The robot pizza-making business has, it’s true, been littered with sorry tales of overcooked promises and melting fortunes. Besides Picnic, other companies that have come and gone include Zume, external and Pazzi, which used, external robot arms to assemble pizzas, as well as Basil Street, external, a purveyor of pizza vending machines.

Although so-called fast food might seem an easy target for automation, it’s proved harder than many expected. Plus, bringing robots into pizza restaurants could take away entry-level jobs in the hospitality sector. Is the future really filled with robotic pizza?

“We haven’t yet seen any of the success stories materialise the way some people thought they would,” admits Sara Senatore, senior restaurants analyst at Bank of America. Her employer has financial interests in multiple high street pizza chains including Papa Johns and Domino’s.

Food preparation bots are sometimes clumsy – dropping ingredients in the wrong places at times, she explains. Conversely, “Humans are very efficient at making pizza.”

But Kindell, despite his frustrations with Picnic, is surprisingly undeterred. He is a fan of full automation. “I want to be able to walk up to, let’s say, a type of kiosk, put in your order, and it makes a fresh pizza,” he tells the BBC.

Kindell, who once made all his dough by hand – until an elbow tendon injury forced him to investigate using machines instead, is now working on his own version of a pizza-making robot.

He declines to share details but the contraption will make square pan-style pies and that the machine is inspired by the way 3D printers work. If things go well, he says he could have a fully operational version of the device by the summer of 2027.

Given that he admits he has “no experience” in robotics, I question why he would want to invest in such a dicey business. Kindell says that failed pizza robot companies have nonetheless generated useful data and made strides in developing their technology. It’s just a matter of time before someone gets these things to work, he insists.

On jobs, he claims that even “fully autonomous” pizza robots won’t threaten workers. Kindell previously used Picnic’s robots at T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners, a baseball team.

Usually, he’d need about 10 people to make pizza in such a setup. With the robots that number fell to just two. But the other eight people were still employed, he says, in roles where they interacted with customers, and advertised the pizza around the stadium.

“We had so many more people able to hand out the pizza,” says Kindell. “It was so much faster.”

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple has officially confirmed its highly anticipated September event will take place Wednesday, Sept. 9, setting in motion a launch sequence expected to introduce the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and the company’s first foldable device.

Apple sent invitations to members of the press and select guests Wednesday, Aug. 26, confirming the keynote date alongside the tagline “Surprise and shine” and an accompanying image. The keynote is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1 p.m. Eastern and 6 p.m. British time, and will be held at the Steve Jobs Theater on Apple’s Cupertino campus.

A date chosen around the calendar

This year’s scheduling carried unusual complexity due to how the calendar fell in 2026. Labor Day landed on Monday, Sept. 7, and Apple has historically avoided holding its iPhone event on the day immediately following the holiday, ruling out a Tuesday, Sept. 8 date. That left Wednesday, Sept. 9 as the most likely option, a prediction that multiple outlets, including Forbes and MacRumors, had made in the weeks leading up to Apple’s official confirmation.

The Sept. 9 date also matches the exact day Apple held its iPhone event in each of the past two years, extending a pattern of holding its flagship product reveal during the second week of September. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman had also flagged the date in his Power On newsletter earlier this month, describing Apple’s preparations as being in full swing ahead of what he called a big event.

What’s expected on stage

The centerpiece of Wednesday’s keynote is expected to be the debut of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, alongside Apple’s first foldable iPhone, a device widely viewed as the company’s most significant new hardware category in years. Reports have suggested the foldable device could start at around $2,000, with pricing potentially climbing past $2,500 for higher storage configurations.

Apple is expected to stick with familiar display sizes for the standard Pro lineup, with the iPhone 18 Pro featuring a 6.3-inch display and the iPhone 18 Pro Max featuring a 6.9-inch display, consistent with the current generation. Notably, Apple is not expected to release a standard iPhone 18 model alongside the Pro lineup this year; that device is anticipated to arrive separately in early 2027.

Beyond the phones, the event is expected to include the introduction of two new Apple Watch models. Apple has already addressed part of its fall hardware lineup separately, having unveiled new Mac computers on Tuesday, Aug. 25, ahead of the September keynote.

The pre-order timeline, with a notable shift

Perhaps the most closely watched detail surrounding this year’s launch has been the timing of pre-orders, given an unusual calendar conflict. Apple traditionally opens pre-orders on the Friday immediately following its September keynote. This year, however, that Friday falls on Sept. 11 — the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, a date Apple has respectfully avoided using for major announcements or sales activity in the past.

As a result, pre-orders for the iPhone 18 Pro lineup are widely expected to shift to Saturday, Sept. 12 instead. If Apple follows its typical pre-order timing pattern from past launches, orders would likely open at 5 a.m. Pacific, 8 a.m. Eastern and 1 p.m. British time that day.

Following the pre-order window, the new devices are expected to become available in stores and begin shipping to customers on Friday, Sept. 18 — one week after pre-orders open, consistent with Apple’s typical rollout cadence in recent years.

A launch two weeks in the making

Apple’s decision to send invitations on Aug. 26 also followed a pattern industry watchers had anticipated. The company has announced its annual iPhone event exactly two weeks in advance for four consecutive years, according to 9to5Mac’s Zac Hall, making late August the strongest predicted window for this year’s invitations even before they went out. That timing held true, with Apple issuing its formal invite precisely 14 days ahead of the Sept. 9 keynote.

Why this year’s event carries extra weight

This year’s launch arrives with added significance beyond the usual annual iPhone refresh. The event is expected to double as one of the final major keynotes overseen under Apple’s current leadership transition, with incoming Chief Executive John Ternus set to formally take over the role on Sept. 1, just over a week before the keynote takes the stage. Outgoing CEO Tim Cook is transitioning to the role of executive chairman after 15 years leading the company.

The introduction of Apple’s first foldable device alongside that leadership shift has raised the stakes considerably for what is typically a predictable annual product cycle, with analysts and industry watchers framing the September event as a pivotal moment both for Apple’s product lineup and for its next generation of corporate leadership.

With the keynote date now officially locked in, attention turns to the specifics Apple will reveal on stage Sept. 9, including final pricing, technical specifications for the foldable device, and confirmation of the broader software updates expected to accompany the new hardware. Apple has not released an official agenda beyond confirming the date, time and location of the event, meaning many of the details currently circulating remain based on analyst predictions and industry reporting rather than direct company confirmation.

For consumers planning to purchase the new devices, the coming weeks are expected to follow a now-familiar rhythm: an announcement on Sept. 9, pre-orders opening Sept. 12, and devices reaching customers’ hands by Sept. 18 — assuming Apple’s typical launch cadence holds for a third consecutive year.