Surprise and Shine with Matt Birchler (iPad Pros - 0258)

“I leave one of these episodes poorer than when I started,” Matt Birchler says early in this special “Surprise and Shine” edition of iPad Pros, recorded immediately after Apple’s September event. Host Tim Chen and Birchler—a developer and podcaster—walk through every major announcement, from the iPhone 18 Pro to the long-rumored foldable iPhone Duo, with the watch and AirPods updates in between. The dominant theme is that Apple has delivered a genuinely surprising product in the Duo, and that the rest of the lineup, while iterative, is solidly refined.

iPhone 18 Pro: Refinement, Not Revolution

The iPhone 18 Pro leads the show, and the hosts agree it is an “S-tier” update—evolutionary but meaningful. The new Burgundy color is praised as “classy,” and the color-matched wireless charging coil on the back is a welcome change from last year’s white glass insert. The phone uses a 2-nanometer A20 Pro chip, Apple’s first in a shipping product (even though the M6 was announced first). Battery life is the headline: the Pro Max gets its biggest year-over-year increase ever, and the 18 Pro now matches the 17 Pro Max’s endurance. “The biggest appeal of the Max phones was that they felt like they had infinite battery,” Chen notes, and this closes the gap.