Apple might not have hiked the price of the iPhone 17 range this week, but the same likely won’t be true for the iPhone 18 Pro later this year. 

Earlier this week, the multi-billion-dollar company jacked up prices on everything from budget iPads to workstation‑class Macs, blaming what it calls an “extraordinary surge” in the cost of memory and storage used in AI data centres.

But while many of Apple’s most popular products now cost more – and in some places, a lot more – there was one product line that remained untouched. The iPhone. Head over to the Apple Store and you’ll see the same £/$799 starting price for the iPhone 17 as last week. 

Now, while you might assume that Apple is just doing everybody a solid by keeping its iPhone more attainable, I don’t think that’s actually the case – especially when the rumoured iPhone 18 Pro and foldable iPhone drop in a few months’ time.  

A lot of Apple products just got more expensive

Apple isn’t a company that’s usually known for cheap, affordable tech – but that didn’t stop it from hiking prices across many of its products this week. 

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The company says it has “never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly” and claims it’s “working tirelessly to find solutions”, but for consumers, it essentially boils down to paying more for the same kit.

On the Mac side, the budget-friendly Mac Mini and MacBook Neo are both up by £/$100, now at £/$799 and £/$699 respectively, while the MacBook Air has jumped by £/$200 to £/$1,299. 

Higher up the range, the MacBook Pro has climbed from £/$1,699 to £/$1,999, and the Mac Studio with M4 Max is up £/$500 to £/$2,499. The wildest jump is reserved for the M3 Ultra Mac Studio, which now costs a whopping £/$5,299, a £/$1,300 leap from its previous £/$3,999 RRP.

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It’s not just Macs, either. The 11-inch iPad Air is now £/$749 (up £/$150), the 11-inch iPad Pro has risen by £/$200 to £/$1,199, and the top-end 13-inch iPad Pro now comes in at £/$1,499. Even the HomePod mini hasn’t escaped, climbing by £/$30 to £/$129 – a 30% increase on what was once one of Apple’s more affordable gadgets.

But the iPhones are, oddly, untouched

Macs, iPads and even the humble HomePod mini all got price rises – but there was one very popular product line that was left, rather oddly, untouched. The iPhone collection.

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All models of iPhone, from the budget-focused iPhone 17e to top-end models like the iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone Air, still cost the exact same as they did this time last week. I mean, they’re still expensive, but not 20% more expensive. 

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That might come as a welcome relief to iPhone fans planning to upgrade to the latest iPhone in the near future – but if you have plans to get yourself a shiny new iPhone, I’d recommend grabbing one sooner rather than later. 

Simply put; there’s no way that Apple can eat the increased costs of components like RAM and storage vital to the iPhone experience. So why didn’t Apple boost iPhone prices at the same time? 

Unlike Macs and iPads that tend to hold value for years on end and remain tempting options in the face of upgraded models, the iPhone is certainly a more seasonal device. We get a new one every year, like clockwork, with notable upgrades rather than just a simple chip upgrade like most other Apple products get. 

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And with the iPhone 18 Pro and possibly even the foldable iPhone expected to debut in just a few months, I suspect that raising prices on the iPhone 17 range would’ve likely discouraged users from buying what will, in a few months, be an outdated model, leaving Apple with plenty of stock to shift. 

This way, at least, the iPhone 17 range looks like it’s offering great value for money while pretty much every other Apple product has jumped in price.

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That likely won’t be the case in September

In my mind, there’s very little chance that the iPhone 18 Pro will cost the same as last year’s iPhone 17 Pro.

Yes, the fact that Apple has hiked prices across much of its hardware range already suggests the same is coming for the new iPhones later this year – but look at the rest of the smartphone industry and it’s much the same story. 

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Samsung’s Galaxy S26 range is a great example of this. The entry-level S25 would’ve set you back £799/$799, but this year’s Galaxy S26 has jumped to £879/$899, while the Galaxy S26 Plus also saw a £/$100 price hike. 

Samsung tried to offset the price increase by ditching the previous 128GB model in favour of a 256GB base model, but it’s clear that Samsung has had to do some wrangling to make the numbers work.

