AirPods Pro 3: Now With Heart Rate and… Google Translate in Your Ear?
Apple kicked things off with AirPods Pro 3. The highlights:
Better noise cancellation (they always say this, but okay).
Live translation - AirPods can now help you talk to someone in another language while lowering background noise.
Heart rate sensing during workouts, so your earbuds are basically fitness trackers now.
More battery life (8 hours instead of 6).
Honestly? This is the coolest update of the event. I still can’t decide if “real-time translation in your ears” is the future like most tech companies try to suggest, So far it's slow and kind of annoying (waiting between each sentence to hear the translation really breaks up the flow of the conversation) But it's great tech nonetheless.
Apple Watch Series 11, SE 3, and Ultra 3: One Watch to Rule Your Blood Pressure
Apple Watches got their yearly refresh, which mostly means “shinier, thinner, lasts slightly longer.” But the standout feature is actually huge: blood pressure alerts. If it clears regulators, your watch might warn you about hypertension just by existing on your wrist.
Other bits:
New sleep score system to tell you how bad you are at resting.
Series 11 gets 24-hour battery life (finally).
Ultra 3 now has a massive display and 42-hour battery, plus satellite emergency features if you’re the kind of person who hikes into the void.
SE 3 gets an always-on display and faster charging.
iPhone 17: It’s a Phone, But Shinier
The “regular” iPhone 17:
6.3-inch display with ProMotion (finally 120Hz).
3,000 nits of brightness.
Ceramic Shield 2 (3x more scratch resistant).
New A19 chip, faster and more efficient (of course).
New 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide camera plus a wide front camera called “Center Stage” that auto-stabilizes your selfies.
It’s a nice upgrade if you’re on an iPhone 14 or earlier. If you’re on a 15 or 16? You’re probably fine.
iPhone Air: The iPhone That Went on a Diet
At just 5.6mm thin, the new iPhone Air is Apple’s thinnest iPhone ever. It’s made of titanium, has a gorgeous display, and runs on the A19 Pro chip (basically MacBook-level graphics in your pocket).
It also gets 40 hours of video playback with its redesigned MagSafe battery. That’s a flex.
But let’s be real: if it's thinner, that means compromises - less battery, smaller speakers, no optical zoom on the camera etc.…
iPhone 17 Pro: The Camera Nerd’s Dream
The Pro lineup is where Apple flexes. Highlights:
New vapor chamber cooling system (translation: it won’t melt during Genshin Impact).
Bigger batteries - 39 hours of video playback on Pro Max.
All three cameras are now 48MP Fusion cameras.
New Tetra Prism Telephoto with advanced stabilization.
ProRes RAW capture and Genlock (actual pro video tools).
If you’re a filmmaker or content creator, this phone is a beast. For the rest of us, it’s an expensive way to take slightly better cat photos.
The Big Picture
So what did Apple really announce? A handful of undeniably cool features (live translation in AirPods, blood pressure monitoring on Watch, pro-grade cameras on iPhone Pro), wrapped in the same design language and hype cycle we’ve been seeing for years.
If you’re a diehard Apple fan, this was Christmas morning. If you’re a lapsed fan like me, it was more like: “Yep, it’s an iPhone, it’s shinier, and yes, people will still camp outside the Apple Store for it.”.
Also, the obligatory “We had these features on android phones back in 2021”
Final thought
Apple’s iPhone 17 event wasn’t bad. It was just… Apple. Polished, flashy, and predictable. Depending on your perspective, that’s either comforting or boring.
Me? I’ll stick with my Android. But I’ll admit - those new AirPods look nice!.
