Apple’s hosting its “Surprise and shine” launch event on September 9th at 1PM ET / 10AM PT, where it’s expected to announce the first phones in its iPhone 18 lineup — including Apple’s first foldable, the rumored “iPhone Duo.”

This event will also be John Ternus’ first as Apple’s CEO after taking over for Tim Cook on September 1st. Ternus was previously Apple’s head of hardware engineering, and he spotlighted upcoming hardware launches in his first staff memo as CEO. All eyes will be on Ternus for a big first announcement to kick off the new leadership era at Apple.

Aside from new iPhones, the September 9th event could also include new Apple Watches and AirPods, and we’re keeping our eyes peeled for other possible surprises, like an updated Apple TV or new smart home hardware. 

Follow along here for all the latest news and updates.

• Apple announces the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max
• Join us after the Apple event for a Vergecast livestream!
• iPhone 18 live blog: On the ground at Apple’s biggest event
• How to watch Apple’s September 9th launch event
• Apple says ‘Fold’ and competitors ask ‘How wide?’

In a "rare, positive update" amid the ongoing component shortage, Framework is lowering its RAM prices for some buyers of the Laptop 13 Pro - at least, for now. After increasing the laptop's memory pricing in July, Framework says it "secured a limited quantity of Micron 32GB and 64GB LPCAMM2 memory modules at lower cost," and plans to share the savings:

We are committed to passing on savings whenever we can and keeping computers as accessible as possible in the current environment, so we are rolling out price reductions across both already shipped and a subset of currently pending pre-orders. While these new costs remain above our origina …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Qualcomm sent a letter to customers on Friday warning of plans to increase its prices by "a percentage in the double digits," Bloomberg reports. The price hikes will go into effect starting with products shipped after September 1st.

Qualcomm claims it has "exhausted its ability to absorb higher costs from suppliers," as ongoing component shortages continue to drive up prices. The company also said it attempted to source components from alternate suppliers prior to announcing the price hikes.

As Bloomberg notes, Qualcomm's price increases will likely have a ripple effect, particularly for smartphones. Qualcomm's chips power everything fro …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Samsung's next flip phone might be tough to tell apart from last year's Galaxy Z Flip 7. As 9to5Google points out, leaked images and specs for the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 8 shared by WinFuture are nearly identical to Samsung's current flip phone.

According to the leak, Samsung is not planning to upgrade the Z Flip 8 to one of Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors. Instead, it will have a Samsung Exynos 2600 chip, the successor to the previous-generation Exynos 2500 in the Z Flip 7. The only other notable upgrade is support for 45W wired charging.

Samsung is expected to officially announce the Z Flip 8, and the rest of its new lineup of foldable …

Read the full story at The Verge.

An AppleCare Plus subscription for a Mac or iPad will cost more soon, with prices going up by $0.50 per month or $5 per year for new sign-ups while remaining the same for existing subscribers, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman says that under the new AppleCare Plus pricing, "a plan for a new 13-inch MacBook Air increased to $7.99 from $7.49, or to $79.99 from $74.99 annually," following a move last year that similarly raised the plan's price on iPhones. We haven't seen the new pricing reflected on Apple's site in the US or terms of service yet, and Apple has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Last month, Apple announced …

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We finally have a price for Grand Theft Auto VI: $79.99. That gets you the standard edition of the game, while the Ultimate Edition will set you back $99.99.

Preorders start at midnight tonight, local time, when you'll be able to reserve a copy on PS5 or Xbox Series X/S. You'll be able to order either digital or physical editions of the game, though Rockstar has confirmed that even the physical editions contain "a download code inside the box." The upside is that they'll ship from November 12th, allowing buyers of either edition to preload the game ahead of its full release on November 19th.

Anyone who preorders or purchases the game befor …

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A new update for Google Home could make it less likely your smart home cameras mistake you for someone else, just because you're facing away from the camera. Starting June 23rd, Google's expanding its facial recognition feature so that people you've tagged in your Familiar Faces library can continue to be identified when their faces aren't clearly visible, using "additional non-biometric signals (body size, clothing color, etc.)."

The Familiar Faces library will also begin automatically updating with the most recent images of everyone in your house, so you should get fewer inaccurate notifications from outdated examples.

