Top Stories: Apple's 'Surprise and Shine' Event, Plus New Mac mini and Mac Studio

[MacRumors]

It turned out to be a big week for Apple news this week, as we not only got an official announcement about the upcoming iPhone event but also several hardware announcements including updated Mac mini and Mac Studio models.

Anticipation continues to build for Apple's first foldable iPhone coming at next month's event, while subscribers to the Apple TV streaming service are getting hit with another price increase, so read on below for all of the details.

Top Stories

Apple Event Announced for September 9: 'Surprise and Shine'

Apple this week announced that it plans to hold its annual iPhone-centric event on Wednesday, September 9, at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California. The event will begin at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, with select members of the media invited to attend.

The September 2026 iPhone event comes with the tagline "Surprise and Shine" and should see Apple announce the iPhone 18 Pro, the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max, and the foldable iPhone, which could be called the iPhone Ultra. There won't be an iPhone 18 this year because Apple is waiting until spring 2027 to launch the more affordable models.

Apple Announces New Mac Mini With M6 and M5 Pro Chips and More

Apple this week announced the next-generation Mac mini, which can be configured with an all-new M6 chip or the M5 Pro chip released earlier this year.

The M6 chip is equipped with a 12-core CPU and a 12-core GPU, up from a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU in the M5 chip. In addition, the M6 chip features the first-ever dual Neural Engine with two 16-core engines, up from one in previous chips. The M6 chip has up to 170GB/s memory bandwidth, up from 153GB/s for the M5 chip.

Apple said the Mac mini with the M6 chip delivers up to 40% faster CPU performance, up to 4× faster performance for AI tasks in particular, up to 2× faster graphics performance, and up to 2× faster storage speeds compared to the previous-generation model with the 10-core M4 chip, 32GB of unified memory, and 2TB of storage.

Apple Unveils New Mac Studio With M5 Max and M5 Ultra Chips

Alongside the updated Mac mini, Apple also announced new Mac Studio models with the M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips, the latter of which is the company's most powerful chip ever.

The new ‌Mac Studio‌ features a next-generation SSD architecture built on PCIe Gen 6 that Apple says is up to twice as fast as before. The machine also gains Thunderbolt 5 ports with up to 120Gb/s of bandwidth, along with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for the first time via Apple's N1 chip. The new ‌Mac Studio‌ also supports genlock over USB-C and can drive up to eight displays.

The M5 Ultra chip includes an up to 36-core CPU that contains 12 super cores and 24 performance cores. It delivers up to 1.25x higher single-threaded performance and up to 1.3x higher multithreaded performance than the M3 Ultra from the previous generation ‌Mac Studio‌.

Apple Releases New Polishing Cloth

Apple this week also updated one of its most meme-worthy products in recent years, with a new version of its Polishing Cloth. It might be just a hint softer and thinner, and it's priced at just $9, half the price of the original one.

Most of Apple's Magic Keyboards for Mac also got updates for the U.S. English versions this week, replacing text labels on edge keys like tab, caps lock, shift, return, and more with glyphs.

Gurman: iPhone Ultra Wows Early Testers, Except for Its Camera

Apple's upcoming foldable "iPhone Ultra" is winning over the few people who have had hands-on time with the device, though the camera setup may leave some users wanting, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Writing in his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman says people who have used the device – which is reportedly referred to internally as the iPhone Ultra – like how it fits in your pocket, as well as the feel and durability of its hinge mechanism. Testers have also apparently praised the new iPad-like app layouts that take advantage of the larger internal display when the phone is unfolded.

Beyond productivity, video, and gaming, Gurman says Apple's foldable device also performs well as a camera viewfinder. However, the device lacks a telephoto lens, which could cost Apple some sales given the expected price.

Apple TV Streaming Service Receives Price Increase

For the fourth time since its launch, Apple has increased the price of its Apple TV streaming service in the United States, raising monthly pricing by $2 and annual pricing by $20 starting today. As a result of the Apple TV price increase, the Apple One Individual bundle has also gone up in price.

• Apple TV (Monthly): $14.99 per month (up from $12.99 per month)
• Apple TV (Annually): $119 per year (up from $99 per year)
• Apple One (Individual): $21.95 per month (up from $19.95 per month)

Apple TV also received a price increase in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico today, according to Apple, but no other countries are affected in this round of increases.

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Article Link: Top Stories: Apple's 'Surprise and Shine' Event, Plus New Mac mini and Mac Studio

 

[diblasio]

I wish they spent as much time innovating as they did on thinking up dumb names for these events. I was driving with new Siri yesterday and asked for directions. “You’ll have to unlock your phone for that.”

Surprise and shine indeed!

 

[Sami13496]

Yeah “Surprise and shine” sounds exactly like something a mom would say to her teenage kid to motivate them to get out of bed in the morning. Pretty cringey.

 

[discofuel]

All Apple products received major prices hikes, except the polishing cloth which has been slashed

 

[discofuel]

Yeah “Surprise and shine” sounds exactly like something a mom would say to her teenage kid to motivate them to get out of bed in the morning. Pretty cringey.

