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Amazon has brought back a pre-order discount on the base M6 Mac mini (16GB/256GB), now priced at $879.99 ahead of next week's release, alongside a similar deal on the 24GB configuration. The retailer is also matching an all-time low of $330 off Apple's 2026 Studio Display XDR, part of a wider batch of discounts covering AirPods 5, AirPods Pro 3, the M5 MacBook Air, and a Thunderbolt 5 dock.
Apple will use 14 iPhone 18 Pro devices to film Friday's Giants-Dodgers game, the season's final Friday Night Baseball broadcast, placing units around Dodger Stadium including the pitch clock, backstop, foul pole and bullpens. Eight of the phones will stream footage live via a dedicated T-Mobile Private 5G Network, capturing batting practice, player introductions and dugout views alongside the main gameplay.
Apple is selling refurbished Apple TV 4K units at reduced prices amid broader hardware price increases in 2026. The 64GB third-generation model now costs $169, a $30 cut from its regular price, while the 128GB version with an Ethernet port is down to $209, a $40 savings. Both refurbished units carry the same one-year warranty as new devices.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has opened an official online store selling branded merchandise, including T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, mouse mats, and even a bottle of Chardonnay. He announced the launch himself on X, describing it as a way to share some of his personality and bring fans a bit of enjoyment.
Apple's Series 12 smartwatch introduces a single-tap hand gesture for navigating Smart Stack widgets alongside existing double-tap and wrist-flick controls. It also debuts a new Health Sensing System with 32 ECG electrodes, ring-arranged photodiodes, and larger LEDs, enabling heart rate readings every five seconds and HRV readings every five minutes, up from every five minutes and two hours respectively on Series 11. The new S11 chip also improves step-tracking accuracy and adds a real-time Steps complication to the watch face.
Apple's latest Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 keep familiar shapes but introduce a new underlying Health Sensing System aimed at improving health tracking accuracy. The Series 12 gets a roughly 2% smaller display area, a slightly wider case, Ceramic Shield 2 glass on aluminum models, and four new aluminum finishes including Dark Bronze and Light Gold. Ultra 4 retains its titanium build in Natural and Black finishes.
Apple's Series 12 keeps the same screen size and case dimensions as the Series 11 but adds a returning Ceramic case option in white or blue, Ceramic Shield 2 on aluminum models, and new color choices including dark bronze and radiant gold. The bigger change is an overhauled 'health sensing system' with a larger skin-contact area and more diodes, electrodes and sensors packed into the same footprint.
Despite stepping down as Apple CEO, Tim Cook has kept the responsibility of engaging with governments as part of his new executive chairman title. Bloomberg reports Cook, along with OpenAI's Sam Altman, will attend a White House state dinner honoring Chinese President Xi Jinping amid tense US-China relations over AI, trade and geopolitics.
Apple is reportedly building custom AI servers around future M8 Ultra chips, planned in two- and four-chip configurations, and is evaluating Nvidia's NVLink Fusion for high-speed interconnects between them. The project, said to have started roughly a year ago under former hardware chief John Ternus, aims to replace Apple's existing in-house connectivity tech, which is reportedly too slow and expensive for large-scale deployment.
Reported battery capacity figures for Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 Pro suggest only incremental improvements over the current lineup, according to leaks circulating ahead of launch. The numbers imply Apple still trails some rivals, including Samsung, on long-term battery durability and capacity growth.
Apple is reportedly exploring an AI inference server using future M8 Ultra chips, in configurations of two or four chips, and is debating whether to use Nvidia's NVLink Fusion to link them instead of its own interconnect methods. Any product wouldn't ship before 2029 and could be canceled. The plan follows rising demand from AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic, which have bought or rented large numbers of Mac mini and Mac Studio units for reinforcement-learning workloads.
Apple's iOS 27 update introduces the ability to shrink or expand the clock on the iPhone lock screen, building on previous features like removable controls and movable widgets. Users can now toggle between a compact clock near the top and an enlarged version that takes up roughly a third of the screen, adjustable through the Wallpaper settings menu.