With newly minted CEO John Ternus taking over the stage for Apple’s “Surprise and Shine” event on 10 September, all eyes were on the first glimpse of the company’s future. The iPhone Duo foldable smartphone wasn’t exactly a surprise, and a non-Pro iPhone 18 model is no longer in the lineup, but the bigger news is the embrace of always-on technology, which was the focus of the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4.
The Cupertino giant wasted no time in addressing privacy concerns, however, stressing that the extensive infrastructure built for its other Apple Intelligence and Siri services will keep its new features secure, starting with Audio Intelligence. Powered by audio captured by the watches’ microphones, it lets users remember details from conversations with Live Rewind, which shows the previous 15 seconds of an interaction as a text snippet, and Siri Recap, which summarises key talking points and automatically generates a title. Alongside music-recognition app Shazam, it also includes Sound Recognition to alert those who are deaf or hard of hearing to sirens, alarms, doorbells, and similar sounds.
Per Apple, a dedicated compartment called Secure Enclave “processes audio in complete isolation from the rest of the system, then immediately deletes it,” and users have control over permissions for Audio Intelligence, with speaker identities and attributions kept undisclosed. Additionally, Siri Recap is designed to exclude sensitive information such as financial details and government-assigned identifiers, and Live Rewind text snippets and Siri Recap summaries won’t be accessible even by Apple.
At the heart of these capabilities is the all-new S11 processor, touted as the company’s most powerful wearable chip. Featuring larger, power-efficient green LEDs on the optical heart sensor, the Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 now measure heart rate every five seconds throughout the day, and HRV (Heart Rate Variability) — a key indicator of stress and recovery — up to 24 times more often. Readiness is the latest addition to its suite of health features, including ECG, workout tracking, and heart health notifications, showing a single 0 to 10 score each day based on the wearer’s recent activity, training load, vitals, and sleep score. It provides all-day updates as new data comes in and comes with four actionable recommendations: Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It.
The battery life for each device has also been upgraded, clocking up to 24 hours on the base model and 50 hours on the Ultra 4. On the latter, the new Extended Workout mode delivers up to 25 hours of outdoor workout tracking with full GPS and heart rate readings, a 25 percent increase from the previous model. Other notable improvements include more accurate step tracking and a redesigned Health app that adds the all-new Insights and Longevity tabs. Where the former displays timely health information, the latter analyses a user’s longitudinal health data for deeper insights and introduces Health Age, which shows how certain metrics are tracking relative to one’s actual age.
Software-wise, watchOS 27 is set to bring a dynamic app grid featuring the icons for the most-used apps, a single-handed tap gesture, Smart Stack widget suggestions, perimenopause and menopause monitoring in Cycle Tracking, and Workout Buddy support. Both the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 will be available starting 18 September, with pre-orders now open. Prices start at S$599 (42mm) / S$669 (46mm), and S$1,199, respectively.
Rounding out the wearables lineup are the AirPods 5. This latest generation of earbuds touts 50 percent more noise reduction, improved audio, expanded AI functionality, and volume control on the stem — previously exclusive to the AirPods Pro. As with other H2 chip-equipped models, it ships with hands-free Siri, allowing users to pull up the AI assistant without picking up their phone, and Siri AI, which will have on-screen awareness. The five-hour battery life is a step up, with the wireless charging case bumping listening time to 22 hours with active noise cancellation enabled.
The AirPods 5 launch on 18 September, a week after pre-orders begin, and will retail from S$199.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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Kevin Low
