Apple's true hit of 2024 isn't the iPhone 16

Apple's unsung hero of the fall is the AirPods 4.

- JOHN MOLTZ

As a long-time iPhone mini fan (insert your own "THERE ARE DOZENS OF US!" gif here, I'm too bitter to find one), I have sat out a number of new iPhone purchasing opportunities over the last few years.

The rent is too high and the phones are too big.

This year, however, knowing that I would have to eventually give in to Big Phone™, the addition of the Camera Control button on the iPhone 16 got me. I ordered an iPhone 16. It's nice. I like it. Is it too big? Yes, it's too big. It's also not the most exciting thing I bought that came out of Apple's September event.

NOW HEAR THIS

The other thing I bought was the jauntily named AirPods 4 with ANC (fave.co/3YBXGNR). (What's wrong with AirPods 4+, Apple?) These new devices don't do anything the AirPods Pro didn't already do-they do less-but there are two types of ears in this world: ones that can handle plug-style earphones and ones that can't, and mine cannot. The AirPods 4 with ANC are AirPods Pro for the rest of us.