The new watch is available in a positively mouthwatering sleek jet black version that has been polished with silicon nanoparticles, making it reflective. Among other rejiggerings to make it thinner, the speaker system has been redesigned so that you can play podcasts directly through the Apple Watch’s speakers. There’s also a more efficient charging coil that helps the watch charge up to reach 80 percent battery in 30 minutes. (No word though on how much better the battery life is, if at all.)
This year, the standout health feature coming to watchOS is sleep apnea detection, which detects breathing activity that stops and starts again while you sleep. The tracking happens through the watch’s accelerometer. While it was expected that Apple would add blood pressure tracking on the watches this year, the company did not do this. The decision was likely related to recent legal action that forced Apple to remove blood-oxygen sensing from the new watches earlier this year after a patent dispute was brought by Masimo Corp.
Apple Intelligence is available on the Watch, mostly via new updates to the Health app that came via WatchOS 11 earlier this year. There’s also a whole new slew of water-related fitness features, which includes some new maritime watch faces for when you spontaneously decide to go sailing or kayaking.
The Watch Ultra 2 didn’t get any big updates, but it did get a new black finish, with a Milanese loop designed specifically for water sports.
The Series 10 is available for preorder today for $399 and will ship on September 20. The refreshed Watch Ultra 2 is also available for preorder today at $799 and is available on September 20. —Adrienne So
New AirPods
Apple has added a few new options for its AirPods. For the first time, Apple has made active noise canceling available in regular AirPods—albeit in a more expensive version than the base model. There are new AirPods 4 that cost $129 without active noise canceling, and a version of AirPods 4 that cost $179 and do have active noise canceling.
