To the surprise of nobody, the focus of this week’s episode of the In the News podcast is the new products announced by Apple this week. First, we discuss the AirPods Pro 3. They seem to be a fantastic upgrade, improving everything about AirPods that matters and then going beyond that. Second, we discuss the three new models of the Apple Watch, especially the Apple Watch Ultra 3. And finally, we discuss the three new models of the iPhone. That includes a discussion of the impressive iPhone Air and the new features added to the iPhone 17 Pro models.
Instead of a traditional In the Know segment, Brett Burney and I instead discuss which of the new products that we purchased and why we did so. Spoiler alert: we definitely spent some money.
I’ve already discussed the new iPhone and new Apple Watch models announced by Apple this week. The third announcement from Apple this week was the new AirPods Pro 3. They improve everything that matters about AirPods. As noted by Raymond Wong of Gizmodo and Joe Rossignol of MacRumors, there are numerous changes. First, they are. made to fit your ear better, using foam-infused tips, five different silicone tip sizes, and a more compact size that fits better in your ears. Second, the active noise cancellation is twice as good. Third, the sound is better. Wong said they “sounded very clear with clean and deep bass, and crisp vocals.” Fourth, they can now last eight hours on a single charge (up from six hours). Fifth, there is improved sweat and water resistance with an ingress protection (IP) rating of IP57 (versus IP54 for AirPods Pro 2). Sixth, the new Ultra Wideband U2 chip makes it easier to find lost AirPods using the Find My app. Seventh, when you are working out, if you are not wearing an Apple Watch, you can use the AirPods Pro 3 to monitor your heart rate. And on top of all of that, these new AirPods Pro 3, as well as the current AirPods Pro 2, have a Live Translation feature, so if someone else is speaking in a different language, your AirPods will repeat what they are saying in your ear in English (or whatever your native tongue). These are incredible improvements to a device that many peopleālike me!āuse every day. You can pre-order them now for $249, and they go on sale a week from today. And now, the other news of note from the past week:
On his Spyglass website, M.G. Siegler compiled a good list of hidden features from Apple’s presentation this week.
Should you get an iPhone Air or an iPhone 17 Pro? Jason Snell of Six Colors offers some thoughts on how to make that decision. (I went for the iPhone 17 Pro Max with 1TB of storage, the Deep Blue color.)
Considering how thin the iPhone Air is, is there a danger that it might bend and break, such as when in a back pocket? Lance Ulanoff of TechRadar notes that he tried to bend it, and while it did bow a little, it bounced right back into shape, which is exactly what Apple designed it to do.
As noted by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, all of the new iPhones announced this week include a feature called Memory Integrity Enforcement, which protects the memory in an iPhone from attack by someone trying to break into an iPhone.
Andrew Cunningham of Ars Technica discusses the new N1 chip in the iPhone Air. That is the chip that provides Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread support, and it replaces a chip that Apple would typically purchase from Broadcom for the iPhone. The N1 chip is not used in the iPhone 17 or iPhone 17 Pro models, but I suspect that future versions of the N1 chip will eventually spread to all iPhone models.
When Apple released the iPhone 14 in 2022, Apple said that there would be no extra charge to connect to satellites for the first two years. Dan Moren of Six Colors notes that Apple has once again extended that free period for the iPhone 14 and 15 models. In other words, Apple is not yet charging anyone, using any iPhone model, for accessing satellites.
Why get an iPhone 17 Pro Max instead of an iPhone 17 Pro? Juli Clover of MacRumors notes four differences: (1) the larger display (6.9-inch instead of 6.3-inch), (2) more battery (e.g., 39 hours of video playback instead of 33 hours), and (3) the option to get 2TB of storage, although that brings the cost of the iPhone up to $1999.
Which new iPhone will Apple CEO Tim Cook use? Sam Schube of the Wall Street Journal reports that Cook said: “It will depend on how I feel.” He will pick up the iPhone Air whenever “I want to float through the air.”
Apple announced another new iPhone accessory this week: the $39 Dynamic Power Adapter. As explained by Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac, it is a 40W adapter, but it can go up to 60W to provide a faster charge for the iPhone Air or any of the iPhone 17 models.
Although AirPods Pro 3 can last even longer on a single charge than AirPods Pro 2, Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac notes that the overall battery life is less (24 hours instead of 30 hours) because there seems to be a smaller battery in the battery case.
Mayo also notes on Threads that a new change coming next week is that when you start a workout on your Apple Watch, your iPhone screen shows a Live Activity that can mirror what you are seeing on your Apple Watch (calories, distance, etc.). I guess this means that if you are on a treadmill, you could share that iPhone screen to a large TV that is in your line of sight to see your statistics while you are running without having to look down at your wrist? Interesting.
iOS 26, iPad OS 26, and Apple’s other operating system updates will be released on Monday, September 15. Juli Clover of MacRumors explains what to look for in watchOS 26.
Aaron Ritchie of PC Guide notes that with visionOS 26, your Apple Vision Pro can adjust the Prism value, which may mean that certain people with a vision impairment can use the device without wearing contacts. Note that this does not mean that you no longer need prescription lenses. Prism value (which corrects for eye misalignment) is only one factor of a glasses prescription. Other values include Sphere (which corrects for nearsightedness / farsightedness), Cylinder (which corrects for astigmatism), Axis (also used to correct for astigmatism), Addition (a magnification for reading glasses or bifocals), and Pupillary Distance (how far apart your eyes are). Having said that, it would be neat if, at some point in the future, a Vision device could correct for all of these values so that they could have the right prescription for all users without needing extra lenses. Maybe one day.
While the tech world is focused on Apple, the entertainment world is focused on the Emmys this Sunday. Lisa Richwine and Dawn Chmielewski of Reuters talked to a number of creative professionals to discuss what they like about working with Apple to create shows.
