Apple announced the iPhone 16 Pro lineup Monday with bigger screens, a new A18 Pro chip, a bunch of new recording features, and improved battery life. The company’s new flagship smartphones have slightly bigger screens across both models: 6.3 inches on the iPhone 16 Pro and 6.9 inches on the iPhone 16 Pro Max (up from 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches, respectively, on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max). Apple also says the phones have “the thinnest borders on any Apple product.” The bodies of the phones are once again made from titanium. They come in four colors: black, white, natural, and a new “desert titanium.” The iPhone 16 Pro lineup comes with the A18 Pro chip, with a 16-core neural engine that it says will offer “amazing performance”...

The iPhone 16 has a new rear camera arrangement. [credit: Apple ] Apple's new iPhone 16 isn't a revolution by any means, but it's a solid upgrade with a handful of new features (including two new physical buttons), plus better performance and Apple Intelligence support. The design is similar to the iPhone 15 but with a vertical camera arrangement on the back, which helps take more efficient spatial photos and videos. A new camera control button can be clicked to take a photo, and also is touch-sensitive, allowing you to slide your finger across it to tweak the settings for the images, like zoom. It can tell the difference between a full click and a lighter press, which allows you to access customization features instead of taking a picture right away. That's not the only new button; the configurable Action button has arrived on the iPhone 16. It was introduced in the Pro models last year and can be used for various predetermined purposes or assigned to work with Shortcuts.

The win for the Disney+ Lucasfilm series was bittersweet, paying tribute to the talents of late costume designer Shawna Trpcic.

Apple has announced the iPhone 16, the latest edition of its mainline smartphone. The iPhone 16 comes in a variety of slightly refreshed colors that are more vivid compared to previous years. Also refreshed is the updated dual-camera arrangement on its rear, once again set up vertically, as last seen on the iPhone 12 from 2020. The iPhone 16 has a variety of new hardware refinements and features, like a new A18 chip with 3nm process, increased battery life, water and dust resistance, an Action Button that debuted on last year’s Pro models, satellite messaging (starting in the US and Canada), Wi-Fi 7, improved thermal design for gaming with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and a new physical Camera Control button below the power button....

The Apple Watch Series 10 can be entirely carbon neutral, Apple announced during its event this afternoon. The claim applies to all finishes of this year’s watch, as long as it’s paired with certain bands, Apple says. The Series 10 case comes in aluminum and titanium options. Both versions are carbon neutral when purchased with a Sport Loop band, Braided Solo Loop, or the updated Milanese Loop, according to Apple. To reduce emissions, the watch case is made with either 100 percent recycled aluminum or 95 percent recycled titanium. Apple says it makes enough renewable energy purchases to match the electricity used to manufacture the watch. The company also says it’s prioritizing “non-air shipping” to limit pollution from transportation. A...

The AirPods 4. [credit: Apple ] Apple announced the fourth-generation AirPods today during its It's Glowtime event. As you can tell from the gallery above, the AirPods 4 look different from their predecessor. They also have Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) if you're willing to pay extra. Apple said that it mapped and analyzed "thousands" of ear shapes with 3D photogrammetry, laser topography, and other modeling tools to design the AirPods 4's new form. Apple claims the new shape will make for a better fit. The new earbuds appear to have shorter stems. They look more similar to the AirPods Pro now but without the silicone tips. The stems also allow users to play/pause media and end or mute calls with a "quick press," Apple claims, noting a new force sensor. The new AirPods move from Apple's H1 chip to the H2, which the current AirPods Pro use. Compared to the H1, Apple has said that the H2 is supposed to be up to twice as good at noise cancellation. Upgraded mics and computational audio are also supposed to aid in ANC.

Apple is launching a new version of AirPods called the AirPods 4, with a refined shape that Apple says makes them the “most comfortable AirPods ever.” The new model retains the open-air design, offers a “massive improvement” in audio quality, and includes support for personalized spatial audio. The earbuds will be available in two versions: an entry-level model, known as the AirPods 4, and a higher-end model with noise cancellation, known as the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), a first for the standard AirPods line. That higher-end version also includes Transparency Mode to help users hear their environment while walking around, along with Adaptive Audio to reduce some environmental noise. Plus, it has Conversational...

Apple is launching a new version of AirPods called the AirPods 4, with a refined new shape that Apple says is its “most comfortable AirPods ever.” It keeps an open-air design, has a “massive improvement” in audio quality, and includes support for personalized spatial audio. The earbuds will be available in two models: an entry-level model, known as the AirPods 4, and a higher-end model with noise cancellation, known as the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), a first for the standard AirPods line. The standard set costs $129, and the higher-end ANC one is $179. Both are available on September 20th and can be preordered today. Apple is also adding improved Find My features for the AirPods, including the previously Pro-only...

After almost four years without a hardware update, a new version of the AirPods Max has been announced by Apple today, with the primary upgrade being a switch from Apple’s proprietary Lightning port to USB-C. As Apple has slowly transitioned away from the Lightning port it introduced 12 years ago, the AirPods have been one of the last product lines from the company to say goodbye to the proprietary connector. Apple introduced a USB-C charging case for the AirPods Pro 2 last year as an affordable way to upgrade the charging port without replacing the earbuds, but AirPods Max users are going to have to completely replace their headphones to get USB-C. The new AirPods Max can be preordered today in several new color options that include...

