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Cloud-based smart homes have been the norm for over a decade now. There are inherent problems with cloud-based smart devices though, with privacy being at the forefront of those issues. UGREEN just surprised everyone and announced the first turnkey local smart home hub that actually matters.

Just how much will the foldable iPhone Ultra cost? That's the biggest lingering question ahead of Apple's big iPhone launch event on Sept. 9.

Leaks point to a price of $2,000 or more, and now, a new report from the analysts at the market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC) projects an average selling price of $2,550. The IDC has a solid reputation and is well known for its mobile market research in particular.

The foldable iPhone Ultra is a brand new product category for Apple, so there's no baseline to say how much it could cost. However, the latest IDC report backs reports that the iPhone Ultra will launch at above $2,000.

We should note that the iPhone Ultra won't necessarily set you back $2,550. The average selling price could be quite a bit higher than the starting price, as many consumers will pay more for configurations with more storage. Despite the high price, the IDC projects that Apple will sell more than 17 million iPhone Ultras by the end of 2027 and bring in more than $45.7 billion from the foldable.

"Apple’s entry into the foldable market has done more than reignite growth in a category that was losing momentum," said Nabila Popal, Senior Research Director of IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker in a statement. "It has fundamentally altered the market’s trajectory. Without Apple, foldable shipments would have declined at a double-digit rate year over year." 

The $2,550 estimate gives us a clearer idea of what to expect from the iPhone Ultra. Some Apple analysts have projected a $2,399 launch price for the iPhone Ultra, and it could cost up to $3,000 with more storage.

IDC projects that Apple will capture around 40 percent of the global foldable market and account for more than half of the total value of foldables.

According to the IDC, the iPhone Ultra is expected to be such a hit that it will propel the foldable market forward as the only mobile category that experiences growth in 2026. The firm expects the rest of the global smartphone market to decline this year due to higher prices driven by ongoing global memory shortages.

"Perhaps most notably, Apple is positioned to challenge Huawei and Samsung for leadership in markets where they have long dominated, an extraordinary outcome for a product expected to be less than two years into its lifecycle," Popal said.

Top Apple Deals we found this week:

• Apple AirTag 2 (4-Pack) — $79.99 $99 (save $20)

• Apple AirPods 4 — $99 $129 (save $30)

• Apple iPad Air 11-inch (M4) — $649 $749 (save $100)

• Apple iPhone Air (256GB, unlocked) — $849.99 $999.99 (save $150)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,849 $1,999 (save $150)

• Shop all the best Apple Labor Day deals

A year after the launch of GPT-5, OpenAI has announced the arrival of GPT-6 Astra, which will begin rolling out immediately. The AI company called Astra "the world’s most intelligent and aligned model."

OpenAI Astra marks a new generation of models for the AI company, but also carries new risks.

The day before Astra's launch, OpenAI confirmed that Astra had been deemed a "critical" cybersecurity risk, but that the company would move ahead with a launch with safeguards in place. The company's Preparedness Framework tracks risk in three domains (chemical/biological, self-improvement, and cybersecurity), and an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to Mashable that Astra is the first OpenAI model to be designated a critical risk — the highest threat level — in any domain.

Strangely, in its blog post announcing Astra, OpenAI did not call Astra its most advanced model, but only "the most capable model we have ever broadly deployed." The company also released a detailed system card outlining the model's training and safety risks.

How to try GPT-6 Astra

OpenAI will be rolling out GPT-6 starting today, though it may not be available to everyday users right away.

OpenAI said that GPT-6 Astra will be available at launch to select organizations, but that it will be available to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users "over the coming days." It will also be available via the OpenAI API and AWS.

The API pricing will be:

• $10 per million input tokens

• $50 per million output tokens

You can learn more about pricing and availability at the GPT-6 Astra webpage.

GPT-6 Astra: Cybersecurity and safety

OpenAI wrote that "with the right tools and access, GPT‑6 Astra can find previously unknown security flaws and develop new ways to exploit them across many well-protected systems without a person guiding each step." As a result, Astra's most advanced cybersecurity skills will only be available to a select group of testing partners, and OpenAI said it's tightened security around the model as well. Per OpenAI, these safeguards are designed to prevent two outcomes:

• Stopping malicious actors from using Astra to develop new exploits or carry out cyberattacks against critical systems

• Stopping the "model itself [from] causing cyber harm when taking an unauthorized (or misaligned) action"

On the ExploitBench cybersecurity benchmarking test, OpenAI reports that GPT-6 achieves a perfect 100 percent score, even at its lowest-tested reasoning level. On the ExploitGym Honeypot benchmarking test, OpenAI reported a perfect 0.0 percent score.

