I wasn’t sure why waiting for this Apple Event didn’t excite me like those of the past. Could my lack of disposable income have tampered with my excitement? Maybe getting off the yearly update cycle had caused me not to care as much—even though I had planned on updating. Had fatherhood changed my interests?
It might have been all of that, or it might be that the iPhone has become a slightly dull product in its old age.
Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the event, I still sat down to watch the entire thing. But the show left me baffled.
Let’s look at what got announced at Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” Apple Watch, AirPods, and iPhone 16 event, my thoughts about the announcements, and the event itself.
Apple Watch Series 10
Apple started the show with the Apple Watch Series 10 and the new color for the Apple Watch Ultra 2.
The Apple Watch 10 gains a bigger screen, slims down, sleep apnea detection, and new colors and materials. When they started introducing the Series 10 Apple Watch, I started digging in my wallet; however, I ended up stopping myself.
I currently have a Series 8 Apple Watch, and for the most part, it does fine. It tracks more health metrics since I bought it before the lawsuit that caused Apple to turn off the O2 sensor in new models. My current watch won’t get the sleep apnea detection, but I don’t feel like that’s something I need to worry about just yet.
The only thing I want in a new Apple Watch is better battery life. Sadly, Apple didn’t mention anything about battery life during the video. I had to go to the product page , which quotes the same amount of time for battery life as previous versions.
The Apple Watch will also let you listen to music or podcasts on the device instead of requiring Bluetooth headphones. I’m unsure why anyone would want to do that, but now you can.
A thinner watch is great, but I’m not sure I’d want it at the cost of battery life. If Apple had increased the battery life, I might have bought this update.
It shocked me that Apple didn’t mention a smaller screen for the Apple Watch in the video. There has always been a small and large Apple Watch. I’m sure many people thought they had discontinued it, but they haven’t.
Apple then moved on to the Apple Watch Ultra. They spent a long time extolling the virtues of the heavy-duty watch and then went on to not update it. They only added a new color to the Ultra 2.
What a letdown.
But this tells me that the no internals of the Series 10 haven’t received much of an update. It makes sense. The Apple Watch went through Series 6 through 8 without too much of an update to the chip inside.
AirPods 4 and AirPods Max are All Over The Place
AirPods got the spotlight next. They started with the standard AirPods, now called AirPods 4. They went to great lengths to tell us about the new fit, but I think that will require everyone to try them out to check the fit.
The biggest news about the AirPods 4 seems to be the inclusion of noise-cancellation technology. These don’t stick anything in your ear canal to make a seal like the Pro version. I’ll be interested to see how well these cancel noise and how the transparency mode works. It’s not enough to get me to change from my AirPod Pros 2.
Regarding the AirPod Pros, Apple announced new health features regarding hearing. These AirPods can now give you a hearing test and work as hearing aids (pending FDA approval). It is an excellent addition, but I don’t think anyone who needs a hearing aid will want a device that only lasts a few hours. Still, after taking the test, your Apple devices can alter their audio for a more personalized sound. I love it and will try it once it comes out.
I’ve wanted a pair of AirPods Max. I bought some at one point but returned them because of the cost. Going into the event, I felt tempted to splurge, even though I didn’t need them. When Apple moved on to the Max part of the video, I again readied to sell some stocks to pay for everything.
But then Apple didn’t update them. They are the same headphones as before, but they come in new colors, get a USB-C port, and offer Personalized Spatial Audio. They don’t get the new H2 chip in all the other AirPods, and they don’t get the head-nodding feature to answer Siri. It felt like a huge letdown. I will not be selling my stock for these.
Tempting iPhone 16 Colors
There’s still some fun and whimsy in the company. They brought out new fun colors for the iPhone 16!
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are solid updates to the base iPhone line. For the first time, they include the same year chip as the iPhone Pro, albeit slightly inferior to those in the Pros (but only by one graphics core).
They also include a pretty good camera upgrade. The iPhone 16 will have the same 48-megapixel Fusion wide camera (the 1x), and it has an upgraded Ultra-Wide lens that includes an upgraded Macro capture.
The iPhone 16 will gain two new buttons this year: the Action Button and the Camera Control. The Action Button comes from the iPhone 15 Pro line, where you can program the button to do a number of things, like silence your phone or turn on your flashlight. Meanwhile, Capture Control is the new button on the other side of the phone, which will not only bring up the camera with a press or take a button with another press but will allow you to control all the camera stuff with presses and swipes.
These colors are my favorite since the iPhone XR. I like them so much that I’m contemplating “downgrading” to a Plus version of the iPhone this upgrade cycle.
The iPhone 16 Pro Camera Show
I will be honest: the iPhone 16 Pro section bored me, and I struggled to pay attention. The boredom started with the sad Pro colors. They are all very monotone and stale. Come on, Apple, bring some colors to the Pros, please!
The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will get larger screens this year. They retain the Action Button. Inside, they get a new A18 Pro chip, which boasts one more graphics core than the standard A18 in the iPhone 16.
Like the iPhone 16, the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max will also get the new Capture Control button. Both Pro models will get the 5x zoom. These phones can capture video at 120 frames per second at 4K. There was a lot of talk about sound capture with new mics that only cinematographers might want to use.
For the first time in a while, it felt like most of the upgrades were more than I might ever need. In fact, I thought about getting an iPhone 16 versus the Pro model for the first time in a long time. The better battery, bigger screen, and better refresh rate will keep me on the Pro version, though.
On Apple Intelligence
Apple spent a long time discussing Apple Intelligence before launching the iPhone since both new iPhones will eventually get it.
While I felt excited about AI coming to the iPhone around WWDC, my expectations have slightly tempered. I’ve had the beta version of 18.1 on my iPad and MacBook Air for the summer. Honestly, I haven’t gotten much out of it.
I’m unsure what I expect to happen when Apple Intelligence comes out, but I haven’t figured out how it will benefit me. During the event video, I don’t feel like Apple did a great job of telling anyone why we would want this other than to create images, which we can’t do yet, or help write out your notes better, which I disagree with, but I’m not against altogether.
I’m interested to see where this takes us.
One thing they did show off was new ties in with the capture button. Once it updates, you can hold the Capture Control button down to have AI scan whatever your camera is looking at. It can tell you the type of dog you’re looking at or be able to parse the text on a poster and do something with that info, like create a calendar event.
Still, these features are coming next month and later. I don’t think these features will drive high demand.
An Odd Video
Overall, this felt like a very weird Apple Event. Some of the announcements excited me, while most felt flat.
I’m a little worried about Apple in general. They seemed to make some decisions that didn’t sit right with me, like the AirPods Max update. But mostly, I didn’t like most of the stories they told. They didn’t sell me on many of their updates, either.
While I like the videos, I also am starting to miss the days of live events. Maybe they could bring that back for an event or two a year and save the recorded video for WWDC.
Regarding devices, I plan on updating to an iPhone 16 Pro Max with 256 GB in Natural Titanium, but that teal iPhone Plus is calling to me. I won’t update my AirPods or Apple Watch, even though I’d love a longer-lasting battery. I’m also waiting to see what Apple Intelligence brings. But that’s a little down the road, and I expect it will continue to improve.
Now, I just have to wait for the Mac event, hopefully soon.
What did you think of the event, and what are you planning on buying? Let me know on Facebook, Threads, or Instagram.
