Apple ‘Glowtime’ event – live reports ahead of the iPhone 16 launch. Plus AirPods, Apple Watch and more

It's Glowtime! Well almost... The next Apple event takes place tomorrow (Monday, September 9) and we're expecting to see a huge number of new devices including phones, smartwatches and headphones, plus some major AI updates.

We'll be live on the ground in Cupertino to bring you all the big reveals from the launch, which takes place at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST (3am on September 10 for those in the AEST time zone). 

In the meantime, I'm here to bring you all last-minute leaks, rumors and insight ahead of the event, where we expect the reveal of the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. We also expect the Apple Watch 10 to make an appearance, maybe joined by an Apple Watch Ultra 3. And for the audio lovers, there's room for the AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods Max 2. Plus expect to hear a lot about Apple Intelligence and its role in these products. 

Of course, as well as following our live blog below you can catch the whole thing yourself via Apple's stream, and we've got full details on how to do that in our guide to how to watch the iPhone 16 launch event live. 

This showcase could be the biggest Apple event of the year, so without further ado, let's get into it. 

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, wherever you are. We're a little over 24 hours away from the September 9 Apple event, which will almost certainly be one of the biggest tech product launches of the year. 

I'm here to give you a rundown of what to expect, the juiciest rumors so far, what I want to see, and more. So let's do this! 

Right then, let's start at the latest leaks or rumors. And they come in the form a storage bump and improved video recording tipped for the iPhone 16 Pro models. 

This comes courtesy of analysts at TrendForce who have claimed that both the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max are going to start at 256GB of storage this year. That would be a bump for the smaller phone, and a change I'd certainly welcome; after all the iPhone 15 Pro starts at 128GB of storage, which seems a tad miserly for a phone of its price. 

On the video recording side, 9to5Mac 's sources claim the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max will be capable of capturing footage at a 4K resolution at 120 frames per second. That's a boost from the 60 frames per second on the current models. So for content creators, such a capability could be a worthy upgrade. 

I feel the camera quality of the models you'll find on our best phones list are so high (at least for smartphones) that there's not much to differentiate the top models besides a preference for certain photography styles.

However, video capture could be the next frontier for phones to really battle it out in. And Apple has long led the way, so it's promising to see that the Cupertino crew could embrace 4K at 60fps video capture to put the next-gen Pro iPhones in line with the on-paper capabilities of the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra but add some Apple video processing magic on top of it. 

For more on the cameras we're expecting to see from the higher-end iPhones, check out our rundown on the iPhone 16 Pro camera rumors and predictions. 

Another rumor that caught my eye and has somewhat turned my stomach is one claiming the iPhone 16 Pro will come in a so-called 'Desert Titanium' color. 

This shade seems to sit in between gold and bronze. But whereas real bronze can develop a patina from age, which makes it mellow rather nicely in my humble opinion, it won't do that on a titanium chassis. From my experience using the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the titanium on the phone doesn't seem to scratch let alone stain and age in the same way as the steel on the rather lovely iPhone 13 Pro. 

So I'm not convinced that 'Desert Titanium' is the color iPhone fans have been waiting for. But I am prepared to be proved wrong, if indeed this rumor does come to fruition.  

Speaking of colors, we've got a roundup of rumored iPhone 16 colors and the tipped iPhone 16 Pro colors. 

As someone who perhaps lack a bit of imagination when it comes to colors, the Space Black shade that's been hinted at for the iPhone 16 Pro could be the color for me; it's likely to take after the Space Black iPhone 14 Pro. 

Equally, I'd love to see the return of the dark green color Apple cooked up with the iPhone 13. As I write this I'm wearing a watch with a similar colored leather strap and just adore how the color looks close to British Racing Green; but I'm a Brit so of course i'm going to take a fancy to that. 

Right enough about colors and my peculiar preferences. Let's talk specs. 

As you'll see in our rundown of the tipped iPhone 16 specs, not a lot of change is expected externally. But under the hood, so to speak, we can expect a new chip, likely one that'll have enough power to drive Apple Intelligence features. So that means Apple could equip the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus with the current A17 Pro chip or perhaps a rumored A18/A18 Pro chip. 

My hope is Apple will aim to use the same chip for all four tipped iPhone 16 models so there's a degree of parity between them all, meaning they'll be ready to run with new AI features. And that should then aid the adoption and use of such smart tools, given the large reach of iPhones. 

Take a look at the rumored specs table below. 

On the iPhone 16 Pro specs side, it's predicted that the standard and Max Pro models will have a new chip, likely the aforementioned A18 Pro. But to help power AI tools, 8GB of RAM has also been tipped for the iPhone 16 Pro models. 

While I think there's some cool potential to AI features, I'm more enthused about the extra power an new A-series Pro chipset could bring to the table. The A17 Pro could handle genuine console-quality games, albeit with limited frame rates and lower-end settings. So I'm hoping a new chip for the Pro iPhones will improve upon that and give a genuine performance boost to the likes of Death Stranding, which got ported over to iOS.