GPT-6 shows significant improvement over GPT 5.6 Sol on the ExploitBench benchmarking test. Credit: OpenAI

Despite posing existential cybersecurity risks, OpenAI said in its announcement that GPT-6 is generally safer than its recent predecessors. In particular, the company said, "GPT‑6 Astra is significantly safer in higher-risk scenarios."

The GPT-6 Astra system card reports better scores on safety evaluations measuring risks such as promoting emotional reliance in users, engaging with self-harm requests, and inappropriate responses to users under 18.

OpenAI says Astra achieved higher scores than other recent models in safety evaluations (higher scores are better). Credit: OpenAI

At the same time, OpenAI admitted that "GPT‑6 Astra’s monitorability has decreased relative to GPT‑5.6 Sol," meaning that the model may be more difficult to understand and control.

"We have found that GPT‑6 Astra is more capable of controlling its own [chain of thought] CoT than GPT‑5.6 Sol, and less likely to include incriminating information in its CoT," reads an OpenAI blog post. "In adversarial settings (where we push the model to evade our monitors) we find that the model is able to remain undetected when strategically underperforming in evaluations (sandbagging) and can sometimes evade our internal monitors when asked to perform certain sabotage tasks."

GPT-6 Astra: Hallucination rate

OpenAI provided fewer details on the hallucination and factuality rates of GPT-6. In previous system cards, OpenAI provided specifics about its models' propensity for inventing facts or repeating users' own misinformation.

That being said, the system card states that GPT-6 has made strides in this regard, generating fewer mistruths and hallucinations than GPT-5.6 Sol and other recent models.

Credit: OpenAI

"We find that Astra makes substantially fewer factual errors than GPT-5.6 Sol and is significantly less likely to reproduce user-reported hallucinations. These improvements are particularly pronounced at very low latency and reasoning settings."

Hallucinations remain one of the most stubborn problems with AI models.

GPT-6 Astra: Benchmark performance

OpenAI released benchmark scores for GPT-6 Astra, showing marked improvement on most common benchmarking tests compared to both GPT-5.6 Sol and Fable 5.1, which Anthropic released earlier this week. Notably, GPT-6 Astra scored lower on Humanity's Last Exam (with tools).

Highlights include:

• Terminal-Bench Science 0.1: 64.6 percent

• FrontierMath Tier 4 (v2): 97.6 percent

• GPQA Diamond: 96.0 percent

• Humanity's Last Exam (w/ tools): 57.2 percent

• ExploitBench: 100 percent

• Exploit Gym: 42.4 percent

• ARC-AGI-1: 98.5 percent

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Once you've applied for more than a handful of jobs, keeping track of them can become a job in itself. You need to remember where you applied, when you applied, how you applied, who you spoke to, what the salary was, and whether you ever heard back.

Classroom technology is the focus of a new report from the American Psychological Association (APA), which argues we should be focusing less on bans and more on the specific harms of flashy new tech.

The report, which includes a long list of findings and recommendations for educators and parents regarding all kinds of EdTech, hones in on a new genre of educational technology that increasingly relies on game-like features such as earned rewards, flashy graphics, and customizable avatars to increase student engagement.

In the absence of authoritative scientific evidence, the association cautions against tools — including AI-powered ones — that claim to improve intelligence, thinking, or learning writ large.

SEE ALSO: Mamdani's AI ban may not be enough to protect NYC students Screen time can be misleading

Raw screen time numbers, whether too much or too little, aren't an effective indication of how well a student is learning, the report authors found. "What young people do on screens matters as much as, or more than, how long they spend on them," the report reads.

Likewise, a student's perceived engagement or confidence with a program isn't enough to gauge whether they will have positive learning outcomes. Basically, a student winning an educational game or completing assignments effectively does not directly translate into becoming smarter, according to the APA.

Instead, the APA urges educators to test how well students can apply learned skills in real-world contexts outside of the technology itself, whether it's an app, computer game, or chatbot. If students struggle, the report says, the tech has failed.

To this end, the association recommends school districts evaluate new classroom technology on its ability to foster "durable knowledge and skills," and encourages schools to steer clear of tech that enables multitasking, relies on self-management from students, and has human-like qualities.

Be wary of AI and gamification

The APA urges educators and parents to exercise even greater caution with generative AI. "AI can help a student produce a better essay, but the improved final product does not necessarily mean the student has become a better writer," said Nicole Barnes, APA’s executive lead psychologist for education, in a press release. "Just as we need to separate engagement from learning, we will increasingly need to separate performance from learning."

The APA also joined other groups in calling for greater investment in AI literacy among young learners, teachers, and parents. Recently, coalitions of parents and educators have lobbied for AI moratoriums that curb the introduction of generative AI tools and promote digital and AI literacy programs as a precursor. Both New York City and Los Angeles's chool systems have instituted partial pauses on AI and reductions in screen time for the 2026-2027 school year.

