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AI news · Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Apple's new iPhone Duo arrives as component costs force price hikes

Apple’s fall event marked a transition, with CEO John Ternus unveiling the company’s first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo. The $1,999 device features a 7.6-inch inner display and custom hinges manufactured via AI-driven 3D printing, signaling Apple’s attempt to dominate the foldable market despite recent durability concerns in the category. Alongside the Duo, Apple launched the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. Both phones carry a $100 price increase, a trend Apple is extending to its entire legacy lineup. This move is less about greed and more about the ongoing 'memory shortage' driven by hyperscalers aggressively stockpiling storage and RAM chips for data centers. Apple isn't the only one passing these costs down; Google and Samsung have implemented similar hikes as AI infrastructure demands consume the supply chain.

On the wearable front, Apple introduced the Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, heavily leaning into 'Audio Intelligence.' New features like 'Siri Recap' and 'Live Rewind' use ambient listening to transcribe and summarize conversations locally on the device. While Apple promises privacy through its Secure Exclave—a protected, isolated memory space—the feature is normalizing a future where your watch is perpetually listening, a shift that is landing with a fair amount of public unease.

Meanwhile, the industry is grappling with its own existential anxiety. Following a high-profile resignation from Anthropic, former researcher Jacob Coxon warned that the race toward self-improving superintelligence is 'crunch time for humanity,' with internal estimates from current staff suggesting a greater than 10% chance of catastrophic outcomes within the decade. In a defensive move, OpenAI added alignment researcher Paul Christiano to its board. Christiano previously led efforts at the federal level and has been vocal about the risk of losing control over systems that could prioritize power-seeking goals. This backdrop of 'doom'—as the industry calls it—is colliding with a massive push for commercial integration. Legal AI startup Harvey just hit a $15.5 billion valuation, doubling its worth in nine months, as firms continue to bet that specialized models will replace traditional workflows. Despite the hype, spending data from Ramp shows AI adoption among businesses slowed in August, a potential warning sign for the labs that have staked their massive valuations on the expectation that businesses will eventually foot the bill for their compute-heavy models.

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