Apple News
Apple set to sell millions of $2,000 foldable iPhones in 2026, Citi says
Apple could be on the verge of its most transformative iPhone release in years. According to a new note from Citi analyst Atif Malik, the tech giant is poised to launch its first foldable iPhone later in 2026 — likely debuting alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models at Apple’s annual fall event — with shipments ramping up quickly thereafter. Priced at a premium of around $2,000, the device is expected to see limited initial volume of approximately 8 million units in 2026 (roughly 3% of total iPhone shipments), before accelerating to 20 million units in 2027.
Brian Sozzi for Yahoo Finance:
The analyst reiterated a Buy rating on Apple — about 50% of Wall Street analysts rate Apple a Buy, Yahoo Finance data shows. He did cut his price target to $315 from $330, citing margin risk from the surge in memory chip prices.
Shares of Apple have lagged the S&P 500 over the past year, gaining 11% compared to a 15% advance for the S&P 500. The stock isn’t faring any better to kick off 2026, either — shares are down 6%, tying with Meta (META) for the worst-performing member of the Magnificent Seven.
But Apple may be poised to improve the narrative on the stock.
For one, Apple just inked an important deal with Google, where Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology will power the next generation of the smartphone maker’s AI for Siri. While some experts say the deal is an admission that Apple is well behind in the AI race, others would counter at least Apple is now in the game.
Secondarily, a long-rumored foldable iPhone would create a fresh reason for people to finally upgrade from prior iPhone iterations.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple won’t be able to make enough foldable iPhones to satisfy demand well into 2027.
As BofA analyst Wamsi Mohan wrote in a recent note to clients, “Upcoming catalysts include launch of a foldable iPhone in the fall and the launch of an enhanced Siri with integration with Gemini AI which can drive higher upgrades.”
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
The post Apple set to sell millions of $2,000 foldable iPhones in 2026, Citi says appeared first on MacDailyNews.
7 criminally overlooked Apple TV series
Among the many streaming services available today, Apple TV+ truly excels when it comes to consistent quality and prestige programming. But if you believe you’ve already exhausted the platform’s standout offerings, think again. Apple TV+ is home to a wealth of exceptional series that, despite their brilliance, have flown under the radar for far too many viewers.
These aren’t filler shows or average fare — these are productions with sharp, intelligent writing, richly layered characters, outstanding acting, and impeccable production values from top to bottom. The main reason they remain overlooked? They’re often not massive blockbusters, didn’t explode on social media, or simply got lost amid the louder hits. Yet each one delivers a compelling, worthwhile experience that’s well worth your time to discover.
Catherine Delgado for Comicbook:
7. Murderbot: Unfortunately, Murderbot falls into the category of overlooked shows, and it’s easy to see why: even though critics loved it, a lot of people skip it, thinking it’s just another sci‑fi series. Sure, Apple TV marketing isn’t the best, which doesn’t help, but it’s absolutely worth giving it a shot because the show has personality — the robot’s sarcasm will make you both laugh and root for it at the same time. It’s a bold production, and you don’t see anything like it every day.
6. Shrinking: It’s not for everyone, but it’s the kind of show that truly rewards you — you feel a range of emotions and connect deeply with the characters, walking away seeing life a little differently. It deserves way more attention, especially in today’s streaming landscape.
5. Defending Jacob:It’s the kind of show you might think is just another drama, but by the end, you realize it’s top-tier quality. From start to finish, the tension is real, and every decision the characters make is loaded with psychological suspense, leaving you constantly wondering how it’s all going to play out. It’s a pure mystery that sticks with you until the very end. For thriller fans on TV, this one is a must-watch.
MacDailyNews Note: Read the write-ups for Delgado’s other four choices — 4. Mythic Quest, 3. The Crowded Room, 2. Pachinko, and 1. Dickinson — in the full article here.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
The post 7 criminally overlooked Apple TV series appeared first on MacDailyNews.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives calls Greenland tariff threats ‘noise,’ urges buying Apple and other tech stocks on the dip
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives dismissed the latest U.S.-Europe tariff threats over Greenland as temporary market “noise” in a client note today, encouraging investors to use any resulting weakness as an opportunity to add to positions in leading tech names, including Apple.
