A few years ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook remarked in an interview for Popular Mechanics:"I think that when we look back one day and ask, what's been Apple's greatest contribution, it will be in health." Earlier this week, along with introducing the new iPhone and new Apple Watch, Apple announced a new health feature coming to a current product. The AirPods Pro (2nd generation) introduced by Apple two years ago, which Apple is now calling AirPods Pro 2, is gaining the world’s first all-in-one hearing health experience. First, you will be able to use these AirPods and an iPhone to conduct a clinical-grade hearing test. The test takes about five minutes and will tell you your hearing loss in each ear. The test even produces an audiogram that you can share with a healthcare provider. Second, using the personalized hearing profile created by performing the hearing test, you can use these AirPods as a clinical-grade hearing aid, boosting the sounds around you in real-time to make it easier to hear people and your environment. The FDA announced yesterday that it gave its approval to what it called "the first over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid software device." Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac remarked that this feature is going to challenge social norms. Traditionally, when people have seen you wearing AirPods, they likely assumed that you were listening to music instead of them. But in the future, wearing AirPods could indicate just the opposite: that you are trying to hear them better than ever. Indeed, some people who were concerned about a social stigma associated with wearing traditional hearing aids might be more interested in instead wearing AirPods. Christopher Null of Wired notes that you can even use these AirPods as hearing aids during phone calls and streaming media, which no other hearing aids can currently do. Dulan Lokuwithana of Seeking Alpha reported that traditional hearing aid stocks fell on the news of Apple entering this market. I think it is great for Apple to add this new health feature, especially since many folks will not even need to purchase a new product to take advantage of the feature. And now, the other news of note from the past week:
- As of 5am Pacific / 8am Eastern today, Apple started taking pre-orders for the iPhone 16 models. They will be available for delivery as soon as one week from today, or you can buy one in an Apple Store starting a week from today.
- When I discussed the new iPhone 16 models, I noted that they can charge using MagSafe faster than ever—up to 25W. Tim Hardwick of MacRumors says that the new iPhone 16 models also support faster charging using the USB-C port: up to 45W.
- Jovana Naumovski of Gadget Hacks identifies 22 features that you get on the new iPhone 16 models but don't get on earlier iPhones.
- In an article for Six Colors and Macworld, Jason Snell—who had a chance to try the new iPhones this week—says that the new Camera Control button on the iPhone 16 models is Apple at its best.
- Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac discusses the three reasons to select an iPhone 16 Pro or Pro Max over the iPhone 16 or 16 Plus: battery life, bigger and better display, and camera advantages.
- When Apple debuts Apple Intelligence starting next month, much of the processing will be done on your own iPhone to keep things private and secure, but sometimes it will need to access an online Apple server. Apple has taken pretty incredible steps to maintain the privacy and security of those servers, as noted by Apple executive Craig Federighi in an interview with Lily Hay Newman of Wired.
- Years ago, Apple purchased the cellular model division of Intel and has been trying to come up with its own product to be used in the iPhone. For now, however, Apple continues to use modems sold by Qualcomm. Wesley Hilliard of AppleInsider says that the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max models use the Snapdragon X75 modem, which can apparently download up to 26% faster using 5G.
- Although Apple introduced a new Apple Watch Series 10 this week, Apple is also about to add new features to the current Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. Hartley Charlton of MacRumors discusses what is coming via a software update, including the ability to playback music and podcasts via the built-in speakers—a feature that I have wanted to have since the original Apple Watch.
- Perhaps my all-time favorite Apple Watch band has been the Milanese Loop, and I have been wearing one regularly since 2015. This week, Apple introduced a titanium version of the Milanese Loop along with 33 new color options to 13 of its existing Apple Watch bands, plus new bands from Hermès, as noted by Hartley Charlton of MacRumors.
- John Voorhees of MacStories identifies all of the small things that Apple announced this week.
- This week, Apple updated the AirPods Max to support USB-C instead of Lightning. (Strangely, Apple did not make other changes to that device, such as ardrd a newer chip to support features available on other AirPods models.) Joe Rossignol of MacRumors looks at what products Apple is still selling that continue to use the Lightning port. There isn't much left.
- iOS 18 will come out on Monday. Matthew Cassinelli counts 261 new features.
- When I purchased my Apple Vision Pro, I knew that I would want a case to protect it, so I purchased the $199 Apple Vision Pro Travel Case, thinking that it would be the best one. While there is much that I like about that case, I don't like that it is so big. David Sparks of Macsparky reviews the $159 / $179 Waterfield Shield Case for Vision Pro, which is much more compact, and he is a fan. If I had to do it over again, I think I would purchase this Waterfield case over the Apple one because a smaller case would be easier to pack inside of a knapsack when I travel.
- In an interview yesterday on the CNBC show Squak Box, Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance said that it is "pretty sick" that, according to him, Apple benefits from Chinese slave labor, and also criticized Apple for not paying American workers a fair wage. Mike Wuerthele and Malcolm Owen of AppleInsider fact-check those statements, explaining why JD Vance is wrong and why these incorrect allegations are unfair.
- And finally, Apple created a video called More Personal Siri to show a feature of the new Siri with Apple Intelligence that I would love if it actually worked this easily. (Hopefully, it does!) The video features Bella Ramsey, one of the stars of the HBO show The Last of Us, who is also well-known for playing Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones. She did another Apple Intelligence video called Email Summary, but I don't think that video works as well—and indeed, that feature of Apple Intelligence doesn't impress me as much. A third one called Custom Memory Movies is also pretty good, but the More Personal Siri one is the best:
