Commentary: We got the new iPhone 16, new Watches and AirPods, but where was the star power?

Tech events are some of the most exciting things I cover here at CNET. There’s nothing quite like the thrill and chaos of a new phone release or software feature drop. Apple’s Glowtime event this week introduced the new iPhone 16, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch with the new Series 10 and announced its next generation of AirPods Pros will have hearing aid capabilities. 

Events like these set the tone for a company — and the industry — on what the future of hardware and software entails. Of course, the predominant theme this year was AI, particularly mobile AI in the Samsung Galaxy S24 line and in the new Google Pixels, too. Apple’s AI Apple Intelligence did get a brief shoutout and showed off a new feature, visual intelligence, which lets you use your camera to scan the things around you to learn more about them.

There’s been another, less technological trend, at tech events this year: celebrity cameos. During the lead up to Apple’s event, I was wondering who Apple might bring out to spice up its event. Taylor Swift seemed unlikely given her schedule (but a girl can dream!). Maybe someone from the NFL since football season just began? Charli XCX, with some kind of brat reference? I might even settle for OpenAI’s Sam Altman taking the stage with Tim Cook to talk about the ChatGPT integration coming with Apple Intelligence — CNET did spot him at WWDC earlier this year, after all.

Unfortunately for me, the answer was no one. It’s made extra disappointing by the fact that Samsung and Google absolutely knocked it out of the park earlier this summer with surprising and engaging celebrity cameos.

Samsung’s Unpacked event in July featured its ambassador Sydney Sweeney, who made a surprise cameo during a demo of a new AI image editing tool. Samsung Unpacked was held at the Louvre in July and introduced many, many AI features included with the new Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Fold 6. Even if Sweeney didn’t look overly thrilled to be there, her unexpected appearance brought some fun into a deluge of AI features. 

Made by Google, which introduced the new Pixel lineup, also had some fun star surprises. Keke Palmer popped out on stage during an AI demo to plug the company’s official after party that she hosted. Jimmy Butler also popped out to showcase how the Add Me Pixel camera feature could merge multiple people into one photo. During Google I/O earlier this year, in-person attendants had fun with the preshow DJ, Marc Rebillet.

Apple was on the right track when it showed a clip of The Weeknd’s new music video that used its visual intelligence. But the clip was only a minute long and the subject was more the video’s director, not the superstar himself. It didn’t inject any life or personality into the presentation, which is the whole purpose of including a celebrity cameo. It’s hard to imagine Apple couldn’t pull off a cameo if it wanted to — last year’s event featured Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer in one video — which means it must not have wanted to. We could’ve had someone like Olympic gold medalist Stephen Nedoroscik (pommel horse guy himself!), who CNET spotted in the demo room with Tim Cook.

That makes it even more disappointing that the presentation was given by a rotating cast of executives with prerecorded spiels. That’s fine, but given that the summer’s events had live demos and celebrity guests, it made Apple’s event monotonous and boring by comparison. If tech companies are going to make us sit through two hours of jargon-laced. AI-heavy sales pitches, we should at least get a celebrity cameo to liven things up.