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The Apple Watch Series 9, 45mm version, in aluminum with the new Snoopy watch face.

Apple is releasing new Apple Watch models, called Series 9, on Friday.

The new Apple Watches look nearly identical to older models. This year’s version comes in the same two display sizes as last year — 41mm and 45mm — and it can still monitor your heart rate, record workouts, and display notifications from a paired iPhone. There’s also a higher-end version made out of titanium, called the Ultra.

I’ve been testing a 45mm aluminium Apple Watch Series 9 for a few days.

If you’ve ever had an Apple Watch, the new models won’t be a major surprise — Apple’s wearable continues to excel at fitness tracking and boasts tight integration with the iPhone. There aren’t new sensors on this year’s watches, the design remains the same as it’s been since 2018, and the screen is the same size as it’s been since 2021.

But the Series 9 comes with a faster chip that enables new features, including a major improvement to Siri and a gesture that should make it easier to use with your hands full, which offers a preview of how people may interact with Apple’s Vision Pro VR headset. They’re the same price as last year’s models.

Here’s what’s new in this year’s Apple Watches:

Double tap gesture

The biggest new change on the new Apple Watch is a new way to interact with it: a gesture that doesn’t require tapping the screen or pressing a button.

It’s called “double tap,” and it’s simple to use: Raise your arm up, like you’re checking the time, to activate the Apple Watch, then click your thumb and index finger twice. In testing, I found it also worked with my middle finger. Sensors inside the Apple Watch, including the accelerometer and heart rate sensor, detect that you’ve tapped, an icon appears on the top of the Watch home screen, and you feel a little bit of haptic feedback.

What it looks like when you double tap to stop a timer. The icon at the top of the screen appears when the watch recognizes the gesture.

Screenshot/CNBC

This is the first time that the Apple Watch has been able to sense a gesture made with the user’s hands, except for a few niche accessibility features. Apple says the feature is convenient to interact with your watch when your hands are busy, like if you’re walking the dog or holding a coffee.

In most Apple Watch apps, the double tap selects the primary action, or the most obvious button. When you do it on your watch face, by default, it brings up a new scrolling screen of widgets with weather, Apple News headlines, and calendar appointments.

The tap motion also stops alarms, ends phone calls, and can even trigger the iPhone’s shutter button, depending on which Watch app you’re using.

The most useful example is when you start a workout — a run, or a long walk — and forget to start it on the watch. The device often picks up that you’re working out and asks if you want to log the workout. Now, instead of tapping on the device’s screen, you can just raise your watch and double tap to start the workout.

In testing, I didn’t find the double tap to be an indispensable daily gesture for me, although it was fun to play around with, and the haptic feedback when it works is satisfying.

Nor did I find the “smart stack” widget that the double tap brings up to be that useful — I generally don’t like widgets, and the suggestions it made by default were not helpful, like a card with tips for my new Apple Watch. The individual widgets are selected through machine learning, so it could get better with use.

The gesture also requires the Apple Watch interface to be activated, with its backlight on. You can’t just double tap when your arm is at your side. Instead, you have to raise your arm to wake the display first, then tap your fingers twice, which makes it feel like a much more exaggerated motion.

In an interesting twist, the “double tap” is a nearly identical gesture to the main way to select things on the Vision Pro, Apple’s VR headset that’s coming out next year. Apple has framed that device as a “new era for computing” based on its user interface, a concept it calls “spatial computing.” The Vision Pro uses sophisticated sensors detect hand motions and other gestures, allowing the user to interact with it in 3D space, rather than simply by tapping a screen. The new Apple Watch gives a glimpse into that world.

From a pure technology perspective, it shows that as Apple introduces its version of mixed reality through its headset, it will also be bringing parts of that user interface to its other products that already ship in the tens of millions.

Double tap won’t be on by default with the Watches going on sale Friday. Instead, it will be activated through a software update in the coming month, specifically for the latest watches. Apple provided an Apple Watch Series 9 with pre-release software for this review.

What the hand gesture looks like to do a double tap on Apple Watch Series 9.

Kif Leswing/CNBC

Siri on device and faster chip

The other big improvement in this year’s watches is an updated central chip, which Apple calls a System-in-Package, or SiP. It has 60% more transistors, according to Apple, and a 30% faster GPU.

