Nintendo is raising the price of its Switch 2 by $50 to $500 in the US as it faces higher memory costs and US tariffs, the company announced in its earnings report. That increase is less than the $150 that Sony’s PS5 console has gone up over the last year, but Nintendo has a younger, more price sensitive fan base, so that boost is likely to cut into sales.

The company revealed that it shipped 2.49 million Switch 2s this quarter, meaning it sold 19.86 million of the consoles in only three quarters over its last fiscal year. However, Nintendo is forecasting significantly lower sales of 16.5 million Switch 2s for the next full fiscal year.

Many analysts were expecting a sales forecast for next year of 20+ million Switch 2s considering the success of the console’s launch. The Japanese company may be tempering expectations a bit with its latest forecast, though, as it significantly underestimated sales last year. Nintendo still thinks its 16.5 million unit sales forecast “represents a solid level of adoption for Switch 2 in its second year after launch.” 

Software sales also went up this year, with sales of 185.62 million units (Switch and Switch 2) compared to 155.41 million (Switch only) in FY 2025. Some of the highlights were Mario Kart World (14.7 million units), Donkey Kong Bananza (4.5 million units) and Pokemon Legends: Z-A (8.5 million units). Nintendo also noted that the Super Mario Galaxy movie has grossed over $800 million in its first four weeks. 

Overall, Nintendo’s 2026 fiscal year revenue was up massively by 98.6 percent over 2025 to 2.3 trillion yen ($14.7 billion) compared to 1.16 trillion yen ($7.4 billion) the year before. It expects that to drop nearly 11.4 percent next year, though it’s forecasting a slight rise in operating profit due to boosted software sales. Its forecast included extra costs of about 100 billion yen “due to rising component prices, particularly for memory, and tariff measures.”

Apple is turning a new corner in 2026, as long-serving CEO Tim Cook steps down and current hardware engineering head John Ternus steps into the role once filled by Steve Jobs. Ternus has made his presence felt in the past several years, most recently taking Cook’s usual place on stage during the launch event for theMacBook Neo, Apple’s first budget laptop which is already proving a major threat to the Windows 11 ecosystem. With Cook voicing his biggest regrets as he exits, hope turns to Ternus for the future.

As 2026 draws on and Ternus’s control over Apple expands, we expect to see a number of new products that could be among the most exciting in quite some time. Some, like a folding iPhone, have spent a long time in development and have been expected. Others, such as a rumored “ultra” tier of touchscreen MacBooks, come out of the blue. Then there are a bevy of AI-powered gadgets which appear to be contingent on an AI-revamp for Siri. Of course, that Siri makeover has hit a number of snags along the way, so this is where things begin to venture into the realm of potential vaporware.

Before we dive in, it’s worth noting that none of these products have been officially announced by Apple, so it’s worth taking all of them with a grain of salt until you can walk into an Apple Store and buy one. With a volatile global market due to chip shortages driven by AI and an energy shock caused by the American-Israeli war with Iran, delays and product cancellations are even more likely than usual. With that out of the way, here are the most exciting Apple products in the pipeline for 2026 and beyond.

By far the most exciting new Apple product of 2026 is the long-awaited foldable iPhone. Expected to launch as the most premium member of the iPhone lineup, we hear the foldable will be branded as the iPhone Ultra according. Oddly, Macworld reports that it may not be part of the iPhone 18 lineup. Although foldable phones have been available for years, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold debuting in 2019, Apple has established an historical pattern of arriving late to a market and shaking it up. The iPod was far from the first MP3 player, and the iPhone arrived after many years of BlackBerry and Palm devices, to name just a couple of examples.

For the folding iPhone, rumors and leaks appear to show Apple bucking trends. It will enter into a market dominated by Samsung and Motorola and will need to convince existing iPhone owners that a foldable is worth the price tag, which is likely to be high if the current crop of foldables is any indication. The rumored design is short and squat, similar to the original Google Pixel Fold and the Oppo Find N. This differentiates the device from competing models and may be a better experience for media consumption since the inner screen will be wider than those found on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and other book-style foldables.

What will truly matter here is software. Samsung and other companies include a heap of software features designed to enhance the form factor. With a price tag north of $2,000 being bandied about, Apple will need to deliver similar value in order for the iPhone Ultra to be seen as more than a gimmick.

