This digest compiles the latest from Apple Insider.
Today’s Apple Insider Roundup
iPad with A18 chip on schedule for launch in early 2026
After updating its more powerful counterparts, Apple is still expected to update the base iPad with an A18 chip sometime in the first half of 2026.
Apple’s release schedule has been busy for the earliest months of the year. However, after having already moved iPad Pro to M5 and doing a similar M4 update to the iPad Air in March, Apple can now turn its attention to the lower end of the range.
According to Mark Gurman in Sunday’s “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg, Apple is on track to refresh the entry-level iPad in the first half of 2026. Gurman doesn’t say when exactly, but that it was originally to be released at around the same time as iOS 26.4.
Apple raises external storage prices as AI consumes everything
Apple has raised the price of external hard drives in its stores, as its retail efforts feel the pinch of the increased cost of storage.
The tech industry is dealing with a crisis of supply and demand, with the needs of AI infrastructure buildouts consuming masses of memory and storage. While the main discussion has been about how Apple is faring on the supply chain side of things, it seems retail is being affected at a much faster rate.
Writing in Sunday’s “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman was informed that Apple had updated the prices for a number of its external drives. These updates occurred on both the website and in retail outlets.
Crime blotter: Chinese national sentenced in Apple counterfeiting case
A New Yorker is arrested in California for iPhone thefts, Russian hackers targeted iPhones, and AirTag inspires a car-crash viral video, all in this week’s Apple Crime Blotter.
The latest in an occasional AppleInsider series, looking at the world of Apple-related crime.
End of today’s Apple Insider roundup.
