A few details Apple didn’t mention during its “awe-dropping” event – Six Colors

Apple crams a lot into its keynotes, but almost as notable is what it chooses not to talk about. Having had some time after today’s “awe-dropping” event announcing the iPhone 17 line, Apple Watch Series 11, and AirPods Pro 3, here are a few things I found out.

The new MagSafe battery is an iPhone Air exclusive

There were no doubt some shouts of joy when Apple mentioned it had a new version of its MagSafe Battery, but if you want one of those to boost your phone’s longevity, be aware: it’s an iPhone Air exclusive. The key’s in the name “iPhone Air MagSafe Battery”—Apple says it “was created exclusively for iPhone Air” and only the iPhone Air is listed in the Compatibility section. Sorry iPhone 17/17 Pro users, you’re out of luck. (Alas, the same is true of the new iPhone bumper case too.)

FineWoven…lives!

Apple introduced new “TechWoven” cases at this year’s event, but Apple’s previous attempt at a premium material, FineWoven, is not only still around, but is included in new products. There’s a brand new set of FineWoven MagSafe wallets in various colors to compliment the latest iPhone models, including a “Fox Orange.”

The iPhone Air is likely using binned chips

Impressive as it is that the new iPhone Air uses the same A19 Pro as the iPhone 17 Pro models, they aren’t quite as good: looking at the specs comparison page will show you that the Air boasts just 5 GPU cores to the 6 cores found on the Pro and Pro Max. Guess you won’t be doing important AI pipeline tasks on your new incredibly thin iPhone, oh well.

Live Translation isn’t just for AirPods Pro 3

Apple spent some time talking about the new Live Translation features in AirPods Pro 3 (a feature that’s also available in other forms on the company’s various platforms), but don’t worry, you won’t be left out in the cold if you don’t buy the latest and greatest earbuds. The company’s fine print says “Live Translation with AirPods works on AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation and AirPods Pro 2 and later with the latest firmware when paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone running iOS 26 and later.” You are free to travel about the world.

Apple Watch health feature availabilities

Likewise, Apple Watch’s new health features—hypertension detection and the sleep score—are available on more than just the company’s latest devices. Hypertension detection works with Apple Watches with S9 and later processors (sorry, owners of the original Apple Watch Ultra), probably using the same sort of machine learning systems that enable the gesture detections. Sleep score appears more broadly available, dating back to the Apple Watch 6 and second-generation Apple Watch SE.

Operating system updates coming soon

While there was no specific release date for Apple’s platform updates announced during the keynote, the company says iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, macOS 26, and visionOS 26 (and presumably tvOS 26 and the HomePod update) will arrive on Monday, September 15.

Updated at 5:20pm Eastern to clarify that all platform updates are coming on Monday.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His latest novel, the sci-fi spy thriller The Armageddon Protocol, is out now.]

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