Google also says …

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Nothing's next budget phone is the latest victim of RAMageddon. As 9to5Google reports, Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis announced in a post on X that a follow-up to the CMF Phone 2 Pro won't be coming this year:

We were working on a successor but with memory prices where they are right now, we can't build a phone that feels like a genuine step forward at a price that makes sense for CMF. As a result, we've decided not to launch a new CMF phone this year.

Last week, Nothing CEO and co-founder Carl Pei also said the RAM shortage has impacted the cost of the company's mid-range phone, stating, "For Phone 4A, memory costs doubled between …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Relativity Space, the rocket company led by former Google executive Eric Schmidt, was picked to launch NASA's Aeolus payload to Mars in 2028, as reported earlier by TechCrunch. Under a new public-private partnership, Relativity Space will provide the "spacecraft, rocket, and cruise operations" to fly Aeolus to Mars, where the payload will "provide the first integrated, daily, global view of Martian winds, temperatures, dust, and clouds."

The Aeolus payload will have four instruments on board for studying the Martian atmosphere, which NASA says will "directly inform entry, descent, and landing systems and support safer, more predictable mis …

Read the full story at The Verge.

I launched Firefox this morning to find some new blocks on my home page. The widgets that are currently rolling out add sports scores, time zones, a focus timer, and a checklist, which are already some of my favorite new Firefox features in years. I usually have Focus Friend open on my phone when I need a focus timer, and I use Google Tasks for my checklists. Now I can check in with similar tools every time I open a new Firefox tab instead.

My phone's homescreen is full of useful widgets, so it's a nice addition to have the timer and checklist pop up on my browser - they add some extra functionality and blend in tools I was already using el …

Read the full story at The Verge.

VSCO is taking on Adobe with a new Studio Pro editing app rolling out today on iOS and coming to macOS later this year, as Bloomberg reports. At launch, the app offers tools for batch editing, style matching from a reference image, and sharing images through VSCO Galleries. VSCO says more features are coming later, including support for RAW images, advanced export options, and additional advanced editing tools like adjusting image aspect ratios.

A press release says the app is made for managing high-volume editing projects, like "weddings, portraits, events, sports, school photography, and other large-scale photoshoots."

The $500 per ye …

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Google’s Android 17 update includes highlights like new floating “Bubble” app windows for easier multitasking, a Screen Reaction recording mode, and a 50/50 split gaming mode for foldable phones. Meanwhile, Wear OS 7 brings Live Updates and better battery life for smart watches, and it prepares connections for new Android XR smart glasses that will launch this fall. 

The update is rolling out to Pixel phones first, then other devices, with some features, like Gemini Intelligence, set to debut later this year.

Follow along here for the latest updates.

• Android 17 arrives on Pixel phones today
• Android foldables are getting new gamepad controls.
• Google launches Wear OS 7 with Live Updates and a battery life boost
• The Google / Xreal Aura XR glasses are now available to preorder
• Android 17 is getting its own version of Apple’s Handoff
• Wear OS 7 will keep track of deliveries and sports scores on your wrist
• A first (and second) look at the Android XR glasses launching this year
• The 9 biggest new features in Android 17
• A new Android 17 beta reveals plans for “Pixel Glow” light animations.
• Android 17 will let you share one-time location data with apps.
• The second Android 17 beta is out now for Google Pixel.
• Google and Xreal extend hardware partnership for Android XR.
• A first look at Google’s Project Aura glasses built with Xreal
• Google announces Android XR, a new OS for headsets and smart glasses

Google's Wear OS 7 update is starting to roll out today for the Pixel Watch 2, 3, and 4, adding a new Live Updates feature that tracks live events from your Android smartwatch. Live Updates will now sync with Wear OS devices, so updates like sports scores or an ongoing meal delivery will show up on both your watch and your phone.

You might also notice your watch lasting a little longer - Google claims Wear OS 7 offers up to 10 percent more battery life than Wear OS 6.

Wear OS 7 will also introduce some new Gemini Intelligence features, but Google says these aren't launching until "later this year." They'll include Create My Widget, which …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Your public Facebook posts could help inform AI-generated results in Meta's new AI Mode. When you search on Facebook, the "AI Mode" option will appear alongside the usual search modes like "People" and "Marketplace." It's one of several new AI features Meta is rolling out starting today, including photo presets that swap sports jerseys onto fans and suggestions for collage templates.