Apple is adding sleep apnea detection to the Apple Watch. The new feature is coming to the Apple Watch Series 9, the just-announced Series 10, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2, Apple announced at its product event on Monday. Sleep apnea is a disorder that causes you to stop breathing as you sleep. Sleep apnea is a feature that wearables makers have been working on for some time, with Samsung getting cleared by the FDA for sleep apnea tracking with the Galaxy Watch earlier this year. Apple says it’s using the accelerometer on its watches to monitor a new metric that it calls “breathing disturbances.” You’ll be able to see your nightly breathing disturbance values in the Health app. The company expects to get...

If you paid $40 for the physical edition of Concord, you can make a lot more than that back on eBay. [credit: Kyle Orland ] As recently as a week ago, a new disc copy of Sony's team-based shooter Concord on the PlayStation 5 would set you back about $40 at most retailers. Now that Sony has shut off the game's servers after just two weeks, you might think those now-useless discs would be practically worthless. Instead, the physical version of Concord on PS5 has become a surprise collector's item. An Ars analysis of nearly 300 eBay listings completed between September 3–8 shows new copies of the now-defunct game selling for a median price of $100 since the game's shutdown. That going rate peaked at a median of $118 on September 5, up from $89.50 on September 3, before settling at $110 for eBay sales made on September 8. As usual with gaming collectibles, the price increase has less to do with playability and more to do with rarity. GameDiscoverCo analyst Simon Carless told IGN last month that he estimated an underwhelming 25,000 total sales for Concord across PS5 and PC. Even if we assume 80 percent of those sales were on the PS5, most of those console sales probably came as purely digital downloads, given long-running industry trends and the game's focus on online play.

Kate Middleton — now Catherine, the Princess of Wales — announced Monday in a video message that she had completed chemotherapy for the cancer diagnosis she first revealed in March. She said she would resume some public events, though engagements are expected to remain limited through the end of the year. “Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus,” the princess wrote in a post shared on X. “Although I have finished chemotherapy, my path to healing and full recovery is long and I must continue to take each day as it comes.” She was diagnosed with cancer after doctors performed abdominal surgery on her and discovered evidence of the disease.  Kensington Palace has not released details on what type of cancer the princess has, nor did it specify what stage the cancer was when it was found. But as a 42-year-old woman, Middleton is far from alone in her diagnosis: Worldwide, more and more people under 50 are developing cancers. Cancer typically strikes those who are in their 50s, 60s, or even older. Yet, in recent decades, early-onset cancers — which are usually defined as occurring in patients younger than 50 — are occurring at a higher rate, particularly in wealthy countries. As illustrated in the chart below, a 2023 BMJ analysis found that the early onset of 29 different cancers had risen nearly 80 percent globally between 1990 and 2019.  Separately, a study published in JAMA Network Open the same year concluded that the occurrence of a wide range of cancers among people under 50 had increased between 2010 to 2019 among American adults, particularly among women. Much of the increase is attributable to colon and rectal cancers: In 2019, there were about 5.7 cases of colorectal cancer among 100,000 people ages 14 to 49. That’s up 63 percent since 1990, when there were approximately only 3.5 cases per 100,000 people. Breast, cervical, and skin cancers are still the most likely cancers to develop in adults under 50, but individual cases of colorectal cancers taking the lives of well-known celebrities, like actor Chadwick Boseman in 2020, have made that trend more visible in recent years. Cancers of the bladder, kidney, ovaries, pancreas, prostate, thyroid, and uterus also became significantly more common in the nearly three decades covered by the global investigation published in BMJ. John Marshall, director of the Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancers at Georgetown University, told me recently that, early in his career, he rarely saw a patient under 50. Today, half of his patients are in that age range, many of them appearing to be healthy and fit. At first, these young patients usually came in with colorectal cancer, but Marshall has increasingly seen younger people with cancers attacking other parts of the gastrointestinal tract. No single factor is to blame for this widespread uptick in numerous cancers among young people, particularly the rise in the gastrointestinal system, but scientists are starting to put together a picture of the reality behind one of the most important medical mysteries of our time. One review published in Frontiers in Nutrition in 2022 found several dietary factors were associated with early-onset colorectal cancer. Eating a lot of deep-fried and processed foods, foods high in fat, and sugary drinks and desserts was a significant risk factor, as was having a diet low in fiber. Other studies have found higher alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of developing cancer early.  Toxins in our environment, such as microplastics, could also be a contributing factor. These tiny particles can be found in everything from food containers to synthetic clothing, before making their way into our bodies and our GI tracts.  One New Zealand research team concluded the upticks in cancers among young adults matched the timeline that we would expect from the multiplication of microplastics in the environment. Cellular and rodent models have suggested that microplastics could promote tumor growth. Though more research is needed, these materials contain chemicals that can disrupt hormones and pose a risk to our health. But these are still theories. Scientists still don’t fully understand what is primarily driving earlier-in-life cancer cases. What we do know is that stories like Middleton’s are becoming all too common.  Update, September 9, 12:55 pm ET: This story was originally published on March 22 and has been updated to reflect new information about Kate Middleton’s health status.