Hey, everybody. This is Mike. Lauren is out this week, but we've got a special guest, and we're going to be talking all about Apple. So stick around.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Gadget Lab. I am Michael Callori. I'm a senior editor at Wired.

Lauren Good is out reporting this week, but I am pleased to say that I'm joined here in the room by Wired Reviews editor Julian Chokatu. Julian, hello. Hello. It is very nice to be here face to face. Sharing the same air. Yes. Well, it's great to have you here. And here in California, it is quite warm.

Yes, I came perfectly during a heat wave.

I love it.

So we're recording this on Wednesday, the afternoon of September 7th.

Just a few hours ago, Apple announced its new iPhone lineup, just like it does every September.

Apple also announced a new rugged Apple Watch called the Ultra, along with the regular

Apple Watches that we were expecting. Julian, I want to get right into it because you were there

in person at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, but it was 97 degrees in Cupertino today. Is that

right? Yes. Well, it was going up to there. Thankfully, the Steve Jobs Theater is quite cool. It's underground. So thankfully, you know, it was not too hot. But yeah, the event was pretty much exactly like the event back in 2019. It felt the same pre-pandemic. We had to send in a COVID test the day before and upload that and some company certified that.

But no one had to wear a mask.

It was all optional.

Some people did.

But obviously, like, I would say 90% of people did not wear masks.

And it was, you know, sitting next to a hundred other people

in the theater and watching Tim Cook take the stage. But this is where things deferred.

Instead of an actual live event like what maybe a lot of people thought might be happening

finally, it was all pre-recorded.

So Tim Cook physically did come on stage for the first, like, minute.

And then he queued the screen.

And just like WWDC, we were all in a theater watching a movie, basically.

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