Callie Holtermann of the New York Times explains why many students are taking iPodsāyes, I said iPodsāto school to listen to music.
And finally, here is a video released by Apple this week (and shown during the Keynote on Tuesday) about how the Apple Watch has saved lives:
In addition to introducing three new iPhone models this week, Apple introduced three new Apple Watch models: the Apple Watch Ultra 3, the Apple Watch Series 11, and the Apple Watch SE 3. There are lots of new features in these new models, so this is a great time to buy a new Apple Watch.
Apple Watch Ultra 3
Apple introduced the Apple Watch Ultra in 2022 as an Apple Watch designed for an extreme active lifestyle, although many people also liked it because it was the Apple Watch with the most features, including the longest battery life. One year later, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 was introduced, and it added some very nice improvements, as I noted in my review. But Apple did not upgrade the Apple Watch Ultra line in 2024, except to add a new color, so fans of this model were eager for an updateāespecially since there were features in the Apple Watch Series 10 introduced in 2024 that were missing from the Ultra 2 as a result of there being no new Ultra in 2024. This year, Apple has settled all debts, bringing all of the latest features to the Apple Watch Ultra and adding some new features never before seen on an Apple Watch. As has always been the case, the Ultra is a great model for people who are roughing it in the great outdoors, but it is also a great watch to choose if you want an Apple Watch with the most of everything and you don’t mind having a much larger size to make space for all of those features.
The Apple Watch Ultra has always had incredible battery life. That’s why it is the largest Apple Watch model: it has more battery inside. This year, Apple has pushed it even further so that it has 42 hours on a single charge instead of 36 hours. Recharging is also improved. Going from 0% to 80% takes 45 minutes with the Ultra 3 (versus 60 minutes for the Ultra 2). Even more impressively, if you use a fast charger for only 15 minutes, you can get an additional 12 hours. Or if you charge for just five minutes, that is enough for eight hours of sleep tracking. So even if you use up the impressive battery life, it doesn’t take very long to make your Ultra 3 usable again. If lots of battery life is important to you, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is the best model for you to get.
Apple has also updated the radios in the Ultra, and this means that the Ultra 3 can communicate with satellites, the same feature that Apple added to the iPhone line in 2022 (the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro). If you are in the middle of nowhere, don’t have a cellphone signal, and don’t have an iPhone, you can call for help just using the Apple Watch Ultra 3. And you can also send text messages even when your cellular service is not working. You can also let someone track your location via satellite using the Find My app. And speaking of new radios, the Ultra 3 can also use 5G cellular.
One of the nice features of the Apple Watch Series 10, introduced last year, is a larger screen, made possible by reducing the size of the bezel. With the 46mm version of the Series 10 (which is the larger model), the screen size was 416 x 496 pixels (versus 396 x 484 pixels for the larger version of the Series 9). This year, Apple did something similar with the Apple Watch Ultra 3. The case size remains 49mm (44mm by 12mm), but the screen size increases from 410 x 502 pixels for the Ultra 2 to 422 x 514 pixels for the Ultra 3. Thus, by any metric, you get more usable screen on an Apple Watch Ultra 3 than any other model. The increase in screen size from the Ultra 2 to the Ultra 3 is not quite as dramatic as the increase in screen size from the Series 9 to the Series 10, but it is still nice to be able to see more on the watch.
Apple says on its website that the new bezel is 24% thinner. I don’t see a page on the Apple website that directly shows the screens on the Ultra 2 and the Ultra 3. However, someone on the MacRumors forums created this using two different images from Apple’s website to show the larger screen size:
Not only is there more screen to see, but it is easier to see. One of the improvements brought to last year’s Apple Watch Series 10 is a LTPO3 wide-angle OLED for the always-on Retina display. This means two things. First, the display is brighter when viewed at an angle. Second, the watch face can update more frequently when in low power mode, so even if the screen is dimmed, you can still see ticking seconds.
Although this is not a new screen featureāit was also present in the Ultra 2āit is notable that the Ultra 3 can get up to 3000 nits in brightness. (The Series 10 and new Series 11 go up to 2000 nits.) I know from when I previously used an Ultra 2 that this additional screen brightness makes a real difference when you are outside on a sunny day.
In 2023, Apple placed an S9 processor in the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the Apple Watch Series 9. In 2024, the Series 10 got the S10 processor. The S10 is not more powerful than the S9, but the S10 is single-sided, which means it takes up less space in the body of the watch. For the Series 10, it appears that Apple used that extra space to make the watch even thinner (a feature that I appreciate). The Ultra 3 also uses the S10 chip, but the body appears to be the same size as the Ultra 2. My guess is that Apple used the extra space for the radio that can communicate with satellites.
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 includes GPS and cellular, and it costs $799.
Incredible battery life and charging, a bigger display that is brighter and more funcational, and satellite communicationāplus all of the great features from past models like the Action button, durable case, the siren, a louder built-in speaker, better microphone, and watch bands designed for outdoor activitiesāmean that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 has more features than any other Apple Watch. The only feature available on another Apple Watch right now and not the Ultra 3 is a thin design on your wrist.
The Ultra 3 is certainly the model to get if you have an active lifestyle. But I know so many lawyers and other professionals who tell me that they love that the Ultra exists because they just want the best of everything, especially really good battery life. I really liked the Ultra 2 when I tried it last year, and I’m sure that I would like the Ultra 3 even more. But I made the decision last yearāit wasn’t an easy decisionāthat having a thinner and less bulky watch on my wrist was more important to me than the unique advantages of the Ultra. That’s the same decision that you will have to think about if you want to get one of the best versions of the Apple Watch: the Ultra 3 versus the Series 11.