The comments come amid sharp declines in U.S. futures and European equities after President Donald Trump escalated his push for U.S. control of Greenland — a self-governing territory claimed by Denmark — by threatening 10% tariffs on goods from Denmark and several other NATO allies starting February 1, 2026, with increases to 25% by June if no resolution is reached. The rhetoric has heightened fears of broader trade friction just as the World Economic Forum kicks off in Davos, Switzerland.
Ives, who is attending Davos where Trump is expected to address tech leaders and world figures, struck a calm and bullish tone in his note to clients.
“Being here at Davos this week on the ground… the tariff scuffle is clearly an overhang on the conference as Trump gets here tomorrow to speak to tech leaders and various world leaders,” Ives wrote. “Our view is just like over the last year the bark will be worse than the bite on this issue and tariff threats as negotiations take place and tensions ultimately calm down between Trump and EU leaders.”
He characterized the current environment as sentiment-driven rather than fundamentally threatening.
“Tech stocks will be hit as the ‘risk off dynamic’ hits AI names front and center but ultimately we view this as an opportunity to own the tech winners for 2026 and beyond,” Ives wrote.
Ives explicitly stated that the Greenland tariff noise “does not change the long-term outlook.” He recommended using the pullback to build positions in core AI and technology leaders.
“On weakness this morning we would be buying many of our IVES AI 30 names, including Nvidia, Microsoft, Palantir, CrowdStrike, Nebius, Apple, Palo Alto, Google, and Tesla,” he added.
The analyst framed the episode as consistent with previous trade-related flare-ups that have ultimately resolved through negotiation, leaving the secular growth story of the “4th Industrial Revolution” — including AI, cloud, and consumer tech — firmly intact heading into 2026.
While the note did not single out Apple-specific supply chain or sales risks from the proposed European tariffs, Ives’s inclusion of AAPL among his top buy-on-weakness recommendations underscores his continued confidence in the company’s long-term trajectory despite short-term geopolitical headlines.
MacDailyNews Take: Investors will likely monitor developments at Davos closely, as any progress — or lack thereof — in discussions involving Greenland could influence whether the current dip proves fleeting or more persistent.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
The post Wedbush analyst Dan Ives calls Greenland tariff threats ‘noise,’ urges buying Apple and other tech stocks on the dip appeared first on MacDailyNews.
Apple preps higher-end AirPods Pro for release this year
Apple may be preparing to shake up its premium earbuds lineup once again. According to recent reports from reliable sources like Ming-Chi Kuo and corroborated by Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman, a higher-end version of the AirPods Pro (building on the AirPods Pro 3 released last year) is slated to arrive in 2026.
This pricier variant isn’t a full generational overhaul but rather a premium tier positioned above the standard $249 model—potentially approaching $299 or more. Key rumored upgrades include at least one tiny infrared camera for advanced gesture controls (possibly replacing physical pressure sensors), enhanced spatial audio integration with devices like Vision Pro, support for new Apple Intelligence features, and Apple’s next-generation H3 chip for superior sound quality and lower latency.
Hartley Charlton for MacRumors:
Kuo said that the 2026 AirPods Pro will feature a “more significant” hardware upgrade in the form at least one tiny infrared camera. He previously said AirPods with infrared cameras could recognize hand gestures and provide an enhanced spatial audio experience with Apple’s Vision Pro headset.
The Chinese leaker known as “Instant Digital” subsequently corroborated the rumor with some additional details and clarifications. Rather than being a new generation, the 2026 AirPods Pro will apparently be a pricier, high-end variant of the AirPods Pro 3 introduced in 2025, suggesting that both models will ultimately be on sale alongside each other. It is worth noting that Apple offers two version of the AirPods 4 at $129 and $179 price points, so this is a highly plausible move.
The current AirPods lineup has offerings priced at $129, $179, $249, and $549. An additional product between the $249 AirPods Pro 3 and $549 AirPods Max seems possible, especially given the rise of higher end Bluetooth earbuds from the likes of Bang Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins, and Bose.
MacDailyNews Take: Bring ’em on!
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
The post Apple preps higher-end AirPods Pro for release this year appeared first on MacDailyNews.
Apple Intelligence. Powered by Google™.
