Apple event 2026 live updates: The first foldable iPhone and more in real time

Our editors are on the ground trying out Apple’s new tech (yes, very much the Duo). Stay tuned for a full recap soon.

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One of our sleuthy writers noticed Apple quietly raised the price of the iPhone 17 from $799 to $899 amidst all the event excitement.

The Duo resembles both an iPhone and an iPad, but it’s neither. As our writer and resident skeptic Taylor Clemons said in the group chat, “This honestly feels too big to be a phone and too small to be a tablet.”

The UI and dimensions look strange, but I think that’s only because it’s not snapping to the forms we’re used to.

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The Duo is Apple’s most expensive phone ever unveiled, but it’s still less than some projections, so…girl math?

The subject can see themselves in the photo with the phone extended, and kids can see an animation to prompt their attention to the lens for the shot. 

Honestly, that’s way too big a screen for FaceTime. 

Screenshot by Joseph Maldonado/ZDNET

iPhone Duo features Apple’s new C2 cellular modem, its most advanced yet, with 50% faster uploads than the C1 and 5G mmWave support in the US. 

Screenshot by Joseph Maldonado/ZDNET

That looks like a nightmare for my carpal tunnel.

Screenshot by Joseph Maldonado/ZDNET

Running on A20 Pro, the iPhone Duo supports intuitive controls and multitasking across multiple windows that you can swap between, like on the iPad.

Consumers who preferred foldables were previously relegated to the Android ecosystem. The iPhone Duo changes all that, particularly with its mature approach to many of the same features (multitasking, split screen) that were pioneered by Apple’s competitors.

Screenshot by Joseph Maldonado/ZDNET

The outer screen features a vertical dock on the right side of the 5.4-inch display.

Apple designed the iPhone Duo with a 4:3 aspect ratio on both the external and internal displays. When open, the iPhone Duo is the thinnest iPhone ever, according to Apple, and features a 7.6-inch display.

The foldable iPhone Duo will support the Apple Pencil later this year, according to Apple.

Screenshot by Joseph Maldonado/ZDNET

The Duo’s FaceTime camera fits behind the display and is all but invisible when the phone is fully extended. When folding the phone, the cover screen mimics what’s on the extended display, creating the illusion that it’s a clear window.

Screenshot by Joseph Maldonado/ZDNET

So it’s a folding iPad Mini they shoehorned calling and texting into.

The Apple Watch Series 12 starts at $399 and features improved heart rate sensing and Audio Intelligence capabilities, powered by the S11 chip. Preorders start today, with orders shipping on Sept. 18.

The Apple Watch Ultra 4 starts at $799 and supports up to 2 days of battery life, is available in Black and Natural Titanium, and features the S11 chip. It’s open for preorder today, orders shipping on launch day, Sept. 18.

Screenshot by Joseph Maldonado/ZDNET

Audio Intelligence harnesses Apple Intelligence with sound recognition on the Apple Watch. It senses on-device AI to identify and notify the user of sounds in the environment like doorbells or sirens.

Siri Recap uses “ambient listening” to passively listen to conversations and then generate summaries and key points, which will be delivered in the Siri app. You can choose when this feature is listening and set it to specific times, or turn it off or on in the control center. 

Screenshot by Joseph Maldonado/ZDNET

The Apple Watch Series 12 tests heart rate variability (HRV) every five minutes, which is 24 times more frequent than its predecessor.  

Screenshot by Joseph Maldonado/ZDNET

AirPods 5 now come with automatic active noise cancellation. This results in 50% more noise reduction than the previous generation. They’re available for pre-order today, with shipping on Sept. 18th.

iPhone 18 Pro will start at $1199 with the 256GB storage configuration. The iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299, and the iPhone 18 Pro will be available for pre-order on Saturday, Sept. 12th, and will ship on Sept. 18th.

The iPhone 18 Pro features an upgraded, smaller, and smarter Dynamic Island that can show up to three live activities at once. 

In addition to bringing on Google’s SynthID, Apple introduced “Apple Reference Image,” a type of watermark used to verify a photo’s authenticity. Apple said it works similarly to having a negative image to prove ownership.

The iPhone 18 Pro has a 48MP Fusion main camera with variable aperture, a system that lets you manually control the aperture via a rotor mechanism. This system allows you to manually set the aperture to achieve a greater or shallower depth of field while maintaining image quality in low-light conditions.