The old Apple Watches always seemed responsive enough to me, and the chip doesn’t make the watch immediately feel snappier, but it’s the first major update to the Watch’s processor in a number of years. Most notably, it enables a much faster Siri which doesn’t need to be connected to the internet.

Now, when you give a voice command to your watch, your command is processed on the device, from translating it from spoken word to text to understanding what it’s asking for. If Siri doesn’t need to connect to the internet, the whole command can happen without a cellular or WiFi connection.

The main thing I noticed is that on-device Siri feels much quicker when responding. In the past, I’ve avoided using my Apple Watch as a Siri interface because I found commands can time out with a weak Wi-Fi connection. I found myself preferring my Apple Watch over a HomePod or my phone for simple tasks like setting a kitchen timer, or quick questions like finding out when a particular game is on TV.

The on-device processing also allows Siri to access your health data, which Apple typically protects by default. Siri on the watch couldn’t do things like log weight through a voice command or tell you whether you took your medications because it had to be sent to the cloud for processing. On-device Siri will be very convenient for people who need to check a vital stat or log data on a daily basis.

Brighter display

The other big hardware improvement to the Apple Watch Series 9 is a brighter display. Apple says the new models can go up to 2000 nits of brightness, versus 1000 for last year’s models.

In indoors environments, like a home or office, the brighter display won’t be particularly noticeable. Where you can notice it is outdoors, in direct sunlight, where the brighter panel on the new devices pops a little bit more, and makes text, especially in white, slightly more solid-looking.

Apple Watches don’t allow the user to choose a specific brightness level, but instead offer one of four different settings that auto-adjusts based on the exterior conditions.

It’s nice-to-have but not a must-have upgrade, especially since many people don’t have their Apple Watches set to the maximum brightness to begin with. But people who spend all day outdoors with their watches will appreciate it, and I’d rather have the brighter screen than not have it.

Should you buy it?

This year isn’t a big year for the Apple Watch — there’s no new design or sensor that would lead people to covet the latest model. The old watches, like the new ones, still can track sleep, alert authorities if you’re in a crash, show notifications, and download apps.

At $399 for the smallest screen and $429 for the larger version, the Apple Watch Series 9 isn’t a cheap upgrade for a faster chip and a brighter display. This year, Apple also released an updated low-end Apple Watch, the SE, which at $249 and up matches what Apple Watches from a few years ago can do, but without this year’s improvements like the double tap gesture or the new chip.

I think that most people getting an Apple Watch for the first time should get a mainstream Apple Watch Series 9 over the SE if they can afford it — it will likely last longer and will be more capable to receive new features in the coming years.

Users may also wonder whether it’s worthwhile paying the additional $400 to get an Apple Watch Ultra, which has a longer battery life and several features for serious athletes. The Ultra got an update with the new chip this year, but CNBC didn’t get to test it.

One group of users who might want to upgrade even if they have last year’s versions are people who are invested in Apple’s ecosystem and want to see how the company may embrace new kinds of user interfaces, like with the double tap gesture. If you’re planning to get a $3499 Vision Pro headset, a $400 watch is not a huge expense if you want a preview of how Apple’s gestures work.

But ultimately, for most people with current Apple Watches that are in working order, I don’t think the Series 9 is a necessary upgrade.

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Waymo to begin testing in Philadelphia with safety drivers behind the wheel

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Waymo to begin testing in Philadelphia with safety drivers behind the wheel

A Waymo autonomous self-driving Jaguar electric vehicle sits parked at an EVgo charging station in Los Angeles, California, on May 15, 2024.

Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

Waymo said it will begin testing in Philadelphia, with a limited fleet of vehicles and human safety drivers behind the wheel.

“This city is a National Treasure,” Waymo wrote in a post on X on Monday. “It’s a city of love, where eagles fly with a gritty spirit and cheese that spreads and cheese that steaks. Our road trip continues to Philly next.”

The Alphabet-owned company confirmed to CNBC that it will be testing in Pennsylvania’s largest city through the fall, adding that the initial fleet of cars will be manually driven through the more complex parts of Philadelphia, including downtown and on freeways.

“Folks will see our vehicles driving at all hours throughout various neighborhoods, from North Central to Eastwick, and from University City to as far east as the Delaware River,” a Waymo spokesperson said.

