Apple event as it happened: ‘Impossibly thin’ iPhone Air unveiled alongside new Apple Watch and AirPods

... to The Independent’s live coverage of the launch of the iPhone 17.

The iPhone 17 (or iPhones 17) will be the star of the show. But there are support acts, too.

Here’s everything else Apple plans to announce at its event today.

There’s new colours, new designs, new cameras and much else besides. Here’s everything expected to be revealed for the iPhone later.

Last year’s iPhone 16 was supposed to be the AI iPhone: it was introduced as the first one designed from the ground-up for Apple Intelligence, and much of the marketing centred on how useful those AI tools would be.

But then Apple Intelligence ran into trouble. Many of the promised tools – such as an upgraded Siri – haven’t yet arrived, and those that did actually turn up were met with a fairly cool reception.

Apple has promised to fix those problems. At its software event in June, for instance, it moved the focus away from AI but said in passing that the promised upgrades were still on their way.

They won’t be here in time for the new iPhone, however. That will have to prove itself without much reference to AI – which, besides, fewer people are now asking Apple for.

The iPhone 17 could be an opportunity to move the conversation back onto ground that Apple feels much more confident with: selling shiny new hardware to people. The reception and success of the various iPhone 17 models will depend on how ably it can do that.

Today’s iPhone 16 is built on the same foundations as the iPhone X, which was released in 2017. While the phones that have come since have brought changes – the Dynamic Island, squarer sides – they have been about evolution rather than revolution, and it remains difficult to even tell at first glance which year in the last almost-decade an iPhone is from.

The world once waited with bated breath to find out what the new iPhone looks like. Now, each year’s design brings something of a sigh. iPhone fatigue has been part of the discussion of each new launch for years, but it is getting louder.

The iPhone 17 offers a chance to change some of that. The “Air” will be the first new kind of iPhone offered in a while, and the whole line-up is rumoured to be bringing more substantial and noticeable changes.

But it might also firmly be the last year that we see this design. Next year is rumoured to bring more dramatic changes, including the first foldable iPhone.

That could be a blessing to everyone looking for a new iPhone: finally, one that actually looks like a new iPhone. It could be a blessing for Apple, too, which has seen a substantial uptick in sales when it has launched new designs, such as when it first introduced a bigger screen with the iPhone 6.

But it might also be a bad year for those who actually want their iPhone to be boring. A foldable phone will bring all kinds of new questions, and less guarantee of stability.

So this could be the last year to get a relatively boring iPhone, for better or worse.

It’s not all hardware. Apple tends to use the iPhone release event to announce when it will release its big new software updates, which were launched in June. (iOS needs to be released in time for the new phones.)

Most likely, iOS and iPadOS 26 will be released straight away after the event. The Mac usually takes a little longer.

The biggest change this year is a redesign, known as “Liquid Glass”. You can read about the updates here.

Everything kicks off in two hours (10am local pacific time, or 6pm in the UK). That’s when the video will begin, and probably last for 90 minutes or so, based on previous years.

You’re able to watch in a variety of ways. You can tune in through the Apple Events app on the Apple TV, or the devoted page on Apple’s website.

But the easiest place is probably YouTube. Not only does that offer the ability to watch on most platforms and in most places, you can also set yourself a reminder that will go off when the livestream begins.

You can find the video here:

And of course we will be providing full live coverage here throughout the event.

The AirPods Pro 3 have been rumoured for a while – but they might arrive very soon. On Reddit, one user has shared what they claim is a message from Best Buy offering a reward on the new earbuds, and suggesting that they’ll be on sale from 9 September.

Every rumour has suggested that Apple is planning a host of new iPhones: the iPhone 17, the Pro and Max, and the Air. All of those names have seemed fairly certain in part because they follow the usual run of things, with Apple tending to give iPhones sequential names and being a big fan of “Pro”, “Max” and “Air”.

But what if they didn’t use the numbers this time around? Last-minute rumours are suggesting the iPhone 17 Air could just be the iPhone Air. Or perhaps Apple could change to year numbers – like it did with this year’s software updates – so that it will be the iPhone 26.

This does only feel like a matter of time. Apple has already done it with other devices such as the iPad. And at a certain point the numbers simply become hard to follow and unwieldy to use.

But maybe this will instead be the last year of the old naming scheme. Next year is due to bring other even more different kinds of phones – the widely rumoured iPhone Fold, most notably – and that might mark a useful time to move away from adding a number each year.