Apple said the iPhone 18 Pro features the largest increase in battery life of any smartphone on the market. It added that it will get a 50% charge in 15 minutes with fast charging, while five minutes of charging provides six hours of video.  

The iPhone 18 Pro features 40% faster performance than the iPhone 17 Pro and up to 24 hours of battery life on a single charge. 

The iPhone 18’s A20 Pro processor features a 6-core CPU that’s 20% faster than its predecessor. It also features a 7-core GPU and a second neural engine with 32 cores — leveraging a 50% increase in memory bandwidth, Apple said.

Apple announced the A20 Pro, a 7-core GPU with custom packaging inspired by M-series chips, connected directly to the thermal chamber for improved efficiency. It features a 32-core neural engine, offering twice the AI processing power of the A19 Pro chip.

In the Photos app, you can now recompose and reframe images, with generative AI creating the content for you in editing. 

Siri’s new voice customization comes with complex sliders and visual dials to fine-tune the way the voice sounds, its accent, and gender.

Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, immediately noting it’s been designed around Siri AI. iPhone 18 Pro launches in four new colorways: Deep Black, Silver, Glacier (a light blue) and Burgundy.

John Ternus kicks off focusing on Apple’s ultra-private “personal intelligence” advantage, positioning the company’s device-first AI as the most secure option on the market.

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

We’re seated and ready for the keynote!

Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus posted a short teaser on X showing a light shining down on what looks like (to me) to be a camera lens, although it could also be the crease on the rumored foldable phone. 

Either way, Ternus is kicking off his run as CEO with the hype train. 

Navigating to the official iPhone buy page brings up a “Be right back” announcement as Apple loads new products on its digital shelves. It will likely come back online with new phones right as the event kicks off at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST).

Nina Raemont/ZDNET

Sleep scores have been a popularized health-tracking feature for a few years now, but it wasn’t until last year that Apple launched them on its smartwatches. Now, a year later, Apple is seemingly building on this gamified approach to wellness metrics by adding a readiness app. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the company is introducing a Readiness app to the Apple Watch, similar to the Vitals app, which monitors temperature, breathing rate, heart rate, heart rate variability, and sleep duration. 

This update could close the gap between the Apple Watch and its health-tracking competition, specifically Oura Ring, Pixel Watch, Whoop, and Fitbit, which have used this data-rich and gamified form of wellness analysis to boost engagement and get users more obsessed with their health metrics. 

Similar to Sleep Scores, I’m predicting that the Readiness app will generate its score by aggregating a select group of metrics – perhaps previous day activity, resting heart rate and variability, sleep score, and more – to formulate a rating. After using Apple’s Sleep Score feature several times on the Apple Watch, I like how it’s a bit more generous than the Oura Ring, Whoop, or Pixel Watch, and is geared more toward rewarding balance and consistency than it is at rewarding the lowest possible heart rate dip during the night.

A recent report from Mark Gurman’s Bloomberg reveals that the foldable iPhone will be called the iPhone Duo. In the same article, Gurman reports that the device will start at $2,000, with larger storage options raising the price to nearly $3,000.

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It’s highly unlikely we’ll see AirPods with cameras debut today. I’d be surprised if Apple unveiled the feature in its AirPods 5 and not the AirPods Pro 4. Rumors suggest that the fifth-generation base model earbuds will be a fairly boring update. But who knows, maybe this is one of many Ternus surprises…

I’m most curious about a rumor I saw from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. He’s said that Apple is trying to reinvent some of the health info Apple Watch measures to be a bit more like newer names in health wearables, specifically Oura and Whoop.

Apple has prioritized scientific and FDA-cleared features, like its sleep apnea detection, potential hypertension detection, ECG app, and irregular heart rhythm feature. It was only last year that sleep scores were introduced to the smartwatch. This development arrived a few years after the scoring mechanism became a given in health trackers.

How can Apple keep its scientific health-tracking roots while also leaning into the more experimental health features du jour?

The iPhone hasn’t changed much since it debuted. Sure, its battery and size has increased, and it got a few new colors, but a foldable iPhone would be a major structural change to the iPhone lineup. The rumored Ultra could shake up how Apple users interact with their devices in a completely new way.