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The other option is to try to leave the base-level model untouched – or as close to last year’s RRP as possible – and instead bump up the higher storage tiers. That’s what Samsung did with this year’s Galaxy A57; the base 256GB model is £479/$549, which is actually £20 cheaper than its predecessor in the UK, but the model with 512GB of storage costs an almost unbelievable £649/$609.

Make no mistake; the latter is very much considered premium smartphone territory. Something that the A57, well… isn’t.

Nothing CEO Carl Pei has also warned consumers about price hikes across the board when it comes to smartphone tech, and rumours suggest that Google’s upcoming Pixel 11 range could face similar issues when it debuts in the coming months. 

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With all that in mind, and Apple openly admitting that component costs are an “unprecedented challenge”, it seems almost impossible that Apple could offer the iPhone 18 Pro at the same £/$1099 price point as last year – especially if the rumoured boost to 12GB of RAM is true. That RAM is like gold dust right now. 

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The question is, will Apple try to offset the base-level prices by increasing higher storage options, or will we see a flat increase across all models of Apple’s upcoming Pro-level iPhone? We’ll have to wait and see, I suppose. 

And don’t even get me started on how all this could push up the price of the no-doubt already-expensive foldable iPhone Ultra. I think I might need to sell a kidney for that one at this point. 

Although TikTok is widely described as a social media giant, it’s been gradually moving beyond that category. Over time, the video app added TikTok Shop, a map for local discovery, robust search, games, and so much more. Recently, it’s added hotel booking capabilities and is pursuing a fintech license. 

It appears that TikTok is taking steps to evolve into a “super app,” a single platform where users can do much more than just watch and share videos and that can actually handle a wide range of needs in one destination. 

The super app model is big in China with apps like WeChat, which is kind of like Facebook, WhatsApp, Apple Pay, and an app store all rolled into a single platform. Of course, there’s the question of whether a super app model would work outside of China, but that doesn’t mean TikTok won’t try.

Instead of switching between apps, TikTok is working to become the app that people use for most of their digital activities. After taking its biggest leap with TikTok Shop, the company — which, notably, transitioned to new, primarily U.S. ownership back in January — has applied the same playbook to recent developments. 

Sports

Over the years, TikTok has steadily been looking to become a place where users can come for sports highlights and content. In early June, the company launched a dedicated hub for the FIFA World Cup where users can see scores, match schedules, standings, trending videos, highlights, videos from players, and more.

If people are already watching videos on TikTok but want to keep up with the score, they can do so without leaving the app or opening a dedicated sports news app or Google.

The World Cup hub was made possible through TikTok’s Sports-focused product called “TikTok GamePlan,” which is designed to allow sports teams, leagues, and broadcasters to drive discovery and engagement on the platform. The social media giant also has partnerships with Major League Soccer (MLS) and Major League Baseball (MLB) for behind-the-scenes and exclusive content.

Hotel and attraction booking

In May, TikTok launched TikTok GO, a way for users to discover and book hotels, attractions, and experiences directly within its app in the United States. TikTok GO surfaces lodging and things to do through videos, search, and location pages. When users find something they’re interested in, they can view details, check availability, and complete a booking. 

Instead of directing users to third-party websites after they find a destination or recommendation in a video, TikTok has started positioning itself as a one-stop platform where viral travel content can drive bookings and revenue.

While people have already been using TikTok as a search engine and replacement for Google, this latest step puts TikTok in more direct competition with Google’s core businesses, Search and Google Maps, because it’s working to not only be the app where you discover places, but also the platform where you purchase that trip. 

Payments

In March, Reuters reported that TikTok had applied to Brazil’s central bank for approval to operate as a financial technology company offering lending and payment services. 

The company is seeking two licenses. The first would allow it to provide prepaid accounts so users can store funds, receive money, and make payments. The second license would authorize it to operate as a direct credit provider, allowing it to lend its own capital or function as a platform that connects borrowers and lenders. 