Apple won’t be resting on its laurels after finally launching the folding iPhone. We’re also seeing talk of a potential MacBook Ultra, which will sit above the MacBook Pro as the ultimate powerhouse for macOS users. Bloomberg’s veteran Apple leaker Mark Gurman reported it in March, and Macworld scooped additional details on April 30. The latter report suggests that the MacBook Ultra could be the first of Apple’s laptops to feature a touchscreen, reportedly with an OLED panel (fingers crossed it’s a tandem OLED of the type found in the iPad Pro’s gorgeous display).

If you’re familiar with Windows laptops, you’ll know that a touchscreen is hardly a groundbreaking feature in 2026. It was all the way back in 2012 that Microsoft launched Windows 8, completely redesigning its operating system for touchscreen support. Given that Apple has had capacitive touchscreens since the original iPhone, it’s shocking that it took nearly 20 years to put one in a Mac. Gurman projects that the touchscreen will help Apple to justify a significant price hike for the MacBook Ultra compared to the current MacBook Pro lineup.

More exciting is what could be under the hood. Apple reportedly plans on using the MacBook Ultra to showcase its upcoming M6 Pro and M6 Max chips. The M-series silicon has been one of Apple’s greatest triumphs, providing powerful and efficient performance. The M6 is expected to be built on a 2nm process from TSMC, providing respectable on-paper uplift to that already solid performance and efficiency. Other changes reportedly include a thinner design, a Dynamic Island like the iPhone in lieu of the notch found on current MacBook displays, and the addition of a cellular modem — Apple’s custom C1X or its successor.

Apple stumbled out of the gate when it entered the mixed reality market. The Apple Vision Pro, an XR headset built around spatial computing, was praised as one of the best computers you can strap to your face. However, its price tag of just under $3,500, coupled with a lack of killer apps, doomed its prospects. Even an updated M5 version couldn’t salvage it, and in late April, it appears that Apple is throwing in the towel.

But Apple is gearing up for another attempt to put tech on your face. This time, the company’s ambitions are far more modest. It is gearing up to launch a pair of smart glasses which, according to Bloomberg’s resident Apple scooper Mark Gurman, will be akin to the popular Meta Ray-Bans in that they will likely lack a display. Expected to launch in late 2026 and ship sometime in 2027, the glasses are expected to be more of a companion device for the iPhone as opposed to a standalone gadget. They will be able to capture photos and videos, play music, take phone calls, and handle voice commands using the new, AI-enhanced Siri.

The Bloomberg report claims Apple will differentiate its glasses by building them in-house rather than working with an established brand like Essilor Luxottica or Warby Parker, which are partnered with Meta and Google, respectively. Apple is betting that tight integration with the iPhone and a competitive price point will turn the frames into a ubiquitous accessory similar to AirPods or the Apple Watch. However, there’s a built-in ceiling to the smart glasses market that does not exist for earphones or watches. Those who do not require glasses to see clearly may be hesitant to adopt unless there’s a killer use case.

In early 2025, we reported that Apple’s next device could flip the tablet script. Bloomberg had caught wind of a new smart home hub that would integrate with Apple Home. Back then, the product seemed relatively straightforward as a 6-inch, square-shaped tablet with an interface primarily suited to smart home controls. Now, it’s looking like Apple is launching an entirely new product ecosystem.

Apple now appears to be readying two different smart home hubs that will become part of an entirely new product ecosystem. Both are still tipped to use the reported square tablet design. However, it is now said to be 7 inches rather than 6. What will differentiate the two products is that one will come with an adjustable, hemispheric base that may somewhat resemble that of the iMac G4, but with a speaker included in it so that it can be used for music streaming, a similar concept to the Google Pixel Tablet. Gurman has even claimed it will be able to swivel around to face users, calling it a “tabletop robot.” The other will be wall mounted.

At first blush, this sounds like a weird iPad, but the home tablet is believed to run a new operating system specifically for home use. It will have hardware for Face ID, which may also be used to change what’s displayed based on which user approaches it. Details will likely become clearer as time goes on. Given that this product was initially tipped for a 2025 release and is rumored to have been delayed due to Apple’s struggles with AI, don’t expect to see this unique, new Apple device until the engineers in Cupertino can get the revamped Siri fully out the door.

There are a number of rumored AI gadgets which may or may not come to market. Apple’s struggles with AI are well documented, including a class action lawsuit for false marketing and the recent resignation of the company’s AI chief, John Giannandrea. Among these gadgets are the home hub, as well as a Humane Pin style pendant and AI AirPods.

