Apple Watch Ultra 4 starts at $799. Apple has not published a per-device AppleCare+ price for it, so the only coverage figure that exists is AppleCare One at $19.99 a month, a plan built to be shared across up to three devices rather than priced for an Ultra 4 alone. Add three years of that…
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iPhone Duo Coverage Exists, the Price Does Not: Apple Confirms AppleCare+ for Its Fold and Publishes No Number
Apple’s own newsroom release for iPhone Duo confirms that AppleCare+ and AppleCare One plans are available for the fold. What that release does not do, anywhere Apple has published, is say what AppleCare+ for iPhone Duo actually costs. The case and the folio that protect it from the outside have prices in eight countries. The…
Five Costs Buyers Assume Are Included in Apple's September 2026 Lineup, and What Apple Actually Ships
Apple published exact prices for the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone Duo, Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4 and AirPods 5, down to individual cases and wrist straps. Five costs buyers routinely assume are already covered by that sticker price are not: the fast-charge adapter, per-device AppleCare+, the protection an Apple Upgrade lease is…
iPhone 18 Pro's 12 eSIM-Only Markets Still Make You Pick a Carrier at Checkout
iPhone 18 Pro has no SIM tray in 12 markets, including the United States, and carrier choice still happens at Apple’s checkout in every one of them. Removing the tray changed how a line gets onto the phone. It did not remove the moment where a buyer picks a carrier and the price moves by…
Apple Upgrade Plus AppleCare One Comes to $54.98 a Month, Above the Old Program's Own Floor
Lease an iPhone 18 Pro through Apple Upgrade and add AppleCare back the only way Apple currently prices it, AppleCare One at $19.99 a month, and the total comes to $54.98 a month. That is already above the more than $42 a month Apple charged for the iPhone Upgrade Program it retired in July, the…
iPhone 18 Pro Discounts That Cannot Be Combined: Where Apple's Own Footnotes Draw the Line
Apple offers several ways to pay less for iPhone 18 Pro or spread the cost, and its own footnotes say plainly that some of them cannot be used together. Apple Card Monthly Installments needs a specific carrier connection. Certain storefronts turn off financing entirely. And in India, one offer explicitly will not stack with another.…
Apple Upgrade's End-of-Lease Choices: Upgrade, Buy It Out, Return It, or Do Nothing for Six Months
Apple Upgrade does not end with ownership by default. When a lease term is up, Apple gives three explicit choices, upgrade to a new device, buy the current one outright with a one-time payment, or return it, and if a customer does none of the three, Apple says the lease simply converts to a month-to-month…
Apple Upgrade Covers Mac and iPad Too: $24.99 and $11.99 a Month, No AppleCare Either Way
Apple Upgrade, the Klarna-run lease that replaced the iPhone Upgrade Program in July, is not just an iPhone plan. Apple’s own footnotes list a Mac lease starting at $24.99 a month and an iPad lease starting at $11.99, both on 24 or 36 month terms, sitting alongside the iPhone and Apple Watch leases that run…
iPhone 18 Pro Trade-In: What to Do With Your Old iPhone Before September 18
Ordering iPhone 18 Pro today does not mean parting with the old iPhone today. Apple’s trade-in credit is applied instantly to the new purchase at checkout, but the device itself still has to be received and its condition verified afterward, which leaves a gap between placing the order this weekend and sending anything to Apple.…
Trade-In, Refurbished and Apple's "End-of-Life Processing" Line: What Happens to the Old Device
Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro Product Environmental Report splits the phone’s 63 kg CO2e footprint at 256GB into five stages, and the smallest by far is “end-of-life processing,” at under 1 kg. What that stage actually consists of, and how it relates to trade-in or Certified Refurbished, the two routes Apple actually offers customers for an…
Recycled Cobalt in the Battery: The Material Four of Six September Products Share
Apple states that the battery in iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, iPhone Duo, Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 uses 100 percent recycled cobalt. That single figure is the one material claim repeated identically across four of the six products launched this month. AirPods 5’s materials state a recycled-content figure…
Renewable Electricity in Manufacturing: 50, 60 and 35 Percent, and Two Products With No Figure
Apple states that 50 percent of the electricity used to manufacture iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max comes from renewable sources. iPhone Duo’s figure is higher, at 60 percent. AirPods 5’s is lower, at 35 percent. Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 carry no matching percentage in the material published…
