All the news from Apple’s ‘Surprise and shine’ event – The Verge

Hands-on with the foldable iPhone Duo

2026-09-09T14:45:02-04:00

The first foldable iPhone is finally here, and following its announcement, we got the chance to try the phone for ourselves. We've long been told that Apple would make a foldable iPhone once the tech was good enough - has it been worth the wait?

It definitely feels like something different. The inner screen has a decidedly matte finish that handled even some glare from the windows above the hands-on area well. The folding mechanism is smooth, and even IP68 rated, and the crease is almost impossible to find with my finger. The 5.4-inch outer screen looks petite by modern slab phone standards.

The real show happens when you open and close t …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple is raising iPhone prices by $100 on all of its old models

2026-09-09T14:35:19-04:00

Following Apple's "Surprise and shine" event that saw the announcement of the iPhone Duo and the iPhone 18 Pro, the company increased the price on all of its last-gen iPhones that are still available for purchase.

The iPhone 16 sold for $699 just last week, and now it's up to $799. The iPhone 17E with 256GB of storage now costs $699 instead of its launch $599 price. The iPhone 17 starts at $899 with 256GB of storage instead of $799. The trend continues up the ladder with the iPhone Air, which now costs $1,099 instead of $999.

The base iPhone 18 was missing from Apple's September event, with the focus being on its highest-end models that s …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple iPhone Duo launch event: The 5 biggest announcements

2026-09-09T14:50:20-04:00

Apple just wrapped up its first iPhone launch event with CEO John Ternus at the helm, and it did not disappoint. We got a look at Apple's long-rumored foldable iPhone Duo, along with the next generation of AirPods and the Apple Watch.

Here's a roundup of all the biggest announcements from the event.

Apple's first foldable: the iPhone Duo

Apple's "one more thing" at this year's event was the iPhone Duo - a passport-shaped foldable that lays flat when opened. The device is Apple's "thinnest iPhone yet," coming with a 7.6-inch inner display and a 5.4-inch outer screen. It will also support Apple Pencil "later this year" and comes with Touch …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple skips the base iPhone 18 at its fall launch event

2026-09-09T14:32:37-04:00

The successor to the iPhone 17 isn’t arriving this fall. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple is taking the unusual step of skipping the base iPhone 18 this fall. At its "surprise and shine" event today, the company revealed the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, alongside a new foldable iPhone Duo. But the base iPhone 18 was a no-show. Rumors had suggested Apple would only launch premium iPhones this fall, with the base model slipping to next spring.

Instead of announcing the iPhone 18 today, Apple has put the prices of its existing iPhone 17 models up by $100. Even the older iPhone 16 that's still on sale has gone up by $100 compared to last week, back to its original $799 starting price.

Memory and chip shortages likely contribute …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple brought ceramic back for the Series 12

2026-09-09T14:19:02-04:00

The new ceramic colors: pearl white and night blue. | Image: The Verge via Apple

The Apple Watch Series 12 is launching with a ceramic option, making it the company's first wearable since 2019's Series 5 that can be configured with the pricey, scratch-resistant material. It can be configured with either pearl white or night blue ceramic finishes, and it starts at $899, going up to $949 if you purchase the 46mm size.

While Apple didn't resurrect its "Apple Watch Edition" branding for the Series 12 (it stopped using the name in a forward-facing manner when the Series 4 launched), the new ceramic option is similarly made for high rollers who won't mind shelling out far more than the Series 12's $399 starting price.

It's i …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple completely revamped iOS 27’s controls and apps for the iPhone Duo

2026-09-09T14:48:26-04:00

Obviously, part of the appeal of a foldable phone is all that additional screen real estate. That gives you plenty of room for some serious multitasking that just isn't possible, or at the very least is clunky, on a smaller screen. Apple rarely does things without seriously considering all the implications, so it was never just going to shove iOS as is into its new foldable.

The company didn't have to start from scratch or reinvent the wheel, however. It already had a mobile OS capable of multitasking in iPadOS, which was built on iOS to begin with. The company even said that the iPhone Duo was designed to be "as natural and intuitive as iP …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Apple Watch Ultra 4 is ready for the new Siri

2026-09-09T14:50:07-04:00

Apple announced the next version of the rugged and durable Apple Watch Ultra at today's "Surprise and shine" event.

The Apple Watch Ultra 4 features a design that's nearly identical to last year's Apple Watch Ultra 3 but is powered by Apple's new S11 processor, which replaces the aging S10 chip first introduced with the Apple Watch Series 10 in 2024. The S11 will bring some much-needed performance improvements to the Ultra 4 ahead of Apple's upcoming watchOS 27 release that will include the smarter and more capable Siri AI assistant announced at Apple's annual WWDC conference earlier this year.

The Apple Watch Ultra 4 features an improved …

Read the full story at The Verge.

iOS 27 launches on September 14th with Siri AI

2026-09-09T14:16:26-04:00

Apple is launching its next iOS 27 update on Monday September 14th. The headline feature is Siri AI, the delayed AI-powered overhaul of the Siri assistant. Siri AI is rolling out with iOS 27 as a beta, available initially for English-only devices. Apple says support for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish is coming in October.

Siri AI isn't the only big feature in iOS 27, though. Apple is adding a new Liquid Glass opacity slider that lets you pick between a clearer UI or a more frosty one. A lot of built-in apps are also getting new icon designs, with subtle tweaks to colors.

Apple is also adding extra large widgets, the abil …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple Watch Series 12 has an always-on Siri that makes AI recaps of your day

2026-09-09T14:24:54-04:00

Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 12 at its September 9th launch event, with Siri AI-powered Audio Intelligence as the highlight feature. The new abilities include a Live Rewind feature that allows users to replay the last 15 seconds of recently detected audio and view a text transcript of it on their watch by double-pressing on its Digital Crown button. There's also a Siri Recap feature that uses "ambient listening" to take notes on audio from your watch, with summaries in the Siri app.

Apple:

Sound Recognition, which comes to Apple Watch to alert users who are deaf or hard of hearing of important sounds, even when their iPhone isn' …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple announces AirPods 5 with ‘best-in-class open‑ear active noise cancellation’

2026-09-09T13:51:34-04:00

The two new Apple AirPods 5 models both include active noise cancellation. | Image: Apple

Today, Apple announced the AirPods 5, updates to the AirPods 4 series that was first released in 2024. Apple says the new buds feature "best-in-class open‑ear active noise cancellation."

The AirPods 5 are redesigned with a new acoustic architecture, upgrades to adaptive active noise cancellation (ANC) with 50 percent better noise reduction than the AirPods 4, and improved sound.

A second model includes on-stem control - the first time Apple's open-ear design includes it - allowing for volume adjustment by swiping up and down. It also has a longer battery life that provides up to five hours of playback - one hour more than the AirPods 4 wit …

Read the full story at The Verge.