Top Stories: Apple Event Recap With iPhone 15, New Apple Watches, and More

What a week! Things are finally beginning to settle down after a flurry of announcements at Tuesday's event involving the usual suspects of iPhone and Apple Watch. All of the new hardware is now available to order, with launches happening next Friday.

top stories 16sep2023 1
Don't forget about Apple's software updates, with iOS 17, watchOS 10, and tvOS 17 all coming on Monday and macOS Sonoma debuting on September 26. Read on below for all the details on the biggest announcements from this week's event!

Everything Announced at Apple's Event in Six Minutes

Apple hosted its annual iPhone event this week, and it was packed with announcements as usual. New products unveiled include the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, and USB-C AirPods Pro.

Everything Announced at Apples Wonderlust Event Thumb
There are also new iPhone cases and Apple Watch bands with a "FineWoven" material instead of leather, wired EarPods with a USB-C connector, and several other new accessories, so be sure to check out our recap of everything announced at Apple's event to learn more.

Apple Announces iPhone 15 Pro With Titanium Design, Action Button, A17 Pro Chip, and More

As widely expected, the iPhone 15 Pro models are equipped with a USB-C port instead of Lightning, providing users with a more universal charging standard and faster data transfer speeds up to 10 Gbps.

iPhone 15 Pro Lineup Feature
Other new features for the Pro models include a lightweight titanium frame, the A17 Pro chip, a customizable Action button, slimmer bezels around the screen, Wi-Fi 6E support, increased RAM, and more.

Apple Announces iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus With USB-C Port, Dynamic Island, and More

The lower-end iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus models also feature a USB-C port, and the Dynamic Island first added to iPhone 14 Pro models last year.

iPhone 15 Colors pink
Other new features for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus include an upgraded 48-megapixel main camera lens with a new 2x Telephoto zoom option, the A16 Bionic chip, a frosted glass back, brighter displays, a second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, and more.

Apple Watch Series 9 Unveiled With S9 Chip, 'Double Tap' Gesture, and More

The next-generation Apple Watch Series 9 is official, with new features including a faster S9 chip, a "Double Tap" gesture for interacting with the watch without touching the screen, an increased 64GB of storage, a pink color option for the aluminum case, a brighter display, faster on-device Siri, Precision Finding for iPhone, and more.

Apple Watch Series 9
For the first time, Apple said customers can choose a carbon-neutral variant of any Apple Watch.

Apple Watch Ultra 2 Features Faster S9 Chip, Brighter Display, and More

Apple Watch Ultra 2 is here, with a handful of new features added, including the same S9 chip and Double Tap gesture from the Series 9, a brighter display with peak brightness of 3,000 nits, expanded altitude range, and more.

Apple Watch Ultra 2 hero feature white
Unfortunately, the rumor that the Apple Watch Ultra 2 would be available in a new Black Titanium finish was incorrect, with only Natural Titanium offered.

Apple Introduces Updated AirPods Pro and EarPods With USB-C and More

In addition to the iPhone 15 models getting a USB-C port, Apple announced that the second-generation AirPods Pro are now available to order with a USB-C charging case for $249, and the wired EarPods headphones now come in a USB-C version as well.

AirPods USB C Port Purple Triad
On an accessory-related note, Apple discontinued the MagSafe Battery Pack and MagSafe Duo Charger, both of which used Lightning, following the iPhone 15 event.

MacRumors Newsletter

Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!

Top Rated Comments

Gudi Avatar
8 months ago
I actually have a hard time to remember what was new about the watches? A new processor and new watch faces and bands, but in terms of new features. Ah yeah, double-tap − okay − what else. ?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ned1 Avatar
8 months ago
I’ve just received my Evergreen FineWoven iPhone 15 pro case (£59.00 in the UK) - what an absolute disappointment, especially when Apple are hawking it at the same price as the now discontinued premium leather iPhone case. I will be returning it and hunting for something that will actually complement the 15 pro.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rogi Avatar
8 months ago

I’ve just received my Evergreen FineWoven iPhone 15 pro case (£59.00 in the UK) - what an absolute disappointment, especially when Apple are hawking it at the same price as the now discontinued premium leather iPhone case. I will be returning it and hunting for something that will actually complement the 15 pro.
Looks terrible on reviews.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ProfessionalFan Avatar
8 months ago

I’ve just received my Evergreen FineWoven iPhone 15 pro case (£59.00 in the UK) - what an absolute disappointment, especially when Apple are hawking it at the same price as the now discontinued premium leather iPhone case. I will be returning it and hunting for something that will actually complement the 15 pro.
It's the worst phone case I've ever tried and I tried some cheap crap over the years. Huge miss for Apple on this one.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kulfon Avatar
8 months ago
As a standalone product, iPhone 15 Pro is a very solid device, but I have to admit that it the least interesting update over previous generation (year ago, iPhone 14 Pro).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
t0rqx Avatar
8 months ago
Watched it. To be honest nothing impressive. 10% improvement for iPhones over 14-series with 3nm. Double tap with fingers on Series 9, but that was already possible in Series 8 and older. Lot of marketing gimmick. Apple knows it, even trying to say the Watch Ultra 2 has 72-hours standby. Mind you by even disabling MORE features to reach that number, which they only mention in the small print. Is this the Apple we knew and loved?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 18 Apple Music Messages and Notes Feature 1

iOS 18 Rumored to Add New Features to These 16 Apps on Your iPhone

Tuesday April 30, 2024 10:44 am PDT by
Apple is expected to announce iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, and new features have already been rumored for many apps, including Apple Music, Apple Maps, Calculator, Messages, Notes, Safari, and others. Below, we recap iOS 18 rumors on a per-app basis, based on reports from MacRumors, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, and others: Apple Maps: At least two new Apple Maps features are...
Apple Event Let Loose Pastel Green

Report: Five Things Apple Won't Announce at Its Event Next Week

Friday May 3, 2024 4:30 am PDT by
Apple is holding at least five announcements for later in the year that will not arrive at the company's "Let loose" special event next week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In a report detailing his expectations for Apple's upcoming event, Gurman noted that there are a total of five things that the company is holding for later in the year: AI features: While Apple may tease new...
top stories 4may2024

Top Stories: Apple Event Preview, iPad Pro With M4 Chip Rumor, New Beats Headphones, and More

Saturday May 4, 2024 6:00 am PDT by
It's been a long time since the last one, but an Apple event is finally right around the corner! While it's anticipated to be a fairly short pre-recorded affair, we're expecting to see the first updates to the iPad lineup in over a year and half, so make sure to tune in to see what Apple has in store. Other news and rumors this week included a couple of product introductions from Apple's...