Today was Apple’s annual iPhone event “It’s Glowtime” and here is a brief recap of everything that was announced.

Apple kicked off the event by introducing brand new AirPods 4. Featuring an updated design, these are the latest versions of the standard AirPods. Nothing too fancy here, but improved sound with the H2 audio make a solid entry level AirPods option for $129. 

Next, there was a second, upgraded AirPods 4 model announced that adds Noise Cancellation, Transparency mode and Conversation Awareness. The upgraded model will run $179 and both versions will go on sale September 20th.

Also, the most expensive but still amazing AirPods Max got a slight, slight update. AirPods Max get a selection of new colors and make the switch to USB-C from Lightning. They will also be getting a software update later this year to enable Personalized Spatial Audio. They have the same pricing at $549 and also go on sale September 20th.

AirPods Pro 2 are getting a free software update that adds a hearing test, hearing protection and hearing aid mode. It’s especially nice to see this coming to existing hardware instead of just being AirPods Pro 3.

Next up, we moved on to the Apple Watch Series 10. This year we’re getting a thinner design and a larger screen. How large you ask? Apple claims that it’s larger than the Ultra 2. Another part of the Series 10 redesign is the new speaker system, which for the first time can play music and podcasts directly. The highlight new feature is Sleep Apnea detection. Apple mentioned it builds a profile over multiple nights of your sleep patterns. The Series 10 can also measure water temperature and includes a depth gauge. If you loved your iPhone 7, get pumped because you can even get Series 10 in a Jet Black finish this year! Like everything else, Apple Watch Series 10 will be available September 20th starting at $399. 

The Ultra 2 and Apple Watch SE did not get refreshed today, although the Ultra 2 did get a new darker color option which looks really nice.

Moving on to the main course, the iPhone 16. The iPhone is all about Apple Intelligence this year. Most of the features seem to be in service of AI, which I’m not tore up about. Apple needs to be making inroads in this market and they need to have a presence. I’m glad to see them keeping up with the tech world in this regard while still maintaining their focus on privacy and security. As usual the camera also got some love - the standard iPhone 16 now records spatial photos and videos, and features the new camera button. This button sits where the 5G antenna cutout used to be on the right lower side. This button is touch sensitive, allowing the user to slide back and forth on it and also depress it half way. It automatically will open the camera from anywhere in the system so you can always capture the moment. The sales pitch is impressive. The camera experience on the iPhone is getting very close to entry level DSLR, which is frankly amazing. 

The iPhone 16 Pro contains all of that, plus a little extra power. In addition to some more juice in the A18 Pro compared the regular old A18, the Pro phones gained some real estate this year, with their screens growing to 6.3” and 6.9” respectively. The smaller Pro iPhone also inherited the 5x zoom lens from its older sibling. Since I’m always going for the smaller Pro, and it’s nice this year that both Pro phones have the same feature set. If you buy a Pro Max you will get higher base storage (256gb vs 128gb) and a bigger screen - that’s it.

For most people, these updates are so incremental that it just doesn’t matter anymore. You just upgrade when your phone plan (or wallet) tell you to - or when you break your phone. I don’t think Apple did anything majorly exciting here today. I’m going with a regular Pro 16 because after all - this is my year.