Apple’s reliance on Google’s Gemini AI model to power key features of Apple Intelligence — including an upgraded Siri — highlights a perceived shortfall in the iPhone’s independent AI capabilities, according to a recent Bloomberg News newsletter analysis.
In a piece titled “Apple’s Use of Google Gemini Shows iPhone’s Lack of AI Advantage,” author Austin Carr argues that Apple’s multiyear partnership with Google, announced on January 12, 2026, effectively undercuts claims of a unique AI edge for the iPhone. The deal sees Apple integrating Gemini models and Google’s cloud technology as the foundation for future Apple Foundation Models and enhanced AI experiences on iOS devices. This move, Carr suggests, resembles an admission that Apple’s in-house AI efforts have not kept pace with rivals, particularly Google itself, which natively embeds Gemini across Android ecosystems for seamless, advanced features.
The partnership builds on earlier reports from 2025, when Bloomberg News revealed Apple was in talks to leverage a custom or powerful Gemini variant (including a potential 1.2 trillion parameter model) for a revamped Siri. Estimates at the time pegged Apple’s annual payments to Google in the range of $1 billion, with some analysts later suggesting the overall deal could be worth several billion dollars over time—echoing the lucrative, long-standing Google search default agreement on iPhones.
While Apple has positioned Apple Intelligence as a privacy-focused, on-device-first AI suite (launched in stages starting in 2024–2025), the Bloomberg News piece contends that outsourcing core generative capabilities to a competitor casts doubt on its differentiation. Android devices, powered directly by Google’s own AI stack, can offer cutting-edge features without similar dependencies, potentially giving them an advantage in real-world performance and innovation speed.
Carr’s analysis frames this as part of the broader Apple-Google dynamic: a mix of cooperation and competition. The collaboration validates Gemini’s strength while underscoring Apple’s challenges in building frontier-level models independently amid massive infrastructure demands. For iPhone users, the result could mean more capable Siri and Apple Intelligence tools sooner — but at the cost of relying on a rival’s technology, which may erode the perception of iPhone as the undisputed leader in smartphone AI.
As the AI landscape evolves rapidly in 2026, this partnership could accelerate feature rollouts for iPhone owners while raising strategic questions about Apple’s long-term positioning against Google, OpenAI, and other players. Apple has not disclosed full deal terms, but the arrangement appears structured as a cloud computing contract, allowing Apple to tap Gemini without fully replicating the massive training and compute investments required for equivalent models.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last August:
Google Gemini? Why not just get a Samsung Galaxy phone which already integrates Google’s Gemini AI as a core component of their AI-powered features?
Google Gemini on an iPhone offers precious little differentiation from Samsung, the chief iPhone knockoff peddler.
If you’re going to with an external AI partner, why not choose the smartest one? We find xAI’s Grok to be more accurate and useful than Google’s Gemini, ChatGPT, and the rest. – MacDailyNews, July 21, 2025
Apple would likely need a CEO who is more open to thinking outside the box than the one with which it’s currently saddled.
Google Gemini. Puleeze. OpenAI’s ChapGPT or Anthropic’s Claude would be better choices. Even better would be for Apple to allow users to choose – gasp! – which AI model they’d like to underpin Siri.
Regardless of what Apple chooses, they will at least be safely behind Apple’s privacy wall.
The issues are: Google’s Gemini is not the best and everyone knows it, Google has a poor reputation for privacy that will tarnish Apple’s, and Google, hello, ripped off the iPhone with Android. Enough with the Google, Apple!
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
The post Apple Intelligence. Powered by Google™. appeared first on MacDailyNews.
Apple TV debuts season two trailer for ‘The Last Thing He Told Me,’ starring Jennifer Garner
Apple TV on Tuesday revealed the trailer for the second season of “The Last Thing He Told Me.” The series stars and is executive produced by Jennifer Garner, with returning stars Angourie Rice, David Morse and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and new additions Judy Greer and Rita Wilson. The eight-episode second season will debut globally with the first episode on Friday, February 20, 2026, followed by one episode every Friday through April 10, 2026.
Based on “The First Time I Saw Him,” Laura Dave’s instant New York Times bestselling sequel to her acclaimed No. 1 New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick, in season two of “The Last Thing He Told Me” Owen (Coster-Waldau) shows up after five years on the run, Hannah (Garner) and her stepdaughter Bailey (Rice) find themselves in a race to figure out how to reunite their family before the past catches up to them.
