Apple debuts iPhone 16 designed for AI

New models of the Apple iPhone 16 are displayed after Apple's "It's Glowtime" event in Cupertino, California, today.

Apple on Monday unveiled a host of new technology that features some impressive updates the company hopes will convince customers to upgrade.

The company announced that the iPhone 16 would be the first model purpose-built for generative artificial intelligence, which will allow users to create text and images with a natural-language prompt. 

Apple unveiled the latest version of its AirPods and the new new Apple Watch 10.

Here are some of the highlights from the event:

An employee counts US dollar currency as a customer pays cash for an Apple iPhone 15 series phone for sale at The Grove Apple retail store on release day in Los Angeles, California, on September 22, 2023..

The newest iPhone 16 Pro Max will cost $1,199. That’s a hefty price tag on the surface, and would make it the most expensive iPhone Apple ever sold. But here’s the kicker: That’s before adjusting for inflation.

The iPhone X in 2017 cost $999, and back then that was the most expensive iPhone the Cupertino, California-based company sold. But when adjusting for inflation, the $999 iPhone X actually costs $74 more than the price of the new iPhone 16 Pro Max, according to Consumer Price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Additionally, when considering price changes to smartphones, the BLS doesn’t just look at how much cheaper or more expensive a phone got over time. Rather, the agency considers how much value upgrades, such as enhanced battery life, have added to the products relative to earlier versions. After taking that into account, smartphones currently cost consumers 8.2% less compared to a year ago, according to July CPI data.

The new Apple iPhone 16 Pro will cost $999 and the iPhone 16 Pro Max will be $1,199, the company announced Monday.

Both will be available for pre-order on Friday and in stores on September 20, it said. That’s the same dollar amount as last year’s model, the iPhone 15 Pro.

Apple showed off the latest version of its high-end iPhone Pro, designed for Apple Intelligence at its core.

The iPhone 16 Pro line is bigger by 0.2 inches than last year’s models: the entry-level Pro is 6.3 inches and the Pro Max is 6.9 inches, allowing users to see and do more on the display. Apple said the devices include the thinnest borders yet, feature the longest-lasting battery life on any of its iPhones, and comes in four colors: white titanium, darker titanium, natural titanium and a brown-colored desert titanium.

Apple’s custom built A18 chip is also designed “hand in hand” to support Apple’s new AI tools.

The device also lets you shoot in 4K resolution at 120 frames per second, with the ability to make the video slow-motion after recording a clip, rather than trying to grab the right setting as the action is happening. The Pro line is also getting an audio recording boost, including spatial audio with reduced background noise, enabling videos to pick conversations from the people centered in the video out from the ambient noise around them.

The new iPhone 16 will start at $799, the company said on Monday after unveiling its new artificial intelligence features.

The iPhone 16 Plus will start at $899.

Apple CEO Tim Cook walks on the stage during an announcement of new products at Apple headquarters Monday, Sept. 9, in Cupertino, California.

“Apple Intelligence” is artificial intelligence. But you didn’t hear the words “artificial” or “AI” coming out of the mouths of Apple’s leaders today.

Instead of “AI-powered,” CEO Tim Cook and others are referring to Apple’s “intelligent” features. That’s because Apple is one of the most brand-conscious companies on the planet, and it knows something that often gets lost in the bot-pilled bubble of Silicon Valley: Regular people don’t like AI.

Over the summer, a study published in the Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management found that describing a product as “AI-powered” tends to lower a customer’s intention to buy it.

It’s not hard to see why: Our interactions with chatbots and AI image generators have quickly taught us to be skeptical of their stilted, often flatly incorrect renderings. When something looks inauthentic, we now say it looks like it was generated by a bot. When we hear a politician fumble their stump speech, we quip that it sounds like ChatGPT wrote it. 

The always image-cautious Apple knows better than to fall into the “AI” trap, even if its whole pitch for the new iPhone is AI.

Apple revealed more details about its artificial intelligence offering what the company is calling “Apple Intelligence,” which is used in its new iPhone 16 model.

The features, which include writing tools that use AI to help draft emails and texts, will be included with the phone. Apple’s AI will also enable more natural conversations with Siri.

