Apple event this Tuesday – here’s what we expect iPhone 16 and more!

Apple’s global headquarters Apple Park will play host to the world’s media this week as they hold their annual September event at the Steve Jobs Theatre.

Buried in the highest hill on Apple Park, Steve Jobs Theatre seats around 1500 people who will watch as Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces his team to announce new products, services and software.

We can certainly guarantee a new iPhone, in the last 12 years only once has the new iPhone not been announced in September.

This year, we expect the iPhone 16, new Apple Watches and potentially new AirPods.

What we know about the iPhone 16

There’s been some solid rumours, and physical leaks this year.

At the start of this year we learned that all four iPhone 16 models would have a new button on the right hand side.

There’s little doubt this is a camera shutter button, what we are yet to learn is how it works.

Likely it has a half press for focus, and perhaps even swipe gestures for switching modes.

For the Colours we are confident of a range of new deeper more vibrant colours in the standard iPhone 16 models.

That will include the iPhone 16 Plus as well, the larger screen iPhone, coming ten years after the first “plus” phone the iPhone 6 Plus announced in 2014.

Then there’s the Bronze or Brown colour coming to the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max models.

Those are likely the key physical changes to the iPhone 16, the rest of the news will relate to iOS 18. A range of new features from simplified settings, to a new Photos app, and – Apple Intelligence.

Apple Intelligence is set to be one of the core features of iPhone moving forward. Initially only available on the iPhone 15 Pro models we expect all iPhone 16’s to be Apple Intelligence compatible.

Siri gets a new look, a “glow” around the edge, hence the Apple event being labelled “Glowtime”

Critically, Apple Intelligence is in the foreground when using the phone, two key features we’re keen for everyone to see are Notification summaries and AI replies.

Notification summaries is amazingly handy, taking long notifications and shortening them.

The AI replies you’ll start to see are like the predictive text options, but they highlight in pink. These are contextual based on the message in question.

The real question is availability.

Currently Apple says Apple Intelligence will launch in the US, we expect that relates to scalability of their Cloud Services that link with Apple Intelligence, but it should roll out across the world within the year.

Tenth anniversary Apple Watch

Ten years on from being “One More Thing” the Apple Watch is hugely successful today, and will continue to be for a long time yet.

We expect to see two if not three new models next week.

An Apple Watch Series 10 is a sure bet. Expect enhanced health and fitness tracking, as well as perhaps a tweaked design and improved battery life.

Chances are Apple will keep pushing their Ultra with a 3rd generation, while expensive it appears to be selling like hotcakes.

Meanwhile it’s been two years since we had an updated Apple Watch SE so there is a chance.

New AirPods long overdue

While AirPods pro are two years old, the basic AirPods are three years old, so surely there’s some tweaks to be made there.

Meanwhile AirPods Max are four years old, and still have a lightning port – so at the very least an update to USB-C is in the works, along with some updates to the chipset and audio capabilities.

When is the Apple iPhone 16 event?

It’s a Monday event in Cupertino, and with timezones that puts it at 3am Tuesday Morning Sydney time, 1am Perth time.

We’ll have an update here at EFTM straight afterward, as well as updates on our social channels and across the 9 Network during the day.

Trevor Long is travelling to the USA as a guest of Apple Australia