So today, we are officially live from the Apple (AAPL) Event. And there will likely be plenty of news about upcoming releases, which is commonly the case for these events. Today will focus heavily on the portable side, with the Airbuds, the Apple Watch, and the iPhone front and center. Investors, meanwhile, did not take the show well at all, as Apple shares were down nearly 2% in Monday afternoon’s trading.
And now, the live blogging:
Apple Watch
1:06 Introducing the Apple Watch Series 10! It’s got the “largest and most advanced display ever!” Up to 30% more screen area, which sounds pretty good until you consider how small the overall screen is. But still, easier to type, easier to read, and easier to work with is never a bad thing.
1:08 Wide-angle OLEDs that are power efficient, which means you can see a ticking second hand. Anything that helps battery life is seldom a bad idea. Jet Black, Rose Gold, and Silver Aluminum colors give you options in fashion as well as in function. And it’s apparently the thinnest ever–10% thinner than Series 9.
1:10 Play music or podcasts directly through the speaker, which might annoy people around you but gives you another option.
1:12 They even upgraded the watchband with several new options. And made with 95% recycled titanium, prioritizing non-air shipping, to give it about as much green cred as you can get without directly picking them off trees.
1:14 Now we’re flying over the map to speak to Dr. Sumbul Ahmad Desai, vice president of health at Apple. And she’s bringing out all sorts of health-connected features ranging from medication reminders to the ability to detect potential atrial fibrillation in the heart rate. Even detecting loud noises and potential sleep apnea. It apparently has a machine-learning background as well. However, it’s still waiting on clearance from regulators, which may be a problem.
1:17 Whoop! Off across the map again this time to speak to Julz Arney, director of fitness technologies at Apple. It’s an organic fit, I suppose, to go from health tools to fitness, but all this flying across San Francisco is making me dizzy.
1:18 There’s a Tides app now on the Apple Watch. It will show rising and falling tides–with times–over the course of seven days.
1:20 And now the price for the Series 10. Get your loan applications in now, kids; they start at $399 with a GPS. Those who want cellular service included will shell out an extra hundred, taking the price to $499.
1:22 The Apple Watch Ultra 2 gets shown off with a host of new features. Even works with offline maps, which will certainly be helpful for those who spend a lot of time outdoors. New colors on the Ultra 2 also come with a highly specific and proprietary process to make it happen. Corrosion resistant titanium, too, which makes it a good idea for wetter environments. Haven’t heard anything about waterproofing and to what depth, but you’ve got to figure at least water resistance based on all the water sports you keep hearing about here.
1:27 Pricing on the Ultra 2: $799 with GPS and cellular, and you can pre-order starting today for September 20 availability.
AirPods
1:27 Tim Cook talking about AirPods now; “most beloved headphones in the world,” apparently. And there are updates! The “new generation of AirPods,” AirPods 4, was introduced by Kate Bergeron, VP of Hardware Engineering. Laser topography and more, along with analysis of thousands of ear shapes, went into making these.
1:29 “The best-sounding earpods ever,” with the “most immersive media experience.” They even have hands-free modes for answering phones or addressing Siri alerts. The force sensor even has new applications. Active noise cancellation is in place, too, which you likely wouldn’t believe from an in-ear headphone.
1:32 It can apparently even tell when you’re talking to someone and automatically lower media volume while you’re talking. And there is wireless charging functionality too, to make sure your AirPods are always up and running.
1:33 Pricing for these is now out: $129, $179 with active noise cancellation. Available September 20. And then the AirPods Max! $549 for those same availability dates.
1:34 AirPods Pro! The AirPods Pro 2 is the best in active noise cancellation, longest battery life, and has new benefits. And we are back to Sumbul, who talks about basically using the AirPods Pro 2 like a hearing aid. That may sound like a long shot, but Sumbul sure seems to believe that is the case and has a slew of data to back it up.
1:36 Prevention, awareness, assistance; trying to reduce people’s exposure to loud noises–the Apple Watch did that too, it seems. Odd pattern shaping up there. Awareness makes it easier to test for hearing loss, especially given how many people have not had a hearing test in the last five years. But the Apple AirPods will provide a hearing test that apparently qualifies medically.
1:40 Still not cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, though. So maybe wishful thinking for now?
iPhone
1:41 Back to Tim, and we’re talking iPhone now. Throwing in plenty about Apple Intelligence, too, designed for this from the “ground up.”
1:43 Off to Kaiann Drance, VP of iPhone marketing, elsewhere on the Apple campus, who will offer more about the iPhone.
1:44 Water and dust resistant, so maybe leave this one out of the kayaking and such like you could with the Apple Watch. If they leave out a depth, it is not waterproof. And they’re changing characters again to tell us about the processing and energy efficiency of the new iPhone. The A18 is specifically for the iPhone 16.
