Scientists pointed the world’s largest solar telescope at our star and came back with the sharpest photographs ever made of its surface. Those frames, captured at a wavelength of 416 nanometers by the NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on Maui, resolve features only tens of kilometers across. What they show is a restless landscape of bright granules ringed by darker, corrugated edges that twist and fold into miniature vortices.

Those tiny whirlpools are characteristic of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, a fluid phenomena first observed in the late 1800s. When two streams of plasma slide past each other at differing speeds, the border between them becomes wavy and eventually forms spiral formations that resemble breaking ocean waves. On the sun, shear is formed by conventional convective flows colliding with intense magnetic fields, resulting in a continuous field of tiny whirlpools ranging in size from 25 to 170 kilometers, with the bulk clustering around 50 to 65 kilometers.

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The motion is clearly visible in time sequences captured by the telescope’s fastcam sensor, since the magnetic limits that were smooth in earlier images are now distorted and striped, with dark narrow striations appearing and disappearing in minutes. The apparent speeds of the vortices range from 0.7 to 3 km/s, whereas the growth rates measured from the expanding waves range from 0.014 to 0.054 per second, all of which are consistent with linear theory predictions.

Computer simulations using the MURam magnetohydrodynamic code were able to generate the exact same patterns. When you input authentic magnetic maps to the models and let them run their course, the synthetic images at 416 nanometers match the real ones in shape and timing. This level of concordance with the real thing gives the researchers high confidence that the instability is genuine and pervasive.

The vortices form anytime the magnetic flow is strong enough, therefore they are active almost everyplace on the tranquil sun. The mixing of magnetized and non-magnetized plasma stirs the magnetic field lines and allows them to diffuse faster than earlier models suggested, potentially providing the “missing” diffusion required to explain the sun’s eleven-year magnetic cycle. The same twisting action that generates all of this also braids field lines together, accumulating free energy that can later be used to power flares, jets, and coronal mass ejections.

The corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere, has long been a source of concern for solar physicists because it can reach temperatures of a million degrees while the visible surface remains about 5800 degrees, implying that energy must be able to move upwards despite the temperature differential. The new vortices may have a part of the explanation, as they continuously agitate the magnetic field at the base of the atmosphere, perhaps driving the heating that has been a mystery for decades.
[Source]

No consumer data was impacted in the hack, the company clarified in a regulatory filing.

US apparel maker Levi Strauss said that hackers gained access to three of its workers’ company-issued computers using social engineering techniques, joining a growing list of major business victimised by the onslaught of cyberattacks, now often boosted by AI.

The admission comes just days after hackers launched a wave of attacks against Wall Street businesses using voice phishing, or vishing, where criminals mimic voices to trick victims into divulging sensitive data.

In a regulatory filing today (7 August), Levi said that an unauthorised third party stole “certain corporate information” after accessing company files through the hacked employees. It clarified that no consumer data was impacted.

The company said it managed to contain the incident and notify affected parties and regulators. An investigation into the matter is ongoing for which the company has hired third-party cybersecurity experts. Levi said it did not experience any interruption in business operations as a result.

Social engineering is a hacking technique where bad actors trick unsuspecting people using fake online identities, with increasingly advanced AI tools giving criminals a cheap and efficient way to identify and exploit vulnerabilities.

A recent report from the UK’s AI Security Institute (AISI) found that Anthropic and OpenAI’s new agentic AI models engaged in social engineering in a test environment to pressure its maintainer into approving malicious code. However, these attempts were unsuccessful, as a human maintainer refused to approve the code.

AISI said that the AI models it tested showed “signs of novel, potentially deceptive behaviours” at levels it did not expect. In different testing environments, these models escaped their sandboxes and hacked real organisations, raising alarm across the industry.

Google Threat Intelligence Group, in its own research, found a cybergroup using vishing to target employees from financial services or cloud companies by posing as IT helpdesk staff facilitating urgent work. Often employees were contacted using their personal mobile devices, the group noted.

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Welcome to the Blu-ray Bounty July 2026. This is where we test the latest 4K releases of each month that we think will be perfect for showing off your home theater. If you’re new to the Blu-ray Bounty, you can check out previous editions here, where we’ve reviewed over 100 discs since starting in November 2024.

4K Blu-ray is easily one of the best ways to enjoy a movie at home, especially when it’s on the best TVs and best soundbars. I personally use it as my main source for testing AV equipment, thanks to its uncompressed picture and audio quality.