Apple Watch Series 11
The Apple Watch Series 10 introduced last year looked different (and better) from earlier models because it had a larger screen and was the thinnest Apple Watch ever. The Series 11 keeps that same look.
If you compare the features of the new Apple Watch Series 11 to last year’s Apple Watch Series 10, there are only a few improvements. Nevertheless, they are nice ones.
First, the Series 11ālike the Ultra 3āhas improved battery life. It jumps from up to 18 hours on a single charge to 24 hours. If I start my day with a fully charged Apple Watch Series 10 and I make extensive use of my watch throughout the dayāsuch as doing a workout and using the cellular service when I’m away from my iPhoneāI will sometimes run out of power before I am ready to go to bed. It is rare for that to happen, but it does sometimes happen. With the extra six hours of the Series 11, I suspect that would never happen, so the additional up to 6 hours is a nice improvement.
Second, and like the Ultra 3, you can recharge for a small amount of time to get a noticeable result: 15 minutes will give you an additional eight hours, and give minutes will get you up to eight hours of sleep tracking.
Third, if you use the aluminum case version of the Apple Watch Series 11, Apple says that the new Iox-X glass is twice as resistant to scratches as the Series 10. (If you use the titanium case version, you get the same, durable sapphire crystal display as the Series 10.)
Fourth, the new cellular radio in the Series 11 supports 5G. (But not satellite connectivity.)
The Series 10 starts at $399 (GPS) and $499 (GPS + Cellular).
While the battery life and charging improvements are nice advantages over the Series 10, there isn’t much of a compelling reason to upgrade from a Series 10 to a Series 11. But if you are using an earlier Apple Watch model, the calculus changes quite a bit. The Series 10 was a very big update: larger screen, the thinnest Apple Watch ever, the ability to use the built-in speaker to play media, faster charging than prior models, and the option to upgrade to a very nice titanium case. If you are using an Apple Watch Series 9 or earlier, upgrading to the Series 11 gives you all of the new features added in the Series 10 and 11, which adds up to a very nice upgrade.
Apple Watch SE 3
The Apple Watch SE is the budget model. It starts at $249 (GPS) and $299 (GPS + Cellular) for the 40mm model, and $279 / $329 for the 44mm model.
You give up some features, but you pay less money. When the original SE was released is 2020, I considered it a decent alternative to the Series 6 except that you didn’t get an always-on display, which is a very nice feature. In 2022, Apple released the SE 2, and it did a decent job of catching up on some of the most important features, although it still lacked an always-on display.
This year, the Apple Watch SE 3 adds an always-on Retina display, just like what you get with the Series 11. It isn’t as nice a display; you don’t get the better LTPO3 wide-angle OLED, which, as noted above, improves viewing at an angle and allows the screen to display ticking seconds. And it isn’t as bright as the Series 11: 1000 nits instead of 2000 nits. But the display is still much better than what you got with the SE 2.
The SE 3 also gets the same S10 processor that is in the Series 11 and the Ultra 3, a big upgrade from the S3 processor used in the SE 2. For example, it means that this model can support the doube tap gesture (first added to the Series 9 in 2023) and the new wrist flick gesture (more on this below).
Battery life is up to 18 hours, which is the same as the SE 2. However, the SE 3 supports the same fast charging options as the Series 11, including 0% to 80% in only 45 minutes 15 eight hours of additional life after charging for only 15 minutes.
The SE 3 gains some sensors that have been around for a while in more expensive Apple Watch models but which were missing in the SE 2: nightly wrist temperature tracking and sleep apnea notifications. But it still lacks the ability to check your EKG/ECG, lacks the ability to check your blood oxygen level, and it cannot sense water temperature or depth. The SE 3 does have a heart sensor, but it is less sophisticated than what you get in the more expensive models.
The SE 3 also appears to have the same cellular radio as the Series 11, which means that it supports 5G in addition to LTE. And this is also the first SE model that supports media playback using the built-in speaker. However, it lacks the second-generation Ultra Wideband chip of the more expensive models, which makes it easier to find your Apple Watch using Find My.
Notable new features
In addition to the new features mentioned above that require you to purchase the 2025 versions of the Apple Watch, there are some notable new features coming not only to these three new models but also some of the older models. It is always nice to get significant new features without having to purchase new hardware.
ā¢ Hypertension Notifications. Hypertensionāchronic high blood pressureāis the leading modifiable risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease, and impacts approximately 1.3 billion adults around the world. Apple doesn’t have a specific sensor to check for high blood pressure. However, Apple has had an optical heart sensor on the Apple Watch since the original Apple Watch, and that sensor has improved over the years. If you own an Apple Watch, you can use the Research app on an iPhone to participate in various studies that look at data from your Apple Watch and ask you questions about your health. Apple says that by looking at this data from over 100,000 participants, it has figured out a way to correlate data from the optical heart sensor with hypertension. Apple then did a clinical study with 2,000 participants to validate the performance.
As a result, certain models of the Apple Watch will be able to alert you if the watch senses hypertension so that you will know that you should see a doctor. Apple believes that during the first year of this new feature, Apple is going to notify over 1 million people that they have undiagnosed hypertension.
The new hypertension notification feature will be available on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and 3, and the Apple Watch Series 9, 10, and 11.
ā¢ Sleep Score. The Apple Watch already had the ability to track your sleep. In watchOS 26, a new feature called Sleep Score assigns you an overall sleep quality score based on your sleep duration, bedtime consistency, how often you wake up, and how much time is spent in each sleep stage. The hope is that if you analyze your Sleep Score every night, you can figure out what to change in your lifestyle to get the best sleep.
The Sleep Score feature works on all models of the Apple Watch Ultra, the Apple Watch Series 6 through Series 11, and the Apple Watch SE 2 and SE 3.