The second season also welcomes new and returning cast members Augusto Aguilera, Josh Hamilton, Nick Hargrove, Michael Galante, John Noble, Michael Hyatt, Luke Kirby and Elizabeth O’Donnell.
Ahead of the hit drama’s second season premiere, audiences can dive deeper into the story with Dave’s riveting and deeply moving novel, “The First Time I Saw Him.” Read or listen on Apple Books before watching Hannah Hall’s (Garner) pulse-pounding journey unfold on screen.
“The Last Thing He Told Me” is produced by 20th Television and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, a part of Candle Media. Created and adapted by Dave, alongside Academy Award-winning co-creator Josh Singer, “The Last Thing He Told Me” was the first collaboration between the married Dave and Singer, who both serve as executive producers alongside Garner and Hello Sunshine’s Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter. Emmy Award nominee Aaron Zelman joins season two as co-showrunner and executive producer with Singer. Daisy von Scherler Mayer and Merri D. Howard also serve as executive producers.
Catch up on the first season of “The Last Thing He Told Me” ahead of the season two premiere, now streaming globally on Apple TV.
First published in hardcover by Simon & Schuster in 2021, the novel “The Last Thing He Told Me” was a Reese’s Book Club pick, becoming an instant No. 1 New York Times bestseller and remaining on the list for more than 80 weeks, selling over five million copies worldwide. It was the winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Thriller/Suspense of 2021; an Amazon Best Book of the Year in 2021; an Apple Best Book of the Year in 2021; and in 2022, “The Last Thing He Told Me” was one of the most popular books checked out at libraries across America as well as the No. 1 most popular e-book. The book has been embraced in 39 countries around the globe, including the U.K., where it was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick.
In addition to “The Last Thing He Told Me,” Apple Originals produced by Hello Sunshine include Emmy, SAG and Critics Choice Award-winning series “The Morning Show,” starring Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston; psychological thriller “Surface,” starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw; and the upcoming limited series “Lucky” starring Anya Taylor-Joy, based on the book by Marissa Stapley, a Reese’s Book Club pick, among others.
Apple TV offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all of a user’s favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have earned 682 wins and 3,186 award nominations and counting, including multi-Emmy Award-winning and history-making comedies “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” and Oscar Best Picture winner “CODA.”
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at for $12.99 per month with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. For a ltv.apple.com,imited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV for free.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
The post Apple TV debuts season two trailer for ‘The Last Thing He Told Me,’ starring Jennifer Garner appeared first on MacDailyNews.
Apple stock poised for gains ahead of earnings as iPhone sales surge, analysts predict
Analysts are bullish on Apple stock heading into its upcoming earnings report, citing strong iPhone demand. iPhones “flew off the shelves” in recent months, driven by robust sales figures that exceeded expectations. This performance is expected to translate into positive upside for the stock, with Wall Street anticipating solid results that could push shares higher.
Evercore ISI added Apple to its Tactical Outperform list on Tuesday, arguing that robust iPhone demand positions the company for a strong earnings print. The firm reiterated an Outperform rating and a $330 price target on Apple stock, which remain its top pick for 2026.
Evercore expects iPhone revenue to climb 17% from the same period last year, well above the consensus call for 11% growth. Sales skewed toward higher-end models over the holiday quarter, the firm noted, which should mean higher-than-expected average sales prices.
Analysts at Citi agree that a surge in demand for iPhone 17 models carried through the end of the year. The firm expects an earnings beat for the December quarter, driven by the sale of 82 million iPhone units—ahead of consensus.
MacDailyNews Note: The analyst firm kept its Buy rating on Apple stock intact while lowering the price target to $315 from $330, citing concerns that escalating memory prices could pressure margins.
As usual, we’ll bring you Apple’s results as soon as they are released, right around 1:30 p.m. PT / 4:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, January 29, 2026 and then follow with live notes from Apple’s conference call at 2:00 p.m. PT / 5:00 p.m. ET.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
The post Apple stock poised for gains ahead of earnings as iPhone sales surge, analysts predict appeared first on MacDailyNews.
Pages
- « first
- ‹ previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4