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So here's something I didn't expect to be doing this year: flying to Jakarta, Indonesia to take part in an experiential event by Apple. Yes, that Apple. At a beautiful villa event space, I got a hands-on with their entire iOS 26 lineup, from the iPhone 17 series to the AirPods Pro 3 and the latest Apple Watches.
Starting With Some Zen
We were each given a pair of AirPods Pro 3 and guided to open the Mindfulness app on our paired iPhones. The session was simple: close your eyes, focus on your breathing, and let the guided meditation walk you through a few minutes of calm. But here's where Apple flexed – halfway through the session, they wanted to demonstrate just how powerful the noise cancellation really is.
They played the sound of a helicopter blasting through the speakers around the room. But with the AirPods Pro 3 sealed in our ears? Nothing. Subdued silence. Apple's claiming up to 2x more noise removal compared to previous models, and after that helicopter demonstration, I think this is true.
Speaking of the AirPods Pro 3, they're supposedly the most secure-fitting AirPods ever. Apple's made them smaller in volume – which was my first concern because wouldn't smaller mean easier to fall out? – but they've completely redesigned the ear tip geometry, aligning it to the centre of the body for increased stability.
They now come in five sizes of ear tips, including a new XXS option. For those of us with smaller ear canals who've been struggling with even the small tips feeling a bit loose, this is a game-changer. There's also this Acoustic Seal Test feature built into the settings that helps you figure out if you've got the right fit. It plays a series of tones and measures how well your ear tips are sealing – if the seal isn't optimal, it recommends trying a different size. It's brilliant because the right fit isn't just about comfort; it directly impacts sound quality and how effective that noise cancellation actually is.
Here's where it got fun. The staff organised this interactive game where they hid our paired iPhones around the room, and we had to use our Apple Watches to find them using the Find My function. It sounds simple, but in such a fully-furnished room, watching the Precision Finding feature show you distance and direction, was genuinely entertaining. You can also just ping your iPhone directly from the watch by pressing the side button and tapping the iPhone icon – super handy for those everyday moments when your phone's buried under couch cushions.
New Camera Features
The 18MP Center Stage front camera across the iPhone 17 lineup no longer requires you to awkwardly position your phone for landscape selfies anymore. You can just hold it vertically and the camera can detect if it's a big group and adjust the frame accordingly to fit everyone in.
We got to speak directly with Apple's Jon McCormack (Vice President of Camera and Photos Software Engineering) and Megan Nash (iPhone Product Manager) about the selfie-changing feature. Check out the interview below:
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But this is where my favourite feature comes into play: Spatial Photography, which creates these 3D-like photos in portrait mode.
Here's how it works: you need a subject positioned between the foreground and background. Take your shot, go into your gallery, tap "Spatial" in the top right corner, and your photo comes alive with every rotate of your screen.
I played around with this throughout the event and I'm kind of obssessed. You can even set these spatial photos as your iPhone wallpaper, and there's this new 3D effect where the time dynamically adapts to your photo.
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They've also updated Photographic Styles with better colour adjustments. There's a new Bright style that adds softness to highlights and makes skin tones and skies look more luminous. It works across different complexions really well, which is something that's often overlooked.
Apple Watch Gets Smarter
The Apple Watch section showed off some solid updates too. There's a redesigned watch face gallery with new options like Exactograph – this modern take on traditional regulator clocks that separates hours, minutes, and seconds. The Workout app got its biggest update since launch, with four new corner buttons for easier access to custom workouts, workout views, and features like Pacer and Race Route.
The gestures are getting better too. Double Tap (tapping index finger and thumb twice) lets you answer calls or scroll through your Smart Stack. Wrist Flick dismisses notifications or mutes calls.
There's also a new Sleep Score feature that tracks duration, bedtime consistency, and wake-up frequency to help you understand your sleep quality better. As someone who's always curious about sleep metrics, I'm interested to see how this compares to other trackers.
Look, it's not everyday that you get to learn directly from Apple themselves and it's not everyday that you get to try out these features for yourself.
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