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Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 12 at its September 9th product launch event, coming one year after the Series 11, Ultra 3, and SE 3. The highlight feature is Siri AI-powered Audio Intelligence with sound recognition. It includes a “live rewind” feature that allows users to replay recently detected audio and transcribe it. There’s also a Siri Recap feature that uses “ambient listening” to take notes on audio from your watch.
The new watch is powered by a new S11 chip and comes in space gray, black, gold and bronze, as well as black and white ceramic. It starts at $399 and launches September 18th, with preorders starting today.
The Series 12 features some health upgrades, including continuous background heart rate sensing with readings taken every 5 seconds, 60 times more than before. There’s also a new Readiness feature that analyzes recent activity, vitals, and sleep data.
Last year’s Series 11, which also launched at $399 with 42mm and 46mm sizes, added 5G, hypertension monitoring, a Sleep Score feature, stronger Ion-X glass, and improved battery life. It was also Apple’s slimmest smartwatch to date when it was announced, measuring 9.7mm thick.
The new watch is among the first products launched under Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, who stepped in for Tim Cook on September 1st. Ternus directly oversaw development of previous Apple Watches as Apple’s head of hardware engineering before becoming the company’s CEO.
The launch also follows a wave of price hikes earlier this year that impacted nearly all of Apple’s products, although not its smartwatches — the Apple Watch has consistently started at $399 for several years now.
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