ā¢ Wrist flick. With certain models running watchOS 26, you get a new wrist flick gesture. By just flicking your wrist, you can dismiss notifications, stop a timer, or silence an alarm, all without using your other hand. This will be especially useful if you are holding something or doing something with your other arm. This new wrist flick feature works on the Apple Watch Ultra 3, the Apple Watch Series 10 and 11, and the Apple Watch SE 3.
Conclusion
This is a big year at the high-end and the low-end of the Apple Watch. I know many people who use and love an Apple Watch Ultra or Ultra 2 and who were eager for an upgrade. Now they have that, and it is a great upgrade. On the other extreme, if you want the least expensive Apple Watch, the new SE 3 includes lots of features that used to only come with the more expensive models, like the always-on display.
The Series 11 is only a minor upgrade over the Series 10, but that doesn’t matter because most people wait many generations before they upgrade an Apple Watch. If you use a Series 9 or earlier, you will get a ton of new features if you get a Series 11.
Yesterday, Apple announced the 2025 models of the iPhone. For many years now, in the Fall, Apple has released an entry-level iPhone, a high-end iPhone Pro, and something in between. In 2020 and 2021, that in-between model was a smaller version of the entry-level iPhone: the iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 13 mini. In 2022 through 2024, that in-between model was a larger version of the entry-level iPhone called the Plus model: the iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 15 Plus, and iPhone 16 Plus. This year, that in-between model is the iPhone Air. It is the thinnest iPhone ever made, and it is the lightest iPhone since the iPhone 13 mini. Each of these new models has its advantages. If you are a lawyer or other professional and you are ready for an upgrade, the 2025 models of the iPhone look to be excellent.
iPhone 17
Most people opt for the entry-level iPhone because it has a good set of features at a nice price, and that remains true this year. This is not the cheapest iPhone; Apple is still selling the iPhone 16e, which was released earlier this year, starting at $599, and perhaps in early 2026, Apple will release an iPhone 17e. And the iPhone 17 is arguably a little more expensive than last year’s iPhone 16, depending upon how you look at it. The iPhone 16 was $699 for the 128GB model and $799 for the 256GB model; for the iPhone 17, there is no 128GB model, and the cheapest version, the 256GB model, costs the same as last year, $799. But the iPhone 17 is cheaper than the other models released yesterday and still has lots of great features.
Last year, you got a slightly smaller iPhone screen with the iPhone 16, 6.1 inches, whereas the iPhone 16 Pro had a 6.3-inch screen. This year, both the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Pro have a 6.3-inch screen. And it is a nice screen. Advanced features like an always-on display and ProMotion (which makes everything look smoother because the screen refreshes at up to 120Hz instead of 60Hz) now come in the entry-level iPhone 17 as well as the Pro model. And while the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models could increase the screen brightness to up to 2000 nits when outdoors, the iPhone 17 (and iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro) can go up to 3000 nits. This could be very useful when you are outside on a sunny day.
All of the 2025 models, including the iPhone 17, use Apple’s latest A19 chip, so everything can run a little faster and processor-intensive tasks like on-device AI can be even more responsive.
That new chip also helps to improve battery life. When playing back video, the iPhone 16 would last up to 22 hours, whereas the iPhone 17 can last up to 30 hours.
Just like the iPhone 11 through the iPhone 16, you get three camera lenses: the one on the front (the selfie camera) and two on the back (one normal, one Ultra Wide). But two of those cameras are now better. On the back, the Ultra Wide camera used to be 12 megapixels, but now, both of the back cameras are 48 megapixels. You cannot always say that a smartphone camera with more megapixels takes better pictures, but the move from 12 to 48 is substantial, so I have no doubt that this will be a nice improvement.
The front-facing cameraāthe selfie cameraāis also better in multiple ways. First, it is an 18 megapixel square camera instead of a 12 megapixel 4×3 camera. I don’t believe that you can actually take square pictures with this new camera. But what you can do is hold your iPhone in portrait orientation, making it easier to hold in your hand, and take a landscape photograph. And this camera really shines when combined with a new software feature: Center Stage. In the past, Apple has had Center Stage on certain Macs and iPads. It means that the camera can essentially “zoom in” on you, unless multiple people are in the frame, in which case it will “zoom out” to show everyone. You may start taking a selfie picture in the traditional portrait orientation mode, but then if others join you in the picture, the Camera app is smart enough to switch to a landscape orientation mode to keep everyone in the picture.
That better front-facing camera has another trick up its sleeve. If you are taking a video with a camera on the back of your iPhone, you can simultaneously take a video with the front-facing camera. Thus, not only can you have a video of your daughter shooting a three-pointer in a high school basketball game, but you can also film your reaction at the same time. (My daughter’s varsity basketball team just started practices for the 2025-26 school year, so you can understand why that is on my mind.) I want to learn more about how this works. Can I take video with both cameras but then choose only to use the video from the back camera, either some of the time or all of the time? We’ll have to see how it works, but it is an interesting idea. Note that this improved front-facing camera on the iPhone 17 is also used on the iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro models.
The iPhone 17 can also charge even faster than previous models. If you use the right adapterāsuch as Apple’s new 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Maxāyou can charge up to 50% in only 20 minutes. You can also use Qi 2.2 fast charging devices, which is the latest wireless charging standard that is just as fast as the latest version of MagSafe charging.
Just like the iPhone 16, you get an Action button and a Camera Control button.
The iPhone 17 comes in five colors: Lavender, Mist Blue, Black, White, and Sage.
