The Next Generation of Apple is Here
Matthew Gupta
Tech Editor
On September 9th, Apple hosted the “It’s Glowtime” event, where the Cupertino-based company released its newest products to the public. These new products included new Apple Watch, Airpod, and iPhone products. The event also displayed the unique features of its products, especially those involving AI, health, and accessibility. The event comes as Apple is preparing to release its next generation products on September 20th.
The Apple Watch Series 10 was the first product displayed. The watch boasts the largest display of any Apple Watch, allowing for easier reading of emails and text messages, while also being the thinnest watch Apple has ever made, allowing for more comfortable wear. The Apple Watch Series 10 comes in two unique finishes: an aluminum finish in Jet Black, Rose Gold, or Silver, and a Grade 5 Titanium finish, a material stronger and lighter material than the previous stainless steel, available in natural, gold, and black. New intelligence features were made possible through the new S10 processor with a 4-core Neural Engine. This more powerful SiP processor allows for new and improved features, including crash and fall detection, automatic widgets, and the Translate App, along with new health abilities such as alerting for health conditions such as Atrial Fibrillation, changes in sleep cycles, and sleep apnea. The Apple Watch Series 10 starts at $399.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 was also announced, focused largely on the benefits of its fitness capabilities. These new capabilities are made possible by dual-frequency GPS and advanced positioning software, giving it the “most accurate GPS in a sports watch”. This allows for specialized capabilities for runners, swimmers, cyclists, hiking, and many other sports. The Ultra 2 is also made with a brand-new Grade 5 Titanium finish, making for a stronger, lighter, and more comfortable watch. Available in both Satin Black and Natural, it is available for purchase from $799.
Next on display was the AirPods 4. The presentation began by discussing the development of the design, using advanced modeling tools to build earbuds that could comfortably fit the most people ever. New acoustic architecture has also led Apple to dub them “the best sounding AirPods ever”. The AirPods 4 comes in two models, one of which includes active noise cancellation. This helps to reduce outside noise, a new Transparency mode, adaptive audio, and conversation awareness. The AirPods 4 and Airpods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation are available for $129 and $179 respectively.
Apple also released new upgrades for its current premium earbuds. The Airpods Max was released in five new colors: Midnight, Blue, Purple, Orange, and Starlight, with higher quality sound and Active Noise Cancellation. They will be available on September 20 for $549. Finally, new features for the Airpods Pro 2 were released. Focused on improving hearing health, the Airpods Pro 2 comes with Hearing Protection to reduce louder noise, hearing tests to diagnose any potential hearing loss, and a Hearing Aid feature designed specifically for the user’s hearing deficiencies. The Hearing Aid feature will be applied to internal audio, including music and calls, as well as external audio, such as conversations. These breakthroughs in hearing diagnostics and treatment will be available to users in the fall.
The star of the show was the release of Apple’s newest mobile phone, the iPhone 16. Made from aluminum, the iPhone 16 comes in five different colors, including new colors like ultramarine, teal, and vibrant pink, and classic colors like black and white. The phone comes with a 6.1- and 6.7-inch display, and up to 512 GB in storage. One of the main features that the event focused on was its stunning photo and video capabilities, consisting of a 48-megapixel Fusion camera and a 2x optical-quality Telephoto camera for close-ups, leading Apple to make the bold claim that “it’s like having four lenses in your pocket”. Apple has even made built-in audio editing possible with the new audio mix feature powered by “advanced intelligence and Spatial Audio capture”, which allows you to adjust background noise and focus on those in frame, giving options to mimic audio from a podcast studio or cinematic recording.
Apple Intelligence was at the forefront of innovation for the new iPhone, as the company claimed to have built the phone from the ground up to be compatible with the new technology. This began with the development of a new processor, the Apple A18, with a 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU. The new processor has already been received with praise due to impressive benchmarks, easily surpassing those of previous iPhones and its competitors. This new power has allowed for new features, such as writing tools to revise emails and texts and create unique images from text, as well as enhancing the user’s experience with Siri, the iPhone’s virtual assistant, improving its ability to understand and assist the user.
Finally, the iPhone 16 Pro was announced. Coming in a 6.3-inch or 6.9-inch display for the Pro Max, Apple’s largest iPhone comes in a Grade 5 titanium shell in 4 different colors: black, white, natural, and desert titanium. The A18 Pro processor was developed specifically for the model and for the implementation of AI, which benchmark performances have been seen to meet scores of even the M3 chip, designed for the MacBook Pro of late 2023. This impressive processing power, alongside an increase of battery life to 33 hours for the Pro Max, has allowed for greater possibilities in the mobile gaming world. The phone also possesses an additional 48-megapixel camera, allowing for even more detail in photos and videos. The event even featured a music video by The Weeknd filmed by an iPhone 16 Pro, displaying the camera’s remarkable level of detail. The iPhone 16 will be available at a price of $799, and the iPhone 16 Pro will be available from $999. Both are available for preorder now.
Contact Matthew at matthew.gupta@student.shu.edu