The move marks a significant way that TikTok is branching out beyond a social media platform and into a digital ecosystem. By aiming to bring financial services into its app, TikTok is looking to increase user engagement, open new revenue streams, and position itself to compete with fintech startups and e-commerce platforms.

TikTok Shop

It’s widely known that one of TikTok’s biggest leaps beyond social media was the launch of TikTok Shop. TikTok began testing TikTok Shop in 2021 and launched it in the U.S. in 2023. Since then, the company has been able to successfully compete with Amazon, Shein, and other online marketplaces.

According to eMarketer, TikTok Shop grew its U.S. sales by 407% in 2024 and another 108% in 2025 to reach $15.82 billion. As of last year, the company accounted for 18.2% of total social commerce in the U.S., with that number expected to reach 24.1% by 2027.

Additionally, TikTok began challenging digital marketplaces even further with the launch of TikTok Shop gift cards late last year. TikTok Shop has also recently expanded into luxury retail, after initially mainly being known for cheap goods.

Music

TikTok’s popularity has influenced the music industry and how people discover new music, and the company tried to capitalize on this by launching a streaming service called TikTok Music in 2023 to take on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, but ended up shutting it down a year later. 

The company said it would focus on driving music listening and continue partnering with music streaming services rather than competing with them. TikTok hasn’t completely abandoned its music ambitions, however, as the company recently introduced a feature that lets Apple Music subscribers play full songs in the app after discovering them on their “For You” feed.

Search and Maps

TikTok has launched a robust search experience that surfaces maps, local hashtags, and even reviews to help users discover trending restaurants, travel locations, shops, and local experiences. It has also added more detailed information about places and restaurants on dedicated pages, allowing users to quickly see things like opening hours, star ratings, price ranges, and more.

TikTok was already eating into Google’s Search business when it first launched, as it quickly surfaced videos featuring commentary and visuals of restaurant food and places. However, users may still have needed to turn to Google Search to find a place’s exact location or to read reviews. Over the past few years, however, TikTok has increasingly eliminated that need by integrating detailed information about places right within its app.

Microdramas

While TikTok is known for user-generated entertainment, the company has also begun embracing microdramas by launching an in-app Minis section and a dedicated stand-alone app for bite-sized TV shows that can be watched in a series of one-minute episodes. While TikTok already competes with streaming giants like Netflix for users’ attention, its move into scripted shows puts it in even more direct competition with them.

It’s worth noting that TikTok first took strides into entertainment with the launch of livestreaming and support for longer videos, a significant move away from its initial focus on 15-second videos. 

Games

TikTok has also launched a series of casual games in its app to get users to spend even more time on its platform and engage with others in DMs. The addition of games marked TikTok’s ongoing effort to go from a social media platform to an all-in-one entertainment platform where you can not only scroll through videos, but also challenge friends to easy-to-play games.

Houston, TX, USA – September 10, 2018: The Marriott Marquis is a Four Diamond hotel located in downtown Houston and features a Texas shaped pool, five restaurants and beautiful views from all angles.Joe Hendrickson

1777 Walker St., (713) 654-1777

Adjacent to the George R. Brown Convention Center downtown, the Marriott Marquis has another 100,000 square feet of meeting space of its own, including Houston’s largest ballroom. Often mentioned as the top hotel in town, it caters to business travelers and pleasure seekers alike, famously featuring the world’s largest Texas-shaped lazy river on its roof. If you don’t think that’s something anyone would brag about then you haven’t spent enough time in the state.

1100 Texas Ave., (713) 221-0011

A more affordable lodging option located in what was formerly Shell Oil’s headquarters, this refurbished downtown hotel offers quick access to the convention center and Daikin Park, which the Astros call home. You may not be able to paddle around in the rooftop plunge pool like you would at the Marquis, but a quick, cooling dip at the end of the day will not disappoint, nor will the free cookies at bedtime.

Courtesy of Bunkhouse Hotels

4110 Loretto Dr., (832) 844-0057

This new, midcentury-inspired gem can be found in the Montrose neighborhood, a block away from the Menil Collection, arguably the best and most eclectic museum in town. The boutique property includes just 71 rooms and is designed to fit in with its surroundings, which are largely residential and very subdued in comparison to the more raucous downtown. Despite its small size, it still has room for a small event space, private pool, and a slick lobby lounge.