A Go-based malware delivered in ClickFix attacks targeting macOS users is stealing cryptocurrency assets, browser-stored passwords, Apple Keychain data, and cached credentials.

​The malware can intercept and redirect transactions with various cryptocurrencies. Although it can empty wallets entirely, it can also calculate the total value of a transaction to determine how much to divert to the attacker.

Security researchers at Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services company Huntress discovered the payload after responding to a ClickFix incident.

The targeted user received an email with a link to a page instructing them to run a command in Terminal.

This downloaded a Bash script acting as a profiler and malware loader that collected system information (e.g., CPU, RAM) and retrieved a Mach-O payload that matched the victim system’s processor architecture.

The profiler also identified the account name for the currently logged-in user and created a directory named after trustd, the macOS process responsible for validating cryptographic certificates and code signatures.

It copied the infostealing and crypto-draining payload to the directory as com.apple.verified and removed the com.apple.quarantine extended attribute to prevent Gatekeeper from treating the file as quarantined and showing a security alert when executed.

According to Huntress’ analysis, the malware establishes persistence and increases privileges by collecting system credentials via a fake error created using the osascript utility.

The stealer payload checks the storage for files containing credentials, identified both by name and their extension.

“Browser password databases, the Apple Keychain, and cached credentials in browser cookies are all targeted,” Huntress says.

However, the Go-based malware also includes code that modifies cryptocurrency transactions before they are signed, and can be configured to redirect to the attacker only a percentage of the funds.

Huntress says that it is the first time they analyzed a crypto drainer that did not empty victims’ wallets but could remove less than the total amount.

Additionally, the researchers observed separate functions that determined the value of 1% of the wallet’s content, depending on the cryptocurrency type.

Among the targeted cryptocurrency assets are Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Monero, Ethereum, and Ripple’s XRP.

According to Huntress, the malware communicates to shared IP addresses in Autonomous System (AS) 210644, which is “operated by a Russian corporation known as the Aeza Group.”

The company and individuals affiliated with it have been sanctioned by the US and the UK for providing bulletproof hosting services to ransomware groups.

Security teams log 54% of successful attacks and alert on just 14%. The rest move through your environment unseen.

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Cloudflare is the latest company to join the race to build a new web browser. But instead of pitching a Chrome alternative to consumers, the internet infrastructure provider launched Kitesurf, a cloud-hosted browser designed specifically for AI agents.

AI software is evolving from chatbots that answer questions to agents that can complete tasks on users’ behalf. Browsers are a critical part of this transition, as they’ll need to navigate the web and use websites, as humans do.

Unlike traditional web browsers built for humans, a browser built for AI agents doesn’t care about visual elements, like themes, tabs, or browser extensions, Cloudflare explained in its announcement. A browser designed for AI agents needs to manage context windows, performance, token costs, and scalability. It also faces a different threat model because an AI browser could be subject to vulnerabilities like prompt injection attacks and more, the company noted.

With Kitesurf, AI developers will be able to build software that can navigate websites, fill out forms, and complete other browser-based tasks, without having to build their own browser software.

Cloudflare says it decided to build Kitesurf just 12 weeks ago, and it runs entirely on top of the company’s serverless platform, called Workers. Kitesurf is available for free while in beta in Browser Run, which lets developers programmatically control and interact with headless browser instances on Cloudflare’s network.

For developers, Cloudflare’s pitch is that this enables AI agents to use the web more efficiently while using less computing power than Chromium, which keeps costs down.

“Kitesurf is significantly more efficient in CPU and memory consumption than Chromium for common agentic tasks like screenshots and HTML extraction,” according to the company.

The browser itself was built from other technologies, including a modular rendering engine from Blitz; Firefox’s CSS parser, Stylo; and Boa JS, a Rust ECMAScript engine. Everything else runs inside Cloudflare Workers. Although still new, Cloudflare says Kitesurf already passes around 215,000+ web platform tests, and it’s adding hundreds more, passing tests every week.

Cloudflare also credited the open source Rust headless engine, Obscura, for inspiring it to develop Kitesurf, noting that the first proof of concept was a port of Obscura to Workers.

The company said the browser correctly renders pages like TodoMVC, a popular benchmark application for comparing JavaScript frameworks, along with Wikipedia, Hacker News, the Cloudflare Blog, and much of the Cloudflare dashboard.