In sum, the iPhone 17 is a very capable model. The nicer screen that used to only come with the Pro model is now available for this entry-level model, plus you get better cameras, better battery life, and other features that make this a better device. If you want a model that does a good job of handling your work tasks, like reading emails and documents (even when it is bright outside), and you just have basic needs for taking pictures, this is likely to be the model that you will want to get.
iPhone Air
If you are willing to pay an extra $200, you can get the iPhone Air instead of the iPhone 17. And the main reason that you would want to do so is to have the thinnest iPhone ever made.
How thin is it? Unlike the iPhone 17 (0.31 inch thick) or the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max (0.34 inch thick), the iPhone Air is only 0.22 inches. I look forward to holding one in my own hands to see how it feels, but this seems like a noticeably thinner iPhone.
One of the tricks that Apple used is that this model still has a plateau at the top. That is where the camera is housed, but Apple put a lot of other electronics in that part as well.
The thin size is the primary reason to spend an extra $200 for the iPhone Air over the iPhone 17, but there are other advantages as well. The device is a little bit taller and wider, which means that there is enough space for a 6.5-inch screen, just like the iPhone 17 Pro, whereas the iPhone 17 has a 6.3-inch screen.
You also get more durability: a frame made of titanium instead of aluminum, and it uses Ceramic Shield technology not only on the front of the iPhone (like the iPhone 17) but also on the back, making the back stronger and more resistant to cracks.
You also get a faster device. Like the iPhone 17 Pro, the iPhone Air uses the A19 Pro chip instead of the A19.
With the thin size, I expected far less battery life. Instead, there is only somewhat less battery life: 27 hours of video playback instead of 30 hours. Part of the reason for the surprisingly good battery life is that instead of using a Qualcomm modem (which is more powerful but more power hungry), Apple is using a modem it designed itself, called the C1X, which is more efficient.
Moreover, if there is a specific circumstance in which you want extra battery life, Apple has reintroduced the $99 MagSafe battery pack that I love so much, and this time it has a USB-C connector instead of Lightning. Keep that in your pocket or purse, pop it on when you need a boost, and Apple says that you can get another 65% of charge (so I suppose another 17 hours of video playback). Note that the new iPhone Air MagSafe Battery only works with the iPhone Air (it is too tall to fit below the camera bumps of other iPhone models), so I guess I’ll have to keep using my old model (with its Lightning connector) with my iPhone Pro.
The front camera on the iPhone Air is the same, improved front camera that you get with the iPhone 17. On the back, there is only a single camera, so you don’t get the Ultra Wide camera (which is useful not only when you want to zoom out and see more but also when you want a Macro camera).
The iPhone Air comes in four colors: Sky Blue, Light Gold, Cloud White, and Space Black.
For the past few years, you could pay a little bit more than the entry-level iPhone and get a “Plus” model with a larger screen that was otherwise the same. This year, if you pay more, you get an iPhone that has a somewhat larger screen but also a new, incredibly thin body. Plus, you get a little more power, a little more durability, and a surprisingly good battery that you can easily supplement with the new iPhone Air MagSafe Battery. The only downside, besides the additional $200, is that you don’t get the Ultra Wide camera, but I suspect that if the camera really mattered to you, you would be getting an iPhone Pro.
I’m sure that many people will want the iPhone Air because they want the best iPhone. Based on the early feedback I’ve seen from people who held one on Apple’s campus yesterday, it looks and feels great in your hand. On the other extreme, if you just want an iPhone to get your work done, the iPhone Air may still appeal to you because this thin, light model is less intrusive. I look forward to reading the review from folks who have lived with this model for a while, but I suspect that this model will be popular and have lots of fans.
One last note: I’m surprised that it is called the “iPhone Air” and not the “iPhone 17 Air.” When it is improved in the future, I guess the next model will be called the iPhone Air 2?
iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max
The iPhone Air is a substantially new design, but the Pro models also get a new design this year. I think it looks great, and it is very functional. Apple is using a heat-forged aluminum unibody enclosure that is optimized for performance and battery life. And it features a vapor chamber with deionized water sealed inside to move heat away from the A19 Pro chip. My current iPhone 16 Pro can get noticeably hot when it is doing processor-intensive tasks, and when an iPhone gets too hot, it has to throttle down performance. Hopefully, this new design will mean that the iPhone 17 Pro stays cooler in your hand and has sustained performance.
The new unibody design also improves durability. Plus, like the iPhone Air, the iPhone 17 Pro has a Ceramic Shield on the back and the new Ceramic Shield 2 on the front, all of which should be more resistant to cracks and scratches.
The iPhone 17 Pro has a 6.3-inch screen. With the iPhone 17 Pro Max, you get a 6.9-inch screen. Those are the same screen sizes as last year’s iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. However, Apple says that these new screens have better anti-reflection.
The processor in the new Pro models is the new A19 Pro, the same chip used in the iPhone Air. But the Pro models are slightly better because they have a 6-core GPU versus the 5-core GPU on the iPhone Air. How much of a difference that makes in real life remains to be seen.
I like to take pictures and videos, so a major reason that I pay more for a Pro model is the better cameras. Last year, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max featured three cameras on the back: a 48MP (megapixel) Ultra Wide camera (for 0.5x), a 48MP Fusion Main camera (for 1x and 2x), and a 12MP Telephoto camera (for 5x). This year, the main camera stays the same. The Ultra Wide camera now gains “Fusion,” which is the term Apple uses when the camera takes both a 12MP picture (to maximize light capture) and a 48MP picture (to capture fine detail) and then fuses those into a single 24MP image. In other words, photos that you take with the 0.5x lens should be better with this model.