111 N Post Oak Ln., (713) 680-2626

The Houstonian occupies a massive 27 acres in Houston’s West Oaks district, just outside the Loop. Despite its central location, the hotel offers a level of seclusion you won’t find anywhere else in town. It’s probably why George H. W. Bush used the hotel as his official residence for years in the 1980s and spent time here for decades after. The 125,000-square-foot spa is also the largest in the state.

2222 W Loop S, (713) 627-7600

Another Galleria-area hotel, this is an all-around good option for business travelers who need executive-focused amenities like 24-hour business and fitness center access, shuttle service, and meeting and event space (all 50,000 square feet of it). With 485 guest rooms on its 23 floors, there’s probably space for your whole organization to find a berth for the week.

Where to Work

Houston has hundreds of coworking spaces, so chances are you’ll be able to find something close to where you’re staying. As with most things in this city, travel time is an essential consideration. These picks may be some of the best options in town, but no sane Houstonian would recommend you spend an hour in traffic to get to one of them if another solid option is closer.

Courtesy of POST

401 Franklin St., (713) 999-2550

Named for the former post office that used to occupy this Museum District space (it was a railroad depot before that), POST was redeveloped in 2019 as a cultural center that includes food-hall-style dining, an art museum, a concert hall, and a rooftop garden. It’s also got loads of workspace options ranging from single desks to full offices, with day passes starting at $25.

4201 Main St.

Rice University helped to develop the Ion District, which occupies 16 acres in Midtown and serves as a technology park and innovation center for tech and energy outfits, and now includes the largest climate and sustainable energy incubator in the country. Coworking passes (starting at $60/day) get you access to the venue’s copious networking events plus snacks and coffee.

1430 Yale St., (832) 203-5115

This boutique office space is ideal for those doing business in the Heights, with amenities including an on-site notary, conference room rentals, and virtual office options for those who need a physical address in town. Plenty of usage options are available from $25 day passes to $359 monthly memberships (which include free conference room access).

Where to Get Coffee

Yes, there are nearly 200 Starbucks in the greater Houston area, and while you’re welcome to visit them or any other corporate chain for your pick-me-up, these spots offer a more refined (and independent) experience that, if nothing else, will help you impress your business colleagues with your sophisticated palate.

3201 Allen Pkwy. Ste. 170
8410 Hwy. 90 ALT, Bldg. B, Sugar Land, (346) 368-2895

Blendin focuses on sourcing coffee from unique locations with a “tree to cup” philosophy, which means your cup (or bag of beans) is likely to hail from a single farm in Panama, Ethiopia, Burundi, or somewhere further afield. Put yourself in the hands of the barista at one of the two locations to help you find the perfect base for your latte.

1018 Westheimer Rd.

At this beloved local coffee shop with a full menu, you’re best off pairing your Vietnamese matcha or Golden Monkey tea with a hearty brunch, like a smoked salmon scramble or scratch biscuits topped with smoked ham. Skip lunch to make room.

OFFBEAT

Time to switch back to paper and harvest that suddenly valuable RAM

BORK!BORK!BORK! It’s not all sunshine and Pastel de nata in Portugal. Behind the hundreds of ways of cooking fish and bottles of sweet, fortified wine lurks our old friend – a BIOS screen misbehaving in a window.

Spotted by eagle-eyed Register reader Mário in Lisbon, the digital sign looking out on the street from a branch of Banco CTT looks like it is in imminent danger of a storage failure. The “S.M.A.R.T. Status Bad” indicates that something has made the storage media (hard drive or SSD) unhappy, and Banco CTT should take a break from flogging financial services to replace the unit before it fails completely.

A jab of a key should allow the digital sign to continue doing its thing, and there is some computer hardware in the background that we’re sure an enterprising Reg reader could plug into the screen to put it out of its misery – at least temporarily.