It’s August, which means one thing if you follow smartphones even remotely closely: new Pixels are almost here. Google is holding its next Made by Google event on August 12, and this year, we’re expecting another packed lineup of phones. The Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold are all expected to take the stage. Yes, that’s the same four-phone lineup Google gave us last year, but the interesting part will obviously be what’s changing underneath. Between the usual camera improvements, new hardware, and whatever AI tricks Google has been cooking up, there should be plenty to talk about.

And the phones may only be part of the story. Google is expected to have a few more announcements up its sleeve, making this one of its biggest hardware events of the year. So, if you’re planning to tune in, here’s when the Made by Google event starts, how you can watch it, and everything we expect Google to announce.

Google’s Pixels are getting their glow on

First up, and probably the reason most people will be tuning in, is the Pixel 11 series. At this point, though, Google may not have many surprises left to pull out of its pocket. The phones have leaked extensively over the past few months, and if those leaks are accurate, anyone hoping for a dramatic redesign might want to temper their expectations. From everything we’ve seen so far, Google appears to be sticking with the design language it established with the Pixel 10 family. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing — I quite like the current Pixel look. Still, the Pixel 11 series probably won’t be one of those upgrades you can immediately identify from across the room. There is one addition that could make it stand out, though. Google has already teased a new light built into the camera bar, reportedly called HiLight or Pixel Glow. It appears to borrow its look from Gemini’s rainbow-like visual language, potentially lighting up while you’re interacting with Gemini or waiting for the AI to finish thinking. But I’m much more curious about what Google does with it beyond AI. Imagine different colors appearing for notifications, charging status, timers, or even incoming calls. If Google gives developers access to it, that little light could end up being far more useful for users.

The bigger changes should be happening inside. Google’s new Tensor G6 chip is expected to power the Pixel 11 lineup, replacing the Tensor G5 from last year. A faster processor is always welcome, but raw performance isn’t really what I’m interested in here. After using recent Pixels extensively, I want to see how the G6 behaves when you’re actually pushing the phone — shooting photos and videos, navigating on mobile data, jumping between apps, or simply using it outside on a hot afternoon. Better thermal management would mean much more to me than another impressive-looking benchmark score. Battery life and charging are equally high on my list. Samsung has finally started embracing silicon-carbon battery technology and faster charging with its Galaxy Z Fold 8 series, so I’d love to see Google make similar progress rather than playing things safe for another generation. A phone can have all the AI features in the world, but none of them are particularly exciting when you’re hunting for a charger halfway through the day. Then there’s the price. Android Headlines has reported that the Pixel 11 Pro could start at $1,099 in the US and €1,199 in Europe. If accurate, that would make the US model $100 more expensive than the Pixel 10 Pro, which launched at $999. The reported colors are Dune, Light Fog, Midnight Haze, and Pine, although those names apparently aren’t finalized yet. Still, with Google’s event only days away, I wouldn’t treat any leaked pricing or naming as gospel. We won’t have to wait much longer to find out what the Pixel 11 series actually costs — and, more importantly, whether Google has done enough this year to justify paying more for one.

Finally, a Pixel for your keys

Next up is easily the announcement I’m most excited about: the Pixel Tag. Google has somehow gone this long without making its own Bluetooth tracker, but if the recent leak spotted by 9to5Google is accurate, that could finally change at this year’s event. And honestly, it’s about time. Apple has had AirTags for years, Samsung has its SmartTag lineup with a third-generation model reportedly on the way, while Pixel owners have largely had to rely on third-party trackers. A proper Pixel Tag could finally fill that rather obvious hole in Google’s hardware ecosystem.

The leaked tracker has an oblong design and is expected to work with Google’s Find Hub network, which would allow nearby Android devices to help locate something you’ve lost anonymously. The feature I’m really hoping makes the cut, though, is Ultra-Wideband. That could give the Pixel Tag much more precise directional finding when you’re close to a lost item — the kind of experience that makes hunting for keys buried somewhere around the house considerably less annoying. There is one slightly amusing design choice, however. The Pixel Tag reportedly won’t have a built-in lanyard hole, meaning Google could follow Apple’s approach of making you use a separate accessory if you want to attach one to your keys or bag. Samsung’s rumored Galaxy SmartTag 3 is apparently heading in the same direction, too. So it’s quite clear that Bluetooth trackers have collectively decided that holes are no longer fashionable. Still, if Google gets the fundamentals right — particularly UWB tracking and tight integration with Find Hub — the Pixel Tag could be one of the smallest announcements at the event, but potentially one of the most useful.