With its so-called road trips, Waymo seeks to collect mapping data and evaluate how its autonomous technology, Waymo Driver, performs in new environments, handling traffic patterns and local infrastructure. Road trips are often used a way for the company to gauge whether it can potentially offer a paid ride share service in a particular location.

The expanded testing, which will go through the fall, comes as Waymo aims for a broader rollout. Last month, the company announced plans to drive vehicles manually in New York for testing, marking the first step toward potentially cracking the largest U.S. city. Waymo applied for a permit with the New York City Department of Transportation to operate autonomously with a trained specialist behind the wheel in Manhattan. State law currently doesn’t allow for such driverless operations.

Waymo One provides more than 250,000 paid trips each week across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas, and is preparing to bring fully autonomous rides to Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, D.C., in 2026.

Alphabet has been under pressure to monetize artificial intelligence products as it bolsters spending on infrastructure. Alphabet’s “Other Bets” segment, which includes Waymo, brought in revenue of $1.65 billion in 2024, up from $1.53 billion in 2023. However, the segment lost $4.44 billion last year, compared to a loss of $4.09 billion the previous year.

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Trump advisor Navarro rips Apple’s Tim Cook for not moving production out of China fast enough

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Trump advisor Navarro rips Apple's Tim Cook for not moving production out of China fast enough

Peter Navarro: 'Inconceivable' that Apple could not produce iPhones outside China

White House trade advisor Peter Navarro chastised Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday over the company’s response to pressure from the Trump administration to make more of its products outside of China.

“Going back to the first Trump term, Tim Cook has continually asked for more time in order to move his factories out of China,” Navarro said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “I mean it’s the longest-running soap opera in Silicon Valley.”

CNBC has reached out to Apple for comment on Navarro’s criticism.

President Donald Trump has in recent months ramped up demands for Apple to move production of its iconic iPhone to the U.S. from overseas. Apple’s flagship phone is produced primarily in China, but the company has increasingly boosted production in India, partly to avoid the higher cost of Trump’s tariffs.

Trump in May warned Apple would have to pay a tariff of 25% or more for iPhones made outside the U.S. In separate remarks, Trump said he told Cook, “I don’t want you building in India.”

Read more CNBC tech news

Analysts and supply chain experts have argued it would be impossible for Apple to completely move iPhone production to the U.S. By some estimates, a U.S.-made iPhone could cost as much as $3,500.

Navarro said Cook isn’t shifting production out of China quickly enough.

“With all these new advanced manufacturing techniques and the way things are moving with AI and things like that, it’s inconceivable to me that Tim Cook could not produce his iPhones elsewhere around the world and in this country,” Navarro said.

Apple currently makes very few products in the U.S. During Trump’s first term, Apple extended its commitment to assemble the $3,000 Mac Pro in Texas.

In February, Apple said it would spend $500 billion within the U.S., including on assembling some AI servers.

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CoreWeave to acquire Core Scientific in $9 billion all-stock deal

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CoreWeave to acquire Core Scientific in  billion all-stock deal

CoreWeave founders Brian Venturo, at left in sweatshirt, and Mike Intrator slap five after ringing the opening bell at Nasdaq headquarters in New York on March 28, 2025.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Artificial intelligence hyperscaler CoreWeave said Monday it will acquire Core Scientific, a leading data center infrastructure provider, in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $9 billion.

Coreweave stock fell about 4% on Monday while Core Scientific stock plummeted about 20%. Shares of both companies rallied at the end of June after the Wall Street Journal reported that talks were underway for an acquisition.

The deal strengthens CoreWeave’s position in the AI arms race by bringing critical infrastructure in-house.

CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator said the move will eliminate $10 billion in future lease obligations and significantly enhance operating efficiency.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.

Read more CNBC tech news

The deal expands CoreWeave’s access to power and real estate, giving it ownership of 1.3 gigawatts of gross capacity across Core Scientific’s U.S. data center footprint, with another gigawatt available for future growth.

Core Scientific has increasingly focused on high-performance compute workloads since emerging from bankruptcy and relisting on the Nasdaq in 2024.

Core Scientific shareholders will receive 0.1235 CoreWeave shares for each share they hold — implying a $20.40 per-share valuation and a 66% premium to Core Scientific’s closing stock price before deal talks were reported.

After closing, Core Scientific shareholders will own less than 10% of the combined company.

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