In a handful of hours, Apple is holding its big annual September event. You’d think the rumor mill would slow down at some point, but it hasn’t.
Everyone expects to see new iPhones and some other fun stuff as well. Those details are more or less set in stone. There are little things in the margins, though, such as device prices, colors, and specs, that are still leaking out ahead of time. Here are some last-minute rumors to catch up on before the show at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
We may have a name and price for the foldable iPhone
In a last-second report for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman revealed that the foldable iPhone will be called the iPhone Duo and will launch at $2,000 for 256GB of storage. That’s quite a bit less than expected, and Gurman said that Apple will be eating some of the higher memory costs.
He also says the two colors for the device are white and a dark blue, and that shipments will come “as early as October.” It should also have Apple Pencil support, per Gurman.
Leaked iPhone 18 Pro and Ultra cases, with one device notably missing
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Last week, a handful of third-party phone accessory makers posted renders of cases for the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and Ultra phones. While the renders are almost certainly not real photos of the phones, they do give us an idea of what to expect in terms of size and shape, especially for the foldable Ultra. As has been rumored for months, it appears to be a short, wide foldable with two cameras on the rear.
These iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max case leaks included four colors: deep burgundy, light gray, black, and misty blue, all of which have been previously reported as colors for those devices. The only slightly weird thing here is that there are no renders of the base-model iPhone 18. It’s becoming more and more expected around the tech world that Apple will wait until next spring to launch the base iPhone 18, giving the Pro and Ultra models more time to shine this fall.
Mashable Light Speed
No AirPods with cameras at “Surprise and Shine” event
In the same report where he revealed the foldable iPhone’s name and price, Gurman also predicted that the rumored AirPods with cameras will not be released at today’s event. Instead, Gurman said the new AirPods 5 will be revealed, with the camera-equipped AirPods Pro Ultra coming soon after.
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A video of the new AirPods with cameras leaked back in August, suggesting a release is indeed imminent, even if it doesn’t happen today.
Late-coming foldable iPhone specs
An earlier Gurman interview also contained some basic specs for the device, which line up with what we’ve been hearing for a while now. Gurman said to expect a 5.5-inch outer display and a 7.8-inch inner display. He also said the phone will have MagSafe support, which had been a big question mark prior to this interview. He compared the hinge to those on recent Samsung foldables, which means it likely won’t be completely invisible, but it will be close enough.
Price hikes may not be as big as we thought
Following reports that the iPhone Duo could have an average price of over $2,500, and rumors that the new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max could see $200 to $300 price increases, the latest report from Gurman predicted softer price increases of around $100.
That would definitely be good news amid the global memory crisis, though Apple has been preparing us for iPhone price increases for months.
No major Apple Watch updates
We already reported that the new Apple Watch Series 12 (not to mention a new SE and Ultra) won’t see major changes this year. However, we do have some tidbits, including the existence of a new health app designed to help the Apple Watch compete with trendy screen-free wearables like the Whoop and Oura ring.
Follow our Apple event live blog to catch up on the latest news and announcements from the “Surprise and Shine” keynote, with live updates from Apple Park.