Google’s little circle gets a bigger brain

Of course, it wouldn’t really feel like a Made by Google hardware event without a new Pixel Watch showing up, and this year, that should be the Pixel Watch 5. Visually, Google doesn’t appear to be tearing up the rulebook, but the upgrades happening underneath could be much more interesting. Battery life is the first thing I’ll be watching. The Pixel Watch 5 is expected to squeeze slightly larger batteries into both sizes, which is always welcome on something you’re supposed to wear all day, track workouts with, sleep in, and somehow still have enough juice left for the next morning. It’s also rumored to use a faster version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 chip, which should hopefully make everyday interactions feel quicker and smoother.

Storage could get a surprisingly big bump, too. Rumors point to the Pixel Watch 5 offering twice as much storage as its predecessor. That might sound excessive for a watch, but it starts making more sense when you consider how heavily Google is leaning into Gemini Intelligence. With Wear OS 7 pushing smartwatches toward becoming more contextually aware and capable of handling tasks on your behalf, that extra room could eventually become quite useful. As for the hardware itself, the familiar 41mm and 45mm sizes are expected to stick around, along with the same IP68 dust and water resistance and 5ATM rating. So, if you already like the circular Pixel Watch design, Google apparently sees very little reason to mess with it. Pricing could remain familiar as well. According to GSMArena, the 41mm Pixel Watch 5 is expected to start at $399, with LTE adding another $100, while the larger 45mm model could begin at $429.

But wait, Google might not be done

Those are the announcements I’d put firmly at the top of the list, but Google could still have a couple of surprises waiting in the wings. And this is where things get a little more interesting. Earlier this year, Google confirmed that it was working on a new generation of laptops that would bring Android and ChromeOS much closer together. We haven’t heard much about the project since, but Google previously pointed to a fall launch, which puts us awfully close to that window. I’m not necessarily expecting Google to roll out a laptop on stage on August 12, but a teaser, a name, or even a proper look at what it has been building certainly wouldn’t feel out of place. The interesting bit is that these so-called Googlebooks aren’t expected to replace Chromebooks. Instead, they could sit above them as a more premium option, built around a unified operating system and much tighter integration with Android phones.

Then there are smart glasses, because apparently every tech company has looked at Meta’s Ray-Bans and decided our faces are the next great computing platform. Samsung has already given us a glimpse of its own plans, and Google has been steadily building toward Android XR glasses as well. That makes the Made by Google stage a pretty tempting place to show them off again. I wouldn’t necessarily count on being able to buy a pair immediately, but a fresh demo or even a launch window would be enough to get my attention. And that’s what makes this event particularly interesting. We already have a pretty good idea of what’s coming from the Pixel 11 family, but it’s the things Google hasn’t spent the past few months leaking all over the internet that could end up providing the biggest surprises.

How to watch Google’s August 12 showcase?

All of that sounds exciting, but there’s one rather important detail left: how do you actually watch Google announce everything? Google is doing things a little differently this year — Google will share its announcements earlier in the day before holding the Made by Google show later that evening.

The event takes place on August 12 at 3 PM PT, and you’ll be able to watch the entire thing live on YouTube. So, whether you’re here for the Pixel 11 series, desperately waiting for the Pixel Tag like I am, or simply curious to see whether Google has a surprise tucked away for the end, you can tune in and watch everything unfold in real time. And considering how much hardware could be on the table this year, it might be worth sticking around until the very last announcement.

Gen Threat Labs followed two H1 2026 campaigns where attackers used legitimate accounts, browser settings and blockchain data as part of the attack path.

The Gen Threat Report is a twice-yearly examination of the biggest cyber threats shaping the digital landscape, offering an in-depth look at the trends affecting consumers around the world. Gen’s H1 2026 Threat Report has its share of headline numbers.

Scams accounted for almost 46% of Gen threat detections in the first half of the year. Malvertising represented almost another 30%. Gen blocked 114.2 million e-shop scam attacks and 20.3 million tech support scam attacks during the same period.