Instead of "just links," it gives users AI-generated results that pull from publicly-posted content across Meta's platforms, like the AI search feature in its new Reddit-like Forum app. Users can also ask Meta's AI follow-up questions in response to the search …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google Chrome version 150 and 151, expected in late June and July, respectively, will cut off support for the last remaining workarounds for running older ad blockers, 9to5Google reports. Google phased out support for ad-blocking extensions built for Manifest V2, like uBlock Origin, in 2024. At that point, most Chrome users either switched to newer Manifest V3 ad blockers like uBlock Origin Lite or switched to a different browser.

Google is now removing the final bits of code referencing its previous Manifest V2 extensions platform, so only ad blockers that work on the Manifest V3 platform will work in Chrome version 151 onward.

Google d …

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Roblox's vice president of safety product policy, Eliza Jacobs, told NBC News that Roblox is "optimistic" that its new facial age estimation tech will "continue to get better," saying, "Ticking a box to say you're 13 or older, it's not enough anymore." NBC invited a group of kids to try out Roblox's new video selfie age check process, but they weren't able to get around it with a fake mustache. Jacobs claims Roblox's facial age estimates can typically land "within 1.4 years of a child's exact age."

Roblox announced plans in April to begin using its video selfie age estimation tech to sort players into age brackets. Users under 16 and unde …

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If you're thinking about upgrading your phone, "the best time was yesterday," according to Nothing CEO and co-founder Carl Pei, echoing a message we heard during MWC. As Android Authority reports, Pei said in a post on X that the RAM shortage has already impacted Nothing's less expensive mid-range phone: "For Phone 4A , memory costs doubled between when we decided to build the device and when it launched. They've doubled again since." He warned that "Phone prices are going up, and they'll keep going up into next year."

Pei says RAM can now account for over 50 percent of the cost of a new phone. Nothing's just the latest phone maker to warn …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Elon Musk's net worth has passed the trillion-dollar mark after SpaceX's IPO. His net worth, which was hovering around $800 billion before the IPO, includes the value of his 4.8 billion shares in SpaceX, along with his wealth from his other companies, like Tesla. Shares of SPCX opened at $150 and have remained well above the $138 benchmark that gives Musk a 13-figure net worth.

SpaceX combined Musk's rocket, AI, and social media platforms earlier this year, and said in its S-1 that its goal is to "build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light …

Read the full story at The Verge.

SpaceX’s IPO on Friday allows the public to buy shares of the combined rocket, AI, and social media company for the first time, and raised enough money to make Elon Musk the first trillionaire. 

He has more wealth, on paper at least, than the economies of nations like Ireland, Sweden, or his home country of South Africa (CNN cites the International Monetary Fund saying only 20 countries have economies larger than $1.1 trillion), now linked to the promise of a business based on launching AI datacenters into space.

Follow along here for the latest updates.

• SpaceX reportedly rented out Colossus 1 AI data center after it ran into latency issues.
• The world’s first trillionaire is a killer
• Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list adds a trillionaire.
• A trillion dollars is a stupid amount of money
• Elon Musk is the world’s first trillionaire
• SPCX opens at $150 per share.
• SpaceX is now public
• Elon Musk is encouraging race riots on the eve of SpaceX’s IPO
• Here’s the first SpaceX AI data center.
• The SpaceX IPO is great for Elon Musk and terrible for you
• SpaceX gets $4 billion contract to build missile-tracking ‘Golden Dome’ satellites
• In SpaceX’s IPO, Elon Musk is the risk factor
• SpaceX just filed for what could be the biggest IPO ever
• The SpaceX IPO is a trillion-dollar gamble on the future of space
• SpaceX reportedly files for IPO but it’s keeping the numbers secret (for now)
• Why is SpaceX going public?

Amazon's rolling out a free software update for Echo Hub devices that gives the homescreen a much-needed update to the interface it launched with in 2024. It had already added Alex Plus AI support, but the new interface has a cleaner, fully customizable layout that fits more smart home info and controls on the screen than the previous version.

The Echo Hub is also getting access to Ring AI's Video Search feature that lets you use natural language to search through your smart home camera footage, as well as Alexa Plus summaries of detected camera events.

These are the five new features Amazon highlighted for the Echo Hub:

Organize by ro …

Read the full story at The Verge.