Apple Announces New iPhone 17 Air Alongside Other iPhone 17 Models, Apple Watches and AirPods Pro 3

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let's talk about the new iPhones and Apple Watches that Apple announced today. 

So today Apple announced a whole new lineup of Apple Watch models and iPhones. But they started by talking about the AirPods Pro. They announced a new model, the AirPods Pro 3, that has a few new features. One is that the noise cancellation is supposed to be twice as good as the AirPods Pro 2 and four times as good as the original AirPods Pro. There is also a smaller design and it comes with five different sets of tips to try out for a better fit. There is also improved battery life and a new feature that helps you translate live. You can hear somebody talk in one of the other supported languages and it will speak in your ear in your language. It's doing that through the iPhone, of course. It even has a mode where you can talk and then it will show text in that other language on your iPhone for them to see. 

So the new AirPods Pro 3 will just be the same $249 price and it will be available next week. You can preorder on Friday. 

Now, Apple announced a whole new lineup of Apple Watches. Previously we had the series 10. Now we're up to Series 11. So Series 11 features better scratch resistance. You can now get a 5G connectivity chip inside. It has improved Health Centers so it can detect things like hypertension and also give you a sleep score to help you with sleep. There's a new chip inside so it's got faster performance and better battery life. Also, there's a new SE model. So we're now at the SE3. So this is a cheaper model. It doesn't have all the features of the Series 11 but it's an improvement over the SE2 with faster performance and better battery life as well. Then there's the new Apple Watch Ultra 3. So, this also brings better battery life, that 5G connectivity ability, and also a better display and those new health features as well. The prices seem to be the same to me here. $399 for the Series 11. $249 for the SE3. $799 for the Ultra. Of course you're going to pay more for the mobile connectivity and other options. You'll be able to get these next week as well. Preorder on Friday. 

Of course most of the time for the Apple announcement was taken up by talking about the new iPhone 17. There are a whole new set of models. There is the new regular model. New Pro models and a brand new model called the iPhone Air. So, the standard model, the iPhone 17 includes now the A19 chip. So a new chip in there. A much better display, so a ProMotion Display with 120 hertz refresh rate, 3000 nits of brightness, a really nice display. Two cameras on the back, 48 MP and a zoom 24 MP camera. A big improvement on the front camera. The front camera is now square. So you can take portrait or landscape pictures and videos without turning your camera. It doesn't matter which way you have it turned anymore. It's twice the size. So it can use Center Stage now and kind of follow you around when you're doing conference calls and videos and such. It also starts with 256GB of storage. In fact all the models do. 

Now the iPhone Pro, of course, has even better cameras. It's got an array, as a matter of fact the array of cameras just goes all the way across the back now. It is called a Plateau. It's got three cameras. All 48 MP. So the Ultra Ride, the Standard, and the Telephoto are all 48 MP. The Telephoto is now 8X optical zoom, the equivalent to 200 mm. So this is really good news if you rely on your iPhone as your primary camera. 8X zoom is going to be really nice to have. You also have the front camera as that square Center Stage camera as well. So an improvement there. 

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Now the Standard iPhone Pro is 6.3 inches but the iPhone Pro Max, like before, is 6.9 inches. So a bigger display. That also means you get a bigger battery and more battery life in that model for only $100 more. 

But the star of the show today was definitely the new iPhone model. The iPhone 17 Air. It is interesting because it is not directly in-between the iPhone and the iPhone Pro because in some ways it is like the iPhone Pro. Like it has the A19 Pro chip in it like the iPhone Pro, not just the A19 chip in the iPhone 17. But it doesn't even have two cameras on the back. It just has one camera on the back though Apple says it is a special camera. Called a Fusion Camera that's capable of regular and 2X zoom optically. So I have to see how that performs for those who get it. Also, the front camera is a bigger square Center Stage camera as well.

But I think the thing that will attract a lot of people to this is the super thin design. A lot of people are going to want to have that. Now the prices for these models aren't too bad. There were some people predicting that there would be no iPhones below $1000 now. But the iPhone 11 base model, which again is 256GB of storage, not bad for a lot of regular consumers, is $799. $999 is the price for the iPhone 17 Air. The 17 Pro models will be $1099 and just $100 more for the Max with the bigger screen and bigger battery. 

Now Apple also announced new accessories. New cases and stuff for the iPhone. That's not unusual. But what is interesting is Apple announced something called the Crossbody Strap. So two of the new cases, the tech woven case and the silicone case, they will have attachments for putting this strap on it. So the strap attaches to the case at the bottom in two locations. Then you can get the strap and probably third parties will make them as well, with the idea being that you can kind of wear the iPhone around your neck now instead of just always putting it in your pocket. It is definitely an attractive feature to have this whether you're just somebody who is going to kind of want it as a fashion accessory or someone like me who often wants to keep their iPhone out and handy to take pictures but wants to make sure it is secure and they are not actually going to drop it or put it down somewhere. 

The new iPhones are also preorder for this Friday and available at the end of next week. All the watches and all the iPhone, of course, have a variety of different colors that they come in as well. 

In addition to the new products announcements we also learned today that we are getting the new versions of all the operating systems on September 15th. So we're getting the new iOS, new macOS, new iPad OS, WatchOS, and even Vision OS on that day. So even if you're not buying a new Apple product this Fall as long as you have a compatible device you should be getting new features with these operating system updates next week. Thanks for watching.