Is calling something a 'stunning new design' enough to make it a stunning new design? This was a question I found myself asking several times during Apple's 'Glowtime' event this week, during which the company revealed the latest additions to its iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods line ups. I was frequently informed throughout the stream how incredible its new designs were – and it often felt like Apple was trying to convince itself, let alone me.
This was always going to be more software-centric event, with the iPhone 16 in particular created "from the ground up" to support 'Apple Intelligence', revealed during June's WWDC. With the rise of AI, software is arguably in a more interesting place than hardware right now (despite the efforts of several pointless AI gadgets to justify their existence). But when even Apple's hardware announcements seem to land not with a bang but a whimper, is it time to admit that, from a hardware perspective at least, the tech world is becoming increasingly dull?
