it's time to level up. Apple's new wearable tech lands today alongside the iPhone 16. Fresh out of the box, I'm giving my first impressions with the Apple Series 10 watch and the AirPods 4. So, the first thing I have to do is find some ice water, fill her up, depth app activated. Okay, it's cold. I don't need an app to tell me it's cold. What is it, 50°? It's pretty, pretty cold. 47. Ohoo boy, it's... Are we good? Do we got the shot? You know what, this is an interesting Apple upgrade season. You have iOS 18 out, we're all relearning how to navigate our phones, and then for the iPhone 16 line, Apple's pushing the perks of Apple intelligence. But the Apple intelligence isn't ready to be pushed just yet. And when this video airs on Friday, I'm going to be at an Apple Store picking up my order of the iPhone 16 Pro and checking out the new camera control button, which is the star feature of the iPhone since

AI rolls out gradually in software updates. Apple says that's going to start in October. This week Apple loaned me a 42mm watch 10 and rose gold with this plum-colored smart Loop made of recycled materials. And I also got these two new AirPods 4 to try out a bit now to make it clear I have not used these for a full day. I am still sorting through some feelings. Are you getting this? I just walked in and it fell out of my ear. Maybe you'll be experimenting with your new gear arriving today if you upgraded. So I'd like to share with you what I think is interesting and what might take some getting used to. I'm Bridget Carey and this is a very honest and somewhat wet one more thing. The new Apple Watch is thinner and lighter now. The Series 9 from last year didn't feel all that heavy to me so the weight was not something I think about in an Apple Watch. But yes, this is very light and comfortable with this fabric band. You

don't even notice it on that said. What I did notice right away is that it's brighter. It has to do with that screen being larger. There's more screen area, and it's the first wide-angle OLED on the watch, so you can see that more angles with a slightly wider aspect ratio. It keeps catching my eye, especially with this new watch face that has the second hand ticking constantly. And you know what? All that makes it look more authentic. It's like more physically there, and it's visually very nice to have more real estate when the messages are coming in. What also is different is that there's a speaker over here on the side to play music out of the watch. And it seems the whole system is smart enough to not just play music out of the watch as the default when you might have other devices or other speakers around. Because nobody wants to be fumbling to mute their watch. When I use Siri voice commands to ask my watch to play music, it will play music on my iPhone or on

AirPods. If I'm wearing them now, if I do want the music to come out of my watch, I have to go through a series of taps on the screen while I'm playing music. I tell it to control other speakers, and then I send it to the Apple Watch. All right, so I haven't really found a good use for it yet, but maybe I'll use it when I'm getting my kids ready for bed, brushing teeth, and I can place some music in the room without getting lost in my phone screen. I'm looking forward to trying the voice isolation on the watch because I do take phone calls on my watch when the phone isn't nearby. It's supposed to suppress background noise. That's another helpful thing if I'm with the family and I don't have to tell folks around me to stop or be quiet to take the call. I'll let you know how that goes. There are also new water features that are unique to the Series 10. It can measure water depth and water temperature, as you saw earlier. There is

a setting where it'll just turn on when submerged. And this time with this Apple watch, I am making a commitment to finally try to track my sleep more often, if anything, to try this new sleep apnea feature. I mean, I hope I don't have sleep apnea, but Apple watch can do lots of data measurements when you sleep, and I just have not had the patience to stick through learning a new regular routine by wearing it to bed. With this fast charging on the watch, I'm just going to pop it on the charger instead when I wake up and get ready for the day, because with this new model, it only takes 30 minutes to get it up to 80% battery. But I'll keep poking with the watch later. Let's now talk about AirPods. Okay, for starters, I did the nodding thing. The nodding thing worked, and it was kind of delightful. You see, when I was commuting to work, the Siri voice came into my ear, and it asked if I wanted to record a walk, and I just gave

it a single nod, and then it recorded the workout later. The Voice asked if I was done with my workout, and I gave it another nod. No ping ever came to my Apple watch like I used to get when it wanted me to record a workout, so the power of the nod here was kind of cool. I should say I have been anxious in this AirPods test because this is my first time using AirPods. I adore my Powerbeats Pro; they work with Siri, they got a nice little hook over the ear. I want my tech to feel secure; it gives the ear a little hug. Who doesn't want an ear hug? I have never bought AirPods because they look like they're just going to fall out, and I don't trust tech to just dangle there and stay put in my head. Spoiler alert: they didn't stay put in my head. They were fine for my entire train ride and commute into the office, but when I swung open the office door, one flew out, and I yelped for my producer to come.

over quick and then as I laughed, the other side slipped out too. Apple products have a two-e return window, so if you're afraid to commit or you want a better idea of how it'll fit in your ear in a normal day, maybe take it for a test run and return it if it doesn't work for your ears. But this whole experience with AirPods did show me some cool features of the AirPod software, and it got me interested in wanting to try out the AirPod Pro 2 with those ear tips. Now, it's not new hardware on the Pros; the Pro 2 has been out for a while, but there is a software update coming in the fall with features to support hearing health, and you can use them even as a hearing aid. Apple gave me a chance to preview one part of that health software. It gives you this hearing test, the kind where you hear faint beeps, and then you tap the screen when you can hear the beep, and then you get results. If you want, you can set up a mode that helps

enhance the frequencies that you might be having trouble hearing for each ear, which becomes a button you can toggle on and off in the control center of the iPhone. Now, when I started with the AirPods 4, I did keep an open mind for these new units with an open design. See, the shape is a little more slim from the last generation, and there's a better chip inside. The big twist is that there are two versions of the AirPods 4, one that is $50 more and has active noise cancelling. And you know what? I found that feature pleasantly surprising because I was always against noise cancelling. I did not like how it felt in my ear when I would try this feature out in stores, but after having it on these AirPods, I kind of forgot about it after a minute. And I think a lot of that has to do with the perks of how smart it is with adaptive mode because it can automatically switch to bring up people's voices if I'm talking to someone, and when I pass musicians in the

train halls. I could still hear them just fine. I would take off my AirPods, and I noticed it was much later in real life, so the AirPods were reducing the volume to a somewhat normal level. It was putting everything in this happy middle ground. So yes, the tech did impress me. And there's another perk for paying more for this model. The noise-canceling version has a case with a speaker; the base model does not. So you can play a sound to find these if they're lost. These cases are so small, it might be something I would use all the time. That said, testing the tech just left me wanting to give the Pro 2 design a spin to see if they feel a little more snug with your tips. Between all the upgrades in watchOS 11 and iOS 18, and I didn't even get into the iPhone 16, there's going to be a lot of new features to tinker with in the coming days. You never know what the big buzz will be in the first few days of an iPhone launch. Let

me know what you are curious about for me to explore next, and I'll be back next Friday like we do every week to talk about one more Apple thing. Thanks for watching.

Apple's Next Era Begins: My First Impressions of Watch 10, AirPods 4

CNET is the premier destination for explaining and navigating the changing world around us. Through news, product reviews, price comparisons, and more, we’ll tell you what’s new in the parts of modern life that increasingly matter more — from health, home, and money to tech, culture, and climate — and how to get the most out of them.

Apple's Next Era Begins: My First Impressions of Watch 10, AirPods 4

Scripts