Top Stories: Apple Event Recap With iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, Apple Watch Series 10, AirPods 4, and More

One of the busiest weeks of the year for Apple news has drawn to a close following Monday's event that saw the unveiling of new iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods models and Friday's start of iPhone pre-orders in dozens of countries around the world.

top stories 14sep2024
Read on below for the biggest announcements of this week as we take a brief break ahead of a flood of software updates early next week and all of the new hardware making its way into customers' hands a few days later!

Everything Apple Announced at Monday's Event in 13 Minutes

Apple's "It's Glowtime" event on Monday was a ~100-minute whirlwind of announcements, but we've condensed it down to a 13-minute highlight reel to give you a quick way to catch up on everything.

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We've also pulled together all of our news coverage from the big day in one place, so make sure to check it out and read up on your favorite Apple products that got some fresh updates.

Apple Announces iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max with Larger Displays, New Camera Control, and More

Apple on Monday announced the iPhone 16 Pro and ‌iPhone 16 Pro‌ Max—its latest flagship smartphones—featuring larger displays, an all-new Camera Control button, and the A18 Pro chip.

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The ‌iPhone 16 Pro‌ has a 6.3-inch display, while the ‌iPhone 16 Pro‌ Max features a 6.9-inch display—the biggest iPhone display ever. The borders around the display are the thinnest of any Apple device, while the titanium frame now features a new blasted finish and comes in a refreshed selection of color options: a darker Black Titanium, brighter White Titanium, Natural Titanium, and a new Desert Titanium.

Apple Announces iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus With Action Button, Camera Control, and More

Apple also announced the 6.1-inch iPhone 16 and 6.7-inch iPhone 16 Plus, with a key new feature being the Camera Control on the side of the devices. As rumored, the Camera Control is positioned below the power button, and you can control various features in the Camera app by pressing or swiping on it.

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Other features include the Action button introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro models last year, a "big boost" in battery life, brighter and more durable screens, Wi-Fi 7 support, and an A18 chip with up to a twice as fast 16-core Neural Engine for Apple Intelligence. The devices have color-infused back glass, with vibrant Ultramarine, Teal, Pink, White, and Black finishes available.

Apple Announces Thinner Apple Watch Series 10 With Bigger Screen Than Ultra

Apple at its event announced the Apple Watch Series 10, featuring a wide-angle OLED display that is larger than the Apple Watch Ultra's, with the company describing the new Series 10 as the "biggest display and thinnest design ever."

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The Series 10 is 9.7 mm thick, which is nearly 10% thinner than Series 9, and it weighs 20% less than the Stainless Steel Series 9. The Aluminum cases also weigh up to 10% less, while the Series 10 also comes in Grade 5 titanium, replacing stainless steel.

While we didn't get updated Apple Watch Ultra or Apple Watch SE models, we did get a new black finish for the Apple Watch Ultra 2, as well as an Apple Watch Hermès Ultra 2. Apple also introduced a new Titanium Milanese Loop for both colors of the Ultra.

Apple Unveils AirPods 4 With Two Models Featuring Improved Fit, USB-C, and More

As expected, Apple introduced two AirPods 4 models on Monday, a base model at $129 to replace the AirPods 2 and a higher-end model with Active Noise Cancellation and a case that supports wireless charging and features a speaker for Find My capabilities.

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Apple also revealed updated AirPods Max headphones at the event, but the only changes are new colors and a move from Lightning to USB-C for charging and connectivity. No other hardware updates are included.

iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, watchOS 11 and More Launching on September 16

With all of Apple's new hardware set to become available on Friday, September 20, the company is sticking to tradition and releasing its major new operating system versions a few days earlier.

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iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, watchOS 11, and more will all be available on Monday, September 16. It's important to note, however, that Apple Intelligence features will not be coming in this round of updates and will instead start rolling out in follow-on updates likely targeted for late October.

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!

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Top Rated Comments

AppleWorld787 Avatar
7 months ago
It was a pretty disappointing event ??
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThomasJL Avatar
7 months ago
[sarcasm]
I am so happy that Tim Cook released products which will benefit shareholders more than customers. It's much more important to maximize profits to make rich shareholders even richer than to maximize products' user-friendliness for customers like me.
[/sarcasm]
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
The.Outsider Avatar
7 months ago
Nothing felt right about the introduction to the iPhone 16 Pro... the lack of detail and most of all, the lack of features on launch day makes me truly think twice about buying it. I had my finger ready to press the preorder button, but now I'm thinking, I've never seen Apple act this way during an expo and act this way for a launch of an iPhone with this many features not ready on launch day. I used to work for Apple, we had ONE situation like this with Siri, but... that was it... and instead of launching the phone without it, it was pushed to October. But this... the entire gimmick at this point was to promote the power to boost AI which you'll only get in December... and the rest of the world... sometime next year... EU? Who knows... So again we're back to "OOOH LOOK AT THE CAMERA"... okay nice but now more features use AI and it's not ready for launch day? I wish I didn't have to buy a new iphone and could wait to the 17 but then, that's what I said when 13 came out, and kept saying it till we reached 16...

My best functioning iPhone that to this day despite it not being supported anymore, was the iPhone 8. Which iPhone do you feel was the most solid, problem free iphone you've ever owned?

Long story short, my history working for Apple, seeing them this way, truly makes me wonder what is going on behind closed doors, sadly I know some of it... but not all of it, so I'll just say... I wish the iPhone 16 gave me that "OH WOW" feel... it didn't... not this time. But I have an iphone 12... it's become useless... so I will update to the 16 either way. Just wish it was under better circumstances and better promotion.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vmistery Avatar
7 months ago
Well an S10 Watch is coming my way for sure to replace the S5, going to hold off on the iPhone as it sounds like the ram will get bumped next year on the pro.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
morningsong Avatar
7 months ago

In what way has it become useless (I’m asking because I’m still using an SE 2020 and wouldn’t mind upgrading to an iPhone 12 now that prices are coming down)?
Good question, I have an XR & an iPhone 12 (work).. Still love my XR, but it runs super hot at times, I feel like apple has a poison pill in one of the updates to do that...but my 12 is perfectly fine. Wondering what issues that poister is having.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tevosn Avatar
7 months ago
I think a bigger top story is FDA approves Apple AirPods Pro 2 to be used as hearing aids.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)