Apple memory supplier SK Hynix is in exploratory talks with Intel about manufacturing memory chips in the United States for the first time, according to Reuters . One option would see the South Korean chipmaker lease part of Intel's planned manufacturing complex in Ohio. Another would involve a joint venture with Intel and major cloud providers seeking to secure memory supplies, people familiar with the discussions said. No decisions have been made, and other arrangements remain possible. SK Hynix supplies Apple with memory alongside Samsung and Micron. The discussions come as AI infrastructure spending puts pressure on the supply of memory for consumer devices, including iPhones and Macs. Chipmakers have been directing more production capacity toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI processors, leaving smartphone and computer manufacturers competing for available supplies. In February, Apple reportedly agreed to pay Samsung twice as much for memory chips needed for iPhone 17 production. More recently, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple was reducing its 2026 hardware shipment plans because of DRAM shortages, with supply constraints also affecting the Mac Studio , Mac mini , and MacBook Air . It remains unclear which types of memory SK Hynix would manufacture under a potential agreement with Intel. Its products include DRAM used in smartphones, computers, and servers, NAND flash storage, and HBM for AI processors. The report does not mention whether a U.S. facility would produce memory for Apple devices. SK Hynix already has an advanced packaging facility under construction in West Lafayette, Indiana. That project will package DRAM wafers manufactured in South Korea into HBM chips, rather than fabricate the wafers domestically. Tags: Intel , United States This article, " Apple Memory Supplier Explores U.S. Manufacturing With Intel " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
In iOS 27, available now, Apple has made some changes and additions to the iPhone's stock Camera app, including the addition of a new Siri mode. Available in addition to the Video, Photo, and other camera modes, Siri mode can be accessed by swiping across the mode carousel at the bottom of the screen. The new mode uses Visual Intelligence to identify objects in the frame and provide information about them. It can be used to identify plants, animals, food, and more. If it's food you want info on, for example, it can tell you what it is, and how many calories are in it. Other examples Siri mode can be used for include capturing a photo of an event flyer and adding a date to the Calendar app, text translation, splitting a bill, and more. In Siri mode, a button on the right lets you search Google Images, and a button on the left lets you ask a specific question. So you can ask for help to cook the food in the frame, for instance. Apple has also tweaked the way the camera interface works in other ways. Quick access tools for activating flash, Live Photo, and Night mode are now located at the top-center of the UI, while the full set of tools can be accessed from the bottom-right instead of the top-right. It's also possible to customize which controls are displayed at the top of the screen . Apple made iOS 27 available to download on supported iPhone models on September 14, a few days ahead of the launch of new iPhone 18 Pro models on September 18. Related Roundups: iOS 27 , iPadOS 27 Tag: Visual Intelligence Related Forum: iOS 27 This article, " iOS 27: Use Visual Intelligence in the Camera App " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
The first iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max reviews have been published today by selected tech websites and YouTube channels, ahead of the devices beginning to arrive to customers and launching in stores this Friday, September 18. While the iPhone 17 Pro models featured a major design overhaul last year, the iPhone 18 Pro models look the same overall and have a set of more incremental year-over-year upgrades related to the cameras, battery life, and performance. With the new A20 Pro chip, the first 2nm chip in a smartphone, Apple said the iPhone 18 Pro models deliver up to 20% faster CPU performance and up to 40% faster graphics performance compared to the A19 Pro chip in the iPhone 17 Pro. Gizmodo 's Raymond Wong benchmarked the A20 Pro chip: I ran Geekbench 7's CPU benchmark on the iPhone 18 Pro and compared results with the iPhone 17 Pro. Both phones were running the official iOS 27 release. The iPhone 18 Pro scored 4,027 for single-core and 11,540 for multi-core, and the iPhone 17 Pro mustered 3,258 on single-core and 9,167 on multi-core. That works out to a 24% boost for single-core performance and a 26% boost for multi-core. A revamped vapor chamber cooling system in the iPhone 18 Pro models is three times larger than the one in the iPhone 17 Pro models, for better heat dissipation. This allows the A20 Pro to achieve peak, sustained performance for longer. Wong on the iPhone 18 Pro's thermal management: I don't think the iPhone 18 Pros got hot once doing anything normal that would cause it to heat up. Not even shooting 4K resolution video at 60 fps under the heatwave that baked Cupertino during the Apple launch event could overheat it. Both of the iPhone 18 Pro models have longer battery life compared to the previous generation — especially the iPhone 18 Pro Max. If we go by Apple's offline video playback metric, the iPhone 18 Pro Max has up to 15% longer battery life compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Fast charging to 50% now takes 15 