Apple launches new iPhones next month. What's inside the phone is a much bigger deal.

Courtesy of Joanna Stern; Tyler Le/BI

Apple has been promising a new, improved Siri for two years. It's finally coming out next month.

Meanwhile, Apple veteran Jony Ive is working on a "family" of new gadgets for OpenAI. We should see the first one next year.

These are both meaningful developments for consumers, says veteran gadget-watcher Joanna Stern.

Gadgets have gotten pretty boring over the past few years. We've gotten a few unsuccessful attempts at AI devices . And every 12 months, we get a new iPhone that's basically indistinguishable from the last iPhone.

Which makes the next few months pretty interesting. In September, Apple is expected to release its new operating system, featuring a fully revamped Siri that's supposed to be genuinely useful.

And sometime in early 2027, we're expected to see the first gadget from OpenAI — a doughnut-shaped thing the size of a hockey puck that could cost $300 or more.

I'm not sold at all on the OpenAI gadget, because I don't see how it will be meaningfully different from a phone without a screen. And I'm quite intrigued by the new Siri, because if it delivers on its promise, it will make my existing iPhone way more useful.

But who cares what I think? What about professional gadget watchers, like Joanna Stern?

Stern was the primary consumer technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal, where she succeeded the legendary Walt Mossberg. Now she's off doing her own thing — New Things , a video/newsletter operation that seems like it's off to a fast start .

She's also spent a bunch of time thinking about OpenAI's yet-to-be-announced device, and playing with the new Siri. She's enthusiastic about both.

I talked to Stern about all of that, as well as launching her new business and how to make high-quality video on a (relative) shoestring budget, for my Channels podcast. The following is an edited excerpt of our conversation.

Peter Kafka: The reporting about the new, yet-to-be announced gadget from OpenAI , designed by Jony Ive , is that it's going to be a smart speaker . Why a smart speaker?

Joanna Stern: I recently interviewed OpenAI president Greg Brockman . A big focus of the conversation was on voice, and these devices.

And of course he didn't tell me much, but he did focus on a phrase, which he said a couple times — "a family of devices." So I think for the first one out of the gate, a speaker is easiest for a company that hasn't made much hardware before.

I think that makes the most sense for them — both in terms of complexity of what they're doing, and the focus on voice-only, no screen. This is a device that you can carry around with you and talk to all the time.

This idea that it doesn't have a screen being a plus: Is that Jony Ive, making amends for bringing us the iPhone? Or that lots of people in tech think screens are bad for us, and that people will appreciate not having a screen? Because I think people love screens .

The question is: Where's the location you're gonna be using this screenless device? I'm assuming it has some sort of small battery inside, and it's pretty portable, right? It's not going to just live in your kitchen or your bathroom.

So maybe you tote this thing around a little bit. And so that might give you more freedom to step away from your iPhone or your Android phone and talk to AI. Maybe you bring your speaker in the car, maybe you bring your speaker to some other part of your house or wherever you may be working, and interact with it in a different way.

And it has cameras, so maybe you can point your speaker in front of the thing and ask questions about it. Maybe you're in your home and you need to work on something, and you ask your speaker, "Hey, look at my broken outlet. What do you think I need to do here?" That's, that's my guess.

But again: I wonder if they've over-indexed on this idea of an anti-screen backlash — that they think we're all dying to get rid of our screens. Which is not what you see when you take a flight, get on the subway, or stand in a line.

There was this moment in the Brockman interview where somebody brings him a laptop because he's going to do a demo on the new voice interface, and he seems disgusted at the laptop. He's like, "These devices are so annoying."

As someone who loves laptops, I probably should've asked a little bit more about why he hates his laptop. But I kinda saw where he was going there: Why do we need to have this big thing if I just want to demo voice for you?

And I think that kind of hints at where they are going: Maybe this thing will connect to all of your ChatGPT apps — desktop, laptop, phone — and you'll be able to say to it, "Hey, go make me that memo" or "go make me that presentation." The idea that you're freeing yourself from your screens — but you're going to come back to your screens.

By buying another device .

Are you more sold on glasses ?

I am much more interested in that , because as I get older, I'm wearing glasses more often. So if you're going to make glasses more useful, great. But so far, all of the glasses I've seen require you to have a phone as well. If I could swap out my phone for my glasses …

The history of this kind of technology — I talk a little bit about this in my book — is that we don't usually lose the devices that came before. We didn't lose the laptop when we got the smartphone.

Apple will have new devices this fall, one of which is supposed to be a foldable phone . But I think the bigger deal is the new Siri — the one they promised a couple of years ago. The pitch is more or less: Siri is finally going to do all the things you thought it should have been able to do for years . You've tried it. Does the claim hold up?

I believe that claim holds up. I've been using the iOS 27 beta since June. There are still some old Siri quirks, but the capabilities of the new Siri just push you to use it so much more. You want to use it.

Give me an example.

A lot of it is based on the fact that it can look through any...

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