What Apple has actually confirmed

The date, the time, the tagline and where to watch. That is the full list. Greg Joswiak, Apple's marketing boss, posted the invite on 26 August with the line Surprise and Shine and a glowing Apple logo. Apple has not named a single product.

For Australians, 10am Pacific on Wednesday 9 September is 3am AEST on Thursday 10 September. Queensland does not do daylight saving, and the southern states switch over on the first Sunday in October, so on the night it is 3am for everyone on the east coast. Set an alarm or read about it over breakfast.

What the rumours say

Everything from here is reporting from Apple-focused outlets and supply chain leaks, not Apple.

The phones are expected to be the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, plus Apple's first folding phone, which most reports call iPhone Ultra. The standard iPhone 18 is reportedly being held back to early 2027, so this would be the first September in years without a base model iPhone on stage.

For the Pro phones the rumoured upgrades are a variable aperture main camera, a smaller Dynamic Island cut-out and Apple's own C2 modem replacing the Qualcomm part. Same general size and shape as last year. Rumoured colours are dark cherry, black, silver and light blue.

The folding phone is the big one. Reports describe a book-style fold with an outer screen somewhere around 5.3 to 5.5 inches and an inner screen around 7.6 to 7.8 inches, a titanium frame, Touch ID in the power button instead of Face ID, and two rear cameras. Price estimates run from about US$1,999 up to US$2,500 depending on who you read. That is a wide range and I am not going to pick a number. In Australian dollars, whatever it lands on, expect the first digit to be a three.

Also expected: Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, both described as chip and health upgrades rather than redesigns, and AirPods 5. A new Apple Watch SE is not expected this round.

What is not on the table

Apple already announced the new Mac mini and Mac Studio on 25 August, on sale from 22 September, so do not expect desktop Macs at this event. Camera-equipped AirPods Pro are reportedly a 2027 story.

One thing that is confirmed

This is John Ternus's first event as Apple CEO. He took over from Tim Cook on 1 September, with Cook moving to executive chairman. That much Apple has published.