1:46 More system bandwidth, which is apparently vital for making large language model (LLM) access available. The central processor (CPU) is 30% faster than the previous model and more energy efficient, which will likely be welcome. The graphics processor (GPU) is also faster, too.
Apple Intelligence
1:47 And now we pivot to Apple Intelligence with Craig Federighi. Using “generative models” to produce a platform that understands you while, somehow, also protecting your privacy. “Private Cloud Compute,” meanwhile, runs on Apple-specific silicon. It is the walled garden effect all over again.
1:50 Now on to how Apple Intelligence will change things; new writing tools that let you turn simple things into more elaborate and polished things. And emoji creation on the fly just from a prompt.
1:52 Image storage now; search for a photo by offering a description, or search for parts of a video in much the same way.
1:53 Notifications and emails are summarized in the menu listing, which will likely simplify things. And some improvements to Siri too; “richer language understanding” that lets you talk more normally, and lets Siri get the picture too. And you can type to Siri as well when you want to keep your requests quiet.
1:55 Then we combine the two: Tell Siri to find the photos from Saturday’s barbecue and send them to whoever you want. Updates will be coming out in short order via a software update, though it will not be coming out all at the same time. Some updates will not arrive until next year.
1:57 You can actually search for things just by taking a picture; take a picture of a dog and find out what kind it is. Or a picture of a restaurant’s front to find out its hours and menu. Not necessarily new, but much simpler than it was. Out later this year.
iPhone Camera
1:58 Now, the iPhone camera. They have simulated a way to get haptic feedback from an iPhone camera button, which should allow for new features by getting half-presses and full-presses.
2:01 Several new upgrades on the camera. Those who pay close attention to their phone’s camera are going to get a lot out of this, like new zoom options and overlays. 4K video with Dolby sound and a new ultra-wide camera with autofocus. That is just the start.
2:03 Spacial photos are now available; first time ever. But there are also significant improvements in audio quality; a lot less wind issues when you are recording a video.
Additional Information
2:05 Not surprisingly, the significant improvements in processing and architecture will help with gaming as well; the iPhone 16 offers much higher sustained performance and ray tracing, which will provide a better overall experience. The release of Honor of Kings World from Tencent (TCEHY) will hit next year and it looks like it will run well on the new iPhone.
2:09 Roadside assistance via satellite coming to the UK later on, which will certainly be welcome for any stranded travelers.
2:10 Musical vignette of the iPhone 16 showing off all its features. Give them credit; it is a good recap. Pricing is holding the line, apparently, up to $800 off when you trade in an iPhone 12 or newer.
2:12 Back over to Tim again. But now the iPhone 16 Pro, with all the newest in technology, with more emphasis on Apple Intelligence.
2:14 Greg Joswiak takes over to talk about the Pro model. Two different display sizes; 6.3 and 6.9 inches. Largest display ever, Joswiak says. And they got the space back from making thinner borders than ever. Ceramic shielding to improve durability, too.
2:17 Best iPhone battery life ever comes from the 16 Pro. And Siri will be able to find things in meetings by search, as well as generate synopses of meetings. It can even rewrite meeting notes for better professionalism or clarity. The A18 Pro chip also gets exhibited; the first smartphone chip ever to use smaller transistors with a 16-core neural engine. It delivers significant expanses on several fronts and is apparently the fastest processor in any smartphone.
2:22 And now we talk about iPhone Pro and photography with a new camera interface as well as a new 48-megapixel fusion camera. Multiple upgrades here as well, such as a 5x telephoto camera. Effectively, there are three new cameras in this one. Camera controls will get an upgrade later this year. “Professional color grading in real-time.” And the updates do not stop there, as we also get upgrades to video capture and performance.
2:27 4k video at 120 frames per second, which makes slo-mo video all the more available. They really went all out with the “cool guys don’t look at explosions” concept on this one, as they showed us the difference between cinematic and non-cinematic video.
2:29 Several new improvements for audio recording, including studio-grade microphones. Good for both vocal and acoustic, apparently. Spatial audio for video recording, which works well with the AirPods. Multiple audio mixes can be applied to shot videos, and even voice memos get an upgrade.
2:32 And they got The Weeknd to come in on this one, shooting a music video on the iPhone 16 Pro. One part field test, one part exhibition, one part at least kind of implied celebrity endorsement.
2:35 New cases! The MagSafe line is designed to work with the new camera controls as well as the wireless charging systems, which should make it a welcome new addition. And 100% fiber based, which again adds green cred to the new lineup.
2:36 Pricing! Brace your wallets: the iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999 with 128 gigs of memory, while the Pro Max goes up to $1199 with 256 gigs.
2:38 And that is it; one last parting shot: Tim recaps the iPhone 16 lineup, and the video reminds us all: shot on iPhone, edited on Mac.
Is Apple a Buy or Sell Today?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on AAPL stock based on 25 Buys, nine Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 24% rally in its share price over the past year, the average AAPL price target of $249.11 per share implies 14.6% upside potential.