While we applaud Mário for his attentiveness, it is also worth noting that Lisbon is a lovely city with much to recommend – there is history to explore, cuisine to sample, and local culture to enjoy. This hack is a particular fan of the labyrinthine streets of Alfama, and the iconic trams are sufficient to satisfy anyone’s inner public transport nerd.

Back to the bork.

Visible on the screen is the amount of memory installed. Four gigabytes, by the looks of things, which seems excessive for something that is probably only going to show a jumped-up slideshow to passersby.

Then again, considering the cost of RAM nowadays, that screen might be considerably more valuable today than it was only a few months ago. While we’re not familiar with the financial products on offer from Banco CTT, we’d wager that few – if any – can keep up with the relentless rise in RAM prices.

It cannot be much longer before it makes more financial sense to replace digital signage with printed paper and harvest the suddenly valuable chips within, although where would that leave The Register’s bork desk? ®

India’s Unified Payment Interface has grown to over 750 million daily transactions, and the head of the body that oversees it says AI will be central to reaching a billion. Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India, told TechCrunch at Mumbai Tech Week that AI could drive the next half billion users through fraud prevention, credit distribution, and multilingual voice onboarding.

“AI will be used very effectively when we look at the next wave of UPI, and that includes all aspects, including reaching new users,” Asbe said. “We must use AI effectively to protect our current citizens, to find fraud, and to find mules. AI must also be used to provide credit to all the users and merchants who have digital footprints.”

NPCI launched a voice assistant-based payment system in 2023, but Asbe acknowledged adoption has not taken off yet. He said voice models need to be more accurate before they become a critical component of the payment ecosystem. India has been debating its AI sovereignty more intensely in recent weeks, with proposals for a $5 billion annual sovereign AI fund and calls to build small language models tailored to local languages and use cases.

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Asbe sees an opportunity there. “We have a very rich data set in our ecosystem,” he said. “I think there is a big opportunity for Indian companies, the banks, FinTechs, and the ecosystem, to create small language models which are sharp, specific, and as deterministic as possible.” NPCI already launched a model called FIMI to resolve user disputes, which Asbe said now serves over a million users for cancelling mandates and resolving issues.

On regulation, Asbe said India can adopt AI-powered finance with the right protections. He wants systems that can trace the instructions and consent a user gave to an AI agent if something goes wrong. NPCI demonstrated agentic commerce and payments with Razorpay last year, but a wider rollout has not followed.

The UPI market remains heavily concentrated. PhonePe and Google Pay control over 80% of transaction share. A regulatory cap that would limit any single app to 30% is set to take effect on December 31, 2026, unless NPCI defers the deadline again. Asbe said switching costs between apps are low and that the concentration reflects the absence of a viable commercial model for newer entrants. “The moment we see the commercial model being available to the ecosystem, I believe newer players will start investing very heavily,” he said.

NPCI’s own app, BHIM, holds roughly 1% market share despite growing transaction volumes. Asbe said there is no specific share target for BHIM, but as India’s digital economy scales toward its largest-ever tech IPOs and $110 billion AI infrastructure plans, NPCI wants BHIM to serve as a sovereign and secure alternative.

Dana, 46, and Calista, 43, are two women in Florida who turned to the subreddit as they reckoned with the possibility of being evicted due to prolonged unemployment.

Calista tells WIRED that she has applied to more than a thousand full-time positions since losing her remote job in February 2024 but can’t seem to land an interview. She says she’s three months behind on rent. “I’ve never been close to homelessness like this before. It’s a new experience,” she says. “It’s very helpful to see the stories from other people, see the things they’ve tried, just that solidarity.”

Dana, who has extensive work experience in software development, says she has been laid off four times since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, most recently in November, in part due to the AI boom. A single mother, she has discussed the possibility of living in a tent with her son, who recently graduated from high school. “So many people are in similar situations,” Dana says of the stories she’s read online. “It’s honestly been the most helpful from a mental perspective. I don’t feel so alone.” This is contrary, she says, to the stigmatization of poverty that she feels in her own city.

