Another year, another Apple event that showcases the next line of iPhones and Apple Watches. Apple debuted the iPhones XS and the XS Max today at its official Apple Event. They’re pretty much identical to last year’s iPhone X, save for the gold color scheme option and the fact that the Max is practically a tablet at 6.5 inches across. There’s also the more “affordable” option of the iPhone XR, which comes with some slimmed down features of the two other models.
But, on Twitter, people were asking how to pronounce the new iPhones. X is a Roman numeral for 10, and Apple has traditionally pronounced the iPhone X as “10”. Add an “S” to the name, though, and now you have “iPhone 10 S”. When an Apple executive pronounced the name of the phone during the event today, it sounded a lot like “iPhone Tennis”. This led to a lot of obvious jokes and memes.
IPHONE TENNIS MAX pic.twitter.com/2gGRhvOe6w
— Joshua Vergara (@jvtechtea) September 12, 2018
Seriously keep thinking he’s saying “iPhone Tennis” and I’m like YOU CAN’T MAKE ME DO EXERCISE, APPLE #AppleEvent
— Emily Flake (@EmilyFlake) September 12, 2018
Customer: I would like to buy an iPhone tens max.
— D.M. Moore (@Kiey) September 12, 2018
Max: How many iPhones tens do you want?
C: No, I want a ten s max.
Max: We don’t sell tennis equipment here, you’ll need to go to the Sports Authority.
C: No, I don’t want tennis I want a TEN S MAX!
Max: Third base.
Ah, yes. iPhone Tennis Max.
— Max Scoville (@MaxScoville) September 12, 2018
My doppelgänger.
My nemesis.
Someday, I will defeat him. pic.twitter.com/Z5syM3gD7K
iPhone Tennis Smacks
— Bradford Dillon (@jbradforddillon) September 12, 2018
For the Apple users who pronounce the iPhone X as “X” rather than 10, there’s a whole other joke for the XS: it sounds like “excess”.
The iPhone Excess is the perfect name for a $1000+ phone. https://t.co/BD8XYCoU7e
— JT Terán (@jt_teran) September 12, 2018
“iPhone excess”
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) September 12, 2018
“iPhone excess max”
“iPhone ex arrrrr” https://t.co/hI6bWjpUhZ
the new iPhone is literally called “excess.” capitalism inches closer to self-awareness
— alex furlin (@thefurlinator) September 12, 2018
Apple also debuted the fourth generation of Apple Watches, detailing an incredible amount of info on how the watches collect data to improve your day-to-day activities. Most notably, Apple says the Apple Watch Series 4 will be able to detect when you fall and call an emergency contact. It can even recognize if you’re lying still after a fall.
In the long tradition of Apple playing catch up features already implemented by other companies, Twitter took a moment to call out the original life saving device, Life Alert, of ‘help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” fame.
Apple just invented Life Alert #applewatch pic.twitter.com/GxYl7S7Wdu
— alex medina (@mrmedina) September 12, 2018
Apple Watch Series 4 detects falling and can alert your emergency contacts.
— Troy Osinoff 🕺 (@yo) September 12, 2018
Apple taking on Life Alert #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/hjStIRyQ8c
Apple: “We can now detect a fall”
— J. Martin (@stealth_j_m) September 12, 2018
LifeAlert: … Ah crap…#AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/lUPe1Ylzxs
https://twitter.com/babydoughnutboy/status/1039942887805472768
Apple CEO Tim Cook also managed to mildly prank the internet with a fake Twitter fail, tweeting out “No. Who can get it here quickly?” What resulted was a silly Mission Impossible spoof.
