Apple this week announced its annual iPhone event for Wednesday, September 9, at Apple Park in Cupertino and also unveiled updated Mac mini and Mac Studio models. The event, titled “Surprise and Shine,” is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time with select members of the media invited to attend. Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and a foldable iPhone that could be called the iPhone Ultra; Apple will not release an iPhone 18 this year, instead waiting until spring 2027 to launch more affordable models.
Apple event and iPhone lineup
Apple confirmed the September 9 event and the tagline “Surprise and Shine.” Anticipation centers on a foldable iPhone, reportedly referred to internally as the iPhone Ultra, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that early testers are impressed by the foldable device’s pocketability, hinge feel and durability, as well as iPad-like app layouts on the larger internal display. Testers have praised its performance as a camera viewfinder, but Gurman notes the device lacks a telephoto lens, a shortcoming that could affect sales.
New Mac mini with M6 and M5 Pro chips
Apple announced a next-generation Mac mini configurable with a new M6 chip or with the M5 Pro chip introduced earlier in the year. The M6 features a 12-core CPU and a 12-core GPU (versus 10-core CPU and GPU in the M5), and introduces a dual Neural Engine with two 16-core engines. The M6 offers up to 170GB/s of memory bandwidth, up from 153GB/s for the M5. Apple said the Mac mini with M6 delivers up to 40% faster CPU performance, up to 4× faster performance for AI tasks, up to 2× faster graphics and up to 2× faster storage speeds compared with the previous-generation model equipped with a 10-core M4 chip, 32GB of unified memory and 2TB of storage.
Mac Studio gains M5 Max and M5 Ultra
Apple also updated the Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips, the latter described as the company’s most powerful chip to date. The M5 Ultra can include an up to 36-core CPU composed of 12 super cores and 24 performance cores, and Apple says it delivers up to 1.25× higher single-threaded performance and up to 1.3× higher multithreaded performance than the M3 Ultra in the previous-generation Mac Studio. The new Mac Studio adopts a next-generation SSD architecture built on PCIe Gen 6 that Apple says is up to twice as fast as before, adds Thunderbolt 5 ports with up to 120Gb/s bandwidth, and introduces Wi‑Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 via Apple’s N1 chip. The machine also supports genlock over USB-C and can drive up to eight displays.
Accessories, keyboards and other updates
Apple refreshed its Polishing Cloth with a version that is described as slightly softer and thinner and priced at $9, half the price of the original cloth. In addition, most U.S. English Magic Keyboards received updates that replace text labels on edge keys such as Tab, Caps Lock, Shift and Return with glyphs.
Apple TV service price increase
Apple raised the U.S. price of its Apple TV streaming service by $2 per month and $20 per year, effective immediately, marking the fourth price increase since the service’s launch. The new pricing is $14.99 per month (up from $12.99) and $119 per year (up from $99). The Apple One Individual bundle has also increased to $21.95 per month (up from $19.95). Apple said the same Apple TV price adjustments apply today in Brazil, Chile and Mexico; no other countries were affected in this round.
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