Those figures are useful, but they compress very different attacks into a handful of categories. A detection count does not show how the first lure became script execution, how the script became a browser or proxy change, or how a wallet address was replaced before the victim signed a transaction.

Two H1 investigations are worth looking at in detail. In the first, a banking-malware campaign started with compromised corporate mailboxes and ended with proxy and browser manipulation.

In the second, a cryptocurrency campaign used a Rust-based clipper and retrieved command-and-control infrastructure pointers from Binance Smart Chain.

The payloads were different, but neither campaign depended on breaking the trusted system in front of the user. The banking campaign used a legitimate account to deliver the lure. The clipper let the blockchain record a valid transaction after changing the destination address locally.

The business email really came from a business

The banking campaign targeted users in Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and Lithuania. The lures looked like normal business emails: shipment notices, invoice-related messages and scanned document notifications. One simply told the recipient that a scanned copy of a shipment was attached.

In several cases, the messages were sent from compromised corporate mailboxes. The email was not made to look like it came from a legitimate company. It came from a legitimate account that attackers had already taken over.

SPF and DKIM can still pass when a message is sent through authorized infrastructure, while reputation systems may see a sender with a legitimate history. 

The attachment launched a JavaScript dropper. From there, the chain moved through PowerShell stages before reaching shellcode and banking functionality. The available indicators pointed towards GepyS.

The malware modified proxy settings and installed a browser add-on, placing itself close to the victim’s banking session. 

At a simplified level, the chain looked like this: compromised mailbox -> JavaScript dropper -> PowerShell stages -> shellcode loader -> proxy and browser manipulation.

One stage-three payload used a 32-bit position-independent loader. Static analysis showed MMX and SSE junk instructions, jumps into the middle of instructions, and a decryption routine based on an LFSR-generated keystream followed by XOR.

None of those techniques was new, but together they added enough friction to make a quick static pass less productive.

Across the chain, the email only had to get the user to open the attachment. JavaScript and PowerShell handled the staging, the loader slowed analysis, and the proxy and browser changes moved the operation into the banking session.

Comparable H1 campaigns used similar regional and operational patterns with different payloads. In Italy, fake invoice PDFs, including Booking.com-themed lures, led to Vercel-hosted scripts with per-victim JavaScript obfuscation, Blogspot-hosted PowerShell stages and XWorm.

In Poland, invoice-themed phishing delivered a steganographic .NET loader that installed Remcos RAT.

The clipboard was the payment layer

The second campaign abused a much smaller user interaction: copying and pasting a cryptocurrency address.

The final payload was a Rust-compiled clipboard hijacker. It monitored copied content for wallet addresses across 21 blockchain types, including BTC, ETH and LTC. When the malware recognized a supported address, it replaced it with an attacker-controlled one.

From the victim’s point of view, the transaction could still look normal: copy an address, paste it into a wallet or exchange, and approve the payment.

The blockchain was not compromised and the wallet’s cryptography was not broken. The transaction itself was valid, but the destination had already been changed locally before signing.

Wallet addresses are long, visually noisy strings and difficult for humans to verify. Many users check only the first and last few characters, giving attackers room to use replacement addresses that survive a quick glance.

The command-and-control design added another layer. The malware used Binance Smart Chain as part of its C2 resolution through EtherHiding. It did not store the full backend on-chain. Instead, it read infrastructure pointers from data stored in a smart contract and used them to reach attacker-controlled infrastructure.

The resolved domain, URL or IP address could be blocked, taken down or replaced. The smart-contract data remained publicly readable, useful as an investigative pivot and harder to remove through normal takedown processes.

A simple network IoC list therefore aged quickly in this setup.

The contract address, the method used to read its data, the returned value and the infrastructure reached afterwards belonged in the same investigation.

Detection has to follow the sequence

For the banking chain, sender authentication needs to be paired with post-delivery telemetry. An attachment launching JavaScript, PowerShell retrieving additional stages, shellcode execution, proxy changes and a new browser extension should be correlated as one sequence rather than handled as unrelated events.

A sender’s legitimate history should not lower the priority of that activity when the mailbox itself may be compromised.

Where operationally possible, organizations can restrict script interpreters for users who do not need them, apply application-control policies to downloaded attachments and alert on unexpected proxy or browser-extension changes.

Monitoring for mailbox takeover remains part of the same detection problem because the compromised account is also the delivery infrastructure.

