 2
The AirPods Pro 2 gets a big update. Apple says that the AirPods Pro 2 can be used as “clinical-grade” hearing aids very soon. FDA approval is pending, but once it arrives this has the capability to seriously transform the lives of millions of people living with some degree of hearing loss. The hearing aid feature boosts specific sounds and applies a personalized hearing profile to music, movies and phone calls across devices. This works in conjunction with a new hearing test that Apple has developed that’ll allow users to check their current hearing health. Results from the five-minute certified hearing test are then added to the user’s hearing profile and the hearing aid feature subsequently uses that to tune the sound for each particular user. The feature will launch via a software update later this year.
Apple Watch Series 10
Screen sizes have gone up to 42mm and 46mm, up by a millimeter each, while shrinking the Watch itself. The Series 10 also happens to be much lighter now. The display too is now 40 percent brighter, and refreshes every second instead of every minute when using the always-on display. There is a new processor, a depth gauge and the ability to detect sleep apnea (again, coming via an update later). Both the Series 10 and Ultra 2 get new black colourways now. Prices start at $399/Rs. 46,900 for the Series 10 and $899/Rs. 89,900 for the Watch Ultra 2
The iPhones, Apple Watches and AirPods that Apple announced at the event will be available in stores September 20th and can be pre-ordered starting now.