Maybe "Surprise and shine" is a reference to the polishing cloth!

 

[scrapesleon]

sky blue iPhone fold color

 

[buddhistMonkey]

I wish they spent as much time innovating as they did on thinking up dumb names for these events. I was driving with new Siri yesterday and asked for directions. “You’ll have to unlock your phone for that.”

If your iPhone got stolen and the thief said “Siri, give me directions home,” you’d have an entirely different complaint if Siri’s directions led to a home invasion.

 

[vegetassj4]

Or for Macrumors complainers when they fail to releae a desired feautre: Suprise and Whine

 

[nt5672]

If your iPhone got stolen and the thief said “Siri, give me directions home,” you’d have an entirely different complaint if Siri’s directions led to a home invasion.

So with all of this AI nonsense, why doesn't Siri recognize you voice. I think that technology is pretty mature.

In addition, bad actors don't need your phone to stage a home invasion.

All they need to do is break a car window and they everything they need for a home invasion, including probably your garage door opener. If that is built in, then all they need is a sniffer and they can capture that by hitting the garage door opener in your car.

Hopefully, most people have a sturdy defense against home invasion that does NOT rely on you phone not being broken into or stolen.

Some people worry about the silliest of things.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Most of Apple's Magic Keyboards for Mac also got updates for the U.S. English versions this week, replacing text labels on edge keys like tab, caps lock, shift, return, and more with glyphs.

My gripe is why didn't Apple just add the glyphs instead of removing the text labels at the same time? Current keyboards have both glyphs and text labels on Command, Option, and Control. I'm guessing this allows Apple to make one or two fewer sets of keytops, or maybe not. Now, when some set of instructions tells you to press or hold down some keys by referring to them only by their function instead of their glyph, you'll have to remember what the associated glyph is.

 

[MichaelAdam]

I don’t expect anything truely exciting this year … This coming keynote is hosted by Termus but directed by Cook … even the true power of the Fold will be revealed next year … Clean up some mess (like iPad Air heavier than the pro … make the Vision Pro lighter and cheaper … make the aTV a true gaming console … ) make Apple exciting again! …

 

[amaze1499]

Apple Releases New Polishing Cloth

Time to upgrade. I wonder when they will release the ultra version. Rumour has it, it comes with lidar built in.

 

[AlexESP]

So with all of this AI nonsense, why doesn't Siri recognize you voice. I think that technology is pretty mature.

In addition, bad actors don't need your phone to stage a home invasion.

All they need to do is break a car window and they everything they need for a home invasion, including probably your garage door opener. If that is built in, then all they need is a sniffer and they can capture that by hitting the garage door opener in your car.

Hopefully, most people have a sturdy defense against home invasion that does NOT rely on you phone not being broken into or stolen.

Some people worry about the silliest of things.

No, technology is not mature enough to make voice authentication as secure as Face ID. Not even close. How would you even do it?

Also, if someone stole my car (and had my keys), they would have no idea of where my home is.

Some people thankfully worry about some serious and obvious things.

 

[jlc1978]

Surprise us with price increases and Shine the quarterly results

 

[diblasio]

If your iPhone got stolen and the thief said “Siri, give me directions home,” you’d have an entirely different complaint if Siri’s directions led to a home invasion.

I'd also hate it if I asked Siri what the weather is and it led to a series of wildly improbable events that resulted in the destruction of the universe!

I was not going home; I was connected to a known car with CarPlay launched.

This would be a neat feature if AI recognized that I was doing something out of the ordinary while asking for directions home (or if I was that girl from Taken) but asking me to unlock my phone while I'm driving is dumb. What's the point in hands-free mode if I have to physically interact with my phone?

At the very least, the phone could have asked me to enter my password upon first connecting

If your iPhone got stolen and the thief said “Siri, give me directions home,” you’d have an entirely different complaint if Siri’s directions led to a home invasion.

Bro, Relax! I’m not the girl from Taken. 🥴

 

[Ted_Appleseed]

Apple, please bring back in-person events at the Steve Jobs Theater. It feels more alive. We had Apple Events here for barely 3 years til the pandemic.

 

[theorist9]

Glad to see Apple held the line on the polishing cloth, in spite of high demand from AI data centers.

 

[Pupalei]

If your iPhone got stolen and the thief said “Siri, give me directions home,” you’d have an entirely different complaint if Siri’s directions led to a home invasion.

If only there were a way the phone, like with computers or something, could distinguish between a request for personal information and a request for directions to a public place. That would be innovative indeed. Requiring a phone unlock while driving in order to use maps directions is ludicrous and you know it.

 

[jlc1978]

If only there were a way the phone, like with computers or something, could distinguish between a request for personal information and a request for directions to a public place. That would be innovative indeed. Requiring a phone unlock while driving in order to use maps directions is ludicrous and you know it.

The problem is not in the ability to differentiate requests, but how to maintain security. If Siri simply responds to requests based on some rule for personal information, you lose control over how it decides to respond. Unlocking ensures your data is secure if you lose or misplace your phone and some random person finds it or it is stolen.