For the crypto campaign, defenders can monitor clipboard-modifying processes, wallet-address pattern matching and blockchain queries from applications that have no reason to make them. The smart-contract pointer and the infrastructure it resolves should be tracked together rather than treating the current C2 domain as the complete indicator set.

Users making cryptocurrency payments should verify the full destination shown by the signing device or wallet immediately before approval.

Address books or allowlists reduce repeated manual entry, while first-time or changed destinations deserve a full comparison rather than a check of only the opening and closing characters.

In both campaigns, the first trust decision could look legitimate while the surrounding workflow had already been changed. Detection and verification need to cover the steps between the authenticated email, the copied value and the final action.

Gen’s H1 2026 Threat Report covers the broader picture across scams, malware, identity exposure, privacy and AI-driven attacks.

Read the full report here: Gen H1 2026 Threat Report.

Sponsored and written by Gen Digital.

Apple obviously knows, and perhaps some of its retail staff have at least a clue, but for the rest of us, here’s the best estimate of when the iPhone 18 Pro will be announced.

No question, it’ll be in September. Apple has held its iPhone launches in October, but since 2011 the only time it has done that was during COVID.

The question is when in September we’ll find out the all-important updates and, more than ever this time, the all-important prices. Not to drag this out, the smart money says Wednesday, September 9, 2026.

We’ve been here before

That’s the most probable date that has been recently rumored. It’s in the first full week of September 2026, which is also when Labor Day is.

Since 2011 when Apple moved its iPhone launches away from their original announcements in June, the unveiling has been close to Labor day three times. In 2015, 2016, and 2022, and each time Apple has made its announcements on the following Wednesday.

In the 15 years since that move to the last quarter of the year, Apple has launched iPhones on Wednesdays five times. It’s launched them on Tuesdays nine times, and on Mondays just once, in 2024.

With the exception of the October launches in 2011 and 2020, every iPhone has been unveiled in the first two weeks of September. The latest date was September 14, in 2021 with the iPhone 13 range.

Then the earliest is a tie between 2016 and 2022, which were both on September 7.

Enough guessing

Despite occasional leaks, we obviously won’t know for certain when the iPhone launch is until Apple announces the date. But the company has form on even those invitations, too.

It’s a form that seems to be lengthening, too. Back around 2013, it was common for Apple to issue invitations to the launches one week ahead of the event.

Expect another gorgeously-designed invitation like this one from 2025, which will then be studied intently for clues – image credit: Apple

That happened several times, such as in 2015, 2016, 2018, and again in 2021. Then for the iPhone 14 event on September 7, 2022, Apple revealed the date two weeks before with an AR invite.

There was again two weeks’ notice for the iPhone 15 in 2023, and the iPhone 16 in 2024.

In fact, from the iPhone 14 onwards, Apple has consistently issued invitations two weeks to the day before the event. That means it is now always during the last week of August that it reveals the date.

Two more dates to watch

So expect the 2026 invitation and event date to be announced on Wednesday, August 26. Expect the event to be on Wednesday, September 9, 2026.

Which just leaves the question of when the new iPhones will be available to pre-order. Typically that happens on the Friday immediately following the event, and that won’t be changed because of the unveiling being on a Wednesday instead of a Tuesday.

It might be changed because the Friday is September 11. Apple has avoided doing anything on that date since the World Trade Centers were destroyed on September 11, 2001.

Then Apple isn’t likely to delay taking orders by very much, if at all, but it might have to push back shipping dates. Typically buyers start getting their iPhones by the Friday after pre-orders open, and that’s also when retail Apple Stores get their first stocks.

For the first time since COVID, though, there are likely to be delays in production. In this case it’s because of the global chip shortage, which could conceivably mean a longer than usual gap between launch and shipping.

Or it might be that Apple launches on its usual schedule, but will then take longer than normal to fulfil orders.

That’s specifically been rumored for the expected iPhone Fold, but it’s possible for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max too.

Then if the invitation date, event date, pre-order and shipping dates aren’t enough, Apple looks like it will have one more whole set of dates to look out for. Perhaps because of the chip shortage, Apple is strongly rumored to split its iPhone launch for the first time.

If this is correct, the presumption is that Apple will launch its biggest sellers, the Pro models, first. So the regular iPhone 18 may launch in the Spring instead.

It isn’t as likely to get an event, though, so at least there’s just the launch, pre-order and shipping dates to wonder about then.