“Apple intelligence marks the start of a new era for Siri and makes it more natural, more contextually relevant and more personal to you with richer language understanding,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s SVP of software engineering.

Siri will now be able to pull from users’ text messages, meaning it can remind you of TV show and music recommendations sent by friends, said Federighi.

“You’ll be able to simply say, ‘Send Erica the photos from Saturday’s barbecue,’ and Siri will dig up the photos and send them right off,” Federighi said.

The company had already hinted at some of Apple’s new AI features in the past, including AI-generated custom emojis and more accessible photo-searching capabilities.

The new iPhone 16 will allow users to get information about things around them just by pointing their camera, the company announced.

The camera control feature, accessed with a button on the side of the phone, will give users access to “visual intelligence,” Craig Federighi, the senior vice president of software engineering, said on Monday.

For example, after clicking the camera control, a user can point the camera at a restaurant and the iPhone 16 will pull up information like reviews, the menu and how to make a reservation.

Federighi said this “visual intelligence” can also be used to identify things like dog breeds or landmarks and to add things to your calendar.

Apple also touched on its previously announced partnership with ChatGPT creator OpenAI to power some of these features. Federighi gave the example of using camera control to access ChatGPT to get help with homework.

Some context: Apple previously announced that the iPhone 16 would be the first model purpose-built for generative artificial intelligence, which would allow users to create text and images with a natural language prompt.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the iPhone 16 “marks the beginning of an exciting new era,” thanks largely to Apple Intelligence. But there are some physical changes coming to the hardware, too.

The new phones come in white, black, teal, aquamarine and pink. They’re also available in two sizes: 6.1 inches for the iPhone 16 and 6.7 inches for iPhone 16 Plus.

The 16 line also comes packed with new buttons. First, there’a a customizable Action Button, replacing the mute button and allowing users to do anything from translating a phrase on the fly or programing a shortcut, such as turning on the flashlight or opening a calendar. Apple is also adding a physical button for easy access to opening the camera, initiated by sliding a finger.

The iPhone 16 comes with 17% more system memory bandwidth to better support Apple Intelligence, a glass-ceramic screen that promises to be 50% tougher and 40% faster GPU than the previous model.

Apple’s new AirPods Pro model will come with a clinical-grade over-the-counter hearing aid feature, the company said, as well as a clinical hearing test that users can access on their iPhones.

“After you take a hearing test, your AirPods Pro are transformed into a personalized hearing aid, hosting the specific sounds you need in real time,” said Apple’s VP of Health, Sumbul Ahmad Desai.

Desai said Apple expects to receive clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration and other regulators soon, but the feature will be available in over 100 countries and regions, including the US, this month.

In addition to the hearing aid feature, the new AirPods Pro model will have other features that focus on hearing loss, including machine learning-powered hearing protection that reduces louder background noise.

The new AirPods 4 will cost $129 and AirPods 4 with the active noise cancellation feature will be slightly more expensive at $179, the company announced on Monday.

Both are available to pre-order now and will be available on September 20.

Apple unveiled the latest version of its base AirPods line that the company calls its “most comfortable” set yet, along with a handful of features that are typically found on its higher-end Pro model AirPods, like active noise cancellation and “transparency mode,” which enables users to hear the outside ambient environment.

Apple said the AirPods 4 were redesigned with advanced modeling tools to make the earbuds fit better into user ears. They also come with more control to play and pause music, start and end calls, and now include USB-C via the charging case.

Other upgrades include longer lasting battery life (now up to 30 hours of battery life) and an upgraded chip for richer listening experience.

Apple Watch Series 10 is also getting more advanced water tracking features.

The latest device, which can now go 20 feet underwater, features a water temperature sensor and a depth gauge. It also has specs specifically designed for snorkeling, such as direction and time spent underwater.

Other new features include a Tides app, which shows seven days of information for tides, coastline information, and sunrise and sunset times. For kayakers and rowers, a paddle logger app will monitor speed and give users haptic feedback to keep track of their route.

Apple’s new Series 10 watch will start at $399, according to the company.