Instead of last year’s 5x camera, this year there is a 4x camera. But that’s not a step down; it’s actually a step up. That’s because the telephoto camera on the iPhone 16 Pro was only a 12MP camera. The new iPhone 17 Pro telephoto camera is a 48MP camera. What this means is that the iPhone can use all 48MP to give you a 4x zoom, or can focus on just the 24MP in the middle to give you an 8x zoom. Yes, it is true that is cropped from the 4x image, but the 8x 24MP photo should be a step up from last year’s 5x 12MP photo. I often find it very useful to have a zoom lens. A zoom lens that is both better quality (48MP or 24MP versus 12MP) and a higher magnification (8x versus 5x) sounds great to me, and I cannot wait to try it out. The range from 0.5x to 8x is 16x, so you get a ton of flexibility on how you want to frame your shot.
Apple says that the 8x mode is equivalent to a 200mm focal length. Before I shifted to the iPhone for virtually all of my photography, I previously used a Nikon DSLR camera, and I really loved Nikon’s Superzoom lens, which went from 18mm to 200mm. When David Pogue was writing for the New York Times, he would frequently praise that lens, such as in this article from 2007. While I enjoy the 5x zoom on my iPhone 16 Pro (120mm equivalent), going up to 8x (200mm equivalent) seems like a substantial improvement. Of course, with that much zoom, it will be even more important to hold the camera very steady, but Apple has always done a great job with image stabilization software, and I’m sure that Apple has incorporated that into the 8x mode.
The Pro models also give you the best battery life. For example, video playback on last year’s iPhone 16 Pro was 27 hours, and last year’s iPhone 16 Pro Max was 33 hours. The new iPhone 17 is 30 hours. The new iPhone 17 Pro is 33 hoursājust like last year’s Pro Max. And the new iPhone 17 Pro Max is 39 hours. Other tasks will result in different battery life, of course. I know that whenever I take 4K HDR video of my daughter playing basketball and she has multiple games in a single day, it can eat up a lot of my battery on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. With an iPhone 17 Pro Max, I should be able to do more without running out of battery life.
When you do need to recharge, if you use a 40W adapter, you can charge up to 50% in only 20 minutes. (Last year’s iPhone 16 Pro could use a 20W adapter to charge up to 50% in 30 minutes.)
And you get other various advantages with this Pro model. It has more memory than ever before. Just like last year’s model, the iPhone 17 Pro has USB-C that supports USB 3, allowing up to 10 gigabits per second transfer speed (if you use a cable that supports that speed). That can make it much faster to transfer video or other large files to and from the iPhone. And if you need tons of space for those large files, you can get a version of the iPhone 17 Pro Max with 2TB of capacity. That costs $1999, so it is the first iPhone to ever cost (essentially) $2000, but if you need to keep a ton of files on your iPhone, now you can do so. My current iPhone 16 Pro Max is the 512GB model, and I love being able to load it up with anything that I might wantāwhether it is a very large file associated with a lawsuit or tons of home videos that I might want to view or share with others. But I’m currently getting close to that 512GB limit, so I’m currently weighing whether to spend $1399 for the iPhone 17 Pro Max 512GB model or $1599 for the 1TB model.
As an Apple Vision Pro user, I like that my current iPhone can record spatial video at 1080p and 30fps, but I had hoped for something more in the iPhone 17 Pro, such as spatial video at 4K. But unfortunately, that wasn’t changed this year.
The iPhone 17 Pro models come in three colors: Silver, Cosmic Orange, and Deep Blue. Many people will love the new orange color because it is so different from all prior iPhones. Since 2008, I’ve been purchasing black iPhones, and for the first time, I’ll need to select a different color this year. I think I’m going to get the Deep Blue.
The Phone 17 Pro has 256GB and starts at $1,099. That is $100 more than the cheapest iPhone 16 Pro, but that model had only 128GB, and it is the same price as the 256GB iPhone 16 Pro. The iPhone 17 Pro Max also starts at 256GB, which costs $1,199.
If you want the most performance, the best battery life, and the best cameras, the iPhone 17 Pro or Pro Max is the model to get.
Conclusion
This is the strongest iPhone lineup that I’ve seen in a long time. There is so much to love here: a fantastic entry-level model, a great new thin design with the iPhone Air, and two powerful Pro models. Choice is a good thing, but I’m sure that many will have difficulty choosing between models. Pre-orders start this Friday, September 12, and these models will be available in stores one week later on September 19.
Like many of you, Brett Burney and I are wondering what Apple will announce on Tuesday. As we look for hidden meaning in Apple’s invitation to that event, we look at prior invitations and the hidden messages that were sometimes contained in them. After that vigorous Kremlinology, we discuss ways that the upcoming iOS 26 can protect your privacy, the new iPad app from Instagram that was 15 years in the making, the new app from I’m-not-practicing-law-anymore-and-the-rest-of-us-are-a-little-jealous David Sparks, AirPods and Find My, spreadsheets, internet outages, taking a break from the iPhone, Apple Arcade, and more. We also discuss the Apple Vision Pro, CarPlay Ultra, and the upcoming new season of Slow Horses.
In our In the Know segment, Brett talks about installing and uninstalling iOS betas. I provide tips for coming up with good names for the objects in your home–at least, the ones that are connected to smart home devices. If you want to give cute names to any other objects, you are on your own.
Sometimes, good things come to those who wait. Other times, well… As John Gruber of Daring Fireball notes, the Instagram app first shipped in 2010, the same year that the iPad debuted. It has taken 15 years, but Instagram finally noticed that iPads exist and updated its app to support the iPad. But the Instagram app is different on the iPad. The default view, what you see when you start the app, is Reels, not the pictures from the people you follow. And the default view is not even videos from the people who follow, but instead just the random videos that the algorithm thinks that you might want to see. It’s like the company thought that it was releasing an iPad app for TikTok instead of Instagram. I’ve already heard people say that it would have been better if they had kept it the same as before, where you could use the app on an iPad in iPhone mode. But have no fear, I’m sure that they will fix this in, umm, maybe in 2040? And now, the news of note from the past week.
