Live Thoughts on Apple’s September Event
AirPods
- Did they say foam tips for the new AirPods? Moving away from silicone tips?
- In-person live translation looks amazing. But you’ll need a newer iPhone for it to work, I’m sure.
- “Best-fitting AirPods ever” huh? Maybe they’re worth another shot.
- Finally, you can start workouts with just your iPhone! I wonder if it’ll work with other heart-rate monitors, or just Apple’s headphones.
- Looks like a great update!
Apple Watch
- Here comes the tear-jerker video…
- No more Jeff Williams to head off Apple Watch, and we’ll see if Jay Blahnik’s a no-show as well. Update: Was not seen.
Series 11
- Yay, 5G! No snark, I was fighting the watch’s cellular connection just this morning. Hopefully this will help.
- Whoa, they’re going after high blood pressure! Didn’t think we’d see anything about this for a few more years. That’s (potentially) huge.
- Sleep Score is nice, I guess. I’ve used third-party apps in the past, but never found the data very actionable. I’ll try it out.
- Damn, 24-hours of battery life on the Series 11. They’ve hit the full-day milestore.
- Huh, Space Gray is back! Welcome back, old buddy.
SE 3
- “The most powerful watch chip, S10.”
That doesn’t bode well for a faster watch chip coming today. But maybe it’ll come in the Ultra.JK, the S10 is a new chip! - Lots of great improvements for the SE — it’s much easier to recommend now, particiularly with the always-on display. Stephen Hackett will be happy, even though it didn’t get the price drop it deserves.
Ultra 3
- Let’s go!
- Awesome, bigger display without a bigger case size.
- Also getting 5G, unsurprisingly.
- Woot woot! Sattellite connectivity not just for SOS, but the full messaging and location experience that’s on iPhone
- 42 hours of battery life. Yay!
- The case is 3D-printed. Wild!
- No mention of GPS improvements. I’m really hoping that perhaps the issue is just with my particular watch and that this new one will be better anyway.
- No mention of any on-device Apple Intelligence, like for workout buddy. That’s a miss in my books, I won’t run with my iPhone. Probably needs a new chip, which it also didn’t get.
- Oof, I’d forgotten the Ultra is $800. But available to order today! That’ll be happening here at HeyDingus central momentarily…
iPhone
- Four new models, as expected…
iPhone 17
- Probably the device I’m least interested in today.
- Hmm… wit that reveal video, it doesn’t look like anything is different than the 16. It was all software features they were showing off.
- Ahh, it does have a slightly bigger display. And with ProMotion — the first in a non-Pro device.
- Better scratch resistance on that new screen — but they always say that. Will it actually be any better?
- 50% charge in 20 minutes sounds quite good.
- 500 billion selfies last year. Wow.
- Anything they can do to improve selfies is good in my book.
- Ooh, a square sensor with easy switching of framing options. That’s nice! I’ll be glad to not feel like I’m going to fumble my phone trying to get a landscape selfie.
- Starts at 256GB storage! That bump would have been nice last year. I wonder if that comes with a similar bump in price…
iPhone Air
- Keeps the titanium. And glass on both sides. Didn’t see that coming.
- “Iconic Plateau”
- “With the power of Pro inside”. This is gonna be pricy.
- The edges look a little more rounded, giving it an even thinner look.
- Ahh… they’ve packed way more of the guts into that camera bar, including the silicon. Cool. Will probably keep the hottest parts away from your hand.
- Tim Millet got out of the lab.
- AI accelleration via the GPU. Interesting… they usually refer the AI talk to their neural cores. I wonder what they’ll do with that extra power.
- N1 (for Networking) and C1X (for Cellular) chips. They sound great! I wonder if C1X will have the faster version of 5G (the C1 didn’t). Not a big deal either way.
- Single camera. This may be it’s downfall for me. I’ll have to wait for reviews to know if it can hang.
- Dual-capture video is going to be huge for content creators.
- They’re talking about eSIM. Interesting. They’ve had it forever, so what’s new here?
- Ah, it’s eSIM-only worldwide. Some countries still had physical SIM version.
- “All-day battery life.” But they didn’t quote time or compare to other iPhones.
- 40 hours of battery life for video playback with the new MagSafe battery. Hmm. That’s not super convincing.
- This is pretty tempting.
iPhone 17 Pro
- Starting from scratch, huh?
- Ah, they’re justifying the move away from titanium to alumium (first in a Pro phone) with a sexy industrial manufacturing video.
- Biggest battery. Looks pretty thick. Hopefully lighter though?
- And there’s the orange! Like the color, wish it came to the Air.
- Lots of presenters in Apple Stores around the world. I like it. They have beautiful architecture.
- They’re talking a lot about thermal management today. They must have gotten the feedback that their last few phones were too warm to the touch too often.
- Seems like the Pro ate the Air’s extra battery with how much they keep mentioning it. 39 hours of video playback without a battery pack.
- 48 MP cameras across the board on the back is pretty awesome. Fusion cameras across the board too. I like that the zoom levels are .5x, 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x. They double at every jump, which makes my brain happy.
- Really pretty photos taken by professional photographers. But that’s always been the case. It’d be more fun if they put it in the hands of camera normies like me and let them try their best.
- Joz says, “How cool is that?”
- It’s really cool how much pro video stuff they pack into these iPhones. It’s way over my head, but I love that it puts so much power in creatives’ hands.
- TechWoven cases that offer great “scratch and stain resistance”. That’s some FineWoven trauma right there. You can bet people will be putting that claim to the test.
- The Apple logo placement looks good in the center of the two-tone “glass” panel on the white and orange, but looks goofily low on the blue where the contrast is less.
Pricing
- iPhone Air takes the Pro’s old spot at $999, which the Pros get a $100 bump up starting at $1099. They try to spin away that bump by saying its the same price as last year’s 256GB model.
I think maybe they just discontinued the iPhone 16 and previous models altogether? Usually they show the whole lineup, but now it’s all iPhones that were introduced this year. 16e, 17, Air, and 17 Pro/Max. That’s a curious break from a longheld tradition in Tim Cook’s Apple. (But which actually started back during Steve Jobs’ time.)- Nope, the 16 and 16 Plus are still in the lineup.
Those good (snarky) tweets…
Bold move…
Always good when the keynote stream starts with me doing a spit take.
“Design is how it works. That’s why we made half the interface illegible”
why does the apple keynote keep cutting to some old white trump stan
Apple loves to talk about how many ears they’ve looked at
An illegible new watch face is an appropriate way to “celebrate” Liquid Glass.
If your blood pressure spikes while listening to the US president speak, let Tim know
Can’t wait for my Apple Watch to tell me how shitty my sleep is.
I’ve never seen my timeline so negative during an #AppleEvent and honestly I’m so proud. Fuck Tim Cook for ruining what used to be such an exciting day for us Apple nerds
idk 42 hours of battery life definitely sounds bigger than the 10 hours my apple watch ultra 1 now lasts
It’s 90% faster at gaming but checking Slack is still slow.
looks the iphone started working with my trainer
Going to start referring to my forehead as an iconic plateau
“All-day battery life” proceeds to present a battery pack accessory #AppleEvent
THE BUMPER IS BACK BABY
What if Jony Ive voice but female
Joni Ive
Only British people can talk about materials.
ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE
We also drink every time they say “vapor chamber”. Cheers!
I’d be pretty thin too if you ignore the bulky bits that stick out of me
“Fuck it, we’re doing seven layers”.
Nothing says Pro like “We offer ProRes RAW video support, but you cannot adjust the gain level on an external mic.”
Is there really no black Pro phone?
Somebody check on @gruber
PROrange™