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Apple Event Live Blog: Folding iPhone, Apple Watch Series 12, AirPods, and More

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Why This Matters

Apple's fall showcase is expected to introduce its first folding iPhone, rumored to be called the iPhone Ultra with a price above $2,000, alongside new Pro models and updated Apple Watches. The reported delay of the cheaper iPhone 18 line into next year signals how manufacturing costs and the industry-wide memory crunch are pushing Apple toward premium devices. New Siri AI features and on-device chips will be the software story consumers should watch.

Key Takeaways
Worth a Look

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Good morning everyone! Welcome to our live coverage of today's Apple media showcase.

We will have two reporters on the scene at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, to bring you live coverage. You'll be hearing from Julian Chokkattu, Boutayna Chokrane, Lauren Goode, Reece Rogers, and Michael Calore throughout the event. We might have some special guests pop in as well. We’ll be posting frequent news updates here, with the highlights also going on our social platforms.

Apple's presentation begins at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern, and 6 pm in the UK. We have a complete rundown on how to watch the show and what to expect.

Come back approximately 30 minutes before the presentation starts—about 9:30 am in California—and you'll see the words on this page replaced by a feed of our live updates.

A Folding iPhone Today

The short version of what to expect: The folding variant of the iPhone should make its debut today. The word around Silicon Valley is that it’s expected to be named the iPhone Ultra and that it will likely cost more than $2,000.

We’ll probably also see a Pro version iPhone today, and we can expect the folding iPhone and the Pro models to go on sale later in September.

What about the base model iPhone 18? That might not arrive until early next year, though Apple might tease it today. The longer wait could be because of a number of factors, including rising manufacturing costs and the ongoing memory crisis affecting the whole PC industry. Also, delaying the next generation of cheaper iPhones—the 18, the 18e, and the Air—would give Apple an opportunity to promote its premium handsets more heavily.

It’s also likely we’ll see the newest Apple Watch and Watch Ultra models debut at today’s event.

Both the new iPhones and the new Apple Watches will be getting some additional capabilities enabled by Siri AI, the newest version of Apple’s artificially intelligent assistant. So, expect lots of talk about the beefed-up new chips in these devices as well as “on-device AI,” secure computing, and battery optimization. Siri AI is actually powerful and impressive in our testing of the beta version, but just like the various Siris that came before it, there are limits to how helpful it can really be in your day-to-day life.

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