Politicians and commentators who demonize the homeless population as mentally ill drug addicts—such as former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who ran a failed mayoral campaign in Los Angeles that characterized them as “zombies” on “super meth”—are distorting the issues at play, says Margot Kushel, director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UC San Francisco.

“What we’re seeing in the numbers of people experiencing homelessness isn’t that we suddenly have this increase in people with mental health or substance use problems,” she says. “What we have is that the rent is too damn high.”

The cruel ways unhoused people are depicted in the media add “to the already very heavy burden of homelessness,” Kushel continues, with groups like r/almosthomeless countering those narratives and making people feel seen.

Keith, 35, in South Carolina, says he attempted suicide in 2023 after a long battle with alcoholism. He recounts how he survived jumping off a bridge but broke his back. After he received a spinal fusion, he found it difficult to work or do much of anything physical because of his injury, and finally he wound up homeless. He took to sleeping in the woods outside a hospital where he says he regularly sought assistance. “I was just staying there, like trying to get into the mental health department or something like that,” Keith says. “They would just turn you away.”

Later, Keith says, he secured a spot at a local Salvation Army shelter, found a job at a gas station, and in January made the transition into a studio apartment, staying sober and “building something that resembled a normal life,” he says. Yet lately he has started to worry that he’s “watching years of progress disappear in slow motion.” A succession of restaurant jobs, including dishwashing and prep work, have proven impossible with his back problem, and he has avoided further medical treatment for fear of the cost. Now he expects to be evicted, and he’s dreading a return to an unhoused existence.

Jacob Andreou, the 33-year-old executive Satya Nadella promoted to run Copilot in March after just one year at Microsoft, now oversees more than 11,000 people. He has merged the consumer and enterprise Copilot teams, eliminated redundant product versions, and is building a super app that combines chat, coding, and a new agentic workflow called Autopilot, according to a Fortune profile published Friday.

“This is one of the most intensely competitive environments tech has seen in the last 20 years,” Andreou told Fortune. “Because the technology is moving so quickly, the reality is a six to twelve month roadmap doesn’t really exist in the way it used to.”

The profile paints Andreou as a technically hands-on leader who personally codes alongside developers. He built Copilot Tasks, an AI agent that can autonomously perform multi-step actions like ordering food, in roughly two months. That speed impressed Nadella, who dismantled Microsoft’s entire senior leadership structure this year in favour of startup-style engineering groups.

Andreou’s appointment freed Mustafa Suleyman, the DeepMind co-founder, to focus on proprietary AI models rather than day-to-day product management. The two work closely but run separate organisations. Suleyman told a group of roughly 80 developers in March that the future of software development means fewer people working harder by leveraging AI agents, according to Fortune.

The challenge is substantial. Only about 4.5% of 450 million Microsoft 365 customers pay for Copilot, and its free consumer version trails far behind ChatGPT. Microsoft’s stock is down double digits over the past year as investors question AI spending and the company’s reliance on OpenAI. Jefferies analyst Brent Thill said the general perception of Copilot is that “it stinks.”

Before Microsoft, Andreou spent eight years at Snap scaling the platform from 80 million to 360 million daily active users. He then joined Greylock as a venture partner backing consumer AI startups. At Microsoft, he has introduced consumption-based pricing alongside seat licences, scaled back the Copilot icons that irritated Windows users, and launched Copilot Cowork to compete with Anthropic’s Claude.

Not everyone is on board with the new culture. Current and former employees told Fortune that some teams now work 12-hour days, feel daily panic to keep up with Anthropic and other labs, and worry that shipping speed risks compliance problems. Critics say Andreou can be overconfident and still has to prove himself in enterprise software, where the burden is building durable revenue at scale.

Andreou’s three stated priorities are delivering a superior AI chat product, achieving leading model quality without being late to market, and providing a trusted way to integrate various models. The super app, expected by end of summer, will let users toggle between personal and enterprise accounts in one interface. Microsoft is also exploring hosting DeepSeek and other open-source models inside Copilot Cowork, while Nadella has warned against industry reliance on only a few AI providers.