Apple Watch Ultra 4's Water Rating Is Three Separate Certifications, Not One Number
Apple’s spec sheet groups Apple Watch Ultra 4’s water resistance under one heading, but it is three separate certifications, not one number. A 100-meter rating under ISO 22810:2010 covers named activities; a distinct EN13319 certification covers recreational scuba specifically, to 40 meters; and IP6X, sitting in the same row, is a dust rating that has…
Apple Watch Ultra 4: The Recycled Figures Are Published, the Carbon Total Is Not
Apple’s own materials state that Apple Watch Ultra 4 is 45 percent recycled by material, with a 100 percent recycled titanium case and a 100 percent recycled cobalt battery. What they do not state, anywhere we could check, is a matching carbon-emissions total, the kilograms-of-CO2e figure Apple prints for iPhone 18 Pro. Apple Watch Ultra…
Apple Watch Ultra 4's Titanium Case: Grade 5, Two Finishes and 100 Percent Recycled Metal
Apple Watch Ultra 4’s case is Grade 5 titanium, sold in exactly two finishes, natural and black, weighing 63.0 grams and 63.1 grams. Apple states the case is 100 percent recycled titanium, part of a 45 percent recycled material figure for the watch overall, a claim Apple has now made for two Ultra generations in…
Apple Watch Ultra 4: The Five Specs No Other Current Apple Watch Matches
Apple sells three watches now, and on published specs alone, five figures belong to Apple Watch Ultra 4 and no other model in the current lineup: satellite communications, dual-frequency GPS, a certified recreational-scuba depth, 3000-nit peak brightness, and a case sold only in titanium. Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch SE 3 each carry…
Apple Watch Ultra 4 Operating Range: 0 to 35 Degrees C, and a Wider Number for the Wrist
Apple’s tech specs page for Apple Watch Ultra 4 lists two separate temperature figures, not one. A 0 to 35 degrees Celsius (32 to 95 Fahrenheit) range covers general operation, while a wider band, -20 to 55 degrees Celsius (-4 to 130 Fahrenheit), is listed specifically for wearing the watch on the wrist. Apple’s page…
Apple Watch's New S11 Chip: What Changed in the Silicon, and What Did Not
Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 both ship with the S11, a chip Apple describes as its most powerful wearable chip yet and the first new Apple Watch chip family since the S9 arrived in 2023. Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 reach stores Friday, September 18. Apple Watch…
Apple Watch Series 12's Recycled Materials: What Apple Publishes, and the Carbon Figure It Has Not
Apple Watch Series 12 is built from 40 percent recycled material overall, with 100 percent recycled aluminum and titanium in its cases, according to Apple’s own figures, and ships in 100 percent fiber-based packaging. Apple Watch Series 12 reaches stores Friday, September 18. Apple Watch Series 12's aluminum and titanium cases are both listed as…
Apple Watch Series 12 Without an iPhone Nearby: What watchOS 27 Newly Allows
Apple Watch Series 12 still needs an iPhone to get started, but Apple’s own descriptions of watchOS 27 add two features this year that work without one nearby: Workout Buddy over Wi-Fi or cellular, and setup of a child’s watch through Apple Watch For Your Kids. Apple Watch Series 12 reaches stores Friday, September 18,…
Apple Watch Series 12's Display: LTPO3, 2000 Nits and What Always-On Actually Shows
Apple Watch Series 12 uses what Apple’s tech specs page calls an Always-On Retina display with wide-angle OLEDs and LTPO3, refreshing down to 1Hz, with a peak brightness of 2000 nits and a minimum brightness of 1 nit. Those are the same peak and minimum brightness figures Apple published for Series 11 last year, which…
Apple Watch Series 12's Depth Gauge Is Back: 6 Meters, a Water Temperature Sensor and What 50 Meters Still Means
Apple Watch Series 12 ships with a depth gauge rated to 6 meters and a water temperature sensor, according to Apple’s tech specs page, sitting inside the same 50-meter water resistance rating the watch has carried for three generations. Apple Watch Series 12 reaches stores Friday, September 18, alongside Apple Watch Ultra 4 and iPhone…
iPhone Duo's Outer Display: What Third-Party Apps Can Do There, and What Apple Has Not Said
iPhone Duo carries two displays, and Apple has published detailed specifications for both. What Apple has not published is what an ordinary third-party app, one that has not been rebuilt with the device in mind, is allowed to do on the smaller of the two, the 5.4-inch outer display, when the phone is closed. The…
iPhone Duo's Apple Intelligence Count Is 15 Languages. Every Other Apple Page Says 16
Apple’s iPhone Duo press release lists Apple Intelligence in 15 languages. Every other Apple page covering Apple Intelligence for iOS 27, including the June 8 announcement and the general Apple Intelligence page, lists 16. Apple has not reconciled the two figures anywhere in what it has published. Siri AI on iPhone Duo, shown in Apple's…