Always listening? Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 updates

The long-anticipated foldable iPhone duo stole the show at Apple's latest event

but the new Apple Watch Series 11 and Ultra 4 have a lot of new stuff going on

including something that I think is going to be a bit controversial. Here's what's new with these watches and how they are different from the Series 11 and the Ultra 3

First off, both watches house the new S11 chip, which promises all the things new chips are

supposed to do, making the watch perform faster with quick-loading apps and a snappier display

The big thing that Apple says the S11 chip enables is Apple intelligence features, like connecting to the new Siri AI app, which is meant to provide personal intelligence to the Apple product ecosystem

Apple has long positioned itself as a privacy-focused tech company, and the new audio intelligence features on the Apple Watch stretches that reputation

According to Apple, the built-in microphone in the new watches will listen to the world around you and detect things like sirens, doorbells, and other alarms and display what it's hearing on your wrist

which is great for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Where I think the controversy might surface is from a feature Apple calls Live Rewind

In the example Apple shows, two people at a restaurant need help recalling what the server said the specials were

and are able to look at the watch and have what was said displayed in text on the watch display

According to Apple, you can only go back as far as 15 seconds

and the transcript of the Rewind can be saved in the new Siri AI app And it goes even further with Siri Recap which uses ambient listening to generate recaps of your conversations and meetings Inside the new Siri AI app

that's supposed to launch with OS 27, you can control when this occurs

and there's an option to have it on at all times. And the watch itself has a dedicated toggle button

To me, this seems like it could be a privacy nightmare. Apple did address this in his keynote

by saying that audio that's being transcribed by Siri AI is not recorded or stored, and the raw audio cannot be accessed by anyone, including Apple

and transcripts are end-to-end encrypted, and speakers are not labeled. Even taking Apple's word forth that all of these audio intelligence features are incredibly secure

it feels like there's a lot of potential for misuse from users. Like, what if instead of using Live Rewind to get the specials again

a table nearby was talking about something private, and someone with the watch couldn't hold back their curiosity

At what range can the watch detect speech? How accurate are the transcriptions

How will third-party apps interact with audio intelligence? Apple did not have answers to these questions

I don't like the idea of being out in public and someone's Apple Watch is transcribing what I'm saying from a table away

Maybe the range is only a couple feet or something, but I'm curious to see what the general public's reaction to this feature will be

Especially because we don't have any dates yet for when these audio intelligence features will launch on the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4

On the less controversial side the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 are going to include a lot more health features First the new and improved wrist heart rate sensor which has been redesigned from the ground up is the most accurate sensor in a wearable according to an independent

study commissioned by Apple. It measures your heart rate way more often than previous models

and it uses AI to give you health insights, including recovery, which gives you an idea of

how easy or hard you should train on any given day. It now measures recovery heart rate variability

And as someone who's tracked my HRV for a long time, it is actually a very useful measurement

And I found it can detect when I'm getting sick, which is pretty cool. Siri AI also provides workout insights based on how you've been moving and exercising and

recovering. Plus, it will give you suggestions like adding interval exercises to your workout

routine. The Vitals app will house all of your heart rate, respiratory, temperature, sleep

and heart rate variability data in one place, similar to what Garmin and Samsung currently does

One big upgrade to the vitals is that they will now be tracked throughout the day, not just while you sleep, which is great news for people who don't like to sleep with the watch on

or struggle to keep it charged for a full night of sleep tracking. The Series 12 comes in a lot of different color and finish options with an aluminum case in dark

bronze, light gold, black, and space gray, a titanium case in radiant gold and natural finishes

and a new ceramic case in pearl white and night blue colors. I do like the look of virtually all

the colors, especially that dark bronze, but it would be nice to see at least one super bold color

option like the hot pink Google Pixel 5 The Apple Watch Ultra 4 has all the same new features as the Series 12 and only comes in two finish options titanium and either black or natural The biggest difference between the Apple Watch Ultra 4 and the Ultra 3 aside from the intelligence features

I just talked about, is battery life. According to Apple, the battery on the Ultra Watch 4

can last up to 45 hours on a single charge in extended workout mode

In this mode, the battery uses less power, and it turns off active alerts and split notifications

and Apple says certain metrics might not be available until the activity is completed

Still, that is a long time to be tracking a workout, and it's primarily meant for ultra runners

In low power mode, Apple says the Ultra 4 can last for up to 84 hours, which is the longest lasting Apple Watch yet

And despite Apple increasing the prices on many of its products earlier this year, and the new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max

both the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 are the same price as the previous models

which is welcome news in this consumer tech environment where everything is getting more expensive

New Apple CEO John Turnus opened Apple's event by positioning the iPhone as the ultimate personal intelligence hub

And I do think the new watches are an effective extension of that. And it could do a lot to help its users live healthier lives thanks to new sensors, more data, and smart insights

I am very curious to see how people react to the audio intelligence features, though, and if Apple experiences any blowback from privacy-concerned customers

But what do you think of the new Apple Watches? What do you think about audio intelligence? And will you be upgrading

Let us know in the comments. Thanks for watching, like and subscribe as always, and I'll see you in the next one