Apple unveils its first foldable, the iPhone Duo

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories this afternoon

View this email online in your browser  September 09, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Apple unveils its first foldable, the iPhone Duo: Unlike early iterations of foldables, which looked like vertical slabs, Apple adopted a wider form factor that could aid in a better aspect ratio while watching videos when the device is unfolded. Read More 'Gambling with our lives': Anthropic researcher quits, warns against self-improving AI : Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned over AI extinction fears, calling for pacing agreements between labs. Read More Harvey hits $15.5B valuation, months after reaching $11B: The legal AI startup and VC darling has nearly doubled its valuation in nine months. Read More Afternoon Must-Reads Apple launches iPhone 18 Pro with upgraded camera: Apple's new iPhone 18 Pro lineup upgrades the camera and comes in burgundy. Read More Apple CEO John Ternus says the best AI device is still the iPhone: The company also argued that its on-device models offer consumers more privacy. Read More Everything Apple announced at its fall iPhone event, from the foldable iPhone Duo to an always-listening Apple Watch: The main event was the tech giant's highly anticipated first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo. Read More Apple’s new CEO is reviving a Steve Jobs strategy from 25 years ago: John Ternus made the case in his first keynote as Apple CEO that the iPhone isn't going anywhere. Read More There are new shiny iPhones, so Apple is making you pay more for older models : Apple is raising the price of its existing iPhone models by $100, including iPhone 16, iPhone 17, and iPhone Air. Read More A message from ThoughtSpot Is your AI giving confident answers or correct ones? AI agents sound sure of themselves even when they're wrong. The fix isn't a better model — it's a governed trust layer underneath it. See how engineering and data teams at Roche, Snowflake, and dbt built theirs in ThoughtSpot's free 3-day virtual series, September 22–24. Register now Last but Not Least Apple unveils Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4 with an AI upgrade that can recap your day: Most notably, Apple is taking aim at the growing wave of AI wearables with new "Audio Intelligence" features that let you rewind moments and remember details from daily conversations. Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107

Meta debuts its Muse AI agent. Will consumers trust it?

Plus more of TechCrunch's top stories to start your morning

View this email online in your browser  September 09, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Meta debuts its Muse AI agent. Will consumers trust it?: Meta's new personal AI agent Muse wants access to users' email, calendars, payments, health services, and more — making the company's biggest consumer AI bet yet a major test of whether people still trust Meta with their data. Read More Hackers are stealing Claude tokens from subscribers: Last month, a Claude user noticed his account was consuming tokens even though he wasn't working. Anthropic has since warned users about hackers. Read More How to watch Apple's foldable iPhone announcement: Apple's annual iPhone event will stream live on September 9 at 10 a.m. PDT, and we're expecting big news. Read More Join OpenAI, Anthropic and More at Disrupt AI has made it faster than ever to bring an idea from concept to launch.   But it hasn't made it easier to build something durable.     Disrupt 2026's programming is built around that challenge, delivering practical sessions on what actually holds up and how to build it with leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, Amazon, and more. Register Now Morning Must-Reads Besxar is building an orbital semiconductor factory, one SpaceX rocket at a time: If you want to manufacture in space—and bring the products back again—there's a limited set of options: Wait to go to the International Space Station, or partner with a handful of start-ups launching spacecraft that spend time in orbit before they return to Earth. But the vehicle that goes to space and comes back to Earth more often than any other is a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster, which made that round-trip 163 times last year and has already flown more than 100 times this year. Now, a startup says it has talked Elon Musk's space company into letting it prototype an orbital semiconductor factory across a dozen flights with the booster. Besxar, a start-up founded by former OpenAI staffer Ashley Pilipiszyn, wants to make the key precursors for advanced semiconductors by taking advantage of the vacuum of space. A key reason chip fabs on Earth are such hugely insane infrastructure projects is the need to create pressurized clean rooms to keep out even microscopic dust and contaminants that could ruin a chip during production. Pilipiszyn argues that a new generation of rockets could offer an alternative to all that infrastructure and to do it, she has raised almost $14 million, including a $9 million seed round led by Dauntless Ventures and Overture VC. "We're at a time where it's actually more cost-effective to go where the physics already works," she told TechCrunch. "Don't do it on Earth where you're fighting physics." The company's first two "fabships"—small canisters designed to Read More Sequoia doubles down on Cymphony as AI agents create new enterprise security risks: Cymphony was valued at more than $100 million in a $25 million Series A co-led by Sequoia and SMBC Fin Atlas Beyond Fund. Read More Autonomy pivots to gas vehicles to keep the dream of car subscriptions alive: Scott Painter, founder of TrueCar, is still trying to build a business around vehicle subscriptions, where you can cancel at any time. Read More Group of bipartisan lawmakers ask US government to ban several hack-for-hire firms: The three Indian companies are accused of using hackers to steal information used to sway litigation. Read More Suno replaces its AI models with a new one trained on licensed music as copyright suits pile up: As it grapples with a bevy of lawsuits, Suno said its new model, Suno v6, is not trained using music it used to train previous versions of the AI model. Read More Get Your Startup in Front of the Disrupt Crowds Not everyone needs a keynote slot to make noise at Disrupt 2026. Sometimes the best way to meet investors, customers, and partners is by exhibiting directly in the Expo Hall. And by exhibiting, you get 10 passes to Disrupt to share with your team! Learn More Last but Not Least Google DeepMind alumni are building tools to accelerate fusion power for the grid: Fusionality is developing control systems and simulation environments to help fusion power startups move faster. Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107