The pendant seems least likely to come out, especially since the disastrous failure of the Humane Pin already proved there’s not much appetite from consumers. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in February that, unlike the Humane AI Pin, Apple’s wearable pendant will be connected to the iPhone, placing it closer to a display-free Apple Watch than a standalone smartphone replacement. Its exact capabilities are unknown, but it is expected to use onboard cameras and microphones for contextually aware functionality.

As for the AI AirPods, the idea is similar. The same report indicates that Apple plans to cram cameras into a pair of true wireless earbuds and see what kind of AI applications can be gained from that addition. It’s not an entirely unheard-of idea. At CES earlier this year, Razer showed off Project Motoko, a pair of gaming headphones with cameras on the outer shell of each earcup, but the company has yet to ship that product.

Given that Apple is pipelining three different display-free AI gadgets with cameras and microphones — glasses, the pendant, and AirPods — it seems unlikely that all three will launch. On the other hand, if it wants to push its AI deeper into users’ lives, perhaps allowing the consumer to choose the best form factor for their personal needs is a winning strategy.

Stop signs can be found on roads across America, and unlike some of the more confusing traffic signs, the instruction that they give is a very straightforward one. You’ll see them at many different kinds of intersections, but one place you might not expect to see a stop sign is on an interstate on-ramp. Drivers usually expect to be increasing their speed to match traffic before merging onto the interstate, so stopping might seem counterintuitive.

They’re not common, but stop signs on on-ramps are sometimes used as a temporary measure when construction work is taking place. In February 2026, construction crews in Portsmouth, Virginia, installed a stop sign on the on-ramp from Frederick Boulevard to the westbound I-264. Crews needed to install sound walls along the side of the interstate and, therefore, needed access to the shoulders of the road. To enable that access, they had to partially block the on-ramp.

In an interview with WTKR, an official explained that they installed the stop sign because they “did not have enough room for the taper length to go from the on ramp to the interstate to have people move safely” onto the interstate. The option of closing the ramp altogether was floated, but in the end, officials decided that the stop sign would be less of an inconvenience for drivers.

The installation of a stop sign on an on-ramp demands extra care for drivers looking to merge onto the interstate, and anyone tempted to breeze through one using a rolling stop might find themselves attracting the attention of law enforcement.

On-ramp stop signs require drivers who are already on the interstate to be vigilant, too. Speaking to WTKR, the Virginia Department of Transportation official asked that drivers “slow down and be aware that there’s people who are going to be at the stop sign for that on ramp,” making sure that they “give them a little bit of room to safely merge onto the interstate.”

As unusual as they might be, these on-ramp stop signs are far from the only rare stop sign variant that Americans might be able to spot on the roads. On certain private roads, drivers might also come across bright blue stop signs, which are most commonly found in Hawaii.

Amid a memory shortage that forced it to raise PS5 prices twice in less than a year, Sony sold just 1.5 million PS5s in its fourth fiscal quarter, down 46 percent from the year before. The company was relatively gloomy about its gaming division’s prospects next year too, forecasting that revenue would fall six percent ($1.69 billion).

Overall, Sony’s gaming division revenue was up slightly for the entire fiscal 2025 year with sales of 4.69 trillion yen ($29.9 billion) compared to 4.67 trillion yen ($29.8 billion) the previous year. Operating income was up 12 percent to 463.3 billion yen ($2.95 billion), thanks in part to an increase in PlayStation Network sales. 

Some of Sony’s revenue and profit issues this year were down to impairment losses with Bungie due to Destiny 2′s poor sales. Without those charges on its back next year (plus the expected blockbuster launch of Grand Theft Auto VI in November), the company expects a 30 percent boost in profits for its next fiscal year despite the revenue drop. 

Still, those forecasts will depend on its ability to obtain memory. “We plan to base our PS5 hardware sales in FY26 on the volume of memory we can procure at reasonable prices and we
expect hardware profitability to be essentially the same as FY25,” Sony said. In its previous earnings report, the company revealed that it had secured the minimum memory it needed to accommodate sales for the 2026 holiday season. 

That may be cold comfort to PS5 fans, though, considering that a standard PS5 is far from affordable at $650 after the March 2026 price hike, up $150 from just a year ago. That’s for a nearly six-year-old console that’s inexorably approaching its end of life. Nintendo was going through the same thing with its aging Switch console early last year, but the June 2025 Switch 2 launch completely changed its fortunes, becoming the fastest-selling Nintendo console ever.