Child psychologists have long warned about the impact of lifelong screen time and personal devices on children as they age through school. As criticism of social media's impact on young minds has increased, so too have warnings about platform features designed to grab and retain attention. These include controversial design elements like autoplay, recommendation algorithms, and tailored advertising.

Many of these features replicate the motivational structures of gaming, more commonly referred to as "gamification." The concept has been put under the microscope by advocates across industries, many of whom argue that constant, dopamine-driven reward systems are degrading critical cognitive skills and executive functioning.

The Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL bring back notification lights with a feature called HiLight. It's a nice touch, but Google isn't the first to modernize this idea, and its version currently trails what's already on the market.

Most Windows users just want to get to the desktop, so they blindly accept whatever Microsoft wants them to install. That indifference is exactly what Microsoft is counting on, and it's shaped the OS for years in ways that frustrate people who actually pay attention. If people paid more attention to what was going on, Windows wouldn't have nearly as much bloat as it does now, and it would be much faster.

It's that time of the weekend again, time to start thinking of what Raspberry Pi projects you're going to be working on before Monday rolls around! Today, I'm showing three unique projects that can run on either a Pi Pico or a full-size Pi.

If you've got a Galaxy Z Fold you aren't using anymore and don't plan to sell, you can put it to good use even if its screens no longer work. Thanks to the phone's versatility, courtesy of its massive foldable display and beefy hardware that's quite capable even in older Galaxy Z Fold models, the most popular foldable around can fulfill a variety of roles.

Best Labor Day home and furniture deals Best home deal Roborock Saros 10R Robot Vacuum $899.99 (Save $700) Get Deal Best smart home deal Amazon Echo Spot $69.99 (Save $40) Get Deal Best furniture deal Hokku Designs Heffernan 106-inch Modular Sofa $1,280 (Save $937) Get Deal Best kitchen deal Chefman Air Fryer $69.96 (Save $50.03) Get Deal

Brands are launching their pumpkin-spiced flavors, so you know what that means — summer is coming to an end. I know, we can't believe it either. But if you're holding onto the last bits of summer, you better be enjoying Labor Day weekend to its fullest. That means getting outside, but it also means taking advantage of all those Labor Day sales.

Virtually every retailer, from Amazon to Costco, has major savings right now. If you're particularly in the market for some upgrades around the home, we've rounded up the best savings on everything you need for a refresh. While Amazon is often a go-to for low prices, for major savings on furniture, make sure to check out Wayfair and Anthropologie, too.

Whether you're in the market for a new robot vacuum, air fryer, or an Echo device, here are all the best home and furniture Labor Day savings to shop now.

Best Labor Day home deal Opens in a new window Credit: Roborock Roborock Saros 10R Robot Vacuum $899.99 at Amazon
$1,599.99 Save $700   Get Deal

Now that summer is coming to a close, it's all about falling back into routines. If you have a busy schedule ahead of you, then take one thing off your plate: cleaning your floors. The Roborock Saros 10R robot vacuum keeps your floors clean. It has an ultra-thin design to navigate under and around furniture. Plus, it's a mop too, and even self-washes its mop pads, so you can rest assured your floors stay sparkling.

Usually $1,599.99, during Amazon's Labor Day sale, the Roborock Saros 10R robot vacuum is down to $899.99, saving you nearly half its price. Shop now and save $700.

Air care Labor Day deals

• Levoit 36-inch Tower Fan — $54.93 $74.99 (save $20.06)

• Levoit Core 300-P Air Purifier — $84.99 $99.99 (save $15)

• Blueair Blue Pure 511i Max Air Purifier — $99.99 $139.99 (save $40)

Bedding Labor Day deals

• Puredown Goose Down Pillow Set — $51.89 $61.99 (save $10.10)

• Bedsure Bamboo Sheets — $59.99 $73.14 (save $13.15)

• Coop Home Goods Adjustable Pillow — $71.20 $89 (save $17.80)

• Anthropologie Organic Cotton Percale Sheet Set — $110.60 $158 (save $47.40)

• Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Ergo Neck Pillow — $113.90 $134 (save $20.10)

• Coop Home Goods Cool+ Adjustable Pillow — $127.20 $159 (save $31.80)

Floor care Labor Day deals

• Shark Rocket Pet Plus Corded Stick Vacuum — $149.99 $199.99 (save $50)

• Shark Steam & Scrub — $159 $189.99 (save $30.99)

• Roborock New Qrevo S Pro Robot Vacuum — $429.99 $699.99 (save $270)

• Dreame L40 Ultra Gen 2 Robot Vacuum — $499.99 $699.99 (save $200)

Best Labor Day smart home deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Echo Spot $69.99 at Amazon
$109.99 Save $40   Get Deal

All Amazon Echo devices are useful, but the Amazon Echo Spot makes itself crucial for your day-to-day. As an alarm clock and Echo device, it's an incredible addition to your bedroom, waking you up, playing music to jump-start your day, and telling you the weather report so you know how to dress for the day.

