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Tech News
Apple introduced a new AppleCare One Family tier priced at $50 per month, covering eligible devices belonging to up to six people through Family Sharing. The plan includes standard AppleCare+ perks like free battery swaps and accidental damage repairs, but limits theft and loss claims to six per year across the whole group.
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, unveiled at its 'Surprise and shine' event, introduce a mechanical variable aperture camera with four selectable f-stops plus an automatic mode. Testing at Apple Park showed the feature can produce sharp starburst effects around bright light sources, a result of how the physical aperture blades converge when stopped down.
Apple detailed its A20 Pro chip, which will power the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone Duo. Built on a 2nm process, the chip features a six-core CPU with two new 'super cores' up to 20% faster than the A19 Pro, a redesigned seven-core GPU with 40% better graphics performance, and a dual Neural Engine offering twice the AI compute of its predecessor. Apple also boosted memory bandwidth by 50% and added neural accelerators to every CPU core.
Apple unveiled two new AirPods 5 models at its Surprise and Shine event, bringing Active Noise Cancellation to its standard earbuds lineup starting at $129. The new models feature a redesigned acoustic architecture, deeper Siri AI integration, improved transparency mode, and better dust and water resistance rated IP57, up from IP54 on the AirPods 4.
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max introduce a mechanical variable aperture ranging from f/1.48 to f/4, alongside new manual controls for shutter speed, white balance, and focus built directly into the native camera app. These capabilities previously required third-party apps like Halide, but are now integrated natively.
The September 9, 2026 episode of 9to5Mac Daily summarizes the day's top Apple stories, notably coverage of the newly unveiled iPhone 18 Pro and a device referred to as the iPhone Duo. The episode is sponsored by task-management app Stuff and device-management platform iMazing, which is offering a 20% discount via a promo code.
Samsung reports that the proportion of iOS users switching to its new Galaxy Z Fold8 series is 1.6 times higher than for last year's Fold7 and Flip7, according to a company spokesperson. The disclosure comes days after Apple unveiled its first foldable iPhone, one of the first major launches under new CEO John Ternus. Samsung also said 30% of U.S. Z Flip8 buyers came from rival brands and highlighted an upgraded Smart Switch tool that lets iPhone users transfer data via QR code without installing an app.
Apple introduced the iPhone Duo, its debut foldable device, pairing a 7.6-inch inner Super Retina XDR display with a 5.4-inch outer screen. The inner panel uses a matte nano-texture coating that hides the fold crease and cuts glare, and reviewers noted a smooth hinge and a gradual blur animation when opening or closing the device. Pre-orders begin October 16, with a full launch on October 23 starting at $1,999 for 256GB.
At its annual iPhone event, Apple unveiled only premium models — the foldable iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max — skipping both a base iPhone 18 and a successor to last year's slim iPhone 17 Air. The Air had offered a lighter, cheaper middle option at $999 with fewer cameras and a smaller battery, but it won't return this cycle despite reportedly weak sales.
A developer profiling Apple's M3 Neural Engine found an RTL performance bug that cuts DRAM weight-streaming speed from a normal 45-60 GB/s down to just 17-19 GB/s whenever a model's total weight size lands on an exact multiple of 1 MiB, affecting 7 of the 15 models in the ANEMLL project. By rerouting around the flawed speculative prefetch path in the kernel's DMA engine, the developer restored full throughput, more than doubling token generation speeds for Llama 3.2 1B and Qwen3-8B.
Apple's new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, available for pre-order now and shipping September 18, introduce an Audio Intelligence system that can transcribe and summarize ambient conversations through features called Live Rewind and Siri Recap. The devices also add Sound Recognition for accessibility alerts and automatic Shazam-based Music Recognition, with both conversation-focused tools entering beta in late 2026.
Apple's latest product event introduced hardware like the Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4, AirPods 5, iPhone 18 Pro models, and the foldable iPhone Duo, but not everything ships immediately. While the Watch and AirPods models arrive September 18 alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone Duo won't ship until October 23, and several Apple Intelligence features—including expanded Siri AI language support—won't roll out until later in 2026.