The iPhone Air

Welcome to the Tech Brew Ride Home for Tuesday, September ninth, twenty twenty five. I am Brian McCullough. Today, all the headlines from Apple’s iPhone event, including a brand-new iPhone Air. A judge is not thrilled with Anthropic’s one point five billion dollar payout to authors. OpenAI is not thrilled with California and might leave. And Google quietly told a court the post-AI open web is already dying. Here is what you missed today in the world of tech. Happy iPhone event day, everyone. iPhone seventeen lineup, new iPhone Air, and more. Let’s do this.

Apple’s statement piece is the iPhone Air, an ultra-slim, titanium-framed iPhone at roughly five point six millimeters thick. It leans into thinness, durability, and brightness with a six point five inch ProMotion OLED that peaks at three thousand nits outdoors and Ceramic Shield glass front and back.

Apple positions the Air as pro performance in a thin and light design on the new A nineteen Pro chip, plus a new in-house C one X modem that Apple says is two times faster, alongside an N one chip for Wi‑Fi seven, Bluetooth six, and Thread. It is eSIM only to maximize battery space, with Apple touting all-day life and up to forty hours of video playback. Colors: black, white, beige, light blue. It starts at nine hundred ninety nine dollars, preorders today, available September nineteenth.

Cameras on the Air: a single forty-eight megapixel rear shooter, and an eighteen megapixel selfie camera on a square sensor with Center Stage so I can frame landscape selfies without rotating the phone.

The base iPhone seventeen finally gets the good stuff: a six point three inch OLED thanks to thinner bezels, ProMotion at one hundred twenty hertz that drops to one hertz for always-on, the same three thousand nit peak brightness, and a forty-eight megapixel dual fusion system with a two times optical-quality mode plus a forty-eight megapixel fusion ultra-wide. Up front is a twelve megapixel Center Stage selfie on a larger square sensor. It picks up trickle-down goodies like the action button, vertical camera layout, and the camera control button. iOS twenty six lands with a glossy liquid glass design language, while Apple Intelligence chatter stayed notably muted.

On the high end, iPhone seventeen Pro returns to an aluminum build and adds a full-width camera plateau on the back that doubles as a thermal and design statement. Apple claims the biggest iPhone battery ever and showed off a new orange color. The four-phone stack is iPhone seventeen, iPhone Air, and two Pro models, all on iOS twenty six with liquid glass. Pricing: iPhone sixteen E remains at five hundred ninety nine dollars; iPhone seventeen starts at seven hundred ninety nine dollars; Air at nine hundred ninety nine dollars; Pro at one thousand ninety nine dollars or one thousand one hundred ninety nine dollars for Pro Max, with a new two terabyte option. Preorders Friday, availability September nineteenth.

AirPods Pro three get their biggest update in years: a built-in heart rate sensor using what Apple calls its smallest PPG sensor, approximately two times stronger active noise cancellation, and live translation that lowers ambient sound and pipes translated speech in near real time. Fit is reworked with five ear tip sizes and IP fifty-seven durability. They stay at two hundred forty nine dollars, ship September nineteenth, and tie into iOS twenty six fitness with heart rate, calories, and activity tracking. Platform-wide AirPods updates add a camera remote, better call quality, charging reminders, and auto-pause if I fall asleep, with some features model-limited.

Apple Watch Series eleven adds five G, tougher ceramic-coated Ion-X glass, a slimmer chassis, and up to twenty-four hours of battery. Health features include pattern detection for hypertension and chronic high blood pressure over a thirty-day window, plus a new sleep score that factors duration, stages, and apnea. WatchOS twenty six upgrades smart stack and adds AI-assisted Workout Buddy for pep talks and insights, plus a wrist-flick gesture and the liquid glass look. It starts at three hundred ninety nine dollars, preorders open now, ships September nineteenth.

Apple Watch SE three finally gets an always-on display and fast charging at two hundred forty nine dollars. Apple Watch Ultra three keeps the rugged vibe but adds satellite connectivity, five G, and a slightly larger edge-to-edge display in the same case size, with up to forty-two hours of battery and the new health notifications. It starts at seven hundred ninety nine dollars, same preorder and availability timeline.

A federal judge just postponed Anthropic’s one point five billion dollar copyright settlement with authors, saying the proposal is nowhere close to complete and demanding clarity on the claims process. He even said he felt misled and worried about hangers on with all that money on the table. I guess I cannot spend that three thousand dollars just yet.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming to cars through LG’s automotive content platform running webOS, starting with Kia’s EV three, EV four, EV five, and Sportage in Europe, so I can stream games while charging or to entertain passengers. Microsoft returns to Tokyo Game Show on September twenty-fifth with a stream at three in the morning Pacific time, six in the morning Eastern time, where Forza Horizon six is widely expected given the neon Tokyo teaser vibes.

OpenAI is quietly gaming out leaving California if the state’s attorney general complicates its for‑profit restructuring. California and Delaware attorneys general are investigating, and California philanthropies and labor groups are pushing back, arguing charitable trust law risks. OpenAI hired advisors tied to Governor Newsom, ran listening tours, pledged five hundred million dollars to community orgs, and agreed the nonprofit would retain control of the new company. Regulators are also probing safety after reports of suicides tied to prolonged chatbot use, pressing for robust, independent nonprofit oversight.

One of the last remote-work redoubts is falling: Microsoft will require three days a week in-office, phased in by region, with employees within fifty miles of a Microsoft office expected onsite by late February twenty twenty six. Customer-facing roles get exemptions, and exception requests are due by September nineteenth. Employees call it stealth layoffs; Microsoft says it is about serving customers better.

And Google told a court in the ad-tech case that the open web is already in rapid decline, a sharp contrast to its public line that the web is thriving. The DOJ wants a breakup of Google’s ad business; Google argues divestiture would accelerate the web’s decline, even as publishers report traffic erosion from search changes and AI chatbots. As ever, getting this out to you as soon as humanly possible. Talk to you tomorrow.