Right now, it's at a major discount — 36% off — perfect timing as many head into a new school year. Get the Amazon Echo Spot for $69.99, saving you $40 off its $109.99 list price.

More Labor Day smart home deals

• Amazon Echo Show 5 — $69.99 $99.99 (save $30)

• Amazon Echo Show 11 — $189.99 $249.99 (save $60)

• Amazon Echo Show 21 — $399.99 $499.99 (save $100)

Best Labor Day furniture deal Opens in a new window Credit: Wayfair Hokku Designs Heffernan 106-inch Modular Sofa $1,280 at Wayfair
$2,217 Save $937   Get Deal

While Amazon has lots of Labor Day savings, the best place to shop for furniture over Labor Day is at Wayfair. Right now, you can save over 40% on the Hokku Designs Heffernan 106-inch Modular Sofa. Usually $2,217, this modular sofa is just $1,280, which saves you $937. That's a great deal on a huge couch. It has plush cushions and can host a huge crew, perfect as you settle in for fall football and TV.

More Labor Day furniture deals

• Millwood Pines Lift Top Coffee Table — $79.99 $160.99 (save $81)

• Dakota Fields Chingford Indoor/Outdoor Hanging Egg Chair — $184.99 $219.99 (save $35)

• Anthropologie Dog Icon Side Table — $298.80 $498 (save $199.20)

• Anthropologie Irie Carmine Jacquard Oak Dining Chair — $398.40 $498 (save $99.60)

• Anthropologie Fern Marble Top Bookcase — $1,518.40 $1,898 (save $379.60)

• Anthropologie Sinclair Irena 80-inch Sofa — $3,428.60 $4,898 (save $1,469.40)

Best Labor Day kitchen deals Opens in a new window Credit: Chefman Chefman Air Fryer $69.96 at Amazon
$119.99 Save $50.03   Get Deal

Another thing that will make your life easier this fall? An air fryer. When you need dinner fast, an air fryer gets food crispy and fast. If you want to save on a new air fryer, Chefman's is majorly discounted. It's down to $69.96, which saves you $50.03.

The Chefman Air Fryer is six quarts and comes with four presets, so you don't even need to think about how long your food needs. Plus, it's so easy to clean as it has a dishwasher-safe basket.

More Labor Day kitchen deals

• Stanley Quencher ProTour Flipstraw Tumbler — $17.50 $40 (save $22.50)

• Keurig K-Mini Single Serve Coffee Maker — $49.99 $59.99 (save $10)

• Chefman Microwave Oven — $69.96 $99.99 (save $30.03)

• Ninja Nutri-Plus Personal Blender — $69.97 $89.99 (save $20.02)

• Cosori TurboBlaze Air Fryer — $89.99 $119.99 (save $30)

• Ninja Pro Air Fryer — $89.99 $129.99 (save $40)

• Instant Pot Duo Pressure Cooker — $89.99 $109.99 (save $20)

• Our Place Wonder Oven — $149 $185 (save $36)

• KitchenAid Artisan Tilt Stand Mixer — $399.96 $499.99 (save $100.03)

Every year, Hot Girl Summer arrives with the same promise that this will finally be the season when you meet someone. You’ll have a summer fling, fall in love on vacation, or somehow find your future boyfriend while drinking an Aperol spritz on a rooftop. Then Aug. starts winding down, you’re still single, and it can feel like you missed your chance.

But there’s no need to panic, because I’m here to tell you that fall is actually the best time of year to date. Let me make the case for something better: Flirty Fall.

SEE ALSO: 'I get so upset and frustrated': What dating is like on a GLP-1 Fall in love in the fall

Obviously, fall already has romance on its side. There’s a reason movies like When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail have made so many of us associate love with changing leaves, long walks, and really good sweaters. Hallmark has even built an entire "Fall Into Love" lineup around the premise that all anyone needs to find a partner is a charming small town and some sort of harvest festival.

The weather certainly helps sell the fantasy. It’s cool enough to spend an afternoon walking through the park without sweating through your outfit (and your blowout can actually survive the walk there), but it’s not so cold that every date has to take place inside. You can go apple picking, watch a football game, wander around a farmers' market, or spend a lazy day in the park before heading to a cozy restaurant for dinner in a turtleneck and red lipstick. Even the corniest fall activities give you something to do together besides sitting across from each other at a bar and exchanging résumés over a $25 cocktail.

I love all of that, and I’m not going to pretend that seeing someone in a really nice sweater has never affected my judgment. Still, I don’t think the clothes, weather, or seasonal activities are the main reason fall is so good for dating. The real advantage is much more practical.

