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!

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

10 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Thursday October 31, 2024 9:42 am PDT by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.2 in December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. There are a handful of new non-AI related feature controls incoming as well. ...
M4 Pro on Blue

M4 Pro Chip Benchmark Results Reveal an Extremely Impressive Performance Feat

Thursday October 31, 2024 7:06 pm PDT by
The first Geekbench 6 benchmark results for the M4 Pro chip surfaced today. Impressively, the results that are available so far show that the highest-end M4 Pro chip is faster than the highest-end M2 Ultra chip in terms of peak multi-core CPU performance. Here is a comparison of the results: Mac mini with M4 Pro (14-core CPU): 22,094 multi-core score (average of 11 results) Mac Studio...
Apple iPhone SE 4 5G Modem 1

iPhone SE 4 First to Get Apple-Designed 5G Modem, iPhone 17 Pro to Add Custom Wi-Fi 7 Chip

Friday November 1, 2024 4:04 am PDT by
The iPhone SE 4 that's set to come out early next year is expected to debut Apple's first in-house 5G modem, according to Jeff Pu, an analyst who covers companies within Apple's supply chain. In a research note this week with Hong Kong-based investment firm Haitong International Securities, Pu said Apple is expected to roll out its custom-made 5G modem starting with the next-generation...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 Cinema 4D Slack Finder Xcode 1

Apple Announces MacBook Pro Models With M4 Pro and M4 Max Chips, Thunderbolt 5 Support, and More

Wednesday October 30, 2024 8:01 am PDT by
Apple today announced new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models featuring M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, alongside a new entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro powered by the M4 chip. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new M4 Pro and M4 Max machines come with a minimum of 24GB of Unified Memory as standard, up from 18GB in the previous models. Both models feature three...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

Skipping the New MacBook Pro? Here Are Two Bigger Changes Rumored

Thursday October 31, 2024 4:00 pm PDT by
While the new MacBook Pro lineup features faster M4 chip options, Thunderbolt 5 support for higher-end configurations, a nano-texture display option, and more, most of the previous MacBook Pro models with Apple silicon chips still offer the latest overall design, and fast performance, which might lead you to avoid upgrading this year. If you are planning to skip the new MacBook Pro, here are ...
m3 macbook air blue

Apple Announces MacBook Air Now Starts With Increased 16GB of RAM With No Price Increase

Wednesday October 30, 2024 8:04 am PDT by
Apple today in its new MacBook Pro press release announced that the MacBook Air lineup now starts with 16GB of RAM, up from 8GB previously. This change applies to the 13-inch model with the M2 chip, the 13-inch model with the M3 chip, and the 15-inch model with the M3 chip. In the U.S., the MacBook Air lineup continues to start at $999, so there is no price increase associated with the...
M3 Pro Max vs M4 Pro Max Feature

Here's How Much Faster M4 Pro/Max Are for Graphics vs. M3 Pro/Max

Friday November 1, 2024 8:04 am PDT by
Apple's new M4 Pro and M4 Max chips are impressively fast in terms of CPU performance, topping the M2 Ultra, but what about graphics performance? The first Geekbench 6 results for GPU performance are now available for the M4 Pro and M4 Max, and the Metal scores reveal some impressive year-over-year gains. Based on the Metal scores that are available so far, the M4 Pro and M4 Max are up to...

Top Rated Comments

Gudi Avatar
15 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
15 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
15 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
15 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
15 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
15 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)