minutes, down from 20 minutes. Tom's Guide published its typical battery life test, in which the iPhone 18 Pro Max achieved around half an hour longer battery life compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max: OnePlus 15: 25 hours and 13 minutes iPhone 18 Pro Max: 18 hours and 27 minutes iPhone 17 Pro Max: 17 hours and 54 minutes Galaxy S26 Ultra: 16 hours and 40 minutes iPhone 18 Pro: 16 hours and 17 minutes iPhone 17 Pro: 15 hours and 21 minutes iPhone 18 Pro models have a slightly smaller Dynamic Island at the top of the screen that supports up to three Live Activities at once, up from two. 9to5Mac 's Chance Miller on a related Dynamic Island change: In my testing, what I've actually appreciated most is what happens when you have two Live Activities running at the same time. Thanks to the smaller Dynamic Island, the second Live Activity that appears on the right side can now show more information. The popular flight-tracking app Flighty showed this off: Flighty for iOS 27 is here ️ Refined Dynamic Island New flight progress arc Support for all new sizes New app icons ✨️ "Ask Flighty" with Siri AI Flying's most useful Dynamic Island. Now even better. Get: https://t.co/N1Fh9U3TnU pic.twitter.com/4IJlokeam3 — Flighty (@Flighty) September 14, 2026 The main 48-megapixel Fusion camera on both the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max has variable aperture, allowing you to adjust the amount of light that reaches the image sensor for greater control over depth of field. Apple says this upgrade will allow for improved low-light photography and crisper details in the back of group photos. Variable aperture options include ƒ/1.48, ƒ/1.8, ƒ/2.8, and ƒ/4.0. PetaPixel 's Jaron Schneider on the variable aperture: I think Apple's choice not to lock us to the wider aperture was very smart, because sharpness takes a hit when shooting wide open. We noticed that while the center is about as sharp as last year's iPhone 17 Pro when shooting at night, the edges quickly degraded — this is not unusual for a wide-open lens, even on a full-size camera. When you're that wide open, image quality tends to fall off without a bunch of additional glass elements to counteract it. However, the image cleans up nicely at f/1.8 and sharpness peaks at f/2.8. At f/4, sharpness dips again, this time from diffraction, but not substantially. In order from sharpest to softest, it goes: f/2.8, f/1.8, f/4, and f/1.48. In the Camera app, iPhone 18 Pro users can manually adjust shutter speed, white balance, and aperture, and there is an option to use a histogram. These new "Pro controls" are exclusive to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. CNET 's Patrick Holland on the Pro controls: I enjoy these controls, as I have when they've appeared on Android phones. My big criticism is how they're accessed: I use the lens aperture and shutter speed controls quite a bit, but they are located at the bottom of the camera controls drawer. When shooting one-handed, I have to tap, then expand the drawer to get to the bottom. I wish I could customize the position of the icons like I can with settings in the phone's control center. Also, why can't I assign any of these to the Camera Control button on the side of the phone? Imagine focus pulling in a video recording by sliding your finger. For 5G and LTE, the iPhone 18 Pro is equipped with Apple's second-generation C2 cellular modem worldwide, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max has the C2 modem in every country except the U.S., where it is reportedly still equipped with a Qualcomm modem, perhaps for contractual reasons. Apple said the C2 modem delivers "meaningfully faster uploads" compared to its previous C1X modem while consuming 15% less energy. In the U.S., the C2 is Apple's first modem with mmWave 5G support. We have not yet found any reviews that tested the C2 modem in a scientific way, but anecdotally most reviewers found 5G performance to be very adequate. iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max color options: a classic Silver, the return of Black, and special new Burgundy and Glacier finishes. In our view, there is no massive reason to upgrade to the iPhone 18 Pro models if you are coming from an iPhone 17 Pro or perhaps even an iPhone 16 Pro. If you have an iPhone 14 Pro or newer, though, upgrading to the iPhone 18 Pro is worth it to catch up on years of enhancements and bump up to a model that supports the new-and-improved Siri , which truly is a lot better and is available on the iPhone 15 Pro and newer. That's the reality with most iPhone launches nowadays: the devices remain excellent, yet the year-over-year upgrades can sort of feel "meh." The Verge 's Allison Johnson described the iPhone 18 Pro as "excellent and utterly iterative." And there is the iPhone Duo to consider this year, too. Engadget 's Cherlynn Low : In the iPhone Duo's shadow, the iPhone 18 Pro certainly feels like an "S" device. But S-year iPhones were never bad iPhones. They were simply unexciting. Similarly, while none of the iPhone 18 Pro's latest features are things you should run out the door to spend money on, it's certainly a meaningful improvement for anyone on an iPhone 16 Pro or older. Of all the iPhones you can buy now, it has the best camera setup, and anyone with the slightest interest in manual photography will appreciate the new variable aperture controls. Videos Related Roundup: iPhone 18 Pro Buyer's Guide: iPhone 18 Pro (Buy Now) Related Forum: iPhone This article, " iPhone 18 Pro Reviews: Excellent Yet... Meh? " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
