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Apple sent out invitations on August 26 for its September event, scheduled for Wednesday, September 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific time. The tagline on the invitation was "Surprise and shine."

Ahead of the event, 9to5Mac summarised what was widely expected. The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max were reported to keep the size and basic design of their predecessors, with changes aimed at the display, camera and connectivity. Rumored details included a variable-aperture main camera, a smaller Dynamic Island and Apple's C2 modem.

Apple announced new Mac mini and Mac Studio models on August 25, an unusual time of year for Mac hardware. Pre-orders opened right away, with deliveries and in-store availability from September 22.

The Mac mini now comes with either the new M6 or an M5 Pro. TidBITS describes the M6 as Apple's first chip on a 2-nanometer process, with a 12-core CPU and a 12-core GPU that includes Neural Accelerators. Apple says multithreaded CPU performance is about 1.2 times that of the M5. Both Mac mini versions gain Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread support through the N1 chip, and 2.5Gb Ethernet is standard.

The EU General Court in Luxembourg has ruled against Apple in its challenge to how the App Store is treated under the Digital Markets Act. Apple had asked the court to remove the store from the law's scope.

Apple's central argument was that it does not operate one App Store but five separate ones, covering iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch. The court disagreed, finding that each version connects developers with users and distributes software, so the App Store remains a single regulated service.

A separate part of Apple's case concerned iMessage. The court called that objection inadmissible, because iMessage has not been designated as an important gateway and is therefore not currently regulated as a DMA gatekeeper service.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up Apple's appeal in the long-running App Store dispute with Epic Games. At issue is a civil contempt finding against Apple for violating a 2021 injunction.

That injunction came out of Epic's 2020 lawsuit. Apple won most of the original case, but the court ordered it to let developers put links in their apps pointing customers to outside payment options. Apple complied with the links, then attached a 27 percent commission to purchases made through them within seven days, against its usual 30 percent rate. Epic argued that this undercut the order.