In my opinion, summer may be a great time to meet people at a concert or local bar, but it can be a terrible time to actually get to know them. Everyone is traveling, spending weekends with friends, going to weddings, visiting family, or trying to squeeze every possible activity into the final few weeks of warm weather. One weekend you’re away, the next weekend they’re away, and suddenly you’ve been talking for a month but have only managed to go on one date.

Even when you genuinely like someone, it can be difficult to build any momentum when your routines are constantly being interrupted. You spend more time saying, "Let’s figure something out when we’re both back," than actually seeing each other, and by the time you are finally in the same city again, one of you may have lost interest or become distracted by something else.

Fall fixes a lot of that. Vacations slow down, work schedules become more predictable, and weekends stop filling up months in advance. Asking someone when they’re free no longer requires opening a shared Google Calendar, and you can see each other consistently enough to figure out whether there's actually something there.

Personally, returning to a routine makes me feel more motivated in general. I’m 27, but some part of my brain still treats Sept. like the beginning of a new school year. Once fall arrives, I suddenly want to clean my apartment, buy a new notebook, exercise regularly, cook meals with vegetables, and become the organized person I briefly convinced myself I would be back in Jan.

New season, new me

Some people call it "New Year’s for the girls" or, as TikTok Shop categorizes it, "Sept. reset." Whatever you call it, the idea is basically the same: Fall feels like a chance to get your life together after a summer when routines fell apart, and responsibilities became suggestions.

There is even some psychology behind that impulse. Researchers call it the "fresh start effect," which describes the increase in motivation people can experience after a meaningful point in time, such as the beginning of a week, month, year, or school semester. These moments help us mentally separate our current selves from our past selves, making it feel easier to start pursuing a goal again.

The research isn’t specifically about dating, but the connection makes sense to me. If you’re already thinking about the habits you want to build, the goals you’ve neglected, and the version of yourself you want to become during the final few months of the year, dating can easily become part of that reset. Maybe you finally redownload the app you deleted in June, agree to the setup your friend keeps suggesting, or simply become more open to meeting someone now that your schedule has calmed down.

And while there isn’t enough independent research to declare fall the official best season for love, dating app data suggests that people’s behavior and intentions really do change as the weather gets colder. According to OkCupid data, in 2023, the app saw a 26 percent increase from Oct. through Dec. in users saying they wanted to find their "forever person" rather than something casual. From June through Oct., meanwhile, it recorded a 14 percent decrease in people prioritizing love over sex.

Is it cuffing season yet?

The validity of "cuffing season," the time of year when single people supposedly start looking for someone to keep them company through winter, the holidays, and Valentine's Day, is contested. While some daters want to "uncuff" themselves for summer, others go into hibernation in the winter and want to find love in the warmer months instead. But there is something to be said for being "cuffed," a term from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "partnered." More than half of the OkCupid users surveyed by the company said in 2023 that they went on more dates during fall and winter than during spring and summer.

SEE ALSO: How to navigate cuffing season as a single person

Sometimes "cuffing season" carries a negative connotation, as if any relationship that starts in the fall is just a temporary arrangement to help two people survive winter without sinking into seasonal depression. But I don’t think people suddenly develop an interest in dating simply because the temperature drops. Maybe we aren’t all desperately searching for someone to keep us warm. Maybe we finally have the time and energy to give dating the attention it deserves.

Of course, that doesn’t mean every person you meet in Oct. will become the love of your life, and dating app data can only tell us so much about when real relationships begin. But the season may give you a chance to figure out if someone is worth pursuing rather than losing touch after a few Instagram Story likes.

So, if summer is winding down and you didn’t have the fling you expected or meet your future boyfriend over an Aperol spritz, have no fear. You have several months of good outfits and even better dates ahead of you.

Amazon's Fire TV streaming devices have been based on Android from the start, which made them an excellent choice for anyone who likes to tinker and modify things. Amazon subsidized the price of Fire TV streamers by monetizing them with ads and, of course, using them as a funnel for subscriptions and more Amazon purchases.

Every Excel power user knows that keyboard shortcuts are one of the best ways to speed up their workflow. But there's one problem: there are more than 200 of them. My way around this is to focus on a select handful that genuinely save me time, and Alt+; is high up that list.

Latest iPhone 18 rumors at a glance:

• Release date: We're expecting the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max to be announced at a Sept. 9 launch event, but rumor has it the iPhone 18 may not arrive until early 2027.

• Colors: Possible leaks point to four main color options for the Pro models this year: light blue, silver, dark gray/black, and dark cherry.

• Key upgrades: Besides iOS 27 and the Siri AI beta, we're expecting bigger batteries, major camera improvements (including variable aperture for the main camera), and a smaller Dynamic Island.

