iPhone Fold rumors, Apple Watch patents
9to5Mac Daily
9to5Mac
4.6 • 624 Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
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Stories discussed in this episode:
- ITC judge says Apple Watch's redesigned blood oxygen feature doesn't infringe Masimo patents
- Rumor: iPhone Fold may launch months after iPhone 18 Pro
- Bloomberg: Google begins testing dedicated Gemini app for Mac
- Apple says customers should 'update iOS to protect your iPhone from web attacks'
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to 9 to 5 Mac Daily for Friday, March 20th, 2026. I'm your host, Chance Miller. We are |
| 0:09.3 | sponsored this week by Backblaze. Leading off today, Apple is widely expected to unveil its first |
| 0:15.2 | foldable iPhone later this year. However, a new rumor today says the foldable iPhone could actually launch months after the |
| 0:22.4 | iPhone 18 Pro. Barclay's analyst Tim Long says he believes, based on his research, that the iPhone |
| 0:29.3 | fold could launch in December. With the exception of 2020, Apple's announced and released new iPhones |
| 0:35.6 | in September since the iPhone 5 in 2012. |
| 0:39.8 | Still, it wouldn't be too surprising to see Apple release its most expensive iPhone model a few months after the flagship iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. |
| 0:49.3 | Apple has also historically released its radically new models one to two months after announcing the full lineup. |
| 0:56.1 | For example, the iPhone 10 in 2017 arrived in November, two months after the launch of the iPhone 8. |
| 1:03.8 | A year later, the iPhone 10R arrived in October, a month after the iPhone 10S, and finally, iPhone 14 Plus also arrived in October a month after the rest of the iPhone 14 lineup. |
| 1:16.9 | So if this is the case, we can still expect Apple to announce the iPhone fold or whatever it actually ends up being called, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro in September. |
| 1:27.2 | You would then have to make the decision about whether to buy the iPhone 18 Pro in September. |
| 1:32.3 | You would then have to make the decision about whether to buy the iPhone 18 Pro or wait a few extra months to get the iPhone fold. |
| 1:35.4 | Separately, Tim Long from Barclays expects Apple to release either an iPhone 18 plus or an iPhone |
| 1:41.0 | Air 2 alongside the standard iPhone 18 and iPhone 18E in March of 2027. |
| 1:48.1 | So to recap, we're expecting iPhone 18 Pro in September, iPhone Fold in December, |
| 1:54.2 | followed by the standard iPhone 18, the iPhone 18, E, and potentially an iPhone Air 2 or iPhone 18 plus in March. |
| 2:03.2 | Next up today, Mac users who prefer Gemini for their AI interactions might not have to wait |
| 2:08.1 | much longer for a dedicated app. |
| 2:10.9 | Bloomberg reports that Google has quietly started beta testing an early version of a Gemini app for macOS |
| 2:16.7 | with select users. Google is telling testers that this is an early version of a Gemini app for MacOS with select users. Google is telling |
| 2:19.5 | testers that this is an early version of the Gemini app for Mac and it's asking for feedback. |
... |
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