“Awe Dropping” is the tagline for Apple’s September 9 iPhone announcement event. Is there any hidden meaning in there? To try to figure that out, Alex Blake of Macworld takes a look back at the teasers for every prior iPhone announcement, starting in 2007.
If you are watching the show Dexter: Resurrection, currently streaming on Paramount+, then you saw an episode this season in which someone is able to track the location of a car by intentionally leaving their AirPods in the car. That would definitely work. AirPods are a little expensive as a tracking device, but for someone who is up to good, they may be easier for a victim to overlook than a dedicated tracking device like an AirTag. In an interesting article for Six Colors, Glenn Fleishman discusses how to remove tracking from AirPods, an issue that arose when someone bought a used AirPods Max from Amazon but learned that they could still be tracked by the prior owner, who didn’t disable Find My before selling the device.
I’m a big fan of the relatively new Anker charging devices that feature screens on them so you can get all sorts of useful information, such as how much power is going in and out. The Anker Laptop Power Bank (my review) has become an essential item for me, and it is currently only $94.99 on Amazon. Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that Anker has announced new products in its Anker Prime lineup that provide lots of different charging options, all of which feature a useful display.
Microsoft Excel is the #1 spreadsheet program, and it is more powerful than Apple’s Numbers app. Nevertheless, there are some features that work better in Numbers. William Gallagher of AppleInsider compares these two spreadsheet apps.
Apple recently announced that it has now shipped over 3 billion iPhones. Based on that number and other historical data, Horace Dediu of Asymco was able to estimate the sales numbers over time and create some interesting charts.
David Sparks of MacSparky released his first app. It is called The No List, and it helps you to track the occasions when you turned down a project as a way to help you distinguish opportunities that are worthwhile from those that are not. It is an interesting idea. In this post, he explains the thinking behind the app and how he created it.
I use Eero devices (my review) to provide mesh WiFi throughout my house. I virtually never have any issues with the Eero units, but it is frustrating that my internet connection sometimes stops because of issues with my Internet provider (Cox). Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that a new product called Eero Signal gives you a cellular backup for whenever your wired internet is down. It appears that the product costs either $99.99 for 4G LTE or $199.99 for 5G, and then you also need to pay for a data subscription that costs either $99.99/year for 10GB of data each year or $199.99/year for 100GB of data each month. You will be able to buy it on Amazon, and I’m thinking about it.
Dan Moren of Six Colors notes that it was almost six years ago (September 19, 2019) when Apple launched its Apple Arcade service: pay one subscription price to get lots of games. Although Moren is right to question how deeply committed Apple is to games, I’ve actually been impressed by Apple Arcade over the years. Now to be fair, I play very few games on my iPhone and iPad, but I like that there is always something new to try in Apple Arcade. For example, just this week, Apple released a new title called Jeopardy! Daily, a daily puzzle game with clues written by the folks who make the Jeopardy! TV show, and I think that the game is fun. And some older titles that I still enjoy playing are Flipflop+ and Good Sudoku+. Apple Arcade is part of the Apple One service, and it is certainly a part of the reason that I consider Apple One to be worth paying for.
Steven Rosenbush of the Wall Street Journal reports that while the Apple Vision Pro is currently too expensive for many consumers at $3,500, there are certain businesses where the device is gaining traction. I don’t think that law is one of those right now, but I see tons of potential for lawyers in the future using a next-generation version of the Vision Pro.
There will soon be twice as many options to get Apple’s new CarPlay Ultra, in the sense that two is twice as many as one. When Apple announced CarPlay Ultra earlier this year, the only car to support it was an expensive model from Aston Martin. But Paul Horrell of Top Gear reports that Hyundai will launch a new small EV car, the Ioniq 3, on September 9 at the IAA Mobility car show in Munich, Germany, and it will include CarPlay Ultra.
It could be even more than that. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac reports that it is possible that other car manufacturers may make the same announcement in Munich. It is interesting that the Munich car show begins on September 9, the same day as Apple’s new iPhone announcement.
And finally, this week, Apple released the trailer for Season 5 of the fantastic Apple TV+ show Slow Horses. The first four seasons were incredible, and this trailer makes me think that the next season will be just as much fun. The new season starts on September 24.
As St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital says: “Childhood cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease for children under the age of 14. When St. Jude opened in 1962, childhood cancer was largely considered incurable. Since then, St. Jude has helped push the overall survival rate from 20% to more than 80%, and we won’t stop until no child dies from cancer.” And as the late entertainer Danny Thomas (founder of St. Jude) famously said: “No child should die in the dawn of life.”
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. For the fourth consecutive year, iPhone J.D. is proud to join the community that is working with the Relay podcast network to raise money for St. Jude. You know this community. You are part of it, too. This is the community of people who have enough of an interest in technology to read tech-related websites and listen to tech-related podcasts. And this is a community that, over the last few years, has come together to raise over $4 million to help cure and treat cancer.
Donating is simple. I just did it. Simply go to the page, click the big green DONATE button, decide if you want to select a Reward (that part is optional), then checkout and pay.
Some rewards are directly related to St. Jude. For example, a donation of $50 or more can help provide art supplies for St. Jude patients, allowing them to explore their creativity and have fun. Two rewards are specific to the Relay network, and you can get things like stickers and a digital screensaver. Additionally, I am offering a special, limited-edition reward for iPhone J.D. readers: high-quality microfiber cloths featuring the iPhone J.D. logo, which I have previously given away on rare occasions in the past. If you donate at least $100, you may select this as your reward. These cloths are excellent for cleaning iPhone or iPad screens, and I personally use one daily to clean my eyeglasses. This is a limited-time offer, as I do not have many left, and the manufacturer is no longer in business.