• Pricing: Most new phones have arrived with price increases in 2026, and we think a starting price increase is all but certain for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, sadly.

Apple's flagship smartphone hasn't taken a year off from its updates since 2007, and barring a massive surprise, 2026 won't be different — but according to the latest iPhone 18 rumors, there will be a twist this year.

The Cupertino-based tech giant is widely expected to launch a new lineup of iPhones later this year, including the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max, and the rumored iPhone Ultra, the company's first-ever foldable. We're also preparing for the updated operating system, iOS 27, and Siri AI. However, the regular iPhone 18, the 18e, and the new iPhone Air may not arrive until March 2027.

We should know for sure next week, as Apple recently confirmed its fall iPhone launch event will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 9. One of Mashable's reporters received an invite to the big show, and we'll be reporting live from Apple Park. This year's event has the tagline, "Surprise and Shine."

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As we await the Sept. 9 "Surprise and Shine" launch event, even more iPhone 18 rumors continue to trickle out. Ahead of the big reveal, here's everything we know so far about the upcoming Apple smartphones.

SEE ALSO: Apple reportedly working on anti-phone snatching security feature iPhone 18 lineup pricing

On Sept. 9, expect to see new Apple CEO John Ternus take the stage for the keynote. The devices he introduces, alas, may put more of a dent in your wallet.

Thanks to the ongoing RAM shortage caused by the AI industry (aka RAMageddon), tons of smartphones, laptops, and gaming consoles are seeing huge price hikes. Experts who've spoken to Mashable say that trend isn't going to stop anytime soon.

As the world's number-one smartphone maker, Apple has advantages over its rivals, but a price increase is extremely likely. Apple recently raised prices on a variety of its products, and outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook even took the unusual step of preparing us for a pricier iPhone.

"Price increases are unavoidable," Cook told the Wall Street Journal in a June interview. The Journal quoted an analysis showing that the memory chip components in the iPhone 18 Pro will cost Apple $150 more than those in the iPhone 17 Pro. For context, the market intelligence firm International Data Corporation just reported that Apple's memory costs for the iPhone have spiked by 400 percent.

Expect the phones to cost at least $100 to $150 more than their predecessors (check the iPhone 17 prices for reference). The Journal estimated the iPhone 18 Pro could cost $1,399, or $300 more than last year. Apple analysts are coming to similar conclusions; one research note seen by 9to5Mac predicted $250 to $300 price increases.

iPhone 18, 18 Pro, and 18 Ultra launch dates The iPhone 18 Pro Max smartphones at last year's iPhone launch event. Credit: CNET

Barring a huge turn under Ternus, we believe Apple will announce the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and the foldable iPhone Ultra on Sept. 9, followed by a release in mid-September. Last year, the iPhone 17 Pro Max was available in stores Sept. 19, for reference.

The iPhone 18, however, alongside the cheaper iPhone 18e, and the next-gen iPhone Air, are rumored to come next year, likely in March 2027. This possible delayed release is backed up a recent spanner-in-the-works report, which found several third-party companies have gone live with smartphone cases for iPhone 18 Pro and foldable iPhone Ultra devices but not the base iPhone 18.

iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Pro design

The pace of iPhone 18 leaks has definitely increased after a massive hack exposed thousands of Apple's internal documents, reportedly including iPhone 18 Pro suppliers and tests.

Apple itself hasn't released any official teasers or imagery for the iPhone 18 lineup yet, so anything reported to date could be wrong. Still, from the sum total of all reports, it sounds like Apple isn't really reinventing the wheel, design-wise. But Ternus, a hardware guy, is reportedly bringing the company's industrial design group into the center of the Apple fold.

Looking further into the future, the iPhone 20 is said to bring bigger changes, including a curved waterfall display.

Per our friends at CNET (Mashable and CNET are both owned by Ziff Davis), the display sizes will be roughly the same as last year:

• iPhone 18: 6.3 inches

• iPhone 18 Pro: 6.3 inches

• iPhone 18 Pro Max: 6.9 inches

In August, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman (the source of most iPhone 18 news) shared on X that popular phone case maker Otterbox is already selling iPhone 18 Pro cases, even though the phone hasn't been announced yet. This was noteworthy because the case's packaging indicates that both the 17 Pro and 18 Pro fit in the same case, suggesting the two phones are exactly the same size, as CNET suggested.

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However, the display quality might be a little different this year. Prominent leaker Instant Digital shared on Chinese social media that Apple's brightness demands are unusually high this year, so it would be reasonable to expect much brighter displays than in previous years.

