GoKawiil
Tech News
Apple Watch Series 12 keeps the same 42mm and 46mm display sizes as Series 10 and 11, but its case width has grown by about 1mm, which Apple did not mention at launch. That extra case size without a corresponding display increase means the new watch has noticeably thicker bezels than its predecessors.
Amazon has launched early pre-order discounts across the newly announced Apple lineup, including AirPods 5 with ANC dropping to $125 and AirPods Pro 3 at $199. Multiple Apple Watch Series 12 configurations and the black Apple Watch Ultra 4 with a Translucent band are also seeing modest price cuts ahead of this week's deliveries. Separately, B&H is offering between $320 and $450 off select M5 and M5 Pro MacBook Pro configurations, while Amazon has $150 off the M5 MacBook Air and various Anker charging accessories on sale.
Apple unveiled a Health Age feature for the Apple Watch, joining Whoop, Oura, Garmin, Withings and other companies in offering a metric that claims to estimate a user's physiological age based on fitness and health data. The Verge's Victoria Song tested several of these tools on herself and found wildly inconsistent results, with different devices estimating her age anywhere from 26 to 42 despite her actual age being 38.
T-Mobile has become the first US carrier to support Apple's new iPhone Handoff feature in iOS 27, which lets one phone number work across two iPhones by activating service on whichever device is unlocked, syncing texts, calls, voicemail and Find My location. T-Mobile is charging $5 a month for the feature, which requires carrier-level eSIM configuration on both devices. Verizon plans to add support by year's end, while AT&T has not committed to offering it.
iOS 27 adds a small feature to the Phone app that displays a festive fireworks banner animation when a user calls a contact whose birthday is saved in Contacts. The detail, spotted by an X user, mirrors an animation Apple already uses on Apple Watch's midnight birthday notifications and New Year's celebrations.
Apple has unveiled 'Audio Intelligence,' a feature for upcoming Apple Watches that continuously listens to and transcribes nearby conversations, then summarizes them daily. Although Apple has built in some privacy safeguards for the watch wearer, anyone speaking near a person using this feature could be recorded and transcribed without their knowledge or consent.
Apple's watchOS 27 introduces a Siri app with chat history, matching similar updates on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. However, unlike those versions, the Apple Watch interface doesn't offer an obvious way to continue a previous conversation from within the app.
Apple has removed the double-click Digital Crown shortcut that let users instantly jump between apps on Apple Watch in watchOS 27. The company reassigned that same gesture to trigger Live Rewind, a new Audio Intelligence feature that generates a 15-second transcript of recent spoken audio, but Live Rewind only works on the upcoming Series 12 and Ultra 4 hardware.
Apple's AirPods 5, Apple Watch Series 12, and Apple Watch Ultra 4 are now available for pre-order on Amazon ahead of their September 18 release, with some models already discounted. The AirPods 5 base model is listed at $125 instead of $129, while a version with a wireless charging case runs $149; new Apple Watch bands are also up for $99 each.
Amazon has launched early fall Prime Day discounts that include a record-low $125 pre-order price on Apple's new AirPods 5 with ANC, alongside $150 off all four colors of the 1TB 13-inch M5 MacBook Air, bringing it to $1,449. The retailer is also running cash discounts on AirPods Pro 3, AirTag 2, entry-level Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4, and an Anker MagSafe car charger mount.
Apple has introduced a Readiness app exclusive to the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, powered by an upgraded Health Sensing System with new optical and electrical sensors. The app assigns a 0-10 score categorized into four tiers—Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, and Go For It—based on activity, sleep, and vitals data. The feature will not be available on older Apple Watch models, including Series 11 and Ultra 3, even after updating to watchOS 27.
Apple's newest Watch models introduce Live Rewind and Siri Recap, two audio-intelligence tools that use the device's microphone to transcribe missed dialogue and summarize conversations. Because they capture speech from everyone nearby, not just the wearer, the features could run afoul of two-party consent laws in several US states, even though Apple says no audio is stored or made replayable to other people.