It is now available to pre-order and will be available on September 20.

The newest Apple Watch will come with some new features, the company said at its hardware event on Monday, including a bigger face and new apps.

Here are some of the highlights:

Apple’s latest watch can detect sleep apnea, the company said Monday.

“Sleep apnea is a common condition in which your breathing stops and restarts many times while you sleep,” according to the National Institutes of Health, preventing people’s bodies from getting enough oxygen.

“One of the biggest challenges is that 80% of people with sleep apnea are undiagnosed,” said Apple’s VP of Health Sumbul Ahmad Desai. “To detect sleep apnea, Apple Watch uses the accelerometer to monitor a new metric during sleep called breathing disturbances.”

The feature is awaiting clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration, Desai said, and is expected to be available in over 150 countries and regions later this month.

Sleep apnea affects approximately 39 million US adults, according to the National Council on Aging. Snoring is a common symptom.

Previous iterations of the Apple Watch alerted users to Afib, a life-threatening irregular heartbeat.

Apple began the event by introducing its Apple Watch Series 10. The new model is the thinnest and has the Apple Watch’s largest-ever screen display, Jeff Williams, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, said.

“With a larger screen, you can increase the font size without sacrificing content and you can see an additional line of text in apps like messages, mail and news,” Williams said. The device is more energy efficient than the previous one as well, and charges faster.

The watch comes in a new polished titanium finish in jet black, along with rose gold and silver.

The Apple event kicked off with a pre-recorded video of CEO Tim Cook teasing what’s to come today: Apple watch, Air Pods and the iPhone.

He said the iPhone 16 will be the first mobile device built “from the ground up” to better support the company’s new AI software, Apple Intelligence.

Notably, he called Apple Intelligence a “personal intelligence” system, appearing to avoid using the term “artificial intelligence.”

Tim Cook speaks at the beginning of Apple's "Glow" event on September 9.

Apple’s annual hardware event is now underway. The company is expected to reveal the first lineup of iPhones purpose-built for generative artificial intelligence.

The company’s task during this event will be to show iPhone users what this kind of AI will look like in real life.

It comes as Apple needs to convince investors that it hasn’t fallen behind in the AI arms race, as rivals have already released similar features with the new technology.

Follow along for live updates or watch the live stream here.

A person looks at an Apple iPhone 15 Pro during a launch event at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, on September 12, 2023. 

Here’s a closer look at some of the previously announced iOS 18 updates we may learn more about later today:

Siri gets smarter. With Apple Intelligence, Siri will be able to answer questions using information from across multiple apps. For example, it could prep you for an upcoming meeting by telling you the time and location from your calendar, summarizing the prep document your colleague sent in an email and telling you the weather so you know how to dress.

AI-generated emojis. Apple Intelligence will make it possible for users to create their own emojis with text prompt in iMessage, as well as to generate non-photorealistic images to send in conversations.

OpenAI Partnership. In situations where OpenAI’s technology is better suited to answer a users’ question, Apple will let them opt-in to searching ChatGPT instead. The integration will work directly from their Apple device, even if a user doesn’t have a ChatGPT account.

Hidden apps. New privacy updates for iPhone will let users “lock” certain apps so only they can open them using Face ID, Touch ID or their passcode. Users can also “hide” apps so they don’t show up on their home screen and no media from those apps appear elsewhere across their system.

Real-time call transcripts. iPhone users will now be able to record and create transcripts of calls right from the phone app. All parties to the call will be notified when it is being recorded. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an announcement of new products on the Apple campus in Cupertino, California, on June 10.

At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the company announced some of the biggest things coming to its new AI platform, which it’s dubbed Apple Intelligence, this fall.

This includes enabling more natural conversations with Siri, helping to draft emails, making it easier to find specific moments in your photo albums and incorporating users’ personal information into its responses. The company’s task today will be to show iPhone users what that will look like in real life.

Under the hood, the iPhone 16 is also expected to get an upgraded processor to better handle a lot of these features without compromising battery life.

It’s also possible there could be some subtle changes to the appearance of the iPhone, such as a wider screen or updated edges, to further emphasize this a big year to upgrade.