Some iPhone 18 models could also have a smaller camera bump compared to previous models. There are reports of a noticeably smaller Dynamic Island on the screen itself, with the pill-shaped notification hub potentially being made smaller in the iPhone 18 Pro models. One alleged leaked image purports to show an iPhone 18 Pro with a downsized Dynamic Island cutout.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. iPhone 18: The rumored hardware features

So we know the software the iPhone 18 will run: iOS 27, introduced at WWDC 2026. Time to start talking about some of the internal hardware changes Apple is reportedly making to the iPhone 18 lineup.

For starters, it sounds like the lineup will have a standardized 12GB RAM count across the board. In previous years, the Pro models had 12GB of RAM, while the base model had only 8GB. According to Korean outlet The Bell, Apple will be upgrading the base model to the Pro models in that regard. It's also widely expected that Apple will adopt new A20 and A20 Pro chips for the base and Pro models, respectively. Apple's latest silicon releases have better supported AI, and we expect that to be a major focus of the A20.

Other possible hardware upgrades include:

• A new C2 modem for improved cellular connectivity

• An improved LTPO+ display

• Improved N2 chip for wireless connectivity

• Hotspot and AirDrop reliability improvements

• 5G satellite support

As for the battery, leaker Digital Chat Station on Weibo reported that the batteries will finally be upgraded to 5,000mAh, which would be a big improvement over the iPhone 17 Pro. This year, 5,000mAh has become the new standard for flagship phones, including in Samsung's new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Instant Digital posted in a separate Weibo leak that the back glass of the iPhone 18 Pro has been altered, resulting in a new unified look, as opposed to the two-tone look of the iPhone 17 Pro. Whether that change will affect durability (or if it's just an aesthetic difference) remains to be seen. Other possible upgrades include

What will the iPhone 18 colors be? The iPhone 18 Pro models are expected to come in four colors: silver, black/dark gray, burgundy, and light blue. Credit: ESR Tech

Courtesy of leakers, we may already know the iPhone 18 Pro colors. If that's the case, the must-see equivalent of the iPhone 17's unforgettable "cosmic orange" shade is said to be a wine-like "dark cherry."

Based on numerous leaks, the most likely color lineup for the iPhone 18 Pro will be:

• Silver

• Dark gray (or black)

• Light blue

• Burgundy

Third-party smartphone case makers might have also revealed too much ahead of the launch, with case makers such as ESR, Benks, and Torras listing cases for Apple's upcoming line. ESR has gone live with four case color options for the "iPhone 2026 Pro Max": deep burgundy, light gray, black, and misty blue, while product photos on the website show what the phones might look like in these colors.

Fans of black iPhones are still holding out hope. The rumored dark gray color looks black in supposed dummy units shared by leakers like Sonny Dickson.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. What about the iPhone 18 Pro Max?

Several reports out of China say that because the iPhone 18 Pro Max will have a bigger battery, it may be a bit of a chunky boy.

We're not talking about a huge increase in weight and width: a quarter of a millimeter in thickness and 7 grams more, respectively. Still, every gram counts on the heftiest iPhone model you can get — so iPhone 17 Pro Max upgraders may want to check that their pocket linings can bear the bulk of a larger iPhone 18 Pro Max.

The iPhone 17 Pro has helped Apple break sales records in 2026. Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable iPhone 18 camera rumors

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, a source of many spot-on iPhone reports, says the iPhone 18 Pro, in particular, will have "some of the biggest camera hardware upgrades in the lineup's history."

Why? First, the telephoto camera has a larger aperture. But more important is the variable aperture.

First reported by Digital Chat Station on Weibo, variable aperture is a huge deal. It would let the iPhone 18 Pro camera capture varying amounts of light in different situations — potentially leading to a huge leap in photo quality if you know what you're doing.

For instance, the bokeh effect famously associated with portrait mode on iPhones would be possible in-camera rather than through software processing, resulting in more natural and generally better-looking shots.

While all of that sounds great, leaker Ice Universe poured some water on the fire by claiming that variable aperture would be exclusive to the iPhone 18 Pro Max. This is the first indication, as far as we can tell, that the regular Pro won't have a variable aperture. That would certainly be disappointing to people who want the feature but don't want a gigantic phone, but perhaps the Pro Max's size gives it an advantage in terms of including the technology.

For video makers, the iPhone 18 Pro Max is rumored to capture more cinematic videos as well, with features such as stabilization and AI editing tools.

What about Siri AI?

Of course, one of the first things many users will want to know about the iPhone 18 when they get their hands on one: what is the new, revamped, AI-upgraded Siri experience like?

If you're feeling adventurous, you can try it yourself by installing the iOS 27 beta.

The new features include Siri becoming an actual chatbot with its own app. It can also understand what's on your screen and help you write, create images, and edit photos.

For an overview, check out our guides to iOS 27 and Siri AI's top features.

Mashable will be reporting live from Apple Park during the Sept. 9 "Surprise and Shine" keynote event, so check back as we report in real-time on the latest announcements.