Whether you donate $5 or $500, your donation will make a meaningful difference. A special thanks to those of you who contributed in the past and will contribute again this year!
This weekās episode of the In the News podcast was recorded on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, so I share a few thoughts and stories about that to start us off, including some that are quite positive. Next, we look to the future. Specifically, September 9, when Apple will announce the 2025 version of the iPhone along with other new devices. We also discuss the history of Appleās successful relationship with the advertising folks at TBWA, a reason that AppleCare One may not be for you, using the Invites app to count down the days to an event, a new camera app from Adobe, what to do about the increase in iPhones being inspected by customs agents when anyone enters the United States notwithstanding any confidential information that might be on that device, and how the shutdown of the TypePad service serves as a warning to all of us.
In our In the Show segment, we discuss Apple sharing the excellent show Trying with the BBC and the upcoming Apple TV+ limited series Savant.
In our In the Know segment, Brett shares a fun tip for changing the avatar when you are using the Google Maps app to navigate a route. And I explain what it means when you see a status icon at the top of your iPad that Apple doesnāt identify on its support page devoted to status icons.
It is now official. Apple announced this week what some of us have suspected for a long time: on September 9, 2025, at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, Apple will have a big event. And we all know what an Apple event in September means: the introduction of this year’s version of the iPhone. The graphic that Apple is using for the event is interesting, and you can see it right now at the top of the Apple website. It is a glowing, fluid, Apple logo. If you move your cursor over the logo (or, on a touch device like an iPhone or iPad, if you touch the logo), you can move the heat map effect around on the Apple logo. I suppose this animation is a sort of a nod to the new Liquid Glass interface that is coming in iOS 26. There are lots of rumors on what Apple might announceāan iPhone with a camera bump that stretches across the entire top of the back of the iPhone, a version of the iPhone that is very thin and that might be called the iPhone Air, a case from Apple made from a new fabric, lanyards that work with that new case, and moreāand we will all know for sure in 11 days. And now, the news of note from the past week:
In an article for Six Colors, Joe Rosensteel discusses a new iPhone app from Adobe called Project Indigo. Adobe calls it an experimental camera app, and as Rosensteel shows, it sometimes can produce a picture with color that is more true-to-life.
The free Invites app for the iPhone from Apple gained a new feature this week. As noted by Zac Hall of 9to5Mac, create an event in the app, and then you can put a countdown widget on your home screen so that you can count down the number of days until an important event. It’s a great way to know how many shopping days you have before Christmas or how many days you have before your current iPhone starts to seem like yesterday’s news, starting on September 9.
Andrew O’Hara of AppleInsider reviews the latest generation of the Level Lock Pro, a smart lock for a door that works with Apple Home and the Home Key feature. This product looks to be feature-rich while not looking at all like a smart lock.
I’m a fan of the new AppleCare One program, which allows you to protect three or more of your devices under one plan. It is cheaper than what I used before and offers more protection. But John Siracusa notes in a post on Mastodon that the service doesn’t work on a Mac if you have multiple user accounts enabled. For now, only use the service with products on which there is only a single Apple account enabled. Jason Snell notes that this seems to be “another reminder that Apple launches all sorts of products without anything but a surface consideration of the Mac.”
Matt Burgess of Wired reports that smartphone searches by U.S. Customs and Border Protection when people enter the United States are now at a record high. These searches do not require a warrant, and anyone can be subject to smartphone search, regardless of whether they are a U.S. citizen. This practice is particularly problematic for attorneys who have confidential and privileged information on an iPhone, as I have discussed in the past.
At the end of 2024, I decided to move this website from TypePad to the WordPress platform. After 16 years and 2,608 posts, it was a long and difficult transition, and I needed to hire an expert to help me with a lot of the technical details. After a few months, the transition was finally complete. This week, TypePad announced on its blog that the service is shutting down completely on September 30, 2025, as reported by Andrew Cunningham of Ars Technica. As a result, all existing TypePad websites have to move or they will be gone forever. I feel bad for all of the people who now have to accomplish in just a few weeks what took me a few months.
Apple is trying something new with one of its Apple TV+ shows. As reported by Max Goldbart of Deadline, Apple has sold rights to the first three seasons of the show Trying to the BBC. This is the longest-running comedy on Apple TV+ (with four seasons already and a fifth season in the works), and it is a fantastic show that my wife and I have enjoyed. I suppose that Apple hopes that if people watch the first few seasons for free on BBC, they will subscribe to Apple TV+ to see the rest of the series.
Nancy Tartaglione of Deadline reports that Apple’s F1 movie (my review) is not just Apple’s most successful movie ever, it is also the top-grossing movie for Brad Pitt, with over $600 million in revenue.
And finally, Apple released the trailer this week for a new eight-part limited series called The Savant. It features Jessica Chastain as an undercover agent who tries to stop domestic terrorism attacks, and it looks like it could be good. The first episode comes out on September 26, 2025. Here is the trailer:
Brett and I begin this weekās episode of the In the News podcast with a quick PSA on a recent security update, and then we discuss Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who recently declared to CBS News that he is the happiest person alive. He certainly does a lot to try to make other people happy. Next we discuss a device that has made a lot of people happyāAirPodsāincluding ways to make them more comfortable in your ears and the amazing details on how they work. Next, we discuss using passkeys instead of passwords, the cost of Apple TV+, the benefits of being an Apple One subscriber, how an Apple Watch might help you detect a brain tumor, and the latest immersive environments for the Apple Vision Pro including a really cool one with a Harry Potter theme. We also discuss the Action Mode in the iPhoneās camera app.
In our In the Know segment, Brett shares some a tip for using the wonderful Live Photo feature in the Camera app, and I explain why you should consider using Appleās Final Cut Pro app for the iPadāeven if only for a month.
