The 8 biggest Apple announcements from its launch event

• Apple showed off a new batch of gadgets at its “Surprise and Shine” event on Wednesday.
• The launches included Apple’s first foldable iPhone and Watches with new health-monitoring features.
• Here are the biggest updates from new CEO John Ternus’ first Apple event.

Siri AI release date

“Apple Watch is always on your wrist,” Ron Huang, Apple’s vice president of sensing and connectivity, said. “It’s the perfect device to stay aware of the sounds around you, and keep track of your conversations.”

Apple says the features do not create or store audio recordings and that they do not identify speakers. Still, the rollout comes right as consumer tech companies face increasingly thorny questions about AI, privacy, and surveillance.

iPhone 18 will have an improved camera with variable aperture

The cameras in both versions of the iPhone 18 have variable-aperture blades that automatically adjust to different lighting conditions. Adjustments in aperture change the amount of light that reaches a camera’s lens.

Apple said its new aperture system uses “six laser-cut blades, each thinner than a human hair.”

“We’ve optimized for the best balance of light gathering and depth of field, and the aperture can narrow for more depth of field, which means crisper detail further back in the scene for better group shots,” Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of worldwide Apple Watch product marketing, said during the launch.