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• Shop all the best Apple Labor Day deals

Updated on Sept. 4 at 9:29 a.m. ET — SpaceX posted an apology on X on Thursday evening, attributing the Grok downtime to "an outage at our Memphis compute center this morning." The company also offered an apology to "our impacted compute partners."

In a follow-up, Elon Musk said the company is "taking corrective action to ensure this does not happen again."

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Updated on Sept. 3 at 1:37 p.m. ET — It appears that all AI service providers have now been restored.

In a statement provided to Mashable, Anthropic confirms that Claude is back online.

"Claude is fully back up after an infrastructure issue caused a partial outage across Claude.ai, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, and the Claude API earlier today," an Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement to Mashable. "Service was restored at 16:16 UTC.”

Updated on Sept. 3 at 12:24 p.m. ET — User error reports for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are dropping on DownDetector, and some social media users report the morning's AI outages have mostly resolved. However, as of this writing, the OpenAI status page still reports "degraded performance." OpenAI's latest update states, "We have applied the mitigation and are monitoring the recovery."

Anthropic's status page reports that the Claude outage has ended: "The issue affecting Claude Mythos 5.1, Claude Fable 5.1, and Claude Opus 5 has been resolved. Impact has ended as of 9:16 PT / 16:16 UTC."

At this time, the cause of the outage is unknown.

A major internet outage appears to have hit all of the major AI services on Thursday.

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and Grok all appear to be suffering from stability and downtime issues as of publishing, with thousands of users reporting outages.

DownDetector shows the major AI providers suffering downtime on Thursday. Credit: DownDetector

According to DownDetector, users across AI platforms started experiencing issues accessing ChatGPT at around 11 a.m. ET. However, it's not just OpenAI having issues either. DownDetector users also report that Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and Elon Musk's xAI's chatbots are all suffering from similar outages.

Brief ChatGPT and Claude outages happen occasionally, and they usually resolve quickly. However, it's highly unusual for multiple AI services to experience problems simultaneously.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

ChatGPT's status monitor says "we're currently experiencing issues" and states that there are "elevated errors across ChatGPT and Codex."

Anthropic's own status monitor shared that Mythos/Fable 5.1, Mythos/Fable 5, Opus 5, Opus 4.8, and Opus 4.6 models are all affected by the outage.

It's currently unclear as to why all of these major AI platforms are suffering similar issues at the same time.

This is a developing story and we will update as more information becomes available...

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

DeGoogling your digital life is difficult, though not impossible, when you have an Android phone. By default, all of Google's services are deeply integrated into the operation of the phone; if you start removing them, you'll quickly find your phone no longer functions.

Linux is well known for being receptive to customization, and KDE Plasma is no exception. In contrast to the minimalism of GNOME, KDE’s shell lets you fine-tune hundreds of different settings, and the default way to do so is via System Settings.

Robot mowers are great at covering open grass. The trouble begins near walls, beneath trees, and on steep or uneven ground, where navigation becomes harder and tight turns can tear up the turf. Many models still leave a strip around the boundary to finish off with a string trimmer.

At the end of August, Rockstar Games treated us to our first official look at Grand Theft Auto VI gameplay. The only problem? It was captured on PlayStation 5, leaving Xbox owners hanging.

That's not a huge deal in a vacuum, as every video game trailer has to be captured on something, and the game isn't coming to PC at launch. It's an issue because there are plenty of folks out there who own the Xbox Series S, the $500 slightly-less-powerful Xbox Series console that arguably represents the best value in the current-gen console space right now. Personally, I'd argue for the Switch 2, but GTA isn't coming to that, so it's a moot point in this context.

Anyway, you're wondering how GTA VI will look and play on Xbox Series S. Let's get into it.

SEE ALSO: Could GTA 6 teach Gen Z how to be in a relationship? Grand Theft Auto VI on Xbox Series S: How will it look and run?

Unfortunately, you know as much about the state of GTA on Series S as we do, at the time of publication. Rockstar has not divulged any information about that build of the game, nor has it been shown publicly. At best, we can look at the trailer captured on PS5 and make some educated guesses.

For example, if GTA VI is running at 30 frames per second on a regular PS5 (as it did in the trailer), it's certainly not going to run any faster than that on a Series S. At best, it'll be the same, but as we've seen with some Series S games over the years, there could be performance drawbacks in intense situations.

The same goes for resolution, which could be cut down on Series S. According to the video game tech experts at Digital Foundry, the PS5 trailer was running at a native 1440p. Most Series S games do not reach that level, and considering that Digital Foundry called GTA VI the most impressive real-time graphical rendering they'd ever seen, one can imagine it won't reach that resolution on Series S, either.

But, again, it needs to be said that these are all just guesses. Rockstar hasn't given us anything else to work with right now. We'll let you know when we hear more.